Fup. Jim Dodge

to his name, packed a suitcase with a change of clothes and nine jars of Ol’ Death Whisper, and hit the road playing cards. Players in the north-coast cardrooms still talk about it in the same tone they talk about the fire of ’41: his age and ferocity were intimidating, but it was his plain, bald, God-graced, unadulterated, shithouse luck that wiped the tables clean. In three months he won nearly $90,000, and every time he left town he mailed a cashier’s check to the San Francisco law firm of Gutt, Cutt and Freese, a group of ruthlessly brilliant attorneys who specialized in custody cases, and who responded to each check like piranhas to blood, unleashing another frenzy of writs, motions, and suits. Finally, through sinuous maneuvering lubricated with tidy envelopes of well-placed cash, the case was assigned to Judge Wilber Tatum, an octogenarian with 17 grandkids, a honky-tonk road map of broken veins on his face, and a $100,000 credit line in Las Vegas despite the alimony he paid his eight ex-wives.

      Granddaddy Jake, as everyone began to call him at his request, drove his young grandson out to the ranch in a new Jeep pick-up. He talked to the boy continually, pointing out places they would go fishing and hunting, the swimming holes and shortcuts, the name of every waving neighbor they passed. Tiny stared straight ahead, nodding slightly.

      When they arrived at the ranch house (which he’d had Lottie Anderson spruce up), he sat Tiny down at the table with a gallon of milk and a pound of Oreos, then unloaded the truck and fixed up the boy’s room. When he returned to the kitchen, Tiny was sitting on the floor by the wood-box, building a miniature split-rail fence out of the redwood kindling. Jake went out and chopped some more. Above him he saw a ragged V of ducks flying high against the sunset, following the light south, but they didn’t stir him like they usually did. He had a grandchild to look after now, the responsibility of care. He felt himself settle into himself. The ducks could take care of themselves.