Page 37 - Contrast1964Spring
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senseFdOUrtee n, an d her eyes more slanted, he She was eighteen and her face was differ-
that w a ne w q,.ui er and a restlessness ent; her eyes were black as though the long
in her night of the winter had been poured in them.
When she smiled at him it was a stranger's
looked a~:e~. like. the old pride and grief. She smile. She watched him, he could feel her
hour after hour watching; and the late summer
and th rrn qUlckly across the dinner table hills powdered with fine dust became unfa-
pregn en. aw.a:·y, Watchlng . miliar to him. It was not his land but a dusty
wlth . th e .spnn.g, the land as swelled hell he moved across, an empty land, barren
it as his dreams. She watched him with new
her eyes mo vm. g but patience, and trailed her fingers in the dust
. seaen· t that was everywhere; and he knew that she
nor was waiting, the strange proud eyes were
wai ring for something that he did not know.
the,roa~ng, thlnki~g inward and listening down There were silent questions strangled by
fierce pride, questions that bewildere~ him.
bing With ~:t S~elng the wild lush hills throb- He had begun to be awake listening In the
night, and to leave the house before t~e dawn
in thesk w life, the hot sun that rose higher came. She had been sick in the momlllg and
he was afraid. He murinured to him self but he
flowing y each day, the irri gation ditches said nothing; he did not know what to say. He
to rh .. trern bled when he looked at her because he
that thm e USlng land. The land he loved, could not understand how to say the words
raw. rusr up new, green b 1ades of li.fe: the that ran within him, words that had not re~ched
~m~i . ' his wife who died as distant as she [i ved.
needed C1 ~y that n ever fail ed him, that The dead wife he had worshipped and n~ver
understood; the woman he mourned for, WIth-
"-'atched nhio.slgns but, knew it was his. He out a sign, for a time longer than he knew.
beaut. d s la n,d 1I·stemng. to the rustling
thestaiiys an then. he h ear d h er qui. ck rstep s down 35
the porch 'd gOlng across the porch. He heard
that was o~rslam and the sound of the car
car that c COmlnf g do wn th e road, the hi.gh-speed
arne or her.
Th e m.ght was .
Was alive with hgrowlng deep and the barn
hiIS head in his oelcd oes . H·e sat d own. and put
mer's end a d all' brown hands. It was sum-
wind dyin . n h the days were dying, the
g In t e We .b
dry grass H ' st as 1t lew through the
door and . e hstared bl an kl y out th. e open ba.'m
watc ed the long night come.
