Once we could count on pul in a sh from the lake an a beast from our traps. With every dry day that passes, a lit le bit more of Pa seems to … I guess disappear’s the best word fer it. Yuh, I reckon a circle might be jest the thing. Tips his head up an studies the sky fer a long while. Then he gathers up the stones or twigs or whatever he’s set out on the ground this time, an puts ’em away fer tomorrow. He jest stares at the sky, the clear cruel sky. But, wel before they reach us, they break apart, thin out an disappear. Our hearts beat faster an our hopes rise as they creep our way. An every day, big bel ied rainclouds gather on the horizon. Pret y soon, there won’t be no point in cal in it by its name.Įvery day Pa tries another one of his charms or spel s. You got a walk some ways out now to fil a bucket. Even the spring that feeds the lake’s startin to run dry. We ain’t had a drop of rain fer near six months now. The kinda white heat day when you can hear th’earth crack. SO HOT AN SO DRY THAT ALL I CAN TASTE IN my mouth is dust. That must of made it easy fer them to find him. Never think we grew together in the same womb. If you seen me an Lugh together, you’d never think we was the same blood. I believe Pa wishes he’d never met that traveler. I see the way he looks at Lugh sometimes. Pa never says what he sees in the night sky but you can see it lays heavy on him.īecause you cain’t change what’s writ en.Įven if Pa was to say what he knew, even if he was to warn you, it would stil come to pass. What’s gone, what’s now an what’s stil to come.īack when Pa was a boy, he met up with a traveler, a man who knew many things. If you know how to read the stars, you can read the story of people’s lives. Even what kinda person yer gonna be, good or bad.

The time of yer birthin, the time of yer death. It was al set in the stars the moment the world began. The lives of everybody stil waitin to be born. The lives of everybody who’s ever bin born. Lugh goes first, always first, an I fol ow on behind.

Blood red road