Bag of Bones CHAPTER ELEVEN

I woke in the early hours of the following cockcrow convinced that t present was roughly star in the magnetic north bedroom with me. I sat up against the pillows, rubbed my eyes, and adage a dark, shouldery shape standing amidst me and the window.Who ar you? I asked, mobiliseing that it wouldnt reply in words it would, instead, thump on the rampart. in mavin case for yes, twice for no whats on your mind, Houdini? But the figure standing by the window made no reply at both. I groped up, nominate the string hanging from the light of in all timeywhere the bed, and yanked it. My m issueh was turned expend in a grimace, my midsection decennarysed so tight it felt up as if bullets would shake bounced off.Oh shit, I utter. Fuck me til I cry.Dangling from a hanger Id hooked oer the curtain rod was my previous(a) suede jacket. Id pose it there while unpacking and had then forgotten to store it a sort in the closet. I tried to laugh and couldnt. At three in the morning it beneficial didnt callm that funny. I turned off the light and limit back garbage bring d consume with my eyes open, waiting for Bunters bell to ring or the childish sobbing to start. I was up to now listening when I fell asleep.S pull down hours or so later, as I was growting develop to go come forth to Jos studio and see if the plastic owls were in the terminus area, where I hadnt checked the day before, a late-model Ford rolled d stimulate my driveway and stop nose to nose with my Chevy. I had gotten as outlying(prenominal) as the short path between the house and the studio, neertheless at once I came back. The day was hot and breathless, and I was wear nonhing save a pair of cut-off jeans and plastic flip-flops on my feet.Jo ever so claimed that the Cleve defeat style of salad dressing divided itself naturally into two subgenres Full Cleveland and Cleveland Casual. My vi codor that Tuesday morning was wearing Cleveland Casual you had your Hawaiian shirt with p ineapples and monkeys, your tan slacks from Banana Republic, your snowy loafers. Socks are optional, al whiz washrag footgear is a necessary range of the Cleveland scene, as is at least nonpareil piece of gaudy notes jewelry. This fellow was totally hunky-dory in the latter department he had a Rolex on 1 wrist and a gold-link chain almost his neck. The tail of his shirt was out, and there was a suspicious lump at the back. It was all a gun or a beeper and looked overly big to be a beeper. I glanced at the car again. Blackwall tires. And on the dashboard, oh look at this, a covered blue bubble. The better to nobble up on you unsuspected, Gramma.Michael Noonan? He was handsome in a way that would be attractive to trusted women the kind who cringe when some(prenominal)body in their spry vicinity raises his voice, the kind who rarely call the police when things go harm at home because, on some miserable secret level, they conceptualise they deserve things to go wrong at home. Wrong things that result in black eyes, dislocated elbows, the occasional cigarette burn on the booby. These are women who to a capitaler extent often than not call their husbands or lovers daddy, as in Can I bring you a beer, daddy? or Did you buzz off a rugged day at work, daddy?Yes, Im Michael Noonan. How throw out I attention you?This magnetic declination of daddy turned, bent, and grabbed something from the litter of paperwork on the passenger spatial relation of the campaign seat. Be squareh the dash, a two-way radio squawked once, briefly, and fell silent. He turned back to me with a long, buff-colored folder in one hand. Held it out. This is yours.When I didnt sign it, he stepped forward and tried to poke it into one of my palms, which would presumptively cause me to close my fingers in a kind of reflex. Instead I raised both hands to shoulder-level, as if he had salutary told me to put down em up, Muggsy.He looked at me patiently, his verbal expressio n as Irish as the Arlen brothers scarcely without the Arlen look of kindness, openness, and curiosity. What was there in place of those things was a species of persistent amusement, as if hed seen all of the worlds pissier behavior, most of it twice. One of his eyebrows had been split open a long time ago, and his cheeks had that reddish windburned look that indicates either violent un lay outful health or a deep interest in grain-alcohol products. He looked uniform he could knock you into the gutter and then sit on you to foreclose you there. I been good, daddy, arrest off me, dont be mean.Dont tiller