Moses & Curio & The Table For Four pt3

Moses and Curio got out of the cab a half-block up from the restaurant.  Standing up and stretching their legs, the couple took two steps toward the front door but Moses halted her mid-stride.  Another fare jumped at the chance and took their cab away. 

The Fontenots were riding up the street in Pete’s black Cadillac sedan toward them.  Slowly.  He could see Grizzly in the passenger seat, leaning towards the glass and raising his hands.  Curio, having only seen the brothers once, did not react as fast as he.

“What?” She looked around, inquisitively.

“I’ll be damned.” Moses placed himself between her and the supposed field of fire.  The passenger window began to drop.  He dropped to his knee and yanked up his pants.  Taking a cue finally, Curio jammed her hand into her purse and immediately came out with her tiny Beretta pistol.  She dropped down to a knee beside Moses, her eyes locked on the creeping Caddy with the window dropping ominously.  A drive-by intended for her was a sight she had seen before.

Grizzly Fontenot hooted out the window, “Hey derrr, Tex!”  He threw a paper airplane at them and the car roared by. 

“Jesus.”  Moses caught his breath.  His heart was pounding.  Curio quickly stashed her pistol and grabbed the airplane.

“Those motherfuckers have got some nerve.” She grumbled, her own heart beating fast as the adrenaline coursed through her veins. 

“You have no idea.” Moses exhaled through his nose slowly and stood up.  He lit a quick Winston with a hand that uncharacteristically shook.  “Carefree sons of bitches, I swear.”

“It says there’s a Fed in there and we need to meet at the Crescent City Brewhouse.”  She read.  “I never been in there.  Is it any good?”

“It’s New Orleans.  Of course it is.  That’s over on Decatur Street, ain’t it?”

“Yep.  I smelled it a whole buncha’ times but I never went in.”  She folded up the airplane and hid it in her purse.  She looked at him with a smirk.  “You really thought they were about to pop us, didn’t you?” She looked around for witnesses to her brandishing the pistol.  One old bum was looking at her through hazy eyes from across the street. 

“They’re damned lucky.  It’d been a shame to pop their asses over an airplane.”

“You think there’s a Fed in there for real or they just fuckin’ around?”

“There’s probably a Fed in there.  The place is popular.  Them two, though.  They’re a squirrelly pair.  They draw cops like flies at the most suck-ass of times.  Wouldn’t surprise me at all if they had some G-man’s retirement bris in there tonight.”

“Shit.  Let’s go then.”  They walked up toward Poydras Street.

“Damn, I’m hungry as hell now.” He mumbled. 

Moses clenched his teeth, trying to hide his fear of the minor glitch.  For the first time, he had been truly scared of his employers’ whimsical notions about who lived and who died under their set of rules.  Seeing that window dropping, knowing they could have been involved in a fatal shootout at the hands of his only friends…it suddenly hit him full-on in the face.  Breathing deeply and silently to calm himself, he held her hand in his and walked, merely nodding and grunting as she chirped non-stop about random instances from her former life stumbling aimlessly through the very streets they were treading.   

They hit the front door to the restaurant.  Moses dropped his cigarette on the sidewalk and steadied himself to face his friends.  Any ideas about a calm and lively introduction to his fiery and beautiful confidant, and thus vicariously, theirs, ended when he saw that slow Cadillac easing toward him.  Grizzly’s face seemed cheerful enough as he flipped the airplane out of the window and Moses could not see Pete’s very well.  But he knew the two men could smile through anything, even his death, if need be. 

Wiping his brow with a sleeve, he bent over and positioned his pant’s leg at the top of his boot to ensure a far faster draw.  The move seemed to him the mark of a ridiculously paranoid man, but he did it nevertheless.

“Are y’all with the Fontenot party?” The high school-aged hostess in her blue oxford shirt and khaki slacks asked as they walked to the host stand.

“Yes ma’am.” Moses surveyed the scene.  Curio bounced in place.  She had to pee.

