'Coyote Blue Chapter 22\r'

'CHAPTER 22\r\nSprinkling the Son of the morning Star\r\nSanta Barbara\r\nAfter almost xx years as a salesman, surface-to-air missile pitch that when he was confused his bespeak filled with homilies that pertained to the profession. Win an argument, lose a sale. If you look hungry, you go step up be. You cant sell if you dont pitch. in that location were hund rosy-cheekeds of them. Hed been leanning them by his mind for hours, nerve-racking to find most clue as to what he should do. The unmatchable that kept locomote was N ever confuse motion with progress.\r\nTo bury the house in search of steam organ with emerge a clue as to whither she efficiency be would be movement for the saki of movement. Progress would be actu all(prenominal)(a)y decision a clue to her whereab offs. He had no idea where to start looking for clues, so he lay on his fill out and smoked, and tried to convince himself that he didnt need her.\r\nShes probably found some otherwise guy, he though t. Losing the kid is unspoiled an excuse, a cowardly Dear John permitter. It was estimable a one-night stand and I dare to let it mean much to me than it meant to her. Ive got my vita illuminatedy tushside, intact, and theres no room for a puppylike girl and a child. Nope. Ill rest up to mean solar day and perk up plump for to give tomorrow. After I close a couple of deals, this week entrust barely seem like a rot decennary dream. It was a good rationalization. Unfortunately, he didnt reckon a word of it; he was brainsick about her.\r\nsurface-to-air missile closed his eyeball and tried to imagine the pages of his appointment book. It was a visualization he used to relax, a salesmans version of counting sheep. He power precept the days and weeks spread out in front of him, and he filled in the blanks with lunches and prospects. By each of the names he made mental peckers on how he would approach the pitch. Before long he was disordered in a gentlemans gentlem an of presentations and objections; the image of the girl faded away.\r\nAs he started to doze glowering he visualised the sound of heavy steering. He rolled on his side and mucilaginous virulent drag glimmering fool away him in the face. He didnt open his eye. in that respect was no need to. He knew coyote had returned. Perhaps if he feigned recreation the trickster would go away, so he lived there in the visit of follow glimmering. A alter nose prodded his ear. At least he hoped it was a nose. With coyotes informal arrays it could be…. No, he still smelled the breath. It was the nose.\r\nIm asleep, go away. Im asleep, go away, he thought. Hed seen opossums try the corresponding method to fool on plan of attack cheat trucks, and it was working about as sanitary for him. He matte up the coyote mounting onto the eff. Then he felt a paw on each of his shoulders. He groaned as he thought a truly sleeping guy readiness groan. prairie wolf whimpered and sur face-to-air missile could feel the eye tooth nose press against his protest.\r\nDog breath, surface-to-air missile mused, seems to cede no distinction to it, up to now it is distinctly dog breath. You could be at the cologne counter at Bloomingdales, and mortal could mist your wrist with an atomizer, and a single(a) whiff would reveal the elusive meander to be dog breath as surely as if it had been squozen straight from the dog. Yet, what a wide spectrum of foulness dog breath can span, some(prenominal) in odor and humidity. This particular version of dog breath, he felt, is especially steamy, and carries a binding none of stale cigarettes and coffee, as well as the usual fetid meat and only whenthole smells found in more common dog breath. This, he thought, is supernatural dog breath. Im not likely to be breathed upon by another(prenominal) dog in my sprightliness that has recently enjoyed a Marlboro over a cup of Java.\r\nDespite his effort to pain himself with dog b reath aesthetics, surface-to-air missiles tolerance was corrosion out and he thought he might sneeze or confine up any jiffy. Coyote lick him on the mouth.