Stag Dance by Peters Torrey

Author:Peters,Torrey
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2024-07-24T15:22:56+00:00

6.

Next day, the whole of creation preened in bridal finery. Branches swanned in their drapery and folds, while hillocks and hummocks puffed up pleased in their newly softened garb. Schuyler Peeples and I had set to felling a stand of larch down in a gully, where the snow had drifted neck-deep in spots, and even with bear-paw snowshoes, I’d frequently flub my footing and tumble in for a snowswim. Midmorning we broke work because the crumb boss announced that arbuckle was on the brew. We figured we ought to put some more pep into the day, and while I was filling my mug for seconds—taking a whiff of the chicory that the crumb boss had thrown into the grounds—I heard shouts of “Babe!” coming from a group of boys who had rigged the old steam donkey into a position to take down log-lengths from where the main high line crested on the near peak.

Seems that the cable had jammed. This was a common occurrence. Normally, you’d have to hitch an ox to the cable to pull the cable in reverse through the machine—which Babe the Blue Ox famously did so well. Elsewise, you’d have to affix a temporary pulley system to get the needed leverage and purchase to unjam the mechanism. But in the past, I had pried free the main clutch to loose this sort of jam on strength alone. So before I had even appreciated my second cup of coffee, I found myself conscripted into unjamming someone else’s blunder.

Now! This request chapped my privates, for sure. Because when I trudged uphill to where they’d braced the steam donkey against a pole tree, who was there? Johnny Jobs. Stub Nelson. Mikkels. Johnny Duck Chief. In other words, the very men who’d partaken of such hilarity at the expense of my busted ass and skooch aspirations less than a day before.

The gall of Johnny Jobs! Looking at me expectantly! As if it were not himself who’d quipped that I’d been looking for an ass-fucking! And him now standing there, examining the jam, while these boys expected me to do something about it!

I began to feel the welling up of resentment.

Yes. Fine. Indeed: I’d flown the bush—I’d made it known that I wanted a man to court me for the stag dance. And I’m the first person to know my own unseemliness. I never did forget it! Nor could I! Even after having undergone many mirrorless months, my hulking appearance remained ever present in my mind. I recall well how the manly aspects of a person can overgrow and overtake him, cancer-like, to becoming beastly and monstrous—the way canker causes a tree to encrust itself in bark so thick it that it comes to appear deformed and tumorous in its own treeness. I know it, dammit! Believe me, I am mindful of begging the leap of faith!

Lisen had worked his magic. He’d knighted me a skooch. But then these very men had duly mocked me for a molly. It didn’t seem

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.