Kings Of The Earth Part 7

THEY WENT UP toward the edge of the woods. There's no end of raspberry bushes up around there. I don't know whether they're on my property or theirs but it doesn't make a difference. If a person's got a stand of wild raspberry bushes that he never even planted in the first place and he can't manage to share them with his neighbor, then it's a pretty sad world. The dog went along, as I recall. The dog always liked that boy but the feeling was never mutual. Not that I knew of. toward the edge of the woods. There's no end of raspberry bushes up around there. I don't know whether they're on my property or theirs but it doesn't make a difference. If a person's got a stand of wild raspberry bushes that he never even planted in the first place and he can't manage to share them with his neighbor, then it's a pretty sad world. The dog went along, as I recall. The dog always liked that boy but the feeling was never mutual. Not that I knew of.

I sat on the screen porch watching them go. Tom kind of picked his way around the edge of the bushes but Audie dove right into the middle like it was a swimming pool. That's what happens when you live on a farm your whole life. A few p.r.i.c.kers don't bother you anymore. He came back and reached out and grabbed the boy by the arm and took him in. The bushes were taller than Tom in places but Audie's head stuck up. I hope he was putting as many raspberries in the bucket as he was eating because he was eating plenty. He always did. Not that he made any show of hiding it.

I watched them for a while and then I went back to my book. I was probably working on a Zane Grey. How that man could write. After maybe a half hour I heard a truck come up the road. The tanker from the co-op had already come and gone so it wasn't that. I didn't think anything of it. I looked up and saw Tom and Audie sitting by the bushes eating raspberries. Some dust blew across the pasture. I heard the truck engine start up again and the gearshift grind and somebody hollering. There was a sound of chains and slipping metal, that hard sound you hear. A shriek, and then something lowering down. I put my book on the little side table and went out the screen door into the backyard, where I could see what was what. I hate to be nosy, but a person can't concentrate with that kind of noise going on. Not even on a Zane Grey.

The truck was a plain stake-bed with no markings on it. It was so rusted through and beat up that the Proctor boys could have owned it themselves if they'd ever wanted to own a truck. I couldn't decide what color it was and I was looking right at it. It had a ramp in the back, and a couple of men I'd never seen before had pulled it out and lowered it down. One young and one old. The young one had on a ball cap and the old one didn't. He was bareheaded and his head was sunburnt. They looked like father and son. The older one shook hands with Creed and they got to talking while the younger one went into the barn where Vernon was.

They looked like they were up to no good, and even though the Proctor boys aren't stupid they're as innocent as they come. Naive. Credulous Credulous might be the word Margaret would use for it. So I went down. The older man was named Tubbs, and sure enough it said might be the word Margaret would use for it. So I went down. The older man was named Tubbs, and sure enough it said TUBBS TUBBS around the other side of the truck where the paint wasn't all worn off. I never found out if the younger one was his son but I think so. They had a similar way. There was another word on the side of the truck along with around the other side of the truck where the paint wasn't all worn off. I never found out if the younger one was his son but I think so. They had a similar way. There was another word on the side of the truck along with TUBBS TUBBS and I should have guessed it from the look of things. I shook the old man's hand and he said he'd come for the horse. That old part-Percheron mare. A bigger animal that was any less use would be hard to find unless you went to Africa or someplace. The Proctor boys were sold a bill of goods when they bought her and I didn't think they were going to get out the other end of it any better with this Tubbs. and I should have guessed it from the look of things. I shook the old man's hand and he said he'd come for the horse. That old part-Percheron mare. A bigger animal that was any less use would be hard to find unless you went to Africa or someplace. The Proctor boys were sold a bill of goods when they bought her and I didn't think they were going to get out the other end of it any better with this Tubbs.

I asked him what he was paying and he told me it was none of my G.o.dd.a.m.ned business. Creed told me instead. I thought about it a minute and then I looked him in the eye and I said by golly I didn't know the horse was dead already.

Tubbs laughed right out loud. He shook his head and said that's how much I knew about his business. Creed laughed right along with him. That old mare is just as alive as you or me, Tubbs said. He said if a man had a dead horse he'd need to pay somebody to haul it off and here he was giving good money for it.

