The Whippoorwill Trilogy - Sharon Sala Page 0,190

fact.

“You gonna do this all slow like, aren’t you? I don’t want to find myself pulled in half or nothin’.”

“I’ll go slow,” Eulis promised.

“It probably wouldn’t hurt to scare him some,” Letty muttered, as she grabbed the other end of the rope and started toward the mules.

Emory’s eyes rolled until all that was visible were the whites of his eyes.

“She’s not serious… is she?”

Eulis didn’t answer.

Emory panicked. “Mister! Mister! She ain’t serious is she?”

Eulis frowned. “Letty? Yeah, she’s serious. She’s always serious. I don’t know what you said to her, but she’s taken a dislike to you, and nothin’ I got to say is gonna change that. However, don’t worry. I’m the one who’ll be workin’ the mules. Her wrist is broke.”

Emory felt a warmth on the inside of his leg and knew that he’d just wet himself. But considering the day that he’d had, he considered himself lucky that he still had a dingus from which to pee.

“I’m sure grateful to you both,” Emory said.

Eulis finished tying off the rope under Emory’s armpits, and then stood up.

“You’re not out yet,” Eulis said. “Better save your thanks for later.”

At that moment, Emory felt a tug on the rope and knew that Letty was taking matters into her own hand.

“Wait!” he screamed. “Lady, wait!”

Eulis grabbed the rope, catching the slack as he ran toward the wagon.

“Letty! Wait!”

She was standing by the mules with a smile on her face.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

Eulis was breathing heavy by the time he got to her.

“What did you think you was doin’?”

“Giving him something to think about.”

Eulis frowned. “What did he do, anyway?”

“Pissed off an Indian who calls himself Black Dog.”

Eulis took a step backward, then grabbed onto the harness to steady himself.

“The hell you say.”

“You know him?”

Eulis’s face turned pale. “Of him. He’s bad news.”

“So what happens to us if Black Dog finds out we dug the man up?”

“We don’t tell him,” Eulis said.

“That what Emory James suggested, too.”

“What did he do to Black Dog?” Eulis asked.

“His words were, he was about to poke Black Dog’s woman, and got caught in the act.”

Eulis looked up at the surrounding hills and then turned a complete circle, searching the horizon for signs that they were being watched.

“What do you think we oughta do?” Eulis asked.

“If we leave him planted, then we’re killing him, too,” Letty said.

Eulis thought about it a minute and then nodded.

“I’ve got to move the wagon some so that we’re pullin’ the sucker straight. It would be a shame to drag him into that big rock, wouldn’t it?”

“A crying shame,” Letty said.

They smiled at each other, then just to give Emory James a second reminder of why he was still up to his ass in dirt, they each grabbed a mule and began moving them backward.

“Hey! Whoa! Goddamnit, you people! You’re killing me, here!”

“Did you hear somethin’?” Eulis asked.

“Might have,” Letty said.

“Reckon we ought to go see who it was?”

She shrugged. “It’s your call. If it was me, I don’t think I would have stopped until the bastard was buried, head and all.”

Eulis looked at Letty and grinned.

“It’s good to have you back,” he said.

Letty frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do,” Eulis said. “We been tip-toein’ around each other like two virgins facin’ a troop of soldiers with permanent hard-ons.”

Letty’s frown turned to a glare.

“Well, it’s all your fault.”

“Mine? Why is it mine?”

“You started treating me nice, even taking care of me like I was something special. How else was I to act?”

Eulis glared back. “Dang it, Letty, you are somethin’ special, whether you like it or not. Now are we gonna drag Emory James outta’ his grave, or leave him to it?”

“You move the wagon. I’ll go tell the little bastard to stop yelling.”

“All right then,” Eulis said.

“All right then,” Letty echoed.

She walked off while Eulis grabbed the reins and began leading the mules and wagon to get a better angle.

Emory James was hanging onto the rope for dear life when Letty rounded the rock.

“What the holy hell was you two tryin’ to do to me?” he asked.

“There is not one damned thing about hell that is holy,” Letty said, and then kicked a little dirt back in the hole to punctuate her statement. “Eulis is moving the wagon to get a better angle to pull you out. And, if I was you, I wouldn’t be doing all that yelling. That Black Dog fella might have set himself up somewhere nearby just to watch you die.”

Emory’s stomach knotted as he