And it was quiet for a moment while they thought about this, this sweet golden human made slave and a swine, about all that she had been and all that she had lost and all that had been done to her and...
And Carl Joplin stood up and stepped over to her and looked down and smiled and held out his huge chubby hands to her. She hesitated, then put her two small hands in his and he pulled her up out of her chair and his smile went wider and he said, "You're a good, good girl."
Then he gave her a bear hug that almost hid her from view.
The other smiles glowed upon them from all around the room.
Part Two Chapter 21
Felix didn't know what he felt about all he had heard that night.
He was shocked? Yeah. Stunned and... repulsed? No. Not really. Not for her. Just stunned a bit. And dazed. Too much story. Too much data. Too much monster.
They really know how to rip up Life, don't they?
But how did he feel about her? How did he really... ?
Say it, you stalling buffoon! Do you still... love her?
Yes, he thought at last.
And he smiled.
Now what, he wondered, am I smiling about?
The only other door to the room - the one to the bedroom used by the ladies - opened. It was Annabelle.
"Is she okay?" he whispered.
Annabelle first closed the door carefully behind her.
"I think she'll sleep," she said. "You should try to do the same."
Felix looked around at the empty room filled with smoke and overflowing ashtrays and half-empty glasses. The others had gone to their rooms.
"I'll just give her a few minutes."
Annabelle smiling knowingly. Sometime during Davette's tale she had busied herself knitting some large multicolored whatever. She resumed her seat and picked it up again.
"You were wonderful for her tonight," she said.
Felix shrugged. "Not hard to do."
"Then what took you so long?"
"What do you mean?" he asked innocently. "I've only known her for - "
"Felix!" she intoned, sounding like everyone's mother.
He stopped short, grinned. "Yeah. Well, I'm not used to this falling-in-love-at-first-sight stuff."
Annabelle grinned at him. "That's better."
"And..."
"And what?" she asked.
He turned around and busied himself making a drink he didn't need.
"I was angry that she was with Crow."
"What?" Annabelle gasped. "You thought that she and Jack were..."
"Huh? Oh, no. Not at all. But..." He lit a cigarette and looked at her. "See, I've been waiting for my wife to come along all my life and, well, avoiding this kind of shit at the same time. Then I see her and there's Jack and..." He shook his head. "I shoulda figured I couldn't have one without the other."
She thought he looked almost embarrassed. "She loves you, too, you know," she said.
He looked up. "You think?"
"I know so." She eyed him carefully. "Don't you?"
He looked at her quickly, looked down, smiled. "Yeah." This time he was definitely embarrassed.
"Figures," he added, "the way her luck's been running." And then they both smiled.
How weird you are, Felix, she thought. What a weird, dark, scary young man you are.
They were quiet for a while.
"Felix, what have you been doing all this time? Since Mexico?"
He shrugged. "I run the saloon."
"All this time?"
He shrugged again. "The past couple of years."
"And before that?"
But this time he just looked into his glass.
Annabelle eyed him carefully, a smile curling up.
"Felix, just how rich are you?"
He looked at her, surprised. "What makes you think I'm..."
"How rich?" she insisted.
He looked at her, relaxed, grinned. "Very."
"Millions?"
He smiled. "Many."
She nodded, almost to herself. "Rich, single, young, obviously well educated... Young man, what have you been doing all this time?"
And he looked at her and had no answer. But Jack Crow, at the doorway, did. "He's been waiting for me."
"Sometimes, Jack," drawled Felix lazily, "you sound just like you."
And the three of them laughed.
Crow fetched himself a glass of ice water and sat down across from them and got right to the point. "What's it gonna be, Felix? You coming with us tomorrow, or not?"
Felix put his cigarette out and closed his eyes and rubbed them.
"I don't know, Jack. I guess so. You're going to Davette's house, right?"
"Got to. Got to try."
Felix nodded. "I know. And... well, it's not like anyone's going to be there waiting for us. It's not another trap."