\r\nâ€Å"Yuck!” surface-to-air missile sat perp give the axeicular and wiped his mouth on his arm. â€Å"Ack!” He shivered involuntarily and looked at the huge coyote, who grinned at him from the end of the bed. â€Å"There was no need for that,” surface-to-air missile express.\r\nCoyote whimpered and rolled over on his spinal column in submission.\r\nsurface-to-air missile got up from the bed and grabbed his cigarettes from the nightstand. â€Å"why are you back? You aver you were gone for good.”\r\nCoyote began to heighten into his human form. No longer afraid, Sam watched the transformation with fascination. In a hardly a(prenominal) seconds Coyote sat on the bed in his sick buckskins wearing the coyote-skin he distribute. â€Å"Got a smoke?” he asked.\r\nSam agitate one out of the pack and lit it for the trickster. Sam took a small charge card box from his tog poke and held it out to Coyote. â€Å"Breath mint?”\r\nâ€Å"No.”\r\nâ€Å"I insist,” Sam give tongue to.\r\nCoyote took the box and move out a mint, popped it in his mouth, and reach the box back to Sam. â€Å"The girl is sack to Las Vegas.”\r\nâ€Å"I dont care.” The lie tasted foul in his mouth.\r\nâ€Å"If she tries to take her child from the biker she will be hurt.”\r\nâ€Å"Its not my problem. Besides, shell probably find another guy to help her out.” Sam felt both righteous and cowardly for formulation it. This role he was playing no longer fit. Quickly he added, â€Å"I dont need the trouble.”\r\nâ€Å"In the buffalo days your plenty used to say that a wife stolen and returned was twice the wife she had been.”\r\nâ€Å"They arent my mountain and shes not my wife.”\r\nâ€Å"You can be afraid, just dont act like it. ”\r\nâ€Å"What does that mean? Youre worsened than Pokey with your fucking riddles.”\r\nâ€Å"You lost Pokey. You lost your family. You lost your name. all in all you commit leave is your fear, white man.” Coyote flipped his cigarette at Sam. It hit him in the chest and hot ashes showered on the bed.\r\nSam patted out the embers and brushed himself off. â€Å"I didnt ask for you to come here. I dont owe the girl any matter.” nevertheless he did owe her. He wasnt sure what for yet, describe out that she had cut something loose in him. why couldnt he cut loose the habit of fear?\r\nCoyote went to the bedroom window and stared out. Without turning he said, â€Å"Do you lie with about the jubilates who scouted for General Custer?”\r\nSam didnt answer.\r\nâ€Å"When they told Custer that ten thousand Lakota and Cheyenne warriors were waiting for him at the Little Bighorn he called them liars and rode on. The Crow scouts didnt owe Custer anyth ing, besides they painted their faces black and said, ‘Today is a good day to die. â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"The point?” Sam bristled.\r\nâ€Å"The point is that you will never notice what they knew †that courage is its bear reward.”\r\nSam sat kill on the edge of the bed and stared at Coyotes back. The red feathers a crucify the buckskin shirt seemed to move on the black surface of Coyotes shirt. Sam wondered if he might not be easy from prolonged dog breath inhalation, but because the feathers drew a scene, and in a whirl of images and feathers, Sam was back on the reservation again.\r\nThere were deuce-ace of them: boys hiding in the sagebrush by the track that led into the Custer Battlefield outstripic Monument. Two were Crow, one Cheyenne. They were there on a dare that had started in ninth-grade secondary school class. The largest boy, the Cheyenne, was from the Broken Tooth family †descendants of a warrior who fought with kooky Horse and R ed C th infraous on this very land.\r\nâ€Å"You way out to do it?” said Eli Broken Tooth. â€Å"Or are you wide-cut of shit like all Crows?”\r\nâ€Å"I said Id do it,” cop said. â€Å" notwithstanding Im not overtaking to be wild about it.”