A Dust Bowl Tale of Bonnie and Clyde Read Online Free PDF

automobile.
    “Don’t do it, Weldon,” Grandfather said.
    I didn’t aim at the gas tank or a tire or the trunk. I aimed ten inches below the
     roof and squeezed the trigger and felt the heaviness of the frame buck in my palms
     and heard the .44 round hit home, whanging off metal, breaking glass, maybe striking
     the dashboard or the headliner. Inside the report, I thought I heard someone scream.
    The car wobbled but kept going forward and was soon gone. I shut my eyes and opened
     them again, unsure of what I had done, my ears ringing.
    “Why didn’t you listen to me?” Grandfather asked.
    My right ear felt like someone had slapped it with the flat of his hand. I opened
     and closed my mouth to get my hearing back. “I didn’t think. Was that a woman who
     screamed?”
    “No, it was not. You heard an owl screech. Do you understand me?”
    “I heard a woman scream, Grandfather.”
    “The mind plays tricks on you in a situation like that. That was a screech owl. They’re
     blind in the daytime and frighten easy. Get me up.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Tell me what you heard.”
    “An owl. I heard an owl.”
    “From this time on, you don’t look back on what happened here today. It doesn’t mean
     a hill of beans. Don’t you ever stop being the fine young man that you are.”
    T HE FOLLOWING WEEK, three of Grandfather’s old friends came to our house. They were stolid, thick-bodied
     men who wore suits and Stetsons and polished boots and had broad, calloused hands.
     One of them rolled his own cigarettes. One of them was a former Texas Ranger who supposedly
     killed fifty men. They sat in the kitchen and drank coffee while Grandfather told
     them everything he knew about our visitors. He made no mention of me. I was in the
     living room and heard the former Texas Ranger say, “Hack, I’d hate to bust a cap on
     a woman.” But he smiled when he said it.
    Grandfather glanced up and saw me looking through the doorway. Something happened
     in that moment that I will never forget. Grandfather’s eyes once again were filled
     with a warmth that few associated with the man who locked John Wesley Hardin in jail.
     The lawmen at his table were killers. Grandfather was not. “Go upstairs and check
     on your mother, will you, Weldon?” he said.
    I read later about the ambush in Louisiana. Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow were blown
     apart with automatic weapons fire. Later, their friend Raymond would die with courage
     and dignity in the electric chair at Huntsville. His girlfriend, Mary, would go to
     prison. None of them was struck by the bullet I fired into their automobile.
    It rained that summer, and I caught a catfish in the river that was as reddish-brown
     as the water I took it from. I slipped the hook out of its mouth and replaced it in
     the current and watched it drop away, out of sight, an event that was probably of
     little importance to anyone except the catfish and me.

The story of Weldon Holland continues in James Lee Burke's atmospheric thriller
Wayfaring Stranger
    “Burke’s evocative prose remains a thing of reliably fierce wonder.”—
Entertainment Weekly

    Wayfaring Stranger
    CLICK HERE TO ORDER
----
    ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY!

We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster eBook.
----
    Sign up for our newsletter and receive special offers, access to bonus content, and
     info on the latest new releases and other great eBooks from Simon & Schuster.
    C LICK H ERE T O S IGN U P
    or visit us online to sign up at
eBookNews.SimonandSchuster.com

Simon & Schuster
    1230 Avenue of the Americas
    New York, NY 10020
    This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people,
     or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events
     are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or
     places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
    Copyright © 2014 by James Lee Burke
    All rights reserved, including the right