Mary Murphy

            On Friday morning I looked for a new picture of Boris Vian to post on my Facebook fan page. I found one of him holding an armful of incongruous items and making a goofy face.

            I’ve memorized two-thirds of “Banana Boat” by Serge Gainsbourg. I should have it done on Saturday morning and then I’ll look for the chords.

            I washed another eight boards of the living room floor behind my couch. This was a fairly clean section already and there were no remnants of my late cat Jonquil stuck to the wood. There will be some in the next section however and further on in the spot where she actually died.

            I had a chicken wing for lunch and some yogourt.

            I did some exercises in the afternoon and then took a bike ride to Bloor and Spadina, south to Queen and west again. On Queen there was a loud guy, wearing loud clothing and with loud hip hop music coming out of his backpack. He was riding with a young woman who looked very normal compared to him. After he passed me he tried to pop a wheelie and fell flat on his ass when his bike flipped back too far.

            After coming home I got caught up on my journal. 

            I worked a bit on my review of David Jure's "The Patient English".

            I finished a draft of “My Blood in a Bug”.

            I had three small potatoes, a chicken breast and some gravy while watching an episode of Wagon Train.

            This story starts with a poker game between Luke O'Malley and Dan Romero but the game is interrupted when the sheriff arrives to arrest the bandit Romero. Romero believes that O’Malley told the sheriff that he was there and swears he will kill him. On the day of Romero’s hanging O’Malley is the only one in town that does not attend. But before the execution can take place Romero’s men come riding and shooting into town. Seeing that Romero is escaping and remembering his promise to kill him, O’Malley goes to his sister's place, takes a parson’s suit and hat that she is holding for a real minister, takes his daughter Kate and his son John and rides out of town. He changes his name and approaches the wagon train, asking to ride along with it. A young woman named Martha Murphy, travelling with her father takes a liking to Kate and John and begins acting maternally towards them. O’Malley confesses to her that Kate and John are not his natural children but are the kids of a man that he’d seen gunned down in a saloon. He's been taking care of them ever since and loves them like they were his own. Kate displays a little too much knowledge about poker to the Major than a preacher's daughter should. Flint tells the Major that the parson reminds him of a card shark name O’Malley that he met who is a friend of Dan Romero. The Major has O'Malley detained because he thinks he's in league with Romero, who has been spotted in the area. Knowing that Romero will probably raid the train, O'Malley escapes and goes to try to stop him. He is captured, tied up and forced to come along while Romero heads out to raid the wagon train. But O'Malley's children have snuck away from the train and bring with them the $20,000 that O’Malley won from Romero. Kate begs Romero to let her father go so they can go to California on the wagon train. Romero softens and says he will miss Romero and lets him go. At the end O’Malley appears to be hooked up with Martha.

            Martha was played by Mary Murphy, who played the good girl that tamed Marlon Brando in The Wild One.