Anthony, Piers The Gutbucket Quest

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pointed the way to a space cleared of trees. Ahead of them, Slim could see a potpourri of logs that
some people might call a house. It looked like a box, to which rooms and outbuildings had been
haphazardly added. When they pulled up in front, he could see that the whole construction had been
shingled with Prince Albert tobacco tins that had been cut on one side and flattened. They were rusty
brown on the side of the house where they'd been started, and as they went on to the other side they
got redder and shinier.
Plants and herbs grew unplanned around the house, and seven children playing with seven dogs
were scattered around the yard under the watchful eye of a small woman Slim assumed to be their
mother. Her beauty had been worn away by work and childbirth, but there was a joy of life shining
inside her that gave her a beauty Slim could feel, even from a distance.
The woman and the children and the dogs paid no attention to the three of them as they got out of
the pickup. A fat man walked out the front screen door. He was half bald and bearded and jolly-
looking. A wide smile crossed his face as he saw them.
"Papa!" he said to Progress, shaking his hand vigorously. "What you come all de way out here
fo', eh?"
"Came to talk to you about a thing," Progress said.
The man's smile never wavered. "Me," he said, "I got time for de talk. Welcome my home, you.
Nadine," he said. "Cherie, come in, and your fren', too."
"This is Slim," Nadine said. "Daddy's new apprentice."
"Me, I tink he mo' dan dat, eh?" Belizaire winked at her conspiratorially. "But come in de house.
I knock de pain out dis mornin', so me, I know dey no moonstroke, no sunstroke, so you come in now,
yes?"
They followed him into the house, into a room filled with chairs and tables and little else. They
all sat down in places that looked comfortable to them.
All but Belizaire. "Me," he said, "I'm hongry, some. I gotta get dis. You maybe want someting to
eat?"
"Nope," Progress said. "We just had a big breakfast. You go on ahead."
Belizaire walked out of the room. Progress lit a cigarette he had taken from a box on the table
next to his chair, coughed, but seemed to enjoy the thing. Slim leaned over and whispered to Nadine.
"Tell me again what we're using this guy for?"
"He's a bass player," she said. "He plays with Daddy sometimes. He used to anyway. Not so
much anymore. A few years ago, he dropped out of sight and moved up here with his wife and kids.
But Daddy wants him to back us up at the festival."
"Us?" Slim choked. "You mean me, too?"
"Yes, you," Nadine snapped. "Of course you. What did you think, that you weren't a part of this?
That Daddy just kept you around to talk to?"
"Yeah, I mean, no. I didn't think Progress would want me to play."
"Sure. You're just a mass of quivering sensibilities, right? Look, I don't care if you fart or blow a
tin whistle, but you're a part of this and you're going to be right up there with us, so you get your shit
together, you hear me. If you can't do anything else, just act stupid and no one will know the
difference."
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Every time he thought he maybe had a farfetched chance to get somewhere with her, she set him
back with something like this. "Why do you say stuff like that, Nadine? It isn't fair."
"Hey," she said. "The world isn't fair."
"Yeah, I know, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?"
"Shut up, chillen," Progress hissed. "This ain't no time for none of that."
"Just like him to interrupt our repartee," Slim said, grinning.
Nadine smiled wickedly, her mood shifting. "Just when I had you wriggling in the crushing grip
of reason, too," she answered.
"No." Slim shook his head. "I was getting my second wind."
"And me without any antacid," Nadine quipped. "Oh, well."
Slim and Nadine were laughing and holding hands when Belizaire walked back into the room
chewing on a submarine sandwich that looked as big as his arm.
"Tigalo, tigalo," he said, through mouthfuls of sandwich. "I'm gonna axe you, me, what you do
here?"
Progress told Belizaire the story, stopping only occasionally to shush Slim or Nadine as they
poked one another trying to make each other laugh. The man continued eating, but it was clear that he
listened carefully as Progress brought him up to date, telling him, at the last, about Bonehack being
gone and the second appearance of the Glory Hand. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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