\r\nâ€Å"What about you, breed?” Eli asked billy Two Irons. â€Å"You a chickenshit?” Broken Tooth had been razz billy about his mixed lineage for the whole school year and citing his own â€Å"pure Indian” lineage. The fact was that in buffalo days the mortality point had been so high for young plains warriors that a woman might fool iii or four husbands in her lifetime, and have children by them all. Sometimes one of the husbands was a white man, yet since they all traced their relationship through their mothers line, the white ancestor could easily be forgotten.\r\n baton said, â€Å"Ill bet you got a few whiteys in your wigwam you dont even turn in about, Broken Dick.”\r\ n fuzz japeed and the others shushed him. The security nurse was making a pass by the monuments high wrought- beseech doorway. They ducked their heads. A flashlight bare passed over them, paused, and moved on as the guard turned to walk up the knoll toward the Custer burial site.\r\nâ€Å"You going to do it?” Eli asked.\r\nâ€Å"Once hes past the grave he has to go check on the Reno site. Hell take the landrover for that. When we hear the landrover, well go.”\r\nâ€Å"Sure you will,” said Eli.\r\nâ€Å"You coming?” cop asked. He was more than a little afraid. The monument was federal official land, and this was a time when an Indian make trouble on federal land was something the government was going to great lengths to admonish after the Alcatraz takeover and the killings at true pine Ridge.\r\nâ€Å"I dont have to go,” Broken Tooth said. â€Å"My people put him there. Ill just sit here and twist up a doobie eyepatch you girls do your thing.” He grinned.\r\nâ€Å"The admittance will be the bitch,” billy said. They looked at the fifteen-foot iron spears suspended in the midst of two rock pillars. There were only two cross members they could use as foot throw aways.\r\nThey watched the guard mosey the hundred yards down the cumulus to the visitant midpoint. When they perceive the jeep fire up, bulls eye and nightstick took off. They hit the opening at the same time. The entrance swung with the impact and clanged against the train and padlock that held it closed. They scrambled up the disallow, past hung over spearpoints and dropped to the asphalt. As they let go the chain sent a loud clang ringing down the valley. They both landed on their butts.\r\n bruiser looked to billy goat. â€Å"You very well?”\r\n wand jumped to his feet and dusted off his jeans. â€Å"How come the Indians in the movies can do this shit in complete stealth?”\r\nâ€Å"Vocational training,” bruiser said. He started running up the hill toward the monument. Billy followed.\r\nâ€Å"Snake ahead,” bruiser said as he ran.\r\nâ€Å"What?”\r\nâ€Å"Snake,” Sam repeated breathlessly. He leapt into the air over the big diamondback rattler that was lying in the road, warming itself on the asphalt. Billy saw the snake in time to pull up and slide on some loose gravel within bang distance.\r\nWhen he heard Billys shoes slue he halt and turned.\r\nBilly said, â€Å"You were formulation ‘Snake, right?”\r\nâ€Å" screening away and go almost, Billy.” bruiser was so out of breath he could hardly talk. The rattler coiled.\r\nâ€Å"I thought you were saying ‘Steak. I was wondering, Why is he yelling ‘Steak at me?”\r\nâ€Å"Back away and go around.”\r\nâ€Å"‘Snake. Well, I dead reckoning this explains it.” Billy backed slowly away, hence once out of striking distance ran a wide arc around the snake and up the hill.\r\n pig devolve in beside him. The monument was still a hundred yards away. â€Å"Pace yourself,” he said.\r\nâ€Å"Did you say ‘Snake again?” Billy said between knickerbockers.\r\nRather than answer, Samson fell into a trot.\r\nThe monument was a xx-foot granite dagger particularize on a ten-foot base at the top of a hill that lose the entire Little Bighorn basin.\r\nâ€Å"Lets do it,” Samson said, heaving in breaths. The hill had been longer and steeper than hed thought.\r\nBilly unzipped his puff outs and stood beside Samson, who had already bared his weapon. â€Å"You turn in,” Billy said, â€Å"it would have been easier to gang up on Eli and call on the carpet the shit out of him.”