The Late Child by Larry McMurtry

Author:Larry McMurtry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1995-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

22.

“My opinion is, we ought to be thinking about how to get back to Tarwater, the quickest way,” Neddie said, when everybody was awake and they were trying to decide what to do with themselves.

“Can’t leave before Eddie do Letterman,” Sheba said. “Those Letterman people be mad as hops if we do that.”

“Well, but when’s that?” Neddie asked. “We’ve already seen the Statue of Liberty—I’d like to get started home sometime today.

“Anything could be happening, back in Tarwater,” she added.

“But, Neddie, you’re here, in the greatest city in the world,” Laurie pointed out. She and Eddie had just returned. Eddie was feeding Iggy a piece of pancake he had brought home in a napkin.

“Don’t mean much to Neddie,” Pat said. “She’d rather get back to Tarwater and listen to the wind blow.”

“Ed got to take advantage of all these opportunities while he’s hot,” Otis said. “Nobody stay hot but two or three days, not in New York. By tomorrow people be starting to forget about the dog that fell off the Statue of Liberty.”

“You should at least go out and walk the streets a little,” Laurie said. “It’s a great place to people-watch.”

“Yeah, but too many of the people watch back,” Pat said. “Like muggers and rapists and winos and the homeless.”

“You should be kind to the homeless,” Eddie said, a little sternly. “Sheba was homeless till she met us, and Otis lived in the Dumpster.”

“Yeah, and I be homeless again when you go, Bright,” Sheba said. “Who knows if Otis even let me in the Dumpster.”

“This place a lot nicer than the Dumpster,” Otis said, looking around Laurie’s cheerful apartment. The floor was bare and there was not a lot of furniture, but the apartment had high windows and the sun had just come out and was shining through them brightly.

“Wait a minute,” Eddie said, to Sheba. “What did you say?”

“What did I say?” Sheba asked, a little startled by Eddie’s statement.

“You said you’d be homeless again, once Ed leave,” Otis said.

“Yeah, that’s right, I was just speaking the facts, Bright,” Sheba said.

“No way,” Eddie said. “I’m not going to Oklahoma unless Sheba and Otis come with me, and Iggy’s not going either, and that’s final. I don’t want to leave my new friends.

“Then there’s Omar and Abdul and Salah and G.,” he added. “I don’t want to leave anybody out. It might make them sad.”

“It might make them sadder to live in Tarwater,” Pat said.

“Oh, shut up, Pat,” Harmony said. “Eddie’s not pessimistic, like you are.”

“Harmony, that’s twice you’ve told me to shut up in twenty minutes,” Pat said.

Laurie had brought pastries from a local bakery. She put big white plates on her table and divided the pastries between the plates.

“These are knishes,” she said.

“I don’t think I want to eat something if its name starts with k,” Neddie said, looking at the knishes suspiciously.

“Boy, are you weird, Neddie,” Pat said. “It’s a dish. What difference does it make what letter of the alphabet its name starts with?”

“They’re very good knishes,” Laurie said.

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