Rivers: A Novel by Michael Farris Smith

Author:Michael Farris Smith [Smith, Michael Farris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781451699425
Amazon: 1451699425
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2013-09-10T05:00:00+00:00

EVAN HAD GONE INSIDE WITH Brisco and Cohen was alone when the women walked back into the compound, hands on hips. The rain had lightened and they all sat down. Cohen found bottles of water and passed them out and he stood next to the dying fire.

“I knew it,” Kris said. “I knew she was gonna do some shit no matter what she said.”

“Yep,” Nadine said. “I damn well knew it, too. And we ain’t burying nobody just so you know.”

Cohen lit a cigarette and blew warm air on his hands. He looked at Mariposa and she was looking at him. When their eyes caught, he stared at her a moment. Then he blew on his hands again. Nadine turned up her bottle and finished it and tossed it onto the red coals. The bottle twisted and melted.

“I been thinking I’m gonna give it away,” Kris said. “That’s the first thing I thought today when I realized we were getting out of here. Don’t even wanna see it. Just take, I’m gonna tell them. Don’t show it to me only take it on. But when it started hurting before I started changing my mind. Right in the middle of them cramps, I started wanting it to be all right and wanting to see it. Even when I was hollering it hurt so bad I was wanting to be able to hold on to it and hoping I get to. Now I’m hoping I get to.”

Cohen said, “You’ll get to.”

“If we make it,” Nadine said.

Now he was tired of smoking and he wanted to drink again. He went over to his trailer and came back with a whiskey pint. He handed it to Kris and she shook her head.

“One sip ain’t gonna hurt,” Nadine said.

She took the bottle and a sip and her shoulders raised and fell. “I never did like that shit,” she said as she passed it to Nadine.

Cohen said, “You’ll be fine.”

“Maybe.”

Nadine drank and then she said she was sick of being wet and Aggie was dead and gone and no offense but there was nothing else worth sitting out there for. She took another drink and passed the bottle to Mariposa and went inside.

Mariposa held the bottle to her nose and sniffed. Then she took a little drink and winced. Cohen shook his head and took the bottle from her.

“What’d she look like?” Kris asked.

Cohen switched the bottle from hand to hand. He thought of the picture in his back pocket and started to pull it out. But instead he said, “She looked like a runner ’cause that’s what she was. Kinda tall. Ate whatever cause she burnt it all up. Ran cross-country in high school. Ran whatever after that. Used to run on the beach. I’d lay there and drink beer and she’d run up and back a few miles. Then she’d go out into the water and cool off and call me names for being so damn lazy.”

“You shoulda got up,” Kris said.

“Nah. I shouldn’t have.

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