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.She'd play Trivial Pursuit and Boggle and a card game called spoons, and if not for this image in her mind of Terry Sheldon in a nice sports coat or a sweater and khaki pants, she figured she would have a pretty good time.She liked games, and she liked the people who were having the party.But there was that picture in her head of Terry, and she realized days before New Year's Eve that it was going to cast a shadow upon her evening: She wanted to be spending the evening with him.This was most certainly something she shouldn't be thinking about, she decided, since it was most certainly something she couldn't have.Unfortunately, something was happening to her, that was clear.She was missing him only hours after they'd parted Wednesday afternoon, so much so that she drove on into Newport and went to the bar where they'd had their very first drink.She stood at the bar and chatted with the bartender--a guy who was actually a couple of years younger than she was--and drank a Diet Pepsi, and glanced back every so often at the table where she and Terry had sat drinking their first night together.It was funny, but she didn't miss beer.She feared that the urge to have one would be overpowering if she stepped inside the bar, but it wasn't.She attributed this to maternal wisdom and protectiveness, and decided that although she was a--and she actually found herself rolling her eyes when the words formed in her mind--home-wrecking slut, she probably wouldn't be a bad mom."I don't think [George Rowe] felt guilty.My husband was his enemy.When we got to know each other, he said he'd only brought the Captain's wife to my children because he thought she would be able to make them stop coughing and the fort would be a quieter place.That was a joke, of course.White people didn't think he was very funny because he could be so angry around them, but he really was a very funny man."VERONICA ROWE (FORMERLY POPPING TREES),WPA INTERVIEW,MARCH 1938*AlfredIt was a Wednesday but the school was still closed for Christmas break, and so he called Tim Acker around nine in the morning from the phone in the kitchen to see if he wanted to come over and see the horse.Alfred hadn't introduced Mesa to any of the boys in his class yet, but Paul had said he could, and he'd certainly told a few of them about her.Some, like Schuyler Jackman and Joe Langford, had expressed absolutely no interest, and he presumed at first that this was only because horses were not uncommon in this part of the state--there were two kids in the class whose families he knew owned at least one--but then he began to understand that it was actually because they viewed horses as a hobby for girls.Joe had gone out of his way to inform him that his older sister had taken riding lessons for years at an outdoor stable in Middlebury, and he had dreaded being dragged there by his mother when he was seven and eight years old--too young to stay home alone after school, and so he'd have to accompany his sister to her lessons.The problem--an opinion Joe made clear to Alfred in front of both Schuyler and Tim Acker--was that only girls were interested in horses, and so there was never a boy to be found at the stable.Lots of girls, no boys: a bad combination when you're eight.Alfred thought he might bring the book about the buffalo soldiers into school someday in January and show Joe the old black-and-white photographs of the black men on their horses.Nothing effeminate about them.Tim had displayed a little more enthusiasm at the idea of visiting the Morgan--not a lot, but at least he hadn't been negative--which was why he decided to call him first.His mom said he'd spent the night at a friend's house, however (Schuyler's? Alfred wondered.Joe Langford's?), and he probably wouldn't be home much before lunch.Unfortunately, that didn't do him any good because Louise was coming back for another visit in the afternoon, and the last thing he wanted was to have one of the kids in his class meet Louise.The whole idea that there was this person from the state who popped into his life every so often because he didn't have a real mom or dad just helped to set him even further apart.Briefly he considered calling somebody else, but he decided he didn't want to find out how big the sleepover was, or--worse--inadvertently phone the very house where it was occurring.He heard Laura coming down the stairs and he realized she'd ask him if he wanted a friend to come over or whether there was someone in town he wanted to see, and he knew he wouldn't be able to bear the look on her face when he said no to both questions.And so he decided it was a nice enough day outside that he might as well lie and ask her to drive him to Schuyler's house.He could probably walk around the village for a while--it wasn't Burlington, but he was an expert at killing time--and then walk back here after lunch.It would take some time, but that was the whole point, wasn't it? He'd tell Laura, of course, that Schuyler's mom had driven him home (he'd even use that word home and make everyone happy), and by then it would be early afternoon and he could wander across the street and visit Mesa himself.Get her all ready for when Louise got there, and he could show her just how well he could ride."Custer may have been a good Indian fighter, but I wasn't vexed by his death.When we were at Fort Sill, our horses were the animals cast off by his illustrious Seventh Cavalry.I've also heard the rumor--as I am sure you have, too--that he was offered a lieutenant colonelcy in the Ninth just after the war, and turned it down because he wanted nothing to do with Negroes on horses."SERGEANT GEORGE ROWE,TENTH REGIMENT, UNITED STATES CAVALRY,UNDATED LETTER TO HIS BROTHERIN PHILADELPHIA*The HebertsA fine blue mist was emerging from the horse's nostrils as he ran his hands down the muscles--as wide as a tire, he thought--that lined Mesa's neck.She turned toward him, her ears pricked, and he slipped her a piece of carrot the size of his thumb.He decided she was happy.She liked him and she liked the boy, and she was warm and well-fed.It wasn't a bad life [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]