OCR Text |
Show T>H in that court, square on the side of law and order. And in me too. Buck might be alone, going down, toothless, but he never stopped swinging-and I hadn't even tried to hit back. Then I knew I'd fallen. I felt as bruised as if I'd taken a physical beating. I sat there with my head down and my hands twisted together in my lap, sort of curled up with the pain as if I'd been kicked in the groin, and no Loretta to comfort me. Not that there should have been. But there was my father, still hammering at me. Evidendy speeding led in a straight line to drinking and wild women and by God the one thing he never wanted to catch me at was behaving like that stupid kid Buck. "He's not a stupid kid," I mumbled, head still hanging. "What?" "He's not stupid and he's more of a man than you are!" I blurted out, jerking my head up. He stared at me and I don't know which of us was the most surprised. And before he could get his mouth closed I yelled through my tears: "He's more of a man than you and that stinking J.P. put together!" I'm glad he was driving, because otherwise I think he'd have hit me, and I know I'd have tried to hit him back and then things would have been worse than they already are. Because I don't think he's ever forgiven me for saying that, and I know I've never forgiven him for making me say it. It changed things considerably though. Not that I spoke up to him much more than before, or went wild down at the Cesspool, neither are much in my line, but I waited it out and the next spring on the day I graduated from high school I left home and I've never gone back. In those years I've lost a few teeth of my own, figuratively speaking, and the holes show, and I must admit that like Buck I'm sort of proud of them. My father doesn't understand that and I'm sorry. But then he doesn't have to: he's the one that's got the money. J N IA KRUGER : Evening Hec L35fr»iaint burning wickyobscure and dim, His minaTtas4ittle lighrand wit. But grim Slow-mountmgyfe&rvhave not extinguished him. Though flames/b longer leap^fervent height- Through pajrisosharply felt, thecfeskhas light All of its>6wn banked in the ash of nigf At Imig last come the memories to cry: mtil late triumph, close to the inward eye, rHe oudived death; he did not die. 222 |