Justice by Larry Watson

Author:Larry Watson [Watson, Larry]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Milkweed Editions
Published: 2011-07-21T22:00:00+00:00

The church was on the west side of town, and they were traveling east, so they had to drive right through Bentrock. As they left town, heading east toward Williston, they came to a narrow bridge over the Knife River. The river was not wide or deep, but cottonwoods grew thickly along and up the bank, so it seemed, as they approached the bridge, that they were about to enter a tunnel. Here, just before the bridge’s planks, Enid’s father stood. When she saw him she wanted to weep. He was wearing a dark suit, and he never wore a suit. He had dressed for her wedding.

She tugged on Julian’s sleeve. “Don’t stop,” she said. “You don’t have to stop.”

“That’s him?” Julian asked.

“Yes,” she answered.

Julian began to rein in the horses, and Mr. Garling took that opportunity to step into the road.

Julian pulled back hard on the reins. “Mister,” he said to Enid’s father, “that’s how my own father got himself killed. Stepped right into a horse’s path.”

Mr. Garling stepped to the side and loosely gripped the harness trace. “Oh, not these animals. They don’t want to muddy their feet on the likes of me.”

“Go,” Enid whispered to her husband. “Just go.”

“We’ve got a ways to travel,” Julian said to Mr. Garling.

Her father said, “Enid, are you going to introduce me to the gentleman there by your side?”

She turned her head so she was speaking into the coarse weave of Julian’s suit coat. “This is my father.”

“And I take it,” Mr. Garling said, “that this dashing gentleman is the groom.”

“Julian Hayden,” Enid’s husband said.

“I’m familiar with the name. That’s a name people speak with respect.”

“Now it’s her name too,” Julian said.

Her father kept his hand on the trace and walked toward the buggy. “You’re traveling east.”

“That’s right.”

“I thought you might be taking her back to North Dakota. Back to Wild Rose. I thought your conscience might have gotten the better of you.”

Julian didn’t say anything.

“I thought you might be bringing her back to her mama and her papa. Seeing as how we have not blessed this union. A man who marries a little girl away from her folks like that—well, sooner or later his conscience is bound to bother him.”

As her father spoke, Enid could feel his power increasing. It was as if he were casting a spell, enchanting them, and while it was happening they couldn’t stop him. And when he was finished, it would be too late. As it was for her already—she knew she should say something to refute what her father said, but if she opened her mouth no words would come out.

Julian didn’t say anything either, though Enid knew that what her father said certainly enraged her husband. Julian reached down to the floor of the buggy and picked up the cigar box that he always kept there. Enid had seen once before what was in the box. Every time Julian killed a rattlesnake he cut off its rattles and saved them in that box.

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