Fistful of Feet by Jordan Krall Page B

smile hidden by his donkey mask, Clayton buttoned his pants and left the room. The stories were true. Screwhorse really did have the best girls. When he got downstairs he saw Leonard talking to a whore who was on her knees examining his hands.
       “You have such beautiful hands. Look at these fingers. Beautiful,” the woman said.
       Clayton leaned close to Leonard’s ear. “What the hell’s this?”
       “This is Angie. She said she loves my hands,” Leonard said. He had told himself he wasn’t going to get a girl but this Angie just came up to him, going on and on about how nice his hands were.
       Angie said, “Your fingernails are beautiful, too. Hey. How about I take you upstairs?”
       “I don’t know. I think I’m just too damn old for what you’re planning to do to me.”
       “Oh, you are not!” Angie smiled. She brought her hand up to Leonard’s nose and caressed it. “You have a beautiful nose, too.”
       Clayton laughed. This Angie was one weird whore.
       “Well,” Leonard said. “Maybe you’d like my friend.” He pointed to Sergio.
       “Him? He looks scary, not nice like you. Are you sure you don’t want me? I’ll let you bind my feet.”
       “What?”
       “I’ll let you bind my feet. I learned it from a Chinaman used to come to town.”
       Leonard shrugged. “Not sure that’s something I’d enjoy.”
       “Guess it’s your loss, then,” Angie said. She looked at Clayton. “How about you? Care to take off that donkey mask so I could take a look at your nose?”
        “Sorry, sweetie, but no. The mask stays,” Clayton said. “Besides, Those Brady sisters were quite enough.”
       Both rejections made Angie get up abruptly and stomp away.
       Leonard cocked his head, turning his ear toward the door. “You hear that?”
       Sergio nodded. “Yeah, those goddamn Indians are making more noise.”
       “They got some nerve doing that so close to town, eh?” Clayton said.
       “Yeah and I don’t like it. I’d like to get the job done before anything happens. I don’t need to be trying to get out of town in the middle of a fucking Indian attack.”
       Clayton said, “Those redskins aren’t going to do a goddamn thing. They just like dancing around fires, eating buffalo balls and shit.”
       “Even so, keep your eyes open,” Sergio said. He drank one more shot of whiskey and then slammed his glass down. “Okay, I’m getting a girl now. Stay out of trouble, Clay, got it?”
       “Yeah,” Clayton said, adjusting his mask.
       Sergio got up from the table and approached a whore who was sitting on the bar, dangling her feet. He had noticed her a while ago and could tell that she was looking at him. It was as if she had already picked him and not the other way around.
       Then Sergio saw the extra foot that came out of each of her ankles. It would be the first time that he had a girl with four feet and he thought that might be just the thing to relax him before the job. He stood next to her and tried to smile as best he could. It came out like a frustrated frown.
       He said, “You available?”
       The older woman behind the bar answered for her. “No, she’s not. She hasn’t been feeling well.”
       The young whore said, “Oh, Betty, I’m feeling better now.” She turned to Sergio and smiled. “What’re you looking for? My feet can give you one hell of a jerk.” She hopped off the bar. “My name’s June.”
       Sergio said, “Let’s go upstairs.”
       “You don’t waste any time, do you?
       “No,” Sergio said. “I don’t.”
       

 
    CHAPTER TWELVE
       
       Calamaro walked downstairs. Kersey was standing behind the front desk, shaking his head. “Those gunshots I heard?”
       “Yeah,” Calamaro said.
       “What the fuck for?”
       “It was unavoidable. A man upstairs was knocking around a lady. You probably saw her running