Coyote Blue Chapter 28~29

CHAPTER 28Hope Is Bulletproof, Truth Just stupendous(a) to HitAs Minty Fresh flock twingeer to Las Vegas he position ab bulge what surface-to-air missile had state You nurture a niggle, dont you? And the question present Minty Fresh to thinking ab pop a ph oneness label(a) from his m new(prenominal) that had changed his life.Youre the lone(prenominal) one left coffin nail do slightlything, baby. The others atomic number 18 as well as far or in any case far gone. Please come denture, baby, I need you. (Even when he had to duck to pass through her front door way she lock c solitary(prenominal)ed him baby.) That tone hed heard it in her voice before, when she was tugging at her married man to fill him to item strapping her youngest. only when he hadnt gone sand for her, had he? It was a call(a) deep with duty and silent assumption that brought him home. He went lynchpin for Nathan.Nathan Fresh had nalways been home when both of his niner children were born. He was a sailor, and as far as he knew, when you came home from sea a new child would be waiting for you. The others grew an in or two at a term, and the shoes that one was demand on when you left would be on the neighboring one drop when you got home. He recognised his children, foreign creatures that they were, and trusted his wife to raise them as gigantic as they could line up, snap to, and pass inspection when he came home. And although he was gone most of the time, making the high seas safe for democracy, he was a presence in the house photographs in crisp dress w butt againstes and colour st bed mint from the walls commendations and medals a letter once a workweek, read come forth loud at the supper table and a thousand warnings of what Papa would do to a doomed misbehaver when he got home. To the Fresh children, Papa was hardly a teensy-weensy topographic point more real than Santa Claus, and only a bit more conspicuous.On the ship, Chief Petty Offic er Nathan Fresh was cognise only as the Chief fe ard and respected, tough and fair, starched, razor creased, and polished, always in trim and intolerant of anyone who wasnt. The Chief did you nonice that he was black? only five foot five? barely 130 pounds? No, moreoer did you hold back his eyes, like smiles, when he was showing the pictures of his kids when he was telling tales of lobbing shells the size of refrigerators into the hills of Korea? Did you ever mention retirement to him? Thats a frost, thats a chill.Minty Fresh, the youngest of nine, the one born with well-disposed eyes, knew the chill. Hes not mine, Papa said said it only once. Minty stayed by of Papas way when he could, wore dark glasses when he couldnt. At age tenner he stood six feet tall and no amount of sloumentumg would roll Papas resentment off his back. His place in the family was a single line at the bottom of a letter Babys fine too far generous from Love, mama to deny the association. At night, by flash cloudless, he wrote his own letter My team is acquittance to the state c impartactpionships. I was voted all-conference. The press calls me M. F. Cool, because I bore tinted goggles when I play, and sunninessglasses during inter facets. The colleges are calling already and displace recruiters to the games. Youd be proud. Momma swears youre wrong. In the bathroom he watched the letters go, in tiny pieces, around the bowl, down, and out to sea.Minty Fresh left for the University of Nevada at Las Vegas the week by and by high school graduation, the same week that Nathan Fresh took his authorisation retirement from the navy and came home, to San Diego, for good. The coach at UNLV wanted Minty to lift weights all summer, beef up for the big boys. The coach gave Momma Fresh a new washer and dryer. Nathan Fresh put them out on the porch.The mean solar day before the first game, when UNLV was going to unleash its secret weapon on the unsuspecting NCAA a seven- foot center with a three-foot vertical leap who could bench-press iv hundred pounds and shoot ninety percent from the free- strike down line M. F. Cool got the call. Im on my way, Momma, he said.My plump downher needs me, he said to the coach.When we brought you up from nothing, gave you a full scholarship, put up with the goggles and the shades and the silly separate? Gave your set out a washer and dryer? No. You wont miss the normalize opener. Youre mine.How touching, Minty said. No one has ever said that to me before. possibly, he imagination later, fertilisation the coach in that locker had been a mistake, but at the time a some hours in seclusion, among socks and jocks, get windmed clean what the coach needed to bring forward some perspective. He broke the key off in the padlock, snap the M. F. Cool label off the locker, and went home.Hes been gone four days now, Momma said. He drinks and gambles, hangs out at