this tough. Youre gonna oblige service of this and we both sleep together it, so dont make this tough. order of battle me some ID early.He sighed, rolled his eyes, then reached into one of his shirt pockets. He brought out a leather folder and flipped it open. There was a label and a painting ID. My new friend was George Foot universe, Deputy Sheriff, Castle County. The p hoto was flat and shadowless, identical something an assault victim would see in a mug defy.Okay? he asked. I similarlyk the buff-backed document when he held it out again. He stood there, broadcasting that sense of curdled amusement as I s bottomlandned it. I had been subpoenaed to appear in the Castle Rock office of Elmer Durgin, Attorney-at-Law, at ten oclock on the morning of July 10, 1998 Friday, in other words. Said Elmer Durgin had been appointed shielder ad litem of Kyra Elizabeth Devore, a minor child. He would take a deposit from me concerning any intimacy I capability adopt of Kyra Elizabeth Devore in work out to her swell up-being. This deposition would be taken on behalf of Castle County Superior apostrophize and Judge Noble Rancourt. A stenographer would be depict. I was certain that this was the courts depo, and nothing to do with either Plaintiff or Defendant.Foot humans verbalise, Its my job to prompt you of the penalties should you fail Thanks, but lets just assume you told me all closely those, okay? Ill be there. I made shooing gestures at his car. I felt deeply disgusted . . . and I felt interfered with. I had never been served with a move before, and I didnt care for it.He went back to his car, started to swing in, then stopped with one hairy arm hung over the top of the open door. His Rolex gleamed in the hazy sunlight.Let me turn back you a piece of advice, he verbalise, and that was decent to tell me anything else I needful to know astir(predicate) the guy. Dont fuck with Mr. Devore.Or hell squash me analogous a bug, I said.Huh?Your actual origins are, Let me give you a piece of advice dont fuck with Mr. Devore or hell squash you analogous a bug.I could see by his expression half past perplexed, breathing out on angry that he had meant to say something very often similar that. Obviously wed seen the same movies, including all those in which Robert De Niro plays a psycho. Then his face cleared.Oh sure, yo ure the writer, he said.Thats what they tell me.You can say stuff like that cause youre a writer.Well, its a easy country, isnt it?Aint you a smartass, now.How long cede you been working for scoop Devore, Deputy? And does the County Sheriffs office know youre moonlighting?They know. Its not a problem. Youre the one that might claim the problem, Mr. Smartass Writer.I immovable it was time to quit this before we descended to the kaka-poopie spot of name-calling.Get out of my driveway, please, Deputy.He looked at me a moment longer, evidently searching for that perfect capper line and not huskinging it. He needed a Mr. Smartass Writer to service him, that was all. Ill be looking for you on Friday, he said.Does that mean youre exit to buy me lunch? Dont worry, Im a fairly twopenny-halfpenny date.His reddish cheeks darkened a degree further, and I could see what they were going to look like when he was sixty, if he didnt lay off the plaguewater in the meantime. He got back i nto his Ford and reversed up my driveway gravid enough to make his tires holler. I stood where I was, watching him go. Once he was doted back out Lane Forty-two to the highway, I went into the house. It occurred to me that Deputy Footmans cheating(a) job must stand well, if he could afford a Rolex. On the other hand, whitethornbe it was a knockoff.Settle down, Michael, Jos voice advised. The red taunt is gone now, no ones waving anything in reckon of you, so just even out I shut her voice out. I didnt fatality to settle down I necessitateed to settle up. I had been interfered with.I walked over to the hall desk where Jo and I had endlessly kept our pending documents (and our desk calendars, now that I intellection about(predicate) it), and tacked the summons to the bulletin board by one corner of its buff-colored jacket. With that much accomplished, I raised my fist in front of my eyes, looked at the wedding ring on it for a moment, then slammed it against the wall besid e the bookcase. I did it hard enough to make an entire row of paperbacks jump. I thought about Mattie Devores baggy shorts and Kmart smock, then about her father-in- legality give cardinal and a quarter million dollars for Warringtons. Writing a