Cities of the Plain tbt-3

by Cormac McCarthy

  Half an hour later they pulled off the highway and rumbled over the pipes of a cattleguard and drove up the milelong dirt road to the ranch house. The porchlight was on and three heeler dogs came out and ran beside the truck barking. Elton came out and stood on the porch with his hands in his back pockets and his hat on.

  They ate at a long table in the kitchen, passing bowls of hominy and okra and a great platter of fried steaks and biscuits.

  This is awful good, mam, Billy said.

  Elton's wife looked at him. You wouldnt mind not callin me mam would you?

  No mam.

  It makes me feel like a old woman.

  Yes mam.

  He cant help hisself, Troy said.

  That's all right, the woman said.

  You never let me off that easy.

  Bein let off easy was never somethin you needed more of, the woman said.

  I'll try not to say it, Billy said.

  There was a seven year old girl at the table and she watched them with wide eyes. They ate. After a while she said: What's wrong with it?

  What's wrong with what?

  Sayin mam.

  Elton looked up. There aint nothin wrong with it, honey. Your mama's just one of them modern kinds of women.

  What's a modern kind of woman?

  Eat your supper, the woman said. If your daddy had his way we wouldnt even have the wheel yet.

  They sat in old canebottomed chairs on the porch and Elton set the three glass tumblers on the board floor between his feet and unscrewed the cap from the bottle and poured three measures and put the cap back and stood the bottle on the floor and passed the glasses round and leaned back in his rocker. Salud, he said.

  He'd turned off the porchlight and they sat in the soft square of light from the window. He raised his glass to the light and looked through it like a chemist. You wont guess who's back at Bell's, he said.

  Dont even say her name.

  Well you did guess.

  Who else would it be?

  Elton leaned back in the chair and rocked. The dogs stood in the yard at the foot of the steps looking up at him.

  What, said Troy. Did her old man finally run her off?

  I dont know. She's supposed to be visitin. It's turned out to be kindly a long visit.

  Yeah.

  For whatever consolation there might be in that.

  It aint no consolation.

  Elton nodded. You're right, he said. It aint.

  Billy sipped the whiskey and looked out at the shapes of the mountains. Stars were falling everywhere.

  Rachel run smack into her in Alpine, said Elton. Little darlin just smiled and hidied like butter wouldnt melt in her mouth.

  Troy sat leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, the glass in both hands before him. Elton rocked.

  You remember we used to go down to Bloy's to try and pick up girls? That's where he met her at. Camp meetin. That'll make you ponder the ways of God. He asked her out and she told him she wouldnt go out with a man that drank. He looked her straight in the eye and told her he didnt drink. She like to fell over backwards. I guess it come as somethin of a shock to her to meet a even bigger liar than what she was. But he told the naked truth. Of course she called his hand on it. Said she knew for a fact he drank. Said everbody in Jeff Davis County knew he drank and drank plenty and was wild as a buck. He never batted a eye. Said he used to but he quit. She asked him when did he quit and he said I just now did. And she went out with him. And as far as I know he never took another drink. Till she quit him of course. By then he had a lot of catchin up to do. Tell me about the evils of liquor. Liquor aint nothin. But he was changed from that day.

  Is she still as good lookin?

  I dont know. I aint seen her. Rachel said she was. Satan hath power to assume a pleasing form. Them big blue eyes. Knew more ways to turn a man's head than the devil's grandmother. I dont know where they learn it at. Hell, she wasnt but seventeen.

  They're born with it, Troy said. They dont have to learn it.

  I hear you.

  What they dont seem to learn is not to just run over the top of some poor son of a bitch for the pure enjoyment of it.

  Billy sipped his whiskey.

  Let me have your glass, Elton said.

  He set it on the floor between his feet and poured the whiskey and recapped the bottle and reached and passed the glass across.

  Thanks, said Billy.

  Were you in the war? Elton said.

