Bioinformatics: Methods and Applications Dev Bukhsh Singh download
Bioinformatics: Methods and Applications Dev Bukhsh Singh download
https://ebookmass.com/product/bioinformatics-methods-and-
applications-dev-bukhsh-singh/
https://ebookmass.com/product/4d-printing-fundamentals-and-
applications-rupinder-singh/
https://ebookmass.com/product/deep-learning-in-bioinformatics-
techniques-and-applications-in-practice-habib-izadkhah/
https://ebookmass.com/product/soil-and-plant-analysis-rahul-dev-
behera/
https://ebookmass.com/product/atmospheric-remote-sensing-principles-
and-applications-abhay-kumar-singh/
https://ebookmass.com/product/encyclopedia-of-bioinformatics-and-
computational-biology-abc-of-bioinformatics-shoba-ranganathan/
https://ebookmass.com/product/optical-properties-of-materials-and-
their-applications-second-edition-singh/
https://ebookmass.com/product/intermittent-demand-forecasting-context-
methods-and-applications-syntetos/
https://ebookmass.com/product/rheology-concepts-methods-and-
applications-alexander-y-malkin/
Bioinformatics
Methods and Applications
Bioinformatics
Methods and Applications
Edited by
Dev Bukhsh Singh
Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Biosciences and Biotechnology,
Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University, Kanpur, India
v
vi Contents
23.5.1 Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes 24.5 Platforms used for modeling and
and Genomes 393 simulations 415
23.5.2 BioCyc Database Collection 393 24.5.1 Pathway designing tools 415
23.5.3 ENZYME 393 24.5.2 Pathway Tools 415
23.5.4 ExplorEnz: the enzyme database 394 24.5.3 Simulation tools 416
23.5.5 Biochemical Genetic and 24.6 Applications of pathway modeling and
Genomic/Biochemical Genetic simulations 418
and Genomic models 394 24.6.1 Metabolic engineering 418
23.5.6 STRING 394 24.6.2 Drug designing 418
23.5.7 metaTIGER 394 24.6.3 Study of phenomics 419
23.6 Tools for network pathway analysis 394 24.6.4 Flux balance analysis 419
23.6.1 Pathway tools 395 24.7 Challenges 420
23.6.2 ERGO 395 24.7.1 Knowledge gaps between
23.6.3 KEGGtranslator 395 computationalists and
23.6.4 ModelSEED 395 experimentalists 420
23.6.5 Network Analysis Tools 396 24.7.2 Theory development 420
23.6.6 BioNetStat 396 24.7.3 Miscellaneous computational
23.6.7 OmicsNet 396 challenges 420
23.7 Applications of network biology 396 24.8 Conclusion 420
23.7.1 Applications in rare diseases 396 Conflict of interest 421
23.7.2 Determination of References 421
protein function 398
23.7.3 Pathway determination 398 25. Systems biology and big data
23.7.4 Essential protein identification 398 analytics 425
23.7.5 Functional modules’
identification 399 Rohit Shukla, Arvind Kumar Yadav,
23.8 Challenges and future perspective 399 William O. Sote, Moacyr Comar Junior
23.8.1 Pseudo temporal ordering 399 and Tiratha Raj Singh
23.8.2 Multiple data sources 400 25.1 Introduction 425
23.8.3 Combination of algorithms 400 25.2 Big data in general and in the context
23.9 Conclusion 400 of biology 425
Conflict of interest 401 25.3 Types of data in systems biology 426
References 401 25.3.1 Biological sequences 428
25.3.2 Molecular structure 428
24. Pathway modeling and simulation 25.3.3 Gene expression 428
analysis 409 25.3.4 Binding sites and domains 429
25.3.5 Protein protein interaction 429
Gitanjali Tandon, Sunita Yadav
25.3.6 Mass spectroscopy 429
and Sukhdeep Kaur
25.3.7 Metabolic pathways 429
24.1 Introduction 409 25.4 Biological big data resources 429
24.2 Computational modeling of 25.4.1 Genomics and transcriptomics
a pathway 409 resources 430
24.2.1 Type of modeling 410 25.4.2 Proteomics resources 430
24.2.2 Approaches of modeling 410 25.4.3 Cellular metabolome 430
24.3 General diagram and language used in 25.4.4 Protein protein interaction
pathway modeling 411 databases 430
24.3.1 Systems Biology Graphical 25.4.5 Drug and chemical compound
Notation 411 databases 432
24.3.2 Systems Biology Markup 25.4.6 Different other databases 432
Language 412 25.5 Network generation and its analysis
24.4 Pathway simulations analysis 413 from various sources of data 432
24.4.1 Ordinary differential equations 413 25.6 Big data in drug repurposing and
24.4.2 Stochastic simulation 414 systems pharmacology 434
Contents xv
Shikha Agnihotry Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Jacob Institute of Biotechnology and
Bio-Engineering, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, Allahabad, India
Piyush Agrawal Centre for Computational Biology, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi (IIITD),
Okhla Phase III, New Delhi, India
Suchitra M. Ajjarapu Bioinformatics Sub-DIC, Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering, College of Basic Science
and Humanities, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, India; Department of Biotechnology, Andhra
University, India