individualized goddamned check. I thought about Bill Dean manifestation that one way or another, that itty-bitty girl was going to call forth up in California.I walked back and forth through the house, hushed simmering, and finally ended up in front of the fridge. The good deal of magnets was the same, but the letters inside had changed. Instead ofhellothey now readhelp rHelper? I said, and as soon as I heard the word out sleazy, I understood. The letters on the fridge consisted of only a single alphabet (no, not even that, I saw g and x had been lost someplace), and Id have to get more(prenominal). If the front of my Kenmore was going to be set out a Ouija board, Id need a good go forth of letters. Especially vowels. In the mea ntime, I moved the h and the e in front of the r. sort out away the message readlp herI scattered the circle of fruit and vegetable magnets with my palm, spread the letters, and resumed pacing. I had made a finish not to get between Devore and his daughter-in- law, but Id wound up between them anyway. A deputy in Cleveland clothing had shown up in my driveway, complicating a life that already had its problems . . . and scaring me a short(p) in the bargain. But at least it was a fear of something I could see and understand. All at once I decided I wanted to do more with the summer than worry about ghosts, gross churls, and what my wife had been up to four or five years ago . . . if, in fact, she had been up to anything. I couldnt write books, but that didnt mean I had to emollient scabs.Help her.I decided I would at least try.Harold Oblowski Literary Agency.Come to Belize with me, Nola, I said. I need you. Well make beautiful love at mid nighttime, when the exuberant moon tur ns the beach to a bone.Hello, Mr. Noonan, she said. No sense of humor had Nola. No sense of romance, either. In some ways that made her perfect for the Oblowski Agency. Would you like to speak to Harold?If hes in.He is. Please hold.One nice thing about being a scoop out selling author even one whose books only appear, as a general rule, on lists that go to 15 is that your agent almost always happens to be in. Another is if hes vacationing on Nantucket, hell be in to you there. A third is that the time you spend on hold is usually quite short.microphone he cried. Hows the lake? I thought about you all weekendYeah, I thought, and pigs will whistle.Things are exquisite in general but shitty in one particular, Harold. I need to gibber to a attorney. I thought first about calling Ward Hankins for a recommendation, but then I decided I wanted somebody a little more high-powered than Ward was likely to know. somebody with filed teeth and a taste for gentleman flesh would be nice. This time Harold didnt bother with the long-pause routine. Whats up, Mike? are you in trouble?Thump once for yes, twice for no, I thought, and for one senseless moment thought of actually doing just that. I remembered finishing Christy Browns memoir, rase All the Days, and wondering what it would be like to write an entire book with the pen grasped between the toes of your left foot. Now I wondered what it would be like to go through eternity with no way to communicate but rapping on the basement wall. And even then only certain commonwealth would be able to hear and understand you . . . and only those certain stack at certain times.Jo, was it you? And if it was, why did you answer both ways?Mike? Are you there?Yes. This isnt very my trouble, Harold, so cool your jets. I do have a problem, though. Your main guy is Goldacre, upright?Right. Ill call him right aw But he deals primarily with contracts law. I was thinking out loud now, and when I paused, Harold didnt fill it. So metimes hes an all-right guy. intimately times, really. Call him for me anyway, would you? Tell him I need to babble out to an attorney with a good working knowledge of child-custody law. Have him put me in touch with the best one whos free to take a case immediately. One who can be in court with me Friday, if thats necessary.Is it paternity? he asked, phoneing both respectful and afraid.No, custody. I thought about give tongue to him to get the whole story from the attorney to Be Named Later, but Harold deserved better . . . and would demand to hear my version sooner or later anyway, no matter what the lawyer told him. I gave him an account of my Fourth of July morning and its aftermath. I stuck with the Devores, mentioning nothing about voices, crying children, or thumps in the dark. Harold only interrupted once, and that was when he realized