The City of Lovely Brothers (41 page)

"Yes, they ain't gonna deny it."

"Good. Possession is nine points of the law, as I said. Do you have documentation to verify the validity of the deed?"

"I brought the abstracts with me."

"Very good. And your grandfather's will?"

"That's in my safe."

"Well, I don't think we'll need that at the moment, not unless your cousins contest the sale. And you should realize that they could press criminal charges."

"Does that means you're gonna buy?"

"I think I will. If we can agree on a price, we can go to the bank today and close the deal."

"I'm asking—"

"Before you ask, Mr. Caldwell, let me point out that 51it is extremely unlikely you will be able to sell it to anyone else, so you will have to take that into account when you name your price. No bank will honor that deed unless you hire yourself a good lawyer, such as myself, for which you would have to pay a good deal of money. It seems reasonable that I should deduct my fee from what I pay for the property. Finally, you need to remember that I am putting myself at considerable risk in entering into an agreement that may have no legal standing and may even constitute a felony. Now, do you want to name your price, or shall we save time and have me name mine?"

* * * *

"Where you been all day?" Darcie asked when her son arrived home early that evening. He had left while she was still asleep.

"To Miles City to get money to pay back what the ranch owes."

She turned away from the stove and looked at him, the large wooden spoon she was using to stir Calvin's oatmeal in her hand. "The ranch don't owe nothing 'cause there ain't no ranch. We owe it. What'd you sell this time?"

"What was left of Uncle Caleb's quarter."

Darcie dropped the spoon and stared at him in disbelief. "You can't do that! It ain't yours."

"I done it, though; papers signed and cleared at the bank and all."

"It can't be legal. Since when is stealing legal?"

"Mr. Pard'ner says it is."

"You sell it to that weasel?"

"He read over the deed and the abstract, and according to him, everything's on the up and up.

'Possession is nine points of the law,' he told me."

"And ten points of it's thievery and loopholes, it seems. We ain't heard the end o' this, Calvin Jr."

"I paid off the bank. We're in the clear," he announced cheerfully.

"In the clear till they come and toss you in jail for theft and forgery. Logan and Brandon're gonna have plenty to say about it."

"They ain't gonna get nowhere. I'd like to see 'em try and take on Mr. Pard'ner. He ain't one to tangle with!"

"I'd like to see them take
you
on. If they get their hands on you, what they leave behind on the floor ain't gonna be pretty. Oh, dear God— Amanda! What's she gonna do? You've gone and sold 'er house right out from under her!"

"She got kids. They can take care o' her."

"You bastard. You heartless, selfish bastard! And to 52think I carried this demon in my belly for nine months!"

Darcie sat at the table and for the next five minutes stared into space. Calvin Jr. stood by smirking, waiting to hear what she would say next. "Ain't nothing no one can do about it," he said finally. "Mr. Pard'ner'll come by and turn her out in a couple o' days."

"Pick up that spoon and wash it off; then finish cooking the oatmeal and go feed your pa. He ain't ate nothing since lunch. I got something that needs taking care of."

Darcie went into the bedroom. She came out a few minutes later carrying a suitcase. Calvin Jr. was spooning the oatmeal from the pot into a bowl. "Where you going, Ma?" he asked.

Darcie put down the suitcase and walked up to him.

"You left this morning without telling me where you were going or I'd 'a stopped you. I don't want you trying to stop me, neither." Then she spit in his face, picked up the suitcase, and walked to Hester's. Calvin Jr. wiped the spittle from his face and went to feed Calvin his oatmeal.

The next morning Darcie and Hester returned to the house with three suitcases. Calvin Jr. was having breakfast.

"Howdy, Ma," he called out cheerfully. "Where you been all night? Good morning, Cousin Hester. You're up early."

The women walked past him as if he wasn't there and went into Calvin's room. They emptied Darcie's clothes from the dresser and closet. "You going somewhere?"

Calvin asked. His speech was labored and difficult to understand, but she was used to it.

"Why don't you ask that no-good son o' yours?"

"Calvin Jr. run up more gambling debts?"

"Gambling debts're stupid; what he done this time is mean."

"What's he done?"

"Like I said, ask him."

"You ain't telling?"

