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freshly applied at Keller’s, she looked used-up and ready to fold, struggling to keep her eyes open.
    â€œIt’s in the heat of the moment. Like someone finds out.” She just looked at me, to see if we were on the same page.
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œThey might stiff you. ’Cause you cheated them, they say. You tricked them, pretending to be one thing and really being something else. This one guy, he catches me off guard, you know what I’m saying? And he goes, ‘Oh, my God, it’s a man. Do I finish?’”
    â€œWhat did he decide?”
    Chi Chi rolled her eyes. “Paid me, too. But some of them, they feel like a fool, and they gets pissed something fierce.”
    I nodded.
    â€œThat’s the least of it, not paying. They get so mad sometimes.” She shook her head. “Sometimes you got to go to Emergency. You can’t work for a couple of days. Means you can’t eat, or nothing. Means you could lose your home, have to live in some abandoned car, take a crap next to a tree, like you was a dog. Could be, your luck runs out, it’s worse than that. Like what happened to Rosalinda.”
    â€œYou’re saying it was a john who did her?”
    â€œI’m saying—” She sighed. “I’m saying, some people, you put one over on them, they feel …” She seemed to blank out for a second. Then she began to shake her head. “Look, I’m telling you the truth. You listening?”
    â€œI am.”
    â€œYou injure their pride, some of them, it makes them mad enough to kill. You understand what I’m saying? It’s a guy thing,” she said, reminding me she knew whereof she spoke. “Look, we gotta go. I promised Vinnie.”
    â€œVinnie? That’s your idea of a Polish name?”
    â€œWhatever.”
    I watched the ten float down to the sidewalk. Chi Chi didn’t seem to notice.
    â€œThe only thing he cares about is I jus’ gotta make sure none of them sees me when they come on.”
    â€œThe other butchers?”
    I pointed to the bill, and Dashiell picked it up. I took it from him, held it up to show her, and put it in the pocket of Clint’s jacket.
    â€œRight. They would, you know, never let up on him, he did it with someone like me. He couldn’t stay working there. The truckers, well, that’s a whole other story. They get what they want, and that’s the end of it. No one knows but the two consenting adults involved. You get my meaning?”
    I nodded. “The payer and the payee.”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œYou’re saying it’s a cash transaction with no repercussions.”
    She nodded.
    â€œHey, the guy’s been driving since fucking Iowa or some other godforsaken dump with dead pigs in the back. He’s got needs. He’s human, right? So for twenty, thirty bucks, he feels like a million. Not a bad return on his money. End of story. No one from the pee hole where he lives is gonna give him a hard time, because no one from there knows nothing. They never left there in their miserable lives, and if they did, this is the last place on earth they’d show up. Sometimes that’s what I think it is, Rachel.”
    She stumbled, and I caught her elbow.
    â€œThe last place on earth?” I asked.
    Chi Chi sighed. “I want this trick, I gotta be prompt arriving and get out prompt, he says. That’s all. And one other thing.”
    â€œWhat’s that?”
    â€œWe maintain the illusion. He don’t wanna find a dick in his hand unless it’s his own.”
    â€œGot it. So this is the pig man you didn’t want to talk about?”
    She nodded. “Look, we gotta talk somewhere else. I can’t stay here. It’s getting to be time.”
    â€œFor them to open?”
    â€œYeah. For the rest of them to come. And the truckers. I might do some of them down the block, but they see me here, it’s a whore of another color. They could