We’d got a late start that morning, and I decided we would spend the night on the road. I checked the Ayrshires, shoveled them some grain in the trailer and then joined Stoney inside the bar. The place was a dump, sawhorse tables, a few rickety chairs; the floor was so filthy I couldn’t tell whether it was pine or oak. The bartender was a woman, and I hadn’t ever ordered a drink from a woman. I reckon Stoney hadn’t either because when she came over to our table and said, “What’ll you have?” he answered, “Can you pour us a drink?” She laughed and said she guessed she could since she owned the place. We joked awhile about my name being Cotton and us planning on staying at “my” cabins next door. Peggy, that was the gal’s name, sat down with us and said she owned that too, but I was welcome to a discount on a room since my name was Cotton. She was nice to me, but all the while she talked, she kept her eyes on Stoney. She was old enough to be his mama, and when he kept on calling her “Ma’am,”
What do You think about Walking Through Shadows (2002)?
