The doors opened and large flakes of snow floated down into the root cellar. The sky was cream-colored, the sun muted behind heavy clouds.
Brenda said, “I wanted to see if you liked pork chops.”
“You’re asking me what I want for dinner?” Liv asked, surprised.
“Not if it’s something exotic the men won’t eat. But what about pork chops?”
“I like pork chops.”
“Then it’s settled,” Brenda said.
But instead of leaving, Brenda sat down on the lip of the doorframe. She was wearing an oversized barn coat over her housedress and her feet dangled down. Liv could see the woman’s thick ankles and her heavy, old-fashioned shoes. She wore support hose and there was a bulge of white fat above the top of the hose.
“There’s supposed to be a big winter storm coming,” Brenda said. “By midnight tonight, we’re supposed to really get hit. Is that heater working okay?”
“Yes.”
“You got enough sleeping bags and all?”
“I think so. They don’t smell so good, though.”
“They smell like the guys,” Brenda said. “Beggars can’t be choosers, you know.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Liv said, wondering if Brenda was going to go away.
After a long beat, Brenda said, “I brought this,” and held something out in her hand. It was a hairbrush.
“I appreciate that,” Liv said. “Are you going to drop it down to me?”
“I was actually thinking I’d come down there and brush your hair. It’s something I’ve been thinking about. Would you be okay with that?”
Liv felt an equal mix of panic and revulsion. Brenda behind her, brushing her hair? The idea of it almost made her physically sick. But if she could actually get her down here . . .
Liv glanced at the stone in the wall. Maybe with enough adrenaline rushing through her she’d be able to jerk it out and brain Brenda.
“I’d love it,” Liv said.
Brenda said over her shoulder, “Bull, lower that ladder.”
Liv’s heart sank. She hadn’t realized Bull was right there with her, but out of view.
“Keep close and have that pistol handy,” Brenda said to Bull. “Pop her if she tries anything.”
“Okay, Ma.”
Brenda said to Liv, “You’re not going to do anything stupid, are you?”
Liv closed her eyes, fighting away tears. “No.”
“You want your hair brushed?”
“Yes.”
—
LIV SAT with her back to the stone in the dirt wall so that when Brenda brushed her hair she wouldn’t glance up and notice it. Liv wished she’d had more warning they were coming so she could have packed more loose dirt around the rock than she had.
The teeth of the brush actually felt good coursing down through her hair, although Brenda was a little rough at first, pulling it hard through tangles.
“Your hair is nice,” Brenda said. “Is it always like this or do you treat it somehow?”
“I get it straightened.”
“What would it be like otherwise?”
“It would be natural.”
“You mean like an Afro?”
“Yes.”
Brenda clucked her tongue. She said, “I can’t even imagine.”
Up at the compound, an engine started up with a high whine. Then it revved up fast.
Brenda called to Bull, “Did Dallas get that snowmobile started?”
“Sounds like he did.”
Brenda chuckled. “That boy—he’s a go-getter. There’s nothing he loves more than getting up into the mountains on his snowmobile. When I told him about this storm moving in, he just lit up.”
“Didn’t he get injured at a rodeo?” Liv asked, making small talk.
“Yeah, sort of.”
The answer perplexed Liv for what it didn’t say.
Brenda said, “I’ve never seen a human recover so quick. He’ll be back in the game in a few days at this rate. I wish I could come back after getting hurt like he does. But he’s always been fast in whatever it is he chooses to do. He’s an exceptional person, and I ain’t just sayin’ that because he’s my boy. I just wish the folks around this county would give him his due.”
“They should,” Liv agreed, trying anything to establish common ground. “How did Dallas get injured? Was it a bull?”
“Yeah, in Houston. But he didn’t get hurt that bad. Dallas got thrown in front of a big crowd of people and that probably hurt him more than anything else,” Brenda said. “It wasn’t until he got back here that he got those busted ribs and got his shoulder pulled out of the socket.”
Liv was confused. Brenda must have sensed it.
“I had to have Eldon and Bull do it. Dallas agreed, but it isn’t any fun to watch your husband and your oldest son beat the crap out of your youngest. Pulled his arm out of the socket and busted in his ribs. I had to turn my head when they done it.”
“Why?”
“Oh, it’s a long story,” Brenda said. “Dallas did something he shouldn’t have done. I had to figure out a way to keep him out of it. See, I’m the only one who does any thinking around here.”
“I believe it,” Liv said. “So why was injuring Dallas a good thing for him?”
“Wasn’t just him. It was for the whole family. I look after my whole family and keep ’em on the right path. I don’t let anyone get in our way. Anyone. I saw when they sent Timber away to Rawlins what happens when I don’t stay on top of ’em. Timber’s my middle son. He’s the wildest of them all and he got out of prison this morning.”
There was a pause. Brenda pulled the brush through and Liv mewed. It was a false emotion, but to Brenda it sounded genuine.
“You like that, huh?” she asked softly.
“I do,” Liv said. Then: “It’s too bad you didn’t have daughters.”
“Yeah,” Brenda said wistfully. “Boys is all I know. It was the same growing up. I had two brothers and I was the only girl. I don’t even know how to talk to other women—they always seem too soft and emotional to me. Most women, it seems to me, should get the crap kicked out of them by a couple of brothers like I did to toughen ’em up.”
Liv lied and said, “My brother did the same thing to me growing up.” In fact, she had no brothers.
Brenda said, “My dad bounced around between being a miner and a logger in the Ozarks. That’s where my people are from: Jasper County, Missouri. A lot of the time he didn’t work at all. But I was the apple of his eye.”
“I thought I heard a little of the South in your accent,” Liv said.
“Yeah, and I’ve never been back. I left when I was sixteen. I came to Wyoming to see Yellowstone Park with my uncle Harold. I’m still surprised my folks let him bring me out here, but they did. Uncle Harold raped me a few times and left me in one of those cabins they’ve got in the park. That’s where I met Eldon. He was driving through Yellowstone to go hunting on the other side. He picked me up on the road. We caught up with Uncle Harold in Cody, and Eldon beat him half to death with a rifle butt near Heart Mountain. We’ve been together ever since.”
Brenda’s tone was calm. Liv swallowed hard.
“But back to my dad. When he was home, we’d listen to records together.”
“Is that where you heard Kitty Wells?”
“Oh, that,” Brenda laughed. “I must have been a sight back then, singing that song about cheating when I was just a little girl.”
Liv hummed the tune, and to her surprise Brenda joined in.
“What the hell is going on down there?” Bull said from above.
Liv faked a laugh. “My mom used to sing it around the house.”