Julius Winsome: A Novel by Gerard Donovan

Author:Gerard Donovan [Donovan, Gerard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Psychological, Death, Psychological Fiction, Grief, Hunters, Revenge, General, Literary, Pets - Death, Pets, Fiction
Publisher: Overlook Hardcover
Published: 2006-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

HE STEPPED ASIDE AFTER I PULLED UP AND THE BRAKES

squealed in the thin air, appeared to be someone ill at ease in himself or annoyed in general: even his skin looked like a large raincoat thrown hastily across him.

The evidence suggested he did not Like doing this, being here, and his voice rang on the sharp side of friendly:

You haven’t seen anything up there, have you?

I fingered the key, and as the engine died the

silence crowded around my first words to him:

Seen what then?

I wrapped my forearms around the steering wheel

and leaned down to the window at the same time as he leaned in. His face was a cloud of breath.

Shots, suspicious activity, he said. A few miles around you up there. Anything?

I said, Plenty of hunters wandering about, so you get the shots coming across the woods.

He nodded when I said that, as if he had expected an answer such as I gave.

But nothing else, I said, apart from the winter

coming in general. It’s mostly quiet.

His hand still rested on the holster, though he

made a show of draping the fingers over his belt in a relaxed manner. I did not know specifically what he was looking for because I had no television and no way of knowing what they knew and if any of what they knew had pointed them here.

Is that right, he said. He was chewing something, gum most likely, and his eyes covered the truck cabin Like a sheet blowing this way and that on a line. I waited for him to finish. He had probably spent twenty

minutes and more standing before I appeared on the horizon and he wanted to make some conversation out of it, seeing as the next driver might still be a town away. Nevertheless I decided that my best words at this point should be stuffed with plenty of nothing else to say between them.

Can you contact us if you hear anything out of

the ordinary? We’ve had reports.

I will.

He looked up and saw me watching him.

And you have a book, he said.

I looked down to the sonnets on my lap, the list of Shakespeare words folded inside.

In case I have a few minutes in the cafe between errands, I said.

What’s it about, he said.

It’s a book of sonnets. Poetry that is.

He pursed his mouth. What’s your favorite poem

then?

At that second the wind blew in a burst of snow, a few flakes, and dusted the seat with them. His question was thoughtful and not one that could be

answered lightly, even if the circumstances, as they did now, required it, since people who ask questions for a living or out of habit take offense when those questions are left unanswered.

I Like them all, it depends.

On what?

On what the day brings.

I decided it was time to go or for him to ask me to get out of the truck. I turned the key and the engine ran. He glanced at the seat again and coughed.

It occurred to me that he might ask to search the car and would find the Enfield and sight I’d hidden behind the seat.

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