  No. I was fourE

  Elton nodded.

  I tried to enlist three different times but they wouldnt take me.

  I know you did. I tried to get overseas but I spent the whole war at Camp Pendleton. Johnny fought all over the Pacific theatre. He had whole companies shot out from under him. Never got a scratch. I think it bothered him.

  Troy handed across his glass and Elton set it on the floor and poured it and passed it back. Then he poured his own. He sat back. What are you lookin at? he asked the dog. The dog looked away.

  The thing that bothers me and then I'll shut up about it is that we had a hell of a row that mornin and I never had the chance to make it up. I told him to his face that he was a damn foolwhich he wasand that the worst thing he could do to the old boy was to let him have her. Which it was. I knew all about her by then. We like to come to blows over it. I never told you that. It was bad. I never saw him alive again. I should of just kept out of it. Anybody in the state he was in you cant talk to em noway. No use to try even.

  Troy watched him. You told me, he said.

  Yeah. I guess I did. I dont dream about him anymore. I used to all the time. I'd have these conversations with him.

  I thought you was goin to get off the subject.

  All right. It still seems like about the only subject there is, though. Dont it?

  He rose heavily from the chair with bottle and glass in hand. Let's walk out to the barn. I'll show you the foal that Jones mare throwed you never did think much oPS Just bring your all's glasses. I got the bottle.

  * * *

  THEY RODE ALL MORNING through the open juniper country, keeping to the gravelly ridges. A storm was making up over the Sierra Viejas to the west and over the broad plain that ran south from the Guadalupes down around the Cuesta del Burro range and on to Presidio and the border. They crossed the upper reaches of the creek at noon and sat among the yellow leaves and watched leaves turn and drift in a pool while they ate the lunch that Rachel had packed for them.

  Look at this, said Troy.

  What is it?

  A tablecloth.

  Damn.

  He poured coffee from a thermos into their cups. The turkey sandwiches they ate were wrapped in cloth.

  What's in the other thermos?

  Soup.

  Soup?

  Soup.

  Damn.

  They ate.

  How long has he been manager down here?

  About two years.

  Billy nodded. Did he not offer to hire you on before now?

  He did. I told him I didnt mind workin with him but I wasnt all that sure about workin for him.

  What made you change your mind?

  I aint changed it. I'm just thinkin about it.

  They ate. Troy nodded downcountry. They say there's been a white man ambushed ever mile of this draw.

  Billy studied the country. Looks like they'd of learned to stay out of it.

  When they'd done eating Troy poured the rest of the coffee into their cups and screwed the cap back on the thermos and laid it by with the soup and the sandwich cloths and the still folded tablecloth to pack back in the saddlebags. They sat sipping the coffee. The horses standing downstream side by side looked up from their drinking in the creek. They had wet leaves stuck to their noses.

  Elton's got his own notions about what happened, Troy said. Johnny if he hadnt of found that girl would of found somethin else. You couldnt head him. Elton says he changed. He never changed. He was four years older than me. Not a l
ot of years. But he walked ground I'll never see. Glad not to see. People always said he was bullheaded, but it wasnt just that. He fought Daddy one time he wasnt but fifteen. Fistfought him. Made the old man fight him. Told him to his face that he respected him and all but that he wasnt goin to take what he'd said. Somethin the old man had chewed him out over. I cried like a baby. He didnt cry. Kept gettin up. Nose all busted and all. The old man kept tellin him to stay down. Hell, the old man was cryin. I hope I never see nothin like it again. I can think about it now and it makes me sick. And there was nothin any mortal man could of done to of stopped it.

  What happened?

  The old man finally walked off. He was beat and he knew it. Johnny standin there. Couldnt hardly stand up. Callin to him to come back. The old man wouldnt even turn around. He just went on to the house.

  Troy looked into the bottom of his cup. He slung the dregs out across the leaves.

