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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Long</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Storied</strong> <strong>Life</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Jose</strong> <strong>Montoya</strong> 110to drive the bride to the church on her wedding day so that the ends <strong>of</strong> her wedding dress didn’t muddy,<strong>and</strong> then st<strong>and</strong>ing up for <strong>Jose</strong> in the wedding party. He watched Eudora’s body fill <strong>and</strong> her belly swellover the course <strong>of</strong> her pregnancy, <strong>and</strong> then cooed at little Eugenia while thinking that she wouldn’thave been such a strange little child had she been the <strong>of</strong>fspring <strong>of</strong> him <strong>and</strong> Eudora. And he jumped atthe chance to drive Eudora to the convalescent center every day, because it meant that he would get tospend time with Eudora every single day.<strong>The</strong> time with Eudora proved to be unhealthy for Ebbs. Over the course <strong>of</strong> long days spent withEudora <strong>and</strong> without <strong>Jose</strong> close at h<strong>and</strong> other than on the short car rides, Ebbs found that his feelings forthe new mother was growing both rapidly <strong>and</strong> steadily. In the sad paths that hopefully melancholicminds sometimes take he also began to convince himself more with each passing day that Eudorareciprocated his feelings, stirred up by each incidental touch or passing smile that came his way.On the last night <strong>of</strong> his life, as he drove Eudora home through the late-winter darkness <strong>of</strong> anight on which they had both stayed late at the convalescent center, his feelings <strong>and</strong> his certaintybecame too much for Ebbs to contain any longer. Keeping his eyes straight ahead, he reached his righth<strong>and</strong> over <strong>and</strong> tried to run it up Eudora’s leg under the hem <strong>of</strong> her coat. <strong>The</strong> attempt was bumbling <strong>and</strong>crude <strong>and</strong> rather rougher than he had intended, <strong>and</strong> he only got as far as Eudora’s knee before her icycoldh<strong>and</strong> grabbed him around the wrist <strong>and</strong> thrust him forcefully away. Chastened by the rejection <strong>and</strong>himself terrified <strong>of</strong> what he had done, Ebbs continued to look fixedly ahead <strong>and</strong> neither party spoke,the silence sitting between them like a tangible witness <strong>of</strong> what had just occurred.Eudora wordlessly got out <strong>of</strong> the car when they arrived at the <strong>Montoya</strong> house <strong>and</strong> went insidewithout a look back, her coat wrapped tightly around herself.Ebbs went back to the private barracks room he was entitled to as a sergeant with a finemoustache <strong>and</strong> put some coal into the small stove in the center <strong>of</strong> his room before getting up on a chairto loop one end <strong>of</strong> a rope over the support beam in his ceiling <strong>and</strong> the other end around his neck. He
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