‘You don’t look so good, Easy,’ Miss Alexander said.
She was wearing a red dress that was so bright I had to look away.
‘No, I just look bad right when I wake up,’ I said. I was sick but, like a fool, I didn’t want to tell her because I was afraid that she’d keep me from leaving. ‘I be ready t’leave tomorrah mornin’.’
‘Ain’t you gonna go t’church wit’ us tomorrah?’
‘I gotta be gittin’ back.’
‘Even a sinner got a little time fo’the Lord, Easy.’
‘Well, maybe... What time is the service?’
‘Reverend’s a farmer too, so he start early; us’ally ‘bout eight.’ Then she smiled. ‘Theresa wasn’t too happy ‘bout you last night.’
I felt my face flush.
‘I think she likes you,’ Miss Alexander went on. ‘An’ there you was laid out just like a pile’a dead wood.’
She laughed and I did too.
‘Why’ont you go over wit’ the men an’ I get you some food.’
I sat in a chair against the wall and listened to the men talk while they played. Miss Alexander brought me a plate of dirty rice and greens but I didn’t have any stomach for it. I put the plate on the floor and a dog climbed out from under the table and wolfed it down. It looked like one of Reese’s dogs; hungry, near death.
The men talked about everything: gardens and women and white people. It felt good to listen to them laugh and trade lies. It’s good to be a man with no worries, among friends. I remember every story they told but, for the most part, they didn’t have anything to do with me.
One of the men was called Buck. He was older, maybe sixty, and he had a high strained laugh.
‘Hit me!’ he said to William, then he flung down three cards. He was a sly card player. You could tell he was tricky because every time he’d take some cards he’d try to keep the others’ attention distracted by bringing up some shocking news.
‘Reese Corn is dyin’,’ Buck said as he shuffled his cards.
I don’t know how she could tell from across the room but Miss Alexander strolled over as soon as they started to talk about Reese.
‘What?’ That was a young man, tall and skinny, name of Murphy. I never did get his last name.
‘It’s true.’ Buck was studying his new cards. ‘My boy’s girl was down there yestiday an’ she said he looked bad.’ He looked up from his cards and smiled. ‘I raise ya five,’ and he pushed a nickel to the pot.
‘What you talkin’ ‘bout, Buck?’ Miss Alexander said.
‘That’s what Yolanda said.’ He hunched his shoulders.
‘What’s Yolanda doin’ out to there anyway?’
‘She do piecework. Ole Reese ain’t bought a new shirt in thirty years but he cain’t sew fo’shit neither. So Yolanda go out there every two months or so an’ patch him up.’
‘I see ya,’ Murphy said.
‘I’ll take that an’ I go up five.’ William threw two buffalo heads in the game.
‘But the weird thing is his do’,’ Buck said and then waited for one of the men to ask. No one took the bait, because they knew he was just trying to break their concentration.
But Miss Alexander didn’t care about the game.
‘What about his door?’ she asked.
‘It was painted black; jet black with doves of garlic hangin’ from it.’
‘Yeah?’ Miss Alexander opened her eyes wide. ‘Maybe my sister come back t’haunt his evil soul.’
‘I meet ya, William, what you got?’ Buck nodded. ‘I don’t know what’s happenin’ wit’im, ma’am, but sumpin’ got him scared; scared to death, almost.’
Miss Alexander shook her wide mane. ‘Evil calls on itself.’
‘Amen,’ William said. Tair’a red queens.’
I could still see that doll hanging from the tree.
Later on in the game Murphy told William that he had been down to Jenkins the week before.
‘Oh yeah?’ William grinned. ‘You down at the saloon when Big Jim got there?’
‘Mmmm-hm, you better believe it! He come in wit’ that badge stuck in his hat an’ that nightstick in his hand an’ yell, “You fellahs better duck,” an’ he pult out that long-snout pistol he got.’ Murphy laughed. ‘Man, we was kissin’ the boards like it was true love.’
They all laughed. Jim was the colored deputy for the county. He was tough and mean and it seemed that he was pretty well liked in the district.
The gambling and talk went on that way. I leaned against the wall and faded in and out of sleep until a long time later.
Clifton came through the door in the late afternoon. He looked worse than I felt. His clothes were soiled and so wrinkled that it was clear that he had been sleeping outside. His jaw was set so that he looked like he couldn’t ever talk again. When I called to him he jumped and his hands started shaking. Then he turned, headed for the door. He would have run out if two men hadn’t been walking in right then. He turned back to the room, then around to the door, but the men, just two old sharecroppers, were looking at him and he backed away. I got to him before he could run.
‘What’s wrong, Clifton? Someone after you?’
‘Shut up!’
The look he gave me was the look of a hunted man; I’d seen it in my own father’s face, and I respected it even in a fool like Clifton. I told him that I had a room in back and he was happy to go there. I sent him on, then I went over to Miss Alexander. She had watched the whole scene very closely.
‘What’s wrong wit’ yo’ friend, Easy?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know yet but I’m fixin’ t’find out when I get back there.’ Then I hesitated a minute. ‘You been pretty good t’me, ma’am, but I have to tell ya that I ain’t got no money right now, t’pay ya. I mean Mouse ‘posed t’give me a little change but...’
‘Don’t you worry, Easy. Raymond sent a few dollars over wit’ Dom the day ‘fore you got here. I thought you knew.’
‘Uh-uh.’
‘Yeah! You want sumpin’ fo’ your friend?’
‘Maybe some food and a little whiskey.’
‘Sure thing.’
She went out to the kitchen and came back with a tray full of food and a half-full whiskey bottle. There was only one glass.
‘Glass is fo’ yo’ friend, Easy. I don’t think you need any more.’
Clifton was standing in the corner of the room with his fists at his side, clenched just as tight as his mouth. He looked past me to see if anyone else was coming.
‘Take it easy, Cliff.’
When I handed him the tray he hunkered down on that crate, eating like a hungry animal.
He started in with the chicken and didn’t even stop when he licked the plate clean. He took the chicken bones, cracked them open with his teeth, and sucked the marrow out from every one.
I went over to the bed to wait for him to finish; when I laid back I felt all the strength go out of me.
‘What’s your problem, Clifton?’ I asked when he was through.
‘What you mean?’
‘Com’on, man, you know what I mean. What you doin’ here shakin’ like that and so hungry you eatin’ bones?’
Clifton downed a whole glass of whiskey and doubled up trying to keep it down. I was sure he was going to vomit but he just put his hands on his knees and made snorting noises until he could straighten out.
‘Yo’ friend come out to the witch’s house night before last.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Uh-huh, an’ he said that the word come down to a deputy out here called Jim, an’ Jim is on my trail.’
‘He said that?’
‘Then he say that I gots ta run ‘cause Jim is a quarter injun an’ he always find what he looks fo’. He say I’m a sittin’ duck out at the witch house so I better run.’
‘What Jo say?’
‘Witch don’t say nuthin’. She just ask yo’ friend if it’s true an’ he say yeah.’ Clifton took another big drink and went through the same pain.
After he was sitting up again I asked, ‘Where’s Ernestine?’
‘He say that I cain’t run wit’ no girl so I should go alone. But I tole him that I ain’t gonna listen t’that shit an’ Ernestine comin’ ‘long wit’ me!’ Clifton yelled the last words and I could imagine Mouse smiling right then; it gave me goose flesh. ‘But Ernestine tole me t’go. She said she don’t wanna run from the law an’ she said that I gotta take this on myself.’ Clifton wept and took another drink. ‘When I seen she ain’t gonna come I said I be back but she said don’t even bother wit’ that.’