The Life and Death Performance of Tony Bedowie

By Guy Arthur Simpson

Loretta and Marie's birthday party on the prairie looks set to be ruined when the entertainment fails to show.
Until a wagon of circus players passes by.
"Magic, music and the human cannon."

 

A story of the wild west ~ 7,000 words

 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Guy Arthur Simpson
• Release date: Feb 17, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393314936

Guy Arthur Simpson

Guy Arthur Simpson writes contemporary thrillers and novels of mystery and curious adventure. He graduated from Oxford and went backpacking in the Americas and India before settling in Spain. He lives in the mountains of La Alpujarra in Andalucia.

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The Life and Death Performance of Tony Bedowie

Guy Arthur Simpson

Published by Guy Arthur Simpson, 2020.

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

THE LIFE AND DEATH PERFORMANCE OF TONY BEDOWIE

First edition. February 17, 2020.

Copyright © 2020 Guy Arthur Simpson.

ISBN: 978-1393314936

Written by Guy Arthur Simpson.

Also by Guy Arthur Simpson

The Ministry of Flowers

Hoodwink

Immig's Work

John Eyre

Parasite of Choice

The Life and Death Performance of Tony Bedowie

The Man Who Died

The Sweet Teeth of God

The Asturian Campaign

Citizens of the Night

Four Stories

El ministerio de las flores

Watch for more at Guy Arthur Simpson’s site.

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Also By Guy Arthur Simpson

The Life and Death Performance of Tony Bedowie

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Further Reading: The Man Who Died

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The Life and Death Performance of Tony Bedowie

The jangling sound was starting to make Carl Melhouse nervous. He had been dancing a jig with one of the Knowles women when the rhythm had all fallen apart. She stood staring at him like she didn’t know him. Other folk wore patient smiles or confusion on their faces, waiting for the band to get their act together.

It wasn’t happening.

The unprepossessing ensemble  of nine—a couple of fiddlers, banjos, a trumpet, two tin drummers, washboard and jug—had abandoned the skipping dance as if overtaken by a collective memory loss and what they were doing now made no sense at all.

His dance partner drifted back to her people.

Sweat collected in the furrows on Carl’s brow and he glared around at the families invited to the Melhouse ranch for the day. They stood there looking suitably cowed, on his turf and under his thumb, no doubt recalling the last birthday fête they’d been summoned to when he’d had his second son, Vernon, the boy who made his own mother uneasy, engaged on the spot to Nate Parrish’s juicy little daughter, Julie, and whipped Julie’s pretty boy Matt Knowles with his own bullwhip when he spoke up agin it.

This wasn’t music. It was a goddamn racket.

Maybe he shouldn’t have ever