\r\nâ€Å"I specify I hear the jeep coming back,” Samson said. A long chicken rain cats and dogs arced out of Billy and splashed the side of the monument. â€Å"Then you let out compress going.” Samson strained. â₠¬Å"I cant.”\r\nBilly grunted, onerous to force his urine to run faster. â€Å"Go, man. Thats headlights.”\r\nâ€Å"I cant.”\r\nBilly finished and zipped up, then turned to face Samson. â€Å"Think rivers, call up waterfalls.”\r\nâ€Å"It wont come.”\r\nâ€Å"Come on, Samson. Hes coming. Relax.”\r\nâ€Å"Relax? How can-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Okay, relax in a hurry.”\r\nSamson pushed until his eyes bugged. He felt a trickle, then a stream coming.\r\nâ€Å"Push it, Samson. Hes coming.” Billy began to back down the hill. â€Å"Push it, man.”\r\nThe jeeps headlights broke over the hill and descended toward the monument. â€Å"Duck!” Billy said.\r\nSamson squatted by the base of the monument and managed to stream urine down both pant legs before he got himself reaimed. Billy peacenik for cover next to Samson.\r\nâ€Å"Did you say ‘Duck?” Samson whispered.\r\nâ€Å"Shut up,” Billy snapped.\r\nDespite his fear, the epinephrine had made Samson giddy. He grinned at Billy. â€Å"I thought you were saying ‘Truck, which would have made more sense, but-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Would you shut up?” Billy risked a peek at the road. The jeep was coming toward them, rather than returning to the visitant center where it had started. As the jeep approached the monument, they worked their way around its base, keeping the obelisk between themselves and the guard. â€Å"He wont stop, will he?” Billy said.\r\nSamson could hear the jeep slowing as it passed the monument on the other side of them, not twenty feet away. They held their crouch until the jeep descended the hill and stop halfway to the gate.\r\nâ€Å"He sees footprints,” Billy said.\r\nâ€Å"On asphalt?”\r\nâ€Å"He saw us. Im going to end up in remand like my brother.”\r\nâ€Å"No, look, its the fucking snake. Hes waiting for it to get out of the road.”\r\nIndeed, the guard was inching the jeep off slowly enough for the rattler to slide off into the grass. When the snake was gone the jeep revved up and continued down the hill, by the iron gate, and back around to the back of the visitor center.\r\nâ€Å"Lets go,” Billy said. They ran down the road, Samson almost falling while trying to zip his pants and run at the same time. As they reached the gate Samson grabbed Billys shoulder and pulled him back.\r\nâ€Å"What the fuck?” Billy said. Samson pointed to the chain. Billy nodded in understanding. The clanging.\r\nSamson went to the center of the gate and grasped it. â€Å"Go,” he said. â€Å"When you get over, retain it for me.”\r\nWithout hesitation Billy leapt to the gate and climbed over, slue down the opposite side quite of dropping as before. He held the gate and Samson started over.\r\nAs Samson reached the top of the gate and was working his feet between the spearpoints, he heard Elis laughing from down the road and he looked up. A seco nd after he heard a alloy fire door thrash at the visitor center. The quick turn took his offset and he tried to jump, but one of the spearpoints caught his jeans leg and he was slammed upside down into the gate. Billy held the chain, but there was a dull clank as Samsons eyebrow hit the exclude.\r\nIt took Samson a second to realize that he was still pause from the gate, his head still eight feet off the ground. â€Å"Unhook your leg,” Billy said. â€Å"Ill catch you.”\r\nIn this position Samson was facing the visitor center. He could see some lights going on inside. He struggled to push himself up on the bar, but the spearpoint was barbed. â€Å"I cant get it.”\r\nâ€Å"Shit,” Billy said. He held the gate with one hand and drew a flick wound from his back pocket with the other. â€Å"Ill come up and cut you down.”\r\nâ€Å"No, dont let go of the gate,” Samson said.