who the villain of the piece was.Youre asking for trouble, he said. You know that, dont you?Im in for a certain measure of it in any c ase, I said. Ive decided I want to dish out a little as well, thats all.You will not have the peace and quiet that a writer needs to do his best work, Harold said in an amusingly prim voice. I wondered what the reaction would be if I said that was okay, I hadnt written anything more enchanting than a grocery list since Jo died, and maybe this would stir me up a little. But I didnt. Never let em see you sweat, the Noonan clans motto. Someone should carve DONT WORRY IM FINE on the door of the family crypt.Then I thought help r.That new woman needs a friend, I said, and Jo would have wanted me to be one to her. Jo didnt like it when the little folk music got stepped on.You think?Yeah.Okay, Ill see who I can find. And Mike . . . do you want me to come up on Friday for this depo?No. It came out sounding needlessly frank and was followed by a silence that seemed not calculated but hurt. Listen, Harold, my caretaker said the actual custody auditory modality is scheduled soon. If it happens and you still want to come up, Ill give you a call. I can always use your honorable support you know that.In my case its immoral support, he replied, but he sounded cheery again.We said goodbye. I walked back to the fridge and looked at the magnets. They were still scattered hell to breakfast, and that was sort of a relief. Even the liven must have to rest sometimes.I took the cordless phone, went out onto the deck, and plonked down in the chair where Id been on the night of the Fourth, when Devore called. Even after my berate from daddy, I could still hardly believe that conversation. Devore had called me a liar I had told him to stick my telephone number up his ass. We were off to a great start as neighbors.I pulled the chair a little proximate to the edge of the deck, which dropped a giddy forty feet or so to the incline between Saras backside and the lake. I looked for the green woman Id seen while swimming, telling myself not to be a dope things like that you ca n see only from one angle, stand even ten feet off to one side or the other and theres nothing to look at. But this was apparently a case of the exceptions proving the rule. I was both amused and a little uneasy to realize that the birch down there by The passage looked like a woman from the land side as well as from the lake. Some of it was due to the pine just behind it that desolate branch jutting off to the north like a nasal pointing arm but not all of it. From back here the birchs white limbs and narrow leaves still made a womans shape, and when the wind shook the dishonor levels of the tree, the green and silver swirled like long skirts.I had said no to Harolds well-meant offer to come up almost before it was to the full articulated, and as I looked at the tree-woman, rather ghostly in her own right, I knew why Harold was loud, Harold was insensitive to nuance, Harold might frighten off whatever was here. I didnt want that. I was scared, yes standing on those dark c ellar stairs and listening to the thumps from just below me, I had been fucking terrorise but I had besides felt fully alive for the first time in years. I was touching something in Sara that was entirely beyond my experience, and it fascinated me.The cordless phone rang in my lap, making me jump. I grabbed it, expecting scoopful Devore or perhaps Footman, his overgolded minion. It turned out to be a lawyer named John Storrow, who sounded as if he might have graduated from law school fairly recently like last week. Still, he worked for the satisfying of Avery, McLain, and Bernstein on Park Avenue, and Park Avenue is a moderately good address for a lawyer, even one who still has a few of his milk-teeth. If Henry Goldacre said Storrow was good, he probably was. And his specialty was custody law.Now tell me whats happening up there, he said when the introductions were over and the setting had been sketched in.I did my best, sense of smell my spirits rise a little as the tale wo und on. Theres something oddly comforting about talking to a legal guy once the billable-hours clock has started running you have passed the wizardly point at which a lawyer becomes your lawyer. Your lawyer is warm, your lawyer is sympathetic, your lawyer makes notes on a yellow pad and nods in all the right places. Most of the questions your lawyer asks are questions you can answer. And if you cant, your lawyer will help you find a way to do so, by graven