Crows and Cards (Houghton Mifflin Stereotype Editions) by Helgerson Joseph

Author:Helgerson, Joseph [Helgerson, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2010-06-07T04:00:00+00:00

Hearing all that wrapped my head in fog and cottonwood fluff. Worse storm of it I'd ever seen. The way Chilly checked his watch whenever playing cards came rolling back to me, proving Ho-John's point.

"If you're wanting paper and such," Ho-John went on, setting down one clean-plucked chicken and starting right in on another, "try one of them general stores. They be happy to sell what you need."

That was an answer I'd probably known all along but hadn't wanted to go into. I just didn't have the strength to go trailing all the way down to the levee again. What if I ran into Chief Standing Tenbears? What if he'd run across more news from home? Then what? It'd peck my bones clean to hear it, that's what. 'Sides, I didn't have any idea what I could put into a letter to home that wouldn't leave me feeling airy and blue as some ghost doomed to haunt the Mississippi till it ran dry.

Leaving my half-plucked chicken with Ho-John, I went out toward the front of the inn, where I stood gaping at the road as if the answer to all my woes had gone trotting past just before I had got there. I was still standing there all woolly headed when Chilly caught up with me.

"What's this I hear 'bout you wanting paper and things?" he demanded, pinching my upper arm hard.

"It's just a thought I had." I tried squirming free without luck.

"Well, put a torch to it. You ain't got no time for such truck, no matter what that fool chief heard from your ma. I bet I've heard him tell twenty others their ma wants a letter. It's one of his favorite fallbacks."

"But down to the levee," I said, "he knew all about me."

"That's 'cause I had a talk with him and his daughter right after we hit town and maybe let slip more about my new assistant than was smart. I can see that now. He's a curious old cuss and wanted to know all about you."

"He did?"

"Only 'cause the princess spotted you standing beside me."

"She did?" That perked up my ears.

"She don't miss much. Now listen up, boy: that chief ain't got any more visions than a wood stump could have."

Don't think that I swallowed much of that, not after hearing the chief name Ma's biscuits and Pa's mule. And what about the Professor's heart-shaped locket? None of that sounded like something a stump could rattle off. But I didn't have the steam to tell Chilly so, not the way he was crowding me. And while he went on, I couldn't take my eyes off the gold watch chain dangling out of his vest pocket, not after hearing what Ho-John had to say about it. Wanting to believe at least one thing Chilly'd told me, I asked, "But the chief does have a crown, doesn't he?"

"Never you mind about that crown," Chilly growled. "I don't even want to hear another breath out of you 'bout it. And being as how you're a member of the Brotherhood, there won't be any letter writing home either.

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