Himanshu Avashthi Department of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Sam Higginbottom University of
Agriculture Technology & Sciences, India; Division of Genomic Resources, ICAR National Bureau of Plant Genetic
Resources, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, India
Animesh Awasthi Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), Bengaluru, India; Department of
Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India
Qanita Bani Baker Department of Computer Science, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan
Abhishek Bhandawat Agri-Biotechnology Division, National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali, India
Ritika Bishnoi School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India
Muktesh Chandra Centre of Bioinformatics, Institute of Interdisciplinary Sciences, University of Allahabad,
Prayagraj, India
T. Chatterjee Raipur Institute of Technology, Raipur, India
Kamal Kumar Chaudhary School of Biosciences, IMS Ghaziabad University Courses Campus, India
J. Choubey Raipur Institute of Technology, Raipur, India
J.K. Choudhari Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekanand Technical University, Bhilai, India
Budhayash Gautam Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Jacob Institute of Biotechnology and
Bioengineering, SHUATS, Prayagraj, India
Kavita Goswami Plant RNAi Biology Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New
Delhi, India
Aditya Harbola School of Computing, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India
Imran Hussain School of Life and Allied Health Sciences, Glocal University, Saharanpur, India
Akanksha Jaiswar Mossakowski Medical Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
Rahul Singh Jasrotia Department of Biological Sciences, Florida State University, FL, United States
Moacyr Comar Junior Campus Centro-Oeste, Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Sao Joao Del Rei,
Minas Gerais, Brazil
Sukhdeep Kaur Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Sam Higginbottom University of
Agriculture, Technology and Sciences (SHUATS), Prayagraj, India
Rajesh Kumar Kesharwani Nehru Gram Bharati Deemed University, Prayagraj, India
Indrajeet Kumar Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India
Pawan Kumar Bioinformatics Center, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India
xvii
xviii List of contributors
Sundip Kumar Bioinformatics Sub-DIC, Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering, College of Basic Science and
Humanities, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, India
Mahesh Manchanda School of Computing, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India
Ranjeet Maurya CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, India
Ankita Mishra Agri-Biotechnology Division, National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali, India
Bhawana Mishra Department of Chemistry, Central University of Haryana, Jant-Pali, Mahendergarh, Haryana, India
Pallavi Mishra Centre for Agriculture Bioinformatics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, India;
Department of Computational Biology & Bioinformatics, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture Technology
& Sciences, India
Swapnil Mishra Center for Bioinformatics, University of Allahabad, India
Shikha Mittal Division of Genomic Resources, ICAR National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Pusa Campus,
New Delhi, India
Priyanka Narad Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India
G. Naresh Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India
Ankita Negi Centre for Agricultural Bioinformatics (CABin), ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute
(IASRI), New Delhi, India
Deepti Negi School of Computing, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India
Krishna Kumar Ojha Department of Bioinformatics, Central University of South Bihar, India
Shubham Pant Electrochemical Process Engineering Division, CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute,
Karaikudi, India
Rajesh Kumar Pathak School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India
Pramod Wasudeo Ramteke Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Jacob Institute of
Biotechnology and Bio-Engineering, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, India;
Department of Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering, RTM Nagpur University, India; Department of Life
Sciences, Mandsaur University, India; Department of Biological Sciences, Sam Higginbottom University of
Agriculture Technology & Sciences, India; Faculty of Life Sciences, Mandsaur University, India
Neeru Redhu Department of Molecular Biology, Biotechnology & Bioinformatics, College of Basic Sciences &
Humanities, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India
Joy Roy Agri-Biotechnology Division, National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali, India
