Written especially for the forthcoming collection HAP AND LEONARD, the Joe R. Lansdale story “Not Our Kind” reveals one of the duo’s earliest interactions.

“You’re
seeing it,” the one I knew best said. His name was David. Last time
I saw him was at the Swinging Bridge, and there had been a fight
there for money. My new friend Leonard was there. He won the fight.
It was a friend of David’s he fought, and he beat the guy’s ass
like a tambourine and made some money.

Actually,
that fight, lit by a huge tire fire, was the first time I met
Leonard, and we hit it off, and we saw each other again in Marvel
Creek, running into one another accidentally at first, and then
finally on purpose. He lived over in LaBorde with his Uncle, but they
came to the general store in Marvel Creek to shop, which I didn’t
understand. Everyone in Marvel Creek goes to the larger city of
LaBorde to shop, but his uncle had a store in Marvel Creek he liked,
place where he had been buying shoes for a long time. He liked it,
Leonard said, because the owner never told him to come around back,
even before laws were passed that said he didn’t have to.

You’ll have to wait until March, 2016 to read the rest of story in HAP AND LEONARD.

For more info on HAP AND LEONARD, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover by Elizabeth Story