“Right this way!” The hostess smiled and led them to and up the stairs.  The upstairs level was devoid of patrons, except the two Fontenots seated at the farthest table away from the stairway.  Curio only noticed they were sitting closest to the restroom.

The hostess left them at the top pf the stairs.  “I’ll send the waiter up to y’all!  Enjoy your evening!”

“Let’s hope so.” Moses nodded at her as the young lady walked down the stairs.  The couple walked to them.

Pete stood up as the couple approached.  Curio remembered faintly how tall and large he was from their first meeting but to see him standing in the middle of a room under better lighting and without a man to be killed at her feet made her appreciate his stature that much more.  The man was massive.

Grizzly Fontenot jammed a long silver-tipped cane on the floor and pushed himself up out of his chair.

“Y’all sit down!” Curio waved them down. “I ain’t that much of a lady for all that courteous bullshit.”  Grizzly chuckled and slunk back into his seat.  He smiled broadly at his friend and the new lady.  Pete sternly wore his mug and eased into his chair to take a pull from a mug of dark ale.

“I’m Curio by the way!” She beamed and waved as she grabbed her crotch through her skirt.  “I’ll be back.  I’m about to piss all over myself.” She held up a hand to them to beg pardon and rushed by them.

“Fellers.” Moses dropped into a chair across from them.  “Who was the Fed?”

“None other than Jowanski himself.” Grizzly said.

“With his bitch.” Pete added.

“They see you?”

“Yeah.  Dat’s why we bailed like we did.  Bad enough we’re seen together.  You add in yo’ lady and it’s just a mess if dat sumbitch got a lookachew.” Grizzly sipped from a glass of scotch.  “You lookin’ fit, boy.  Yo’ girl must do some cookin’.”

“We both cook.”

Both Fontenots erupted in laughter. 

“Jesus, Tex,” Grizzly wiped a tear from his eye, “You done turned us fo’ a serious fuckin’ loop when we done seen yo’ got yo’sef a lil cute cheri to keep yo’ dick clean fo’ you.  Now you cookin’ with her?  What you cookin’, boy?  You makin’ a casserole in between cleanin’ Cletus and buryin’ cash?”

“I made brownies with her last week.”  More laughter.  “With a shitload of pot in them.  And after we ate them, I also licked some whipped cream and strawberry compote offa’ both her and a lady friend she met over at a hotel bar in Houston.  So if you think I’m Ozzie and she’s Harriet, y’all ain’t quite on the money with that.”

Pete looked at Moses, a slight smile instead of the wide grin now on his face.  “She into all dat lip-smackin’, eh?  Boy dem women seem to all be eatin’ wool deez days.  Dem strippers at the club ain’t chased a dick in months lately.”

“When she feels the need and the opportunity arises, we indulge.” Moses winked at them.  “Yay me!”

“Dat’s a keeper.” Grizzly said.  “I take it you reckon you gotta’ keep her now, huh?”

“You could say she kinda’ grew on me.  I reckon I’ll keep her.”

“Well.  It’s not all dat cut and dried, Tex.” Pete said.

Moses Holliday glared at his old friend but smiled sarcastically as he said, “Yeah, Pete.  It is.”

She was standing between the brothers as he said that.  Laying a hand on a shoulder of the brothers, she startled them.  Pete reared back to hit his assailant.

“Easy, Big Love.” Curio giggled at him.  “I was just going to say thank you for inviting us to have dinner with y’all.”

Grizzly Fontenot relaxed and looked over his friend Moses.  Smiling, he said, “Yo’ girl is like the meanest of farts, boy.  Silent and deadly.”

“You ain’t got a clue, monsieur.” Curio Phelonie glared at her employer with the coldest, sexiest eyes he had ever seen.  With a wink and a sly smile she pecked her lips on both of the Fontenots’ cheeks.  “Bon soire, mon amis.” She whispered breathlessly and walked around to sit next to her man.

“So you two are still on da fence about lil ole me?” She sat down and hung her purse on the chair. 

“Let’s just say we’ve reviewed your application but the interview is eighty percent of the hiring process.” Grizzly said.

