Prudence by Treuer David

Author:Treuer, David [Treuer, David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2015-01-22T08:00:00+00:00

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Frankie unhooked himself from the harness that held him over the map table. He rubbed his eyes and windmilled his arms. He had been at it for two hours. It was late, but there would be no missions the next day. Neither the officers in London nor the enlisted men at Moulsford Manor would miss him. At first—at Maxwell and Midlands—the other men had tried to get him to go drinking and dancing with them and gave him a hard time when he demurred. When they came back, stumble-drunk and bruised, drunk enough to piss their own beds, they teased and heckled him. They didn’t quite trust him. But at Molesworth, after the crew had completed ten missions without losing anyone, they stopped bothering him. Whatever they had formed, whatever set of skills or exercise of luck in the game of extinction they were playing, they wanted to preserve it. No one wanted to change a thing. So they were happy their bombardier stayed behind and studied maps and practiced with the map table and checked their plane and counted the pins in the bomb racks, and they made sure he had the bolts not only for his .50 but extra bolts for the rest.

Felix had been like that. Sunk in the seat of the Confederate, he’d listen to Emma start in with her Worries and Concerns: How many trees down over the winter? Was the river too high to get across? Had the dock been washed away? How bad was the fire danger, anyway? Had Felix made sure to scythe the brush and weeds around the Pines to reduce the danger? It would have been good if he had burned the grass while the snow was still deep among the trees. Could they expect a lot of bees? Had the tiger lilies come up, or had the frost gotten them finally? Frankie had despaired that, of all the things Emma could have brought with them from Chicago, she had chosen to bring herself. But Felix seemed immune to Emma’s worry. He’d been still, even calm, as he responded to Emma’s flurry. The dock had been fixed. He had lit the yard on fire in April, when it was still safe to do so, and the grass was coming up good. No bees yet. Billy had cleared all the mice and mouse droppings from the cabins. The girls were ready to come and do the laundry. Nothing perturbed him.

When Frankie was thirteen, he had been allowed to accompany Felix and Billy to the village to pick up supplies without Emma. He had sat next to Billy, facing Felix in the rowboat (they didn’t have the Chris-Craft yet) as Felix pulled on the oars—almost lazily, it seemed—except that with each stroke the rowboat surged ahead, as if shoved along by a giant hand. When they pulled ashore, Frankie and Billy followed Felix up the steep slope to the top of the bluff where they kept the Confederate. Back then

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