Truth and Bright Water by Thomas King

Author:Thomas King [King, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780802138408
Publisher: Grove Press
Published: 1999-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

When I wake up, Monroe is gone. So is the truck. The buffalo are still standing on the prairies, and for a moment, they look just like the buffalo on the reserve. I walk to the edge of the coulee and look along the river. I look back to the church. No Monroe. I get Soldier up. He’s dopey and silly and just wants to lie on his back and lick my hands. “Come on,” I tell him, and I clap my hands so he knows it’s a game. “Let’s find Monroe.”

Soldier runs out in a long circle, rushes back past me, and heads up the hill. I walk slowly behind him. Halfway up the hill, I see faint tire marks in the soft earth. “Good dog!” It’s hot, so I don’t run. I figure I’ll go as far as the top, and if I don’t see Monroe or the truck, I’ll just go home. Soldier trots on ahead and disappears in the grass.

I’m not expecting more buffalo, and for a moment, when I get to the top of the hill and they pop out of the grass, they startle me. There are three of them, all facing in my direction. Soldier is nowhere to be seen, but the tracks are easy to see now, and I figure that he has gone on ahead.

“Soldier!”

The tracks go down the hill and up the next. And then there’s another hill, and another and another. I start to turn back, but I figure if Monroe is setting the buffalo up in groups of three and four as he goes, he’ll run out of buffalo before long and can’t be very far in front of me.

Of course, I’m wrong about that. By the time I get to the top of the fourth or fifth hill, I’ve already passed fourteen buffalo, which means Monroe’s been back to the church at least once to pick up a new load. I try walking faster.

I find the truck and Monroe and Soldier at the bottom of a cut. Soldier is chewing on a piece of jerky. As soon as Monroe sees me, he gets up and pulls a buffalo off the back of the truck. “Just in time.”

“Why’d you leave me?”

“You were sleeping.”

“You could have woken me up.”

“What do you think, two or four?”

“I almost went home.”

“Or we could do three.” Monroe drags the buffalo over to a thick bush. “Grab one of the skinny ones,” he shouts. “This is the perfect place for a teenager.”

We make three trips back to the church, and it’s early evening before we’ve hammered in the last spike. Monroe sits on the tailgate of the truck and looks back the way we’ve come. You can’t see the church, and you can’t see the bridge, and you can’t see Truth or Bright Water.

“Look at that,” says Monroe. “Just like the old days.”

I look, but I don’t see much of anything. Besides the river, there is only the land and the sky.

“As far as the eye can see.

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