I said I knew that. I said I just thought his price was a little bit low. The money he was putting up was just about what the bones and the hide were worth. Plus maybe the tail too if he had a customer for it.

He didn't like that much.

I asked him if he'd weighed that mare yet, and how much he was getting for a pound of horsemeat on the open market. Seeing as how a live horse would yield up horsemeat and a horse part Percheron would yield up plenty.

He said a deal was a deal and I asked him to show me the papers. He said there weren't any papers and he didn't have to take that useless old nag off anybody's hands unless the terms suited him. He pulled out his keys and made like he was going to get back into the cab of the truck but he didn't. He shook his finger at Creed and said he was doing him and his brothers a favor. Asked him why he'd let me go sticking my nose into their G.o.dd.a.m.ned business anyhow.

Creed put his hand on my shoulder and said something I never in all the world expected to hear. I think he must have gotten it from one of those lawyer shows. I don't know how he'd saved it up but he did. You never know what's in a person's mind. He looked Tubbs straight in the eye and said he'd better get used to paying attention to me because I was his trusted business adviser. Just like that. His trusted business adviser His trusted business adviser.

I've never been so flattered in all my life.

Tubbs said all right maybe we could renegotiate the numbers a little, and I said OK let's get down to it.

Audie.

WE STARTED DOWN from the bushes. We were all over with raspberry juice and coming down with the mop bucket almost empty. I hoped Donna wouldn't care. I was thinking she might want to bake a pie but she never baked a pie here. Only at home and brought them. I was thinking Tom might want a pie but he had his fill of raspberries already. So we were just coming on down. That old Tubbs was there with his truck, and he had the ramp down, and he was talking to my brother Creed and then Preston. He looked mad. His head was red and his face was getting red too. One from the sun and the other from Preston. Preston looked like he was giving old Tubbs what for. from the bushes. We were all over with raspberry juice and coming down with the mop bucket almost empty. I hoped Donna wouldn't care. I was thinking she might want to bake a pie but she never baked a pie here. Only at home and brought them. I was thinking Tom might want a pie but he had his fill of raspberries already. So we were just coming on down. That old Tubbs was there with his truck, and he had the ramp down, and he was talking to my brother Creed and then Preston. He looked mad. His head was red and his face was getting red too. One from the sun and the other from Preston. Preston looked like he was giving old Tubbs what for.

Vernon came out of the barn with the mare. Tubbs's boy was with him. Tom took one look and said he wasn't interested in going for a horseback ride today and I told him that was all right. I said that mare wasn't taking anybody for a ride. Not anymore she wasn't.

Preston.

THE BOY CAME RIGHT OVER big as life. I'd never seen him take an interest in a horse before, but he sure had an interest then. I guess he'd either put down the bucket or left it with Audie. He'd definitely set aside any ideas he had about picking any more raspberries. He came straight up to where I was hammering things out with Tubbs. big as life. I'd never seen him take an interest in a horse before, but he sure had an interest then. I guess he'd either put down the bucket or left it with Audie. He'd definitely set aside any ideas he had about picking any more raspberries. He came straight up to where I was hammering things out with Tubbs.

His eyes were lit up and I could see DeAlton Poole in them. His old man. He said he'd heard the mare was on her way to the glue factory. He wondered where the glue factory was and how it operated. Tubbs told him for Christ's sake there wasn't any such thing as a glue factory and the boy said he was a liar because there was glue wasn't there so there must be a glue factory someplace and Tubbs said maybe so but he didn't run any G.o.dd.a.m.ned glue factory. If there was any glue factory it was somewhere else and somebody else ran it. He could only speak for his own operation. The horse wasn't going straight to any glue factory anyhow. They'd haul her back to the slaughterhouse and take her to pieces first.

