by Martin Clark
“Ah, the book theory,” Evers smiled. “That’s a solid start. At least that’ll keep me around for a good long time—dusty and dull, but still in the library.”
“Fair enough.”
He looked at Pauletta, then looked around the room. “I’m going to sit on the porch while you finish cooking, okay? Before we get into a quarrel.”
“Fine with me. I really didn’t expect you to help.”
“Would you put the flowers in a jar?”
Evers left the kitchen and walked onto the screened-in porch and sat down in a metal chair. He began listening to the first night noises: insects and cars and radios. He could smell food from the kitchen, something Pauletta was cooking, meat and spices. Earlier, after he’d dug out the croquet set, he had bundled up stacks of old National Geographics in the garage, tied them together with a perfect knot that wouldn’t let go. He rubbed his fingers across the metalwork underneath the arms of the chair, felt the swirls and ornaments, the hard, smooth designs on each side of him, and for the first time in years he felt braced and sound; the world wasn’t shaking underneath him, and he wasn’t tumbling around in a slipstream, waiting to hit bottom. He recounted things in his mind, how he’d gotten back to his house, and he thought about his brother, sitting in jail, and decided he would clean up the trailer before Pascal got home, replace the window that had been sealed up with particleboard and fix the screen door. And he was going to get rid of the shrine, the jar of tape and plastic and tears, because none of them needed a frozen ketchup top filled with white crying, not really.
Somewhere in Chatham, Evers imagined, young girls were filing into the dining hall, without a care in the world. Soon, on Sunday, he would see Pascal. He felt a twinge in his stomach, something deep and visceral. He slid down in his chair and watched the world change, shedding its last hues, keeping time, everything working just right.
Miles away at Vaughn Ford-Lincoln-Mercury-Jeep-Eagle-Isuzu, Ruth Esther was talking to a physician, a sad man with irritated eyes, convincing him that he should travel to Mexico to treat her brother for a knife wound that hadn’t been reported to the authorities, promising the doctor some money but, most importantly, a trip—a winding, rollicking journey that would right his life and clear his head.
Copyright © 2000 by Martin Clark
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
Originally published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2000.
Vintage is a registered trademark and Vintage Contemporaries and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the Knopf edition as follows:
Clark, Martin.
The many aspects of mobile home living : a novel / Martin Clark.—1st ed.
345p. ; 25 cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-56599-0
1. Judges—Fiction 2. North Carolina—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3553.L2865 M36 2000
813’.6—dc21 00-702755
CIP
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