Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

“Morning, folks,” he said, when the two walked up.

“Roscoe, I thought July gave you instructions to look after Elmira,” Peach said.

“Well, he said take her a fish if I caught one, but I ain’t caught any lately,” Roscoe said. He felt a little guilty without even knowing what was wrong, for Elmira had not once crossed his mind since July left.

“If I know July—and I do know July—I bet he said more than that,” Peach said.

“Well, he said to carry her some groceries if she asked, but she ain’t asked,” he said.

“When have you seen her?” Charlie Barnes asked. He was looking stern, though it was hard for a man so short and fat to really muster much sternness.

The question stumped Roscoe. Probably he had seen Elmira recently, but when he thought about it he couldn’t think when. The woman was not much for traipsing around town. Right after the marriage she had been seen in the stores some, spending July’s money, but he couldn’t recollect having seen her in a store in recent days.

“You know Elmira,” he said. “She don’t come out much. Mainly she just stays in the cabin.” “Well, she ain’t in it now,” Peach said.

“We think she’s gone,” Charlie Barnes said.

“Why, where would she go?” Roscoe said.

Peach and Charlie didn’t answer, and a silence fell.

“Maybe she just took a walk,” Roscoe said, although he knew that sounded weak.

“That’s what I thought yesterday,” Peach said. “She wasn’t there yesterday and she ain’t there today. I doubt she’d take no overnight walk.” Roscoe had to admit it was unlikely. The nearest town, Catfish Grove, was fourteen miles away, and not much of a destination at that.

“Maybe she just don’t want to answer the door,” he said. “She takes a lot of naps.” “Nope, I went in and looked,” Peach said. “There ain’t a soul in that cabin, and there wasn’t yesterday, neither.” “We think she’s gone,” Charlie Barnes said again. He was not a talkative man.

Roscoe got up from his comfortable seat. If Elmira was indeed gone, that constituted a serious problem. Peach and Charlie stood there as if they expected him to do something, or tell them right off where she had gone.

“I wonder if something got her?” he asked, thinking out loud. There were still plenty of bears in the woods, and some said there were panthers, though he himself had never seen one.

“If she wandered off, anything could have got her,” Peach said. “Could have been an animal or it could have been a man.” “Why, Peach, I don’t know why a man would want her,” Roscoe said, only to realize that the remark probably sounded funny. After all, Peach was related to her.

“I don’t either, but I ain’t a man,” Peach said, giving Charlie Barnes a hard look. Roscoe thought it unlikely that Charlie wanted Elmira. It might be that he didn’t even want Peach.

He walked to the edge of the porch and looked up the street, hoping to see Elmira standing in it. In all his years as a deputy he had never heard of a woman just getting lost, and it seemed unfair that it should happen to July’s wife. There was nobody in the street but a fanner with a mule team.

“Why, I’ll go have a look,” he said. “Maybe she just went visiting.” “Who Would she visit?” Peach asked. “She ain’t been out of that cabin more than twice since July married her. She don’t know the names of five people in this town. I was just going to take her some dumplings, since July is gone off. If I hadn’tdone it I doubt she would have even been missed.” From her tone Roscoe got the clear implication that he had been remiss in his duty. In fact, he had meant to look in on Elmira at some point, but the time had passed so quickly he had forgotten to.

“Well, I’ll go right up there,” he said, trying to sound cheerful. “I expect she’ll turn up.” “We think she’s gone,” Charlie Barnes said, for the third time.

Roscoe decided to go at once to keep from having to hear Charlie Barnes repeat himself all morning. He tipped his hat to Peach and started for the cabin, but to his dismay Peach and Charlie stayed right at his heels. It disturbed him to have company, but there was nothing he could do about it. It seemed to him curious that Peach would take Elmira dumplings, for the two women were known not to get along; it crossed his mind that Elmira had seen Peach coming and gone into hiding.

Sure enough, the cabin was empty. There was no sign that anybody had been in it for a day or two. A slab of corn bread sat on the cookstove, already pretty well nibbled by the mice.

“She mostly sat in the loft,” Roscoe said, mainly to hear himself talk. Hearing himself was better than hearing Peach.

“There ain’t nothing up there but a pallet,” Peach said.