with each other.’ He encompassed the office with a hand gesture. ‘Even in the working day he only needed to come in here when he had a message concerning the railroad. And I had no call to visit his office unless vice versa .’ He fidgeted into a more comfortable posture. ‘Plus him being such a young feller and me pushing on through the years more than somewhat, we didn’t have too much in common. So we didn’t socialise a lot. It was the gap in our ages that led to the boy giving me the black eye.’
‘How was that, feller?’
‘See, I’ve reached a time in life when I reckon I got a right to respect from young people. And other older folks should get treated likewise. Especially my wife, who I’ll tell you is a couple of years down the road more than me if you don’t let on I told you?’
Edge concealed his impatience and nodded in response to the rhetorical question.
‘Well, what happened, Annie came over here to the depot with my lunch. Like she always does when a train’s due or is running late and I can’t get to the house to eat at the usual noon hour. Well, she brought my grub into the office here and left. But she didn’t head for home right away. Instead she stopped by at the telegraph office.’ Hicks felt it necessary to point to the front doorway his wife had gone through. ‘She told me later that she had planned to find out what was wrong with the boy. Why he’d changed from being a nice young feller into such a sorehead all the time. But he up and told her to mind her own business.’
Edge pointedly cleared his throat.
The uniformed man peered uncomfortably around the office and shrugged. ‘Which I have to allow it wasn’t. I guess there ain’t really any polite way for anybody to say that to somebody. Billy though, he put a few more words into the sentiment and they were a long way from being polite. And he yelled them real loud, so Annie didn’t have to repeat them to me. Even if she would ever allow herself to speak that kind of language?’
Edge tried to hurry things along. ‘And you went to the telegraph office to – ‘
‘To do what any decent husband would do if he heard a man cussing at his wife that way! Did it without thinking, which is a bad way to do anything! But in that kind of situation, a man don’t always do . . . ‘ He sighed and shook his head ruefully. ‘Well, in the heat of the moment I forgot about being so much slower than him. And how I sure as hell ain’t so strong as I used to be. So I just charged in like an old fool and threw the kind of 58
wild swing that a few years ago would’ve knocked that kid into the middle of next week. But he got in the first punch.’ He grimaced and touched his recently damaged cheek again.
‘Only damn punch to tell the truth.’
‘To tell the whole truth,’ a woman said firmly as she entered through the rear doorway of the office, ‘it wasn’t even a punch. You have to admit that, Travis dear. Billy just jerked up his arm to keep you from hitting him and you smacked your face into his elbow.’
‘Annie,’ Hicks muttered disconsolately.
His wife was a diminutive, grey haired, kindly looking woman of sixty or so with a heavily wrinkled face that suggested her life had not been without much trouble and sadness. But in her clear grey eyes was the resigned look of one who had learned to endure her misfortunes without surrendering to corrosive bitterness.
‘I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, Mr Edge,’ she explained as she hung her husband’s worse-for-wear topcoat on a stand in the corner. ‘It’s surely gonna get colder today and the old fool left home without it.’
Edge remained seated but took off his hat, hung it over a knee and acknowledged:
‘Ma’am.’
‘Did Travis tell you the important part? Or has he spent the whole time trying to prove what a knight in shining armour he tried to be?’
‘Annie, I – ‘
She smiled indulgently at his disgruntlement and it seemed to Edge the expression was
‘How was that, feller?’
‘See, I’ve reached a time in life when I reckon I got a right to respect from young people. And other older folks should get treated likewise. Especially my wife, who I’ll tell you is a couple of years down the road more than me if you don’t let on I told you?’
Edge concealed his impatience and nodded in response to the rhetorical question.
‘Well, what happened, Annie came over here to the depot with my lunch. Like she always does when a train’s due or is running late and I can’t get to the house to eat at the usual noon hour. Well, she brought my grub into the office here and left. But she didn’t head for home right away. Instead she stopped by at the telegraph office.’ Hicks felt it necessary to point to the front doorway his wife had gone through. ‘She told me later that she had planned to find out what was wrong with the boy. Why he’d changed from being a nice young feller into such a sorehead all the time. But he up and told her to mind her own business.’
Edge pointedly cleared his throat.
The uniformed man peered uncomfortably around the office and shrugged. ‘Which I have to allow it wasn’t. I guess there ain’t really any polite way for anybody to say that to somebody. Billy though, he put a few more words into the sentiment and they were a long way from being polite. And he yelled them real loud, so Annie didn’t have to repeat them to me. Even if she would ever allow herself to speak that kind of language?’
Edge tried to hurry things along. ‘And you went to the telegraph office to – ‘
‘To do what any decent husband would do if he heard a man cussing at his wife that way! Did it without thinking, which is a bad way to do anything! But in that kind of situation, a man don’t always do . . . ‘ He sighed and shook his head ruefully. ‘Well, in the heat of the moment I forgot about being so much slower than him. And how I sure as hell ain’t so strong as I used to be. So I just charged in like an old fool and threw the kind of 58
wild swing that a few years ago would’ve knocked that kid into the middle of next week. But he got in the first punch.’ He grimaced and touched his recently damaged cheek again.
‘Only damn punch to tell the truth.’
‘To tell the whole truth,’ a woman said firmly as she entered through the rear doorway of the office, ‘it wasn’t even a punch. You have to admit that, Travis dear. Billy just jerked up his arm to keep you from hitting him and you smacked your face into his elbow.’
‘Annie,’ Hicks muttered disconsolately.
His wife was a diminutive, grey haired, kindly looking woman of sixty or so with a heavily wrinkled face that suggested her life had not been without much trouble and sadness. But in her clear grey eyes was the resigned look of one who had learned to endure her misfortunes without surrendering to corrosive bitterness.
‘I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, Mr Edge,’ she explained as she hung her husband’s worse-for-wear topcoat on a stand in the corner. ‘It’s surely gonna get colder today and the old fool left home without it.’
Edge remained seated but took off his hat, hung it over a knee and acknowledged:
‘Ma’am.’
‘Did Travis tell you the important part? Or has he spent the whole time trying to prove what a knight in shining armour he tried to be?’
‘Annie, I – ‘
She smiled indulgently at his disgruntlement and it seemed to Edge the expression was
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