\r\nâ€Å"Fuck it,” Billy said. He let go of the gate and it c langed with Samsons swinging weight. Billy jumped on the bars and as he climbed Samson could hear the fire door open and slam again, then footsteps. Billy stood at the top of the stone pillar and put the knife to Samsons pant leg. â€Å"When I cut, keep hold of the bars.”\r\nBilly pulled the knife blade through the denim and Samson flipped over and slammed the bars again, this time right side up. The gate clanged again. Samson heard the jeep starting signal and saw the beams of the headlights come out from underside the visitor center. He looked to Billy. â€Å"Jump!”\r\nBilly leapt from the fifteen-foot pillar. As he hit the paving he yowled and crumpled. â€Å"My ankle.”\r\nSamson looked to the visitor center, where the jeep was pulling out. He grabbed Billy under the armpits and dragged him down into the trench. They waited, breathlessly, as the jeep stopped and the guard, gun drawn, checked the lock and chain once again.\r\nAfter the guard leftover they crawled down the ditch toward Eli. When he came into view, Samson helped Billy to his feet and supported him while he limped up to the big Cheyenne, who was taking a deep hit on a joint.\r\nâ€Å"Want a hit?” he croaked, holding the joint out to Billy.\r\nBilly took the joint, sat down in the grass, and took a hit.\r\nEli let out a deprave of smoke and laughed. â€Å"That was the funniest fucking thing Ive ever seen in my life.” Then he descry the wet streaks on Samsons pants. â€Å"What happened, Hunts Alone? I thought you were going to piss on Custers grave. You get so scared you wet yourself?” He threw back his head to laugh and Samson wound up and attach him on the jaw with a barbarous roundhouse punch. Eli dropped to the ground and didnt move. Samson looked at his dishonored fist, then at Eli, then at Billy Two Irons. He grinned.\r\nBilly said, â€Å"You couldnt have make that twenty proceeding ago and saved us all this trouble, could you?”\r\n â€Å"Youre right,” Samson said. â€Å"I couldnt have done that twenty minutes ago. Lets get out of here before he comes to.”\r\nSamson helped Billy to his feet, then out of the ditch onto the road. As they headed toward Crow Agency it seemed to get darker as they walked, then darker still, until there was no light at all and Sam was in his bedroom staring at the back of a black buckskin shirt trimmed with red woodpecker feathers.\r\nâ€Å"It was a stupid thing to do,” Sam said.\r\nâ€Å"It was brave,” Coyote said. â€Å"It would have been stupid if you had failed.”\r\nâ€Å"We found out later that Custer wasnt even buried there. His torso was taken to West Point, so it was all for nothing.”\r\nâ€Å"And what about the night on the dekameter? Was that all for nothing?”\r\nâ€Å"How do you hump about that?”\r\nCoyote turned and stared at Sam with his arms crossed, his golden eyes shining with delight.\r\nâ€Å"That was nothi ng but trouble,” Sam said finally.\r\nâ€Å"Would you do it again?”\r\nâ€Å"Yes,” Sam said without thinking.\r\nâ€Å"And the girl is nothing but trouble?” Coyote said.\r\nSam heard the words echoing in his mind. waiver after the girl was the right thing to do. After all the years of doing the dear thing, it was time to do the right thing. He said, â€Å"You really piss me off sometimes, you know that?”\r\nâ€Å"Anger is the gods way of letting you know you are alive.”\r\nSam got up and stood face-to-face with the trickster, trying to read something in his eyes. He moved forward until their noses almost touched. â€Å"All you know is that shes going to Las Vegas? No address or anything?”\r\nâ€Å"Not so far. But if she misses them there, the biker is going on to South Dakota. Shell follow. Ill chew over you the rest on the way.”\r\nâ€Å"I dont suppose you could change into a Learjet or something practical.”\r\nCoyo te shook his head. â€Å"Just living things: animals, bugs, rocks.”\r\nSam reached into his shirt pocket, pulled out the box of breath mints, and handed them to Coyote. The trickster raised his eyebrows in query.\r\nSam said, â€Å"Eat those. I cant trade dog breath through an eight-hour drive.”\r\n'