Read Online Cadillac Cathedral by Jack Hodgins - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jack Hodgins
Ads: Link
her — I said, Who knows what wondrous things could happen to me before I see you again! She’s the one put California in my head.”
“If you were hoping for California, you didn’t consider this vehicle. Neither of us is likely to live as long as it would take this hearse to get us there. For the return trip someone else would have to drive, with the two of us laid out in boxes in the back.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, dismissing worry with a tilted hand. “Riding as far as town will have to do. My sister can drive me back to my car. I just don’t like to be left out altogether. My brothers left me out of everything ! Henry used to blame them for all my flaws.”
Arvo had never thought of Cynthia as someone with flaws. She could have a sharp tongue now and then, but only when discussing the shortcomings of people who put themselves in the public eye. He knew she had no trouble running that little “hobby farm” without Henry, and had probably been the brains, or at least the commonsense, behind the drive-in movie theatre.
Cynthia had been joking about California, but she was not the first woman to suggest a trip together. Long ago, Margot Pearson — Abner’s widow — had invited him to drive her to her brother’s wedding in Calgary. He could see no reason for refusing — the woodshad shut down for fire season, he had no plans of his own, he was curious to see Calgary, and he had always enjoyed Margot’s company at community whist drives and local weddings. They had got along well throughout the trip, which included motel stopovers in Vancouver and Kelowna, so it was impossible now to know what might have happened if she hadn’t run into an old flame in the lobby of their Calgary hotel — just arrived from Kingston for the wedding.
As they were passing by the bright green grass of the Lazy Meadows golf course, where town shopkeepers and lawyers took out their frustrations on little white balls, Arvo thought of his father’s opinion that it was an activity for men who had nothing better to do with their hands. He had remained faithful to his father’s bias even though this particular golf course was owned by Pentti Virtanen — son of Matti Virtanen, who’d been known simply as The Big Finn when he was alive, and brother to the hefty Leena Virtanen who had offered to bake Arvo her famous kula-kukko to help him relax after his first game on the family links. He’d always enjoyed a good feed of perch-and-pork loaf and even liked the flirtatious Leena Virtanen a little — but he liked neither the dish nor the woman enough to take up playing golf.
He’d been told that Leena’s mother Helvi had been a winner of beauty pageants back in her home city of Kajaani. She’d been much older than the young Arvo when she’d arrived in town, and had offered to overlook the difference in their ages, and even her engagement to The Big Finn, if Arvo would forget whoever it was he was saving himself for and expend some of that pent-up frustrated love on her. “You must be just about ready to explode,” she’d said, and made it clear she wanted to be around when this happened. She had a certain way of letting just the tip of her tongue show between her red lips. He had been flattered, but too slow to respond. Her marriageto Matti had cooled her interest in Arvo for a while, but at some point she had let him know that her husband would soon drink himself into his grave, leaving the coast clear enough for even a puritan like Arvo to fill the void. But it had been Helvi herself who’d died soon after that. The Big Finn’s heavy drinking did not prevent him from taking a second wife within the year.
No one was out on the golf course this morning. Sprinklers that had probably been going all night continued to send water flying in great wide circles. Arvo thought, as he’d thought many times before, that it was a crime this large piece of cleared grass-seeded property was not supporting cattle, at least while
“If you were hoping for California, you didn’t consider this vehicle. Neither of us is likely to live as long as it would take this hearse to get us there. For the return trip someone else would have to drive, with the two of us laid out in boxes in the back.”
“Don’t worry,” she said, dismissing worry with a tilted hand. “Riding as far as town will have to do. My sister can drive me back to my car. I just don’t like to be left out altogether. My brothers left me out of everything ! Henry used to blame them for all my flaws.”
Arvo had never thought of Cynthia as someone with flaws. She could have a sharp tongue now and then, but only when discussing the shortcomings of people who put themselves in the public eye. He knew she had no trouble running that little “hobby farm” without Henry, and had probably been the brains, or at least the commonsense, behind the drive-in movie theatre.
Cynthia had been joking about California, but she was not the first woman to suggest a trip together. Long ago, Margot Pearson — Abner’s widow — had invited him to drive her to her brother’s wedding in Calgary. He could see no reason for refusing — the woodshad shut down for fire season, he had no plans of his own, he was curious to see Calgary, and he had always enjoyed Margot’s company at community whist drives and local weddings. They had got along well throughout the trip, which included motel stopovers in Vancouver and Kelowna, so it was impossible now to know what might have happened if she hadn’t run into an old flame in the lobby of their Calgary hotel — just arrived from Kingston for the wedding.
As they were passing by the bright green grass of the Lazy Meadows golf course, where town shopkeepers and lawyers took out their frustrations on little white balls, Arvo thought of his father’s opinion that it was an activity for men who had nothing better to do with their hands. He had remained faithful to his father’s bias even though this particular golf course was owned by Pentti Virtanen — son of Matti Virtanen, who’d been known simply as The Big Finn when he was alive, and brother to the hefty Leena Virtanen who had offered to bake Arvo her famous kula-kukko to help him relax after his first game on the family links. He’d always enjoyed a good feed of perch-and-pork loaf and even liked the flirtatious Leena Virtanen a little — but he liked neither the dish nor the woman enough to take up playing golf.
He’d been told that Leena’s mother Helvi had been a winner of beauty pageants back in her home city of Kajaani. She’d been much older than the young Arvo when she’d arrived in town, and had offered to overlook the difference in their ages, and even her engagement to The Big Finn, if Arvo would forget whoever it was he was saving himself for and expend some of that pent-up frustrated love on her. “You must be just about ready to explode,” she’d said, and made it clear she wanted to be around when this happened. She had a certain way of letting just the tip of her tongue show between her red lips. He had been flattered, but too slow to respond. Her marriageto Matti had cooled her interest in Arvo for a while, but at some point she had let him know that her husband would soon drink himself into his grave, leaving the coast clear enough for even a puritan like Arvo to fill the void. But it had been Helvi herself who’d died soon after that. The Big Finn’s heavy drinking did not prevent him from taking a second wife within the year.
No one was out on the golf course this morning. Sprinklers that had probably been going all night continued to send water flying in great wide circles. Arvo thought, as he’d thought many times before, that it was a crime this large piece of cleared grass-seeded property was not supporting cattle, at least while
Similar Books
