Slow Moving Dreams by Hardy Tom;

Author:Hardy, Tom;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TCU Press
Published: 2011-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

2:00 PM, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2004, ALPINE, WEST TEXAS

My original plan had been to visit with relatives at the Cable house after the funeral. Good manners in West Texas dictated that, after a funeral, friends and family congregate at the bereaved’s home to commiserate, visit, and eat a meal if the timing were appropriate. To not do so would be a breach of etiquette. I had figured I would visit for only long enough to be considered socially acceptable, then leave and drive back to Austin, stopping along the way if I got tired. Staying for the cowboy wake would require a change in plans, which I mentioned to Billy Rex and Robert Earl.

“That’s right,” replied Robert Earl. “I’d planned to start back right after the funeral too. I hadn’t thought about staying tonight.”

“Me neither,” said Billy Rex. “Where can we stay?” We considered the various motels in Alpine.

As we were talking, Charlie walked over from the tight knot of family members still consoling one another beneath the awning. In his mid-fifties, Charlie was still a strikingly handsome man. His sandy blond hair, stylishly long, was graying at the temples only, and a crisp mustache was still sandy blond. He appeared to have gained no weight in the thirty years since his playing days, and he moved with a grace that announced that he was a serious athlete. He wore an expensive tan tweed sport coat, cream-colored trousers, and tasseled loafers. A white silk shirt and silk Italian tie completed the ensemble. He looked as if he had walked right off a fashion show runway to come to the cemetery.

“Howdy, cousins,” he said with what actually might have been a sincere smile, a smile that framed very white and very expertly engineered teeth. “It’s good to see all you guys again. It’s been way too long.” He shook hands all around as we echoed his sentiments. I noticed he practiced a kind of fake sincerity evidenced by grasping each of us on the shoulder with his left hand while he shook with his right and looking seriously into our eyes for just a second before moving on to the next.

Charlie, Billy Rex, Robert Earl, and I stood talking and catching up like people who hadn’t seen one another in ages, which was actually the case. After a few moments Robert Earl excused himself to go greet an acquaintance he had noticed in the dwindling crowd, now drifting away.

“Tommy!” A loud, commanding female voice startled me. I turned to see Aunt Ida approaching, aided by her wooden cane. Aunt Ida was my father’s half-sister by Grandfather’s second marriage. In her early seventies, she looked to still be in remarkably good health. She was thin, taller than the average woman, which caused her to have to stoop a little to get a good brace from her cane. Her fully gray hair was topped with a small round hat that complemented her dress, which was black with a small floral pattern.

She stalked as purposefully as the cane would allow right up to me.

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