B.P. Sahariah Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekanand Technical University, Bhilai, India
Neeti Sanan-Mishra Plant RNAi Biology Group, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology,
New Delhi, India
Reshu Saxena Fels Institute for Cancer Research & Molecular Biology, Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Temple
University, Philadelphia, PA, Unites States; Current address: Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology,
Institute of Advanced Research (IAR), Gandhinagar, India
Abhishek Sengupta Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida, India
Gaurav Sharma Institute of Bioinformatics and Applied Biotechnology (IBAB), Bengaluru, India
Himanshu Sharma Agri-Biotechnology Division, National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali, India
Parva Kumar Sharma Indian Council of Agricultural Research—Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute,
New Delhi, India
Vikas Sharma Department of Botany, Sant Baba Bhag Singh University, Khiala, India
Vinay Sharma Agri-Biotechnology Division, National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali, India
Shivam Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India
Jatin Shrinet Department of Biological Sciences, Florida State University, FL, United States
List of contributors xix
Abhimati Shukla Department of Biochemical Engineering, Harcourt Butler Technical University, Kanpur, India
Rohit Shukla Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Jaypee University of Information Technology (JUIT),
Solan, India
Samvedna Shukla Molecular and Bioprospection Division, CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants,
Lucknow, India
Amisha Singh Department of Biotechnology, JAIN University, India
Anamika Singh Department of Botany, Maitreyi College, University of Delhi, New Delhi, India
Dev Bukhsh Singh Department of Biotechnology, Institute of Biosciences and Biotechnology, Chhatrapati Shahu Ji
Maharaj University, Kanpur, India
Indra Singh School of Biotechnology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
Pradeep Singh Department of Biotechnology, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, India
Pramod Kumar Singh Department of Biosciences, Christian Eminent College, Indore, India
Rahul Singh Department of Basic and Translational Sciences, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia, PA, United States
Sakshi Singh Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi, India
Satendra Singh Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Jacob Institute of Biotechnology and
Bioengineering, SHUATS, Prayagraj, India
Surya Pratap Singh Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun, India
Tiratha Raj Singh Centre of Excellence in Healthcare Technologies and Informatics (CHETI), Department of
Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Jaypee University of Information Technology (JUIT), Solan, India
Vijay Kumar Singh Department of Bioinformatics, Central University of South Bihar, India
Deepak Singla School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India
William O. Sote Campus Centro-Oeste, Department of Biochemistry, Federal University of Sao Joao Del Rei, Minas
Gerais, Brazil
Gitanjali Tandon Centre for Agricultural Bioinformatics (CABin), ICAR—Indian Agricultural Statistics Research
Institute (IASRI), New Delhi, India
Zoozeal Thakur Bacteriology Lab, National Research Centre on Equines, Hisar, India
Anshul Tiwari Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Woman Hospital, Harvard Medical School,
Boston, MA, United States; Dept. of Ophthalmology, King George’s Medical University, Lucknow, India
Apoorv Tiwari Department of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Jacob Institute of Biotechnology and Bio-
Engineering, Sam Higginbottom University of Agriculture, Technology and Sciences, India; Bioinformatics Sub-
DIC, Molecular Biology & Genetic Engineering, College of Basic Science and Humanities, G.B. Pant University of
Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India
Rashmi Tyagi Centre for Drug Design Discovery and Development (C4D), SRM University, India
M.K. Verma Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekanand Technical University, Bhilai, India; National Institute of Technology
Raipur, Raipur, India
Shivani Verma Department of Chemistry, College of Basic Sciences & Humanities, G. B. Pant University of
Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, India
Arvind Kumar Yadav Department of Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Jaypee University of Information
Technology (JUIT), Solan, India
Inderjit Singh Yadav School of Agricultural Biotechnology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India
Manoj Kumar Yadav Centre for Drug Design Discovery and Development (C4D), SRM University, India;
Department of Bioinformatics, SRM University, India
