Dustland Requiem (A Bard's Folktale)

  Chapter 11. Dog Saw God

  “I could use just about anyone’s advice—except my own.”

  – Kody’s Notebook

  Outskirts of Los Tios, Mexico

  Kody pulled the truck up to the back of the bar, parking and waiting for The Decemberists’ lackadaisical “Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect” to finish before getting out. He climbed out of the pickup and went around to the back, grabbing Lorena’s crutches out of the truck bed. He moved carefully, trying not to step on the dog Adelais had carelessly dropped on the ground. Kody tried to help Lorena out of the truck, but the lady waited for Adelais to come get his brother, and requested only that Kody leave her crutches. For all their talk of family, he couldn’t ever seem to break in.

  Kody hesitated heading into the bar, remembering the other outcast of the group. He returned to the poor dog’s side and helped it try to stand. The dog possessed little strength, but with encouragement, found the means to move. Kody slowly walked the dog around the bar, bringing it to the small chantry Lorena often visited across the street. He took the canine inside and put together a small bed for it from one of the leftover blankets.

  “I bet you wanna come back to the bar, but it’s probably better you avoid Adelais—at least while you’re getting better. He tends to make things worse.” Kody kneeled, looking into the dog’s eyes. “You can stay here for now. I’ll come visit you, and I’m sure Lorena will too. You like her, don’tcha, boy?”

  Kody rubbed the dog behind its ears, petting it and seeing the first signs of life the dog had shown since they found it.

  “There ya go. You remind me of a little furry fella I used to know. You’re a lot friendlier though.” Kody leaned in close. “Just between you and me, I was always kind of a dog person. Stay here, buddy, I’ll go get you some food.”

  Kody brushed the blanket veiling the chantry entrance aside and stepped out into the street. He watched the people going about their day, trying to recount which of their names he could remember. Although he had been in the town for over a month, he hadn’t spent much time socializing. He spotted one of the few people he recognized, little more than a child, and made his way over to her.

  “Elvia, what’cha up to?”

  Kody squatted in the dirt next to the girl, who sat trying to play a guitar much too big for her. She looked up to him, smiling.

  “What does it look like? Have you forgotten your eyes today?” she toyed with him playfully.

  “Maybe I have! Oh, where’d you go?”

  Kody covered his eyes and turned his head from side to side, trying to find where Elvia had apparently disappeared to.

  “I’m not a baby, Kody.” She giggled at him. “Don’t forget, you promised to make me one of your pretty necklaces.”

  Elvia reached up to touch the beads around his neck, which were now faded by the sun and worn down by the desert sands.

  “I will, Elvy.” Kody returned her smile. “Actually, I could use your help with something. You remember the dog that was running around here?”

  “Perrito?” Her eyes lit up.

  “Perrito. I’m taking care of him for now, but the fella doesn’t have any food. Do you know where we can find some food for him?”

  “Yeah! Momma has some leftovers from supper! Stupid Josue wouldn’t eat his. Said it was yucky.”

  Kody chuckled as the little girl ran inside, smuggling a plate of food out after a few minutes.

  “Are you sure Josue won’t need this later?” Kody asked.

  “That stupid head. My brother don’t wanna eat, he don’t need ta’ eat.” Elvia stuck out her tongue.

  “Heh. Thanks Elvy.”

  “Don’t forget my necklace!”

  “I won’t.”

  Kody smiled and patted Elvia on the head before returning to the chantry. He unwrapped the food and set it on the ground in front of Perrito, waiting to see if the dog would eat.

  “Here, buddy, brought you some food. Courtesy of Kara—” Kody paused for a moment. “Elvia.”

  “Who’s Kara?”

  Sunlight entered the chantry, illuminating a figure carried by crutches. Lorena took a seat next to Perrito and Kody.

  “My sister.”

  “Didn’t know ya’ had a sister.” Lorena rubbed Perrito’s furry head. “She a troublemaker too?”

  “There’s plenty you don’t know about me.”

  “There’s plenty I don’t know about a lot a’ people,” Lorena responded.

  “I guess. Gonna go grab some chow.”

