"01 - The Lion of Farside" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

Not that it was a mean laugh. There wasnТt any meanness to Varia at all.
I said earlier that she had to have been strange to marry Uncle Will. As a farmer, Will was seriously short on judgement, though otherwise he seemed reasonably smart. HeТd take a notion to do the darnedest things. His place was right next to ours, with his northeast forty up against our northwest forty, and right in the middle of the two forties was a thirty-acre clay pocket too heavy and wet for growing anything but hay. So thatТs what weТd always used it for, a hay meadow. Anyway, this one spring day I was fixing fence and saw Will out there plowing his half of it, turning over that nice stand of grass. His team had all it could do to pull the moldboard through it.
Naturally I was curious, so I went over and asked how come he was plowing it. УGonna plant potatoes,Ф he told me. Potatoes in clay! Was it anyone else, IТd have thought he was fooling. What he ended up with was a worn-out team, busted up harness, and twelve acres of ground that, when the top dried out, was like a cobblestone pavement. Afterward, when he tried harrowing it, the disks just hopped along the top. I was only fourteen at the time, but I sure as heck knew betterТn to do something like that. When Pa saw it, he just shook his head. So far as I know, he never said anything to Will about it. WouldnТt have done any good.
But if Will was a little short sometimes between the ears, he made up for it further down. The Macurdy men were well known for their strength, but Will was almost surely the strongest man in Washington County, and fast-moving. He could outwork most two men. Even if he didnТt have hair on his chest, or any whiskers beyond a little peach fuzz. That was typical of Macurdy men, too, and a little embarrassing when I was a teenager.
Anyway he got so he did a lot of work off the farm, which was just as well, considering the kind of farming decisions he sometimes made. Most of his land he rented to Pa, and didnТt keep much stock to tend to. A few pigs, a couple of cows that Varia milked, and a team of horses he used logging. He worked for the barrel works a lot of the time, logging white oak cooperage, and cutting up the tops for the Barlow brothersТ brick kiln.
And it wasnТt just WillТs muscles that were big. The Bible says you mustnТt show yourself nekkit to folks, but we all figured that rule didnТt hold down by the Sycamore Bend. ThatТs where us boys used to swim. And Harley Burton used to have easily the biggest one of all the kids that swam there. (Course, I was only nine, ten years old then. By the time I turned fourteen, and seemed likely to beat him out, Harley was off to France in the Army, helping teach the Kaiser a lesson.) Anyway, when I was about ten, I mentioned to Pa how big HarleyТs was, and Pa said heТd be surprised if HarleyТs was near as big as WillТs. Said there was someone like that in every generation of Macurdies, but Will had outdone himself. After that I was always a little curious to see what Will had, but of course I never did.
Will was the youngest of three boys, Pa being the oldest. (The Macurdies had always been cursed with what folks around there considered small families; IТd find out more about that later.) I was a little kid five years old when he married Varia. Will was about twenty-five at the time. Even then, I wondered why such a pretty girl would marry someone strange as Will. Some months later she got with child, and when she was supposedly about five months along, Will took her into town. SheТd take the train to Evansville, she said, to get cared for and midwifed by her gramma on her mamaТs side. Some folks thought that was an insult to the Macurdy clan, and to Doc Simmons, and it seemed awful soon, only five months along. But Will was content, so no one in the family said anything. Us Macurdies have always been easy going; let folks pretty much be what they are. And VariaТd said the women in her family had a lot of trouble carrying to full term and birthing, so she wanted to be with her own gramma.
She was back about six weeks later, her belly down to normal, which on her was flat. And didnТt have any baby with her. No one was surprised at that, of course; she hadnТt carried it long enough. Miscarried, she told Mamma, like sheТd been afraid she might. No one troubled her to tell more; didnТt want to grieve her.
Melissy Turnbuck told Julie she wondered if the baby hadnТt been the victim of an orangewood knitting needle. Julie slapped her face for that; I saw her do it. The only one more surprised than me was Melissy. Years later, Julie told me that Varia having an abortion at five, six months wouldnТt make sense anyway. Julie worked for Doc Simmons then, and explained that five months is too far along for that.
Afterward, Varia got with child about every other yearЧpretty remarkable in our familyЧand always went off to her gramma, and never came home with anything more than her suitcase. After about the third time, we came to expect it, but she and Will kept trying.
