Town Tamers by David Robbins

Author:David Robbins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group, USA
Published: 2013-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

46

It wasn’t widely known but the Rocky Mountains had more than a few glaciers. Which must be why, Noona reckoned, that the owner of the the Glacier Hotel picked the name. It wasn’t the most expensive in Ordville, but it was far and away one of the nicest places Noona had ever stayed. Her room had carpet on the floor and a double bed with the softest of quilts and a water closet. That her father splurged for rooms for both of them was a mild surprise. Usually, he’d suggest they sleep off in the woods.

That he knocked on her door about nine was a bigger surprise. That he was holding a brandy bottle was an outright shock.

“Pa? I was just about to turn in.”

“I’d like to bend your ear,” Asa said, and took a swig.

Noona smothered her worry and motioned at a chair in the corner. He walked over, sat, and took another swallow. “What has you out of sorts? As if I can’t guess.”

Asa frowned. For an instant his eyes were mirrors of pain. “Pardon my language, but what does he see in that goddamn poetry?”

“He likes it, is all.”

“No, he loves it. He cares for it more than he cares for you or me.”

Noona perched on the edge of the bed and folded her hands. “He’s always liked to read. You know that. Ma encouraged him, remember? She bought him books all the time.”

“I never thought it would come to this. If I had, I’d have prevented it.”

“I don’t see how. What, you would have taken a switch to him for liking verse?”

“I never hit either of you once your whole lives.”

“I know,” Noona said, and smiled. “All it usually took was a glare to get us to do what we should. You have powerful eyes. It’s why the bad men squirm in their boots.”

“Poetry,” Asa said, and bitterly laughed. “Of all the things in the world, sissified words.”

Noona frowned. She should have seen this was coming. Her father had been holding in his feelings for so long, the dam was bound to spring a leak. “I don’t know as I can explain it to you other than Byron wants a new life. You can’t blame him for that.”

“We’re family.”

“Granted. But how many fathers and daughters work together like we do? Very few.”

“You’re special, gal,” Asa said. “You always have been.”

Noona felt her ears grow warm. “Thank you. Byron is special, too.”

“Byron is a knothead.”

“He is not.”

Asa stood, swigged, and commenced to pace. “We had a good thing going. Maybe we weren’t getting rich, but it was clean, honest work.”

“Now, see,” Noona said. “Byron saw it different. Not so much clean as blood-drenched. And not so much honest as sanctioned murder.”

Asa stopped pacing. “He said that?”

“More than once. And he couldn’t take it anymore. Poets have sensitive souls. They’re not like the rest of us.”

“Hogwash. What you call ‘sensitive’ I call ‘squeamish.’ It’s like those people who can’t stand to swat a fly. They never grew up.”

“Byron is a grown man.

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