The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya

The Long and Storied Life of Jose Montoya 90accounted for by bodies alone. Jose liked the man instantly.The three moved into the kitchen, where Mama had already ladled out chicken soup and piled aplate full of buttermilk biscuits to a great tottering height. They all sat down around a small table, andJose exercised great restraint as they all held hands while Papa prayed his thanks for Jose and Eudora'ssafe arrival, for the chicken and the biscuits, for the beauty of the snowfall, for the roof over theirheads, and for Mama, who evidently not only made the soup but was also something of an expert atwringing chicken necks.The prayer at last over with, Jose dived into the soup and biscuits. He noticed Papa dunking hisbiscuits in his soup, and Jose decided that it would not be unacceptably impolite if he did the samething. It seemed to Jose like the most delicious meal he had ever had, and the biscuits hit the soup andthen his mouth with a rapid regularity. Eudora watched him eat with a wide smile, and Mama seemeddelighted to run around the kitchen producing plate after plate of biscuits and endlessly refilling Jose'ssoup bowl. Papa, despite his rather small frame, had no difficulty in keeping pace.Many biscuits and much soup later, Papa and Jose at last leaned back in their chairs and pushedsoup bowls away. Papa rubbed his stomach as if he was tenderly feeling a pregnancy. Jose felt like hiseyes were going to roll so completely back in his head that he would be able to see his own brain, andhe did not care at that moment if he were never to see another biscuit or taste another chicken for therest of his life. He could not even muster enough guilt to feel bad when Ned Skelly's ghostly formappeared at the table, his surprised gaze alternating between the remnants of the meal and the hole thatwas forever stamped through his midsection.Papa stood and cheerfully waved Jose into the front room while Mama and Eudora began toclear the table and wash the dishes. Although the house was far too small for the front room to be aproper sitting room, Jose briefly expected cigars and brandy to make an appearance until heremembered that this was a church-going household. Churchgoing households did not stock brandy