(no subject)

[tibetanmethod]

Summertime, and the living is easy. It's not bad, certainly. Cooper is commuting down the road from Twin Peaks to Colville a few days a week to assist in an ongoing drug operation -- a gift from Gordon Cole's interim replacement; apparently Gordon was able to leave a few notes in files and a few bugs in people's ears before going on administrative leave. It's enough to let Cooper stay in Twin Peaks; it's enough to keep Cooper happy.

He's started doing the daily donut runs for the sheriff's station as well, before heading south. He does them even on the mornings his presence isn't requested -- it's nice to have structure, and it's good to keep a finger on the pulse of the town.

That's in the mornings, though. Evenings are meditation, reading, research. He could use a hobby or two; in a few months, he tells himself. Tonight he's in the Bookhouse, sitting at the round table, with two things in front of him. One thing is a shoebox. It's filled with microcassettes; he's sorting them.

The other thing is a mostly untouched longneck, beaded with condensation; it's a poor pale ale that never did anybody any harm, and soon it's not going to be any good any more. Somewhere deep and unconscious Cooper figures it'll just prove his point that beer isn't any good anyway. He also figures that a beer seems required, considering recent events. It's like a wake. Sometimes mindfulness, loving kindness, detachment -- sometimes they come a little hard.

Comments

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

Harry Truman doesn't like to complain; he supposes it's hard on the people of Deer Meadow, too, having almost their entire sheriff department arrested on federal charges. Still, it makes his days longer. The emergency elections can't come too soon.

(He's been working with one of the few apparently honest deputies, a man named Chadwick, and it looks like the votes are going to swing his way. Should be a change for the good.)

Harry ought to get home. He needs a shower, and maybe something solid to eat. The dinner Chadwick takes him to in Deer Meadow looks like salmonella on legs to Harry, although maybe he's just spoiled. But his headlights lead him to the Bookhouse anyway.

He lingers in the doorway, looking into the quiet woods that the Bookhouse backs on. Or maybe faces. Guards, anyway. Quiet, now. There's that, at least.

The stairs that lead down into the library aren't designed for stealth; neither are his lawman boots.

[tibetanmethod]

The peaceable click and clatter of plastic on plastic, tape on tape, only pauses briefly -- long enough for Cooper to get the telltales: the creak on the seventh step, made slightly louder by a little more weight on the left side of the right foot, followed by a similar confirmation on the eighth step.

"Evening, Harry," Cooper says, without looking up from his work, before Harry even emerges entirely from the stairs into the library proper.

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"Heya, Coop." Harry's still not sure how he does it, but at least he's used to it.

"I thought it might be you, when I saw the lights." If there was any justice in the world, he ought to confiscate that poor abandoned beer, but instead he crosses to the ice chest and finds one of his own.

[tibetanmethod]

Now Cooper glances up, hands stilling on the tapes. "How's Deputy Chadwick?" It's part and parcel of not knowing when the Colville investigation's going to conclude, of not knowing when he's going to be called back to the East Coast, of putting off a hard decision or two (or six) -- he's interested in the welfare of Twin Peaks and the surrounding region, which includes Deer Meadow, and Chadwick.

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

He pulls out a chair. "Learning," Harry says. He takes the seat with a sigh. "And hopefully, unlearning."

"You know, in some ways, I think it helps, Hank Jennings having taken over. That kind of drew a line in the sand, for the boys who are left over there. Cable was more of a nice gentle slope down into hell."

[tibetanmethod]

"It's hard to believe it." Cooper folds one hand on top of the other. "When that's the way it is. You wonder if your own perceptions are off. You'd like to be wrong. You start to question yourself. Is Chadwick a confident man, Harry?"

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"It's an area where he could stand to improve," Harry says. "We're working on it."

Anybody too confident was either as rotten as Cable or run off by him a long time ago. Harry takes a swig.

"He put his name in the hat for Sheriff, that's worth something."

[tibetanmethod]

Cooper's beer continues to be sadly ignored. "Is it worth something if he does it for the wrong reasons?" He's looking out one of the high windows now.

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"I think he did it because he's afraid of Ben Young winning the election if he runs unopposed," Harry says, regarding the beers blankly.

The charges did not stick to Ben Young, and with no official sheriff there's no one to fire him, but he has the good sense to stay out of Harry Truman's way and spend his time campaigning.

[tibetanmethod]

"How are his chances looking?" Cooper's gaze also shifts to the beers. His stares back at him, reproachfully. He picks it up (out of duty).

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"I'd put it at about fifty-fifty," Harry says, a little despairing.

"You can't make people want to be treated right." He sighs and takes another drink. "I guess I've seen enough domestic disputes to know that."

Seen enough to last him just this week, in Deer Meadow. "But I'll tell you, Coop, never before have I wanted to pick up a whole town by the collar and just... shake it." He shakes his head, instead.

[tibetanmethod]

"Gandhi would say that's not the best way to win hearts and minds." Absently, as he works on peeling the label off his bottle. "I don't know if that's the point, though. Is that the point, Harry?"

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

Leave it to Cooper to bring Gandhi into it. "The first problem," Harry muses, "is that towns don't have collars. I haven't really thought it through any farther than that."

He slumps back in the chair, dragging the beer with him; it's no longer freezing to the touch, and he balances it on his knee. "How about you, Coop? Was today one of your days down in Colville?"

[tibetanmethod]

Cooper shakes his head. "They've taken evidence to Seattle to process in the King County lab."

Rip, goes the label. Cooper lets it drop, and keeps working on the other half. "I'm set loose until the results are in, which isn't likely to be until the beginning of next week."

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"Well, you know we can always use you," he says cautiously. "Especially now."

"Or if you want to learn to play the guitar, I've got a spare."

Harry shares the narration's opinion that Cooper could use a hobby.

[tibetanmethod]

"I prefer to leave the music to those who have a talent for it. That's not one of mine."

Cooper glances up. "I can be in tomorrow at five."

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

Harry nods. "If you want to ride along to Deer Meadow, I can spare Hawk to go help Andy out at the old sawmill. I'd rather he wasn't poking around in those ruins on his own."

[tibetanmethod]

"I'm in, Harry."

And now he has an excuse not to finish the beer -- he's got to be up early. "Should I prepare for anything out of the ordinary?"

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

He shakes his head. "One of us gets to supervise the re-inventory of the stockroom, and compare that against the register. They're completely out of .22 shells, I know that, and that's not what's written down."

"The other gets to ride-along. No offense meant, but the good people of Deer Meadow are already getting to know and... know me, anyway, so I thought you might want to stay at the station. You'll be with dispatch, too, so you'll get to call some shots. And you'll get to meet Chadwick."

[tibetanmethod]

Cooper raises a forestalling hand. "You're the senior lawman here, Harry -- no offense taken." And it suits Cooper down to the ground, anyhow. The better to observe and see how the land lies. That's what he tells himself, anyhow.

[middle-name-s.livejournal.com]

"I'd like to hear your take on him, anyway." And: Cooper is thorough, and has an eye for odd little clues that a plodder like Chadwick (or, let's face it, Harry S. Truman) is likely to miss.

If there's anything going on in the Station beyond some shells going home in somebody's pocket, Cooper's a good bet to sniff it out.

[tibetanmethod]

"The ride home." Cooper nods. "We'll see. And then we'll talk." He goes back to working off the last bits of the label.