Excerpt from Chapter 3: at
his daughter's wedding reception, Ennis meets some guests from
Georgia and Minnesota and makes an unexpected friend.
They
were suddenly joined by a blonde woman of about 30, dressed in a
bright pink suit. She smiled briefly at Ennis, a smile that was a
notable achievement of both practice and dentistry although he
thought immediately of his horses’ teeth coated in white paint.
The fruity aroma of the cologne she was wearing was neither too
strong nor cloying but it seemed to fit her nevertheless: a piece of
delectable fruit still sweet and juicy but a little soft here and
there, recently overripe.
“Oh
here you are, Gramma,” sitting down on the other side of
Alexandria, the younger woman didn’t appear to even notice Ennis.
“Well, this has been an interestin’
wedding, thank God I wasn’t one of the bridesmaids, what with those
dresses, I mean, why in the world would she pick that shade of green?
Made Luanne’s skin look like a piece of cheese somebody forgot in
the refrigerator –“
“Charlene,”
Alexandria’s voice a little louder now, “I don’t believe you
and Mr. del Mar had met. The bride’s father, Mr. del Mar, this is
my granddaughter Charlene.” Suddenly wanting to find yet another
escape route, Ennis nodded to her. She looked searchingly at him and
he was conscious of his older suit, his weathered skin, the age that
he knew had crept closer in the last year. “Well, your daughter is
just beautiful, Mr. del Mar, I was tellin’ Curt just a few minutes
ago.” She gave him another carefully orchestrated smile to match
her voice and apparently dismissing him, turned to Alexandria again.
“Can you believe the climate here, all that wind?
Just two days and my skin feels like old newspaper.”
“I
know, dear,” Alexandria said evenly. “It was good of you and
your Mama to come with me. I hadn’t seen Curt and Luanne in years,
and I’m so glad David decided to come. I haven’t seen him since
he moved North.”
“Just
as well he’s here, if you want to see him. I mean, we won’t be
seeing David at his
wedding anytime soon, not unless they change the laws and Nathan
comes back to life.”
“That’s
none of your business, Charlene,” Alexandria said in a low, warning
voice but Ennis scarcely heard. He looked down at the table, his
face feeling too warm and his stomach slightly queasy.
“Mama,
I need you and Charlene to come with me,” a brisk woman’s voice
said. She looked like an older version of Charlene but had an aura
of authority about her. Ennis would have been reminded of some of
the ladies he’d met at the few church events Alma had talked him
into years ago, but all he could see was the man who was with her,
the same man he’d half-mistaken for Jack a few minutes ago. “David
was telling me the photographer is still here,” the woman continued
to Alexandria, “and he suggested we have our pictures taken with
Curt and the bride. Three generations.”
“Not
unless they change the laws and Nathan comes back to life”….
For
a terrible moment, the old terror and nausea started to overcome him.
One hand gripped the seat of the chair he was sitting on hard enough
that his fingers ached; the old slapdown voice, struggling to
override his pledges to Jack, started to work its way up:
he knows in a minute everybody will know get it away from you now or
you’ll catch it, queer faggot it was just Jack…
Mechanically, he pushed himself up out of the chair, heard only a
few words of the introduction, “my daughter Carol,” a quick
handshake and then there was no avoiding it, David with his hand
politely extended. Ennis took it briefly and for a moment he could
feel every cell of his own right hand, clasping a man’s hand that
was so different from Jack’s, a little darker and with short, blunt
fingers, oddly like a surgeon’s hands.
Read
Chapter 3 at http://talkstocoyotes.livejournal.com/1066.html
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