‘I’m tired of this,’ he said. ‘Everybody’s always hitting me on the head.’
‘You’re lucky I didn’t take yours off with a bullet,’ said Charlie.
‘We won’t hit you again,’ I told him, ‘as long as you don’t try anything smart. Now, eat your pork before it gets cold.’
The boy cleaned his plate but quickly vomited it back up. He had gone too long without solid food and his stomach could not accept so much out of the blue. He sat there looking at his half-digested lunch on the ground, wondering I suppose if he should scoop it up and try again. ‘Kid,’ Charlie said, ‘you so much as touch it and I’ll shoot you dead.’ I gave the boy the bulk of my plateful and instructed him to eat slowly, and afterward to lay back and breathe in plenty of fresh air. He did this and fifteen minutes passed without incident, though his stomach was loudly squirming. The boy sat up and asked, ‘Aren’t you going to be hungry now?’
‘My brother is fasting in the name of love,’ said Charlie.
I blushed and said nothing. I had not known my brother was aware of my diet; I could not match his playful gaze.
The boy was looking at me for an explanation. ‘You got a yourself a girl?’ Still I said nothing. ‘I got one too,’ he told me. ‘At least she was my girl when Daddy and I left Tennessee.’
Charlie said, ‘How it is that you’ve found yourself alone with three wagons, no animals, and no food?’
He said, ‘There was a group of us heading out to work the California rivers. Me and my daddy and his two brothers, Jimmy and Tom, and one of Tom’s friends and then Tom’s friend’s wife. She was the first to die. Couldn’t keep any food in her. Daddy said it was wrong to’ve brought her, and I guess it was, too. We buried her and kept on, then Tom’s friend turned home, said we could keep his wagon and gear because his heart was broken and he wanted to get back to start his grieving. Uncle Tom took a shot at him once he was about a quarter mile out.’
‘Just after the man’s wife died?’ I asked.
‘It was a couple days after she died. Tom wasn’t trying to hit him, just scare him. A bit of fun, he called it.’
‘That’s not very kind of him.’
‘No, Uncle Tom never did anything kind in his life. He died next, in a saloon fight. Took a knife in the belly and the blood pooled out like a rug underneath him. We were all pretty glad he was gone, to tell you the truth. Tom was hard to be around. He hit me on the head more than anybody else. Didn’t even need a reason, just passing time.’
‘Didn’t your daddy tell him to stop?’
‘Daddy was never much for talking? He’s what you might call the private type.’
‘Carry on with the story,’ said Charlie.
‘Right,’ said the boy. ‘So Tom’s dead, and we sold his horse and tried to sell his wagon, but nobody wanted it because it was so poorly outfitted. Now, we got two oxen pulling three carts, and what do you think happens next? The oxen die, starved and thirsty, with whipping wounds on their backs, and now it’s me and Daddy and Uncle Jimmy, and the horses are pulling the carts, and the money’s going quick and so’s the food, and we’re looking at one another and we’re all thinking the same thing: Dang.’
‘Was Uncle Jimmy nasty, too?’ I asked.
‘I liked Uncle Jimmy right up until he took all the money and ran out on us. That was two weeks ago. I don’t know if he went east or west or north or south. Daddy and I’ve been stuck here, sitting and thinking what to do. He left, like I said, a week ago. I expect he will be back soon. I don’t know what could have taken him so long as this. I’m obliged to you for sharing this food with me. I nearly killed a rabbit yesterday but they’re hard to lay a bead on, and my ammunition’s not very well stocked.’
‘Where is your mother?’ Charlie asked.
‘Dead.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that.’
‘Thank you. But she was always dead.’
‘Tell us about your girl,’ I said.
‘Her name is Anna, and her hair is the color of honey. It is the cleanest hair I have ever seen and runs halfway down to the ground. I am in love with her.’
‘Are your feelings reciprocated?’
‘I don’t know what that word means.’
‘Does she love you too?’
‘I don’t think she does, no. I have tried to kiss and hold her but she pushes me away. Last time, she said she would have her father and brothers beat me if I did it again. But she’ll change her tune when she sees my pocketful of riches. There is gold tumbling down those California rivers like hop-frogs, and all you have to do is stand still and catch them in your pan.’
‘Is that what you believe?’ asked Charlie.
‘It said as much in the newspaper.’
‘You are in for a rude awakening, I fear.’
‘I just want to get there already. I’m tired of sitting here with nothing to do.’
‘You’re not far now,’ I told him. ‘That’s California just over the pass, there.’
‘That’s the direction Daddy went.’
Charlie laughed.
‘What’s so funny?’ asked the boy.
‘Nothing,’ Charlie answered. ‘He probably just dashed over to catch a few pounds of tumbling gold. He’ll be back with some ready cash by suppertime, I am sure of it.’
‘You don’t know my daddy.’
‘Don’t I?’
The boy sniffed and turned to me. ‘You never told me about your girl. What color is her hair?’
‘Chestnut brown.’
‘Mud brown,’ said Charlie.
‘Why do you say that?’ I asked. I watched him, but he did not answer.
‘What’s her name?’ asked the boy.
I said, ‘That is all to be worked out.’
The boy drew in the dirt with a stick. ‘You don’t know her name?’
‘Her name is Sally,’ Charlie said. ‘And if you’re curious how I know that and my brother doesn’t, so should he be.’
‘What’s that mean?’ I asked sharply. He still did not answer. I stood and looked down over him. ‘What the hell does it mean?’
‘I only say it to put you on the proper path,’ said Charlie.
‘Only say what?’
‘That I got for free what you paid five dollars for and still did not get.’
I started to speak but trailed off. I remembered meeting the woman on the stairs of the hotel. She had been in Charlie’s room, filling his bathtub, and she was upset. ‘What did you do to her?’
‘She laid it out for me. I wasn’t even thinking of it. Fifty cents for hand work, dollar for the mouth, fifty cents more for the whole thing. I took the whole thing.’
My head was thumping hard. I found myself reaching for a biscuit. ‘What was she so upset about?’
‘If you want the truth, I found the service lacking. My payment reflected this, or should I say my nonpayment, and she took offense. You have to know, I wouldn’t have touched the girl if I’d known how you felt. But I was sick, you’ll remember, and in need of comfort. I’m sorry, Eli, but at that time, far as I knew she was up for grabs.’
I ate the biscuit in two bites and reached for another. ‘Where’s the pork fat?’ The boy handed me the tin and I dipped the biscuit whole.
‘I let your five dollars slide,’ Charlie continued, ‘but I didn’t want to see you starve yourself for no reason.’ My blood was pulsing ebulliently in celebration of the arrival of the heavy food, while my heart was struck dumb from this news of the hotel woman’s character. I sat back down, chewing and thinking and brooding. ‘I could make some more pork,’ Charlie offered peaceably.
‘Make more of everything,’ I said.
The boy pulled a harmonica from his shirt pocket and tapped it on his palm.
‘I will play an eating song.’