Tapping the Dream Tree Read Online Free

him and not a moment too soon since her legs had suddenly lost their ability to hold her upright. William had to give her a nudge before she slid farther down the seat to make room for him. She hugged her fiddle case to her chest, only dimly aware of William beside her, the rabbit in its bag on his lap.
    The guitarist kept his gaze on her, humming under his breath as he brought the tune to a close. His last chord hung in the air with an almost physical presence and for a long moment everything in the bar held its breath. Then he smiled, wide and easy, and the moment was gone.
    â€œWilliam,” he said softly. “Miss.”
    â€œThis is Staley,” William said.
    Robert gave her considering look, then turned to William. “You’re early to be hitting the bars.”
    â€œIt’s not like you think,” William said. “I’m still going to AA.”
    â€œGood for you.”
    â€œWell,” William said. “Considering it’s about the only thing I’ve done right with my life, I figured I might as well stick with it.”
    â€œUh-huh.” Robert returned his attention to Staley. “You’ve got the look of one who’s been to the crossroads.”
    â€œI guess,” Staley said, though she had no idea what he meant.
    â€œBut you don’t know who you met there, do you?”
    She shook her head.
    Robert nodded. “That’s the way it happens, all that spooky shit. You feel the wind rising and the leaves are trembling on the trees. Next thing you know, it’s all falling down on you like hail, but you don’t know what it is.”
    â€œUm …” Staley looked to William for guidance.
    â€œYou’ve just got to tell him like you told me,” William said.
    But Robert was looking at the shopping bag on William’s lap now.
    â€œWho’ve you got in there?” he asked.
    Staley cleared her throat. “We were hoping you could tell us,” she said.
    William lowered the cloth sides of the bag. The rabbit poked its head up, raggedy ear hanging down on one side.
    Robert laughed. “Well, now,” he said, gaze lifting to meet Staley’s again. “Why don’t you tell me this story of yours.”
    So Staley did, started again with Butch dropping her off on the county road near her trailer late last night and took the tale all the way through to when she got to William’s apartment earlier this morning. Somewhere in the middle of it the barman brought them a round of coffee, walking away before Staley could pay him, or even get out a thanks.
    â€œI remember that Malicorne,” Robert said when she was done. “Now she was a fine woman, big horn and all. You ever see her anymore?”
    William shook his head. “Not since that night she went off with Jake.”
    â€œCan you help me?” Staley asked.
    Robert leaned back on his side of the booth. Those long fingers of his left hand started walking up the neck of his guitar and he picked with his right, soft, a spidery twelve-bar.
    â€œYou ever hear the story of the two magicians?” he asked.
    Staley shook her head.
    â€œDon’t know what the problem was between them, but the way I heard it is they got themselves into a long-time, serious altercation, went on for years. In the end, the only way they were willing to settle it was to duke it out the way those hoodoo men do, working magic. The one’d turn himself into a ‘coon, the other’d become a coonhound, chase him up some tree. That treed ‘coon’d come down, ‘cept now he’s wearing the skin of a wildcat.” Robert grinned. “Only now that coonhound, he’s a hornet, starts in on stinging the cat. And this just goes on.
    â€œOne’s a salmon, the other’s an otter. Salmon becomes the biggest, ugliest catfish you ever saw, big enough to swallow that otter whole, but now the otter’s a giant eagle, slashing at the fish with its talons.