Guns of the Waste Land: Departure: Volumes 1-2

by Leverett Butts

  Hiverna scowled at him. “Because,” she said, “It will be too dangerous.”

  Then she turned and walked behind the house. Verda finally brought the bucket up, but it was empty. “The well has always been full, Teresa. Why did the bucket not draw water?”

  “Is anyone going to answer my question?” Gary Wayne’s voice carried an edge he tried to convince himself was frustration.

  Teresa looked at him. “We told you all we can,” Verda interjected despite Teresa and Hiverna’s scowls.

  “Come, child,” Teresa put her arm around Verda’s shoulders, guiding her away, “let us try the other well.”

  Verda allowed herself to be guided, but she turned to face Gary Wayne over her shoulder as they moved out of sight.

  “You should not have come.” She said, and her voice seemed to come from right beside him.

  IV.

  Gary Wayne awoke with a start to smell of coffee percolating. He threw his blanket off and looked over the bulk of Gringo, who was also waking up.

  “It’s about time you woke up,” Boris had his back to Gary Wayne and was hunkered down tending a fire. He turned his head to look at him over his shoulder. “I was beginning to think you was dead. Wasn’t for your snoring, I’d’ve been sure.

  Gary Wayne stood up, shifted his weight to one side and released a long and relaxing fart. “Took you long enough to catch up.” He stuck left little finger into his ear and began lazily scraping the canal.

  “Choice words,” Boris said pouring Gary Wayne a cup of coffee from the percolator and bringing him a plate of eggs, “considering you left explicit instructions for me not to follow you.”

  “Shit,” Gary Wayne had a knack for stretching this particular expletive into two syllables, “I knew you’d follow on after me if I left, and I didn’t want to take the time to argue on it no more.” He removed his finger from his ear and took the proffered coffee and eggs before moving closer to the fire. “Why the Sam Hell’d you want go and build a fire, though, is beyond me. I was trying to keep them down yonder from knowing I was here.”

  “Well, if you’ll give me a little credit for not being a complete moron,” Boris said nudging Gringo with his foot to make the horse rise, “you might note that I used some good, dry hardwood, oak, to build it. Hardly any smoke.”

  “Where the fuck you find oak out here? Shit for that matter, where’d you get the eggs?”

  “Didn’t,” Boris returned to the fireside and picked up his own cup of coffee. “I brought some with me from Percy’s place. The eggs came from a quail’s nest about fifty yards thattaway.” Boris waved behind the camp in a roughly westerly direction.

  Gary Wayne grunted, and continued eating his breakfast in silence.

  “So you found him,” Boris observed, sipping the last of his coffee. “What now?”

  Gary Wayne chewed thoughtfully on his last bite of eggs and sipped his coffee. “Now?” he said, staring into the dying embers of the campfire. “Now I reckon I’m going to kill him.”

  Chapter Six – Percy

  I.

  They treated me real good in Bretton. Ardiss tried puttin’ me in school, but Miss Vivian, the schoolteacher, told him I was too old to be with all the other kids, and she figured I’d done learned about as much of my letters and figures as I was likely to take in and I may as well get on to learning a trade. So Ardiss and Braddock got their heads together and put me to work in the stables during the day and cleaning up the Caring Lion Saloon mornings and evenings.

  “You know,” Ardiss said to me when he came to check on me my first day working, “Gary Wayne and Boris both started out mucking stables and sweeping floors. If you’re just twice as patient as one and half as smart as the other, there’s no telling to what heights you may ascend.”

  I didn’t really know what he meant, so I just smiled and said thank you and kept on shovelling horse shit.

  Ardiss let me stay with him on account of him having such a big house and no one but him to keep an eye on it. He even let me stay in the same room he put me in when I was sick even though I figured he’d want me to stay in the stables and watch the horses.

  “I reckon those horses can look after themselves better than most men can.”

  “Sho now,” Braddock agreed. “And if not, well I ain’t but a few feet away.” He nodded toward the cabin he shared with his wife, Eleanor. “Ain’t nobody gonna bother them horses without me knowin’ it.”

