Murphy's Legacy by Edith Charles

Author:Edith Charles [Charles, Edith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-12-11T23:00:00+00:00

***

"Shoot!"

Vincent squeezed the trigger. His first shot hit the silhouette in the head. If it had eyes, he woulda' put a hole right between 'em.

"Aim for the chest! How many times do I have to tell ya?!"

"I was aiming for the chest!" He worked the lever and fired at the second target. The kickback just about knocked 'im down and the bullet went high, missin' the target altogether.

"Stop!" I approached him carefully and took the rifle out of his hands. "That first shot woulda' been a damned fine one if it was what you was aimin' at."

"Damn it!" He looked mighty frustrated. He'd been obsessed with learning how to shoot ever since I told 'im about Murphy. He'd asked me to teach him. We'd been workin' on it for three days now and he was the lousiest shot I'd ever seen. He was bad at it the first day but he'd been gettin' worse every day since.

"Ya know, nobody's good at everythang. Maybe shootin' just ain't your talent."

"I give up. How is it that Adam was so damn good at it and I'm crap?"

"If it makes ya feel any better, he couldn't cook worth a shit."

"Yes. That makes me feel great." He laughed.

I figured he'd had about enough frustration for one day. "Let's give it up for the day and ride into town. We can get some lunch at the diner and I'll buy you a piece of pie."

We got in the truck. Vincent was drivin'. I opened the gate. He pulled through and stopped to wait so I could get back in. Elise's real estate agent had put the "For Sale" sign up a few days ago. Every time Vincent saw it, he frowned and he got that little crease between his eyebrows. He hadn't packed up none of the family thangs or gone through any of Murphy's stuff to give away to charity. Don had been callin' his cell phone and he just kept lettin' it roll over to voicemail. Everything that had been done, had been done by Elise.

"You know, you don't hafta' sell it if you don't want to."

He didn't look at me. "What makes you think I don't want to?" He kinda' mumbled it under his breath. That's the way he talks when he's considerin' something and he don't want to admit it.

"Cause you look sad every time you see that sign. We been sittin' here for two minutes while you was thinkin' about it, an' it ain't like you was havin' to wait for traffic."

He looked around all of a sudden, like he just realized where he was. He still looked kinda' sad.

"My life's in Seattle. My job's there and Elise is there." He pulled out onto the highway and headed for town.

"Whatever you say."

He got real quiet until we passed Blackstone. The Christmas wreath was up on the gate and he watched it until he couldn't see it no more without lookin' back. "We haven't done our Christmas shopping yet."

"You and Elise?"

"Yeah."

"Maybe you could send her a little somethin' just to let her know you was thankin' about her.

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