Mr. Barlow: Well, first off, she could of been in Heaven, where she said she was.
Mr. Nation: That’s right. Now where else?
Mr. Barlow: Then... well, ain’t no sense saying that.
Mr. Nation: Go on say it. What I want is to figure this thing out right, oncet and for all. And if a thing has got to be said, then it just as well be said.
Mr. Barlow: What I started to say, she might of been in Hell. But ain’t no sense talking like that.
Mr. Nation: Might just as well say it. She might of been in Hell. We ain’t going to get nowheres pussyfooting.
Mr. Barlow: Well then, she might of been in Hell. Now where else?
Mr. Nation: All right. Where else?
Mr. Barlow: Dogged if I know. Where the hell else do they go when they die, anyway?
Mr. Nation: Onliest place I can think of is she might of been still on this earth. Now can you think of any other places?
Mr. Barlow: Nope. Damned if I can.
Mr. Nation: All right, she might of been in Heaven, she might of been in Hell, and she might of been down here on the earth. Ain’t no other place she could of been. Now then, take Hell. What the hell would a girl fifteen year old what had always gone to church regular be doing in Hell? Tell me that oncet?
Mr. Barlow: Well, I told you already that ain’t reasonable. Ain’t no use talking about that. Why no. ’Cause look. You mean to tell me anybody could be in Hell and not know it?
Mr. Nation: What I tell you, Laura? Ain’t them the very same words I said not more’n two weeks ago?
Mrs. Nation: If them is the same words you said two weeks ago, then I know there ain’t no sense to it.
Mr. Barlow: Nope. From what I hear, when somebody goes to Hell, they’re going to get scorched, and you can bank on that. Go on, Hal.
Mr. Nation: All right, then, she ain’t been in Hell. Now that leaves Heaven and this earth. And if she was on this earth, that means she was a ghost. And me, I don’t care what people say, I don’t believe in no ghosts.
Mr. Barlow: By gosh! that’s right. I never thought of that. She would of been a ghost, wouldn’t she? That there wouldn’t be so good, would it? What do you think about that, Laura? Do you believe in ghosts?
Mrs. Nation: Never mind what I believe in. I ain’t had my say yet.
Mr. Barlow: Well now, there ain’t no use being bull-headed about it. We’re a-trying to figure this thing out, and we ain’t getting nowhere with you setting there rocking like you had a pain in your big toe and not doing nothing to help. The big thing now is, was she a ghost or not?
Mrs. Nation: I ain’t never said I believed in ghosts.
Mr. Barlow: Well me, I never believed in them neither... But Hal, I tell you I hear tell of some funny things in my time.
Mrs. Nation: Me too. Me too.
Mr. Barlow: Did I ever tell you about the time I was driving along the road on the other side of the Maryland line?
Mr. Nation: No. What was it?
Mr. Barlow: Well, that beat anything I ever hear tell of in my life. It was about three o’clock in the morning, and I had tooken a girl to a dance. I was a young fellow then. And I was driving back, after I dropped her where she lived, and believe me it was lonely. And I come to a piece of road what run through a woods. And the woods was mostly scrub pine, but right alongside the road was a big oak tree. It was a fine-looking tree, and had a big limb what hung out over the road. And I was letting my horse walk, ’cause it was a sandy piece of road, and I kept looking at the tree, and thinking how fine it looked, and kind of wild, ’cause the limbs was kind of swaying a lot, and the leaves was rustling, and every now and then turning gray in the moonlight, when the undersides would show up in the wind. And then I drove right under a big limb, and went on a little ways, and then all of a sudden I turned right cold. ’Cause, Hal, there wasn’t no wind!.. Well, when I got in and turned my plug over to the fellow in the livery stable, I told him about it, and I swear he turned green. And then he told me that was the tree where they had lynched a nigger about ten year before, and it was a windy night, and he swung around like he was drunk before they cut him down to take the souvenirs off him, and sometimes now that tree still shakes in the same wind.
Mr. Nation: I’d of dropped dead! I’d of dropped dead!
Mr. Barlow: Some funny things, I tell you.
Mr. Nation: Gosh! And no wind a-blowing!
Mr. Barlow: Fellow told me one time you can always tell if there’s a ghost in the house by the way the cat acts. Cat won’t stay in no house with a ghost. Did you take notice of the cat when all this was going on?
Mr. Nation: No, we didn’t. No, we didn’t. Yes, by gosh we did! Yes, we did! Laura, remember what you said when you come back from the kitchen with that hot-water bottle? Remember? Remember? You said it sure was funny how that cat was still asleep alongside the stove after all that fuss what we had upstairs. Remember?
Mrs. Nation: I don’t recollect.
Mr. Barlow: Well now, Laura, try just this oncet to see if you can’t be some help. You—
Mrs. Nation: The cat was asleep, if that’s all you want to know.
Mr. Nation: Well then, that settles it. She couldn’t of been no ghost. And that leaves Heaven.
Mr. Barlow: I swear, Hal, I don’t see nothing wrong with that. It kind of went a little funny when you first mentioned it, but now we figured on it awhile, it don’t seem like it could have been no other way. Anyhow, not no other way that I can think of.
Mr. Nation: All right. All right. Then how about all this here about running off? Does that sound right? Would a girl what had been to Heaven take and run off with the first preacher who come along? Would she, now?
Mr. Barlow: Well...
Mrs. Nation: Well nothing! Now I have to have my say. All right, she’s been in Heaven. Is she ever going back there after she run off with Day? Tell me that.
Mr. Barlow: Well now, maybe she will at that. You know, I was talking not long ago with a fellow what had just put up a kind of a short Bible for Sunday school classes, or something like that. And he had made a kind of a study of it. And he says to me, he says, “It’s a funny thing, but there ain’t a word in the Bible agin a little cutting up. Yes,” he says, “I know most people think there is, but it’s a fact there ain’t.”
Mrs. Nation: Then there ought to be.
Mr. Barlow: Laura, try to act like you was a little bit bright. If we got to write the whole Bible over again to suit you, that’s right where I quit.
Mr. Nation: Me too... I swear, that there bellering around all the time has got my goat.
Mr. Barlow: And suppose she is a-cutting up a little with Day? What of it? There’s always got to be some cutting up before people gets married. And she could do a whole lot worse than marry Day.
Mrs. Nation: Ain’t he married?
Mr. Barlow: He is not. Anyway, not when I seen him last, about six months ago. I think he did have a wife oncet but he ain’t got her no more. And I say this for Day. He may be a preacher but he’s got enough git-up-and-git to buy hisself a tent and go out and hustle and that’s more’n you can say for many young bucks here in Delaware what want to cut up with a girl.
Mr. Nation: Ain’t nothing wrong with the fellow. I always said so, right from the beginning.
Mr. Barlow: Look like to me, the thing for you two to do is to invite him over here. Him and Eva together. That would kind of smooth things out a bit, and at the same time git it in his head that you got your eye on him.
Mrs. Nation: Well, we could run over and get them in the car, I reckon. And have them here to dinner. And put them back in time for the night meeting.
Mr. Barlow: That’s the stuff, Laura. Now you’re talking something what has got some sense to it.