‘The Sisters Brothers’: A wild and woolly Western
Excerpt
From “The Sisters Brothers” by Patrick deWitt, published by HarperCollins. The narrator is Eli Sisters, and Charlie is his brother. They are hired assassins, and their boss is known simply as the Commodore.
Charlie climbed onto Nimble and we rode away, heading for the Pig-King. It had been only two months since our last visit to Oregon City but I counted five new businesses on the main street and each of these appeared to be doing well. “An ingenious species,” I said to Charlie, who made no reply. We sat at a table in the back of the King and were brought our usual bottle and a pair of glasses. Charlie poured me a drink, when normally we pour our own, so I was prepared for bad news when he said it: “I’m to be lead man on this one, Eli.”
“Who says so?”
“Commodore says so.”
I drank my brandy. “What’s it mean?”
“It means I am in charge.”
“What’s it means about money?”
“More for me.”
“My money, I mean. Same as before?”
“It’s less for you.”
“I don’t see the sense in it.”
“Commodore says there wouldn’t have been the problems with the last job if there had been a lead man.”
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“Well, it does.”
He poured me another drink and I drank it. As much to myself as to Charlie I said, “He wants to pay for a lead man, that’s fine. But it’s bad business to short the man underneath. I got my leg gouged out and my horse burned to death working for him.”
“I got my horse burned to death, too. He got us new horses.”
“It’s bad business. Stop pouring for me like I’m an invalid.” I took the bottle away and asked about the specifics of the job. We were to find and kill a prospector in California named Hermann Kermit Warm. Charlie produced a letter from his jacket pocket, this from the Commodore’s scout, a dandy named Henry Morris who often went ahead of us to gather information: “Have studied Warm for many days and can offer the following in respects to his habits and character. He is solitary in nature but spends long hours in the San Francisco saloons, passing time reading his science and mathematics books or making markings in their margins. He hauls these tomes around with a strap like a schoolboy, for which he is mocked. He is small in stature, which adds to this comedy, but beware he will not be teased about his size. I have seen him fight several times, and though he typically loses, I do not think any of his opponents would wish to fight him again. He is not above biting, for example. He is bald-headed, with a wild red beard, long, gangly arms, and the protruded belly of a pregnant woman. ”
“Why doesn’t Morris kill him?”
“That’s always your question, and I always have my answer: It’s not his job, but ours.”
When it came time to settle I pointed to Charlie, “The lead man’s paying.” Normally we would have gone halves, so he did not like that. My brother has always been miserly, a trait handed down from our father.
“Just the one time,” he said.
“Lead man with his lead man’s wages.”
“You never liked the Commodore. And he’s never liked you.”
“I like him less and less,” I said.
“You’re free to tell him, if it becomes an unbearable burden.”
“You will know it, Charlie, if my burden becomes unbearable. You will know it and so will he.”
The FYI Book Club
The Kansas City Star partners with the Kansas City Public Library to present a “book of the moment” selection every six to eight weeks. We invite the community to read along.
Members of FYI and the library staff chose “The Sisters Brothers” by Patrick deWitt.
If you would like to participate in an upcoming discussion of the book, led by the library’s Kaite Stover, email kaitestover@kclibrary.org.
This story was originally published January 3, 2014 at 7:00 PM with the headline "‘The Sisters Brothers’: A wild and woolly Western."