Go With Me by Castle Freeman Jr

Author:Castle Freeman Jr. [Freeman, Castle Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Contemporary, Suspense, Adult, Thriller
ISBN: 9781586421397
Goodreads: 2144121
Publisher: Steerforth
Published: 2008-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

10

A MUSEUM OF WHAT?

D.B. shook his head. “Les ain’t crazy,” he said.

“He just spent a little too much time working too far out in the woods, it looks like,” said Coop.

“Got hit by one too many falling trees,” said D.B.

“Like me,” said Whizzer.

“You said it,” said Coop, “not me.”

“But I ain’t crazy,” said Whizzer.

“You said it,” said D.B., “not me.”

“No,” said Whizzer, “but yes: Les put in his time out there. He worked for Fitz’s dad — hell, he might have worked for his granddad. Les worked in the woods when they had horses.”

“He doesn’t look that old,” said Conrad. “How old is he?”

“Older than me,” said Whizzer.

“Nobody’s older than you,” said Coop.

“I remember Les as a kid,” Whizzer said. “When we were kids. He used to hang around Lucas’s shop, help with the shoeing.”

“Lucas’s shop?” asked Conrad.

“Lucas’s,” said Coop. “Blacksmith shop. Used to be just this side of the bridge, on the right, there.”

“Place that’s an antiques shop now,” said Whizzer. “The Forge.”

“Oh, that place,” said Conrad. “You know, that’s another thing.”

“What is?” asked D.B.

“Les helped around the shop,” Whizzer went on. “Some people said he lived there, at Lucas’s, upstairs or in the coal shed, there.”

“What’s another thing?” D.B. asked Conrad.

“Wait,” said Conrad.

“Les didn’t really have anyplace to go, he didn’t have a home, it didn’t look like,” said Whizzer.“He just kind of turned up one day, only a kid. Slept at Lucas’s, slept wherever he could. Slept here, probably.”

“Kind of a Huck Finn,” said Conrad.

“Kind of,” said Whizzer.

“Who?” asked D.B.

“Who?” asked Coop.

“He had no family?” Conrad asked Whizzer.

“If he did,” Whizzer said, “nobody knew who they were. He hung around, did one thing and another.”

“He was a kid,” said Conrad. “Didn’t he go to school?”

“It don’t seem like he did,” said Whizzer. “Who was going to send him? But he knew something about horses, and by and by he went to work in the woods.”

“What’s another thing?” D.B. asked Conrad.

“Well,” said Conrad, “how everything around here used to be something else. Like the antiques shop was a blacksmith’s. Our house? Our house was a schoolhouse, Betsy says.”

“That’s right,” said Whizzer. “That’s right, it was.”

“So what?” asked D.B.

“Well,” said Conrad. “It strikes me, that’s all. Everything’s switched around. The blacksmith’s an antiques shop, the school’s somebody’s house . . .”

“That place on the way to the Fort,” said Coop. “That basket store. That was — what?”

“Dr. Osgood’s office, when I was a kid,” said Whizzer.

“The Fort itself, come to that,” said Coop. “The Fort used to be a garage, go back far enough.”

“It did,” said Whizzer.

“But so what?” asked D.B.

“Well,” said Conrad, “it’s this change you’ve got going here. Nothing’s what it started out as. Everything’s changed around. You know? You’ve got this — I don’t know. This flux.”

“You better watch your mouth, there, young fellow,” said Coop. “You’re starting to sound like What’s-her-name.”

“Except for here,” said Whizzer.

“That’s right,” said D.B. “This place has been here — how long?”

“Long time,” said Whizzer.

“A long time, and always the same,” said D.

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