Tex

That would be all he needed, Cole catching him with cigarettes on top of everything else.

Then, worried that I sounded too sarcastic

Not in the near future. Anyway it’s none of your business.”

“Do I have to write everything down in letters three feet high and shove it under your nose? I wouldn’t ride in a car if Johnny Collins was driving.”

“In the daytime you aren’t afraid of anything,” Mason said.

That wasn’t completely true. There were people who go places and people who stay, and Mason was going. I was afraid of that.

“Charlie,” I said to him seriously, trying to get my eyes focused, “there are people who go places, and people who stay, and I think you’re going.”

“I’ve been going all my life, cowboy,” he grinned at me. “And I love it.”

I thought that was nice, and wondered how I was going to like staying.

Pop used to tell us about the wild stuff he did when he was a kid, then say, “Well, I was the preacher’s kid, so what could you expect?”

and to hear her turn human on me was the scariest part of the whole thing.

Then she said, “Your far past: You are a fourth-generation cowboy. Your near past: violence and sorrow. Your next year: change. My best advice: Don’t change. Your future: There are people who go, people who stay. You will stay.”

“Cross my palm with silver.” She held out her hand. Now if Johnny had been in there with me, the whole thing would have been funny. But alone, I didn’t feel like laughing. The hairs on the back of my neck were tickling me. I had that happen before once, when I seen a ghost.