  So I done it. I moved in with Ardiss, and he took me on just like I was one of his own. He bought me new duds to wear in town when I wasn’t working, and a suit to wear to church on Sunday.

  II.

  One of the first things I done once I got settled in was to head for the church so I could confess stealing that bacon back in that cabin just like Ma told me to do. Reverend Tallison was about as nice about that as I thought he could be. He was playin’ cards when I come in his study in back of the church, and I felt a little guilty about interrupting him, but Ma told me to confess as soon as I could, and I had done put it off as long as I could. Lord knows what would happen if I didn’t own up to my wickedness directly, so I walked on in, pretty as you please.

  “I’m sorry to bother you, Reverend,” I said kinda quiet-like, “but I gotta get something off my chest.”

  Reverend Tallison looked surprised, then he took one more look at his hand, placed a card on the spread in front of him, and laid the rest of his hand face-down on his desk. “What can I do for you, Percy?” He rose up out of his chair and seen how tall he was. I reckoned I come to the right place on account of he looked about like he could whisper in God’s ear without stepping tiptoe. “You feeling better, I see.”

  “Yessir,” I said, “I’m feeling much better, except I gotta confess stealing the bacon.”

  “The bacon?”

  “Yessir. I done it when I was out in the desert. I took it from this cabin wasn’t nobody in.” The rest came out fast the words was all trying to escape at once. “And Ma said I had to ask forgiveness for stealing whenever I stole at the next church I come to, but I never come to one until I got here, and then I was sick, and then Ardiss got me a job, but really I just plumb forgot except when I remembered but I was afeared to come on account I waited so long, but now I’m afeared of what’ll happen if I don’t make it right.”

  “You need to confess stealing bacon?”

  “Yessir.”

  “And you feel bad about it?”

  “I feel bad about not confessing it sooner. I don’t feel bad about eating the bacon, though. Gramps fixed it up real good. It was crunchy like I like it.”

  “Gramps?”

  “Yeah, my dead grandfather come and fixed me breakfast the next morning just before Redhead and Slouch Hat almost shot me.”

  “Redhead and Slouch Hat?” Reverend Tallison set back down again and put a hand on his brow. He looked like he was tired all of a sudden.

  “Yeah, I mean yessir, I think Ardiss said they was Gary Wayne and Boris, but they didn’t tell me their names, just almost shot me and then didn’t take me home.”

  Reverend looked back at me over the top of his spectacles, “Let’s just take this one step at a time.”

  I stepped forward.

  “You want to confess that you stole some bacon and that you didn’t confess stealing the bacon soon enough; is that right?”

  “Yessir”

  He lifted the lid of his desk a little bit and pulled out a sheaf of writing paper, and a wooden pencil. “Okay,” he said, “I want you to write out that you are sorry for stealing the bacon and that you won’t steal bacon anymore.” He handed the stuff to me and stood up, sliding his cards to side of his desk and motioning for me to sit down.

  I done it. I took that piece of paper and held that pencil in my fist and wrote real careful like. Then I set the paper in front of me and held the pencil in my fist and looked at him. “That’s it?” I asked. “I just write that down, and I’m forgiven?”

  “You’ll have
to ask God about forgiveness,” Reverend Tallison said, “I cannot speak for Him, but I believe writing your sin down may be a good start.”

  I turned to the paper and wrote it out just like he told me to, and I handed it to him. He looked at it for a long time, and then he looked at me. “Who taught you your letters?”

  “Gramps did a little, and Ma did some,” I told him.

  “Ardiss tells me Miss Nimmons didn’t have room for you in her school; is that right?”

  “Yessir,” I nodded, “She said she couldn’t teach me much more’n I already knowed on account of all her other students needing more help.”

  The Reverend smiled. “I want you to take your lunches with me during the week,” he said. “I reckon your penance for the bacon is going to be having me as a tutor.”

