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from the hill

by john law

HE DIDN'T want to go, but something inside urged him on. Old
Josh despised the things his friends were doing to him. Yet,
down the hill, into the valley town of Friendship, Josh would make
his weekly visit with the boys at the tavern. He would tell himself,
"No, this week I'm not goin'. They're not making a fool out of me."

But Josh couldn't stay away from people of any kind. His house
was quite a way from town, and since the new valley road had been
built, no one passed over the old trail. This weekly visit to the village
was a poor but necessary substitute for the full life Josh had once
enjoyed.

As he walked along the weed-choked trail, Josh wondered what
tonight's trick would be. Once again the hollow feeling in his stomach
became more intense as he thought of the coaxing remarks and the
jeering that compelled the old man to drink himself unconscious with
hot liquor, and his teeth clenched as he smelled, over and over, the
charred leather of his best Sunday shoes, the victims of a lighted match.

A deep voice dissolved his thoughts, "Howdy, Josh. Haven't seen
you in quite a spell."

He looked up to find a huge mounted man hulking in his path.
"Why, Billy Boswell, you ole polecat!" cried Josh excitedly.

Billy bellowed from his horse, "I was just comin' up your way
for a visit. Where you goin'?"

Josh's memory, going back almost fifteen years, recalled Billy in
his odorous leather apron standing by the bellows, shoeing a horse.
Josh remembered, too, when he and Billy had been the most pros-
perous men in the valley-the blacksmith with his livery stable and
Josh with the toll road over his hill.

"It's been a long time, Billy," replied Josh, extending his hand
to meet the paw of his friend. "I was goin' down to the tavern-always
do on Fridays. But what brings you back?"

"I was just passin' through on my way to St. Louis to sell my
cattle. I've been a rancher ever since I left here. Y'know, Friendship
certainly has changed. It's funny what a flood can do, ain't it?"

Old Josh was in full agreement with what the big man had said.
He had witnessed the gradual rotting of the town and its occupants
since the flash flood many years ago.

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