Namrata Yadav Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India
xx List of contributors
Neetu Singh Yadav Department of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi,
New Delhi, India; Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, SC, United
States
Sunita Yadav Centre for Agricultural Bioinformatics (CABin), ICAR—Indian Agricultural Statistics Research
Institute (IASRI), New Delhi, India
Preface
Bioinformatics is recognized as the science of the 21st century, and a lot of research has been conducted and on-going
throughout the world in this field. An updated resource with respect to time is required for a better understanding of the
tremendous power of computational approaches and their application in solving complex biological problems. This
book covers the basic understanding of the bioinformatics topics as well as focuses on recent developments in the meth-
ods, tools, and approaches related to bioinformatics, which includes biological databases and their application, sequence
analysis and comparison, phylogeny, NGS data analysis, genome, and transcriptome assembly and annotation, gene
ontology, metagenomics studies, SNP and SSR identification and analysis, transcriptome analysis; microarray studies,
RNA-Seq data analysis, protein structure prediction, visualization, analysis and validation; pharmacophore modeling,
structure-based and ligand-based drug design, molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation, optimization of lead
compounds, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics modeling, in silico vaccine designing, pathway modeling and
simulation, network biology, metabolomics, and flux balance analysis, systems biology and big data analysis, machine
learning, and data mining approaches.
This book also covers the broad spectrum of computational analysis and case studies and enables the reader to find
information about various bioinformatics methods, tools, and their applications in a single resource. Bioinformatics has
a very broad range of applications, and this field is upgrading very rapidly as many new resources and approaches are
being developed day by day. The chapters of this book have been compiled considering the diverse applications of this
field. This book can serve as a very useful learning source for undergraduate, postgraduate, and research students of
bioinformatics, biotechnology, life sciences, and agricultural sciences, chemical, pharmaceutical, and medical sciences
who have no computational background. Besides, it is also useful for bioinformatics and computer science students,
research scientists, and pharmaceutical persons to understand the fundamental concepts of bioinformatics and utilize
this knowledge to tackle research projects. However, in spite of the best efforts, the first version of a book always has
some opportunities to improve. We will be happy to receive the important suggestions for further improvements in the
content coverage.
xxi
Chapter 1
1.1 Introduction
Researchers are now constantly making efforts to explore the function of the biological system. Efforts are only at a
stage of unprecedented development and growth, expressed in the amount of data produced from each experiment
(Avashthi et al., 2014; Kumar, Pathak, Gupta, Gaur, & Pandey, 2015; Mount, 2001). Via bioinformatics, these huge
datasets from the experiments are turned into usable information (Mount, 2001; Wang, Zaki, Toivonen, & Shasha,
2005). Bioinformatics is recognized as the science of the 21st century and has tremendous potential for decoding com-
plex biological systems via analysis and integration of multiomics data. It uses information technology (IT) to allow
various types of biological data to be analyzed, linked, and manipulated to understand new biological insights
(Avashthi et al., 2020; Kumar et al., 2015; Pathak, Taj, Pandey, Arora, & Kumar, 2013).
In other words, bioinformatics is a data management and manipulation method for molecular biology, biochemistry,
the health sector, environmental biology, and agriculture, addressing the storage of data sets, data mining and proces-
sing, structural and functional annotations of gene and protein, system modeling, and drugs’ discovery (Avashthi et al.,
2018; Jayaram & Priyanka, 2010; Verma, Pathak, Kasana, & Kumar, 2017). It is used to predict the structure and func-
tion of a newly examined protein and protein sequences to create a cluster of similar family sequences and construct
phylogenetic trees for the study of evolutionary relationships (Jayaram & Priyanka, 2010; Mount, 2001; Wang et al.,
2005). Bioinformatics has a very important role to play in agriculture-dependent countries, where it can be used to boost
nutritional content, increase agricultural produce yields, and implant resistance to many biotic and abiotic stresses
(Jayaram & Priyanka, 2010; Meidanis, 2003; Pathak, Giri, Taj, & Kumar, 2013).
