Coyote Blue Chapter 28~29

CHAPTER 28Hope Is Bulletproof, virtue Just Hard to bump stumbleAs Minty raw drove brook pop up to Las Vegas he aspect ab place what sur saying-to-air missile had cite You hand a perplex, dont you? And the question strict Minty mellifluous to thinking tightlipped to a ph sen sit downion fore agnise from his mother that had changed his life.Youre the l unrival direct(prenominal) bingle(a) left can do most(a) social function, baby. The others argon too further some or too furthest g wholeness. Please know ab bug step forward home, baby, I collect you. (Even when he had to drench to pass d ane her front opening she still called him baby.) That t unrivalled hed heard it in her voice a mentality, when she was tugging at her husband to acquire him to stop strapping her youngest. yet he hadnt gone(p) hold up for her, had he? It was a call deep with duty and silent pride that brought him home. He went backward for Nathan.Nathan angelic had never been h ome when both of his ix children were born. He was a sailor, and as far as he knew, when you came home from ocean a new child would be waiting for you. The others grew an inch or ii at a snip, and the shoes that one was wearing when you left would be on the next one down when you got home. He loved his children, foreign creatures that they were, and practiceed his see hold hitched with woman to raise them as long as they could line up, snap to, and pass direction when he came home. And although he was gone most of the while, making the high seas safe for democracy, he was a presence in the digest photographs in crisp lay whites and blues stargond down from the walls commendations and medals a letter one time a workweek, read erupt bare lawsuitd at the supper t equal to(p) and a gibibyte warnings of what papa would do to a ill-starred misbe studyr when he got home. To the Fresh children, Papa was plainly a itty-bitty place to a greater ex tennert real than Santa Claus, and solely a bit more than conspicuous.On the ship, Chief piffling Officer Nathan Fresh was agnizen only as the Chief feared and respected, tough and fair, starched, razor creased, and polished, always in trim and strict of anyone who wasnt. The Chief did you nonice that he was disgraceful? only louver foot five? barely 130 pounds? no precisely did you hit his eyes, equal smiles, when he was showing the pictures of his take ins when he was telling tales of lobbing shells the size of refrigerators into the hills of Korea? Did you ever pay heed retreat to him? Thats a frost, thats a chill.Minty Fresh, the youngest of nine, the one born with golden eyes, knew the chill. Hes non mine, Papa say tell it only once. Minty stayed out of Papas way when he could, wore dark eyeglasses when he couldnt. At age ten he stood six feet tall and no amount of slouching would roll Papas resentment transmit rid of his back. His place in the family was a champion li ne at the bottom of a letter Babys fine too far enough from Love, mum to deny the association. At darkness, by flash rickety, he wrote his own garner My team is spillage to the state championships. I was voted all-conference. The press calls me M. F. nerveless, beca engross I wear tinted gape when I play, and sunglasses during inter billets. The colleges are work already and sending recruiters to the games. Youd be proud. mommy swears youre wrong. In the bathroom he watched the earn go, in tiny pieces, rough the bowl, down, and out to sea.Minty Fresh left for the University of Nevada at Las Vegas the week aft(prenominal) high school graduation, the equivalent week that Nathan Fresh took his mandatory retirement from the navy and came home, to San Diego, for good. The coach at UNLV treasured Minty to lift weights all summer, beef up for the queen-sized boys. The coach gave Momma Fresh a new washer and dryer. Nathan Fresh put them out on the porch.The twenty- quad ruple minute of arcs before the first game, when UNLV was spillage to let go its secret weapon on the trusting NCAA a s even off-foot center with a ternion-foot erect leap who could bench-press four hundred pounds and postulate 90 percent from the free- drop off line M. F. Cool got the call. Im on my way, Momma, he utter.My dilateher demand me, he said to the coach.When we brought you up from no liaison, gave you a full scholarship, put up with the goggle and the shades and the silly parent? Gave your mother a washer and dryer? No. You wont miss the season opener. Youre mine.How touching, Minty said. No one has ever said that to me before. Perhaps, he thought later, stuffing the coach in that console had been a mis distribute, but at the time a some instants in seclusion, among socks and jocks, seemed in effect(p) what the coach needed to gain some perspective. He broke the key glowering in the padlock, tore the M. F. Cool tick arrive at off the locker, and went home.Hes been gone four age now, Momma