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shaking his head. "Ole Dusty," he said, "he was a good boy, but a mite crazed."
"Oh, good. Just what I need. An amp with a mind of its own. Like I don't have enough to deal
with."
"Now, son," Progress said, patting Slim's shoulder in a fatherly fashion that Slim basked in.
"Don't awfulize it. I knows you think you got a hard road, but you're ridin' the clutch. You gots to let
yourself up a little. You'll have the best of the backroom boys behind you, and me and Nadine'll be
right up there with you."
"Yeah, I know," Slim said. "Nadine and I, we've talked a lot, so I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever
be. Just a little scared."
"Well, son, to tell the absolute truth, I guess we all are, a little. But sometimes you just gotta kick
it in the get along. You gots to know what you're doin'. You got the power, plenty of that. You got the
amp and you gonna have the Gutbucket."
"Oh," Slim said, almost bitterly. "Let's not forget Shango."
"Yep, that, too. Ole T-Bone, he ain't never gonna be able to beat all that."
"Daddy," Nadine said. "Isn't it enough just to get the Gutbucket back? Do we have to go after the
rest of it?"
"You talks like it was easy, girl. Slim's gonna have to steal the Gutbucket back, and that ain't no
cinch. But if he does it, we gots to go all the way down with it. If we don't, T-Bone'll never give up
whippin' on us, or tryin' to. He's a damn tush hog, bullyin' everybody. I don't much likes it but we're
gonna have to kill him too dead to skin."
Slim laughed. "Okay," he said. "But listen here, talk's cheap but it takes money to buy whiskey.
How in hell am I suppose to steal the Gutbucket?"
"Not sure, son," Progress said. "But T-Bone, he might be bad and he might have power, but he's
kinda stupid, too. No imagination. He's the kinda man would ride a horse every week, but he'd be
pissed off 'cause he had to go the same direction as the horse. That's what I'm countin' on. His
stupidity."
They'd walked and talked their way to the big circus tent. It was filled with chairs and tables and
people eating and a smell of food that was almost overpowering. The three of them sat at a table and,
after a man in Torriero white had taken their orders, Progress continued his talk.
"The way I figure it," he said, "is that T-Bone's gonna have a few of his boys outta sight, holdin'
the Gutbucket. But we've got a whole slew of folks gonna be up on that there stage buildin' up the
power for the blowout. T-Bone ain't gonna sit by for that. He's gonna be around. I got some boys I
hope are gonna distract him. While he's boggin' off, that's when you makes your move, you and
Nadine."
"What move do we make?" Slim asked.
"That ain't up to me, son. That's gonna have to be up to you and Nadine. You're the ones takin'
the risks, you're the ones got to be in control of it. You and Nadine make a mighty fine team. Use that
and go from there. Trust your feelings. You been doin' fine so far, but the hard part's comin' up, and I
ain't even talkin' about stealin' the Gutbucket."
"That's not the hard part?" Slim asked incredulously.
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"Nope," Progress replied. "Not for you. Remember, even after gettin' it, you still gots to play it.
You gots to call down the power and bust a move wide open."
"That's right," Nadine said. "All the things we've been talking about. The surrender."
"That's it, son. Remember, when I first told you 'bout the power. I told you you was gonna have
to surrender to it, that you was gonna have a hard time with that. You've changed a lot since you first
fell in here, but that hasn't changed out of the way. You've given a little, but you still got a ways to go
with it. You still got a heavy load to carry. I'm sorry about that, truly I am. I didn't know when we first
met down at the creek that you was gonna have as much weight on your shoulders. I wish it was
different, but it ain't. It's all on you. We'll be backin' you up, but you still the one's gotta step out in
front with it."
Slim sighed. "You know," he said. "It's funny, but in a way, that's what I wanted. Not with my
mind, maybe, but with my heart. As long as you and Nadine believe me, I can do it, or at least, I can
do my best. Being scared isn't nothin'. I've lived most of my life scared of one thing or another. Still
managed to get up and around. I guess I will this time, too."
"There you go," Progress said. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]