Deliverance - James Dickey [31]
look like a real hunting camp, first greasing the broadheads against the dew. Lewis came over and ran his palm over the handle section. "The old catapult, eh?" "Sure enough," I said. "You like these Howard Hill broadheads?" "Yeah, I think they're fine. The last archery magazine I read said a two-bladed head has better penetration. That's good enough for me. Those guys know." "These don't windplane?" "I've only shot 'em at stumps and earthwork targets, but they go straight, nearly as I can tell. They do out of this bow, anyway. Bobby poured everybody a stiff drink of bourbon, and we drank while Lewis made a fire against a bank of stones he had pulled up out of the ground or gathered from around the tents. He had brought steaks. He built up a big blaze, let it die down some and then put the meat on in a buttered pan. The smell of the meat-smoke was wonderful. We all had another drink and sat on the bank, watching the firelight uncertain and persistent on the water. Fear and excitement and the prospect of eating all became forms of each other in my mind. There was a kind of comfort in knowing that we were where no one -- no matter what issues were involved in other places -- could find us, that night was around us and there was nothing we could do about it. The pale fire on the water was not subject to the current, and this seemed wonderful to me. It played and danced where it was, an invulnerable spirit that would die. We all sat without saying anything, and I was proud of us for that, and especially proud of Lewis, who I was afraid was going to expound. I stretched out on my back, paralleling the river. There was a darkness on my inland side when I opened my eyes; I thought I had been lying there a long time. But then something filled the space again. It was Drew with his guitar. I sat up, and the water, though it still swarmed weightlessly with the cave-images of fire, now seemed on the point of swirling them down. Drew tuned softly, then raked out a soft chord that flowed and floated away. "I've always wanted to do this," he said. "Only I didn't know it." He moved up the neck, drawing out chord after chord. These built and shimmered on each other in the darkness, in lonely harmony. Then he began to pick individual notes, and put the bass under them. "It's woods music," he said. "Don't you think so?" "Sure do." I loved the powerful nasal country clang, the steely humming and the strings hit like hammers on rails. Drew played deep and clean, and neither of us could have been happier. He played "Expert Town" and "Lord Bateman"; he played "He Was a Friend of Mine" and "Shaggy Dad" and Leadbelly's "Easy, Mr. Tom." "I really ought to have a twelve-string for this one," he explained, but it sounded good anyway. Lewis brought over the cooked steaks while Drew played, and then we ate, two little steaks apiece and big wedges of cake that Lewis' wife had made. We all had another drink. The fire was leaving us; in the river it had already died. "You know," Lewis said, "we don't have too many more years for this kind of thing." "I guess not," I said. "But I can tell you, I'm glad we came. I'm glad to be here. I wouldn't be anywhere else, the way I feel." "It's true, Lewis," Bobby said. "It's all true, what you said. It's great. And I think we did real good on the river. I mean, for amateurs." "Yeah, good enough, I reckon," Lewis said. "But I'm sure glad you and I didn't get that damned sluggish wood canoe turned around backward just before we hit some white water. That might have been bad." "We didn't though," Bobby said. "And I don't think it'll happen again, do you?" "I hope not," Lewis said. "Well, to the sleeping bags, men," I said, stretching. "Had my first wet dream in a sleeping bag," Lewis said. "I surely did." "How was it?" Bobby asked. "Great. There's no repeating it." I stood up, finally, and creaked and stooped into the tent. I was massively tired, and hated the laces of my tennis shoes which had hardened in the water until I couldn't untie them. I pulled the shoes off by main strength, shucked off everything else as well