by Lee Gowan
COWBOY (cont’d)
All right. How far do you want me to go?
He looks back at the camera.
AI (off shot)
All the way. Right into the sky.
The cowboy nods knowingly, a smirk on his face.
COWBOY
Uh-huh. That’s a long ways.
AI (off shot)
A long walk.
The cowboy keeps nodding, giving the camera a deep and serious stare, then drops his cigarette and grinds it out with his boot.
COWBOY
All right.
The cowboy laces his fingers and stretches his arms out as far as he can to crack his knuckles, then tips his hat.
COWBOY (cont’d)
Toodle-oo.
He begins to walk away. He walks five yards, ten yards, fifteen yards, never looking back.
AI (off shot)
Goodbye.
The cowboy ambles into the sunset for what seems like forever, getting smaller and smaller and smaller, the sky changing colours, changing textures, the clouds drifting and changing shape, the world growing darker, growing deeper, growing older, until the cowboy is only a dot, and then even the dot disappears.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to acknowledge the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council.
Thanks, also, to my editors, Diane Martin and Angelika Glover, and my agent, Hilary McMahon.
A special thanks to Elizabeth Mulley for her valuable advice, to Su Rynard for her reassurances, and to Ai Tsuzuki for her wonderful name.
LEE GOWAN grew up on a farm near Swift Current, Saskatchewan. He is the author of Going to Cuba, a collection of short stories, and of Make Believe Love, a novel that was nominated for the Trillium Award. His first screenplay, Paris or Somewhere, won three screenwriting awards and was nominated for a Gemini. He currently directs the creative writing program at the Scool of Continuing Studies, University of Toronto. He lives in Toronto with his wife and their young son.
VINTAGE CANADA EDITION, 2005
Copyright © 2004 Lee Gowan
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
Published in Canada by Vintage Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in Canada by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto, in 2004. Distributed by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Vintage Canada and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House of Canada Limited.
www.randomhouse.ca
National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Gowan, Lee, 1961–
The last cowboy / Lee Gowan.
eISBN: 978-0-307-36932-1
I. Title.
PS8563.O882L38 2005 C813.′54 C2004-902646-1
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