Once Upon a River Page 0,86

put in three more, saving just one in her pocket. If she missed the first, she would keep aiming, sighting, and shooting, so long as he remained still. She opened and shut the lever, and the hammer cocked. The man’s spine straightened at the sound.

“Rigged up for an outboard, but I didn’t go anywhere in a hurry,” the man said. He dropped the lighter into a pocket on the side of the wheelchair and put the cigarette between his lips. “So what are you waiting for? High command?”

She knew she ought to do this while the cigarette was still long, so she would be shooting as far from his face as possible. She noted the man’s whole body was shaking very slightly, but not enough to screw up the shot. She nestled the rifle butt into her shoulder, pressed her cheek into the stock, stretched her hasty sling tight, and sighted, but didn’t feel stable enough. She squatted down, with one knee on the ground, and finally sat cross-legged on the flagstones and rested her elbows just below her knees.

Before lifting the muzzle, she took a breath and considered everything around her: the wheelchair, the black dog, the soft autumn sun lighting up the green-and-gold-tinged leaves of the sugar maples, the red ribbons of poison ivy climbing a swamp oak at the river’s edge, water flowing under the houseboat, geese clacking, the smell of wood burning somewhere nearby. She had only just arrived on the Kalamazoo, but this world was one she understood. She studied the old man’s feet and legs in the chair. His hands were in his lap, long-fingered, stained yellow from smoking. She considered the top of his head, where the thick, shiny hair belied the rest of his physical condition, and then the rectangle of his black glasses. She was startled when he took off the glasses and looked at her through wide-open, red-tinged eyes. For a moment he reminded her of her grandpa, though of course he looked nothing like him—Grandpa had been a tall man with a crooked nose and a gray beard, while this guy was compact with a round, shaved face. But there was something about him that struck her: he was dying, as surely as her grandpa had been dying.

“Shoot, goddamn it,” he grumbled.

She was as much aware of the man’s jaw as she was of her own breath and heartbeat. The man growled to the dog, “It’s okay, boy.”

Margo knew she had to make a good shot of this for the old man and for herself. She looped her hand through her sling and tightened it against her left arm. She knew the glowing tip of that unfiltered cigarette as well now as she knew her own finger on the trigger. There was nothing in the world but herself, her rifle, and her target. She exhaled and pressed the trigger. She held steady as the bullet left the chamber and then the barrel. She heard it hit the side of the garage and then there was silence. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them, the old man was slumped forward in his chair. She got up and ran across the patio to him. She lifted his shoulders to look into his face. Tears were rolling from his naked eyes. His lips still pinched a cigarette end. When she let go of him, he laughed a low rumble, and the dog nuzzled his empty hand.

“You weren’t shitting me you can shoot,” he said between breaths. He put his glasses back on. “Of course, I was hoping you’d miss and shoot me in the goddamned head.”

Margo got the canning kettle from the porch, removed the paper bag of trash that was in it, and stuck the bag in a ceramic crock, the kind Joanna used for making bread-and-butter pickles.

“The lid is in the lower cupboard to the left of the stove, and you’d better wash the pan out if you’re going to cook with it. And you are filthy, kid. Don’t you ever take a bath?”

“I’m staying with a friend.”

“A man?”

She nodded.

“Thought so. Then you’re making your own bed, I guess.” He turned away and spoke to the river. “Girl your age ought not to be out fooling around. You ought to go home to your ma.”

“My ma doesn’t want me.” Saying it aloud hurt.

The man’s hand moved to his glasses as though to take them off again, but he only touched them and let the hand fall back into