* * *
At nineteen, Louis Walker told his father who he was going to marry. His father promptly sat him down and gave him the facts of life; not the ones he’d told him about at sixteen, but the facts of life according to Brandell valley.
“Son,” his father had said, “That girl’s momma is one of those women, and eventually she will be too. Are you sure you can handle that?” Not that Mr. Walker Sr. was adverse to his son marrying one of them, and his emphasis on the words those women wasn’t meant derogatorily; after all, theirs were the founding families of Brandell, each very respectable, not to mention rather impressive financially. That the women of those families were…special, and in some vague way, a necessary part of Brandell Valley, though no one could remember exactly why, had been accepted for so long that none but newcomers found the idea at all strange. Louis Walker Sr. wasn’t a newcomer.
Louis Jr., being in love, was convinced he could handle anything, and when his wife matured enough to take her mother’s place with the other women, he’d found that by staying out of the women’s occasional, but peculiar business, his marriage was no different than anyone else’s. Of course, it didn’t hurt that the woman he’d married had an uncanny ability to make things sort of…turn out well; about which she had a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. Louis was fine with that. His attitude towards his daughter’s specialness was much the same as it had been with his wife.
What had just happened in the store reminded Louis of this morning’s conversation between Claudia, Melanie, and Amanda. They’d been seriously concerned over what, to Louis, seemed like just a lot of coincidental rude behavior. Now he was beginning to wonder. Even after only a few minutes conversation with John Simmons out on the curb, Louis’ impression was that “the slightest little thing setting him off” didn’t seem to fit the man’s character. When he thought about it, there had appeared to be something off kilter about Simmons’ behavior that morning, and again just before he tripped and fell through the side window. Outside on the curb, it was as though Simmons had…what came to Louis’ mind was…“snapped out of it.”
Goodbye Lucifer Page 19