Tubbs got a little cagey right about then, and I could see he was torn between peac.o.c.king around for that curious boy on the one hand and leveling with me on the other. I told him to go on ahead, I knew where the bear s.h.i.t in the buckwheat, and he said all right. Then he turned to Tom and stuck up the fingers of his left hand and started counting off what would become of every part of that mare. Where it would go and how it would end up. Animal feed and shoe polish and soap. Gelatin and paint and glue. He taught that boy a lesson I don't think he'll ever forget. Opened his eyes for the first time I believe they'd ever been opened on that farm.

I figured a lesson like that was worth about twenty dollars, so I let him keep that much extra.

1936.

Preston.

LESTER ALWAYS HAD A DOG. I believe he loved a dog if he loved anything. He had this one mixed breed when the two older boys hadn't quite gotten their growth yet. Creed would have been in short pants if they'd owned a pair of short pants. He was in Audie's old coveralls, rolled up. Donna was just a baby and she doesn't figure into this.

Lester used to do some work for an old man out on Middle Road named Lawson. He kept horses. Some of them were his own and some of them he boarded. Lawson claimed to be a veterinarian but I don't believe he ever had a license. He kept dogs, too. Lester always said if you were short a dog you could go out there and find yourself one. You might even find the very same dog you were short. Probably would. That's the kind of individual Lawson was. Everybody around here knew him.

Anyway he taught Lester a few things about animals. Lester had his faults, but he always took good care of his livestock. A horse, a pig, a sheep, I don't care what it was. A dog or a chicken. He used to keep Rhode Island Reds. Now the time I'm talking about, Lawson gave him an old pair of rusty hand clippers he used to use on some kind of stock, I don't know what. Not sheep. A longhaired goat maybe. Those clippers were like a big set of pliers with a sliding blade where the jaw would be and a spring in back of that. An adjustable comb in front of the blade, mounted on screws. There were two or three different combs you could swap out, all of them rusted up. I think he might have given it to Lester as payment for something. That would have been just like the both of them. He gave it to Lester and it was worthless to him but he took it anyhow.

n.o.body had anything then.

I don't think Lester's family ever knew about the Depression or recognized they'd gone through it. It was all the same to them. My father started our new house in 1931 and we moved in the next summer and I thought we were moving in alongside what these days you'd call a bunch of Okies. They looked like they'd grown up out of the dirt and now here the dirt was strangling them back down. Choking them right off. Of course that was just my own idea, coming from town the way I did.

Ruth.

THE MEN WHO ARRIVE to frame the new house work as silently as things conjured. Spirits or elves or carved statues brought to life. Only one among them ever speaks-the one who appears just once or twice a day and not for long, the one who wears not coveralls but a light woolen suit, the one who upon removing his fine jacket and hanging it on a nail shows himself the privileged inverse of his workmen. Narrow shoulders where theirs are broad, and thin arms where theirs are solid iron, and a contented little potbelly where they have none to speak of. In his difference he reigns over them and causes them to do his bidding, for his will has given them life in this dead time. to frame the new house work as silently as things conjured. Spirits or elves or carved statues brought to life. Only one among them ever speaks-the one who appears just once or twice a day and not for long, the one who wears not coveralls but a light woolen suit, the one who upon removing his fine jacket and hanging it on a nail shows himself the privileged inverse of his workmen. Narrow shoulders where theirs are broad, and thin arms where theirs are solid iron, and a contented little potbelly where they have none to speak of. In his difference he reigns over them and causes them to do his bidding, for his will has given them life in this dead time.

There is a boy with him now, a child older than hers but not by as much as perhaps he thinks. With a wary eye he proceeds heel and toe down a suspended plank or a narrow nailed beam. Arms out like a boy flying. She has worked at sweeping the yard with a corn broom and as she has worked she has seen him and she has seen too that this wariness of his is not confined to the placement of his own footsteps but takes in as well the rolling countryside and this poor dirt farm and herself and her own two children Audie and Vernon, at play in the fields. They keep their distance, her boys. They send looks her way that ask if they might introduce themselves to this new child and she sends looks back that say they might if they want to and still they do not. They lack the courage for any such transgression if transgression it is. For his part the balancing boy signals no openness to them or even curiosity. He walks and he wavers. He keeps his gaze low and his arms high. In the field the younger boy begins to do the same, heel and toe, arms outstretched, until his older brother tackles him.