By then weТd come to know that she was strange in other ways than her miscarriages, her tilty green eyes, and laughing at odd times. Because us kids were growing up, and Will didnТt look all that young anymoreЧbut Varia didnТt look any different. In fact, when I was twenty-five, she still looked twenty, though she had to be around forty by then, at least.
ThatТs the year a big old white oak barber-chaired on WillЧsplit up from the stump, kicked loose about ten feet up, and fell on him. White oakТs treacherous that way; the main reason folks log it is, itТs the only tree thatТs much good for wet cooperage, so itТs worth a lot. The one that got him had a butt betterТn three feet across. HeТd chained it and all before he ever picked up the ax, and tightened the chain with wedges, but the grab hook broke off! Ed Lewis, on the other end of the saw, said all he could see of Will was his left boot and right arm; the rest of him was under that big oak butt, squashed flat as pie crust. It shook Ed so bad, he quit logging; got a job at SingletonТs, delivering coal and hogged stovewood. After they got the tree off Will, Byron Haskell, the undertaker, said he never before saw anything looked like that, and hoped never to again. The casket was kept closed, of course.
Pa said one thing about it was, Will died too quick to suffer.
Ma commented on how brave Varia was, what a strong front she put up, though she did look a little pale and drawn for a while. Afterward a couple of fellas around there tried paying court to her. Pretty as she was, the prettiest woman in Washington County, you might have thought thereТd be more, quite a few more, but there was only the two. Unless you count old Lennox Campbell drooling on his vest. Could be they were scared off by how young she looked for her age, plus when it came to giving birth, she seemed sterile as a freemartin.
Or maybe they knew without knowing that she wasnТt shopping for a man.
She stayed on the farm for more than another year, all by herself. DidnТt seem right, even when you knew she was forty or whatever. A new Watkins man was going around, and when she answered the door to him, he asked if her mother was home. She did her own milking, dunged out her barn, gardened, fed her cows and chickensЧstuff like that. Sold her team to Pa, though, and her hogs, and Pa agreed weТd farm her land for her on shares. She helped with things like shocking corn and oats, the way sheТd always done. Even slim as she was, she was strong, and no one ever knew her to get sick, not even a cold.
At first Frank and I took turns going over and doing whatever heavy work there was to do; it was less than forty rod from our place to hers. But after a little, it seemed like it fell to me to do most of it, which I didnТt mind. It was all family. We kept expecting her to get tired of being alone like that. Figured sheТd either marry or go someplace she had blood kin. Evansville, probably.
Finally, after more than a year, she asked Pa if heТd like to buy her place. If the terms werenТt too hard, he said, so they sat down together and worked out an agreement. That was in February; she figured to leave in April. And suddenly the whole family realized how much weТd miss herЧMa, Pa, all of us.
Right after that, I was over there with the spreader, getting her manure spread before plowing. I was pitching on a load when she came out to the barn and told me she was driving into town. (WillТd bought a Model A truck.) She said if I wanted to take a break, there was half a peach pie in the pantry; eat all I wanted of it. Then she left.
That sounded all right to me. Matter of fact, I got so excited, I couldnТt hardly hold myself till she drove off. And it wasnТt the pie I was excited about, it was the house! I didnТt even finish loading the spreader, just put the pitchfork aside and went out with half a load. Soon as I got back with the empty spreader, I went to the house, left my barn boots on her porch, and went in. I didnТt know what had got into me, but I was practically shaking.
IТd lived just down the road from it all my life, but never seen much of the inside; IТd hardly gotten farther than the kitchen. Our house was a lot bigger, so all the family get-togethers were held either there or at Max and JulieТs over on the Maple Hill Road, turn and turn about. Now, alone inside, I asked myself why in the world I was so shaky-excited about a chance to snoop around VariaТs house. I walked all through it, just walked through it looking around, and I realized that what I was looking for was pictures: family photos. Not of the Macurdy family, but hers! Seemed to me there ought to be some, and I wanted to see what they looked like. Wanted to see so bad, my chest felt all tight.
I didnТt find any on the walls, so I started looking through dresser drawers and closet shelves for albums, or maybe boxes that might have pictures in them. Not mussing anything up; what I surely didnТt want was for Varia to know. And when I didnТt find anything downstairs, I went up in the attic.
The first thing my eyes hit on up there was a chest. Unlocked. I opened it, and right on top was this big brown envelope that I knew had to have pictures in it. I went over by the window with it, and took out what was inside.
