Diamond Buckow

Diamond Buckow Read Free Page A

Book: Diamond Buckow Read Free
Author: A. J. Arnold
Ads: Link
everything else might be bearable.
    With his head bent low as he remembered all the painful scenes from his brief past, Pete barreled down the alley back of Silver’s saloon. His shoeless feet were blotched and streaked from the loose dirt on the road as he plunged ahead, unseeing.
    Feeling a heavy thud as he collided with a solid object, the boy reeled. Then he was abruptly aware that he had brought a pedestrian to the ground. The man’s muttered epithets sounded familiar, and Pete found himself staring down into the dull pewter eyes of Edward Malvers.
    â€œUncle Ed!” he gasped, shocked, as he hastily palm-brushed the settling dust from his relative’s rumpled clothes. “Gosh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to knock you down. I didn’t even see you coming.”
    â€œThat you, Buckshot?” The man looked up, bleary-eyed.
    He tossed his long, unkempt gray hair out of his elephant-hide face. “Consarn it, boy, where was you off to at such a clip? I thought I was bowled over by a runaway steer.”
    â€œI don’t know where I was goin’, really.” His thin face went bright red. “I was thinking to find you, I guess, and I’m supposed to be at the woodshed. Findin’ a board for that son-of-a-bitch to whale me with.”
    Malvers shook his rubbery cheeks in what seemed like sternness. “Now, look, Buck. Don’t you never insult a man’s parentage like that. I know old Gerald’s no good for you, and I also know he ain’t half the man your daddy was. But that’s still no way to talk.”
    â€œYes, sir.” Pete hung his head while his uncle maneuvered unsteadily to his feet.
    Edward, obviously, was still a mite tipsy from the heady Silver Special Brew he’d been downing all afternoon. “Best tell me what you and him are on the outs over this time, Buckshot.”
    â€œAll I did was slide down Curl-toes’s haystack. I know it was wrong. But, Unc, Hamm’s goin’ to whip me with a piece of wood! He told me to go pick it out, myself.”
    The desperate glitter in his blue eyes was enough to break Ed’s heart as the boy took a deep breath and plunged on.
    â€œCan’t I come and live with you, Unc? Things just ain’t the same at home since Pa died and Ma got herself hitched to that—that...” Pete’s whole body went rigid as he clenched his fists and steeled himself against the words he wanted to shout.
    â€œNo, you know you can’t. Why, your Ma wouldn’t let you! She says I drink too much.”
    A sad, faraway look lightened his eyes. “And Buck, I’m afraid she’s not full wrong. It wouldn’t be no life for you a-tall.”
    â€œWell, then,” Pete demanded, his chin trembling, “what should I do now? About the lickin’?”
    Ed’s voice went as soft as the rest of him felt. Putting an arm across his nephew’s shoulders he advised, “If I was you, I’d just try to take my medicine like a man and get it all over with. Only, next time, try to keep out of Hamm’s way and don’t get ketched.”
    â€œYes, sir,” Pete said grimly, standing as tall as possible. “I guess I can handle anything that land pirate gives out.”
    â€œLand pirate?” Malvers blinked. “Where in tarnation did you get that one? I sure as hell never heard it before.”
    Pete smiled proudly. “Never got it from nobody. I made it up. See, at school once, the teacher gave me this book about pirates. One of ’em was called Bluebeard. He went all over the ocean in a big boat, just takin’ whatever he wanted from other people. Don’t Hamm do that? Just takes and never gives? Well, don’t that make him a land pirate?”
    Ed shook his head. How could he argue with Pete’s logic? Anyway, he’d rather the boy called his stepfather a land pirate than a son-of-a-bitch. Although, come to think of it, they both

Similar Books

Yesterday's Promise

Linda Lee Chaikin

Warlock

Dean Koontz

Murder in a Minor Key

Jessica Fletcher

Listed: Volume IV

Noelle Adams

Nine Dragons

Michael Connelly

Addict Nation

Sandra Mohr Jane Velez-Mitchell

Journey to the End of the Night

Louis-Ferdinand Céline