One Good Story, That One by Thomas King

Author:Thomas King [King, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443449083
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2015-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

A Seat in the Garden

Joe Hovaugh settled into the garden on his knees and began pulling at the wet, slippery weeds that had sprung up between the neat rows of beets. He trowelled his way around the zucchini and up and down the lines of carrots, and he did not notice the big Indian at all until he stopped at the tomatoes, sat back, and tried to remember where he had set the ball of twine and the wooden stakes.

The big Indian was naked to the waist. His hair was braided and wrapped with white ermine and strips of red cloth. He wore a single feather held in place by a leather band stretched around his head, and, even though his arms were folded tightly across his chest, Joe could see the glitter and flash of silver and turquoise on each finger.

“If you build it, they will come,” said the big Indian.

Joe rolled forward and shielded his eyes from the morning sun.

“If you build it, they will come,” said the big Indian again.

“Christ sakes,” Joe shouted. “Get the hell out of the corn, will ya!”

“If you build it . . .”

“Yeah, yeah. Hey! This is private property. You people ever hear of private property?”

“. . . they will come.”

Joe struggled to his feet and got his shovel from the shed. But when he got back to the garden, the big Indian was gone.

“Alright!” Joe shouted and drove the nose of the shovel into the ground. “Come out of that corn!”

The corn stalks were only about a foot tall. Nevertheless, Joe walked each row, the shovel held at the ready just in case the big Indian tried to take him by surprise.

When Red Mathews came by in the afternoon, Joe poured him a cup of coffee and told him about the big Indian and what he had said, and Red told Joe that he had seen the movie.

“Wasn’t a movie, Red, damn it. It was a real Indian. He was just standing there in the corn.”

“You probably scared him away.”

“You can’t let them go standing in your garden whenever they feel like it.”

“That’s the truth.”

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