Joe Bain by Vance Jack

Author:Vance, Jack [Vance, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619470767
Publisher: Spatterlight Press, Oakland, California
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter II

1

San Rodrigo County, a few hours’ drive southeast of San Francisco, had the good fortune to lie aside from the zones of frantic development which were destroying much of the California countryside. The freeways joining San Francisco and Los Angeles ran to east and west; the resorts and scenic areas — Monterey, Carmel, Pebble Beach, Big Sur, San Simeon — lay along the Pacific to the other side of the Coast Range. San Rodrigo County’s single tourist attraction was mouldering Mission San Rodrigo de Luz, although the old county courthouse had been cited in Werner Neubarth’s book Toward a New Century as the nation’s most extreme example of that architectural style known as ‘fish-market Gothic’.

To the north and east of Pleasant Grove was a tumble of low rolling hills, a spur of the Diablo Range. Among these hills, on a weather-beaten old ranch, Ken Mooney had been born.

Mooneys had lived in San Rodrigo County for as long as anyone could remember. Originally they were important folk: Judge Mooney sat at the first session in the county courthouse; Herman Mooney owned the old Valley Hotel in Aurora, which burnt to the ground in 1882, whereupon he built Halfway House on Contreras Road.

After the first World War the family declined, and presently only a few old-timers remembered the quality of the early Mooneys.

Ken, a big easy-going lad, attended high school at Pleasant Grove, where he distinguished himself principally on the football field. This was the best time of Ken Mooney’s life; he was liked by everyone; his amiability disarmed the most surly of individuals, with the exception of his father, who wanted Ken to work harder at home and do less ‘fooling around after school’.

Ken’s principal weakness was girls. He liked their faces, their voices, the way they walked, the way they sat down, the way they smelled, the way they felt. He liked some girls more than others, but he was not fussy. A girl was a girl, and if Ken couldn’t date one, he’d try another, or another, or another, until finally he made a connection, even if she were the sorriest scarecrow around.

During Ken’s senior year at Pleasant Grove High, an exquisite blonde girl named Alice Benjamin entered as a freshman. Like every other boy in school, Ken’s heart turned over, and all he could think was ‘Alice, Alice, Alice’.

To no avail. Alice lived on Madrone Way, across from the country club. Alice’s mother was extra-religious, extra-strict, extra-choosy. Ken Mooney, the amiable not-too-particular boy from a hill-country ranch, didn’t stand a chance.

In the same class with Alice was Starr Shortridge. Her mother had wanted to send Starr to Miss Hamlin’s in San Francisco, but Starr refused point-blank. As proud, aloof, unreasonable, capricious and unresponsive as ever, Starr enrolled at Pleasant Grove High School, where her vagaries exasperated the faculty as much as they did her family. Alice Benjamin thought Starr was wonderful. Alice admired Starr’s independence, her coolness, her spirit. Starr liked Alice because Alice liked her. Alice’s grades were uniformly good: As and Bs.

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