Brimstone

13

WE ATE DINNER at the hotel with Allie, and then the three of us sat outside on the front porch of the hotel and watched the evening action on Arrow Street. Virgil and Allie sat on a bench. I had my own chair. A lot of towns Virgil and I had worked were whores and drunks, teamsters and drovers and thugs. Brimstone was an actual town. Women walked along the street, some with children. Men who might work in banks strolled along with them. In the street among the horses and wagons were neat carriages, one- and two-horse rigs, with leather seats and canvas canopies to keep the rain off.

“I found a house for rent,” Allie said. “Other end of Seventh Street. They’re building a whole row of them.”

Virgil nodded.

“Got a kitchen, got a front room, bedroom, got a room for Everett,” Allie said. “Be cheaper than the hotel, and Everett could chip in.”

“Sounds fine, Allie,” Virgil said.

“I can cook for both of you. I can wash and iron your clothes, and clean up. Make you breakfast in the morning.”

“That’d be nice, Allie,” Virgil said.

“Can we do it?” Allie said. “I’ll take care of everything.”

“Sure,” Virgil said.

“Oh, Virgil,” Allie said, putting her arms around Virgil and pressing her face into his neck. Virgil didn’t move.

Allie straightened up and patted her hair.

“We’ll move in tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll do it. You want me to move your stuff, Everett.”

“Ain’t much to move,” I said. “I’ll take care of it when you tell me.”

“Oh, this is grand,” Allie said. “This will be grand.”

Virgil nodded. The sun was down, the street was darkening, and the air was warm and still. There were no streetlamps yet, but a lot of the merchants hung lanterns outside their doorways, and the soft light made Arrow Street look serene as the night came down.

Allie was looking at the lights.

“I’m going to make it up to you, Virgil. To both of you,” Allie said. “You too, Everett. I’ve been awful to both of you.”

She was including me to be polite, and I knew it.

“I want to change,” she said. “I don’t want to be that woman, that Allie, anymore. I want to be a good woman, take care of a man, sing in the church, keep a proper house.”

Neither Virgil nor I spoke. Allie was staring at the lights, in some sort of dream, and I wasn’t even sure she was talking to Virgil.

“I was in the bottom of the pit in Placido,” she said. “The bottom, no way to go down deeper. I was gonna die there.”

She looked at Virgil.

“And then you came, and you brought me out.”

“Everett and me,” Virgil said.

“Yes, Everett, too. And it was like you were from heaven come to save me, and you did; after all I done to drive you away, you found me and you saved me.”

“I ain’t one for giving up on things,” Virgil said.

“And you bore me away and brought me here,” Allie said.

“On a buckboard,” Virgil said.

“Oh, don’t tease me,” Allie said. “This is too much… I got too much feeling. I’m gonna change, Virgil, I swear to God, I swear… I’m changing now, I can feel it going on.”

“Good,” Virgil said. “You was looking a bit peaked when I found you.”

“That’s not what I’m talking about, Virgil.”

“I know it ain’t, Allie,” Virgil said.

They were both quiet. I was, too. I had my own views on Allie’s potential for change, but sharing them didn’t seem like a useful thing. So I stayed quiet.

“You ain’t touched me since you found me in Placido,” Allie said.

I concentrated hard on watching the people moving through the lantern light. I wasn’t sure Allie even remembered I was there. But whether she did or not, this wasn’t a conversation I wanted to join.

“Things take time,” Virgil said.

“Like finding me,” Allie said.

“Took a lotta time,” Virgil said.

“But you’re not one for giving up on things,” Allie said.

“I am not,” Virgil said.

“So maybe you’ll find me again,” Allie said.

“Expect I will,” Virgil said.