In his dwelling malaise. Propped crookedly in a rickety aluminum chair in the already dank heat of the morning, poisoning himself with whiskey. He sat cross-legged the way old men do and glared through a bludgeoned eyesocket. A heron at the bank stepped mechanically among the blue shade of the far shore. The river sounded like a sigh.
He’d awoken alone in his bed. No recollection of how he had come to be there or who or what might have lent a hand. Then came fractured memories. Awoke with his shoes still on. His shirt was torn and crimson-colored at the collar. A large oxblood stain was dried into his trouser leg. He smelled of urine. Awoke when the sun bled through the thin curtains and he rose slowly in a spew of curses like another kind of Lazarus. He ran his dry cat’s tongue over his split lip, wincing as the cut opened again. He found a small tin of aspirin under the sink but that was empty save a fine powder in the bottom. Tilted the tin over his mouth and tapped the bottom.
On deck, drinking his rye, peace did not find him. His temples pounded like drums and his ears wailed. Stewing there, unwilling to move, the sun broke from the limestone hills, flooding the shadowed places, spilling over the river. The woods hushed with this sudden awakening as though all manner of creature paused in awe for a moment. There were no clouds in that sky and there was no wind. Rigby stood painfully from his chair and knelt with more than a little effort to the warped boards of the deck and he laid the good side of his face against it. Watched the water and the heron hunting and then he closed his eyes.
He did not wake or move save for once when he was roused by the passing of a small fishing boat. The smoky outboard clattering off the bluffs, and to this Rigby edged on his belly to the deck’s gunwale and pulled himself out and pissed into the slough, neither holding it nor watching. When he was done he rolled to a place in the shade, not fastening his overalls, and called to Mary Belle for a glass of water. And then he closed his eyes again.