They all got quiet as a lady server came by to get orders.  Moses figured the Fontenots had paid the management to keep the upstairs all for themselves and for them to be disturbed as little as possible.  He was correct.

When the server brought up some drinks and left, Pete pulled out a folded sheet of paper from inside his jacket pocket.

“Whatcha’ got there?” Curio asked.

Pete unfolded the paper and held it up to read.  He looked at her over the top of the page. “You, cheri.  Your application for employment.”

“I’m not on a paper.” She smiled. “I don’t exist.”

“Lemarie Curio Leblanc?  Oh you exist, ma’am.  You can be called whatever Tex likes to fuckin’ call you, lil cheri.  But officially dat’s your name and dat fo’ sho’ gonna’ be whose name dat done gonna’ be arrested someday for a capital murder linked to the reputed mobsters Bertrand and Peter Fontenot.  Der ain’t gonna’ be no cute ass Curio Phel-lon-ie in the paper with some mug shot.  Der’s only gonna’ be a Lemarie Curio Leblanc.  And who is she?”

“She’s a dead girl.”

“No, she’s sittin’ in front of us.  She dat lil’ strippah mama’s accident from out in Elysian Fields.” Pete read from the paper.  “Da one who bounced around between three Catholic schools and six public schools until she dropped completely off the roles in the middle of the ninth grade.  She’s da girl listed as a person of interest in eight theft of services and one credit card fraud even doh she was only a teenager.  And dem are jess what I could find still on da books in da juvenile files.  And trust me, dem ain’t easy to get into.”

“I had a charmed life back then.”

“You call runnin’ around from fleabag hotel to hotel charmed?  No wonder you could be charmed by Moses.  He lived in his share of dem.”

“Those were the days, weren’t they?” Moses winked at the brothers.  They had all lived in such places from time to time during the street war days.

Curio poked her tongue in her cheek.  “It was nicer when Mama was fuckin’ somebody who had an apartment, but a shitty hotel was good enough most times.  I live a lot better now thanks to Moses.”

“You got an aunt still livin’.”

“Yeah.”

“Talk to her much?”

“Not since I met Moses.  I’ve toyed with the idea of callin’ her and lettin’ her know I’m alive but I figure it’d be too rough on her.  She wasn’t doin’ too good last time I saw her.  I really don’t know if it’s better to let her wonder and worry or just wonder until she passes.  Frankly, I haven’t gave her much thought.  Me and her didn’t see eye to eye on much.”

“So you got no ties to nobody den.” Grizzly said.

“I got ties to one man.  I got business with two more.  If you’ll let me work.”

“We ain’t sold on a woman doin’ what y’all do.  As a rule, we don’t go for dat shit.  Moses has been a good worker and a good friend ‘cuz he knows da rules.” Griz said.

“I know dem rules, too.  Dem rules have been pounded in my head more ways than I can count.  I accept them.”

“Let’s say you decide one day dat dis here ole Texan is just a selfish ass prick and you go you know what?  Fuck him,” Grizzly nodded innocently, “Or, hypothetically speakin’, you find out ya’ boy done got two mo’ lil ladies set up on da side.  And man, you turn fifteen shades of pissed off.  You go to cussin’ and throwin’ his shit out dat door.  You sayin’ fuck it, fuck him…and fuck all a dem one night all drunk as a skunk.  You say, hey, I’m outta’ dis life.  You say, bullshit on him and every sorry coonass he knows or ever done knowed.  You hole up in a motel and get loaded up on Bartles & Jaymes.”

“Oh, you sell me short.  I’m gettin’ loaded up on coke and Stoli if I’m mad like that.” She folded her arms and sniffled at the insult.  It was typical of older men, even Moses to be patronizing to her.