Audie.

MY BROTHER WENT FIRST. My mother said don't do it in the house since she didn't need to be sweeping up after that mess too, so all four of us went in the barn. My father and us three. Vernon sat on a bucket and I sat on the ground and waited my turn. I had Creed on my lap watching. My father said you take your shirts off now or you'll wish you did. He said you'll itch like h.e.l.l. Vernon told him the regular man had a white sheet and put a little bit of paper wrapping around your neck but our father told him the regular man cost money and we didn't need the regular man anymore. We didn't need any white sheet when we could take our shirts right off in the barn. He took out the clippers. If I'd gone first I don't think I'd let myself holler like Vernon did, but since Vernon hollered already it didn't make any difference. Those clippers pulled more than they cut. Our father greased them up and took a file to the blade and tightened the screws but that didn't help any. I bawled just like Vernon did and there was b.l.o.o.d.y hair on the dirt floor and some on my knees where it fell. Just pulled clean out. It could be that he got better at it as he went from one of us to the next but I don't think so. When it came his turn Creed didn't holler even though he was the youngest. He didn't cry either. He just took it.

Preston.

MY FATHER OWNED a mower that ran on gasoline and he had me push it around the yard once or twice a week. He was always a great one for getting the first of anything. He had connections from the lumberyard. I suspect it was a demonstration model he talked somebody out of. Anyhow I was pushing that gas mower around the yard and over the sound of it I heard the worst kind of hollering you could imagine. Just a terrible racket. Bleating and crying and carrying on. I thought maybe Lester had gotten some new sheep and was notching their ears, but that wasn't it. It wasn't any sheep. I cut the engine and looked down the hill and one after another those boys came tearing out of the barn like he was firing them from a gun. Vernon first. He ran out and stuck his head in the water trough and blubbered around some. Then Audie came out and he did the same. The crying and hollering stopped then but I went down out of curiosity and no sooner did I get near than here comes Creed flying out the barn door just like the first two, only when he made for the trough they grabbed his arms and legs and stuck his whole self straight in. a mower that ran on gasoline and he had me push it around the yard once or twice a week. He was always a great one for getting the first of anything. He had connections from the lumberyard. I suspect it was a demonstration model he talked somebody out of. Anyhow I was pushing that gas mower around the yard and over the sound of it I heard the worst kind of hollering you could imagine. Just a terrible racket. Bleating and crying and carrying on. I thought maybe Lester had gotten some new sheep and was notching their ears, but that wasn't it. It wasn't any sheep. I cut the engine and looked down the hill and one after another those boys came tearing out of the barn like he was firing them from a gun. Vernon first. He ran out and stuck his head in the water trough and blubbered around some. Then Audie came out and he did the same. The crying and hollering stopped then but I went down out of curiosity and no sooner did I get near than here comes Creed flying out the barn door just like the first two, only when he made for the trough they grabbed his arms and legs and stuck his whole self straight in.

With those haircuts they looked like a family of porcupines. They were all bleeding a little but not too bad. You could see it trickle down their necks and around their ears and there was some in the trough. The water had a pinkish tinge to it if you looked at it right, unless that's just how I remember it. My memory may have colored things. Either way I said they ought to drain the trough and fill it up again if they didn't want their father taking it out of their hides. He'd say the animals didn't want to be drinking that and then they'd have to drain it out and pump it full again anyway and on top of that he'd give them a licking. They did like I said. Later on I guess I'd have done it myself and saved them the trouble. By later on I mean years. But I was just finding my way with those boys then.

The old man learned a little about giving a haircut, but not much. Around our own house when I was wasteful with anything my own father would say we ought to start economizing and for a first step he was going to let old man Proctor cut my hair. He never did it, though.

1990.

Creed.