  It wasnt just her. There's a kind of man that when he cant have what he wants he wont take the next best thing but the worst he can find. Elton thinks he was that kind and maybe he was. But I think he loved that girl. I think he knew what she was and he didnt care. I think it was his own self he was blind to. I think he was just lost. This world was never made for him. He'd outlived it before he could walk. Get married. Hell. He couldnt even stand to wear laceup shoes.

  You liked him though.

  Troy looked off down through the trees. Well, he said. I dont guess like really says it. I cant talk about it. I wanted to be like him. But I wasnt. I tried.

  He was your dad's favorite I reckon.

  Oh yeah. It wasnt a problem with anybody. It was just known. Accepted. Hell. It wasnt even a contest. You ready?

  I'm ready.

  He rose. He placed the flat of his hand in the small of his back and stretched. He looked at Billy. I loved him, he said. So did Elton. You couldnt not. That was all there was to it.

  He folded the cloths under his arm together with the thermos bottles. They hadnt even looked to see what the soup was. He turned and looked back at Billy. So how do you like this country?

  I like it.

  I do too. Always have.

  So you comin down here?

  No.

  It was dusk when they rode into Fort Davis. Nighthawks were circling over the old parade grounds when they passed and the sky over the mountains behind them was blood red. Elton was waiting with the truck and horsetrailer in front of the Limpia Hotel. They unsaddled the horses in the graveled parking lot and put the saddles in the bed of the truck and wiped the horses down and loaded them in the trailer and went into the hotel and through the lobby to the coffeeshop.

  How did you like that little horse? said Elton.

  I liked him fine, said Billy. We got along good.

  They sat and studied the menus. What are you all havin? said Elton.

  They left around ten oclock. Elton stood in the yard with his hands in his back pockets. He was still standing there, just the silhouette of him against the porchlight, when they rounded the curve at the end of the drive and went on toward the highway.

  Billy drove. He looked over at Troy. You goin to stay awake aint you?

  Yeah. I'm awake.

  You've done decided?

  Yeah, I think so.

  We're goin to have to go somewheres.

  Yeah. I know it.

  You aint asked me what I thought.

  Well. You aint comin down here unless I do and I aint. So what would be the use in me askin?

  Billy didnt answer.

  After a while Troy said: Hell, I knew I wasnt comin back down here.

  Yeah.

  You go back home and everthing you wished was different is still the same and everthing you wished was the same is different.

  I know what you mean.

  I think especially if you're the youngest. You wasnt the youngest in your family was you?

  No. I was the oldest.

  You dont want to be the youngest. I can tell you right now. There aint no percentage in it.

  They drove on through the mountains. About a mile past the intersection with highway 166 there was a truckload of Mexicans pulled off onto the grass. They stood almost into the road waving their hats. Billy slowed.

  The hell with that, said Troy.

  Billy drove past. He looked in the rearview mirror but he could see nothing but the dark of the road and the deep of the desert night. He pulled the truck slowly to a halt.

  Damn it, Parham, Troy said.

  I know. I just cant do it.

  You're fixin to get us in a jackpot here we wont get home till daylight.

  I know it.

  He put the truck into reverse and began to grind slowly back down the highway, using the white line running from under the front of the truck to steer by. When the other truck hove into view alongside them he could see that the right front tire was down.

  They gathered around the cab. Punchada, they said. Tenemos una Manta punchada.

  Puedo verlo, said Billy. He pulled off the road and climbed out. Troy lit a cigarette and shook his head.

  They needed a jack. Did they have a spare? S'. Por supuesto.

  He got the jack out of the bed and they carried it back to the truck and commenced to jack the front end up. They had two spares and neither of them would hold air. They spelled each other at the antique tirepump. Finally they raised up and looked at Billy.