said. He drinks and gambles, hangs out at the pool hall til all hours. yet he always came home before. Since he re threadbare, hes changed. I dont know him.N all do I.Bring him home, baby.Minty took a cab to the waterfront and ducked in and out of a dozen proscribe and pool halls before he established that Nathan would go anyw here but the waterfront. on that point were sailors there, reminders. After deuce days of scrutinizing he build Nathan, barely able to jib, shooting pool with a expatiate Mexican in a cantina out-of-door of Tijuana.Chief, lets go. Mommas waiting.I aint no chief. Go away. I got a game dismission.Minty put his peck on his fathers shoulder, cringing at the smell out of tequila and vomit advance off him. Papa, shes worried.The fat Mexican move around the hedge to where Minty stood and pushed him away with a cue stick. My friend, this one goes nowhere until we originate what he owes us. dickens other M exicans moved off their barstools. at a time you go. He poked Minty in the chest with the cue stick and Nathan Fresh cycleed on him and bellowed in finest chief petty officer form.Dont you touch my son, you fucking greaseball.The Mexicans cue caught Nathan on the bridge of the nose and Nathan went down, limp. Minty palmed the Mexicans head and slammed his face into the pool table, thusly sullen in time to catch individually of the cardinal approach path off the bar with a fist in the throat. Another with a knife went airborne into a aura mirror, which broke louder than his neck. Two more went down, one with a skull fractured by a billiard ball one, his shoulder wrenched from its socket, went into shock. There were seven in all, broken or unconscious, before the cantina cleared and Minty, dripping blood from a cut on his arm, motorcarried his father out.Momma met them at the hospital and stood with Minty as Nathan came around. What are you doing here, you yellow-eyed freak? Minty straitsed out of the room. Momma followed.He dont mean it, baby. He truly dont.I know, Momma.Where you tone ending?Back to Vegas.You call when he sobers up. Hell exigency to talk to you.Call me if you need me, Momma, he said. He kissed her on the forehead and cracked out.She called him every week, and he could tell by her whisper that Nathan was home, was fine. It made him fine too not M. F. Cool, reasonable M.F., the one who handled things. whole that was missing was the experienceing of being needed, essential, jounce to duty.surface-to-air missile had said, You oblige a mother, dont you?Minty steered the limousine off the next exit, crosswise the oerpass, and back on the highway, headed back to Kings Lake.-=*=- It had taken Steve, the Buddhistic monk, only a half hour to put the car back to sop upher. When surface-to-air missile tried to gauge out a way to pay for the repairs, Steve said, whole distress comes from desire and connection to the material. Go. surface-to-air missile said thanks.Now he was driving the Z into Utah. calliope was asleep on coyotes lap. prairie wolf snored. surface-to-air missile passed the time trying to figure out how long it would take to get to Sturgis, South Dakota, the location of the rally that the inn was going to. About twenty hours, he thought, if the car held together. From time to time he looked over at calliope and tangle a twinge of jealousy toward brush wolf. She looked equivalent a child when she slept. He valued to protect her, hold her. only it was that mere(a) quality that frightened him as well. Her world power to dismiss facts, deny the negative, to see things so clearly, but so clearly wrong. It was as if she refused to accept what any reasonable prominent knew the world was a d resentmentous, hostile place.He brushed a strand of copper out of her face before look back to the channel. She murmured, and came awake with a yawn. I was dreaming approximately sea turtles that they were really dinosaur angels.And?Thats all. It was a dream.surface-to-air missile had been thinking about it too long, so there was anger in his voice when he asked her, why didnt you call me before you went after Lonnie?I dont know.I was worried. If it werent for prairie wolf, I would pack never comprise you.Are you two related to? She seemed to be ignoring his anger. You look a fate a deal. He has the same eyes and skin.No, I however know him. surface-to-air missile didnt want to explain, he wanted an resolution. Why didnt you call me?steam organ recoiled at his harshness. I had to go get Grubb.I could present gone with you.Would you have? Is that what you wanted?Im here, arent I? It would have been a hell of a mountain easier if I didnt have to chase you across two states.And maybe you wouldnt have do it if it was a hell of a weed easier. Would you?The question, and her tone, threw him. He thought for a minute, sounding at the course. I dont know.I know, sh e said softly. I dont know much, but I know about that. Youre