On top was what looked like a letter, a letter I couldnТt have read if IТd stood there all week. Could have been Chinese for all of me. Under it was pictures, snapshots. And if I hadnТt thought before that Varia was peculiar, the pictures would have done it for me.
They were of children. The first showed four little boys alike as twinsЧlooking a bit like Will, but with VariaТs tilty eyes. The next was of five little girls, like twins again, and there wasnТt any question who the mother was: Varia. In fact there was fiveЧlitters, I guess you could call them, the youngest of them looking about two years old. And written under each child, real small, was what might have been a name.
I didnТt have any doubt at all that they were WillТs and VariaТs kids. Twenty-three little Macurdies, except I doubted they thought of themselves that way. Five litters. But VariaТd gone off pregnant probably eight or nine different timesЧmore than five, anyway. So all told, it seemed to me sheТd given birth to some forty. Having litters and a short term explained why sheТd started to swell so early, but even so, they couldnТt have been much bigger than squirrels when they were born. I was amazed theyТd lived. Seemed like with Varia, Will was more fertile than all the Macurdy men since God knew when.
And if all that wasnТt enough, they were dressed strange, in little coveralls about half snug, like they were tailor-made. Tucked into little black, pull-on boots coming not much above the ankles. Looked like they were dressed for Sunday, but not at the Oak Creek Presbyterian Church. The little girls had VariaТs long hair, fastened like hers in twin horse tails that hung down over the front of their shoulders. The boysТ heads were just about shaved, and they stood there at attention like grinning little soldiers. All of them, boys and girls alike, would have their mammaТs green eyes, I had no doubt, and they looked to be standing in front of a low building with white stone pillars. DidnТt look like any studio backdrop, either. Looked real. Those picturesЧkids and buildingЧgave me chill bumps like a plucked turkey.
And there was one other picture, which I took one glance at and covered up quick as I could. Then I put them all back in the envelope in the same order theyТd been in, and put the envelope back in the chest the way IТd found it. Closed the lid, and went back downstairs, all of a sudden scared to death that Varia might come back before I got out of there. Because she had a big big secret, and IТd found it out.
I went right back to spreading manure; didnТt have the nerve to stay and eat any pie. When I heard the eleven-forty train whistling for the Ramsey Road crossing, I unhitched the team and drove them home. Halfway there, Varia passed me in the Model A. I didnТt even wave; I was afraid sheТd stop to talk. When she drove by, I could feel those bright green eyes right on me, and it seemed to me she knew what IТd done, what IТd found out. My mouth was drierТn dust. I didnТt know how I could ever face her again.

That night I dreamt about Varia. I dreamt I was over to plow her garden patch and couldnТt get the plow in the ground, which was all paved over with brick. Then she came out to me wearing only a shirt, one of WillТs, the tails scarcely halfway to her knees, and unbuttoned down far enough at the top, I could see the roundness of her titties. I was sure she wasnТt wearing anything underneath it. She invited me in for pie. Her tilty green eyes were bigger than ever, and smiling, she asked me what the trouble was. I said I couldnТt get it in, that it was too hard, meaning the plow and the ground. She laughed and put her fingers on my cheek, and said it couldnТt ever be too hard. My face got hot as a depot stove, and somehow we werenТt in her garden patch anymore, but in my bedroom. And I wasnТt asleep anymore, it seemed like. Nor was Varia there, really, but only her ghost, so to speak. I could see right through her. But I could still feel where her fingers had touched my cheek.
УHavenТt you ever wanted to be a daddy, Curtis?Ф she asked. Her voice was soft when she said it, not at all like a witch.
I swallowed and told her IТd never thought about it.
УWell then, have you ever wanted to be in bed with a pretty woman?Ф
I couldnТt moreТn nod. Frank and meТd been to see the Linzler sisters a couple times, on their farm outside Salem; they charge two dollars. And I screwed Maudie Hodge a few times in her daddyТs hayloft. Wearing a French safe, except the first time with Maudie. I didnТt want to have to marry anyone, surely not Maudie Hodge, and you couldnТt know but what the Linzler sisters might have the clap, or worse. None of them were really pretty; nowhere near as pretty as Varia. Of course, they didnТt drop whole litters of strange, smiling little kids, either.
