Page 54 of On the Land, We Shoot Straight
Cole turned the bottle slowly and dragged his finger under the label. “Uisce beatha, it means water of life. It’s Irish Gaelic for whiskey.”
Grady kicked his chair out, sat and set the glasses down.
“Water of life,” Grady said and snorted. “Crazy Irish.”
Cole quirked his lips into a smile. “More like drink of death.”
“You don’t want any?”
“Oh, I want some.” Cole gave him a wolfish smile. “I’m just sayin’, water is water and that’s life, not whiskey. Whiskey’s a hangover. This is good stuff, though. You sure you wanna drink it now?”
Grady cracked the seal and poured. He nudged Cole’s glass to him and lifted his own.
“We’re celebratin’.”
Cole lifted his glass.
“Well, I hope you got more of this down there then. Not sure it’s worth it for this.”
Grady clinked his glass with Cole’s. “It is.”
He tipped the glass at Cole and said, “Happy birthday.”
He drank. Cole maintained eye contact and drank too.
It burned, and Grady swallowed it down. Tasted good too, smooth finish. Cole blew out a breath and squinted his eyes.
“Good?”
“Shit,” Cole said and laughed. “Goddamn Irish.”
Grady chuckled and finished his glass.
“Reckon the beers could take a while to get cold enough.”
He poured another few fingers and topped Cole up.
“So, what’s the book?” Grady reclined in his chair and stretched his leg out so his booted foot was knocking into Cole’s.
Cole took a big drink, whooshing out a breath and squinting his eyes again. Grady leaned forward and topped him off.
“Just a trilogy I was reading.” He sipped and sat back, mirroring Grady, kicking his booted foot against his. He seemed young then—as he mirrored the position of an older man in front of him, it showed his youth imitating the posture he would soon grow into and own like he’d always been that way.
“Can’t believe she noticed it.”
Cole was swirling his drink and looking at the amber liquid as it sloshed around in the glass.
“I was on the second one last time they came. Bonnie came in and had tea with Mama. They were talkin’ all serious and hushed. I dunno, I knew it was comin’ but I didn’t, ya know?”
Cole took a sip and Grady did too.
“Anyways, we were gone not a week later. New buyers arrived, and that was that.”
Grady pictured it. Generations of stuff sold out from under them. Can’t pack that in a week. A book wouldn’t have been an important thing to grab on to.
Cole leaned forward and poured himself another drink. He tossed it back and wiped his mouth. Now he really looked like that young man trying on the older man. Grady smiled at him.
“I just stuffed my duffel and took off.”
