1862, Chapter 9

August has dropped off Johanna for her assignation with Mr. Waggoner. Under pretense that he’s headed to the dry goods store, August drives around the hotel, hitches the wagon, and starts to climb...

After dropping Johanna off at the hotel, August took the buggy around the back, down a dirt track which was strewn with eggshells, coffee grounds, potato peelings, all the refuse from the hotel. He threw handfuls of corn into the wagon to keep the pigs happy and climbed from the wagon seat onto the low hanging roof of the hotel.

He inched his way along to Room Five.

He’d paid old man Reed to keep him apprised of Johanna’s whereabouts. The man was as crooked as could be. But he had his uses. August guessed the assignation wouldn’t take place in the room Johanna had rented; probably in an adjoining room. Reed told August that Waggoner always arrived a half hour before Johanna and rented the only room in the hotel that had a door between two rooms.

 August walked quietly across the cedar shingles of the roof, holding his arms out for balance.

He heard their voices before he saw them.

He crouched and slowly raised up and peered into the window. He saw Johanna bent over the bed with Waggoner at her bare behind. They were facing away from him, but August could see their reflection in the oval mirror that hung on the opposite wall.

The reflection looked as if it were covered in mist.

He could only see Johanna’s face moving side to side in a blur.

The wind blew the curtain inward, and he was revealed stark as day—he saw his own reflection in the mirror and he wondered if Johanna saw it. She turned and looked over her shoulder just as August ducked down.

He placed his face close to the warm side of the building and closed his eyes and hoped beyond hope that she wouldn’t come to the window. He didn’t know if he can stand the embarrassment.