Reading Thursday, June 14, 2007

In any case, I never forgot the drooly, vaguely mean-spirited way the three deputies would flirt with Tammy and then with me. It always made me feel under threat, those three beefy men with guns and nightsticks and radios and lots and lots of local power, making kissing faces at me, occasionally rubbing against me, brushing an "accidental" hand over my ass. They knew they could never push it further since my father was their boss. That was a relief but not enough of one to ever make me comfortable around them. When I thought "cop," I thought about many unpleasant things, three of which were Otis and Mel and Buddy taking turns with Twenty-Dollar Tammy while their radios crackled.