"I ain't talking either, not to him, not to you. Ever."

Darcie returned every day at noon to feed her

husband, bathe him, and change his bed linen. When she needed cash, she took it from the strongbox, to which she had a key. But she never spoke but a few words more to him for as long as she lived, and to her son not even one.

* * * *

Darcie drove to Amanda's that afternoon and told her what Calvin Jr. had done. Amanda could not grasp what she was talking about. "But the land and house ain't his, Darcie. They belong to my boys."

"No more they don't. They belong to that big city 52shyster lawyer, Tro-willis Pard'ner."

"I don't get it. How'd it happen?"

"Nothing complicated about it. Calvin Jr. stole it.

Like father, like son, they say."

Darcie was still trying to explain to Amanda what had happened when Mr. Pardoner himself drove up and knocked on the door. "Which one of you fine ladies is Mrs.

Amanda Caldwell?" he asked.

"That's me."

"And you must be Mr. Troilus Pard'ner, the

lawyer."

"The same."

"I got a business proposition for you, Mr. Pard'ner.

A house I wanna sell."

"Where is it?"

"In Caladelphia. The old Caldwell ranch house."

"Is it yours to sell?"

"It is. Don't see why it'd make a difference to the likes o' you if it wasn't, though."

"Then I presume I'm speaking to Mrs. Calvin Caldwell."

"You are."

"Let me tell you this, Mrs. Caldwell. In the first place, I own two houses on this ranch. Why would I want one in Caladelphia? Second, what makes you think I would 52buy a house that the bank owns every inch of?"

"My s— Calvin Jr. says it's paid up."

"The interest, not the principal. And it'll accrue, Mrs. Caldwell, it'll accrue. And you, Miz Amanda, I came to tell you I want you out of my house in three days. That's more notice than any bank would give. Take the furniture with you. I didn't buy that."

Darcie raised her voice. "You have no right to it. It wasn't Calvin Jr.'s to sell."

"The courts can decide that, Mrs. Caldwell. In the meantime, this document says it's mine. Good day to you, ladies."

As if in a daze, Amanda watched him leave. Then

she collapsed onto the settee. "Where'm I gonna go?" she moaned.

"You're coming to live with me and Hester," Darcie said. "I left Calvin."

* * * *

A week after Amanda moved in with Hester and

Darcie, Darcie went to see to Calvin at noon, as she had promised she would. She heated a bowl of soup for him, sat on the bed beside him and dipped in the spoon.

"Calvin Jr. told me what he done," Calvin said. "He 52promised he'd get the money to pay 'em back. He's a good boy." Darcie grunted. "He left you a note."

Calvin made an effort to bend his head forward, as if to look at his chest. Darcie saw a note was pinned to it.

"From Calvin Jr.," Calvin said.

Darcie unfolded the paper and read. Not a single word of it said anything about repaying Brandon and Logan.

Ma,

We're all paid up at the bank, so they aint gonna be
on our backs for awhile, but I owe money to some
tradesmen here in Caladelphia. It aint that much. If I get a
job for a couple a months I can make enuff to pay it off. So
I'm going to Denver to find work. You take care of Pa till I
get back. Once a day aint enuff. Calvin Jr.

"He left last night," Calvin said.

Darcie tucked the note into her sleeve and fed

Calvin his soup. Then she brought him the bedpan, wiped him, and changed his pajamas. As she was leaving the house, she noticed the car was gone.

She returned at bedtime with a plate of the hash Amanda had made for her and Hester and helped him get down a glass of cider. The next morning, Hester came.

Three times a day, one of the women came to look after him, but none of them spoke to him. Calvin lived 52alone with only his own hoarse and mushy voice to break the silence.

"You don't gotta help us with 'im, Amanda," Darcie told her. "Lord knows you don't owe 'im."

"It'll increase my merit when I get to Heaven,"

Amanda answered.

* * * *

A few days later, Brandon and Logan showed up at Hester's house and asked Darcie, "Where's Calvin Jr.?"

"In hell, so much I care. But I understand he's gone to Denver. You just missed him by a couple o' days. He left a note. I'll get it for you. Do what you like with it."

She went to her room and returned with the note.

She handed it to them. They nodded and turned to go.