For the agricultural science sector, plant and animal genome sequencing should have an enormous yield. In both the
integration and analysis of genomics, transcriptomics, and other high-throughput sequencing results, bioinformatics plays
a vital role, with great potential in redesigning to boost productivity. To understand the function and interaction of many
genes, there has been a paradigm change from the single-gene approach (i.e., gene-by-gene approach) (Kumar et al.,
2015). This change has resulted from the discovery that cross-talking of several biomolecules acting in an interdependent
manner and results in any biological answer. As a consequence, several high-throughput technologies have been developed
that offer insight into all the molecules involved in a process (Kumar et al., 2015). Study in the field of genomics has
accelerated the process. There is, however, a large difference in the expression of a trait between the genotype and the
phenotype (Kumar et al., 2015; Pathak & Singh, 2020b). Studies are performed at various levels to fill this gap: the whole
system, organism, biochemical, gene, and protein levels. All these fields have contributed to the collection of vast amounts
of biological knowledge due to unprecedented research efforts. Bioinformatics, which culminates in biology and computa-
tional technology, aims to develop novel strategies for wide-scale analysis of biological system (Pathak & Singh, 2020a).
Bioinformatics techniques, such as simulation, docking, protein protein interaction, and analysis of next-generation
sequencing (NGS) data, may be used to investigate or modify the sequence for better fitting of essential genes for a par-
ticular function and to study the function of these genes or proteins at the system level. It was then possible to use this
specified genetic, genomic, and proteomic information to grow resistant, nutritionally improved, and profitable crops and
also discover therapeutic drugs (Agnihotry, Pathak, Srivastav, Shukla, & Gautam, 2020; Singh & Pathak, 2020). Some
important tools and databases along with their application and link of availability are highlighted in Tables 1.1 and 1.2.
Language: English
Published by
Contact Publishing Co.
THREE STORIES
Up In Michigan
Out of Season
My Old Man
Mitraigliatrice
Oklahoma
Oily Weather
Roosevelt
Captives
Champs d’Honneur
Riparto d’Assalto
Montparnasse
Chapter Heading
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
This Book
Is For Hadley
CONTENTS
Three Stories
Up In Michigan
Out Of Season
My Old Man
Ten Poems
Mitraigliatrice
Oklahoma
Oily Weather
Roosevelt
Captives
Champs D’Honneur
Riparto D’Assalto
Montparnasse
Along With Youth
Chapter Heading
Five of these poems were
first printed in Poetry
A Magazine of Verse.
UP IN MICHIGAN
UP IN MICHIGAN
Liz Coates worked for Smith’s. Mrs. Smith, who was a very large
clean woman, said Liz Coates was the neatest girl she’d ever seen.
Liz had good legs and always wore clean gingham aprons and Jim
noticed that her hair was always neat behind. He liked her face
because it was so jolly but he never thought about her.
Liz liked Jim very much. She liked it the way he walked over from
the shop and often went to the kitchen door to watch for him to
start down the road. She liked it about his mustache. She liked it
about how white his teeth were when he smiled. She liked it very
much that he didn’t look like a blacksmith. She liked it how much A.
J. Smith and Mrs. Smith liked Jim. One day she found that she liked
it the way the hair was black on his arms and how white they were
above the tanned line when he washed up in the washbasin outside
the house. Liking that made her feel funny.
Hortons Bay, the town, was only five houses on the main road
between Boyne City and Charlevoix. There was the general store and
postoffice with a high false front and maybe a wagon hitched out in
front, Smith’s house, Stroud’s house, Fox’s house, Horton’s house
and Van Hoosen’s house. The houses were in a big grove of elm
trees and the road was very sandy. There was farming country and
timber each way up the road. Up the road a ways was the Methodist
church and down the road the other direction was the township
school. The blacksmith shop was painted red and faced the school.