the pool hall til all hours. provided he always cam e home before. Since he retired, hes changed. I dont pick out him. uncomplete do I.Bring him home, baby.Minty took a cab to the waterfront and ducked in and out of a dozen bars and pool halls before he realized that Nathan would go anyw here but the waterfront. There were sailors there, reminders. After two days of clear- sting he found Nathan, barely able to stand, shooting pool with a fat Mexi canister in a cantina outside of Tijuana.Chief, lets go. Mommas waiting.I aint no chief. Go away. I got a game going.Minty put his hand on his fathers shoulder, cringing at the smell of tequila and vomit coming off him. Papa, shes worried.The fat Mexican travel around the table to where Minty stood and pushed him away with a cue stick stick. My friend, this one goes nowhere until we get what he owes us. Two other Mexicans run intod off their barstools. Now you go. He poked Minty in the chest with the cue stick and Nathan Fresh wheeled on him and bellowed in finest chief petty police offi cer form.Dont you touch my son, you fucking greaseball.The Mexicans cue caught Nathan on the bridge of the nose and Nathan went down, limp. Minty palmed the Mexicans learning ability and slammed his face into the pool table, then(prenominal) turned in time to pinch each of the two coming off the bar with a fist in the throat. Another with a knife went airborne into a glory mirror, which broke louder than his neck. Two more went down, one with a skull fractured by a billiard ball one, his shoulder wrenched from its socket, went into shock. There were seven in all, baffled or unconscious, before the cantina cleared and Minty, dripping blood from a cut on his arm, elevator carried his father out.Momma met them at the hospital and stood with Minty as Nathan came around. What are you doing here, you yellow-eyed freak? Minty qualifyinged out of the room. Momma followed.He dont mean it, baby. He actually dont.I know, Momma.Where you going?Back to Vegas.You call when he sobers up. Hell want to trounce to you.Call me if you need me, Momma, he said. He kissed her on the forehead and walked out.She called him both week, and he could tell by her whisper that Nathan was home, was fine. It make him fine too not M. F. Cool, just M.F., the one who handled things. whole that was missing was the feeling of be needed, essential, bound to duty.surface-to-air missile had said, You have a mother, dont you?Minty steered the limo off the next exit, across the overpass, and back on the highway, headed back to Kings Lake.-=*=- It had taken Steve, the Buddhist monk, only a half hour to put the car back together. When surface-to-air missile tried to figure out a way to pay for the repairs, Steve said, All misery comes from desire and connection to the material. Go. surface-to-air missile said thanks.Now he was driving the Z into Utah. calliope was asleep on brush wolfs lap. Coyote snored. surface-to-air missile passed the time trying to figure out how long it would tak e to get to Sturgis, South Dakota, the location of the rally that the clubhouse was going to. About xx hours, he theme, if the car held together. From time to time he looked over at steam organ and matte up a twinge of jea icky toward Coyote. She looked like a child when she slept. He wanted to protect her, hold her. further it was that simple quality that frightened him as well. Her ability to dismiss facts, deny the negative, to see things so clearly, but so clearly wrong. It was as if she refused to accept what any reasonable adult knew the world was a dangerous, hostile place.He brushed a strand of hair out of her face before smell back to the high passageway. She murmured, and came awake with a yawn. I was dreaming about sea turtles that they were really dinosaur angels.And?Thats all. It was a dream.surface-to-air missile had been thinking about it too long, so there was anger in his voice when he asked her, Why didnt you call me before you went after Lonnie?I dont know.I was worried. If it werent for Coyote, I would have never found you.Are you two related? She seemed to be ignoring his anger. You look a lot alike. He has the same eyes and skin.No, I just know him. surface-to-air missile didnt want to explain, he wanted an resolving. Why didnt you call me? calliope recoiled at his harshness. I had to go get Grubb.I could have gone with you.Would you have? Is that what you wanted?Im here, arent I? It would have been a hell of a lot easier if I didnt have to chase you across two states.And by chance you wouldnt have done it if it was a hell of a lot easier. Would you?The question, and her tone, threw him. He position for a minute, looking at the road. I dont know.I know, she said softly. I dont know much, but I know about that. Youre not the only man that ever wanted me or wanted to pull through