[02] Texasville by Larry McMurtry

Author:Larry McMurtry
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781451607680
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2014-06-19T20:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 49

AT 6 P.M., THE HOUR WHEN PAGEANT REHEARSALS were supposed to get underway in the rodeo arena, the summer sun was at its most vicious angle. A high of 108 had been registered that afternoon, and the thermometer had not dropped much off the high.

Only one car was parked in the huge gravelly parking lot behind the arena when Duane arrived. It belonged to Lester Marlow, who sat in it dressed in a suit and tie. He had parked facing the sun. Duane drove up beside him but did not park facing the sun. He got out and walked around to have a word with Lester, who was sweating as a man might who wore a suit and had a hundred and eight degrees of sunlight pouring directly in on him. He looked very hot.

“If I open my mouth to say hi, I might drown in my own sweat,” he said.

“Turn your car around,” Duane suggested. “You won’t be as hot. Better yet, get out and let’s go sit in the shade.”

It occurred to him that if Lester had enough common sense not to park facing the sun, or even to take his coat and tie off, he might well not be indicted on seventy-two counts of fraud.

Lester got out, as drenched with sweat as if he had been underwater for several minutes. Even his shoes seemed soaked. He was a little wobbly, but managed to make it across the road to the shade of the grandstand.

“I came early hoping to catch Jenny alone,” Lester said. “My mother claims Jenny’s pregnant.”

Lester’s mother was an elderly terrorist who habitually abused everyone she knew, particularly Lester. Fortunately she spent most of her time traveling the world, but the moment she arrived back in Wichita Falls she resumed her terrorist habits.

“I didn’t know your mother was back,” Duane said.

“She got back late this afternoon,” Lester said. “She went to the pyramids, this time.”

“Did she like ’em?” Duane asked. Karla sometimes agitated for a trip to the pyramids.

“Didn’t say,” Lester said. “Momma works quick. She had only been home twenty minutes when she called to tell me Jenny was pregnant.”

“Well, you’re married to her,” Duane said. “Maybe she’s pregnant by you.”

“Not likely,” Lester said.

Duane waited. Even that statement was an improvement on Jenny’s many comments on the subject.

“It’s very unlikely,” Lester said. “It would be almost a miracle if it’s mine.”

“Why would it be a miracle if you slept with your own wife?” Duane asked, glimpsing an unlooked-for ray of hope.

“We rarely find the time,” Lester said, craning his neck to watch the highway. He seemed to expect hundreds of cars to arrive at any minute.

“You don’t have to make excuses, my wife usually won’t sleep with me either,” Duane said, feeling slightly guilty for saying it. In the case of himself and Karla, nothing was so clear-cut. Hesitancies arose on both sides and then vanished and then reappeared again.

“I think we had sex once or twice a few months back,” Lester said. “Sundays are interminable around here.

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