“Yeah, well fuckin’ good for you.” Grizzly scowled at her. “You load up on vodka and get yo’self busted for a drunk and disorderly and den dey run da prints of dem lil ole fingers of yours and booyah!  Dem hogs walk you from a drunk tank into a quiet room with a little ole tablelamp and dey gotta’ stack of papers dey done got faxed from four homicide locations.  Dey say, look right cheer, honeypie,” Grizzly straightened his posture officiously. “We seem to have a slight problem of yo’ prints bein’ found on a piece of broke glass at dis residence where a homicide took place.  Care to explain dat fo dis po’ dumb officer?  And you say, boy oh boy, have I gots one helluva story to tell you lil piggies about deez sorry sumbitches I used to work fo’.  See, what had happened was.” Grizzly shrugged. 

“That ain’t gonna’ happen.” She said simply. “I told you.  I know the rules.”

Moses only looked at Pete as she spoke.  Pete was not convinced.

“In a perfect world, you are quite correct.  In our world that’s extremely correct as well.  But fo’ a whole diffurnt set of reasons.” Pete said.

“So I’ll be killed if I talk.” She shrugged. “You think I don’t know dat about y’all?  I do.  Look,” she leaned in across the table, stabbing her finger on the tablecloth as she spoke.  “Y’all probably think Moses has gone ape shit crazy having me around with him.  Shit, y’all might be right.  But I’ve been in a several jobs with him.  Me and him are together and we were together for a long time before I started goin’ with him on jobs.  Moses ain’t never sugar-coated a fucking thing from me.  He told me if we’re ever caught, we’re dead.”

“He did, did he?” Pete looked at Moses.

“You two probably think I let her in on this thing half-assed drunk after some tequila bender.” Moses said.  “Trust me, I let her in on the job the night I met her after only a half-assed beer bender.”  Curio laughed at that and shrugged.

“I can be a cheap drunk sometimes.”

“It took her basically beggin’ me to let her work with me for damn near a year before I give in and let her in.  She’s been at it a year now, roughly. 

“How many jobs?” Pete asked.

“Five countin’ Tupelo.”

The Fontenots look at each other.  They were clearly uncomfortable with that knowledge.

“Which ones?”

“The last five, you paid for.  I skipped her on a few before that while she was training with me but she coulda’ gone on them too.  But when your weed thing needed handlin’ that’s when I brought her in.”

“He popped my cherry in Paducah.” Curio folded her arms.  “Much more fun than the real cherry, I might add.”

“Fun?” Pete shook his head.  “Dis ain’t fun we do, lil girl!” He barked at her.  His face was steadily reddening as he listened to the young woman so flippantly speak of her killing on their orders.  He pointed at Moses.  “Your goddamned fun could get us all killed!  Now Moses, you and us, we ain’t never had no beef.  But dis bullshit raht cheer”  Man…” He lost his words for a moment and settled for a swallow of beer.  Calmed, he scratched his nose, his voice more measured. 

“You done dis shit all kids of wrong by us, Tex.  It ain’t your job to bring along yo’ fuckin’ snatch while you work fo’ us, man!  For Christ sake, Moses!  Shit!  You knew you was wrong fo’ it and dat be why you fuckin’ hid it from us knowin’ we would have a hissy about it.”

“I did.” Moses nodded. “I knew one day I would tell y’all about her.  Damned if I could think of a good way to do it.  I coulda’ whipped her ass for doin’ what she done but she’s my partner in all aspects of life and here we are.  Y’all know me.  I ain’t prone to frivolity.”

“You ain’t prone to a lot of shit, Tex.” Grizzly said.

“Look Heavy D.” Curio pointed at Pete.  Her own dander was raised.  “I might be his snatch to y’all and all?  But I’m also his motherfucking backup on these fucking suicide missions y’all send him on every fuckin’ time some dipshit upsets your delicate constitutions.  Some bitch calls you her baby daddy?”  She pointed at Pete.  His eyes widened.  Grizzly looked at him, surprised.  “Moses, kill dat bitch!  Y’all got a house full of dope-dealin’ niggers?  Hey, Moses, kick in dat door and kick dey ass, boy.  My fat ass and my one-legged ass brother got ya’ back, right?  Two fuckin’ skinheads hole up in their goddamned race war bunker with real live goddamned minefield and booby traps all over the place?  Hey, Moses, go pop dem two assholes for us.  But hey, we don’t care how you do it, just get it done…Tex ole buddy.  And when you get back, if you get back, here’s some folding cash and some worn-out old slut dat done been run through by half of Metairie and all of the Fifth Ward to keep your dick from wantin’ something nicer.  You know what?  I say fuck that.”

