Borrowed Hearts by Rick DeMarinis

Author:Rick DeMarinis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: stories, contemporary, short story collections, literary fiction, short story, Literary, shorts, short story collection, contemporary fiction, fantasy books, Fantasy, relationship books, relationships, family, family life, Romance, 20th Century, Scottish, war, 21st century, marriage books, marriage, collection, english, american literature, canadian literature, Short fiction, book club recommendations, book club, drama, venice, irish literature, coming of age, satire, Anthologies, american fiction, novellas, canadian fiction
ISBN: 9781609801779
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2017-12-09T18:00:00+00:00

3

As we head south toward Douglas and Agua Prieta, I am thinking of the strange girl who lives across the street from Sada. She is sixteen and suffering the pain of boredom and the deeper pain of her own oddness, which will isolate her more than geography ever could. Joyce and Rocky found her lying in the middle of the street, her hair chopped close to her scalp, as if by a hunting knife. Thunderclouds sat on the Dragoons. Joyce thought at first that the girl had been run over, but she was only waiting. I am waiting for something to happen to me, is what she said. Joyce and Rocky left her there, spread-eagled in the road, as the tall clouds moved closer and God’s original voice began to rumble with its old no-nonsense authority. Red-tailed hawks lofty as archangels swept down out of the dark sky, choosing among opportunities. Joyce and Rocky decided: Maybe the odd girl was right and was playing her aces now, while she still had them. Maybe we are all waiting for something to happen to us—death or life— but for the girl lying in the street the issue was unclouded by career, marriage, property, and all the other trump cards that must be deferred to before we can clear the slate and move on.

Hart’s Blazer pitches and yaws over a rough highway that will take us into the mountains. We have turned onto a narrow, shoulderless road that cuts west into the southern foothills of the Dragoons as we head now for Bisbee instead of Douglas and Agua Prieta. “I’ve always wanted to see the Lavender Pit,” Hart says.

Traveling by whim is touring at its best.

The old houses of Bisbee cling to the sides of the mountains, prayerfully as exhausted climbers. And the streets, angled like derailed trains, work their way up to the highest ledge of dwellings. We walk these steep streets, finding level ground in a doorway now and then to catch our breath. Hart’s been taking painkillers and tends to stagger against the unexpectedly oblique tugs of gravity that have made the older buildings lean into each other like amiable drunks. He stops now and then to photograph the odd geometry of a ruined hotel, the grit-pocked face of an old miner, the bands of Japanese tourists who photograph everything in their path as if making a visual record of what will one day be all theirs. The four of us often agree that World War Two is still being fought, that the atomic bombings of Japan merely forced a change in weaponry. After Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the tide turned, and now Japanese samurai in three-piece suits, portfolios in hand, are succeeding where Tojo’s fanatic armies failed. Choice Hawaiian beachfront and Rockefeller Center are theirs, the great evergreen forests of Oregon are theirs, and lately, giant cattle ranches in Montana. “I could settle down here,” Rocky says. “In one of those shacks on the side of the mountain. This place is like Butte, without Butte’s winters.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.