Page 64 of Head Room
I hadn’t known him when he played for the Bears, but I suspected this was his game face.I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage when he wore it.
The woman appeared completely unaware, caught up in her pre-packaged grievances.
Her expression shifted.Can’t say it softened.But she might have thought it produced a pleasant smile.She’d be wrong, but it surely seemed she thought so.
“Now I remember, you’re with one of those network stations somewhere.They’re all biased, too.”She smirked.“But seeing as you’re sports, I guess that’s not as bad.”
She was about to forgive him.
Not a good idea.
“And there it is,” he said.“The thud of you landing hard after jumping to a conclusion.That’s where ignorance leads you and I’m sick of it.I don’t know which prejudice you’ve abdicated whatever brains you were born with to, but you are full of it.These people, and the ones at those networks you disparage, work their asses off to bring you facts and you not only don’t care enough about truth and accuracy to pay attention, but then you insult them —us— because I’m a journalist, too, and proud of it.In fact, I own the TV station in this town and its news department is what I’m most proud of in my life.”
The woman gabbled syllables, but no words.
Mike stood.“It’s time for you to leave.”
Stella took the woman’s arm and ushered her away.Just before other people blocked my view, I saw her take the signed napkin out of the woman’s hand.
Movement at our table reclaimed my attention.
Orson Jardine stood and went to Mike, still standing, and reached up to thunk him on his upper chest.“Now,thisis a man I could work for.”
****
Nothing was decidedbefore the lunch broke up.But Orson agreed to a further conversation with Mike and to see the newsroom this afternoon.
If he was interested after that — seeing the KWMT-TV newsroom could dampen a lot more enthusiasm than he’d shown — I’d join another conversation tomorrow.
My not being involved in the next steps meant I was free to see Hiram and didn’t need to call off my rendezvous with Tom at the station’s parking lot.
As I drove there, I saw that a message came in while I’d been at lunch.
“Elizabeth,” Mom’s recorded voice said.“They’ve pushed back that cold snap forecast several days.I don’t want you worrying about it—”
Not entirely true.She probably did want me to worry, at least a little, even though she had the worry duty cornered and covered, so my contribution would be negligible.
“—because it’s not yet pushed back to days that would directly affect the wedding.”
Not yet.Mom’s full of optimism.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“Let’s hold upa second,” Tom said after he’d turned off his truck in Hiram Poppinger’s ranch yard.
I’d had no intention of getting out until seeing Hiram’s approach to the world today — gun-toting or not gun-toting.
Yvette came out first.
“Oh, how lovely,” she called to us.
She was a tall, buxom woman of a certain age.
She might have coordinated greetings better with her honey, who emerged with a shotgun.He was significantly shorter than her, taller than the shotgun...but not by much.
Big improvement over the first time when he’d pointed the shotgun at us.This time it was down, beside his leg.
I’d be happier if he’d left it inside.
