Handling Sin by Malone Michael

Author:Malone, Michael [Malone, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Humour, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781402239335
Google: wzWGleCfG9AC
Amazon: 1402239335
Barnesnoble: 1402239335
Goodreads: 332376
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 1986-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Our Hero Succumbs to a Faded Beauty

DESPITE HIS SAVAGE HEADACHE and his dismay at being licked awake by a moil of bassett hounds, including the one called “Jumbo,” Raleigh Hayes determined to press on to Charleston this Monday morning to look for Jubal Rogers. Frankly, he was relieved that Gates did not care to accompany him, after he learned that Cupid Calhoun lived in Charleston (which was where Gates had first met the young mobster, had first—fraudulently—traced his paternal lineage back to Senator John C. Calhoun the secessionist and then sold him Varina Davis’s Inaugural opals). Gates also wanted to help Sara Zane, who was closing his mother’s house, to sort out those leftovers that even the sparest lives leave behind. And, although he didn’t tell Raleigh, he also wanted to persuade Payne Wetherell that he (Payne) had always wanted to invest in the motion picture industry. As Raleigh had to come back by Midway anyhow, in order to drive to New Orleans, and as Gates swore that he was “sticking” until they found “the old man,” Raleigh decided “to keep the faith” as his brother requested, while reserving the doubts of the past. “I promise I’ll keep my promise. Just like you always taught me,” Gates grinned, with a wink of his long-lashed hooded blue eyes, as he stuffed into his leather bag $435 to relieve filmmakers in Eastern Europe.

“You are beyond doubt…” Raleigh gave up.

“Mais, oui, mon frère,” laughed Gates.

“I want you to know that last night was one of the most mortifying experiences of my entire life.”

“Really? Sorry, Raleigh. I honestly thought you were having fun.” Why in God’s name did everyone keep accusing him of having fun?

Frankly, Hayes was even relieved (if surprised) to learn that Mingo Sheffield was also planning to stay another day at “Wild Oaks,” then to take the Trailways bus to Charleston on Tuesday. He’d promised Lady Bug to go fabric shopping with her in order to make a dent in those eight empty rooms and he’d promised to take a jeep ride with Crystal, and, besides, he’d never had very many chances to travel on a long-distance bus and wanted to add that experience to his Life on the Road. And, besides, he was too hung-over to get out of his quilted bed, where he now wallowed, still in his tuxedo, with a bag of ice over his fat face.

Raleigh counseled him seriously. “Mingo, you can’t keep up this charade. You’re going to get yourself exposed and humiliated. You don’t know a, excuse me, but goddamn thing about designing movie sets.”

Sheffield groaned, “Oh, why do you always have to be so critical? I know everything about the movies. I’ve seen just about every movie ever made about a dozen times.”

“Seeing is not making.” Raleigh delivered this aphorism while neatly folding the formal wear Mrs. Wetherell had rented for him. “I absolutely cannot even fathom where you found the unmitigated nerve to go around last night telling all those people you designed the costumes for The Sound of Music.

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