BURNES HAD THIS PAPER where he typed it all out. Del Graham told him to. First he went across to McDonald's and then when he come back he give the hamburgers to Del Graham and then he went off somewhere and typed it all out. He kept a Big Mac for himself I think. The coffee was out so Del Graham made a fresh pot. He said he didn't know if he ought to make it regular or unleaded since he didn't know how long a night it was going to be. He hoped maybe unleaded. I said I didn't care. There was n.o.body much around except us. One feller up front and a couple of other fellers at their desks but that was it. All the lights was on though. Somebody had a radio going and the police radio was going too. It weren't busy like during the day. where he typed it all out. Del Graham told him to. First he went across to McDonald's and then when he come back he give the hamburgers to Del Graham and then he went off somewhere and typed it all out. He kept a Big Mac for himself I think. The coffee was out so Del Graham made a fresh pot. He said he didn't know if he ought to make it regular or unleaded since he didn't know how long a night it was going to be. He hoped maybe unleaded. I said I didn't care. There was n.o.body much around except us. One feller up front and a couple of other fellers at their desks but that was it. All the lights was on though. Somebody had a radio going and the police radio was going too. It weren't busy like during the day.

I asked Del Graham when was I going home and he said pretty soon. He said he'd take me once Burnes came back and I read his paper and signed it. Burnes was putting down everything we said about how Vernon died and Del Graham wanted me to see if he got it right. I said I didn't mind checking what he typed out but I wished he'd hurry up since I didn't have all night and Audie was home all alone. Del Graham didn't know Audie. He knew who Audie was but he didn't know him.

Burnes.

FRANKLY, I was just glad to get a little fresh air.

Del.

WE'D BEEN AT IT since the morning and we were all a little bit frayed around the edges. It wasn't that there'd been anything adversarial about it. Not by any means. It just makes a long day. For a person like Creed, who's not accustomed to the back-and-forth, it can be especially difficult. And then there's the fact that you've got him talking about things that he'd probably rather not talk about. You've got him going over them again and again just to get them straight and understand what happened. As much as that's possible. since the morning and we were all a little bit frayed around the edges. It wasn't that there'd been anything adversarial about it. Not by any means. It just makes a long day. For a person like Creed, who's not accustomed to the back-and-forth, it can be especially difficult. And then there's the fact that you've got him talking about things that he'd probably rather not talk about. You've got him going over them again and again just to get them straight and understand what happened. As much as that's possible.

While Burnes was typing up the confession and it was just the two of us in the office, Creed got a little agitated regarding his brother. I had an officer call out to the house but there wasn't any answer so I had him call the neighbor instead, Mr. Hatch, to see if he could go over there and knock on the door. I didn't want to send a car out. I thought the brother had seen enough police cars for one day. I thought if Mr. Hatch could just check on him, that would be enough to rea.s.sure everybody. I didn't think we'd be much longer anyhow. The officer rang back and said he'd gotten Mrs. Hatch, and her husband was on his way to see about the brother. That made Creed feel a little better. He was very lucid, there's no question about that. Once he was rea.s.sured about the brother he asked if we could bring home a hamburger for him when we went, and I said I thought we could probably arrange that.

Burnes brought in four copies of the confession, one for each of us and one more. We cleared the table and sat around it. Right off Creed said he had difficulty reading without his gla.s.ses, which I took to indicate at least some measure of illiteracy, although I suspect that he must be able to read at least a little. I know he's had some schooling, but I don't know how much of it took.

Preston.

CREED COULD NO MORE read that paper than he could talk Chinese. read that paper than he could talk Chinese.

Creed.

THEY BRUNG ME some reading gla.s.ses but I can't say they helped too much. That paper had a lot of words on it I didn't know. Burnes was awful good with words. Del Graham said he'd go over it out loud if I wanted but I said he didn't need to. I said if I run into something I couldn't make out I'd ask. He read parts of it out loud anyhow and I didn't tell him not to. some reading gla.s.ses but I can't say they helped too much. That paper had a lot of words on it I didn't know. Burnes was awful good with words. Del Graham said he'd go over it out loud if I wanted but I said he didn't need to. I said if I run into something I couldn't make out I'd ask. He read parts of it out loud anyhow and I didn't tell him not to.

This was after supper and my stomach was growling from too many hamburgers in one day. Restaurant food don't always agree with me. I said so and Burnes showed me to the bathroom again like he thought I'd forgot where it was since the afternoon. I looked out the window and seen the cars sitting out there in the dark. I was thinking about Audie.

