WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 21, 2007
EXOTIC SPICES AND COOKING INGREDIENTS from the Asian Market, Whole Foods, and the Mediterranean Specialty Shop took up a corner of the kitchen counter, and now, the day before Thanksgiving, Lee Ann stored them in the cupboard. Tradition called for plain old salt, pepper, and sage.
She picked through the cranberries, extra red and fresh this year, added sugar, and set them to boil. Mid-afternoon she poured a cup of the morning’s coffee and leafed through a copy of Bon Appetite that she’d picked up in Albuquerque. Developing skills as a gourmet cook was pointless. Soon Scott would move, Dee would marry and get used to Ginny’s cooking, and Edgar would die. Eugene would eat with the Bidwells, owners of the dude ranch. Between shots of whiskey and chugs of beer, Walker picked at a meal with taste buds that didn’t discriminate. As for Grace, eighty years of meals prepared according to her particular tastes would resist change, and deep down, Lee Ann liked plain old-fashioned cooking, too. She closed the magazine as the phone rang.
Jo asked if Walker had been around. He’d borrowed her car and she needed it. She’d last seen him two nights ago at Art’s, drinking with some guy that looked just like him. Owen had been shouting rude remarks and Walker and his buddy had left. He’d been busy fixing up the cabin. Would Lee Ann mind driving up the creek to see if the car was there?
The north end of the ranch hadn’t been used since Dad quit raising hogs, the failed endeavor having left the property with the reputation of being good for nothing. In winter, dense thickets of matted willows and bare, young cottonwoods clustered along the creek. Deep green pines shot up between massive boulders where it seemed unlikely any seed could take root, lending a chilling enchantment to the place.
Already the sun had dropped behind the mesa. Jo’s car was parked with the key in it. Lee Ann expected Walker’s head to pop out the door and when it didn’t, she called his name and knocked, listened for creaking floorboards, and went inside. Dad had once stored slop buckets and garbage cans of ground corn and bean meal, extra fence wire, and sheets of corrugated tin, every inch of space stuffed with something or other. All that had been cleaned out and the cabin was lovely in a rustic way. As a girl, she’d despised pigs’ swollen bodies and dirty noses. Funny, Scott and Dee’s litter didn’t bother her at all, perhaps because they hadn’t grown to full size, or because the threat of Walker shoving her into the pen had long passed.
She picked Jo up that evening in front of Art’s.
“Thanks for making a special trip,” Jo said.
“It’s the least I can do. He should have returned your car.”
“Maybe he’s off looking for a truck with Leo, or hauling supplies,” Jo said, latching her seat belt. “He’s got big plans.”
Lee Ann’s fingers tightened around the steering wheel. No prayer could save him. Prayers didn’t save anything. All they were good for was pinpointing problems to solve and goals to achieve and dreams to actualize.
Boxelder and scrub oak lined the road, disappearing as they passed the turnoff to the dump. The smell of cigarette smoke came off Jo’s clothes and hair. Lee Ann didn’t mind. Jo did a good job. She was one of those people who could swear without being offensive and smoke and drink as if it were as harmless as popping gum and sipping ginger ale. She minded her own business while managing to know everybody else’s and what she knew she kept to herself.
Jo said, “Gerald Murray told me all three commissioners could serve jail terms. You should run for office.”
Lee Ann laughed.
“You know as well as I do, a woman would never be elected county commissioner in Dax County.”
“Be the first.”
They drove in silence for a mile or so.
“You should stay clear of Walker’s schemes,” Lee Ann said.
“You should take my advice and I should take yours. We’ve both got points.”
Alibi Creek had iced over and they broke through it, Jo saying she wished she could see the land. In the dark, the closeness of the mesas blocked chunks of starlit sky and the willow thickets seemed like bodies crowding around. Lee Ann handed Jo her car key.
“I assume Walker has told you I want nothing else to do with him.”
Jo got out.
“I understand,” she said. “Thanks for the ride.”