"You fixin to use um?" Luster says.
"Not me," I says. "I wouldn't go to it for ten dollars."
"Gimme one of um, Mr Jason," he says.
"I'll sell you one," I says. "How about it?"
"I aint got no money," he says.
"That's too bad," I says. I made to go out.
"Gimme one of um, Mr Jason," he says. "You aint gwine need um bofe."
"Hush yo motif," Dilsey says. "dont you know he aint gwine give nothin away?"
"How much you want fer hit?" he says.
"Five cents," I says.
"I aint got dat much," he says.
"How much you got?" I says.
"I aint got nothin," he says.
"All right," I says. I went on.
"Mr Jason," he says.
"Whyn't you hush up?" Dilsey says. "He jes teasin you. He fixin to use dem tickets hisself. Go on, Jason, and let him lone."
"I dont want them," I says. I came back to the stove. "I came in here to burn them up. But if you want to buy one for a nickel?" I says, looking at him and opening the stove lid.
"I aint got dat much," he says.
"All right," I says. I dropped one of them in the stove.
"You, Jason," Dilsey says. "Aint you shamed?"
"Mr Jason," he says. "Please, suh. I'll fix dem tires ev'y day fer a mont."
"I need the cash," I says. "You can have it for a nickel."
"Hush, Luster," Dilsey says. She jerked him back. "Go on," she says. "Drop hit in. Go on. Git hit over with."
"You can have it for a nickel," I says.
"Go on," Dilsey says. "He aint got no nickel. Go on. Drop hit in."
"All right," I says. I dropped it in and Dilsey shut the stove.
"A big growed man like you," she says. "Git on outen my kitchen. Hush," she says to Luster. "Dont you git Benjy started. I'll git you a quarter fum Frony tonight and you kin go tomorrow night. Hush up, now."
I went on into the living room. I couldn't hear anything from upstairs. I opened the paper. After a while Ben and Luster came in. Ben went to the dark place on the wall where the mirror used to be, rubbing his hands on it and slobbering and moaning. Luster begun punching at the fire.
"What're you doing?" I says. "We dont need any fire tonight."
"I tryin to keep him quiet," he says. "Hit always cold Easter," he says.
"Only this is not Easter," I says. "Let it alone."
He put the poker back and got the cushion out of Mother's chair and gave it to Ben, and he hunkered down in front of the fireplace and got quiet.
I read the paper. There hadn't been a sound from upstairs when Dilsey came in and sent Ben and Luster on to the kitchen and said supper was ready.
"All right," I says. She went out. I sat there, reading the paper. After a while I heard Dilsey looking in at the door.
"Whyn't you come on and eat?" she says.
"I'm waiting for supper," I says.
"Hit's on the table," she says. "I done told you."
"Is it?" I says. "Excuse me. I didn't hear anybody come down."
"They aint comin," she says. "You come on and eat, so I can take something up to them."
"Are they sick?" I says. "What did the doctor say it was? Not Smallpox, I hope."
"Come on here, Jason," she says. "So I kin git done."
"All right," I says, raising the paper again. "I'm waiting for supper now."
I could feel her watching me at the door. I read the paper.
"Whut you want to act like this fer?" she says. "When you knows how much bother I has anyway."
"If Mother is any sicker than she was when she came down to dinner, all right," I says. "But as long as I am buying come down to the table to eat it. Let me know when supper's ready," I says, reading the paper again. I heard her climbing the stairs, dragging her feet and grunting and groaning like they were straight up and three feet apart. I heard her at Mother's door, then I heard her calling Quentin, like the door was locked, then she went back to Mother's room and then Mother went and talked to Quentin. Then they came down stairs. I read the paper.
Dilsey came back to the door. "Come on," she says, "fo you kin think up some mo devilment. You just tryin yoself tonight."
I went to the diningroom. Quentin was sitting with her head bent. She had painted her face again. Her nose looked like a porcelain insulator.
"I'm glad you feel well enough to come down," I says to Mother.
"It's little enough I can do for you, to come to the table," she says. "No matter how I feel. I realise that when a man works all day he likes to be surrounded by his family at the supper table. I want to please you. I only wish you and Quentin got along better. It would be easier for me."
"We get along all right," I says. "I dont mind her staying locked up in her room all day if she wants to. But I cant have all this whoop-de-do and sulking at mealtimes. I know that's a lot to ask her, but I'm that way in my own house. Your house, I meant to say."
"It's yours," Mother says. "You are the head of it now."
Quentin hadn't looked up. I helped the plates and she begun to eat.
"Did you get a good piece of meat?" I says. "If you didn't, I'll try to find you a better one."
She didn't say anything.
"I say, did you get a good piece of meat?" I says.
"What?" she says. "Yes. It's all right."
"Will you have some more rice?" I says.
"No," she says.
"Better let me give you some more," I says.
"I dont want any more," she says.
"Not at all," I says. "You're welcome."
"Is your headache gone?" Mother says.
"Headache?" I says.
"I was afraid you were developing one," she says. "When you came in this afternoon."
"Oh," I says. "No, it didn't show up. We stayed so busy this afternoon I forgot about it."
"Was that why you were late?" Mother says. I could see Quentin listening. I looked at her. Her knife and fork were still going, but I caught her looking at me, then she looked at her plate again. I says,
"No. I loaned my car to a fellow about three oclock and I had to wait until he got back with it." I ate for a while.
"Who was it?" Mother says.
"It was one of those show men," I says. "It seems his sister's husband was out riding with some town woman, and he was chasing them."
Quentin sat perfectly still, chewing.
"You ought not to lend your car to people like that," Mother says. "You are too generous with it. That's why I never call on you for it if I can help it."
"I was beginning to think that myself, for a while," I says. "But he got back, all right. He says he found what he was looking for."
"Who was the woman?" Mother says.
"I'll tell you later," I says. "I dont like to talk about such things before Quentin." Quentin had quit eating. Every once in a while she'd take a drink of water, then she'd sit there crumbling a biscuit up, her face bent over her plate.
"Yes," Mother says. "I suppose women who stay shut up like I do have no idea what goes on in this town."
"Yes," I says. "They dont."
"My life has been so different from that," Mother says. "Thank God I dont know about such wickedness. I dont even want to know about it. I'm not like most people."
I didn't say any more. Quentin sat there, crumbling the biscuit until I quit eating. Then she says,
"Can I go now?" without looking at anybody.
"What?" I says. "Sure, you can go. Were you waiting on us?"
She looked at me. She had crumpled all the bread, but her hands still went on like they were crumpling it yet and her eyes looked like they were cornered or something and then she started biting her mouth like it ought to have poisoned her, with all that red lead.
"Grandmother," she says. "Grandmother--"
"Did you want something else to eat?" I says.
"Why does he treat me like this, Grandmother?" she says. "I never hurt him."
"I want you all to get along with one another," Mother says. "You are all that's left now, and I do want you all to get along better."
"It's his fault," she says. "He wont let me alone, and I have to. If he doesn't want me here, why wont he let me go back to--"
"That's enough," I says. "Not another word."