volume one IN THE D U D L E Y C L A R K - Ohio Vine Tours

R as well as CD-RW? If you plan on jogging, I suggest G-
Protection. It’ll keep it from skipping.”
Roy wonders if he looks like a jogger to Debi.
He shrugs.
“I just want—”
Debi’s tiny, white teeth nibble at her plush bottom lip.
“I know, I know. It can be a little confusing.” She’s dialing
into his vibe. “Why can’t it just be simple? I mean, who the fuck
needs all the bells and whistles, right?” She unlocks and slides
open the cabinet. “Here. This is the last one of these I have in
the store. I think it’s exactly what you want.” She removes a
blue CD player from the case and sets it on the glass top. “It’s
a display model so I don’t have a box for it. I think I can talk
Jack here—” tattooed, pierced, braided Smiling Guy sits within
easy earshot reading a paperback book by someone named Og
Mandino “—into letting me take off another ten—maybe, fifteen
percent?”
Smiling Jack nods.
Debi’s in the groove.
The store is stuck with a dozen of these shitty Chinese CD
players nobody wants and they can’t return.
Roy picks it up, turns it over once or twice.
Debi watches him closely.
“Here, let me show you.”
In taking the CD player from Roy, their fingers brush.
Roy quickly relinquishes the player, and just as quickly crosses
his arms.
He watches Debi pop in some batteries. She opens the blue
shell and looks around behind the counter.
“Now…what do we have?”
Her eyes—as planned—fall upon Roy’s stack of CDs.
She smiles and crinkles her nose
“Let’s just use one of these.” She picks up the top one and
pretends not to read the cover.
God, the shit people listen to.
Unlike Roy, and everyone else, she easily slits open the CD’s
wrapper, and releases the shiny disk.
Into the player it goes.
21 ROY ROGERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY