The minute he saw that the storm’d died down, Benedict wanted to go back and get the machine. I told him that was just as stupid as trying to find them on foot because we weren’t even sure the wind wouldn’t start blowing as hard as before and then that’d be his rig stuck in a ditch. But there was no talking sense into him.
He wasn’t stupid, far from it, but it was like he took leave of his senses. Now he just about had a devil’s head: the cold turned his cheeks red and his beard was thick like he’d become a bear. He was sitting in his living room, snow caked on his jacket and pants, and a hell of a puddle at his feet. Probably didn’t even notice.
The kid had to be dead at this point, I’d bet good money on it. A shame, he looked like his grandfather and his uncle, even if he didn’t have their common sense.
When Magnus opened his door for me, I cottoned on plenty fast that here people never ask you where you come from. You could have gotten right out of the armpit of hell or come straight from heaven, it didn’t matter. If you’re ready to live in the middle of nowhere, to work hard no matter the weather, and never pipe up, then you’ve got a place here.
That suited me: I had no shortage of things I wanted swept under the rug. Can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. I came from Minneapolis but I couldn’t stay there long. I was done with towns where there’s always someone on your back and cops watching your every step. Nobody wipes the slate clean in places like those.
Here the only fellow watching anyone else is old Clifford. He can’t help himself, he even sleeps with his binoculars and his gun nearby just in case. Won’t be Clifford watching me here: we’ve got a handshake agreement. The moonshine he brews might be undrinkable, but at least it’s free and it gets people talking. We came to see that we weren’t all that different from one another, even if we weren’t born in the same place and it was no accident that we’d both ended up here, in a place where we could be whatever we liked, as we liked, without anyone giving us trouble.
The fact is that we were perfectly happy until Benedict came back with the girl and the kid, and that stirred up all sorts of things. We were done turning a blind eye, and now whatever happens to them happens.