Prairie Fever by Michael Parker

Author:Michael Parker
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2019-06-11T16:00:00+00:00

PART TWO

7

ELISE STEWART

Lone Wolf, Oklahoma, Fall 1917

The night before Mr. McQueen was to leave for Stillwater to visit Lorena, he was late getting home from the newspaper. Elise got it in her head that he did not want her to be there when he arrived. So she stayed.

She even made iced tea. She crushed up some mint stolen from the neighbor’s side yard and stirred it into the pitcher. Why did he not want to see her? Perhaps he had bought Lorena a gift that wanted wrapping and he did not want her to see him attempt to wrap it, since it was well known that men could not wrap presents. They might as well put a gift in a gunnysack and toss it in your general direction.

Finding Lorena’s unwrapped gift would require going through Mr. McQueen’s drawers and closets. Since she did this so routinely, she had high doubts that a search would turn up anything.

She was getting hungry. In his icebox she found milk, butter, eggs. She could scramble them up a plate of eggs. But perhaps he had stopped off at Parson’s, the lone restaurant in Lone Wolf, for supper. Judging from the contents of his kitchen, Elise suspected he did this often. She doubted his knives could cut butter. She recalled his hacking away at a watermelon with his pocketknife the first time they all went to the river.

Anyway, there was no apron. She couldn’t very well cook without an apron.

Outside the shadows grew longer, the light softer. She decided to write him a note. She had planned to speak to him in person on a particular subject, the same subject she (pretending to be Lorena) had written him a letter about already. But she could not speak for Lorena. Time was, she felt the current of Lorena’s thoughts. They tumbled down out of her ears at night, filled the space between the cots.

She could not speak for Lorena. Not anymore.

Dear Mr. McQueen—

“Wherefore art thou” does not mean “where,” but I do mean “where,” even though it is hardly any of my business. I made iced tea with purloined mint. All the tastier. I waited for you because I thought we ought to discuss informing Lorena of our business arrangement. I have not written to her about it, as I thought I should speak first with you, and since you are going to Stillwater on the train, perhaps it would be better coming from you?

Elise read this line over and thought to cross it out. But it was true and it made her cry.

She wrote but did not write: After all, Lorena forsook me the moment she let me leave your classroom.

Plus (she wrote but did not write), Were I the messenger, I would surely return even more maimed.

There was the question of a valediction. Sincerely was out of the question of course, unless she sought to make him disregard the contents of the entire letter. Surely he would not take her seriously if she closed with Sincerely.

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