Deliverance - James Dickey [90]
After
When I woke up I was holding on to my side again, a tight, glowing package. I came awake fairly fast, because the midmorning sun, or so it looked and felt, was beginning to sting my eyelids. I was in a big country room with loud reddish curtains and a huge mirror on the wall opposite me, a little bathroom behind me, a dresser with all the knobs missing on one side, and a hooked rug on the floor under the bed and all around. I lay and thought. I wanted to see Bobby first, and then Lewis. I got up, naked except for the bandage, which felt very much like clothes of some sort, and picked up what was left of my flying suit from the floor, clotted, armless and ragged. I sure didn't want to put it back on, but I did, and felt for some money. I had a couple of bills that appeared to have been made and issued by the river, but they were still money, and we needed it. I left the knife and belt in the room, and started to go after Bobby. There, in the mirror, I was the survivor of some kind of explosion, with a shirtsleeve ripped off and a pants leg blown open, bearded and red eyed, not able to speak. Out of this I smiled, very whitely, splitting the beard. When I found out from the lady clearing away breakfast where Bobby was, I went up to his room and knocked on the door. He was still asleep, but it would be better to settle the new things I had been thinking about with him now than later. I kept knocking, and after a time he came. I sat down in a rocking chair and he sat on the bed. "First of all," I said, "I need some clothes. You probably ought to have some too, if we've got enough money. Your clothes are in better shape than mine, so you go out and get me some pants -- blue jeans are all right -- and a shirt. Get yourself whatever you need, and, if you've got anything left, buy me some shoes. Brogans." "OK. There ought to be a hardware store right around here. In this town, everything is right around here." "Now listen, one more time. We're all right so far; we're golden. Lewis is getting taken care of, and our stories -- or maybe I should say our story -- is going over. I didn't see a flicker of doubt in anybody's eye. Did you?" "I don't think so, but I'm not as sure as you are. Did that one guy ask you about the canoes?" "No. What guy? What about the canoes?" "The little old guy who's some sort of local lawman. He asked me about the other canoe: where was it, when did we lose it, what was in it." "What did you tell him?" "I told him what we agreed to tell him: that we lost it in that last bad place." "Did he say anything else?" "No, I don't have any idea what he was getting at." "I do," I said, "at least I think I do, and it could be trouble; maybe not real trouble, but trouble." "Why, for the Lord's sake?" "Because we lost the green canoe the day before yesterday and it, or part of it, might even have been found before we got to the place where we said we lost it." "Jesus!" "We'll have to try to patch it up, then. It's likely that this little guy is going to get the word around to the state police that something doesn't jibe in our story, and then they'll be asking all of us questions. Remember your movies; police like to separate suspects and try to get them to contradict each other. So we've just got to sit here right now and become contradict-proof." "Can we do it?" "We have to try. I think we can. Let's go back. We lost the other canoe when Drew was