The Big Gundown by Bill Brooks

Author:Bill Brooks [Bill Brooks]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780061741197
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2007-11-23T16:00:00+00:00

It came out deep red and squalling, slippery and warm and wet. Blood never felt so good on Jake’s hands as he held it.

“Mad as hell, ain’t it?” the old woman said, coming to the side of the bed as Jake held it forth to her. She reached for it and said, “I know what to do from here.”

The boy, Frisco, had not moved in all that time, his eyes as big as muffins.

“What is it?” he said.

The old woman looked and said, “It’s a baby girl is what it is?”

“What we gone name it?”

The old woman looked at the younger woman.

“What you gone name it?”

“Sadie,” the girl said. “Gone name it Sadie.”

“Look it all that dark hair on its head,” the old woman said.

Jake washed his hands and put on his coat, then came back to the bedside just as the old woman was wrapping the child in a small blanket.

The girl reached for his hand.

“I knew you’d come and save us,” she said.

The old woman declared it a “miracle.”

“Ain’t no miracle, Mama, I seen him come in a dream,” she said, her eyes fixed on Jake.

“I know you did, child.”

Jake said, “I’ll need a ride back to town.”

The old woman said, “Frisco, take this good man to town in the wagon.”

Then finally the boy stood up and came over next to the bed and looked at the new baby and touched the small dark face.

“Got Chinaman’s eyes,” he said.

The girl and the old woman laughed.

“They all got Chinaman’s eyes when they is first born,” the old woman said. “You had ’em, too.”

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