"Logan… Brandon…"

"Yes, Aunt Darcie?"

"I'd give you our house to make good what Calvin Jr. done, honest I would. But it ain't ours. It belongs to the bank."

"We appreciate it, Aunt Darcie. We don't blame you. Here, take Brandon's phone number. If you get word of the sonofabitch, call him." 527

In 1930, Jake was a licensed orthopedist and a fairly competent osteopath, although he did not have a certificate.

He and Ann had decided to remain in Baltimore, where he had a good job at the hospital. They had gone west that summer so the children could see their grandparents in Montana and Nebraska and were on their way home. Jake stopped in Saint Louis to see his uncle and Nick, while Ann and the kids continued straight through to Baltimore. Jake was aware of the lovers' living arrangements and Caliban's failing health. This was no time for his whole family to visit them.

This time Nick and Caliban were expecting him.

Nick would be at work when Jake arrived and had put a key to the apartment under the doormat in case Caliban was asleep or resting when he got there.

Jake took a taxi to their apartment building.

Although they had hinted at their financial difficulties and had told him about their small one-room apartment, he did not know they were living in a slum. He found the key Nick had left him and let himself in.

Caliban was up waiting for him, sitting by the table with his leg raised. "It's good to see you, Jake," he said. "You're looking well."

"I doubt that. Our trip out west wasn't an easy one, and it feels as if I've been sitting in that train for a week or more!"

"Well, you look a lot better than me, that's for sure.

I suppose you'll want to stay in a hotel. This place is so tiny, and the neighborhood is bad."

"I can only stay the night, Uncle Cal, and I want to spend every minute with you. I can sleep on the couch again."

"It's old and worn out and worse than

uncomfortable. Nothing like the couch we had in

Davenport. I know; I've lain down on it."

"I'll sleep on the floor if it's that bad, or in the bed with you and Nick, if I won't be intruding."

Caliban laughed. "I think we can control ourselves for one night. Get yourself a cup of coffee and come sit and talk. What do you want to do while you're here?"

"I'm going to examine you, thoroughly examine you, as I promised you last time I would. Bones and muscles are my specialty now, you know. Shall we do it now and get it out of the way so we have time to socialize when Uncle Nick gets back?"

"Nick should be here for the examination. It's he who takes care of me, after all. He's my nurse, doctor, lover 52and housekeeper all rolled into one. He helps me with the exercises that are supposed to make my leg stronger and keep my hip limber. They don't, but I want you to see them anyway. And he massages my leg almost every night.

Doctor Brewster showed him how long ago in Billings, but maybe he should do it differently now that it's so much worse. If you know osteopathy, you can demonstrate a massage for him."

"Yes, that makes sense. We'll wait for Nick. How about news of the ranch?"

"Yes, I'm certain Darcie hasn't told me everything in her letters."

"There's a lot I haven't written you, too. What I have to say is best told in person. "

"Is it that bad?"

"It's much worse."

Julia hated Calvin more than her husband did

because of what Calvin Jr. had done to Amanda, and she poured her anger into the letters she wrote her son. She reveled in the downturn of his fortunes and grieved that Darcie had to share in them. Caliban did not even know that Calvin Jr. had sold the property belonging to Caleb's sons and that their mother had been turned out, nor did he know that Darcie had left her husband. Darcie was too ashamed to tell him. "How much worse, Jake?" he asked gravely.

"I'd say it's gone downhill faster than that hip of yours, though I can't be sure of that until I've had a look at it."

"Then let's wait on that until Nick gets home from work. He should hear it too. In the meantime, why don't you tell me about yourself, and about Ann and the kids."

"I'd rather hear about you."

"There's not much to tell. Times are hard, as you can see for yourself, but as long as Nick and I are together, we can't complain. Well, Nick complains about his job, but you know what I mean."

"And the way you live hasn't put a strain on how you get along?"

"If anything, we get along better. It's always been like that. When the feuding between Calhoun and Calvin got me down, I had Nick. When he got beat up because of what we are, he had me. When we went to Davenport and didn't know anyone, we had each other."

"You know I've always envied you, don't you? Even before I knew you were lovers I could tell there was something special between you. When I was a kid, I used to think, 'Gee, I wish I had a friend like that.'"