“You never told us dat about Therioux and Dickie Calico.”  Grizzly looked at Moses.  “What in da hell she spoutin’ off about a minefield?”

“They had that shitass little hole in the ground surrounded by pipe bombs.” Moses folded his arms.  “We had one bastard of a time a-gettin’ to ‘em.  Took damn near two days on our bellies to work through that booby-trap bullshit.”

“I broke a nail.” Curio shrugged.  “And oh yeah, his little fuckin’ snatch was the one who managed to get that red-headed bastard to stick up his head long enough for Moses to shoot him.”

“Behold the power of headlights.” Moses chuckled and winked at her.

“Tits, you mean?” Pete was befuddled.  He was keen on reading press clippings and paying for the inside scoop of jobs Moses did for them just to stay ahead of potential complications.

Curio looked at him like he was an idiot.  She pulled the front of her dress down.  She was wearing a half-cup bra and she managed to get her fingers in it as well and her breasts spilled from it.  The Fontenots gaped at them.  Quick as a whip, she had her .380 aimed at them.

“No matter how many y’all see, they never get old, do they?” She smirked and put the gun away before they had time to get alarmed too much. 

“Damn if he didn’t look just like they just did when I pulled them out for him!” She nudged at Moses and laughed with him.

Moses laughed at their surprise.  “When I saw Dickie’s mouth drop open when he realized she was standing beside him with her titties floppin’ out,” he wiped a tear, still chuckling as the brothers looked at each other,” “I damned near couldn’t make the shot from laughin’ at him.” He kept laughing as they kept staring at her.

She looked down at them. “Thanks, ladies.  That will be all.”

Curio put her breasts away and got her dress fixed back.  Indignant, she pointed at the ground and glowered at Pete Fontenot.  “We had to belly crawl for almost two days through fucking ant beds, piles of old dog shit, some badass briars and a real nice yellow jacket nest just to get up to the pipe bombs, Big Love.  And then we had get around all the stupid ass little punji pits those two had all around their little bullshit Hitler bunker.  When you send him to do what you need done?  Let me tell you, he’s waaay underpaid for all dat kinda’ bullshit.  Way underpaid.”

“Punji pits?” Grizzly asked. “Dey done seen Platoon too much, you reckon?”

“Must have.” Moses sipped his whiskey.  “I think they got bored and thought it would be somethin’ fun to do.  They were kids, after all.”

“Mean ass damn kids.” Grizzly noted. “Just like dey mean ass goddamned daddy.”

“I recall him, too.” Moses winked. 

“Dat oughta’ near ‘bout clear out dat nest of sorry sumbitches.  Ain’t none a-dem left but a few of dey women.  And half a-dem got babies and strung out on da toot out in dat fucked-up trailer park dey called a compound on da news.  It nevah ceases to amaze me dat some speed-freakin’ trailer trash goes from da’ usual rednecks to white supremacists just ‘cuz dey got a Rebel flag hangin’ on dey trucks.”

“They also had nooses hangin’ from trees and swastikas all over the place, boss.” Curio said.

Grizzly Fontenot dismissed the notion with a wave.  “Dey jess tryin’ to keep dem blacks from tryin’ to rob them and fuck dey women.  Half a dem skanky cunts in dat place could care less whether da next pecker they take a hold of is Magic or Larry.  It’s all a farce and now all dem papers are reportin’ about dat nasty ass place like its Joe Mengele’s dayspa and cathouse.  Dey so fuckin’ stupid up in New York, dey believe it.  Da only white power dem ig’nant motherfuckahs need to have shoulda come from a toothbrush.  Dem white chiclets done turned mostly licorice color in dey mouth.”  He looked at Moses.  “Punji pits, really?” 