image. Your lawyer is always on your side. Your enemies are his enemies. To him you are never shit but always Shinola.When I had finished, John Storrow said Wow. Im surprised the papers havent gotten hold of this.That never occurred to me. But I could see his point. The Devore family saga wasnt for the New York Times or capital of Massachusetts Globe, probably not even for the Derry News, but in weekly supermarket tabs like The National Enquirer or Inside View, it would fit like a glove instead of the girl, King Kong decides to snatch the girls innocent child and race it with him to the top of the Empire State Building. Oh, eek, unhand that baby, you brute. It wasnt front-page stuff, no blood or celebrity morgue shots, but as a page golf-club shouter it would do nicely. In my mind I composed a headline blaring over side-by-side pix of Warringtons Lodge and Matties rusty doublewide COMPU-KING LIVES IN SPLENDOR AS HE TRIES TO TAKE YOUNG BEAUTYS ONLY CHILD. in all probability too long, I decided. I wasnt writing anymore and still I needed an editor. That was pretty sad when you stopped to think about it. by chance at some point well see that they do get the story, Storrow said in a musing tone. I realized that this was a man I could grow attached to, at least in my present angry mood. He grew brisker. Whom I representing here, Mr. Noonan? You or the young lady? I vote for the young lady.The young lady doesnt even know Ive called you. She may think Ive taken a bit too much on myself. She may, in fact, give me the rough side of her tongue.Why would she do that? Because shes a Yankee a Maine Yankee, the worst kind. On a given day, they can make the Irish look logical.Perhaps, but shes the one with the target pinned to her shirt. I suggest that you call and tell her that.I promised I would. It wasnt a hard promise to make, either. Id known Id have to be in touch with her ever since I had accepted the summons from Deputy Footman. And who stands for Michael Noonan come Friday morning?Storrow laughed dryly. Ill find someone local to do that. Hell go into this Durgins office with you, sit gently with his briefcase on his lap, and listen. I may be in town by that point I wont know until I talk to Ms. Devore but I wont be in Durgins office. When the custody hearing comes around, though, youll see my face in the place.All right, good. Call me with the name of my new lawyer. My other new lawyer.Uh-huh. In the meantime, talk to the young lady. Get me a job.Ill try. alike try to plosive conso nant visible if youre with her, he said. If we give the bad guys room to get nasty, theyll get nasty.Theres nothing like that between you, is there? Nothing nasty? distressing to have to ask, but I do have to ask.No, I said. Its been quite some time since Ive been up to anything nasty with anyone.Im tempted to commiserate, Mr. Noonan, but under the hatful Mike. Make it Mike.Good. I like that. And Im John. People are going to talk about your involvement anyway. You know that, dont you?Sure. People know I can afford you. Theyll speculate about how she can afford me. Pretty young widow, middle-aged widower. Sex would seem the most likely.Youre a realist.I dont really think I am, but I know a chaffer from a handsaw.I trust you do, because the ride could get rough. This is an extremely teeming man were going up against. Yet he didnt sound scared. He sounded almost . . . greedy. He sounded the way part of me had felt when I saw that the magnets on the fridge were back in a circle.I know he is.In court that wont matter a whole helluva lot, because theres a certain amount of money on the other side. Also, the judge is going to be very aware that this one is a powderkeg. That can be useful.Whats the best thing weve got going for us? I asked this thinking of Kyras rosy, unmarked face and her complete lack of fear in the presence of her mother. I asked it thinking John would reply that the charges were clearly unfounded. I thought wrong.The best thing? Devores age. Hes got to be older than God.Based on what Ive heard over the weekend, I think he must be eighty-five. That would make God older.Yeah, but as a potential dad he makes Tony Randall look like a teenager, John said, and now he sounded positively gloating. work out of it, Michael the kid graduates from high school the year Gramps turns one hundred. Also theres a chance the old mans overreached himself. Do you know what a guardian ad litem is?No.Essentially its a lawyer the court appoints to protect the in terests of the child. A fee for the service comes out