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“It won’t take too long, anyway-Six-Pack will have Hero to attend to,” Ketchum said to them. “Hero barely tolerates Pam’s dogs when he’s not all clawed up. This morning could be interesting.” They drove out the road advertising small engine repairs, though Da
“We met a guy who knows you-a salesman at L. L. Cote,” Da
“Is that so?” the riverman said. “Was he a nice fella, or do I take it that you met the one asshole who works there?”
“I believe that’s the one we met, Mr. Ketchum,” Carmella said. The horrible smell traveled with them; definitely the bear had been in the cab.
“Fat fella, always wears camouflage-that asshole?” Ketchum asked.
“That’s the one,” Da
“Well, I don’t know what I am-or what the missing half of me is, anyway!” Ketchum thundered. “It’s fine with me if I’m half-Injun-or three-quarters-Injun, for that matter! Injuns are all a lost nation, which suits me fine, too!”
“That fella seemed to think your road was no longer called Lost Nation Road,” Da
“I ought to skin that fella and smoke him with my bear!” Ketchum shouted. “But you know what?” he asked Carmella, more flirtatiously.
“What, Mr. Ketchum?” she asked him fearfully.
“That fella wouldn’t taste as good as bear!” Ketchum hollered, laughing. They swerved onto Akers Pond Road and headed to the highway. Da
Ketchum drove to that well-kept trailer park on Route 26, just outside Errol-the Saw Dust Alley campground, where Six-Pack Pam had a trailer. Six-Pack’s home, which was no longer mobile-it was set on cinder blocks, and half surrounded by a vegetable garden-was actually two trailers that had been joined together. A ke
Da
“My hip is better than your poor dog,” Six-Pack told him. “Come here, Hero,” she said to the hound, who went over to her. “Did you kill the bear all by yourself, or did this asshole hunter finally get around to shootin’ it?”
“This asshole bear hound got too far ahead of me. When Hero got to the bear, I wasn’t in range!” Ketchum complained again.
“Old Ketchum ain’t as fast as he used to be, is he, Hero?” Six-Pack said to the dog.
“I shot the damn bear,” Ketchum told her peevishly.
“No shit-of course you did!” Pam said. “If you hadn’t shot the damn bear, your poor dog would be dead!”
“I’m giving Hero an antibiotic for that ear,” the logger said to Six-Pack. “I thought you might put some of that gunk you’ve got on his claw wounds.”
“It ain’t gunk-it’s sulfa,” Six-Pack told him.
The dogs in the ke
“I’m sorry for your business here, Da
“It’s okay,” Da
“Everyone loses people,” Carmella told her.
“I kinda fancied Cookie, once,” Six-Pack said, now looking at Da
“You had the hots for Cookie?” Ketchum asked her. “High time I heard of it, I guess!”
“I ain’t tellin’ you-I’m tellin’ him!” Six-Pack said, pointing at Da
Ketchum kicked the ground with his boot. “Well, shit, we’ll be back for the dog later this morning-or maybe not till this afternoon,” he said to Six-Pack.
“It don’t matter when you come back,” Pam told him. “Hero will be fine with me-I ain’t pla
“I’ll have some bear meat for you shortly,” Ketchum said sullenly. “If you don’t like it, you can always feed those mutts with it.” Ketchum made a sudden gesture to the ke
“Ain’t it just like you, Ketchum, to get me in trouble with my neighbors?” Pam turned to Carmella and Da
“I can believe it,” Da
“Shut up, all of you!” Six-Pack yelled at her dogs; they stopped barking and slunk away from the fence, all but the German shepherd, who kept his muzzle pressed against the fence and continued to stare at Hero, who stared back.
“I’d keep those two fellas separated, if I were you,” Ketchum said to Pam, pointing to his bear hound and the shepherd.
“Like I need you to tell me that!” Six-Pack said.
“Shit,” the logger said to her. “I’ll be in the truck,” Ketchum told Da
OLD AGE HADN’T BEEN GENTLE to Six-Pack, who was Ketchum’s age, though she was still a scary-looking bleached blonde. There was a scar on her upper lip-one Da
When the woodsman had shut himself in the cab of his truck and turned the radio on, Six-Pack said to Da
Da
“What about Ketchum’s left hand?” Da
“Ask Ketchum about it,” Six-Pack said. “It ain’t my favorite subject. That left hand ain’t the one he ever touched me with!” she suddenly cried.
The old logger rolled down the window on the driver’s side of his truck. “Just shut up, Six-Pack, and let them leave for Christ’s sake!” he shouted; Pam’s dogs started barking again. “You already got to say you were sorry, didn’t you?” Ketchum called to her.
“Come on, Hero,” Six-Pack said to the bear hound. Pam turned and went into the trailer, with Hero limping stiffly after her.