"Dalmas,.John.-.Lion.Of.Farside.2.-.Bavarian.Gate.v1.1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dalmas John)

The Bavarian GateThe Bavarian Gate
By John Dalmas
ISBN: 0-671-87764-X
PART ONE
Growing to Fit
1
Washington County, Indiana
Curtis Macurdy gazed out the window of the truck at a field plowed and disked.
Near the far end, someone, presumably his father, was walking behind the
horse-drawn spike-tooth, readying the ground for planting. Beyond stood the
house Curtis had grown up in, the barn nearby, sheds, corncrib, and the ancient
white oak that spread across the front yard.
"That's the place," he told the driver. "Just drop me off at the corner." He
felt uncomfortable about his homecoming; had since he'd gotten off the train at
Volinia.
The driver slowed, turning west on the township road. "Might as lief take you to
your door," he said. "Ain't no trouble." Along the roads, the maples, tulip
trees, elms had all been tinged with the fresh pale green of opening buds, but
the yard oak, bare as February, showed no sign yet of wakening. The driver
pulled into the driveway and stopped. "My thanks," Macurdy said, and taking the
coin purse from his pocket, removed a fifty-cent piece.
The man waved it off. "That's half a day's pay, and this ain't been more'n a
couple miles out of my way."
Macurdy nodded, put the coin back, and shook the man's hand. "Thanks," he said.
"I'm obliged to you. " Taking his suitcase from the seat, he got out, slammed
the door, and waved as the driver left. Then he walked to the house. Place needs
paint, he told himself. Hard times.
He opened the back door without knocking, took off his jacket and hung it on one
of the back hall hooks. "Charley?" his mother's voice called.
"Nope." He stepped into the kitchen. The rawboned woman had turned from the big
black kitchen stove. Seeing him, her eyes widened, her mouth half opening. For a
moment he thought she might fall down, or worse, weep, but she recovered
herself.
"Curtis!" she cried. "Blessed Jesus! It's you!" They embraced, then talked, she
asking how he was, how long he planned to stay, her questioning marked more by
what she didn't ask than what she did, as if fearing what he might tell her. His
answers were brief. He had no plans yet, he said. If needed, he might stay the
summer, and maybe through harvest.
His own questions were simply to catch up on the state of the family. Nothing
had greatly changed, she told him, except that the price of everything had
fallen, both for what they sold and what they bought. Max and Julie were still
farming, and Frank had got promoted to shop foreman at Dellmon's Chevrolet,
though they paid him less than when he'd started there as a mechanic, four years
earlier.
And Charley had hired a man to help with the farming. "Your dad's not as young
as he was," she added.
After a few minutes, Curtis put his jacket back on and went out to the field.
Charley Macurdy saw him, and stopping the team, walked over, both his aura and
his face showing a difficult mix of emotions-mainly joy and uncertainty, Curtis
thought. And worry. Curtis was just now realizing what it was like for his