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

Does Debi ever shut up?
Roy uncovers his ears.
“—ash or credit?”
Rick now stands beside Roy.
He sneers up at his bro.
The big teddybear.
Guy with the golden heart.
“Yeah, bro, what I was wonderin’. Cash or credit?”
Debi is waiting.
Jack is waiting.
Rick is waiting, too.
Rick has lately taken to slicking back his hair into an oldtimey
ducktail. He wears it this way now. His ball-bearing eyes
drill into Roy.
Roy doesn’t want Rick to know how much money he has.
Debi’s smile, although adorable, is not as seasoned as Smiling
Jack’s.
It starts to wither.
“Everything OK here?”
Jack’s back.
He’s brought with him his book and his smile.
“Fine, Jack,” snaps Debi.
God, she hates men.
She so doesn’t need Jack’s shit.
The crap she has to put up with.
Like, take her High School sweetheart who shot himself after
she told him she was bi or gay or whatever.
Men are such stupid, selfish assholes.
Debi wants Roy to do something. It’s not like she has all day.
Even though, technically, she has.
“Well, Roy? She ain’t got all day.”
Rick leers at Debi’s frisking jugs.
“Sure I do,” says Debi, rekindling her smile. “It’s cool.”
“How much he owe yah?”
This from gum-popping little Ricky.
It’s been so long, Debi’s quite forgot.
Her eyes coast over to the cash register, then cruise back
again.
220 ROY ROGERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY