volume one IN THE D U D L E Y C L A R K - Ohio Vine Tours

Mel holds erect the selfsame, still-threatening finger.
“Zip it.”
Rick’s ears ride back on his head. His nostrils flare and his
teeth grind.
But he doesn’t say another word.
“You ain’t got nothin’ but trouble headed your way you fuck
this up for me tonight, understand roomie?”
Mel turns from the seething Rick and presents his guest with a
placid smile.
“Bet you’re a Capricorn. Are you? A Capricorn cowboy?”
Jason snuggles against Pete and giggles.
Pete tenses his old-man bicep and smiles his old-man smile.
“Leo, ma’am.”
“Leo? That’s what Mae West was. She was in that picture
with Cary Grant. What was it? He was a Capricorn.”
“She Done Him Wrong. 1933. And I’m a Leo.”
Mel beams.
“A Leo who likes old movies?”
Pete hikes a spangled shoulder.
“Maybe. A little.”
Roy snorts.
Jason’s fingers unravel from Pete’s dilapidated arm.
“I see dead people.”
Pete and Mel size each other up.
“I like Westerns,” Pete announces.
Mel appears delighted with the news.
“Me, too, girlfriend.” Mischief gleams in his eyes. “Did you
know Randolph Scott was gay?”
Pete seems genuinely surprised. “I thought he was acy-ducy.”
Jason laughs, forgetting to cover his crooked teeth.
“I’d say he did his best work in th’ late forties, early fifties—
pitchers like Th’ Tall T.”
A suggestion of gravity creeps over Mel.
Mel: “Fighting Man of the Plains.”
Pete: “Seven Men from Now.”
Jason (stage whisper): “I wanna see that one.”
Mel: “Comanche Station.”
ROY ROGERS IN THE 21ST CENTURY 0