A lot of what was on the paper was about how Vernon died and what all I had to do with it. I told Del Graham that's how we talked about it all right but it's not the way it went. I never said it was. Burnes got it all just right the way we talked about it even though he used some different words. He did a good job. Del Graham read some of it out loud and explained it here and there and I said if that's what those words mean then that's what we talked about. But that don't mean it's what happened. It's only what we talked about. Del Graham said wasn't I telling the truth before and I said I was but it sounds different now, the way Burnes put it on that paper. Real things and things you talk about and things somebody puts on a paper sound different. They sound like different things.

The phone rang and Del Graham said maybe it was Preston, but it wasn't. I said I thought it was time to go home. Time to go see about Audie. Del Graham said he'd let me know when that time come and then he'd take me himself in his own car.

Del.

I WANTED TO HAVE WANTED TO HAVE a witness from outside. You don't necessarily have to do it that way, but it can carry more weight if there's any question. I also wanted to get Creed out of the barracks and back home. That was an enormous priority. Keeping him around wasn't doing anybody any good, and at that point there was certainly no urgency about making an arrest. The clock would start to run and the district attorney would have forty-five days and he'd probably use them all up. There was no need to stretch it out like that. Vernon wasn't going anywhere, arrested or not. I had some more questions to ask other people anyhow. a witness from outside. You don't necessarily have to do it that way, but it can carry more weight if there's any question. I also wanted to get Creed out of the barracks and back home. That was an enormous priority. Keeping him around wasn't doing anybody any good, and at that point there was certainly no urgency about making an arrest. The clock would start to run and the district attorney would have forty-five days and he'd probably use them all up. There was no need to stretch it out like that. Vernon wasn't going anywhere, arrested or not. I had some more questions to ask other people anyhow.

So I said why don't we get in the car and bring the papers with us and just shoot on over to McDonald's across the street. I thought we could kill two birds with one stone. We could find somebody to watch him sign, and we could pick up something for his brother while we were at it.

The night was still pretty warm when we went out. Creed kind of shook himself when we got outdoors in the fresh air. He was clearly happy that we were on our way, and I was very glad to see that. It had been a long day. We went out through the back and got in the car, but when we drove around front the restaurant was closed. The golden arches weren't even lit up. They usually stay open pretty late, but now there was just one light on in the back and one car. I admit I must have lost track of the time. Rather than stop and knock, we kept going. The Mobil station has a little convenience store attached to it and I figured we'd stop there and accomplish pretty much the same thing.

Creed said he didn't think he had to sign anymore if he couldn't get McDonald's for his brother and I told him no, that wasn't the case at all. That was never the case. He only had to sign because the doc.u.ment was his accurate statement. He didn't have to sign in order to get something for his brother to eat. There was never any relation between the two, never any quid pro quo quid pro quo. Of course I didn't put it exactly that way. I can't say how he'd gotten that idea into his head, except we'd had a long day and he was pretty tired out. He certainly hadn't mentioned it earlier, if he'd been thinking it.

He said all right, he understood, but he didn't want to sign now anyway. He'd changed his mind.

I think maybe just being outside in the car had done it. Being on the way back home. I wished we'd signed in the office when we had the chance. I certainly didn't feel that we could go back. Even if that weren't coercive, it might give that appearance.

We got to the Mobil station and I got out all by myself and bought some microwave pizza for his brother. When he saw me coming back his face lit right up, and when I opened the car door he said he'd changed his mind again and he would sign the confession after all. Just like that. I have to admit that it might have been the microwave pizza that made the difference. I didn't want to take him out of the car so I gave him the pizza and went back in and got the cashier and switched on the dome light and all three of us signed right there in the lot. We signed four copies and I gave one to Creed. After that I got him home just as quickly as I could.

1985.

Audie.