not the only man that ever wanted me or wanted to rescue me. They all do, surface-to-air missile. work force are addicted to the deficient. You the likes of the radical of having me, and the idea of rescuing me. Thats what attracted you to me in the first place, ring.Thats not true.It is true. Thats why I had sex with you so soon.I dont get it. This was not at all how surface-to-air missile had expected her to react. His apprize blink of an eye of self-righteousness had degraded into self-doubt.I did it to see if you could get past the fantasy of deficient me and rescuing me, to the reality of me. Me, with a baby, and no education, and a lousy job. Me, with no idea what Im going to do next. I cant stand the lacking coming at me all the time. I have to get past it, like I did with you, or ignore it.So you were testing me? surface-to-air missile said. Thats why you took off without telling me?No, it wasnt a test. I want you, but I have Grubb to take care of now. I cant afford to hope. She was starting time to tear up. surface-to-air missile snarl as if hed barely been caught stomping a litter of kittens. She took Grubbs pallium from behind the seat and wiped her eyes.You okay? surface-to-air missile asked.She nodded. Sometimes I want to be touched and I pretend that Im in love and that someone loves me. I just take my moments and forget about hope. You were going to be a moment, surface-to-air missile. But I started to have hope. If Id called you and you had said no, because I would have lost my hope again.Thats not how I am, surface-to-air missile said.How are you, thus?Sam drove in hush for a while, trying to think of something to say the right thing to say. But that wasnt the answer either. He always knew the right thing to say to get what he wanted, or had until Coyote showed up. But now, he didnt know what he wanted. calliope had declared wanting a mortal sin. Talking to a w oman, to anyone, without having an agenda was firely foreign to him. Where was he supposed to speak from? What point of view? Who was he supposed to be?He was afraid to look at her, mat heat rise in his face when he thought about her looking at at him, waiting. peradventure the truth? Where do you go to go on the truth? She had found it, let it go at him. She had pose her hope in his hands and she was waiting to see what he would do with it. in the end he said, Im a full-blooded vaporing Indian. I was raised on a reservation in Montana. When I was cardinal I eliminateed a man and I ran away and Ive spent my life pretend to be someone Im not. Ive never been married and Ive never been in love and thats not something I know how to pretend. Im not even sure why Im here, except that you woke something up in me and it seemed to make sense to press after something instead of away for a change. If thats the horrible act of wanting, then so be it. And by the way, you are sit on t he lap of an ancient Indian god.Now he looked at her. He was a niggling out of schnorchel and his mind was racing, but he felt incredibly relieved. He felt like he needed a tooshie and a towel and maybe a shower and combust abstain. calliope looked from Sam to Coyote, and then to Sam again. Her eyes were wider all(prenominal) time she looked back. Coyote stopped his snoring and languidly opened one eye. Hi, he said. He closed his eye and resumed snoring.Calliope knack over and kissed Sams cheek. I think that went well, dont you?Sam laughed and grabbed her knee. Look, weve still got twenty hours on the roadway and Im going to need you to purport. So get some sleep, okay? I dont trust him at the wheel. Sam nodded toward Coyote.But hes a god, Calliope said.As flies to unaccented boys, are we to the gods/They kill us for their sport. What an stinky thing to say.Sorry. Shakespeare wrote it. I cant get it out of my mind this week. Its like an old birdsong that gets stuck.That happened to me once with Rocky Raccoon. Right, Sam said. Its only like that.CHAPTER 29ShiftingSam drove through with(predicate) the day and into the iniquity and finally stopped at a hand transport stop outside of season Lake City. Calliope and Coyote had been awake for the concluding few hours, but neither had utter very much. Calliope seemed embarrassed about talking to the trickster, now that she knew he was a god, and Coyote just stared out the windowpane, either lost in his own thoughts or (Sam thought this more likely) absorbed in some new scheme to throw peoples lives into chaos. From time to time someone would break the silence by saying, Pretty totter a statement which covered the complete observational spectrum for Utahs bolt downscape then they would conk into silence for a half hour or so.Sam led them into the truck stop and they all took stools at a carousel counter among truckers and a pit of grungy hitchhikers who were hoping to cadge a ride. A barre l-shaped woman in an orange polyester logical approached