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Sunday, April 14, 2013

ONLY THE HAUNTED REMEMBER

"I move in all kinds of circles, meet all sorts of people.

I learned engraving from a counterfeiter,

accounting from a swindler.

A succubus once tried to teach me the tango. But nothing doing.


I didn't have the hips for it."  

                                          - Samuel McCord


As Samuel McCord regards his past,

his memories are angels of lightning and storm, sweeping his mind's eye over flashes of pain through the mists of his epic life.

The dying of his mother and sister. His murder of his own father. Discovering the true face of Elu. Losing him to a strange limbo.

Riding beside his new family, the Texas Rangers. Losing that family as he turns his back on the Alamo to rescue a small boy from kidnapping Comanches.

At the age of fifty, having his blood mingled with that of the Angel of Death. Never aging from that moment on. An eternal old man.

Loving the mysterious, undying Meilori Shinseen. Losing her to his compulsion to rescue lost children and battered women.

A man with no home of his own,

making his night club, Meilori's, a home for all the frightened street orphans and hollow-eyed women that cross his path.

But it is a dangerous home, whose back hallways, some say, lead to Hell itself. Samuel himself remains silent on the subject.

Some say he has seen too much to believe in a loving God. Others say he wants to believe but cannot. Still others whisper his silence is because he is already damned.

Meilori's, among more shivering things, is a jazz club.

The people of New Orleans atrophy when kept too far from music and from that special kind of life found only where melody and magic dance in the heavy shadows.

That life is the religion in a city in whose population can be found the most profane, pagan, and deliciously wicked. And their temple?

Meilori's,    of course.

That feared club in which almost anything can happen and in which almost everything has.

13 comments:

  1. Like Lincoln, he's had a lot of losses in his life.

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  2. My favorite character of yours, Roland!

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  3. Surviving what life throws at you is a skill that requires strong principles, such as Sam exhibits.

    I like the line "I didn't have the hips for it". (Sam)

    Now, I want to know why Sam killed his father, did it have something to do with the mother and sister dying? (where is this part of the Sam story?)

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  4. Alex:
    Like Lincoln, Samuel found that loss can either make you bitter or better -- depending upo what you choose to learn from the experience.

    Thanks for visiting and commenting when you must be exhausted from your own blog challenge! :-)

    Milo:
    That means a lot coming from you!

    D.G.:
    Yes, Sam has a dry sense of humor which has kept his sanity over the centuries.

    I have sent you BRING ME THE HEAD OF McCORD! whose first story, MY FATHER'S GUN, details that incident in 15 year old Samuel McCord's life in 1815 West Texas that forever changed his destiny.

    Thanks for being interested and in being my friend, Roland

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  5. Much obliged. Not sure why I have a soft spot for that Texas ranger, but I do.

    After reading several of your books, I was hooked on Sam's character - he's an American hero. Good guy attributes, stoic western manner, treats his women well. What's not to like?

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  6. I like that he learns things from odd people like a succubus. :) Thanks for posting.
    ~Summer

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  7. D.G.:
    Sam tips his Stetson to you. Meilori seems to find fault with him all too often, but then, she is an Empress! I hope you enjoy learning more about him in BRING ME THE HEAD OF McCORD! :-)

    Summer:
    Sam believes you can learn something from anyone -- even if it is only patience! And his life is so odd that most of his teachers are truly odd! :-)

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  8. Tweeted and shared!

    Hope all is well.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

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  9. Tweeted and shared!

    Hope all is well.

    Hugs and chocolate,
    Shelly

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  10. Shelly:
    Thanks for sharing and tweeting. That means a lot. And I still have a job at a center that is downsizing as I type. What the days to come will bring who knows?

    Victor says, "Look on the bright side: no one is shooting at you!"

    :-)

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  11. Sam sounds like an amazing multidimensional character!

    Julie

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  12. Empty Nest Insider:
    I thought it would be interesting to have a philosopher thrust into a world of violence and the supernatural. And for me, at least, it has been. For poor Samuel, not so much!

    Lynda:
    I looked at all the immortal pretty boys in the paperbacks and thought it would be more fun to have an older man go through eternity, weathered and discerning. It's been interesting so far! :-)

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