The sky was a deepening gray. The clouds lay like the underside of a great cotton blanket, with all its softness and ripples and curves and weight. The black man’s horse still breathed slow, labored breaths, and the wind rushed across the prairie, rippling the grass like the ghosts of the great herds. But these were the only sounds. In all the world, these were the only sounds. The labored breathing of the living. The whispers of ghosts.
EPILOGUE
IN THE EVENING, THE BELOVED UNCLE SPEAKS. He tells a tale that all around him have heard before. It is the story of a young man loose in the world. The boy wanders through the land and looks upon things with his own eyes, as he trusts little the words of others. He sees the glory of God, sees his creations as they go about their loves and hates, sees them make a confusion of that which could be so divine. He sees them struggle with the petty things that they believe to be their souls but that are not. This boy becomes a man, and he speaks to the people in words he hopes they’ll understand, but few do. These few are a blessing to him. He holds them as close as he can while beckoning to the others, to the mass of souls who will not listen, they who fuel the turmoil of the world. These tortured souls must be won over one at a time, sometimes with joy, other times through great suffering. For some, suffering is the only way.
The uncle takes a seat gingerly, for his wounds heal slowly. He looks around at those he calls family. They sit quietly. The father and the mother, the two sons whose faces so mirror each other, the foreigner who will stay awhile in these people’s quiet company: they all listen. Each is reverent in his own way, each saddened and joyful in his own way. The uncle sees a question unspoken on the eldest son’s lips. And he answers it.
Sometimes the trials the children face go beyond any their parents imagined, and yet it is not for them to reason with divinity. There are moments when even the angels of God must do battle. Did not Raphael do battle with Asmodeus? Did not Elijah smite the prophets of Baal? And was it not Michael, who sits at God’s right hand, who threw down Satan and his legions? He tells them that a battle won in the name of good, for protection of family and against the devil’s agents, is a blessed thing. Remember that the angel Uriel, who guarded the gates of Eden, stood with a fiery sword in his hand. No, the uncle says. There is no sin in this. Not even the angels live in peace. At least, not yet.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First, of course, I thank my wife, Gudrun, whose faith carried me through the lean days and pushed me into territory I would not have dared tread alone.
My mother, Joan Scurlock. You are the beginning of all my stories. Thank you for creating this kid and then letting him find his strange way in the world.
My agent, Sloan Harris. Thanks for stepping into the fray with such enthusiasm.
And a most heartfelt thanks to my editor, Deborah Cowell. You felt my writing from the early days, when few others did, and your patient efforts and faith have truly been a blessing.
I’d also like to thank everyone in the clans Johnston, Durham, and Scurlock. One way or another, pieces of you all live in everything I write.
This novel is a work of the imagination. All the characters and events and many of the central settings, such as Crownsville, McKutcheon’s Station, and the Three Bars Ranch, are completely fictional. While I’ve done my best to ensure the accuracy of all historical details, I also accept full responsibility for any errors. And although my landscapes may occasionally vary from those of geographical fact, they are certainly true to my intention to convey the diverse majesty that is the real American West.
DAVID ANTHONY DURHAM
GABRIEL’S STORY
David Anthony Durham was born in 1969 to parents of Caribbean ancestry. He won the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Fiction Award in 1992 and received an MFA from the University of Maryland in 1996. He has lived and traveled widely throughout America and Europe. Durham, along with his wife and daughter, now divides his time between the United States and Scotland.
For Gudrun and Maya
Copyright © 2001 by David Anthony Durham
Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Doubleday edition as follows:
Durham, David Anthony, 1969–
Gabriel’s story / by David Anthony Durham.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Afro-American families—Fiction. 2. Afro-American
cowboys—Fiction. 3. Young men—Fiction. 4. Kansas—Fiction.
I. Title.
PS3554.U677 G33 2001
813′.6—dc21
00-025291
www.anchorbooks.com
eISBN: 978-0-307-42598-0
v3.0
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