All Through the Night by Davis Bunn

Author:Davis Bunn [Bunn, Davis]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Publisher
Published: 2008-07-14T21:00:00+00:00

Wayne left the church alone. Victoria and Julio remained seated in the pew. Julio looked miserable, but something in the way he sat hunched slightly toward the old woman gave Wayne the impression Julio did not want to leave just yet. Wayne exchanged greetings with a number of people, then felt eyes on him. He scouted around until he spotted Holly Reeves watching him. The community director’s expression matched the rain and the grim sky.

The wind had picked up while he was inside. Wayne took the umbrella from an old man’s hands and did his best to shelter the couple, she on the walker and he not much steadier on his pins. Wayne liked how they thanked him quietly and just let him go. Not that he was being taken for granted. Rather, like he was a part of their community. He was a friend. Of course he helped where he could.

When he returned back down the lane he saw Julio holding the umbrella as Victoria used the rail and the doorjamb to climb her own front steps. Julio nodded at something she said and headed back to the center. Wayne followed behind him. Julio used his umbrella to shelter Harry and his wife. Wayne took aim at a pair of ladies, one in a wheelchair and the other on two canes, both of them in dime-store ponchos. He knew they had stood there waiting for him, hoping without saying anything that he would come back again. Holly was at her desk but with the office door open. She watched him come and go that second time without speaking or nodding.

The ladies lived at the community’s far corner. He refused their offer of coffee and a towel, and started back to find Julio waiting for him. The kid held the umbrella shut on one shoulder, ignoring the rain. Wayne agreed. Trying to keep the old people dry had left him too drenched to care.

Julio fell into step beside him but did not speak. Their footsteps squished across the puddles. The rain whooshed through the palms and the live oaks, rustling branches and granting them a stormy isolation. Where the lane ran between the cottages fronting the water and the bay, Julio said, “No temer. You know what that means?”

“No fear.”

“I hear that all the time. Like, you want to be respected, you gotta be hard. Never show no fear. Not to nobody. But inside …”

“Every time I saw action,” Wayne said to the wind and the rain, “I was scared. Sick to my guts scared.”

Julio walked with his head so far forward his dripping hair hid his face. “That old lady, she don’t weigh nothing. You know? She’s so tiny, I could throw her through the wall with one hand. But she ain’t scared of nothing, man. I tell her something, and all she does is …” Julio lifted thick hands and shrugged.

“She’s been through some dark times,” Wayne agreed. “She knows what it can be like.”

“No man, it’s more. A lot more.

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