Blackwood by Michael Farris Smith

Author:Michael Farris Smith [Smith, Michael Farris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Published: 2020-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

29

COLBURN SAT SLUMPED IN THE TRUCK seat and stared vacantly at the steering wheel. And then he mindlessly opened the door and wandered across the parking lot as if punchdrunk from the past and he pulled open the door to the bar and stood at the threshold. Inside along the bar sat a plump woman who had just come from the beauty parlor with her mountain of hair. Next to her sat three men still wearing their orange roadcrew vests. Two men with loosened tie knots shot pool and a humpbacked man with a cane whacked at the cigarette machine trying to get an extra pack to fall out.

“Quit doing that, Ed,” Celia called to him. She was behind the bar pulling fifths of liquor from a box. “You do that every time.”

“One time it’s gonna work.”

“If it does you can’t keep them anyway. Anything extra falls out of that machine, it’s what we call house cigarettes.”

Ed gave it another whack and then took the pack he’d bought from the tray. He ambled over to the pool table to watch.

Colburn stood in the open doorway. The rectangle of light behind him and his face dark and they all squinted in his direction.

“Close the damn door,” one of them said.

He took a step inside and the glass door fell shut behind him. He walked over to the end of the bar. No one spoke to him and he didn’t speak to anybody. Celia pulled a beer bottle from the cooler. Popped the top and set it down in front of him. A strand of hair fell across his eyes and she reached over and brushed it away from his face. She touched his arm but he remained trancelike.

“Colburn?” she said.

And then the word came from one of the men with pool sticks. Because he had been waiting for a chance.

“Freak,” Dixon said. The hardsounding word carried clearly across the barroom and right behind it were short and uncomfortable laughs. Celia turned around and saw him leaning against the pool table, his face bent in disdain.

“Shut up, Dixon,” Celia said.

“Yeah, Dixon. Shut up,” another voice sang mockingly.

More laughter. Dixon tugged at his tie that was a little too short. Tugged at the belt of his pants that were a little too tight. He gave a sneaky grin of satisfaction to the regulars and then dropped it as he saw Celia staring at him.

Colburn let out a deep breath and then seemed to awaken. His eyes fresh as if only now seeing where he was and when Celia turned back to him and asked if he was all right, he nodded and picked up the beer and drank.

“I’m going to my building,” he said.

“Don’t let the door hit you in the ass,” Dixon cried out.

“I told you to shut up,” Celia said.

“Come with me.”

“I can’t right now,” she said.

He leaned closer to her and lowered his voice and said I don’t want to be in here. I want to be with you somewhere. And she whispered back to him.

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.