“God’s honest.”  Moses raised his hand to swear it.  “I gotta’ say though, they built them black powder bombs pretty good, too.  It took a helluva long time to work through those.  It was pucker-tight work, amigo.  We had to move at night and only usin’ the moon to see.  Warn’t easy.”

“Black powder ain’t hard to rig.  You know dat.”  Pete said.

“If they were any good, we would be dead.  But they weren’t.  End of story.” Moses shrugged.

“And you went in with him on dis work, you sayin’?” Grizzly asked Curio.  She was checking her nails as Moses spoke.  She cut her dark eyes up at him.  “You ain’t had no problem doin’ dat shit with him?”

“It was the job you gave him.  Same as any other.”

“You coulda’ got shot and Tex woulda’ had to deal with you instead of finishing business.”

“That’s a possibility, sure.”  She smiled. “I reckon the risk is less than the reward and since it’s us takin’ it, it’s how we roll.  If I was hit, I would make sure he didn’t have to worry about gettin’ me outta there.  Again, I know the rules.  Same as him.”

“What happens when dat flips da other way around?” Pete asked.  “Moses is a capable man.  He done run a many a man to ground fo’ us.  He never needed no partner before.”

“Moses warn’t never forty and I ain’t never met her before, Pete.”  Moses said.  You ain’t really seen how well she takes to the job.  I run a many a man into a hole in my day.  Diggin’ a few of them out warn’t the easiest thing by myself.”

  “Aha!” She interjected.  “Only this time he had me, his fuckin’ snatch.” She smirked at Pete.  “And it was me that flushed that one up outta’ that hole he was in with the twins here.”  She squeezed her bosom. “I guess that other one was a faggot ‘cuz he dove back in through the door faster than I could get a shot at him or we wouldn’t have had to burn up your product to get him.  Sorry about that by the way, boss.  It couldn’t be helped.”

“I’ll write it off on my insurance.” Grizzly shrugged.  “If y’all couldn’t get him out dat hole, it best dat da product got torched, actually.  I can’t help but get ten kinds of pissed off thinkin’ ‘bout all my product sittin’ in an evidence locker at a cop corral.  Jess sittin’ locked up in a cage up in der fo’ some dirty fuck with a shield to come grab himself a piece of and go make him some scratch on da side.  I swear dey only try to bust ole Fontenot cuz’ dey know he’ll be replaced in time.  Dey still get der pay offa my labor.”

Pete shared his brother’s opinion.  “Dey let us take all da risk and bust our asses if we don’t shave dem a slice.  Den if we don’t keep our ducks in a row, somethin’ breaks on us from some prick in a suit in some Justice office and den dey gotta’ come pick us up.  But boy, dey love doin’ dat shit.  Dey jess love shortin’ dat dope weight when dey log it.  And we be sittin’ in a cell blowing money on lawyers ‘cuz a-dat.”

“Serious fuckin’ job hazard, ain’t it?  You could just be used car salesmen and rip people off legally, you know.”  Curio shrugged and opened a pack of saltines.  “Where in the hell do they do the cooking in this place?  Slidell?”

“I read Therioux was burned alive.” Pete said.  “That’d be how all my fuckin’ dope went poof den?”

Moses nodded at Curio and folded his arms.  “I dumped four gallons of kerosene in the air hole of that bunker he was in and she flipped the match.”

“Yeah his little fuckin’ snatch who just lives to get pounded by men and play with her Easy-Bake oven from time to time did that.” Curio glared at Pete.  “You could smell the fried mountain oysters pretty quick coming out of that smokestack.”

“And you got no problem doing this?” Grizzly asked her.  He scratched his eyebrow and noticed a server bringing the entrees up the stairs.  “Dey musta’ heard you, cheri.  Supper’s comin’ up.”

“Yummy!” Curio shook in her seat, happy as a lark.  “I’m starving!”