I COULD HEAR COULD HEAR my brother Vernon swallowing hard. In the daytime he sucked on his cough drops but at night he got dried out and I could hear him swallow. That cancer in his throat was like a stopper. He was trying to swallow around the cancer and what he was swallowing didn't want to go down. I couldn't listen. I thought maybe the next time it wouldn't go down and what then. So I got on my side and set my one ear against the mattress and put my hand over the other one. Then I pushed against my brother Vernon so he'd know I was there. my brother Vernon swallowing hard. In the daytime he sucked on his cough drops but at night he got dried out and I could hear him swallow. That cancer in his throat was like a stopper. He was trying to swallow around the cancer and what he was swallowing didn't want to go down. I couldn't listen. I thought maybe the next time it wouldn't go down and what then. So I got on my side and set my one ear against the mattress and put my hand over the other one. Then I pushed against my brother Vernon so he'd know I was there.

Tom.

THE PARKING LOT alongside the Woodshed faced the beach but there was a fifty-yard stretch of dead trees and scrub in between. Low gra.s.s and a couple of junked cars and garbage blown over from days when the wire baskets on the beach overflowed, which was most of the time. Tom and Nick went out to the edge of the lot and over the little concrete barrier and down toward the beach, crunching over dead gra.s.s and newspapers and increasing amounts of sand. Tom always marveled a little at this part, how you went from ordinary upstate dirt to beach sand just like that. Who needed the ocean, he always said, when you could walk to the lake? Not that he ever convinced himself. The lake was dirty and hot and it had all this c.r.a.p around it. Still, it was close to home. alongside the Woodshed faced the beach but there was a fifty-yard stretch of dead trees and scrub in between. Low gra.s.s and a couple of junked cars and garbage blown over from days when the wire baskets on the beach overflowed, which was most of the time. Tom and Nick went out to the edge of the lot and over the little concrete barrier and down toward the beach, crunching over dead gra.s.s and newspapers and increasing amounts of sand. Tom always marveled a little at this part, how you went from ordinary upstate dirt to beach sand just like that. Who needed the ocean, he always said, when you could walk to the lake? Not that he ever convinced himself. The lake was dirty and hot and it had all this c.r.a.p around it. Still, it was close to home.

They sat on a couple of concrete blocks and smoked, pa.s.sing the joint back and forth. Tom said it was decent stuff and Nick said he knew that.

Tom asked where it came from.

Nick said he couldn't say.

Tom said couldn't or just wouldn't.

Nick laughed.

Tom said maybe that black onion muck behind Nick's half of a house was all right for growing dope.

Nick said he wouldn't know anything about that.

Tom said maybe just around the edges.

Nick said what, did he look like the agricultural type or something.

Tom said well s.h.i.t you could go and turn the same question right back on him, couldn't you. And then where would you be. How far would that get you.

Nick said maybe farther than you'd think. He said Tom didn't look that long from the farm when you came down to it.

Anybody else, Tom might have gotten his back up.

Even though it was only Thursday night, there was a band working the back room. An old-timey outfit called Luke and the Smoky Mountain Boys. Tom went through on his way to the men's and he was pretty sure the guy introducing himself as Luke wasn't the same guy he'd seen doing it during the first set. This one was a dignified little dude who looked like a bookkeeper and the other one was a big galoot with c.o.ke-bottle horn-rims under a white cowboy hat. Maybe there were two Lukes. Maybe there was no Luke at all and they let everybody in the band have a turn like they thought it was funny. Then again it could have been just the dope. Regardless, he hated that scratchy old-time music and it wasn't worth waiting through a whole other set to find out who the h.e.l.l Luke was. It wasn't even worth asking Sal or somebody. He used the men's and that was that.

Back out in front he found Nick talking to somebody he didn't know. A tall guy, dark, with a little mustache that looked like a scar. He had taken Tom's stool, and he was smoking a long thin cigarette and leaning over to give Nick a look that could have hypnotized him. Very intense. Tom thought he was probably an Italian. He saw plenty of Italians at the job site in Utica every day, and he always figured they must be connected to the dope business somehow. Just because. He kept a low profile around the job site on that front. He had his hands full already.

He came around the bar and slid in next to the tall guy and said something on the order of that's my beer right there if you don't mind.