A steep sandy road ran down the hill to the bay through the
timber. From Smith’s back door you could look out across the woods
that ran down to the lake and across the bay. It was very beautiful in
the spring and summer, the bay blue and bright and usually
whitecaps on the lake out beyond the point from the breeze blowing
from Charlevoix and Lake Michigan. From Smith’s back door Liz
could see ore barges way out in the lake going toward Boyne City.
When she looked at them they didn’t seem to be moving at all but if
she went in and dried some more dishes and then came out again
they would be out of sight beyond the point.
All the time now Liz was thinking about Jim Gilmore. He didn’t
seem to notice her much. He talked about the shop to A. J. Smith
and about the Republican Party and about James G. Blaine. In the
evenings he read the Toledo Blade and the Grand Rapids paper by
the lamp in the front room or went out spearing fish in the bay with
a jacklight with A. J. Smith. In the fall he and Smith and Charley
Wyman took a wagon and tent, grub, axes, their rifles and two dogs
and went on a trip to the pine plains beyond Vanderbilt deer
hunting. Liz and Mrs. Smith were cooking for four days for them
before they started. Liz wanted to make something special for Jim to
take but she didn’t finally because she was afraid to ask Mrs. Smith
for the eggs and flour and afraid if she bought them Mrs. Smith
would catch her cooking. It would have been all right with Mrs.
Smith but Liz was afraid.
All the time Jim was gone on the deer hunting trip Liz thought
about him. It was awful while he was gone. She couldn’t sleep well
from thinking about him but she discovered it was fun to think about
him too. If she let herself go it was better. The night before they
were to come back she didn’t sleep at all, that is she didn’t think she
slept because it was all mixed up in a dream about not sleeping and
really not sleeping. When she saw the wagon coming down the road
she felt weak and sick sort of inside. She couldn’t wait till she saw
Jim and it seemed as though everything would be all right when he
came. The wagon stopped outside under the big elm and Mrs. Smith
and Liz went out. All the men had beards and there were three deer
in the back of the wagon, their thin legs sticking stiff over the edge
of the wagon box. Mrs. Smith kissed Alonzo and he hugged her. Jim
said “Hello Liz.” and grinned. Liz hadn’t known just what would
happen when Jim got back but she was sure it would be something.
Nothing had happened. The men were just home that was all. Jim
pulled the burlap sacks off the deer and Liz looked at them. One was
a big buck. It was stiff and hard to lift out of the wagon.
“Yeah. Aint it a beauty?” Jim got it onto his back to carry to the
smokehouse.
“Here’s all the ones we missed A. J.” said Jim and downed his
liquor.
Jim began to feel great. He loved the taste and the feel of whisky.
He was glad to be back to a comfortable bed and warm food and the
shop. He had another drink. The men came in to supper feeling
hilarious but acting very respectable. Liz sat at the table after she
put on the food and ate with the family. It was a good dinner. The
men ate seriously. After supper they went into the front room again
and Liz cleaned off with Mrs. Smith. Then Mrs. Smith went up stairs
and pretty soon Smith came out and went up stairs too. Jim and
Charley were still in the front room. Liz was sitting in the kitchen
next to the stove pretending to read a book and thinking about Jim.
She didn’t want to go to bed yet because she knew Jim would be
coming out and she wanted to see him as he went out so she could
take the way he looked up to bed with her.
She was thinking about him hard and then Jim came out. His eyes
were shining and his hair was a little rumpled. Liz looked down at
her book. Jim came over back of her chair and stood there and she
could feel him breathing and then he put his arms around her. Her
breasts felt plump and firm and the nipples were erect under his
hands. Liz was terribly frightened, no one had ever touched her, but
she thought, “He’s come to me finally. He’s really come.”
She held herself stiff because she was so frightened and did not
know anything else to do and then Jim held her tight against the
chair and kissed her. It was such a sharp, aching, hurting feeling that
she thought she couldn’t stand it. She felt Jim right through the back
of the chair and she couldn’t stand it and then something clicked
inside of her and the feeling was warmer and softer. Jim held her
tight hard against the chair and she wanted it now and Jim
whispered, “Come on for a walk.”
