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Hal Prince: My Story by
Gaynor Williams continued...
Junior peered round the interior, picked up Loren's black mackintosh,
unfolded my suit jacket, scrabbled about blindly under the driver's
seat, then the front passenger seat. He breathed in loudly and
grimaced at the roof lining. I liked watching him when he was
absorbed. Got
Cind's funny, quirky smile. Just seven. Wish I could save him
from all this hurt, all this goddamn mess. He picked up his Action
Man. 'Yeah', he yelled. He held him up, made him look out the
window. We were crossing the river now. Junior wound the window
down. The breeze swept round our ears. Some big houses, looked
like they might be clapboard, hard to see at this distance, studded
the bank. Just on one side.
'Okay, an easy one', Loren said. She was looking at me anxiously
in the rear mirror. 'Something beginning with T', she said. 'Something
beginning with T', Junior was echoing. 'Sure, something beginning
with T', Loren repeated. 'Daddy's doing it too. Aren't you daddy?'
Daddy started peering about. 'The AC won't work with the window
open, you boys,' Loren was bucking us.
Can't say I ever took to that
witch, Queenie. YOU . . . you can't say you ever took to Queenie!
I can remember Cind screaming at me now. Then, why, Hal? Why?
Why did you go to her? To her of all people. Goddamn, Hal. Why
the hell Queenie! To go to my stepmother of all people.
After all those promises about having played your last hand.
Yep, I remember it, word for word, like it was yesterday.
Geez what a witch. Don't know
where she came from. To this day I don't know where she came
from. Where the hell did Earl find her? Must've dropped from
the moon. Found her at a gas station, hotel lobby more like.
Queenie. Must've been a real witch before, in a another
life that is. Sure had me fooled. Remember the time before last,
before Cind went back. I was down a good sum then. I was so damn
sure about that hand. She didn't want no IOUs. She was real accommodating.
Hal, sweetness, she'd said, we're family. What goes on in families
don't need writing down. Or something like that. But then she
did write something down and it was no IOU. I didn't know. I
didn't know that Cind and Earl had that sort of a relationship.
How would I know? It's the sort of thing you hear about,
think it's weird and then forget about pretty damn quick. Suppose
she was jealous, wanted to get back at Cind. Must've been a shock
when Cind turned up back at the ranch saying 'she loved Earl
like a real woman loves a real man'. Course I didn't know until
later. Thought Cind had gone back just for Thanksgiving. Thought
it was funny she didn't take Junior. Don't know how she could
leave the farm, our farm, the Old Farm Out West. Earl was real
fond of our farm. Quite some wedding present. Sold my hardware
stores to old man Blake when Earl gave Cind and me the Farm,
not straight away, but after a while when all seemed well, set
like for the future. Talk about seventh heaven, geez all that
corn, acres of golden corn like it was out of a movie. Seemed
like our future was all sunshine and corn. Got rid of the hardware
stores. Hell what did I need to hang on to those damn stores
for. Never did take to selling aluminium pans, pig pellets and
goddamn rifles. Might've suited my pa, and his father before
him, but . . . What with three sons and my boy that's queer in
the head, as Blake put it, I'm real glad to get hold of those
stores, he'd said. Expansion, he called it. I remember him standing
there his thumbs in his braces, a cheroot butt on his lip. Cind
hung the curtains she'd stitched, yellow and white, checkered
like a board they were. Started baking. Never was one for cooking
much before. Least that's what she said. Except for pumpkin pie
with 'Papa-Daddy' on it in pastry letters! I'd forgotten that.
Well, it was good - for a time. We farmed the land - thousand
acres of corn. Got help in. Red and his boy. Cind kept a house
cow, some hens. Sunny days. But I blew it. Hold on, Hal, old
buddy. So I have, no 'had', a gambling problem. Now let's think
about this. Sure, I shouldn't've messed with cards so much, but
the real problem was going to Queenie for a hand out. Geez, it
was only a loan. Yep, that was the real error. Kept meaning to
give up. Throw in my hand! Ha, sounds like an Earl gag. I guess
it would have happened anyways. Can't have been just a few hands
of poker that led Cind to say she loved Earl properly.
It's filthy! Filthy what they've done. Just finished building
those closets for her too. Course, I swore to Loren I'd given
up before we wed. What the hell, it was a spring day.
Just one more hand: I felt lucky.
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