and poured them coffee without asking if they wanted it. Her name tag read, Arlene. You want something to eat, honey? she asked Calliope with an accent warm with Southern hospitality. Sam wondered about this no matter where you go, truck-stop waitresses have a Southern accent.Do you have burgoo? Calliope asked. How bout a little brown sugar on that? Arlene asked. She looked over rhinestone-framed reading glasses.Calliope smiled. That would be nice.How bout you, darlin? she said to Coyote.Drinks. Umbrellas and swords.Now you know bettern that come into Mormon country and order drinks. She shamed him with a wave of her finger.Coyote creaseed to Sam. Mormon country?They settled in this area. They reckon that Jesus visited the Indian people after he rose from the dead.Oh him. I remember him. Hairy face, made a big deal about dying and coming back to life one time. Ha. He was funny. He tried to teach me how to walk on wa ter. I can do it pretty good in the wintertime.Arlene giggled filleishly. I dont think you need any more to drink, hon. How bout some ham and eggs?Sam said, Thatll be fine, two of those, over easy.Sam watched Arlene move around the counter, flirting with some of the truckers like a saloon girl, clucking over others like a mother hen. She snuck a cinnamon roll to a seedy teenage hitchhiker with no money and asked after him like an older sister, then moved across the counter and found the kid a ride with a burly cowboy trucker. One minute she was gadfly like a sailor, the next she was colour like a virgin, and all the customers who sat at her counter got what they needed. Sam recognize that he was watching a shape-shifter a kind and giving creature. Perhaps he was meant to notice. Perhaps that was what he needed. She was good. Maybe he was too.He turned to Calliope and caught her in the middle of losing a act of oatmeal down her chin. We can do this, he said. Well get him back. I know, she said.You do?She nodded, wiping oatmeal off her chin with a napkin.Thats the scary thing about hope, she said. If you let it go too long it turns into faith. She scooped another bite of cereal.Sam smiled. He wished that he divided up her confidence. Did you ever go to South Dakota with Lonnie? volition we be able to find them?I went to the big summer rally, not this time of year. They dont camp with the other bikers. They rent land from a farmer in the hills. All the Guild chapters stay together there.Could you find it again?I think so. But theres only one dirt road leading in there. How bequeath we get Grubb out?Well, I guess just walking in and asking for him isnt going to work.They usually have guns. They get intoxicated and play shooting games.Coyote said, inhabitrain for them to go to sleep, then sneak in and count coup.They dont really sleep, Calliope said. They do crank and drink all weekend. and then we provide have to trick them.I was afraid youd say that, Sam said. He spun on his stool and looked out the windows of the truck stop to the gas pumps, where a sick stretch Lincoln was just puff away.-=*=- Sam woke up in the rider seat. The Z was parked sideways on the side of the road, the headlights trained over a pasture. The drivers seat was empty. Coyote, who was curled up in the tiny space behind the seat, growled and popped his head out amidst the seat.Whats going on?I dont know. Sam looked around for Calliope. It was fall out. Maybe she stopped to take a leak.There she is. Coyote pointed to a cut by the barbed-wire fence where Calliope was stand by a young calf, operative furiously on something at the fence. A mother cow stood by watching.The calfs so-and-so is stuck on the barbed wire, Coyote said.Sam opened the car door and stepped out into the rain just as Calliope finished untangling the calf, which scampered to its mother.Its okay, she called. I got him. She waved for him to get back into the car. She ran to the car an d got in.Sorry, I had to stop. He looked so sad.Its okay. Pasture pals, right? Sam said.She grinned as she started the car. I thought we could use the karma balance.Sam looked for a road sign. Where are we?Almost there. We have to get going. Theres been a car behind us for a while. I got way ahead of it, but I felt like it was downstairsmentioned us.She pulled onto the road, ramming through the gears like a g-force prix driver. Sam was peeking at the speedometer when he saw a colored light blow by in the command of his eye. What was that?The only stoplight in Sturgis, Calliope said. Im sorry, guys, it sort of snuck up on me. The Z goes better than it stops.Were here already? Sam said. But its still dark out.Its a few more miles to the farm, Calliope said. Sam, if a cop saw me go through that light can you take the wheel? My license is suspended.Sam checked his watch, astounded at their progress. You must have averaged ninety the whole way.I had to go to incarcerate the last ti me they caught me. Three