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.She walks in beauty.Words recited years agoin a voice dry as the chalk dust choking the classroom s air, part of a poemPemberton had paid attention to only so he might laugh at its sentiment.But now he knew the truth of the words, for Serena s beauty was likethat something the world opened a guarded space around so it could goforth unsullied.After they d coupled, Pemberton listened to Serena s soft breathsmingle with the rain hitting the roof.She slept well now, in a deepnessbeyond dreams, she claimed.It had been that way since she d stayed inthe stable with the eagle, as though the nightmares had come thosetwo sleepless nights and, with no dream to enter, gone elsewhere, theway ghosts might who find a house they ve haunted suddenly vacated.The rain stopped during the night, the sky blue and cloudless by mid-day.Scouting, not hunting, Galloway had called their trip, searching fortracks and scat, a fresh-killed deer carcass with its heart ripped out, butPemberton took his rifle from the hall closet, just in case.When Pemberton walked down to the office, he found not only Gal-loway on the porch but also Galloway s mother.She wore the same aus-tere dress as last summer and a black satin bonnet that made her facerecede as if peering from a cave mouth.The old woman s shoes were cob-bled out of a reddish wood that looked to be cedar.Comical looking, butsomething else as well, Pemberton realized, a disconcerting otherness thatwas part of these mountains and would always be inexplicable to him. She likes to get out on a pretty day like this, Galloway explained. Says it warms her bones and gets her blood to f lowing good.Pemberton assumed getting out meant the office porch, but when hewalked over to the Packard, the old woman shuffled toward the car as well. Surely she s not going with us?  Not on the traipsing part, Galloway said,  just the riding.Galloway did not give Pemberton a chance to argue with the arrange-ment.He opened the Packard s back passenger door and helped hismother in before seating himself beside Pemberton. Serena 119They drove toward Waynesville a few miles before turning west.Theold woman pressed her face close to the window, but Pemberton couldn timagine what her blighted eyes could possibly see.They shared the roadwith families returning from church, most walking, some in wagons.AsPemberton passed these highlanders, they characteristically lowered theireyes so as not to meet his, a seeming act of deference belied by their re-fusal to sidle to the road s shoulder so he might get around them easier.When they drove into Bryson City, Galloway pointed at a storefront,shuler drugstore and apothecary lettered red on the window. We got to stop here a minute, he said.Galloway came out of the store with a small paper bag, which he gaveto his mother.The old woman clutched the folded top of the bag withboth hands, as if the bag s contents might attempt to escape. She s a fool for horehound candy, Galloway said as Pembertonshifted the car into gear. Does your mother ever speak?  Only if she s got something worth listening to, Galloway said. Shecan tell your future if you want.Tell you what your dreams mean too. No thanks, Pemberton said.They drove another few miles, passing small farms, a good numberinhabited only by what creatures sheltered inside the broken windowsand sagging roofs, foreclosure notices nailed on doors and porch beams.In the yard or field always some remnant left behind a rusty harrowor washtub, a child s frayed rope swing, some last forlorn claim on theplace.Pemberton turned where a leaning road sign said Deep Creek,traversing what might have been a dry river bed for all its swerves androcks and washouts.When Pemberton got to where the road ended, hesaw that a car was already parked in the small clearing. Kephart s?  Pemberton asked. He ain t got no car, Galloway said, and nodded at a tan lawman s hatset on the dash. Looks to be the high sheriff  s.Him and that old man isprobably out looking for pretty bugs or flowers or some such.The sher-iff  s near hep on naturing as Kephart is.120 r o n r a s hGalloway and Pemberton got out of the car, and Galloway opened theback door.The old woman was motionless except for her cheeks creas-ing and uncreasing like bellows with each suck of the candy.Gallowaywent around and opened the other back door as well. That way she can get her a nice breeze, Galloway said. That s whatshe s been craving [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]