  He got the tiretools out of the truckbed and came around and got the patchkit and a flashlight from under the seat. They carried one of the spares out into the road and laid it down and stood on it to break the bead and then the man who'd taken the tools from Billy stepped forward and began to pry the tire up off the rim while the others watched. The innertube that he snaked out of the tire's inner cavity was made of red rubber and there was a whole plague of patches upon it. He laid it out on the macadam and Billy trained the light over it. Hay parches sobre los parches, he said.

  Es verdad, the man said.

  La otra?

  Est++ peon

  One of the younger men manned the tirepump and the tube bloated slowly up in the road and sat hissing. He knelt and put his ear to the various leaks. Billy flipped open the tin lid of the patchcan and thumbed the number of repairs it contained. Troy had climbed out of the truck and he walked back and stood smoking quietly and looking at the tire and the tube and the Mexicans.

  The Mexicans wheeled the blown tire around the side of the truck and Billy put the light on it. There was a great ragged hole in the sidewall. It looked like it had been chewed by bulldogs. Troy spat quietly in the road. The Mexicans threw the tire up onto the bed of the truck.

  Billy took the stub of chalk from the patchkit and circled the leaks in the tube and they unscrewed the valvestem from the valve and sat on the tube and then walked it down till it was dead flat. Then they sat in the road with the white line running past their elbows and the gaudy desert night overhead, the myriad constellations moving upon the blackness subtly as sealife, and they worked with the dull red shape of rubber in their laps, squatting like tailors or menders of nets. They scuffed the rubber with the little tin grater stamped into the lid of the kit and they laid on the patches and fired them with a match one by one till all were fused and all were done. When they had the tube pumped up again they sat in the road in the quiet desert dark and listened.

  Oye algo? said Billy.

  Nada.

  They sat listening.

  He unscrewed the valvestem again and when they had the tube deflated the man slid it down inside the tire and worked it around the rim and fitted the valve and the boy came forward with the pump and began to pump up the tire. He was a long time pumping. When the bead popped on the rim he stopped and they unscrewed the hose from the valve and the man took the valvestem from his mouth and screwed it into the hissing valve and then they stepped back and looked at Billy. He spat and turned and walked back to the truck to get the tiregauge.

  Troy was asleep in the front se
at. Billy got the gauge out of the glovebox and walked back and they gauged the tire and then rolled it over to the truck and slid it onto the hub and tightened down the lugnuts with a wrench made from a socket welded onto a length of heavy iron pipe. Then they let down the jack and pulled it from under the truck and handed it to Billy.

  He took the jack and tiretools and put the patchkit and the gauge in his shirtpocket and the flashlight in the back pocket of his jeans. Then they shook hands all the way around.

  Ad-nde van? said Billy.

  The man shrugged. He said that they were going to Sanderson Texas. He turned and looked off across the dark headlands to the east. The younger men stood about them.

  Hay trabajo all++?

  He shrugged again. Espero que s', he said. He looked at Billy. Es vaquero?

  S'. Vaquero.

  The man nodded. It was a vaquero's country and other men's troubles were alien to it and that was about all that could be said. They shook hands again and the Mexicans clambered aboard the truck and the truck cranked and coughed and started and lumbered slowly out onto the roadway. The men and boys in the bed of the truck stood and raised their hands. He could see them above the dark hump of the cab, against the deep burnt cobalt of the sky. The single taillight had a short in the wiring and it winked on and off like a signal until the truck had rounded the curve and vanished.

  He put the jack and tools in the pickup and opened the door and nudged Troy awake.

  Let's go, cowboy.

  Troy sat and stared out at the empty road. He looked back behind them.

  Where'd they go?

  They're done gone.

  What time is it do you reckon?

  I dont know.

  Are you done bein a Samaritan?

  I'm done.

  He leaned and opened the glovebox door and put the patchkit and the tiregauge and the flashlight in and shut the door and started the engine.

  Where were they headed? Troy said.

  Sanderson.

  Sanderson?

  Yeah.

  Where were they comin from?

  I dont know. They didnt say.

  I bet they aint even goin to Sanderson, Troy said.