After an uncomfortable moment, she said, “The talk in the barbershop was that she liked it up the ass.”
“So this Sissy Warwick is now the town ‘ho,’ ” Corso prodded. “Givin’ the good old boys a little something they can’t get at home. Takin’ pictures of it all. Causin’ all kinds of chaos among the local gentry.”
“I can see you’re an incurable romantic,” she said.
For the second time Corso laughed. “Yeah…ask anybody.”
She went on. “Everybody in town figures she’ll do the right thing and either kill herself or disappear back to wherever it was she came from.”
“But no.”
She shook her head. “Next thing you know, I’m hearing she’s hot and heavy with Eldred Holmes.” She shook her head in remembered astonishment. “First time I heard it, I laughed out loud.”
“Why’s that?”
“It was crazy. They were just such an unlikely pair,” she said.
“Ah” was all Corso said.
“And Eldred…I mean there wasn’t a less likely candidate for romance in the whole county. Eldred might have been our least prominent citizen. You want to talk backward and shy, I’m telling you, Mr. Corso, Eldred was the poster boy for awkward. Poor kid spent his whole life out on that eighty acres where you found him. His parents were deaf. They died the year before Sissy came to town. By the time I saw them together, he’d already had his teeth fixed. Bought himself some new clothes. Stopped cutting his own hair.”
“You think this Eldred knew about the prominent men?”
She frowned. “Wouldn’t have mattered. She had old Eldred firmly in hand.”
“And then?”
“And then, the next thing you know they’re getting married, and everybody’s picking up their jaws and waiting for the pictures to appear in the newspaper. They’re all wondering what she wants from poor Eldred. Figuring she’s gonna move in for a while and then screw him out of the farm, since that was pretty much all he owned.” She cast a glance at Corso.
“But no.”
“No.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Next thing you know she’s pregnant with Tommie. They’re out there trying to scratch a living out of some real marginal acreage. Trying to be self-sufficient. Running a few cows. Growing some feed. Just doing what folks around here mostly do.”
“So what happened?”
“Nothing. That’s where it gets really weird. They just sort of settled in. Had a second kid. James.” She stopped, as if listening to herself. “They were like hermits. Just stayed out there on the place. You maybe saw Eldred once, twice a year, if he needed something from the Grange, but that was it. Other than that, you never saw any of them in town…ever. Wasn’t until the boys grew up that anybody remembered they were alive. Half the people who remembered what happened with Sissy were dead by then. And then one day about the time the boys got to be adolescents, she had to start coming into town to bail them out.”
“At-risk youth, eh?”
“Big time. It’s not good for kids to be raised in isolation. They miss out on the whole social interaction thing. The socialization process. Didn’t do Eldred any good, and it wasn’t good for his boys neither. Soon as they started to mature—just about the time puberty kicked in—they started to be a problem. Boosting cars. Starting fights on Saturday nights. A couple of B and Es.” Her lips rolled into a smile. “They got drunk and drove Eldred’s one-ton truck through the front wall of the Dairy Queen. One thing after another. I used to spend half my time cleaning up the messes the Holmes boys made.”
“So.”
“So that’s just about the time the state starts building the freeway. Right up there on the side of Barnett Mountain by their farm. She came into town for the first time in years, blew a gasket at the Zoning Commission—had to be escorted out of the courthouse. Then, a couple of weeks later, I hear they’re gonna move.”
“’Cause of the
“So this Sissy Warwick is now the town ‘ho,’ ” Corso prodded. “Givin’ the good old boys a little something they can’t get at home. Takin’ pictures of it all. Causin’ all kinds of chaos among the local gentry.”
“I can see you’re an incurable romantic,” she said.
For the second time Corso laughed. “Yeah…ask anybody.”
She went on. “Everybody in town figures she’ll do the right thing and either kill herself or disappear back to wherever it was she came from.”
“But no.”
She shook her head. “Next thing you know, I’m hearing she’s hot and heavy with Eldred Holmes.” She shook her head in remembered astonishment. “First time I heard it, I laughed out loud.”
“Why’s that?”
“It was crazy. They were just such an unlikely pair,” she said.
“Ah” was all Corso said.
“And Eldred…I mean there wasn’t a less likely candidate for romance in the whole county. Eldred might have been our least prominent citizen. You want to talk backward and shy, I’m telling you, Mr. Corso, Eldred was the poster boy for awkward. Poor kid spent his whole life out on that eighty acres where you found him. His parents were deaf. They died the year before Sissy came to town. By the time I saw them together, he’d already had his teeth fixed. Bought himself some new clothes. Stopped cutting his own hair.”
“You think this Eldred knew about the prominent men?”
She frowned. “Wouldn’t have mattered. She had old Eldred firmly in hand.”
“And then?”
“And then, the next thing you know they’re getting married, and everybody’s picking up their jaws and waiting for the pictures to appear in the newspaper. They’re all wondering what she wants from poor Eldred. Figuring she’s gonna move in for a while and then screw him out of the farm, since that was pretty much all he owned.” She cast a glance at Corso.
“But no.”
“No.” She shook her head in disbelief. “Next thing you know she’s pregnant with Tommie. They’re out there trying to scratch a living out of some real marginal acreage. Trying to be self-sufficient. Running a few cows. Growing some feed. Just doing what folks around here mostly do.”
“So what happened?”
“Nothing. That’s where it gets really weird. They just sort of settled in. Had a second kid. James.” She stopped, as if listening to herself. “They were like hermits. Just stayed out there on the place. You maybe saw Eldred once, twice a year, if he needed something from the Grange, but that was it. Other than that, you never saw any of them in town…ever. Wasn’t until the boys grew up that anybody remembered they were alive. Half the people who remembered what happened with Sissy were dead by then. And then one day about the time the boys got to be adolescents, she had to start coming into town to bail them out.”
“At-risk youth, eh?”
“Big time. It’s not good for kids to be raised in isolation. They miss out on the whole social interaction thing. The socialization process. Didn’t do Eldred any good, and it wasn’t good for his boys neither. Soon as they started to mature—just about the time puberty kicked in—they started to be a problem. Boosting cars. Starting fights on Saturday nights. A couple of B and Es.” Her lips rolled into a smile. “They got drunk and drove Eldred’s one-ton truck through the front wall of the Dairy Queen. One thing after another. I used to spend half my time cleaning up the messes the Holmes boys made.”
“So.”
“So that’s just about the time the state starts building the freeway. Right up there on the side of Barnett Mountain by their farm. She came into town for the first time in years, blew a gasket at the Zoning Commission—had to be escorted out of the courthouse. Then, a couple of weeks later, I hear they’re gonna move.”
“’Cause of the
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