American Decameron by Dunn Mark

Author:Dunn, Mark [Dunn, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781849822534
Publisher: MP Publishing
Published: 2012-09-23T05:00:00+00:00

1953

PHARISAICAL IN WYOMING

Everybody laughs when Billy Sherman, the dentist’s boy, nudges his friend, one of the Hollis twins—I think it’s Casper, although it could have been Jasper—and points to one of the Abernethy ranch hands who are in town on some errand or another for his employer and goes, “Shane! Come back!”

Shane has just opened at the town picture show and everybody just has to see it because it’s set on the high plains over by Jackson Hole, though somebody said most of the movie was actually shot in California—which isn’t anywhere near Wyoming. Anyway, it has Jean Arthur in it and Cornelius (that’s my dad) likes Jean Arthur, and so Cornelius and I have seen it twice already, which means that Cornelius laughs harder at Billy’s little Shane funny than anybody else.

It’s Cornelius and me and the two boys and Mrs. Sherman and Mr. Reese, who has the sugar beet farm south of town, and then a uranium man I don’t know, and an evangelist who’s in town for a tent show that nobody’s been going to, because Riverton folks don’t much go in for Bible thumping and holy rolling.

The evangelist’s name is Proctor.

So it’s all of us standing in line at the Riverton Bank and Trust, and two tellers in their cages, and Mr. Lanell, the bank manager, and Mr. Lanell’s secretary, Miss Philpot, and the security guard whose real name I don’t know, because most everybody just calls him Pops.

It’s about twelve-thirty in the afternoon and everybody’s in a good mood because the weather’s started to warm up and everything’s budding and blooming, and another devil-hard Wyoming winter has been happily put out to spring pasture.

The preacher named Proctor says, “That’s a good one!” to Billy Sherman, although he was probably preaching just last night, in fact, about the “sin” in today’s “cin-ema.” Then, not to be outdone in the way of comical observations, Reverend Proctor starts singing his own version of “Shall We Gather at the River,” which starts off:

Shall we gather at the RivertonBankandTrust.

The beautiful,

The beautiful

RivertonBankandTrust.

Gather with the depositors at the RivertonBankandTrust

That sits in the middle of town.

Everyone laughs politely. Even the two men who have just stepped inside the bank unnoticed by anybody but me. They laugh and then almost in the same breath they order us all to drop to the floor because, you see, they aim to rob this bank. Pops the security guard goes for his gun and the younger of the two men cold-cocks him with his revolver, and Pops is put temporarily out of commission right on the spot.

We drop to the floor as we’ve been instructed to do, and the older of the two bank robbers motions for all the employees to come join us, so within a couple of minutes we’re all spread out mostly face down on the floor while the younger robber goes to empty all the tellers’ cash drawers.

Well, one of the tellers must have pushed the silent alarm button, because all of a

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.