The Calling by Sterling Watson

Author:Sterling Watson [Watson, Sterling]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PFP
Published: 2013-06-13T21:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

As a courtesy to Eldon Odom, I did not enter through the front door. I walked around to the back of the house and stood by the deck, watching the woods and the stars for a space. Our audience would think the three of us were still together, at least for a time, and maybe it would save a shred of someone's reputation. That was my old Alligood County way of thinking. I heard Eldon Odom's car start from the front of the house. Leviathan whined from the garage as the engine labored up the drive. The roar of voices above me increased and the music rolled over the trees and the water and was transformed into something strange and sinuous. After about twenty minutes, I walked up the steps to the deck and into the light.

The bar seemed the best place for an unattended gentleman to anchor himself. With one foot on the brass rail and an elbow in a pool of beer, I was rooted and able to deflect the occasional inquiring glance. From here and there, eyes cut to me and then flickered away, and I imagined what they wanted to know: Which side of the triangle was I, or was it a square?

As it turned out, the bartender was from Lake City. His daddy had owned a cane press and had bottled his own syrup. A vague recollection was rolling in my head of driving past the place and stopping to watch the mule pull the press in its eternal circle. The Negro flourished drinks like drumsticks and told me the mule's name: Franklin Delano. We agreed that you just about couldn't find a mule in Alligood County anymore, and that it was a pretty sorry state of affairs, all in all. When I began to wonder if the bartender had been drinking, I knew it was time for me to slow down.

After a space, the party began to thin. Those of us who stayed knew the real celebration might last all night long. There were all sorts of proper good-byes, and Missy Sully was back at her best, pressing the flesh and even hugging and kissing a little in the pristine, giddy way of the Southern hostess. She had managed to process three deans, two department heads, and a vice-president for development before Eldon Odom came back. By my watch, he had been gone forty minutes, long enough to take Lindy home and get back and then some.

Eldon Odom came in through the kitchen and glanced at Sully. He knew where his duty lay. On his way to do it, he stopped at the bar and smiled hugely at me. We stood there in the beams of all those eyes, acting out our scene.

"She wasn't feeling too good, Toad, so I run her on home. Hope you don't mind."

"No, hell," I said, standing in front of him, grinning like a dog passing peach pits. "I don't mind."

Odom was at the front door with Sully getting rid of official guests when Ardis came through the kitchen door on the arm of Tommy MacEvoy.

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