Читать книгу Ain't No Way - Jerry Milam - Страница 10

Chapter Four

Just A-wantin’ to Breathe

“Well, Mr. Beast, where is your home? Do you live in these woods? Do you live by yourself other than Do-What there? Why do—” Luke was starting to ramble.

“Lu-uke,” Martha halfway scolded.

“It’s okay, ma’am,” Barney took up for Luke. “You all have the same questions but are too embarrassed to ask, especially all at once.”

“Nope,” said Matt with a chew of tobacco in his mouth. “Luke was fixin’ to start jabbering, and Martha figured, ‘Ain’t no bay.’” Matt had to spit. “We are gonna ask them questions in due time.”

Looking over at Luke, Barney answered, “Son, I guess you must like to talk?” Luke nodded as Barney continued, “And I bet that you’re very good at it too.”

Luke saw another opening and took advantage of it, “Yes, sir, but not as good as Mr. Douglas over there. Why, I saw him talk a lady into buying an undergarment from him when she was fifty cents short of two-bits. Well, the way he explained to her how good she would look in that thing, I thought she was going to buy two of ’em. Then—”

Bernie Douglas came scampering out from behind his wagon with one side of his suspenders up and the other side down. “Damn it, boy, did anyone ever tell you that you talk too much?”

“Now, Bernie,” Martha admonished, “don’t scold the boy for telling the truth. I knew who you were and what you were before I married you. By the way, I sure hope that you were finished with what you were doing.”

“One of these days, Martha, I’m going to—” Mr. D growled.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t make promises that you can’t keep,” returned Martha.

When Bernie stomped off, the rest of the group just shook their heads and gave little smirks to one another. Even Do-What thought that his behavior was unbecoming. The dog raised his ears and turned his head to watch the man’s departure. Occasionally Do-What would turn and look up at Barney T. as if to ask, “What’s his problem?” When Bernie had gotten out of sight, Do-What laid his head back down between his two front paws, only shifting his eyes in the direction of the man’s exit. He looked as though he was hoping that the man would not return.

Meanwhile, Barney was taking up where he had left off, explaining, “I am a coal miner and a coal miners’ son and grandson and so forth. But I didn’t want to be a coal miner. Well, in my family, that was totally unheard of. So I packed a bag and headed west to find out who I was and what I wanted to be.

“At first, I had intended to go visit an old friend of the family in California, a man by the name of Sutter. Ol’ Sutter has a small lumber mill out there, so I thought I might give that a try for a spell. Well, I guess someone smarter than I am decided that they knew more about me than I did, ’cause when I reached that valley over there, I knew that my journey had come to an end. This was the most beautiful place that I had ever seen. The smell of the pine trees, the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and the grass, the sight of an old hawk circling and looking for prey, and the taste of the clean, clear water, all of which put new life back into my body like a breath of…I guess it was the breath of me and my lungs just a-wanting to breathe.”