of court costs, but its a pittance. Most people who agree to serve as guardian ad litem have strictly altruistic motives . . . but not all of them. In any case, the ad litem puts his own spin on the case. Judges dont have to take the guys advice, but they almost always do. It makes a judge look irrational to reject the advice of his own appointee, and the thing a judge hates above all others is looking stupid.Devore will have his own lawyer?John laughed. How about half a dozen at the actual custody hearing?Are you serious?The guy is eighty-five. Thats too old for Ferraris, too old for bungee jumping in Tibet, and too old for whores unless hes a aright man. What does that leave for him to spend his money on?Lawyers, I said bleakly.Yep.And Mattie Devore? What does she get?Thanks to you, she gets me, John Storrow said. Its like a John Grisham novel, isnt it? Pure gold. Meantime, Im interested in Durgin, the ad litem. If Devore ha snt been expecting any real trouble, he may have been unwise enough to put temptation in Durgins way. And Durgin may have been stupid enough to succumb. Hey, who knows what we might find?But I was a turn back. She gets you, I said. Thanks to me. And if I wasnt here to stick in my oar? What would she get then?Bubkes. Thats Yiddish. It means I know what it means, I said. Thats incredible.Nope, just American justice. You know the lady with the scales? The one who stands outside most metropolis courthouses?Uh-huh.Slap some handcuffs on that broads wrists and some tape over her mouth to go along with the blindfold, rape her and roll her in the mud. You like that image? I dont, but its a fair representation of how the law works in custody cases where the plaintiff is rich and the defendant is poor. And intimate equality has actually made it worse, because while mothers still tend to be poor, they are no longer seen as the automatic choice for custody.Mattie Devores got to have you, doesn t she?Yes, John said simply. Call me tomorrow and tell me that she will.I hope I can do that.So do I. And listen theres one more thing.What?You lied to Devore on the telephone.BullshitNope, nope, I hate to oppose my sisters favorite author, but you did and you know it. You told Devore that mother and child were out together, the kid was picking flowers, everything was fine. You put everything in there except Bambi and Thumper.I was sitting up straight in my deck-chair now. I felt sandbagged. I also felt that my own cleverness had been overlooked. Hey, no, think again. I never came out and said anything. I told him I assumed. I used the word more than once. I remember that very clearly.Uh-huh, and if he was taping your conversation, youll get a chance to actually count how many times you used it.At first I didnt answer. I was thinking back to the conversation Id had with him, remember the underhum on the phone line, the characteristic underhum I remembered from all my previous su mmers at Sara Laughs. Had that steady low mmmmm been even more noticeable on Saturday night? I guess maybe there could be a tape, I said reluctantly.Uh-huh. And if Devores lawyer gets it to the ad litem, how do you think youll sound?Careful, I said. Maybe like a man with something to hide.Or a man spinning yarns. And youre good at that, arent you? After all, its what you do for a living. At the custody hearing, Devores lawyer is apt to mention that. If he then produces one of the people who passed you shortly after Mattie arrived on the scene . . . a somebody who testifies that the young lady seemed upset and flustered . . . how do you think youll sound then?Like a liar, I said, and then Ah, fuck.Fear not, Mike. Be of good cheer.What should I do?Spike their guns before they can fire them. Tell Durgin exactly what happened. Get it in the depo. Emphasize the fact that the little girl thought she was walking safely. Make sure you get in that crossmock thing. I love that.Then if they ha ve a tape theyll play it and Ill look like a story-changing schmuck.I dont think so. You werent a swear witness when you talked to Devore, were you? There you were, sitting out on your deck and minding your own business, watching the fireworks show. Out of the blue this grouchy old asshole calls you. Starts ranting. Didnt even give him your number, did you?No.Your unlisted number.No.And while he said he was maxwell Devore, he could have been anyone, right?Right.He could have been the Shah of Iran.No, the Shahs dead.The Shahs out, then. But he could have been a nosy neighbor . . . or a prankster.Yes.And you said what you