Later that month, on a cool night with the sky black and the stars bright, I moved away from Uncle Chester’s. The work on the house was completed, except for painting, and Leonard decided to live there at least until spring. At that time, I was supposed to move back and help paint the place, then he’d put it up for sale.
But for me, for now, I wanted away from there and the remains of the drug house next door, MeMaw’s house, the woods out back, and the Hampstead place. I felt it all closing in on me at night, as if the houses, the remains of the drug house, were living things that could reach out and touch me.
I suppose, believing that way in some primitive part of my mind, I should have believed Uncle Chester’s bottle tree could protect me, but it had become easier to believe the evil than the good.
Me and Leonard had a big dinner that night, and after dinner I shook hands with him, put my stuff in the back of the pickup, and we stood around outside and listened to the wind in the bottle tree. It was a cool wind. It was an agreeable night.
“You be true, Hap.”
“Don’t be surprised you don’t hear from me for a week,” I said.
“All right.”
“Don’t be surprised you hear from me tomorrow.”
He smiled at me. “Drive careful, man.”
I hugged him and drove away from there, started home, but didn’t make it. I went out Highway 7 instead. I drove on out to the scenic overlook and went up there and parked. I got out and lay on the hood of the truck with my back to the windshield and looked at the sky. It was a beautiful night and the stars were as clear and bright as a young girl’s eyes. Beautiful like that time Florida and I had come up here. It was hard remembering exactly who I had been then. I felt older now and the world seemed sadder, and it was as if everything I had ever learned was ultimately pointless. When I had lain here with Florida beside me that night, not so long ago – but in another way, a million years past – she told me we could see Forever. And we could. But Forever then was a wonderful place, full of mystery and hope and eternity.
Tonight, I could still see Forever, but Forever was nothing to see.
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Document creation date: 18.05.2011
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Mucho Mojo cap-2 Page 25