  Reverend Tallison give me books and tried to learn me my letters some more. I didn’t much care for the histories he made me read, or the poetry much, but I sure did like them fairy tales. There was something about them that reminded me of my time in the desert. When all them birds brung Cinderellar them new dresses and done her chores for her, it was just like when Gramps showed up on the trail and fed me or when that Injun man told me his story. I couldn’t get enough of them.

  I told Reverend Tallison that, and he perked right up when I talked about the old Injun especially. He made me tell him that one over and over again.

  “And he looked like your grandfather?” He’d lean in real close and study on my face while I talked.

  “Yessir,” I’d reply. “But only sometimes. Other times he looked like an old Injun man. I think it was the smoke getting in my eyes.”

  “Was he under the tree when you got to the river? Or did he walk up later?”

  “I don’t rightly know, sir. I didn’t see him when I got there, but I was powerful hungry and didn’t have no eyes but for the fish in the water. He coulda done been there, but he coulda walked up later, too.”

  The Reverend, he’d just set there starin’ at me and nodding his head. Then he’d like as not ask about something else from my story.

  “And everything was gone when you woke up?”

  “Yessir, like it hadn’t ever been there.”

  Or

  “And your dead grandfather cooked you breakfast?”

  “Yep. It seemed pretty odd to me at the time, but Ma told me not to ask no questions so I didn’t.”

  Sometimes, though, he’d just stare at me and shake his head. “Well,” he’d say after a while, “Let’s get back to your lessons. You’ll have to get back to work directly.”

  III.

  About once or twice a week, though, I’d skip out on the reverend for my lunches. Sometimes it’d just be too danged pretty outside to spend it cooped up in that church reading. So I’d just kinda forget to go. These times, I got to where I liked eating my lunch out by the Gilded Lily. There was a little flower garden out there them women kept up.

  I don’t really know what they done for a living. Wasn’t never no man living there I ever seen? I mean I’d see some of the local townsmen go and check on them at night fairly regular, and I thought it was right kind of them to take such concern for them, ladies. I knowed how scary the night can be out on the ranch when there wasn’t no one there but me and Ma, and even though they was right in town, it still got pretty dark and quiet at night, so I reckoned them women was just as feared as Ma and me. But they hadn’t no reason; them men was in and out all hours of the night checking on them.

  Anyway, they had them a little flower garden out there I liked to eat my lunch in sometimes. It was also far enough away from the stables and the church, I didn’t figger Braddock, or the reverend would ever see me. Caleb would sometimes drop in on them women, but he didn’t ever pay me no mind. As long as I showed up at the Caring Lion to sweep up in the afternoon, he didn’t care what I did. I don’t think he liked me much, but it could just be me thinking back to the way he was against me staying with Ardiss at first. Looking back, though, I think Caleb was just generally miserable. I don’t think I ever seen that man smile. Still, I never thought he’d be one to care about nobody but himself, but there he was fairly regular checking on them women. It just goes to show, you don’t really need no nobody. They can all surprise you.

  The flower garden had a little bench set up under a shade tree, and I’d sit there and eat my cheese sandwich and drink water from their well-dipper. After I’d ate two or three lunches out there, I noticed this girl staring at me from one the upstairs windows. She looked to be about my age with yellow hair what come down on her shoulders. I was embarrassed to notice her too much at first on account of she most always wasn’t wearing nothing but her underthings. After a while, though, I figured if she didn’t care who seen her like that I wouldn’t care about not seeing her like that, so I generally got to where I liked it when she was there. Once I even nodded at her, and she smiled at me.

  Then one day, I was setting on that bench eating my sandwich, just minding my own business, and thinking about first one thing then another when I hear this voice come up from behind me.

  “Hey,” it says.

  I turn around and there she was, the girl from the window only she wasn’t wearing her underthings. I mean I reckon she was wearing them, but I couldn’t see on account of she was wearing this kind of light dress like what Ma’d wear when it was warm outside, but wasn’t no chores needed doing, and we weren't going nowhere.

  “Hey, yourself,” I said and turned back to my sandwich. I felt a little uncomfortable with her here, and all I could think about was how pretty she looked even if she wasn’t just in her underwear. It was better if I just looked at my sandwich.