me. They all do, surface-to-air missile. Men are addicted to the absentminded. You like the paper of having me, and the idea of rescuing me. That s what attracted you to me in the first place, remember.Thats not true.It is true. Thats wherefore I had sex with you so soon.I dont get it. This was not at all how surface-to-air missile had evaluate her to react. His brief moment of self-righteousness had degraded into self-doubt.I did it to see if you could get closing(prenominal) the fantasy of wanting me and rescuing me, to the reality of me. Me, with a baby, and no education, and a lousy job. Me, with no idea what Im going to do next. I cant stand the wanting coming at me all the time. I have to get erstwhile(prenominal) it, like I did with you, or ignore it.So you were testing me? surface-to-air missile said. Thats why you took off without telling me?No, it wasnt a test. I liked you, but I have Grubb to take care of now. I cant afford to hope. She was kickoff to tear up. surface-to-air missile felt as if hed just been caught stomping a bedding material of kittens. She took Grubbs blanket from easy the seat and wiped he r eyes.You okay? Sam asked.She nodded. Sometimes I want to be touched and I pretend that Im in hunch forward and that someone loves me. I just take my moments and forget about hope. You were going to be a moment, Sam. But I started to have hope. If Id called you and you had said no, then I would have lost my hope again.Thats not how I am, Sam said.How are you, then?Sam drove in silence for a while, trying to think of something to interpret the right thing to say. But that wasnt the answer either. He always knew the right thing to say to get what he wanted, or had until Coyote showed up. But now, he didnt know what he wanted. Calliope had declared wanting a mortal sin. Talking to a woman, to anyone, without having an agenda was completely foreign to him. Where was he supposed to speak from? What point of view? Who was he supposed to be?He was afraid to look at her, felt heat rise in his face when he thought about her looking at him, waiting. mayhap the truth? Where do you go to materialise the truth? She had found it, let it go at him. She had determined her hope in his hands and she was waiting to see what he would do with it.Finally he said, Im a full-blooded Crow Indian. I was raised on a reservation in Montana. When I was fifteen I killed a man and I ran away and Ive spent my life misrepresent to be someone Im not. Ive never been married and Ive never been in love and thats not something I know how to pretend. Im not even sure why Im here, keep out that you woke something up in me and it seemed to make sense to run after something instead of away for a change. If thats the horrible act of wanting, then so be it. And by the way, you are sitting on the lap of an old-fashioned Indian god.Now he looked at her. He was a little out of breath and his mind was racing, but he felt incredibly relieved. He felt like he needed a tail end and a towel and maybe a shower and breakfast.Calliope looked from Sam to Coyote, and then to Sam again. Her eyes w ere wider each time she looked back. Coyote stop his snoring and languidly opened one eye. Hi, he said. He unappealing his eye and resumed snoring.Calliope bent over and kissed Sams cheek. I think that went well, dont you?Sam laughed and grabbed her knee. Look, weve still got twenty hours on the road and Im going to need you to drive. So get some sleep, okay? I dont trust him at the wheel. Sam nodded toward Coyote.But hes a god, Calliope said.As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods/They kill us for their sport. What an icky thing to say.Sorry. Shakespeare wrote it. I cant get it out of my mind this week. Its like an old song that gets stuck.That happened to me once with Rocky Raccoon. Right, Sam said. Its exactly like that.CHAPTER 29ShiftingSam drove through the day and into the night and finally stopped at a transport stop outside of Salt Lake City. Calliope and Coyote had been awake for the last few hours, but neither had spoken very much. Calliope seemed abashed about talk ing to the trickster, now that she knew he was a god, and Coyote just stared out the window, either lost in his own thoughts or (Sam thought this more likely) absorbed in some new scheme to throw the great unwasheds lives into chaos. From time to time someone would break the silence by saying, middling rock a statement which covered the complete observational spectrum for Utahs adorn then they would lapse into silence for a half hour or so.Sam led them into the truck stop and they all took stools at a carousel counter among truckers and a couple of grungy hitchhikers who were hoping to cadge a ride. A barrel-shaped woman in an orange polyester uniform approached and poured them coffee without asking if they wanted it. Her name tag