Free Gutbucket Quest by Piers Anthony Page A

more important than livin’. That there tells me somethin’. Besides, the boy’s heavy in love with you.”
    “Oh, that’s great! That’s just what I need, some long-haired beat-up old fool sniffing after me like a stupid puppy.”
    “Give the boy a chance, Nadine. I know right now he don’t seem like he’s much at all. But he’s growin’ more than you or he knows. Don’t go breakin’ him down till you see what it is he can build up to. I know he acts kinda stupid sometimes, but he ain’t. He just never learned how to act. And you know he so scairt about bein’ in love with you that it’s gonna make him that much more stupid.”
    “I know it. And you know I can’t stand it when men act like that.”
    “Nadine, don’t torment the boy. I ain’t sayin’ you got to put up with nothin’, but don’t torment him. Be fair. His heart’s real breakable. Don’t you be the one does it to him. It’s a good heart.”
    “Daddy? Are you wanting me to love him back?”
    “I’m hopin’ you will. I don’t wanna force nothin’. Just hopin’ you’ll find somethin’ in him worth lovin’. I think he’s the right man for you.”
    “You know I can get along just fine without a man.”

    “Didn’t nobody say no different, girl. But Slim’s the right man for your life. I feels it.”
    “So what is it you want me to do?”
    “Just try to be nice to him. I know that’s a hard thing for you to do. I know how you is. But be fair to the boy. He’s carryin’ a heavy load he don’t yet know even the half of. Don’t you pile on more weight. Give the boy a chance.”
    “Okay, Daddy. I’ll try. But he’d better find a way to get better, or I’m not going to be able to stand it.”
    “He’ll find a way. I got faith in him.”
    She looked at him sharply. “Daddy, what are you keeping from me?”
    Progress did not pretend to mistake her meaning. “I’d rather not tell you.”
    “Well, you’d better, if it made you so urgent to put me on to this man. I can just about see that dark cloud looming behind your head.”
    Progress sighed. “You always could, Nadine. It’s the Glory Hand.”
    “The Glory Hand” she exclaimed, shocked. “You don’t have anything to do with that evil magic”
    “Not by choice, for sure! I found this one in the bathroom. Must’ve been tossed through the open window in the night. Wasn’t there yesterday.”
    “Who would put one of those filthy fetishes in our house?” she demanded indignantly. “The whole region knows you have no truck with those things.”
    “That’s what bothers me. I don’t think it was for me or you. I think it was for Slim. He’s from elsewhere; he may not know about such things.”
    “So he’s a nonbeliever, so it shouldn’t affect him. So what’s the point?”
    “That’s it: I don’t know the point. I don’t trust it. Somethin’sgoin’ on here, Nadine, and it concerns this man. But I be not ready to tell him about it yet—not till I know what he knows about hostile magic.”
    “Point taken,” she said thoughtfully. “If it’s for him, and he doesn’t know it, something strange is going on, and we’d better keep it quiet for now. What did you do with it?”
    “I hooked it with a wire and carried it out and threw it in the river. I don’t care if it sinks or swims; it’s gone.”
    She nodded soberly. “Who do you think sent it?”
    “I don’t know, but I think maybe it’s another reason it’s time we saw T-Bone. Just to let him know we’s on to him, or make him think we is.”
    “And you want me to find out what Slim Chance knows, without him knowing I’m prying?”
    “Maybe. But that don’t change what else I said. So maybe he has a bad enemy; that don’t speak bad for him.”
    “If T-Bone doesn’t like him, I’m getting interested,” she said, smiling grimly.
    “Don’t go lookin’ for no wrong reasons, girl, when there’s good ones to be had.”
    “I was fooling,” she said.
    “Not entirely.”
    She