Young God: A Novel Read Online Free PDF

fingers.
    “You should be.”
    Nikki glares at him. She doesn’t know how he can eat. The thought of food is the thought of chewed cardboard in her mouth. She looks at the back of the motel.
    “All you do now is sit in parking lots all night.”
    Coy Hawkins puts a chip in his mouth.

     
    TWO GIRLS COME DOWN THE STAIRS from the motel’s second floor. They’re black girls in tight dresses. They’re in tall high heels and they have to hold on to the railing. Nikki watches them. She decides they’re whores, too.
    They get in a mauve car. Coy Hawkins turns the key in the pickup.
    “Where are we going?” Nikki says.
    The pickup goes through the parking lot behind the mauve car. They both make a left. Nikki looks over her shoulder at the motel.
    “What about Angel?”
    “She’s busy,” Coy Hawkins says.
    The gas station flies by. It’s late and the service road is dead but Coy Hawkins rides the girls’ tail.
    Nikki stares at their mauve trunk for a while.
    “Are we following them?”
    “Yeah,” Coy Hawkins says.
    She looks at him.
    “Why?”
    “They’re the gorilla pimp’s girls.”
    “Who?” Nikki says.
    “The gorilla pimp.”
    “What’s a gorilla pimp?”
    “It means he beats them.”
    “Them two girls?”
    “Broke arms hanging out of the socket, shit like that.”
    Nikki stares at him.
    “You ain’t a gorilla pimp?” she says.
    He does that weird thing with his mouth. He’s rolling again. Nikki’s not. This time Angel didn’t share. The interstate swoops overhead.
    “Do they know we’re following them?” Nikki says.
    “I don’t think so,” Coy Hawkins says.
    The mauve car’s brakes flash. The girls make a right and so does the pickup. The road lamps go out. It’s pitch-black and they go faster through the dark. Nikki gets that wild feeling like she always used to have with him.
    The mauve car pulls into a courtyard made by four buildings. They’re low and brick and they dead-end the road. The pickup pulls in, too. Coy Hawkins parks next to the girls.
    “Come on,” he says.
    Nikki is holding on to the bench seat.
    “Is the gorilla pimp the high bid?”
    “The what?”
    Coy Hawkins turns to look at her and his eyes are the size of saucers.
    “Angel said you’re waiting to see who’s gonna pay the most money for me because you think I’m a virgin and it don’t matter that you’re my daddy.”
    The way Coy Hawkins laughs makes her put her hands in her lap.
    “And you believed her?”
    “No,” Nikki says.
    “Come on,” he says.
    The girls are already out of the car. They are walking backward across the courtyard staring at Nikki and Coy Hawkins. They have the same tattoo. It cinches their necks. It says something.
    “Who the fuck are you?” the skinny girl says.
    “Were you fucking following us?” the other girl says.
    Nikki trails behind him. She scans the apartments all around. In the middle of the courtyard there is grass and a gazebo and boys who were sitting in lawn chairs but are now standing up. She yanks down the hem of her dress. She crosses her arms over her chest.
    “Your daddy in?” Coy Hawkins says.
    Nikki looks at him.
    “Who?” the skinny girl says.
    When Nikki stops so does Coy Hawkins. He reaches back and grabs Nikki’s hand. He lifts it up in his.
    “I brung him this,” Coy Hawkins says.
    The girls cut their teeth. The boys sit down.
    “He inside,” the other girl says.

     
    NIKKI SCREAMS.

     
    COY HAWKINS gets Nikki by the hair. He scrapes her across the courtyard on her hands and knees. He drags her into an apartment. All the blood rushes out of her head.
    They’re in this living room. It’s air-conditioned and freezing. A man saunters down a hall and she strains to see him. He’s wearing sweatpants. He bends down to look at her. He tilts his head at Nikki and grins.
    “You’re the gorilla pimp?” Nikki says.
    The girls snicker. The gorilla pimp flops over the arm of a love seat. He’s smaller than one of them and prettier than both