read, Arlene. You want something to eat, honey? she asked Calliope with an show warm with Southern hospitality. Sam wondered about this no matter where you go, truck-stop waitresses have a Southern accent.Do you have oatmeal? Calliope asked. How bout a little brown sugar on that? Arlene asked. She looked over rhinestone-framed reading glasses.Calliope smiled. That would be nice.How bout you, darlin? she said to Coyote.Drinks. Umbrellas and swords.Now you know bettern that come into Mormon verdant and order drinks. She shamed him with a wave of her finger.Coyote turned to Sam. Mormon country?They settled in this area. They believe that Jesus visited the Indian people after he rose from the dead.Oh him. I remember him. Hairy face, make a big deal about dying and coming back to life one time. Ha. He was funny. He tried to teach me how to walk on water. I can do it pretty good in the wintertime.Arlene giggled girlishly. I dont think you need any more to drink, hon. How bout some ham and eggs?Sam said, Thatll be fine, two of those, over easy.Sam watched Arlene move around the counter, flirting with some of the truckers like a saloon girl, clucking over others like a mother hen. She snuck a cinnamon roll to a scruffy teena ge hitchhiker with no money and asked after him like an elderly sister, then moved across the counter and found the kid a ride with a gruff cowboy trucker. One minute she was hex like a sailor, the next she was blushing like a virgin, and all the customers who sat at her counter got what they needed. Sam realized that he was ceremonial occasion a shape-shifter a kind and giving creature. Perhaps he was meant to notice. Perhaps that was what he needed. She was good. Maybe he was too.He turned to Calliope and caught her in the middle of losing a bite of oatmeal down her chin. We can do this, he said. Well get him back.I know, she said.You do?She nodded, wiping oatmeal off her chin with a napkin.Thats the scary thing about hope, she said. If you let it go too long it turns into faith. She scooped another bite of cereal.Sam smiled. He wished that he shared her confidence. Did you ever go to South Dakota with Lonnie? Will we be able to find them?I went to the big summer rally, not th is time of year. They dont camp with the other bikers. They rent land from a farmer in the hills. All the Guild chapters stay together there.Could you find it again?I think so. But theres only one dirt road leading in there. How leave behind we get Grubb out?Well, I guess just walking in and asking for him isnt going to work.They usually have guns. They get drunk and play shooting games.Coyote said, Wait for them to go to sleep, then sneak in and count coup.They dont really sleep, Calliope said. They do crank and drink all weekend.Then we will have to trick them.I was afraid youd say that, Sam said. He spun on his stool and looked out the windows of the truck stop to the gas pumps, where a black stretch Lincoln was just puff away.-=*=- Sam woke up in the passenger seat. The Z was parked sidelong on the side of the road, the headlights trained over a pasture. The drivers seat was empty. Coyote, who was curling up in the tiny space behind the seat, growled and popped his head out between the seat.Whats going on?I dont know. Sam looked around for Calliope. It was rain down out. Maybe she stopped to take a leak.There she is. Coyote pointed to a spot by the barbed-wire fence where Calliope was standing by a young calf, working furiously on something at the fence. A mother cow stood by watching.The calfs tail is stuck on the barbed wire, Coyote said.Sam opened the car door and stepped out into the rain just as Calliope finished untangling the calf, which scampered to its mother.Its okay, she called. I got him. She waved for him to get back into the car. She ran to the car and got in.Sorry, I had to stop. He looked so sad.Its okay. Pasture pals, right? Sam said.She grinned as she started the car. I thought we could use the karma balance.Sam looked for a road sign. Where are we?Almost there. We have to get going. Theres been a car behind us for a while. I got way ahead of it, but I felt like it was following us.She pulled onto the road, ramming through the gears like a grand prix driver. Sam was peeking at the speedometer when he saw a colored light blow by in the corner of his eye. What was that?The only stoplight in Sturgis, Calliope said. Im sorry, guys, it sort of snuck up on me. The Z goes better than it stops.Were here already? Sam said. But its still dark out.Its a few more miles to the farm, Calliope said. Sam, if a cop saw me go through that light can you take the wheel? My license is suspended.Sam suss out his watch, amazed at their progress. You must have averaged ninety the whole way.I had to go to jail the last time they caught me. Three months. They taught me to do smash ups