“Ells, now you know—”
It was then that Cane coughed, and Eula stopped talking and looked over. When he stood up and announced that they’d be leaving tonight, Ellsworth said, “Why don’t ye wait till tomorrow? You boys got to be wore out, as much work as ye done.”
“Yeah,” Cob agreed. “We can go tomorrow.”
“Well, we’d like to make it to Meade by morning,” Cane said.
“But, heck, one more day—”
“Ells,” Eula said, “leave it be.” She got out of her chair and went into the house. In the kitchen, she lit the oil lamp and started to rid the table, but couldn’t stop thinking about how Junior had said that morning that he wished he could live here forever, then picked up Josephine and kissed her on top of the head. Granted, she hadn’t expected them to stay any longer than necessary, but she also hadn’t expected that she’d start worrying about any of them, either. She thought for a minute, staring at the floor with her lips pursed. No, she had to say something. If she didn’t, she’d regret it, just like she regretted keeping silent about Eddie until it was too late. She placed a stack of dirty plates in the sink and went back to the front door. “Tom,” she said, “would you mind comin’ in here a minute?” Cane glanced over at Ellsworth, but all the old man did was shrug his shoulders.
He followed Eula to the kitchen. Pouring herself the last of the coffee in the pot, she sat down and looked up at him standing in the doorway. “Now I know I’m just an old woman, and it’s none of my business what kind of trouble you’re all in, but—”
“We’re not in—”
“Let me finish,” Eula said. “But that boy a-sittin’ out there on the porch with a bullet still in his leg don’t need to be a part of it. I been around Junior enough these last couple days to know that much. So maybe you should quit doin’ whatever it was that got him hurt, and just get to wherever you’re going.” Then she picked up her cup to take a sip, but her lip began to quiver, and she set it back down. She appeared about to cry, and Cane was touched that she could have such feelings for his brother.
He started to reassure her that everything would turn out fine, but suddenly, as he looked over at the kitten curled up in a tight ball on its bed of rags in the corner, that didn’t seem quite good enough. He owed her more than that. “His real name’s Cob,” he said, and then turned and walked back out to the porch.
They rode away an hour later with Ellsworth standing in the yard waving goodbye. Cob was still whining about staying one more day, but within a few minutes he was asleep, slumped in the saddle, his round head bobbing over the pommel. It was after midnight when they passed through Nipgen. Not a single light burned anywhere. A lone dog was howling somewhere far off in the hills. “So what’s the plan when we get there?” Chimney asked as they left the little burg.
“Well, one thing’s for sure, we can’t all ride in together,” Cane began. “I’ll keep Cob with me and you’ll be on your own. Need to stable the horses, get some new clothes. We’ll stay in different hotels, pick some place to meet now and then.”
“Sounds good,” Chimney said. “Anything else?”
“Yeah, you think you could learn how to drive an automobile?”
“What?” Chimney said.
“I been thinkin’ on it, and it just makes sense. The more we change things, the less chance of gettin’ caught.”
“Hell, yes, I could. I can’t imagine there’s a whole lot to it.”
“Well, then, once you get to town and get settled, you start lookin’ around, see if you can buy one. Just make sure it’s big enough to haul all three of us.”
“But what about the horses?”
“We’ll figure that out later.”
“Jesus,” Chimney said, shaking his head and grinning, “did ye ever think a few weeks ago that we’d ever be buying an automobile?”
Cane shifted in his saddle and looked back to make sure Cob was still behind them. “No,” he said, “I couldn’t have imagined any of this, no matter how hard I tried.”
48