He told me that Dad had taken him out for his birthday awhile back. In
the drugstore, Dad had let Brian pick out whatever present he wanted, so
Brian chose a Sad Sack comic book. Then they went to the Nevada Hotel,
which was near the Owl Club and had a sign outside saying BAR GRILL
CLEAN MODERN. They had dinner with Ginger, who kept laughing and
talking real loud and touching both Dad and Brian. Then all three
climbed the stairs to one of the hotel rooms. It was a suite, with a small
front room and a bedroom. Dad and Ginger went into the bedroom while
Brian stayed in the front room and read his new comic book. Later, when
Dad and Ginger came out, she sat down next to Brian. He didn't look up.
He kept staring at the comic book, even though he'd already read it all
the way through twice. Ginger declared that she loved Sad Sack. So Dad
made Brian give Ginger the comic book, telling him it was the
gentlemanly thing to do.
"It was mine!" Brian said. "And she kept asking me to read the bigger
words. She's a grown-up, and she can't even read a comic book."
Brian had taken such a powerful dislike to Ginger that I realized she
must have done something more than shanghai his comic book. I
wondered if he had figured out something about Ginger and the other
ladies at the Green Lantern. Maybe he knew why Mom said they were
bad. Maybe that was why he was mad. "Did you learn what they do
inside the Green Lantern?" I asked.
Brian stared off ahead. I tried to see what he was looking at, but there
was nothing there except for the Tuscarora Mountains rising up to meet
the darkening sky. Then he shook his head. "She makes a lot of money,"
he said. "and she should buy her own darn comic book."
SOME PEOPLE LIKED to make fun of Battle Mountain. A big
newspaper out east once held a contest to find the ugliest, most forlorn,