Chapel of Ease by Alex Bledsoe

Author:Alex Bledsoe
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466851429
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

15

We got back to the Parrish farm and found only Ladonna at home, hanging laundry on a line in the side yard. “Well, where have you boys been?” she asked.

“I took Matt to see the chapel of ease,” C.C. said. “Spooked a couple of Durants.”

“Oh, good heavens, those Durants are pure white trash. Worse than the Gwinns, even. Was there any trouble?”

“No.” He looked sideways at me. “Just a few words exchanged. Sticks and stones, you know?”

“Well, that’s good. We don’t need no feudin’ around here.”

“Mind if we help ourselves to some iced tea?”

“You go right ahead.”

I followed C.C. into the kitchen. He got two glasses, ice, and a big pitcher from the refrigerator. After he poured, he called, “Thorn? You back there?” When there was no response, he said, “You can understand why I don’t want to talk where someone can hear.”

I took a long swallow, grateful for the drink. “Yeah.”

He didn’t look at me when he said, “Not a lot of people know about me.”

“Doesn’t seem like the easiest place to live out in the open.”

“No. Are you…?”

“Out? Yeah.”

He still didn’t look at me. “Can you keep quiet about me?”

“Sure. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I appreciate that.” Finally, he looked at me across the table. “It was nice.”

“Yeah.”

“I wish you were in town for longer.”

“Me, too.”

I waited to see if he would say, or do, anything else, but he just turned to look out the window. I guessed that was that. I got out my phone and checked the signal, but there was still nothing. My hand still shook a little bit, but the adrenaline from the confrontation was fading at last, leaving me with that numb postcrisis feeling. I almost laughed out loud. I wanted to call my dad and tell him, then thank him for that long-ago decision. It had saved my ass more than once in New York, but never with guns involved. He’d be so proud. And then I had to call my teacher, Master Tracy, and let him know how well it had gone. “Might for right!” was the affirmation he taught us, and this had surely been that.

I said, “Hey, I hate to ask for another favor after the last one, but could you run me into town? Or anywhere I can get a cell phone signal?”

C.C. put down his tea. “Sure. I’ll buy you lunch at the Fast Grab.”

I laughed at the name. “What’s that?”

“It’s the convenience store. They have picnic tables outside. It’s all we’ve got since the Catamount Corner closed down. They used to have a nice little café.”

We both looked up as music began just outside. I followed C.C. to the living room and we peered out through the screen door.

Someone new sat on the porch with Ladonna and Thorn. He strummed a guitar, Thorn tapped on a bongo-style drum, and Ladonna sang in a pure, high voice that might’ve been the cleanest mezzo-soprano I’d ever heard.

They hadn’t been a week from her,

A week but barely three,

When word came to the carlin wife

That her three sons were gone.

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