“Did you really have them come for you?”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“Didn’t work out for them. Like I said, them sheets make good targets. Just don’t shoot too high. Might think that pointed cap ought to have their head in it, but it don’t. Not unless you’re aiming kind of low into it.”
Sunset had to think about that a moment, then she got it.
“You’re quick, Bull.”
“More ways than one. What I know, though, is I die, my body gets found, I don’t know any colored will care enough to do anything with it, which is okay, but I fear peckerwoods might get me. Old boy over in Sacul. They hung him and cut him up and sold his bones for keepsakes. Come and get your nigger bones, two cents. I die, I’d like someone to just burn me up, leave nothing but ashes.”
“That business with Smoky,” Sunset said. “The thing you’re giving me credit for. It didn’t work out too well. You know that?”
Bull nodded.
“That wouldn’t be your fault, gal. You done what you could. You got more brains than your husband, and I’m glad you killed him.”
“Did Pete ever bother you?”
“Just once.”
“I suppose that didn’t work out well for him.”
“No. It didn’t. I sort of relieved him of the same gun I just took from you and slapped him a bit and sent him home. I figured he wouldn’t mention much about it, having a nigger take his gun, give him a slapping, empty out the bullets, and give it back to him.”
“What did he come see you about?”
“You’re drinking it.”
“Heavens. I’m breaking the law, drinking illegal-made whisky.”
Bull grinned. He had a lot of fine white teeth. “Now I got something on you.
“He wanted to see I paid him to run my business. A little cut of the pie. But I ain’t really all that big on business partners. Especially white constables.”
“I’m a white constable.”
“So you is. Another thing. Always thought white women, small like they was in the ass and such, not powerful in the face, with them little old skinny noses and that funky hair, was ugly. But you don’t look bad for a white woman.”
“I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not.”
“It’ll have to do.”
“Would you like to eat? I was about to fix dinner.”
“You don’t want to seem too cozy with a nigger. Got enough folks mad at you. Killing Pete. Being a woman constable, then helping out Smoky. But I’ll be watching for you some. I ain’t got nothing else to do but dangle at home. It’s not like I get to go to too many church socials.”
“Do you want to?”
“Not really. My days, girl, are numbered. Starting to get rheumatiz. Slowing down. Them whites that hate me, they gonna get me in time. I know that. So I ain’t afraid. Once you know you’re done for, you ain’t afraid no more. Well, a little. But what’s gonna happen is gonna happen… I’ll check on you now and then. Something comes up where I can pay back what you done for Smoky, I will.”
“What I did was get him to Tyler to be lynched.”
“You tried. Listen here now. Need me, hang a strip of white cloth on the other side of that oak there. I’ll see it. Maybe not right away, but soon. And I’ll come. You know, it’s kind of good to be out of them deep woods a bit. I forget the real color of the sky, seeing only bits of it through the trees, and some of it looking green cause of the sun on the leaves. Kind of tired of staying back there in them woods, pretending to be a booger bear.”
“Got a feeling you might be a booger bear, Bull.”
Bull smiled, corked the jug, reached down and gave the dog a pat. “I’ll be gone now.”
Bull rose, walked behind the oak, and when Sunset stood to see him off he wasn’t there. He had blended into the brush and trees. Once she thought she heard him moving through the undergrowth, but when she looked there was nothing. Then the last strands of light were gone and there was darkness, falling like a curtain. The wind picked up and brought the damp dirt smell of the creek to her nostrils, a night bird called, a fistful of crickets started up as if they had just punched the clock, and within moments a few lightning bugs appeared.
Sunset took another sip of the shine and shivered. She poured the rest on the ground. Ben came over and sniffed the shine in the dirt, jerked his head back and went away.
“Good dog,” Sunset said. “Believe me, you don’t want to drink that. Pickle something in it maybe, but drink it, uh-uh.”
22
Next morning, much against Karen’s will, Sunset drove her to Marilyn’s. Karen sat in the passenger seat, stiff, arms crossed, a look on her face that made Sunset think of someone being forced to eat tacks.
“Thought you’d want to see your grandma,” Sunset said.
Karen shifted in the car seat, but didn’t uncross her arms.
“I wanted to go to the Oil Festival.”
“Who says you can’t? Ask Grandma. She’ll take you.”
“Hillbilly told me about it,” Karen said.
“He told me too,” Sunset said. “That’s how I knew.”
“He said he’d take me.”
Sunset let that sink in, said, “He didn’t mean like a date, dear. He meant you could go with us.”
“Well, I’m not going with you, am I?”
“Grandma wants to see you. You can go with her. Besides, you’re thinking the wrong things about Hillbilly. He likes you. But not in that way.”
“How would you know?”
“I know.”
“Because you like him. Because you kissed him.”
“All right. You got me. I like him.”
“Well, I like him more.”
Sunset decided not to get into who liked who more. She said, “He’s too old for you, dear, and that’s the end of it.”
“You’re just jealous.”
“I am not jealous.”
“You think he can’t like me because I’m young.”
“He can like you, but not that way. And that’s the end of it, Karen. You’re going to your grandma’s, and you can go with her or you can sit at her house. That’s up to you.”
“Do you like him better than Daddy?”
“I just like him. Nothing more.”
“You didn’t answer me about Daddy.”
“I loved your daddy when I loved him, and I still love things about him, certain memories, but he made me not love him. Beatings tend to make you feel a lot less warm toward someone, dear.”
Karen made a snorting sound. “You liked killing him.”
“No. I didn’t.”
“That didn’t sound real convincing.”
“I’ve explained it as best I know how. And I’ve explained to you how it’s going to be with Hillbilly and you.”
“You think you know everything.”
“I do not. I know I don’t know everything. If there’s one thing I know, it’s that I don’t know everything, and in fact, don’t know much.”
“You sure don’t. You don’t know nothing. You don’t know a thing.”
“That’s enough out of you, young lady.”
“You going to hit me, like you say Daddy hit you?”
“No. But I’d like to. I’d like to a lot. And I don’t just say your daddy hit me. He did. I didn’t get the way you saw me by beating myself up. You know he hit me, baby. You knew it before I killed him, didn’t you?”
“No.”
“Yes, you did.”
Karen leaned back in the seat and glared out the window.