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Show All the Variables & Other Love Stories 33 Casabon punched Hightower then, and all the women were at him. Hightower looked stunned where he sat in the dirt. Casabon frothed though he could not feel his arms buried in a quicksand of skirts. Hightower dusted himself off and righted his hat on his head. "Casabon!" Esperanza cried, "Casabon, damn you, stop it right now!" She pushed herself through the women to appear at the fore. "I just wanted you to come home," he pled. "Tell me what you want and I'll do it. I want you to be happy!" "I'm happy here!" Esperanza said. Casabon straggled but could not break his bonds. "What do you do to them? It can't be a good thing, stealing these wives from their husbands. How does it happen?" "I don't know," Hightower said. He looked very sad. "How you could let it happen is beyond me. You're all damned fools. It's such a simple thing." Hightower put him out then and retired to the sanctity of his parlor and its many women. Beyond Casabon the sun was setting and the air hung cooler now on a raw sky. The musky scent of chamisa, like onion broth, accompanied him homeless on the southerly road. "So I'll beat her! Ain't I bigger than she is? I'll make her stay!" Casabon thundered into his empty house. God knows he thought it but could not bring himself to the execution. He wanted Esperanza to want to stay. Wanted his dear wife to see in him the same magic that Hightower enchanted her with now. Willed it, but could not make it be. Poor Casabon, he thought, Poor heart. |