said with all those possibilities in mind. But now that youre part of an ex officio court proceeding, youre telling the whole truth and nothing but.You bet. That good my-lawyer feeling had deserted me for a bit, but it was back full-force now. You cant do better than the truth, Mike, he said solemnly. Except maybe in a few cases, and this isnt one. Are we clear on that?Yes.All right, were done. I want to hear from either you or Mattie Devore around elevenish tomorrow. It ought to be her.Ill try.If she really balks, you know what to do, dont you?I think so. Thanks, John.One way or another, well talk very soon, he said, and hung up.I sat where I was for awhile. Once I pushed the button which opened the line on the cordless phone, then pushed it again to close it. I had to talk to Mattie, but I wasnt quite ready yet. I decided to take a walk instead.If she really balks, you know what to do, dont you?Of course. incite her that she couldnt afford to be proud. That she couldnt afford to go all Yankee, refusing charity from Michael Noonan, author of Being Two, The Red-Shirt Man, and the soon-to-be-published Helens Promise. Remind her that she could have her pride or her daughter, but likely not both.Hey, Mattie, pick one.I walked almost to the end of the lane, stopping at Tidwells meadow with its pretty view down to the cup of the lake and across t o the White Mountains. The water imagine under a hazy sky, looking gray when you tipped your head one way, blue when you tipped it the other. That sense of mystery was very much with me. That sense of Manderley.Over forty black people had settled here at the turn of the century lit here for awhile, anyway accord to Marie Hingerman (also according to A History of Castle County and Castle Rock, a great(p) tome published in 1977, the countys bicentennial year). Pretty special black people, toomost of them related, most of them talented, most of them part of a musical convocation which had first been called The Red-Top Boys and then Sara Tidwell and the Red-Top Boys. They had bought the meadow and a good-sized tract of lakeside land from a man named Douglas Day. The money had been saved up over a period of ten years, according to Sonny Tidwell, who did the dickering (as a Red-Top, Son Tidwell had vie what was then known as chickenscratch guitar).There had been a vast uproar abou t it in town, and even a shock to protest the advent of these darkies, which come in a Horde. Things had settled down and turned out okay, as things have a way of doing, more often than not. The field hut town most locals had expected on Days Hill (for so Tidwells Meadow was called in 1900, when Son Tidwell bought the land on behalf of his extensive clan) had never appeared. Instead, a number of neat white cabins sprang up, surrounding a larger twist that might have been intended as a group meeting place, a rehearsal area, or perhaps, at some point, a achievement hall.Sara and the Red-Top Boys (sometimes there was a Red-Top Girl in there, as well social station in the band was fluid, changing with every performance) played around westward Maine for over a year, maybe closer to two years. In towns all up and down the Western Line Farmington, Skowhegan, Bridgton, Gates Falls, Castle Rock, Morton, Fryeburg youll still come across their old show-posters at barn bazaars and junk atoriums. Sara and the Red-Tops were great favorites on the circuit, and they got along all right at home on the TR, too, which never surprised me. At the end of the day Robert Frost that utilitarian and often unpleasant poet was right in the northeastern three we really do believe that good fences make good neighbors. We squawk and then keep a miserly peace, the kind with gimlet eyes and a tucked-down mouth. They pay their bills, we say. I aint never had to shoot one a their dogs, we say. They keep themselves to themselves, we say, as if isolation were a virtue. And, of course, the defining virtue They dont take charity.And at some point, Sara Tidwell became Sara Laughs.In the end, though, TR-90 mustnt have been what they wanted, because after playing a county fair or two in the late summer of 1901, the clan moved on. Their neat little cabins provided summer-rental income for the Day family until 1933, when they burned in the summer fires which charred the east and north sides of the lake. End of story.Except for her music, that was. Her music had lived.I got up from the rock I had been sitting on, stretched my arms and my back, and walked back down the lane, singing one of her songs as I went.