Place Called Estherville (16 page)

“It’s like this,” Roy began again, glancing anxiously from one to the other. “Around here if you want to make certain plans, you can’t count on certain things.”

“Uh-huh!” Ernie said as he and Joe exchanged pained looks.

“There’s no doubt about it, Ernie,” Joe said with a solemn understanding. “Our pal’s trying to ditch us. I’ve heard that kind of talk before.”

“Don’t get me wrong, Joe, you and Ernie,” Roy said quickly. “What I mean by certain things is—”

“You mean certain things like counting on hot biscuits and sorghum molasses every morning for breakfast?” Ernie said in a sorrowful tone. The corners of his mouth drooped. “You mean me and Joe can’t count on that around here?”

Joe tried to conceal his grin by rolling his cigar to the other side of his mouth.

“You know what I mean, Ernie,” Roy appealed. “You have to make up your mind in advance to be satisfied with what you can get. It’s not like—”

Ernie clapped his hand on Roy’s shoulder. “I don’t know if I can stand to listen to that sad story any longer, Blount. It’s the saddest goddam story I’ve heard since they told me about the cat house burning down back in the old home town. I cried my eyes out when they told me about it. You’re breaking my heart, Blount. Please shut your goddam mouth!”

“Ernie,” Roy said seriously, “Ernie, what I meant was that if you go out on a party around here, you ought to know beforehand that it won’t be with a—ah—well, I mean it won’t be with a—ah—a white girl, Ernie.”

The whisky glass dropped from Ernie’s hand and shattered on the floor. He took a step backward, as though to regain his balance, and looked at Joe Morningstar. Joe’s round florid face broke into a wide grin.

“Joe,” Ernie said in a loud whisper, jerking his head at Roy, “Joe, he’s a hometown boy. What the hell do you know about that? Who would of guessed it?” He swung around on his heel, snatched up Roy’s hand, and began pumping it enthusiastically. “Bud, you don’t know how good it makes me feel all the way down to my itching toes to run into a hometown boy like this. How in hell have you been? Hear from the folks lately? How’s the world treating you? When was the last time you went back for a visit, bud? Tell me all about it!”

“I hope you know what I mean, Ernie,” Roy said uneasily as soon as he could get a word in. “I wouldn’t want you and Joe to be disappointed about anything.”

“Do I know what you mean! Roy, I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart. I really do. I mean it, bud. I had you down all wrong in my book.” He held up two fingers and wrapped them around each other. “From now on we’re just like that, Roy, and don’t you never let anybody tell you different. Sock them on the jaw, if they do.” He walked up and down in front of Roy, at the same time rubbing his hands together excitedly. “There’s no prettier sight in the whole world than three hometown peckers helling around together on a Saturday night. Isn’t that right, Joe? You’re goddam tooting it is! To tell the truth, Roy, me and Joe thought we were going to have trouble with you. That’s why I want to apologize. From now on we’re pals for life—all three of us. Come on, Joe! Get the hell off that bed!” He flung his arms around Roy’s neck. “Bud, when you started telling that sad story, I thought for sure me and Joe were getting our toes turned up, while you were fixing to get yours turned down. Now, just to show there’s no hard feelings, Roy, I don’t mind taking the one with the two little sofa pillows. I’m sort of used to it now, and I don’t mind a bit. I’ll be glad to do that for a pal like you. Joe! Get the hell up off there!”

Roy was trying to say something. There was a pained expression on his face when he reached out and caught Ernie’s arm. “I want to explain, Ernie,” he said urgently. “It’s not all that easy—I mean the way you make it sound. I think I can fix it, but we’ll have to go slow. The first thing to do—”

“Get your shoes on, Joe!” Ernie yelled out, ignoring Roy. “It’s Saturday night again, son! I thought for a while the calendar was all shot to hell. Get a move on, Joe!”

“It’s going to take a little time,” Roy was trying to tell them. “You’ll have to be patient, Ernie.”

Ernie turned up the bottle and took a long drink from it. Then he slapped his hat on his head and flung the door open.

“Bud, maybe you don’t know me very well, but they’ll tell you all over that I’ve always been willing to cooperate by waiting just long enough. Where the hell are you, Joe!”