  Kody stood up, nodded to Lorena, and left the chapel. On his way back to the bar, he spotted Siggy moving out of sight of the street and into the shadows, speaking with a conspicuously dressed older man. He watched his young friend with interest. Was it possible he had finally found a lead on Lorena’s cousins? In particular, his ex, the missing strawberry blonde? Unwilling to risk messing up whatever Siggy had going on, Kody left the boy to his work and returned to the bar.

  The spices filled the air inside the bar, drawing Kody into the kitchen, where Adelais was filling himself a bowl of rice. He brushed past Kody, leaving a pot full of food open as fair game. Kody loaded up a bowl and went back into the bar, grabbing a seat across from Adelais at the table.

  “Lorena’s a good cook. The hamburger she mixed in with this rice is amazing,” Kody said to start the conversation.

  “Wouldn’t know. Sig cooked. And it’s chicken.”

  “Oh. Huh. Well, I got no beef with the chicken.” Kody shoveled rice into his mouth, giving himself time to think. “So, what happened with you and Alejandro? Never did say, and you’re sportin’ a nasty cut to the gut. Sure you got some kind of glorious war story to tell.”

  “Shut your mouth, Lehane.” Adelais remained curt.

  “C’mon Ade—” Kody received an optic rebuke from Adelais. “Adelais. We’re on the same team here. Quit treating me like some kind of hitchhiker who just latched on for the ride.”

  “You are. Ya’ got stuck down here ‘cause of yer own stupid ass, so you say. Was Lorena who agreed ta’ take ya’ in, not me. Long as she lets ya’ stay, yer gonna be useful. Don’t make ya’ one of us. And the second she changes her mind…”

  Adelais rose, sizing Kody up. Asserting his dominance as the alpha male, Adelais left his bowl and headed out. Kody remained, finishing his rice, and snagging Adelais’s leftovers. You and Thteve would’ve been the best of friends, Kody thought. He finished his rice and leaned back in his chair, teetering it back and forth on its hind legs, causing it to creak on the wooden floor.

  Bored, he began to retrace the steps of his latest misadventure since he left Cris. The van broke down in Tucson and nearly lost another tire in Douglas, near the Mexican border. Then of course was the border patrol. Good times.

  None of it compared, however, to the time he spent in Nuevo Casas Grandes, after getting lost for the third time. Spent a good number of days with a patron not far off the beaten path. Learned a thing or two about patience and self-loathing. There was no making up for his transgressions: leaving the women he claimed to love and leaving his friend to die. He made bastard choices, and there was no changing that. But he could try to make things as right as they could be. If he could figure out what right was. The more he examined it, the more he began to wonder how trustworthy his judgment was.

  He sat in his canted chair, twiddling his thumbs. On one hand, Alma, the other, Cris. He did no justice to either one of them. Maybe it was best he removed himself from the equation entirely. He kept his distance with Lorena, and so far managed not to completely screw things up. Even if he wasn’t welcome here, and decided not to go home, plenty of small towns were near enough he could find a place and live out a simple life. Might be rougher with the banditos around, but at least not as complicated.

  “Why do I keep trying to run away?” Kody thought aloud. “Find Alma, apologize, go back to Cris. It’s a simple plan.”

  Kody repeated this mantra to himself as Siggy walked into the bar.
Reading the look on Siggy’s face, Kody’s stomach immediately sank. “Dude, if you’re about to tell me the princess is in another castle…”

  “What?” Siggy cocked his head.

  “Nothing. How’d your clandestine meeting go?”

  “The hell are you talkin’ about?” Siggy’s eyebrow arched.

  “The guy you were all small council meeting with just now.”

  Siggy scrutinized Kody with suspicion. Returning Siggy’s glance, Kody went wide-eyed as he lost control of his chair and fell back onto the floor.

  He rubbed the back of his head as he pulled himself up. “Gah! Thought I was gonna die! Honest to God. Thought. I was going. To die.”

  Siggy shook his head and walked off, heading downstairs. Left with no semblance of respect, Kody picked the chair off the floor and headed back into the kitchen to finish off the rice. It was going to be a long, boring afternoon.