Cry at Dusk by Lester Dent

Author:Lester Dent [Dent, Lester]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781784084226
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Published: 2012-11-26T21:33:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“SO YOU PAID THE city a visit.” Uncle Walter had become only a little less white than his Sunday shirt. “How was it?”

“No good,” I said.

“Did you go to the Flats?”

“Yes.”

“See any old friends?”

“I saw a girl I used to know.”

“See the one you went to see?”

“I suppose so. Yes.”

“I hope you done all right,” Uncle Walter said. “If you went that far, I hope you made out.”

“I don’t know,” I said. “I didn’t sleep with her. That’s what I went to the city for, you’re right about that.”

“It sounds confused to me,” Uncle Walter said.

“I think maybe what I got was better.”

“If you think what you got was better, I think you really are confused,” said Uncle Walter. “But it’s your world and you’re living in it.”

“I’m satisfied.”

“A bird in the hand, you know,” Uncle Walter said. “But O.K.”

“I doubt I’ll be going back,” I said.

Uncle Walter’s voice lost a bit of its naturalness and he said, “You hear anything of that Pedro Tamus?”

“Pedro Tamus?” I said. “Why, heck, no. Why should I?”

“Kid, this guy Pedro Tamus would have been to all your friends trying to find out if any of them had heard from you,” Uncle Walter said.

“Well, I thought of that. I kept my mouth shut.”

“Did you tell anybody where we’re living?”

“No.”

“Could they have followed you here?”

“I don’t think so, Uncle Walter. I don’t know. If they were lucky, they might pick up my trail. Who can be sure?”

“God bless us. I hope they don’t,” Uncle Walter said grimly.

“Uncle Walter, why does this guy want you so badly?”

“It’s not me he wants. It’s you.” Uncle Walter said. He had let that slip. He hadn’t intended to say that.

“Me!” I blurted.

He winced and sank down on the bed. “My flapping tongue! No, that’s wrong, Johnny.” He half turned and struck the bedclothes a terrific blow with his fist. “You get me upset, goddamn it, and I say something I don’t intend to say!”

“Uncle Walter, you’ve got to stop holding out on me. You know that, don’t you? Someday you’ve got to tell me what’s going on.”

“Nothing is going on.”

“That Pedro Tamus has been chasing you for years. The hell nothing is going on! I’m a big boy now. Let’s have it!”

“You shut up!” Uncle Walter jumped to his feet, shoved his face close to mine, and yelled, “Your old man, that no-good bastard, is the one responsible for this! I’m damned if I’m going to let you get mixed up in it. So you shut up and stop asking questions!”

It was here I think that the greatest change in my feelings about Uncle Walter occurred and it was one of the great changes of my life. Uncle Walter was a bullheaded and lecherous man and no asset to my environment and I was angry with him for refusing to tell me what was giving us all this trouble. But now, looking at him, hearing him refuse to talk, I had something new and good added to my existence.

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