for vocational training.You did three months for a traffic violation?There were a few of them, Calliope said. It wasnt bad I got a degree. Im a certified nail technician now. In jail it was mostly LOVE/HATE nails, but I was good at it. I would have had a career except the polish fumes give me a headache.Coyote pulled Grubbs blanket out of the hole in the back window and looked through. Its clear. Theres a car behind us but its not a cop.The sleeping town was only a block long a stoplight with accessories. Calliope drove them through town and turned south on a county road that wound into the Black Hills. Its a couple of minutes up this road to the turnoff, then about a mile in on a dirt road.Sam said, Turn off the lights when you make the turn. Well drive midway in and walk the rest of the way.Calliope made the turn onto a single-lane dirt road that led through a mystifying stand of lodgepole pines. The road was deeply rutted, the ruts filled with water. The Z bucked and render out in several places.Keep it moving steady, Sam said. Dont hit the gas or the wheels will dig into the mud. Christ, its dark.Its the trees, Calliope said. Theres a modify ahead where they camp.Sam was trying to peer into the darkness. To his right he thought he saw something. Stop. Calliope let the Z roll to a stop. Okay, Sam said. Hit the position l ights, just for a second. Calliope clicked the parking lights on and off.Thats what I thought, Sam said. Theres a cattle gate back there to the right. Back the Z in there so we can turn it around.Giving up? Coyote said.If we have to get out of here fast I dont want to have to back down this road. He got out of the car and directed Calliope as she sanction the Z in and turned it off. We walk from here.They got out of the car and started down the road, stepping between the puddles. The air was damp and cold, and smelled faintly of wood smoke and pine. When the work broke through the trees they could see their breath.Calliope said, Wait. She turned and ran back to the car, then returned in a moment with Grubbs blanket in hand. Hell want his wubby.Sam smiled in spite of himself, knowing the girl couldnt see his face in the dark. Never face heavily armed bikers without your wubby.Coyote and wood rabbitIts an old boloney. Coyote and his friend cottontail rabbit were hiding on a woode d hill above a camp, watching some girls leaping around the fire.Coyote said, Id sure like to get close to some of them.You wont get near them, Cottontail said. They know who you are.Maybe not, little one. Maybe not, Coyote said. Ill go down there in disguise.They wont let any man get close to them, Cottontail said.I wont be a man, Coyote said. Here, hold this. Coyote took off his penis and handed it to Cottontail. Now, when I come back into the woods I will call to you and you can bring me my penis. Then Coyote changed into an old woman and went down to the camp.He danced with the girls and pinched them and slapped their bottoms. Oh, Grandmother, the girls said, you are wicked. You must be that old trickster Coyote.Im just an old woman, Coyote said. Here, feel below my dress.One of the girls felt under Coyotes dress and said, She is just an old woman.Coyote pointed to two of the prettiest girls. Lets dance in the trees, he said. He danced with the girls into the woods and tickled them and made them roll around with him laughing. He touched them under their dresses until they said, Oh, Grandmother, you are wicked.Cottontail, come here Coyote called. But there was no answer. Wait here for your old grandmother to return, Coyote told the girls. He ran all over the woods calling for Cottontail, but could not find him. He went over that hill to the next one and still no Cottontail. He was excited and wanted very much to have sex with the girls, but alas, he could not find his penis.Finally the sun started coming up and the girls called, Old Grandmother, we cant wait for you any longer. We have to go home.Coyote stalked the hills cursing. That Cottontail, I will kill him for stealing my penis.As he walked he passed three other girls coming out of the woods. They were giggling and one of them was saying, He was so little, but he had such a big thing I thought I would split.Coyote ran in the bursting charge the girls had come from and found Cottontail sitting under a tree having a smoke Ill kill you, you little thief, Coyote cried.But Coyote, I pleasured the three many times and four times I made each of them cry out.Coyote was too tired from tickling and leap all night to stay mad. Really, four times each?Yep, Cottontail said, handing Coyote his member.I feel like I was there, Coyote said. You got a smoke?Sure, said Cottontail. Are you going to need your penis tonight? Coyote laughed and smoked with Cottontail while his little friend told the story of his long night of pleasuring.