Liz took her coat off the peg on the kitchen wall and they went
out the door. Jim had his arm around her and every little way they
stopped and pressed against each other and Jim kissed her. There
was no moon and they walked ankle deep in the sandy road through
the trees down to the dock and the warehouse on the bay. The
water was lapping in the piles and the point was dark across the bay.
It was cold but Liz was hot all over from being with Jim. They sat
down in the shelter of the warehouse and Jim pulled Liz close to
him. She was frightened. One of Jim’s hands went inside her dress
and stroked over her breast and the other hand was in her lap. She
was very frightened and didn’t know how he was going to go about
things but she snuggled close to him. Then the hand that felt so big
in her lap went away and was on her leg and started to move up it.
“Don’t Jim”. Liz said. Jim slid the hand further up.
“You musn’t Jim. You musn’t”. Neither Jim nor Jim’s big hand paid
any attention to her.
The boards were hard. Jim had her dress up and was trying to do
something to her. She was frightened but she wanted it. She had to
have it but it frightened her.
“No we haven’t Jim. We aint got to. Oh it isn’t right. Oh it’s so big
and it hurts so. You can’t. Oh Jim. Jim. Oh.”
The hemlock planks of the dock were hard and splintery and cold
and Jim was heavy on her and he had hurt her. Liz pushed him, she
was so uncomfortable and cramped. Jim was asleep. He wouldn’t
move. She worked out from under him and sat up and straightened
her skirt and coat and tried to do something with her hair. Jim was
sleeping with his mouth a little open. Liz leaned over and kissed him
on the cheek. He was still asleep. She lifted his head a little and
shook it. He rolled his head over and swallowed. Liz started to cry.
She walked over to the edge of the dock and looked down to the
water. There was a mist coming up from the bay. She was cold and
miserable and everything felt gone. She walked back to where Jim
was lying and shook him once more to make sure. She was crying.
Jim stirred and curled a little tighter. Liz took off her coat and
leaned over and covered him with it. She tucked it around him
neatly and carefully. Then she walked across the dock and up the
steep sandy road to go to bed. A cold mist was coming up through
the woods from the bay.
OUT OF SEASON
OUT OF SEASON
On the four lira he had earned by spading the hotel garden he got
quite drunk. He saw the young gentleman coming down the path
and spoke to him mysteriously. The young gentleman said he had
not eaten yet but would be ready to go as soon as lunch was
finished. Forty minutes or an hour.
At the cantina near the bridge they trusted him for three more
grappas because he was so confident and mysterious about his job
for the afternoon. It was a windy day with the sun coming out from
behind clouds and then going under in sprinkles of rain. A wonderful
day for trout fishing.
The young gentleman came out of the hotel and asked him about
the rods. Should his wife come behind with the rods? Yes, said
Peduzzi, let her follow us. The young gentleman went back into the
hotel and spoke to his wife. He and Peduzzi started down the road.
The young gentleman had a musette over his shoulder. Peduzzi saw
the wife, who looked as young as the young gentleman and was
wearing mountain boots and a blue beret, start out to follow them
down the road carrying the fishing rods unjointed one in each hand.
Peduzzi didn’t like her to be way back there. Signorina, he called,
winking at the young gentleman, come up here and walk with us.
Signora come up here. Let us all walk together. Peduzzi wanted them
all three to walk down the street of Cortina together.
Everyone they met walking through the main street of the town
Peduzzi greeted elaborately. Buon’ di Arturo! Tipping his hat. The
bank clerk stared at him from the door of the Fascist café. Groups of
three and four people standing in front of the shops stared at the
three. The workmen in their stone-powdered jackets working on the
foundations of the new hotel looked up as they passed. Nobody
spoke or gave any sign to them except the town beggar, lean and
old with a spittle thickened beard, who lifted his hat as they passed.
The wife stood sullenly. You’ll have to play up to this, she said. I
can’t understand a word he says. He’s drunk isn’t he?
The young gentleman took out his pocket book and gave him a
ten lire note. Peduzzi went up the steps to the door of the Speciality
of Domestic and Foreign Wines shop. It was locked.
ebookmasss.com