The Hard Blue Sky by Shirley Ann Grau

Author:Shirley Ann Grau
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781453247242
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2012-01-15T22:00:00+00:00

THEY WERE ALL LIVAUDAIS men—there was Eddie and his son Pete, and his brothers Mike and Phil, and Phil’s three sons; and there were relatives by marriage: Chep Songy and his son Jerry, and Ray Songy too, both of them brothers of Belle Livaudais.

There were ten of them that Sunday morning, standing in the church yard after Mass. They waited until the church was empty, then they went around to the sacristy door. The priest was just coming out, in his hand his little black doctor’s bag. His face was red with perspiration, and he had taken off his stiff Roman collar.

“A scorcher,” he said gaily.

The men did not smile. Eddie Livaudais cleared his throat, “Father,” he said, “we got business with you.”

“On a day like this,” Stanislaus Ryan grinned, “nobody should have any business, except sitting down.”

“We got business,” Eddie repeated.

“And it is so pressing as all that?”

Eddie nodded.

“Well then, man,” Father Ryan said briskly, “we’ll talk about it walking down to the boat.”

They started off then. Eddie and the priest walking ahead, the others following two by two. Pete came last. He walked slowest, and every now and then he stumbled over his own feet.

They met a group of women on the path, who stepped aside to let them pass. Even the kids stopped playing to stare after them.

“And this must be a very serious matter,” Father Ryan said.

Eddie nodded. And from behind Mike said: “Serious for sure.”

The priest did not interrupt his brisk pace. “And everyone seems to know about it.”

“People come to find out,” Phil said.

“And there is something I can help?”

“In a way,” Eddie said slowly.

“If you don’t tell me I’ll never find out.”

“I’m trying to,” Eddie said, “only my mind don’t work so fast when I got to walk too.”

The priest stopped dead in his tracks. In the close ranks behind, the men scuffed toes, bumped into each other and stopped. “Now tell me.”

Eddie took a deep breath. “I got two boys. One of them standing back there, right back there.”

The priest turned around. “And where is he?”

The other men stepped aside to the edges of the path, and Pete Livaudais was hustled up through the passage. The boy kept looking at the ground, but he stuck out his hand.

“A fine boy,” the priest said, noticing the carefully ironed shirt and the black hair plastered to the skull with water and oil.

The hand he shook so heartily was cold and damp—on a steaming day.

“Another Livaudais,” Eddie was saying, “name Henry.”

“Sure, sure, sure, sure,” the priest said. “Though I haven’t caught sight of him in some little time now.”

Eddie shook his head, silently.

“He ain’t been seen,” Mike Livaudais answered for him, “for eight days now.”

The priest put his black satchel down on the shell path. “What?”

Mike took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh. “He gone hunting. He take his shotguns and his pirogue.”

“So that’s it.” The priest’s voice was hollow, all of a sudden, and flat.

Mike nodded. “And he don’t come back.

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.