  “You mind if I sit here?” she asked, but it wasn’t no good her doing that since she was already sitting when she opened her mouth. I figured it’d be rude to say I did since she’d done set down already and it was in her yard and all. I just shrugged.

  “What’s your name?” She kinda scooted closer to me. She smelled like flowers, and her yellow hair almost touched my shoulder. “What you eating?”

  “I’m a cheese sandwich,” I wanted to sound all smooth and sure of myself like them men in the Caring Lion did when they talked to women, but my mouth got all jumbled up. “I-I mean I’m Percy, and I’m eating a cheese sandwich.” I tore it in half and handed her the side I hadn’t bit off yet. “Y-You want some?”

  She kinda giggled a little bit, so I knowed I’d made a fool of myself, but then she took it from me and ate a bite. “Mmm,” she said around the bite, “It’s really good. You make it? I never thought of putting mustard on cheese before.” She talked really fast, even with a mouthful of mustard and cheese.

  “N-no,” I didn’t know where this stutter had come from. “Emmie made it; she’s the woman cooks for Ardiss.”

  “You know Ardiss Drake?” she swallowed real hard, and her voice sped up even more. “He’s real nice. Everybody says so. You must be the boy he took in a while ago. Is that who are? I heard he’d taken in Jim Murratt’s boy. Are you Jim Murratt’s boy?”

  I looked at her now and didn’t think of her underclothes once. She was staring at me with her eyes all lit up. “He was my daddy,” I said, “How do you know him?”

  “Oh, I never did know him, but some of the other girls here did. They all said he was a good man, and knowed how to treat a woman.”

  “Well, I don’t know about that,” I said, and I know a little hardness was in my voice, but I couldn’t help it. “He never was around much when I was a baby, and then he was dead and wasn’t around at all.”

  “Oh,” she took another bite of the sandwich and stared at the flowers some.

  After a while, the silence was more uncomfortable than talking, so I turned back to her. “So what’s your name?”

  That turned her talkbox over again, and she lit in. “Well,” she said, “my real name’s Daisy, but Miss Celia didn’t like that so she changed it to Blanched Flour. She said it was French, but I think it sounds like a
n Indian name, don’t you? Don’t Blanched Flour sound like an Indian baker’s name or something? But she says that’s my name now.”

  I didn’t think I could really pronounce her name very well so I asked if I couldn’t just call her Daisy.

  “Really, I’d like that better,” she said, “since it’s the name my mama gave me and all.”

  About that time this older lady stuck her head out the back window and yelled at her.

  “Blanchefleur!” she hollered, “Leave that boy alone unless he’s got spending money! You’re supposed to be in the parlour entertaining!”

  “But Miss Celia,” Daisy started to whine a little, “There ain’t nobody there to entertain.”

  “There isn’t anyone,” Miss Celia said.

  “That’s what I said. There isn’t a soul in there for me to entertain.”

  “Well, get in there this minute in case someone comes by to be entertained.” she slammed the window shut but then opened up and stuck her head out again. “And leave that boy alone.”

  “Well, I guess I better be going,” Daisy stood up from the bench after Miss Celia tucked back into the house. “It was nice meeting you, Percy. I bet you’re just as nice as Ardiss is, and I reckon you know how to treat a lady, just like your daddy did.”

  “I bet I don’t either,” I said, “but it was nice meeting you, too.”

  Then she leaned over me and kissed my cheek before running into the house. A minute later the window opened again, and Daisy stuck her head out. “And thank you kindly for the sandwich!” But she closed the window before I could say she was welcome.

  Chapter Seven – Rev. Tallison

  I.

  Merle stood on the portico of the church leaning against a column watching his young pupil cross the main thoroughfare and head off behind the apothecary to take his lunch. In his hand, he held the confession Percy had written, folded in half. After the boy had made it safely across the road and vanished from his view, Merle looked at it, unfolded it, and read the slip of paper for what seemed like the thousandth time: