The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt Read Free Book Online Page B

death, late death. Brave death, cowardly death.’
    ‘Anyway, he’s weakened. I will send a letter inviting him to work with me.’
    ‘You are close with your brother?’ I said.
    ‘We are twins,’ she answered. ‘We have always had a strong connection. I think of him sometimes and it is just as though he is in the room with me. The night he was kicked I awoke with a red mark over my breast. I suppose that sounds odd.’
    ‘Yes, it does.’
    ‘I believe I must have hit myself in my sleep,’ she explained.
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘Is that man upstairs really your brother?’
    ‘Yes.’
    She said, ‘You two are very different, aren’t you? He is not bad, I don’t think. Perhaps he is simply too lazy to be good.’
    ‘Neither of us is good, but he is lazy, it’s true. When he was a boy he would not wash until my mother actually wept.’
    ‘What is your mother like?’
    ‘She was very smart, and very sad.’
    ‘When did she die?’
    ‘She did not die.’
    ‘But you said she was very smart.’
    ‘I guess I only meant—well, she won’t see us, if you want to know the truth. She is not happy with our work, and says she will not speak with us until we have found some other form of employment.’
    ‘And what is it you two do?’
    ‘We are Eli and Charlie Sisters.’
    ‘Oh,’ she said. ‘Oh, my.’
    ‘My father is dead. He was killed, and deserved to be killed.’
    ‘All right,’ she said, standing.
    I gripped her hand. ‘What is your name? I suppose you have a man already? Yes or no?’ But she was edging toward the door and said she had not a minute longer to spare. I stood and moved in close to her, asking if I might steal a kiss, but she claimed once again to be hurried. I pressed her for details in respect to her feelings for me, if in fact she had any; she answered that she did not know me well enough to say, and admitted a preference for slight men, or at least men not quite as heavyset as me. She was not saying it to be cruel but the effects of her words stung me, and after she stole away I stood a long while before her looking glass, studying my profile, the line I cut in this world of men and ladies.

Chapter 18
    I avoided Charlie all that afternoon and evening. I returned to our room after dinner and found him sleeping, the morphine bottle toppled and empty on the floor. In the morning we ate breakfast together in our room, or he ate breakfast, as I had resolved to cease filling myself so gluttonously, that I might trim my middle down to a more suitable shape and weight. Charlie was groggy but glad, and wanted to make friends with me. Pointing his knife at my face he asked, ‘Remember how you got your freckles?’
    I shook my head. I was not ready to make friends. I said, ‘Do you know the specifics of this duel?’
    He nodded. ‘One man is a lawyer, and by all accounts out of his element in such a fight. Williams is his name. He is going up against a ranch hand with an evil history, a man called Stamm. They say Stamm will kill Williams dead, no way around it.’
    ‘But what are the specifics of their quarrel?’
    ‘Stamm hired Williams to chase down some wages owed him by a local rancher. The matter went to court and Williams lost. The moment the verdict came in, Stamm challenged Williams to pistols.’
    ‘And the lawyer has no history of shooting?’
    ‘You hear talk of gentlemen gunfighters, but I’ve yet to meet one.’
    ‘It doesn’t sound like much of a pairing. I would just as soon move on.’
    ‘If that’s what you wish to do.’ Charlie pulled a watch from his pocket. I recognized it as the watch of the prospector he had killed. ‘It is just past nine o’clock, now. You can go ahead on Tub, and I’ll catch up after the duel, in an hour’s time.’
    ‘I believe I will,’ I said.
    The hotel woman knocked and entered to collect our plates and cups. I bid her a good morning and she responded kindly, laying a hand on my back as she passed. Charlie also greeted her, but she pretended