The Bridge

76

“Nudge?” Virgil said.

“Sure,” I said.

“Isn’t this exciting,” Allie said, walking up the hall to the parlor.

Allie’s face was covered with a white cream. She was barefoot, wearing just her corset, bloomers, and chemise, when she entered the living room, vigorously rubbing in the cream with her fingertips.

Virgil looked at me and shook his head a little as he got out of his chair and walked to the breakfront.

“It is,” I said.

“Finally get to see them perform,” Allie continued on, as she entered the kitchen. “Lord knows there’s been some awful business recently, for all of us.”

Virgil got two glasses and the Kentucky and closed the breakfront door.

“Especially you, Everett,” Allie said, as she came back from the kitchen, wiping the goo from her face with a rag. “You getting shot there at the Yaqui Brakes being the absolute worst of all for me, the worst for me.”

She stood, continuing to wipe her face as she talked to us.

“I know it has been absolutely dreadful, all that has happened recently, but tonight will be uplifting and inspiring for Appaloosa and us,” she said. “This will be special, and I know you won’t be disappointed, Virgil.”

“Okay,” Virgil said. “You gonna put some clothes on, or are you planning on going like that?”

“I’m wearing the new dress I ordered and you paid for,” she said with a chirp. “What time is it, Everett?”

I looked to the clock on the wall behind me.

“Quarter past,” I said.

“Oh,” she said. “I got to get myself moving.”

“Well, do,” Virgil said. “Get going, get yourself ready.”

“I won’t be long,” she said, as she turned for the hall. “But I do need this time to make myself pretty.”

“You don’t need no time for that, Allie,” Virgil said. “You’re pretty as a peach just as you are.”

Allie stopped and turned back to Virgil.

“Why, Virgil Cole,” she said. “Aren’t you adorable?”

“Don’t think that’s the right word, Allie,” Virgil said. “But I appreciate it all the same.”

She walked up to him and kissed him on the lips, leaving a circle of white cream around his mouth.

“You are,” she said, as she rubbed the cream off his face with the rag. “Adorable. Don’t you think, Everett?”

“I do,” I said.

“Go on,” Virgil said, pointing to the hall behind her.

Allie turned and scampered off down the hall.

“I won’t be long,” she said. “I do not want to be late.”

Virgil watched her, then turned to me, holding up the bottle and glasses.

“We’ll be on the porch waiting on you, Allie,” Virgil called to her.

Virgil opened the door and I followed him out to the porch.

We sat in the side-by-side chairs that backed up to the house. Virgil poured us each a nudge of whiskey.

“She’s excited,” I said.

“She is,” Virgil said.

We sat for quite a bit watching the sun dropping as we sipped on the Kentucky.

“Maybe she’s right,” Virgil said.

“’Bout what?”

“Maybe this Extravaganza will be uplifting and inspiring,” Virgil said.

“Has been some bad business for Appaloosa,” I said.

Virgil looked at me out of the corner of his eye.

“Look forward to seeing this fortune-teller,” Virgil said. “This sage.”

I nodded a little but didn’t say anything.

“Hard to figure,” Virgil said. “That business?”

“Is,” I said.

We sat quiet for a bit, drinking our whiskey. I thought about her. Séraphine the fortune-teller. Wondered about her and where the hell she came from and where she’d be going. I imagined what it might be like if she stayed and what it’d be like to be with her on a day in, day out basis. On many levels we were certainly goddamn good together. Maybe it was possible. Hocus-by-God-pocus, I thought... anything is possible.

“Hear that?” Virgil said.

I listened a moment and nodded.

“Music.”

“Sounds as if they’re getting things going over there,” Virgil said.

I nodded.

We just listened for a while to the faint sound of the music being played by the tent-show band from where they pitched camp north of town. It carried an eerie echo through the streets.