CRYERS by Geoff North Read Free Book Online

hair, watching and listening as
well.
    “There’s what you might call
‘remnants’ of an older town beyond them other shit holes. No one lives there
anymore, but something tells me you could. It ain’t like the old days, when
freaks and howlers claimed everything. This town is so old it ain’t got a name
no more. But it was big at one time—maybe bigger than all the land between Burn
and Rudd put together.”
    Willem made a noise of disbelief
with his lips that sounded like a fart.
    “Ain’t no town that big,” Cobe
said. “There never was that many people in the whole world that could’ve filled
it.”
    Lawson shrugged. “Not so sure about
that. You put all the people, howlers, and rollers in one place at the same
time. Who knows, maybe it would’ve been enough.”
    “Howlers and rollers ain’t people,”
Willem said. “They don’t live together.”
    “Not anymore. But from what I’ve
seen, I get the impression howlers and rollers—and all them other freaks you
kids don’t know nothin’ about—may have been more like us. I suspect we all
lived together in these bigger towns. They were called cities back then.”
    “Sitties?” Trot left Dust and
shuffled to stand in front of the lawman. His one hand was twisted about his
belt-rope, tugging up, perhaps, a little too hard. The other hand was
scratching his sweaty forehead. “Did no one work? Is sitting all they did?”
    “Spelled different. Not the same
meaning.”
    Trot looked more confused than ever.
    “Never mind.” Lawson pushed away
from his rock and scooped Willem up in one smooth move. He placed the squirming
boy on Dust’s back and turned to Cobe. “We best keep moving. That’ll be tough,
however, if the two of you drop from exhaustion. Get on up behind yer brother.
‘Ol Dust’ll do the rest.”
    Cobe had never sat atop any animal
in his life. Willem was white and frozen stiff—too terrified to slip off the
horse even if he wanted. “Reckon I’ll just keep using my feet.”
    “Suit yerself.” Lawson smacked Dust’s
backend lightly and the one-eyed horse started moving west again. Lawson walked
a few feet behind. Trot trotted to catch up and fell in a few paces behind the
lawman.
    “Ain’t you going to sit up there
with him?” Cobe called out. Lawson remained silent. Cobe watched his brother
sitting on the horse—his back stiff and leaning forward. His one hand was
buried in black mane, hanging on for dear life. After a few moments, Cobe swore
under his breath and set after them. “You’ll have to help me up,” he said.
    The lawman made a snorting noise
and held his hand out—palm up and three feet from the ground—next to his horse.
Cobe gave him a wondering look. “Use my hand like a step and hoist yerself up.”
    Cobe swung up behind his brother
easily enough. He was tempted to jump right back down and drag Willem with him
when he felt the strength of the beast under him. The thing was a mass of
moving muscle and warm flesh. Lawson grinned up at him. It looked as if he was
a hundred feet below Cobe, instead of a mere two or three. The fear lessened
with his urge to kick Lawson’s teeth out and wipe the smile from the man’s
face.
    “You’ll get used to Dust in a
minute or two, both of you,” he said, lightly smacking the belly between Willem
and Cobe’s legs. “Just try not acting fidgety and such. He don’t care for nervous
riders.”
    Willem spoke without taking his
eyes off the horse’s mane. “Easy for you to say.”
    Cobe wrapped his arms around his
brother’s waist and dug the sides of his heels into Dust as gently as he could,
until he felt somewhat sure he wasn’t going to slide off. He started breathing
again.
    The clouds continued to swim low
over their heads the rest of the afternoon. They rotated in deep, gray pockets,
kicking up dust devils the slow travelers had to either side-skirt or work
straight through. They came across a stream of running water in the basin of a
low valley, but Lawson