Joe Morningstar had his shoes on by that time, and he wrapped one of the bottles in a newspaper and followed Ernie and Roy down the hall to the elevator. They stopped in the lobby and bought cigarettes and three cigars for Joe before going out to the car in front of the Pineland.

After getting into the back seat of the sedan, Ernie slapped Roy on the shoulder. “What a night for three hometown boys to hell around, Blount! But I knew we couldn’t miss, didn’t you, Joe?”

“How could we miss when we’ve got a lodge brother to take care of things?” Joe readily agreed.

“That’s it!” Ernie shouted, jarring Roy with his hand. “We’re lodge brothers from the old hometown. Let’s get going, brother!”

Roy began to feel uneasy as soon as they left Peachtree Street and turned into Gwinnet Alley. He stopped the car half a block from the cabin where Aunt Hazel Teasley lived and switched off the lights. After that he sat there looking straight ahead and wishing he had never allowed himself to get into such a situation. If his wife had only agreed to let him bring Ernie and Joe to Sunday dinner, he could have gone back to the hotel that afternoon, had a few drinks, put them to bed, and then gone on home. He knew the longer he sat there, the more impatient Ernie and Joe would become now. He opened the door and stepped out to the ground, begging them to stay where they were and not to try to follow him.

He walked down the dark lane under the leafy water-oaks. There were several Negro children playing in the alley and he could hear other children farther away. He could see a Negro man and woman sitting on a doorstep, and others were seated in rocking chairs in the sandy yards. He walked slowly in the warm summer darkness. From all directions came the shrill, excited cries of children playing and the noisy blare of radios. When he got to the front of Aunt Hazel’s cabin, he stopped and looked at the ginkgo trees in the yard while he tried to think what he could do next. There was no one in the front yard or on the doorstep, but a lamp in the hallway cast a bright beam of light all the way to the gate. He turned around and leaned on the fence, hoping he had not been recognized, when a Negro man and a girl walked past.

He had been standing there for several minutes, still undecided about what to do, when he saw Ganus Bazemore coming up the alley from the direction of the grocery store. He walked over to the gate and stood in front of it so Ganus would not be able to go into the house before he could speak to him. Ganus recognized him right away.

“Good evening, Mr. Roy,” he said, coming closer.

“Good evening, Ganus,” he said, keeping his voice low. “How are you tonight?”

“I’m all right, Mr. Roy.” He paused before saying anything more. Then he cautiously inquired, “Are you down here looking for somebody, Mr. Roy?”

“Well, I just happened to be walking past here, Ganus,” he said quickly, trying to sound convincing. He leaned against the fence in an attitude of unhurried ease. “Is this where you live?” He nodded his head toward the small unpainted cabin behind the ginkgo trees.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Roy. This’s Aunt Hazel’s house. We all live here.”

Roy tried not to give the impression that he was in a hurry, and he drummed his fingers on a paling, trying to keep count of the seconds as they passed.

“Well, since I’m down here,” he said presently, “I’d like to speak to your sister, Ganus. If she’s at home, I mean. I’ll wait right here.”

“You want to see Kathyanne about something?”

“That’s right.”

“I’ll go tell her right away, Mr. Roy. I know she’s at home. And she’s been talking about hoping to get a steady job somewhere soon. She’s been looking all over town for steady work. You wait right here, Mr. Roy. It won’t take any time at all.”

Ganus opened the gate and ran into the cabin. Roy took out a cigarette, but, just as he was getting ready to strike a match, he heard voices on the other side of the alley and he threw the cigarette away. Just then he saw Kathyanne come to the door and look in his direction. She stood there a moment, before coming down the steps and walking slowly toward him at the gate. He waited until she was standing on the sidewalk before speaking to her.

“I guess Ganus told you I was out here, Kathyanne,” he began uncertainly. He wondered if he would ever be able to get around to telling her why he was there. “I happened to be down here, and I thought—” His voice faltered in the middle of what he was saying. He felt ill at ease in her presence, and he wondered what Ernie and Joe would say to her if they had been in his place.

“Yes, Mr. Roy?” she said, looking directly at him.

