“Don’t believe you give a damn,” said Brother through clenched teeth. “I know your double heart.”
His remarks stung, yet I could not deny them. I cared nothing for the suffering man and little more for anyone else. Still, those words were not brotherly. I jumped on his back and pounded his shoulder with my fist. The rope loosed from his grip as I wrangled him off the whoreman whose legs jerked like a sinner freshly hanged. Brother moved like a sidewinder and suddenly he was upon me, straddling my chest and pinning my arms to the ground with his legs.
“Enough,” I yelled.
“Enough is right! I’m doin’ this for you, Marcus. I do everything for you—so you don’t have to blame yourself for your mistakes.”
“Shut up and get off!”
Brother slowly stood and ambled toward the prostrate man.
“Is he alive?” I panted, slapping the dirt from my clothes.
“Still breathin’. Come over here.”
Little Brother held the copper coin in one hand and a wad of tender in the other. He tossed the coin to me and flung the papers into the air. They fell like dead leaves upon the whoreman’s sullied body.
“Seems foolish not to keep the money,” I said.
“I ain’t like that. All’s I want is what he took from you, and to see the scoundrel lyin’ where he belongs. We’d better go, and quick.”
I followed behind, still angered by his calling out my heart. No person has the right to criticize that region wherein lives the fallible soul.
* * *
We found ourselves disoriented, surrounded by endless bluffs and cacti bent like twisted signposts. The sun rolled backward across the sky with the moon in pursuit. Congregations of stars positioned themselves in strange constellations. Little Brother checked his compass in this land with no direction.
“Damn thing must be busted. The needle can’t make up its mind,” he said, then threw the compass into the night as if it were the agent of our confusion. I’m bettin’ west is that way,” he said, pointing. “The sea’s got to be over those saddleback dunes, yonder. The smell is unmistakable.”
Well written fable. Thoughtful ideas about man search for things of lesser value that hide more important issues. Do we suffer little deaths while searching for the unattainable? What should we be doing instead? What is living all about? Thoroughly enjoyable and thoughtful read.
Beautifully written