The Perk Read Online Free PDF Page B

it was now a brew pub. They stood among white-haired
folks sitting in folding chairs, wholesome looking country kids hunkered down
on the curb holding red, white, and blue balloons, and their sturdy parents
standing behind them holding video cameras and dogs on leashes. Customers carried
German lager out of the pub and took up viewing positions; drinking on the
sidewalks had been legal in Fredericksburg since the days when thirteen saloons
lined Main Street, and apparently it still was. Beck had given up alcohol when
he had left this town, so he bought three bottles of cold water from two girls
about Luke's age who were selling it out of a red wagon and passing out little
flags; Beck handed a bottle and a flag to each of his children, then pointed
down at an iron ring embedded in the concrete sidewalk.
    "Luke, cowboys used to tie their horses to these
rings."
    Luke glanced down but only grunted in response.
    The four asphalt lanes of Main Street were unoccupied except
for two cops on bikes and a long-legged blonde girl wearing cowboy boots and
stars-and-stripes short-shorts and making a show of sashaying back and forth across
the empty street. Texas girls liked attention; pretty Texas girls demanded it.
    Cowboys hats, gimme caps, and umbrellas served as sunblocks
for the spectators, all of whom, young and old, now abruptly stood and placed
their right hands and hats over their hearts. The parade was upon them, led by
a lone bagpiper wearing a kilt and followed by a military color guard, five
uniformed soldiers and sailors carrying the U.S. flag and the Army, Navy,
Marine, and Air Force colors flanked by Army and Marine riflemen. The high
school ROTC marched behind the color guard and were followed by World War Two veterans
manning a .60-caliber machine gun mounted on a half-track pulling a flat-bed
trailer with national guard soldiers just back from Iraq. The crowd applauded
and cheered as if they were the Chicago Bears just back from the Super Bowl. A
sign listed the names of soldiers in their company killed in action. There
were a lot of names. Another sign read FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.
    The high school band marched past playing the
"Star-Spangled Banner" followed by vintage fire trucks, antique cars,
and pickup trucks with pretty girls in blonde braids tossing red, white, and
blue bead necklaces into the crowd and up to the people on the balconies. Beck
caught a red one and put it around Meggie's neck. She showed it to the doll.
    A World War Two
battle tank and more military vehicles and farm equipment rolled past followed
by floats for a ministry with a sign that read KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMASand
the Knights of Columbus with a sign that read ONE NATION UNDER GOD. Separation
of church and state had never been a major topic of debate in Fredericksburg, Texas. A long RV decked out in red, white, and blue drove by with loudspeakers blaring the
Lee Greenwood song "God Bless the USA"; it was trailed by a truck
advertising for a gun show, a 1921 Stanley Steamer, an old Cadillac convertible
with longhorns on the hood, and a Boys and Girls Club float playing
"Yankee Doodle Dandy." The Gillespie County Farm Bureau Queen and
her court wore prom dresses and waved as their float passed by.
    "Are they supermodels?" Meggie asked.
    "No, honey, they're just high school girls."
    Next up were clowns, kids on bikes, cowgirls on horseback, and
a University of Texas cheerleader prancing like a show horse alongside a tall burnt-orange
replica of the UT clock tower with NATIONAL CHAMPIONS 2005 on the side. The University of Texas had won its national championship without Beck Hardin.
    A float for the Gillespie County Democratic Party was manned
by five brave souls followed by a standing-room-only float for the county's Republican
Party. Gillespie County had always been as red as Austin was blue; LBJ had
been the only Democrat to carry the county in the last seventy-five years. The
American Legion float played the Marine service hymn, and the last