Gone Fishin' by Walter Mosley

Author:Walter Mosley [Mosley, Walter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Literary, Mystery & Detective
ISBN: 9780743451758
Google: mUoBfC4z_sMC
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2002-09-16T16:00:00+00:00

Pariah looked wilder than the woods. It was a crooked town, not more than two blocks of unpaved red day street and all there was to it was the one street. The north side of town was at least eight feet higher ground than the south side. Crossing the rutted and eroded road between them was more like going up or down hill. All the buildings were made from the same weathered wood and only one of them got to three floors.

There were no telephone wires or cars or any sign at all that we were in the modern age. If people were out in front of a building, on the raised wooden platform they had for sidewalk, and they were sitting in a chair - well, it was a homemade chair, something somebody threw together one morning before breakfast and then they sat in it for the next thirty years.

But there weren’t too many people outside. A couple of women carrying large baskets on their heads and one lone buggy drawn by a spotted mare. The buggy was at such an angle on that slanted road that I expected to see it turn over at any minute. But it didn’t, of course, it’s only cars that need flat pavement.

All the buildings looked more or less the same. You could tell them apart though, by the signs. The church had two white crosses on the front doors and the barbershop had a red-and-white-striped candy cane painted on the wall. The general store, which was also the bar, had a wooden Indian out front.

‘Here we go,’ Dom said when we got to the wooden Indian. ‘Miss Alexander’s general store and music bar.’

It was a country store. Canned goods along the walls and fresh food on a counter at the back. There was one rack for dresses and men’s jackets and a table full of shirts, socks, and shoes. Three men were playing cards and drinking at a table in the centre of the room. It was a big room and, for the most part, empty.

‘Hi, Dom,’ one of the cardplayers said.

‘Afternoon, Domaque,’ hailed a big woman from behind the counter.

‘Miss Alexander!’ Dom yelled. ‘This here is Easy, friend’a Raymond.’

‘Well…’ She smiled and showed us a mouth full of gold-rimmed teeth. ‘I’ve heard a lot about you, baby.’ She smiled again, turning her profile on us. ‘Raymond think the sun rise and set on you.’

‘But he still don’t come out till night,’ I said.

That big, colorful, woman let out a laugh so loud that it almost knocked me over. She was wearing a bright white dress with giant blue flowers embroidered on it, a dress like the Mexicans wear to Carnival.

‘He said that you was all taciturn ‘cause you was sick but he didn’t say that you was funny too.’

She had large eyes that followed everything happening in the room. If somebody raised their voice at the card table she was taking it in. If someone walked in the door her eyes said hello to them but the whole time she was talking to me and Dom.

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