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They staggered down the river after him, pitching...
Posted on Monday, January 25, 2010 at 5:26 AM
They staggered down the river after him, pitching and falling, and reeling on againAt a turn in the stream they could see for several hundred yards, and far in the distance Wilson's body was just disappearing around a bend"C'mon, we gotta catch him," Ridges said weaklyHe took a step and fell forward on his face in the waterHe got up very slowly, and then began to walk again
They came to the other bend and stoppedThe stream spread out into a swamp beyond the turnThere was a thin ribbon of water in the middle and bog land on either sideWilson had washed into it, was lost somewhere in the foliage and swampIt would take days to find him if he did not sink
"Oh," Goldstein said, "he's lost
"Yeah," Ridges mumbledHe took a step chanel bucket bags forward and stumbled in the water once moreIt felt pleasant lapping against his face, and he had no desire to stand up"Come on," Goldstein said
Ridges began to weepHe struggled to a sitting position, and cried with his head on his folded arms, the water swirling around his hips and feetGoldstein stood over him tottering
"Mother-fuggin sonofabitch," Ridges mumbledIt was the first time he had cursed since childhood, and the words pulled out of his chest one by one, leaving behind a vacuum of anger and bitternessWilson would not have his burial, but somehow that was not important nowWhat counted was that he had carried this burden through such distances of space and time, and it had washed away in the endAll his life he had labored louis vuitton bag sale without repayment; his grandfather and his father and he had struggled with bleak crops and unending povertyWhat had their work come to? "What profit hath man of all his labour wherein he laboureth under the sun?" The line came back to himIt was a part of the Bible he had always hatedRidges felt the beginning of a deep and unending bitternessThe one time they had got a decent crop it had been ruined by a wild rainstormWhat kind of God could there be who always tricked you in the end?
The practical joker
He wept out of bitterness and longing and despair; he wept from exhaustion and failure and the shattering naked conviction that nothing mattered
And Goldstein stood beside him, holding onto Ridges's shoulder to steady himself prada replica handbags in the currentFrom time to time he would move his lips, scratch feebly at his face"Israel is the heart of all nations
But the heart could be killed and the body still liveAll the suffering of the Jews came to nothingNo sacrifices were paid, no lessons were learnedIt was all thrown away, all statistics in the cruel wastes of historyAll the ghettos, all the soul cripplings, all the massacres and pogroms, the gas chambers, lime kilns -- all of it touched no one, all of it was lostIt was carried and carried and carried, and when it finally grew too heavy it was droppedThat was all there was to itHe was beyond tears, he stood beside Ridges with the stricken sensation of a man who discovers that someone he loves has diedThere was louis vuitton denim purse nothing in him at the moment, nothing but a vague anger, a deep resentment, and the origins of a vast hopelessness
"Let's go," he mumbled
Ridges got up at last, and they wavered slowly through the water, feeling it recede to their ankles, become shallow once moreThe stream broadened, rippled over pebbles, became muddy and then sandyThey staggered around a bend and saw the sunlight and the ocean beyond
A few minutes later they staggered up on the beachDespite their exhaustion they walked on for a hundred yardsSomehow it was distasteful to stay too near to the river
As if in mutual accord, they sprawled out on the sand and lay there motionless, their faces on their arms, the sun warming their backsIt was the middle of the black and white chanel cambon handbag for sale afternoon
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