“Yesterday there were just four,” I say.
There were more than four on the barn.
“Do you know what I would do if he tries to light on the wagon again?” I say.
“What would you do?” Darl says.
“I wouldn’t let him light on her,” I say. “I wouldn’t let him light on Cash, either.”
Cash is sick. He is sick on the box. But my mother is a fish.
“We got to get some medicine in Mottson,” pa says. “I reckon we’ll just have to.”
“How do you feel, Cash?” Darl says.
“It don’t bother none,” Cash says.
“Do you want it propped a little higher?” Darl says.
Cash has a broken leg. He has had two broken legs. He lies on the box with a quilt rolled under his head and a piece of wood under his knee.
“I reckon we ought to left him at Armstid’s,” pa says.
I haven’t got a broken leg and pa hasn’t and Darl hasn’t and “It’s just the bumps,” Cash says. “It kind of grinds together a little on a bump. I don’t bother none.” Jewel has gone away. He and his horse went away one supper time.
“It’s because she wouldn’t have us beholden,” pa says. “ ’Fore God, I do the best that ere a man.” Is it because Jewel’s mother is a horse, Darl? I said.
“Maybe I can draw the ropes a little tighter,” Darl says. That’s why Jewel and I were both in the shed and she was in the wagon because the horse lives in the barn and I had to keep on running the bustard away from
“If you just would,” Cash says. And Dewey Dell hasn’t got a broken leg and I haven’t. Cash is my brother.
We stop. When Darl loosens the rope Cash begins to sweat again. His teeth look out.
“Hurt?” Darl says.
“I reckon you better put it back,” Cash says.
Darl puts the rope back, pulling hard. Cash’s teeth look out.
“Hurt?” Darl says.
“It don’t bother none,” Cash says.
“Do you want pa to drive slower?” Darl says.
“No,” Cash says. “Ain’t no time to hang back. It don’t bother none.”
“We’ll have to get some medicine at Mottson,” pa says. “I reckon we’ll have to.”
“Tell him to go on,” Cash says. We go on. Dewey Dell leans back and wipes Cash’s face. Cash is my brother. But Jewel’s mother is a horse. My mother is a fish. Darl says that when we come to the water again I might see her and Dewey Dell said, She’s in the box; how could she have got out? She got out through the holes I bored, into the water I said, and when we come to the water again I am going to see her. My mother is not in the box. My mother does not smell like that. My mother is a fish.
“Those cakes will be in fine shape by the time we get to Jefferson,” Darl says.
Dewey Dell does not look around.
“You better try to sell them in Mottson,” Darl says.
“When will we get to Mottson, Darl?” I say.
“To-morrow,” Darl says. “If this team don’t tack to pieces. Snopes must have fed them on sawdust.”
“Why did he feed them on sawdust, Darl?” I say.
“Look,” Darl says. “See?”
Now there are nine of them, tall in little tall black circles.
When we come to the foot of the hill pa stops and Darl and Dewey Dell and I get out. Cash can’t walk because he has a broken leg. “Come up, mules,” pa says. The mules walk hard; the wagon creaks. Darl and Dewey Dell and I walk behind the wagon, up the hill. When we come to the top of the hill pa stops and we get back into the wagon.
Now there are ten of them, tall in little tall black circles on the sky.
MOSELEY
IHAPPENED to look up, and saw her outside the window, looking in. Not close to the glass, and not looking at anything in particular; just standing there with her head turned this way and her eyes full on me and kind of blank too, like she was waiting for a sign. When I looked up again she was moving toward the door.
She kind of bumbled at the screen door a minute, like they do, and came in. She had on a stiff-brimmed straw hat setting on the top of her head and she was carrying a package wrapped in newspaper: I thought that she had a quarter or a dollar at the most, and that after she stood around awhile she would maybe buy a cheap comb or a bottle of nigger toilet water, so I never disturbed her for a minute or so except to notice that she was pretty in a kind of sullen, awkward way, and that she looked a sight better in her gingham dress and her own complexion than she would after she bought whatever she would finally decide on. Or tell that she wanted. I knew that she had already decided before she came in. But you have to let them take their time. So I went on with what I was doing, figuring to let Albert wait on her when he caught up at the fountain, when he came back to me.
“That woman,” he said. “You better see what she wants.”
“What does she want?” I said.
“I don’t know. I can’t get anything out of her. You better wait on her.”
So I went around the counter. I saw that she was barefooted, standing with her feet flat and easy on the floor, like she was used to it. She was looking at me, hard, holding the package; I saw she had about as black a pair of eyes as ever I saw, and she was a stranger. I never remembered seeing her in Mottson before. “What can I do for you?” I said.
Still she didn’t say anything. She stared at me without winking. Then she looked back at the folks at the fountain. Then she looked past me, toward the back of the store.
“Do you want to look at some toilet things?” I said. “Or is it medicine you want?”
“That’s it,” she said. She looked quick back at the fountain again. So I thought maybe her ma or somebody had sent her in for some of this female dope and she was ashamed to ask for it. I knew she couldn’t have a complexion like hers and use it herself, let alone not being much more than old enough to barely know what it was for. It’s a shame, the way they poison themselves with it. But a man’s got to stock it or go out of business in this country.
“Oh,” I said. “What do you use? We have——” She looked at me again, almost like she had said hush, and looked toward the back of the store again.
“I’d liefer go back there,” she said.
“All right,” I said. You have to humour them. You save time by it. I followed her to the back She put her hand on the gate. “There’s nothing back there but the prescription case,” I said. “What do you want?” She stopped and looked at me. It was like she had taken some kind of a lid off her face, her eyes. It was her eyes: kind of dumb and hopeful and sullenly willing to be disappointed all at the same time. But she was in trouble of some sort; I could see that. “What’s your trouble?” I said. “Tell me what it is you want. I’m pretty busy.” I wasn’t meaning to hurry her, but a man just hasn’t got the time they have out there.
“It’s the female trouble,” she said.
“Oh,” I said. “Is that all?” I thought maybe she was younger than she looked, and her first one had scared her, or maybe one had been a little abnormal as it will in young women. “Where’s your ma?” I said. “Haven’t you got one?”
“She’s out yonder in the wagon,” she said.
“Why not talk to her about it before you take any medicine,” I said. “Any woman would have told you about it.” She looked at me, and I looked at her again and said, “How old are you?”
“Seventeen,” she said.
“Oh,” I said. “I thought maybe you were . . .” She was watching me. But then, in the eyes all of them look like they had no age and knew everything in the world, anyhow. “Are you too regular, or not regular enough?”
She quit looking at me but she didn’t move. “Yes,” she said. “I reckon so. Yes.”
“Well, which?” I said. “Don’t you know?” It’s a crime and a shame; but after all, they’ll buy it from somebody. She stood there, not looking at me. “You want something to stop it?” I said. “Is that it?”
“No,” she said. “That’s it. It’s already stopped.”
“Well, what——” Her face was lowered a little, still, like they do in all their dealings with a man so he don’t ever know just where the lightning will strike next. “You are not married, are you?” I said.
“No.”
“Oh,” I said. “And how long has it been since it stopped? about five months maybe?”
“It ain’t been but two,” she said.
“Well, I haven’t got anything in my store you want to buy,” I said, “unless it’s a nipple. And I’d advise you to buy that and go back home and tell your pa, if you have one, and let him make somebody buy you a wedding licence. Was that all you wanted?”
But she just stood there, not looking at me.
“I got the money to pay you,” she said.
“Is it your own, or did he act enough