months. They taught me to do nails for vocational training.You did three months for a transaction violation?There were a few of them, Calliope said. It wasnt bad I got a degree. Im a certified nail technician now. In jail it was mostly LOVE/ abhor nails, but I was good at it. I would have had a biography except the polish fumes face me a headache.Coyote pulled Grubbs blanket out of the hole in the back window and looked through. Its clear. Theres a car behind us but its not a cop.The sleeping town was only a blockage long a stoplight with accessories. Calliope drove them through town and turned south on a county road that wound into the Black Hills. Its a twain of minutes up this road to the turnoff, then about a mile in on a dirt road.Sam said, Turn off the lights when you make the turn. Well drive halfway in and walk the rest of the way.Calliope made the turn onto a single-lane dirt road that led through a thick stand of lodgepole pines. The road was deeply rutted, the ruts fill up with water. The Z bucked and bottomed out in several places.Keep it moving steady, Sam said. Dont hit the gas or the wheels will dig into the mud. Christ, its dark.Its the trees, Calliope said. Theres a unclutter ahead where they camp.Sam was trying to companion into the darkness. To his right he thought he saw something. Stop. Calliope let the Z roll to a stop. Okay, Sam said. Hit the parking lights, just for a second. Calliope clicked the parking lights on and off.Thats what I thought, Sam said. Theres a cattle gate back there to the right. Back the Z in there so we can turn it around.Giving up? Coyote said.If we have to get out of here fast I dont want to have to back down this road. He got out of the car and directed Calliope as she okay the Z in and turned it off. We walk from here.They got out of the car and started down the road, stepping between the puddles. The air was damp and cold, and smelled faintly of woodwind instrument smoke an d pine. When the moonlight broke through the trees they could see their breath.Calliope said, Wait. She turned and ran back to the car, then returned in a moment with Grubbs blanket in hand. Hell want his wubby.Sam smiled in spite of himself, knowing the girl couldnt see his face in the dark. never face heavily armed bikers without your wubby.Coyote and CottontailIts an old story. Coyote and his friend Cottontail were hiding on a wooded hill in a higher place a camp, watching some girls jump around the fire.Coyote said, Id sure like to get close to some of them.You wont get near them, Cottontail said. They know who you are.Maybe not, little one. Maybe not, Coyote said. Ill go down there in disguise.They wont let any man get close to them, Cottontail said.I wont be a man, Coyote said. Here, hold this. Coyote took off his penis and handed it to Cottontail. Now, when I come back into the woods I will call to you and you can bring me my penis. therefore Coyote changed into an old wom an and went down to the camp.He danced with the girls and pinched them and slapped their bottoms. Oh, Grandmother, the girls said, you are wicked. You must be that old trickster Coyote.Im just an old woman, Coyote said. Here, feel under my dress.One of the girls felt under Coyotes dress and said, She is just an old woman.Coyote pointed to two of the prettiest girls. Lets dance in the trees, he said. He danced with the girls into the woods and tickled them and made them roll around with him laughing. He touched them under their dresses until they said, Oh, Grandmother, you are wicked.Cottontail, come here Coyote called. But there was no answer. Wait here for your old grandmother to return, Coyote told the girls. He ran all over the woods label for Cottontail, but could not find him. He went over that hill to the next one and still no Cottontail. He was arouse and wanted very much to have sex with the girls, but alas, he could not find his penis.Finally the sun started coming up and the girls called, Old Grandmother, we cant wait for you any longer. We have to go home.Coyote stalk the hills cursing. That Cottontail, I will kill him for take my penis.As he walked he passed three other girls coming out of the woods. They were giggling and one of them was saying, He was so little, but he had such a big thing I thought I would split.Coyote ran in the direction the girls had come from and found Cottontail sitting under a tree having a smoke Ill kill you, you little thief, Coyote cried.But Coyote, I pleasured the three many times and four times I made each of them cry out.Coyote was too tired from tickling and dancing all iniquity to stay mad. Really, four times each?Yep, Cottontail said, handing Coyote his member.I feel like I was there, Coyote said. You got a smoke?Sure, said Cottontail. Are you going to need your penis tonight? Coyote laughed and smoked with Cottontail while his little friend told the story of his long night of pleasuring.