“That’s what I mean,” he muttered indistinctly, still groping for something to say. He wanted to sound casual and friendly. He had seen her at a distance several times before, usually when he was driving home from the mill and she was walking- along the street, but this was the first time he had ever spoken to her. He was surprised to see how good-looking she was, and he felt awkward standing there and not being able to talk to her naturally. He wished he could have stopped right there, and walked away. He had no idea how he could get away now, though, and the longer he waited, the more danger there was of Ernie and Joe coming down the alley. He wondered if he looked as much like a bashful schoolboy as he felt when he tried to smile at her. “How—how’re you tonight, Kathyanne?” he muttered.

“Oh, I’m just fine, Mr. Roy,” she answered so quickly that he was convinced she was reading his thoughts. “Do you want to see me about something?” He knew at once that he would never be able to forget how unmistakably innocent she had made the question sound. It made him feel as though he were betraying someone who had trusted him. “Was that why you came down here, Mr. Roy?”

“Well,” he said, wondering how he could answer the question, “that’s right.” He saw her smiling at his flustered appearance. “I did want to talk to you about something, Kathyanne.”

He was certain he saw a change come over her as she watched his nervous manner.

“What do you want to talk to me about, Mr. Roy?” she then asked forthrightly. “Is it about working at your house?”

“Well, not exactly—my wife usually—but it’s about something. I mean, it’s about something else.”

“About what?”

He took a step backward, at the same time nodding up the alley. “If we went up this way—we could talk better. There’s not so many people around—up that way.”

She hesitated at first, and then she walked past him. Roy hurried to catch up with her and they went past the next house in silence. Nothing was said until he suddenly glimpsed his car ahead.

“Kathyanne, I’d appreciate it a lot if you’d help me out,” he said earnestly. He grasped her arm in a tight grip to prevent her from getting away now. “This’s awfully important to me. I don’t know you very well, but I’ve heard a lot about you. A couple of lodge brothers came to town today, and I thought—”

“You thought what, Mr. Roy?”

“Well, these lodge brothers—they’re nice people—”

“What lodge do they belong to, Mr. Roy?” she asked without a trace of a smile. He stared at her bewilderedly. He was unable to decide whether or not she was being sarcastic. “What’s the name of the lodge, Mr. Roy?” she insisted. This time he thought he saw a fleeting smile on her lips.

“Well, it’s a hometown lodge. Anyway, just a lodge.”

“Do you belong to it, Mr. Roy?”

“Me?”

This time there was no doubt about it. She laughed outright at him.

“I guess so, Kathyanne,” he replied meekly. “Anyway,” he then said anxiously as he watched the sedan under the water-oak, “you’d be doing me a great favor. That’s how it is.”

“But, Ganus said—”

“He did?” he spoke up hastily, getting a tighter grip on her arm. By that time he was willing to promise anything. He could see Ernie and Joe opening the door of the sedan. “Jobs are a little scarce right now, Kathyanne. Everybody knows that. But something’ll be sure to open up for you soon. I’ll certainly keep it in mind. You can count on that. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. Who knows?”

“Why are you asking me to do a favor for you, Mr. Roy?”

“Well, I did a favor for you not long ago, Kathyanne, and I thought maybe you’d appreciate it.”

“What favor did you do, Mr. Roy?”

“I got you out of jail a few weeks ago.”

She shook her head. “The judge let me off, Mr. Roy.”

He could feel her pulling away from him, and he held her with both hands. “The judge let you off because I paid your fine, Kathyanne.” He began urging her toward the car. “I heard Will Hanford talking about it in the post office, and I fixed it up with Will and sent the money over before court opened that morning. I paid that twenty-five-dollar fine for you.”

“I wish you hadn’t done it, Mr. Roy.”

“Why?”

“Because then you wouldn’t come down here and try to make me go off in that car.” She suddenly began struggling to free herself. “I hate you—all you white men! Why don’t you go after white girls—and leave us alone!”

He could see Ernie and Joe watching them from the rear seat, and he pulled her across the sidewalk.

Ernie jumped out and grabbed her.

“Look here!” Ernie said in a loud voice. “God damn, just look here, would you!”

He was glad to be able to turn her over to Ernie and be relieved of the responsibility. Ernie pushed Kathyanne into the car, got in behind her, and slammed the door shut. Roy walked around the front of the car and got under the steering wheel. As he started the engine, he wondered what Kathyanne thought of him at that moment. The fact that she was sitting silently in the rear seat hurt him more than she could have done by violently cursing him. He turned the car around and drove rapidly toward the country. They had gone eastward several blocks when Joe leaned over his shoulder.