The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya

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The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya 88Jose at first made the car lurch so badly that he felt his neck might never return to its proper shape butat which Gerald only laughed and Eudora applauded, he loaded up his valise and Eudora's luggage andthe two set off. The roads were a slushy mixture of snow and partially frozen mud, and with Jose beingextra cautious with both Eudora and the borrowed automobile, the fifty miles from Camp Sherman toRockville took nearly five hours to cover.At last, as snow began to fall through the dim headlights like an impenetrable sheet of shootingstars, the two entered the scant collection of houses that was Rockville and made their way downColumbus Street, which was as much of a Main Street as Rockville would ever have. Eudora pointedout her father's store as they passed it, a small building that looked barely large enough to house anygoods whatsoever. Directly past the store the automobile bumped over a lone set of railroad tracks.A long gentle grade down presented itself on the far side of the tracks, and the automobile hadalready started to accelerate downwards when Eudora told Jose that her house was directly at thebottom of the hill. Jose pressed on the brakes and locked the wheels, and the automobile began a slowand graceful slide. He turned the steering wheel left and right, but the car had a mind of its own andafter rotating itself clockwise it ultimately decided that sideways was the way it preferred to descend,leaving Jose to stare over the driver's door at the bottom of the hill with Eudora behind clutching on, anunintentional replay of their toboggan trip from the weekend before.The car and its two passengers came to a stop almost as soon as the grade flattened out, pointingat a small white frame house set not far back from the road. It looked cheerful and cozy through thesnowfall, and Jose was pleased and impressed with his driving skills when Eudora told him that theyhad come to a stop at exactly the right place. Finally relaxing his foot off of the brake, Jose shepherdedthe car into the yard and cut the motor. The pair stepped out into snow that rose halfway up to theirknees and worked itself insidiously into their shoes as they held hands and trudged to the back door.
The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya 89The door opened onto a very small room almost filled by a washtub and completely filled by thearomas of simmering chicken soup. Eudora and Jose were still struggling out of coats and snowstuffedshoes when Eudora's mother came around the corner, wiping her hands on her apron andwearing a smile that went from ear to ear. She immediately welcomed Jose with the largest hug he hadever received in his life. She was also one of the largest women Jose had ever seen in his life, and hewas grateful when she finally released him from the hug; whatever kind of a crazily strapped and wiredfoundation she was wearing to support her enormous breasts had pressed so severely into his chest thathe began to feel himself to figure out if any ribs had actually been broken by her embrace.Rid of their cold and wet outer garments, Jose and Eudora followed Mama into the kitchen.Mama removed the lid from a large pot and began to stir as Eudora led Jose through the kitchen andinto a small front living room stuffed with a wood stove, couch, two wing-backed chairs, andincongruously, a bright red parrot busily preening itself inside an ornamented cage. A small, whitehairedman was asleep in one of the chairs, his feet on an Ottoman and a book laid carefully across hislap. Jose felt like tip-toeing back to the kitchen so as not to disturb him, but Eudora crossed the roomwith one bounce and laughed as she began to savagely tickle his feet. This was Papa.The man awoke with a start, sending the book sailing through the air and directly into Jose'shands. The Queendom of Bees. Eudora and her father laughed, and he stood up out of the chair inwhich he had been napping as Jose stepped across the room and handed him back his book. Papathanked Jose heartily and then pumped Jose's hand furiously up and down as he looked him over fromhead to toe. Jose's first impression of Papa as being a small man was both confirmed by his small sizeand belied by the energy and vivacity with which he laughed and shook Jose's hand. Jose foundhimself momentarily thinking about the apparent mismatch between Papa's small size and Mama'sgreat height and girth, but then decided it didn't matter. They were both overflowing with a happinessthat was tangible, and that probably made them fit together in wonderful ways that could not be
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The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya

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