Anyway she took me by the hand and we walked out of the house together, her transparent in the moonlight. And somehow I didnТt have my pajamas on, but my regular pants and shirt, and my barn boots. Which about three-quarters decided me I was still dreaming. IТve looked back on that night more times than IТd care to count, and IТm still not sure.
When we got to her house, another her was waiting on the back porch, this second Varia not transparent at all. She wore what looked like the same shirt, plaid flannel. The first Varia stepped up to the second Varia and they melted right into one another, while I found myself taking off my barn boots. Then, chuckling like she does, she opened the storm door. And the hinge squeaked, making me start like someone waking up.
And there I was, really on her porch, like IТd sleepwalked there. I mean really on her porch. No way was this a dream any longer. УYou didnТt eat your pie,Ф she said softly, and chuckled again. I walked through that door like I was bewitchedЧI couldnТt have stayed out any more than I could have flown by flapping my armsЧand she closed it behind us. Then, in the kitchen, she put her arms around me and kissed me like nothing I ever imagined, and led me by the hand into her bedroom.
УCurtis,Ф she said softly, Уsince Will died, youТre the strongest of the Macurdies, and youТre smarter than Will. A lot smarter; you have no idea yet how smart, how able. Perhaps you never will. Although your uncle was more intelligent than people gave him credit for, and a nice nice man. I became very fond of him.Ф
I only about half heard what she was saying, because she was unbuttoning my shirt while she talked. УYouТll give us fine children, Curtis. More than fine. TheyТll be pleased about that.Ф They? I thought. Then she kissed me again, and stepped back and smiled at me. УWill and I did have children, you know. The ones you saw in the pictures this morning.Ф
I stared at her. She knew all right, just like I figured. Then she stepped around behind me and pulled off my shirt, put her arms around me and unbuckled my beltЧand felt around inside while she kissed my back. Now she knew what I didnТtЧhow I sized up with Will. I couldnТt hardly breathe, and my knees like to have buckled. When sheТd finished undressing me, she shucked out of WillТs old shirt, and IТd never seen anything like her. So sweet and pretty, it made my throat hurt just to look. Then she pulled me onto the bed, and after thatЧno way could I describe what it was like. Between times, she told me she wanted me to marry her. I told her thatТs what I wanted, too. At least part of me did, no doubt of that, but I wasnТt so sure about the rest of me, and I guess she knew what I was thinking, because she said there wasnТt any hurry. Then she chuckled again and said next week would be soon enough, and started wriggling around on top of me and eating my face.
After another hour or so, I washed up and got dressed, and the transparent Varia led me back home. I was worried that someone would see us, but she said there wasnТt any danger of that. ThatТs the first I ever knew of invisibility spells.

The next day I finished off her manure pile, and while I was forking manure that morning, I got to worrying. She hadnТt aged for moreТn twenty years, while IТd gone from a bitty little boy to six-foot-one, and two-twenty-four on the creamery scales with my clothes on. In twenty more years, IТd be forty-six and sheТd still be twenty. And in forty yearsа.а.а. Folks already talked; some were even a little scared of her. That was one reason she didnТt go into town any more than she needed to. First Will and then ma had done most of VariaТs shopping in recent years. They even went to the library to get books she wanted.
No doubt about it, being married with her would be somewhat more than just thrashing around on the bed together. And by the light of day, riding behind a team of Belgians spreading cow manure, it seemed to me we needed to talk about that. So when I heard the eleven-forty train whistle, I left my pitchfork there and went up to her house and knocked. She let me in, then cranked up Ma on the phone. Asked if I could stay for lunch and help her eat leftovers before she had to throw them out.
Ma didnТt answer right away; there was half a minute there I couldnТt hear her voice. Maybe she wondered if IТd started doing more at VariaТs than just work. But she said thatТd be fine. Anyway I sat down at the table, and we began talking while Varia rustled up a meal. I told her what was bothering me, and she just smiled. УWe wonТt stay here,Ф she said.
УWhereЧWhere would we go?Ф I wasnТt sure I wanted to hear the answer to that. Because suddenly I wanted to be with Varia the rest of my life, and was scared her answer would be something I couldnТt live with.
УWhere would you like?Ф
I thought for a minute. УSince the Depression hit last fall,Ф I reminded her, Уlots of folks are out of work. ItТs hard to get a job nowadays.Ф
УWeТll get a farm,Ф she said, reasonable as could be. УSomewhere well away from here; maybe some black land in Illinois.Ф