Granpaw blinked and made a fist.
“Hold that a minute now.” Granny finished giving Granpaw his shot and untied the rubber-thing. Momma was still standing by the stove, arms crossed, the coffee-ground rag balled up in one hand like before. Granny put the black case and Granpaw’s medicines back atop the cabinet. “Victor, you remember what you said to me t’other night? When you called me an ‘old woman’? I said this house was mine and you said it was for the moment. You remember that? For the moment, you said.”
Victor kept eating.
Granny tied a dishtowel around Granpaw’s neck, straightened it down the front of his chest. “It was awful strange Reverend Pennycall showing up here like he did. Talking about court orders. All that old stuff about Moses and his hat. The cross they burned over to Kingdom Church. And now I got to go to Circle Stump to talk to that judge. I was just thinking Old Man Harlan wouldn’t have had sense enough to do all that. Not by himself. He wouldn’t know a court order from a chicken’s ass, it staring him right in the face. You have anything to do with that Victor?”
Victor answered with a mouth full of food, “I don’t know what I said the other night and I don’t care. I don’t know what you mean.” He jabbed his empty fork toward where I was sitting. “What you should be concerned with is that boy. He needs a good straightening out.”
“Now let’s just all of us eat our breakfast why don’t we,” Momma said in a weak little voice. “There’s been enough upset for one morning.” Momma was wrong though, I could feel she was.
“Did you know he’s been threatening people with that knife?” Victor said. “Not just me and not just the other night. He’s been threatening some little boys down by the creek. Mr. Harlan told me.”
“With that knife?” Granny said.
“Yes,” Victor said.
“They were scaring me and Willis,” I said. “They pushed Willis in the water and threw rocks at him.”
“Willis wasn’t even there,” Victor said. “You went after those boys by yourself for no reason. Mr. Harlan told me.”
“That’s a lie!” I yelled. “Old Man Harlan’s a goddamn chicken buzzard anyway!”
“Orbie!” Momma said.
“See what I mean?” Victor said. “The boy’s out of control.”
“That don’t make it all right for you to be,” Granny said. “Look at what you did t’other night. Kicking and stomping around at something silly as that little picture Willis drew. What you do that for?” The air around Granny was full of electricity. I thought any second a blue light might start drawing itself around her.
“Let’s just everybody calm down,” Momma said.
Victor threw his napkin on his plate. “That’s just fine, isn’t it? The boy insults me, threatens me with a knife and you sit there apparently bent on taking his side. Has it ever occurred to you that I’m the closest thing that boy has to a father? That he needs a father’s hand?”
“You a long ways from a father, Victor,” Granny said. “You might make a proper stepfather someday if you was to sober up.”
Victor’s voice suddenly became sad. It was like he’d become a poor innocent person everybody was making out to be bad. “You’re right Mrs. Wood. I do need to sober up.” He leaned back from Granny a little. “If you want to accuse me, go right ahead, but hear me out first. I didn’t know anything about Reverend Pennycall coming over here. Mr. Harlan never spoke to me about any of this business. I’m sorry though. I really am. Having to deal with eviction at a time like this, well, that must be rough.”
“It don’t give me no easy feeling,” Granny said.
“I’m sure it doesn’t,” Victor said. “Perhaps, well, if you would allow me to, perhaps I could help you. I’m not unfamiliar with such proceedings.”
“I don’t reckon it’ll amount to much,” Granny said. “Judge Beechum’s a reasonable man.”
Victor went on in his sad, be sorry for me, voice. “As for the other night, well, I overreacted, I know that. Not without cause, though.” He bowed his head a little; still looking at Granny. “Seeing that drawing the other night was a slap in the face to me, Mrs. Wood — after having done so much for Jessie — after having gone so far out of my way to help. With the investigation I mean. I’ve told everything I know to the authorities. I was sitting at my desk, doing payroll when it happened. The night janitor saw me there; and that’s all there is to tell.” He stopped to clear his throat. “I wish I’d been there to stop that man Jackson, but I wasn’t. Blame me for that if you want to. I do. Every day.” He bowed his head a minute then looked back up at Granny. There were tears in his eyes.
“Ruby, mash up some of them eggs, would you?” Granny said. “Granpaw can’t eat them they ain’t mashed.”
Momma fixed Granpaw’s eggs. She handed them to Granny and sat down in my old chair next to Victor, a sad little smile on her face. She looked at him and her eyes went soft. She reached out and touched him on the arm.
“Ruby, Sweetness, you look awful,” Granny said.
Momma started to cry.
Granny said to Victor, “I appreciate what you said just now Victor. We all sad over losing Jessie.”
Momma reached out again and touched Victor’s arm. She slipped her hand in his.
The room turned quiet. I listened to all the quiet sounds. Granpaw slurping eggs from the spoon Granny held. A fly bouncing along the screen on the door behind Victor. The Dark Thing was going in places it’d never gone before. Granny took off Granpaw’s dishtowel and wiped his mouth. “There’s one thing I don’t understand though.”
Victor blew his nose in a hankie. “What’s that Mrs. Wood?”
All of a sudden the room perked up. “Well, I never said anything about no eviction. Alls I said was a court order. Now, them papers Reverend Pennycall gave me, they did mention eviction, but I haven’t said a word about that. Not to nobody. So… How did you know about it?”
Momma and Victor both looked at Granny. Victor let go of Momma’s hand. “Ruby explained your problem to me. I just assumed eviction was part of the package.”
“Because I was letting them colored fellers work my land?”
“No. But if you didn’t abide by the order, you could be.”
“And how would you know that?”
“I told you, I just assumed it. What is this anyway?”
“How’d you know Nealy Harlan was our landlord then? I don’t recollect ever telling you.”
Victor picked his coffee cup up and set it back down. “Of course I knew. Ruby’s told me everything about your situation.” He looked at Momma. “Haven’t you Baby.”
Momma sniffled and looked up. “What? Well, yes. I reckon I did. If you say so hon.”
“Sure you told me.”
“If you say so. I reckon that’s right Mamaw.”
Victor threw his eyes back on Granny. “I don’t like where this is going. A minute ago you seemed sympathetic. I could’ve guessed your situation from the nature of the court order alone. I didn’t need anybody to tell me. I could have…”
“You could have talked to Old Man Harlan!” Granny slapped the table with the palm of her hand, not hard, just enough you knew she was mad. I almost slapped the table myself.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute! Even if I had, so what?”
“You and Old Man Harlan could have got this up between the two of you is so what!” Granny was fuming now.
“That’s ridiculous! What would I gain by doing such a thing?”
“I don’t know. But there’s something. I can feel there is.”
Granny and Victor looked at each other over the table. If I closed my eyes I could see a black cloud, twirling over the table inside the room — full of wind and sparks. Granny stood up. “You been nothing but a burden since you been down here. A sight more on my daughter here and her younguns.”