Eduardo's Arc

Chapter 45 of 60

Eduardo worked the siding through the morning. He kept his hands on the wood and his mind off the saloon. The tab would run. He had said so to himself twice already, like a nail he had to keep driving back in. At noon a small dust cloud came up the road. Light Sol walked ahead, her colored hair moving in the wind. Mother Angel came behind her, sandals on the dry ruts, blonde hair catching the sun. Eduardo set the hammer down. Light Sol did not come down from her tower for small things. "We went to the saloon," Light Sol said. She did not stop walking until she reached the porch. "This morning. Before the drinkers." "You went for me." "For the truth," Mother Angel said. Her voice was even. "Your cousin was still there. Asleep at a table. The keeper was counting the tab." "How much." "Ninety-two dollars," Light Sol said. "Signed in your name. Three nights." Eduardo's hands closed. He opened them again. "I told the keeper the signature was a lie," Mother Angel said. "I told him you had retracted your cousin's story in front of the town and that your cousin came here to break you. I asked him to look at his own book. Your hand is in it every Friday for feed. Your cousin's hand is in it last night." "He looked," Light Sol said. "The hands do not match." "He kept the tab against your cousin," Mother Angel said. "Not against you." Eduardo sat down on the step. The relief hit him harder than the fear had. He pressed his palms flat against the wood. "Why," he said. "Why come down for me." Light Sol looked at him plainly. "You did not go in and swing. That was the test. You passed it two days ago. We finished it for you." "The keeper wants a word from you," Mother Angel said. "In person. Not to pay. To stand in his door once so his room sees you standing there sober. Tomorrow at noon." "I'll be there." Mother Angel touched his shoulder once and turned back to the road. Light Sol lingered. "Your cousin woke while we spoke," she said. "He heard. He left out the back." "Where did he go." "I do not know. My work is the sky." She looked up the road. "But a man who runs a tab and loses it runs from the town next. He will not be near you soon." She walked after Mother Angel. Eduardo watched until the dust settled. He went inside and opened the ledger. He wrote the date. He wrote: Tab cleared from my name. Two women stood for me before I asked. Cousin gone from the saloon. He closed the book and picked the hammer back up. The siding was not finished. The rest of the day was his to spend on wood.