…as soon as she heard me she came down, opened the door, and asked me to come in…she set me on a richly decorated seat inlaid with silver, there was a footstool also under my feet, and she mixed…a golden goblet for me to drink… – Homer, Odyssey (X)
By the time the black-and-white car had come to a stop in front of the grand old house, the girl on the porch had vanished inside. And by the time the uniformed man had made it to the front door, it was opened by a beautiful, seemingly-ageless woman he knew well.
“Good afternoon, Tommy. Congratulations on your election!”
“Afternoon, Miss Kay; mind if I come in for a spell?”
“Well, I wasn’t going to make you sit on the porch! Come on in, and rest your feet for a while.”
He followed her in to the beautifully-furnished parlor and accepted the glass of wine she poured him; he had known her long enough to understand that it was best just to accept it because she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. Not that he particularly wanted to resist; she made the finest homemade wine in the state.
“I was beginning to wonder when you were going to show your face up here, young man; your father (may he rest in peace) came every week to hear the gossip. He always said I helped him so much that I should have been on the county payroll.”
“Well, Miss Kay, that’s sort of what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said hesitantly.
“Oh?” she asked, refilling his glass.
“Well…see, it’s like this. Things are different now from when Daddy was sheriff. There’s a lot of talk up at the state capital about cleanin’ up crime, and about morality and all.”
“What’s that got to do with me? There hasn’t been a major crime in this county since the end of Prohibition, and the rumors we heard helped your father deal with the minor ones.”
“Yeah, but what about your operation here?”
“Why, whatever do you mean?”
“Come on, Miss Kay, you ain’t dumb. You do a whole lot more’n raise hogs up here.”
She laughed. “That? Tommy Carson, don’t be a fool; nobody in this county cares about that. I bought this house soon after I arrived in this country, and I’ve been taking in girls and entertaining travelling gentlemen ever since. The people around here know me for a good neighbor.”
“Folks around here, sure. But like I said, they’re startin’ to make noise in the capital, and puttin’ pressure on local officials like me to clean up.”
“Rulers do that from time to time; it’s the way of things. They won’t know anything about what goes on here unless somebody tells them, and nobody’s going to do that.”
“Well, maybe. But it’s not like it was no more; it’s gettin’ a lot harder to cover up. An’ I’m thinkin’ that extra effort has to be worth somethin’ to you.”
She put down the bottle with barely-controlled anger. “How dare you?” she hissed. “Boy, I delivered you, and I gave your mother poultices and medicines for your ailments and rashes and the like. And when she came here sick with worry because you were going off to fight the Germans, who gave her a charm to protect you?”
Tommy remembered the ancient bronze coin with its faded hawk image and Greek letters; he had worn it on the chain beside his dog tags and though he would not admit it aloud, it had given him great comfort on that beach in Normandy when other men were dying all around him. “And I appreciate all that, Ma’am, I really do. But I figure if a man don’t look out for himself, nobody else is like to. You of all people should understand that.”
After a long, tense pause her face relaxed, and she poured him another glass. “Of course I do, Tommy. You’re right. Things change, and we have to change with them. Let me go over my books, and we’ll see what we can arrange.”
“I’m glad you decided to see it my way, Miss Kay; I’ll come back after the weekend, OK?”
“That’ll be fine, Sheriff,” she said, seeing him to the door. “Now, mind you drive carefully; that wine is more powerful than you think.”
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
“Now, Miss Kay, it’s not your fault.”
“Yes it is, Bart, I should never have let him drive; I told him that wine was much more powerful than he thought, but he insisted he could handle it!”
“You know how Tommy is; once he gets a mind to do somethin’ neither you nor nobody else is gonna stop him.”
“But he could have been killed!”
“Well, he can’t be hurt that bad because he was nowhere near the car; after the crash he must’ve wandered off somewhere to sleep it off. I’m sure he’ll turn up; we just figured we’d check here in case he came back to use your phone.”
“Please, Bart, let me know as soon as he turns up.”
“I’ll certainly do that, Ma’am. Oh, by the way, there was a pig wandering around near the wreck; he was real tame so the boys caught him easy and I’ve got him in the truck. We figured he must be one of yours.”
“Yes,” she said. “He’s one of mine.”
(With grateful acknowledgement to the work of Margaret St. Clair).
One Year Ago Today
“Dry Spell” is a fictional interlude which tells the sad tale of Bea Becket, the top girl in the finest brothel in her city in October of 1929.
Great ending!
Although I do hope they didn’t actually eat him…
Echoes of Circe. Nice piece of fiction.
Not just echoes… 😉
http://www.wtso.net/movie/62-The_Simpsons_1314_Tales_from_the_Public_.html
Unfortunatly you cant skip forward the 7minutes to the Cicre scene, but its still fun to watch
You can skip forward the 7 minutes to the Circe scene, by clicking right on the time bar. Thanks for the link.
Eh, every time I tried the damn thing would reset to the beggining
You can click on the time bar as long as you’re clicking within the red line. If you try to click on the time bar in a place where the red line hasn’t reached yet, then it won’t work.
Damn – that was good Maggie. Reminds me of the old Helen Reddy song … “Angie” … well, kind of anyway.
I think you have a warped mind girl! Turning bad gentlemen into piggies … LOL!
Don’t blame me; Homer talked about her first. 🙂
LOL Maggie, I make a living off my back … I don’t read “Homer”!
I only have a rough “sketch” in my head of “The Odyssey” because I saw the George Clooney movie … “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” – which I’m told is based on Homer. 😛
It’s a testment to your writing that smart people dig what you write – and idiots like me can understand it too! 😀
I don’t believe for one minute that you’re an idiot, nor, I suspect, does anyone else who reads your comments!
Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? is indeed based on The Odyssey. A good story is timeless. 🙂
Cold Mountain is a good movie based on The Odyssey, set during and after the American Civil War.
Another good one Maggie. 🙂
Waiting for your next history lesson.
Hmm, so that’s why bad cops are referred to colloquially as “swine.” That was pretty powerful swine wine eh wot?
I have a nice smile now. Thank you, Maggie. It has been a rough day and that story was particularly pleasing.
You’re very welcome. 😉
Dorothy Parker
In the 1920s, Dorothy Parker was establishing a reputation as a witty woman with a sharp tongue (the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell called her, “My pretty, pretty cobra”). At the same time, Clare Booth Luce was becoming a respected journalist and well-known playwright. While both women were highly talented, their numerous political, philosophical, and personal differences resulted in a strained relationship. One day, Parker was about to step through a doorway when she came face-to-face with Luce. As the story goes, Mrs. Luce stepped aside, extended the palm of her hand, and said coyly, “Age before beauty.” Parker glided through the door, saying ever-so-sweetly:
“Pearls before Swine.”
If Miss Mona had had a little of that swine wine, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas would’ve been a lot shorter movie!
If the state government is stirring on this point, this is only a temporary solution. Far better to “get the goods” on some key legislators or bureaucrats and quietly let them know that if this doesn’t die down, soonish, with no harm done…their careers, and likely their marriages, are toast.
Unwise man for trying that on with Miss Kay – one just knew that he would get his comeuppance, although I wasn’t certain until the end just what form it would take.
Probably too late for this comment to get much response, but this reminds me of a children’s book I read many years ago. It told the story of a family where the father and sons expect the mother to do everything around the house and then some, never helping or even expressing the least appreciation. Then one day, the mother isn’t there when the father and sons come home. Forced to look after themselves, they slowly devolve into swine, literally.
Happily, the mother returns and the father and sons see the error of their ways, and everyone starts working together to run the household.
I don’t know who wrote it or even what the title was, it was so long ago.