The Sisters Brothers

So I was not entirely unhappy when he packed a bag and left one spring morning, without any instruction or good-bye—not so much as a pat on the head from the old man. He later committed suicide, with an ax, in Boston.'

'An ax? How is that possible?'

'I don't know. But here was what the letter said: Woefully sorry to report your Hans Warm killed self with ax on 15th May. Possessions forthcoming.'

'Perhaps he was murdered. '

'No, I don't think so. If there was ever anyone who could find a way to kill himself with an ax, it was Father...'

We coated them head to foot in oil and they were soon all three if them burning exultantly, their bodies stacked and blackened at the base of the blaze and I thought, So much for the calmer life. Warms face appeared a the entrance of the tent to watch the gruesome spectacle. He looked sad. After a time he said, to no one, 'I have had enough of this day today.'

'But what about your agreement?' He asked. 'What of the gold?'

'I don't care about money,' the proprietor answered. 'I don't know why, I should pay more attention to it. No, I was looking forward to an adventure with a friend, is the long and short of it. I had thought Warm and I were close companions.'

These words brought and expression of disgust to my brother's face. He buttoned his coat and retired to the bar for a drink. I stayed behind to watch the man lose another dollar to the woman, then another.

'It's hard to find a friend,' I said.

'It is the hardest thing in the world,' he agreed.

He was silent a minute or more, and when he finally spoke his voice was solemn and soft; 'I have never minded cutting down the Commodore's enemies much, brother. It always happens that they are repellent in one way or the other. Lesser villains, men without mercy or grace. But I do not like the idea of killing a man because of his own ingenuity.'

'I don't, either. And I'm very glad to hear you say it.'

He exhaled through his nostrils. 'What do you think we should do?'

'What do you think we should do?'

But neither of us knew what to do.

'My feelings for you quickly changed, Mr. Morris, and I'll tell you why. You haven't a dishonest bone in your body. Typically, for example, when a man wishes another man a good morning, he will smile just as long as he is facing the other person, but as soon as he passes by, the smile immediately drops from his face. His smile had been a false one. That man is a liar, do you see?' 'But everyone does that.' I said 'It is only a small civility.' 'You do not do it.' He told me. 'Your smile, though slight, remains on your lips long after you have turned away. You take genuine pleasure in communing with another man or woman...'

'How is it people go crazy?'

'It's just a thing that sometimes happens.'

'Can you go truly crazy and then come back?'

'Not truly crazy. No, I don't think so.'

'I've heard a father hands it down to the next.'

'I have never thought of it. Why, do you ever feel crazy?'

'Sometimes I feel a helplessness.'

'I don't think that's the same thing.'

'Let's hope.'

'I don't suppose your brother'll be leaving me a hundred.'

'No, I don't suppose he will.'

'You got all the romantic blood, is that it?'

'Our blood is the same we just use it differently.'

I turned and walked away. A half-dozen steps, and she asked. 'You want to tell me what she did for this?'

I stopped and thought. I told her, 'She was pretty, and kind to me.'

And the poor whore's face, she just did not know what to think about that. She went back into her room, slammed the door shut, and shrieked two times.

I felt two things at once: A gladness at this turn of fortune, but also an emptiness that I did not feel more glad; or rather, a fear that my gladness was forced or false. I thought, perhaps a man is never meant to be truly happy. Perhaps there is no such thing in our world, after all.

'I thought it was the dog's leg,' I said.

The girl wiped the tears from her cheeks. 'But it is the dog's leg.'

I shook my head and pointed. 'The dog's leg is tucked under him, do you see?'

You are wrong. Watch.' She whistled and the dog awoke and stood, and I discovered it truly was missing the leg closest to the bone on the ground, only the skin had long since healed over. It was a years-old wound, and though I was confused, I persevered: 'That there on the ground is the femur bone of a lamb and not the dog's. Don't you see the animal suffered its loss some time ago and that he is not in pain?'

The statement angered the girl, and now she regarded me with just the same malice with which she had been regarding the house. 'The dog is in pain,' she insisted 'The dog is in no small amount of pain!'

The violence of her words and temper caught me by surprise; I found myself taking a step away from her. 'You are a peculiar girl,' I said.

'It's a peculiar lifetime on earth,' she countered. I did not know what to say to that. At any rate it was as truthful a statement as I had come across.

'Why were you feeling low?'

'Why does anyone? It creeps up on you from time to time.'

I could not see her but listened to her movements—her footsteps, her hands rooting through drawers and over tabletops; I found this endearing, her nearness to me, her busyness, and my not knowing just what she was doing. I decided I liked her then; I was flattered she was devoting her time and concerns to me and I thought, I do not need much at all, to make me feel contented.

I felt repulsed by Charlie then 'You make for a pretty picture.'

His lids were rising and falling like a pair of blinds being lifted and dropped. He shrugged and said, 'Some days we are stronger... than others.'

The creak of bed springs suffering under the weight of a restless man is as lonely a sound as I know.

We all of us can be hurt, and no one is exclusively safe from worry and sadness.