God's Little Acre (12 page)

Ty Ty and Will came out on the back porch looking for them. Ty Ty called, and then he swore. Will went back for a lantern, running into the house telling Ty Ty not to scare the boy away by his shouts. When he came back with the smoking lantern, Ty Ty grabbed it and started across the yard, running back and forth in all directions. He shouted to Will, swearing at Dave and Darling Jill, and looking everywhere as fast as his feet would carry him.

Rosamond and Griselda came out of the house and stood by the well looking out in the darkness.

“I knew it,” Ty Ty kept saying over and over again. “I knew it all the time.”

“We’ll find him,” Will said. “They didn’t go far.”

“I knew it, I just knew it. My white-haired boy is gone for fair.”

“I don’t believe he ran off,” Will protested. “I’d bet a pretty he’s only lying low till you stop scaring him to death. When they left the room, they weren’t trying to run off. He was more for going out in the dark so he could have a good time with her than he was for running off. Just look for her, and you’ll find him at the same time. She had her mind made up to have him, and she’s the one who took him off wherever it is they’ve gone.”

“I knew it, I just knew it was going to happen. My white-haired boy is gone for fair.”

Rosamond and Griselda called from the well.

“Have you found him yet, Pa?”

Ty Ty was so busy searching for the albino he did not stop to answer.

“They’re out here somewhere,” Will said. “They’re not far off.”

Ty Ty dashed around the house, making a complete circle of it, barely missing the black mouth of the crater. He skirted the big hole by inches, almost falling into it in his blind haste.

Once around the house, he struck out across the yard, running at random. When he got out near the water-oak trees, the light from the smoking lantern suddenly revealed the snow-white hair of Dave. Ty Ty ran nearer and saw them both sprawled on the ground. Neither of them was aware of his presence, even though the yellow light flickered in Darling Jill’s eyes and twinkled like two stars when her eyelids blinked.

Will saw Ty Ty standing still with the smoking lantern and he knew they had been found. He ran to see why Ty Ty was not calling him, and Rosamond and Griselda came behind.

“Did you ever see such a sight?” Ty Ty said, looking around at Will. “Now, ain’t that something?”

Will waited until Griselda got there, pointing down at Dave and Darling Jill. They stood silently for a moment, trying to see in the yellow lantern light.

Ty Ty suddenly found himself turned around and being pushed towards the house.

He whirled around.

“What’s the matter with you girls, Rosamond?” he said, stumbling with the lantern. “What makes you push me like that?”

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Pa, you and Will, standing here looking at them. Go on away, both of you, now.”

Ty Ty found himself standing beside Will several yards from them.

“Now, look here,” he protested; “I don’t like to be shoved around like a country-cousin. What’s the matter with you girls, anyhow?”

“Shame on you, Pa, you and Will,” Griselda said. “You were standing here looking all the time. Now, go on off and stop looking.”

“Well, I’ll be a suck-egg mule,” Ty Ty said. “I wasn’t doing a thing in the world but standing there. And here you girls come running up and say, ‘Shame on me.’ I ain’t done a blessed thing to be ashamed of. What’s wrong with you Griselda and Rosamond?”

Will and Ty Ty moved away, walking slowly towards the house. Just before reaching the well, Ty Ty stopped and looked back.

“Now, what in God’s name did I do wrong?”

“Women don’t like men to stand around and see one of them getting it,” Will said. “That’s why they raised such a howl about you being there. They only wanted to get me and you away.”

“Well, dog my cats,” Ty Ty said. “Is that what was going on back there! I never would have known it, Will, I declare I wouldn’t. I only thought they was lying there hugging one another. That’s the truth if I know it. I couldn’t see a thing in that pale light.”

T
HEY HAD BEEN
at work since sunrise in the new crater, and at eleven o’clock the heat was blistering. Buck and Shaw had little to say to Will. They had never been able to get along together, and even the prospect of turning up a shovelful of yellow nuggets any moment did not serve to bind them any closer. If Buck had had his way, Will would never have been sent for in the first place. All the gold that was turned up was going into their own pockets, anyway; if Will should try to take some, they would die fighting before they would allow him to share in it.

Will leaned on his shovel and watched Shaw pick the clay. He laughed a little, but neither Buck nor Shaw paid the least attention to him. They went on as though he were nowhere near.

“It looks to me like you boys would have better sense than to let Ty Ty egg you on to digging all these big holes in the ground. He gets all this hard work out of you, and it doesn’t cost him a penny. Why don’t you boys go off somewhere and get a real job that pays something when Saturday comes? You don’t want to stay countrymen all your lives, do you? Tell Ty Ty to shovel his own dirt, and walk off.”

“Go to hell, you lint-head,” Shaw said.

Will rolled a cigarette while he watched them dig and sweat. He did not mind being called a lint-head by people in his own world, but he could never stand being called that by Buck and Shaw. They knew it was the quickest and most effective way either to silence him outright or to make him fighting mad.

Buck looked up at the rim of the crater to see if Ty Ty were near. If there was going to be trouble, he wished to have Ty Ty there to help him. Their father had always sided with them when they had an argument with Will, and he would this time as well.

But Ty Ty was not within sight. He was over in the new-ground with the two colored men trying to get the cotton banked. The crop had been planted late that year, as they had been so busy digging that there had been no opportunity to plant it until June, and Ty Ty wished to hurry it along as much as possible, if it was within his power to make it grow and mature, in order to get some money by the first of September. He had already bought to the limit of his credit in the stores at Marion, and he had been unable to get a loan at the bank. If the cotton did not thrive, or if the boll weevils ruined it, he did not know what he was going to do the coming fall and winter. There were two mules to feed, in addition to the two colored families, and his own household.

“There ain’t no more gold in this ground than there is in the toes of my socks,” Will said derisively. “Why don’t you boys go up to Augusta or Atlanta or somewhere and have a good time? I’ll be damned if I’d stay a clodhopper all my life just because Ty Ty Walden wants you to dig in the ground for him.”

“Aw, go to hell, you Valley town lint-head.”

Will looked at Buck, debating momentarily whether to hit him.

“Got any message to send your folks?” he asked finally.

“If you want to play the dozens, you’re at the right homestead,” Shaw said.

Will threw down his shovel with both hands and picked up a dried clod of clay. He ran several steps toward them, rolling the dead cigarette to the corner of his mouth with his tongue.

“I didn’t come over here to have trouble with you boys, but if you’re looking for it, you’re barking up the right tree now.”

“That’s all you’ve ever done,” Shaw said, gripping the shovel handle in both hands. “Barking is all you’ve ever done.”

Will wished to fight Buck, if there was going to be a fight. He had nothing against Shaw, but Shaw would side with his brother always. Will disliked Buck. He had disliked him from the first. He did not hate him personally, but Griselda was Buck’s wife, and Buck was always standing between them. They had already had several tussles, not over Griselda any more than for any other reason, and they were likely to have others. As long as Griselda was married to Buck, and lived with him, Will would fight him whenever he had the opportunity.

“Drop that clod,” Buck ordered.

“Come and make me,” Will retorted.

Buck stepped back and whispered something to Shaw. Will stepped forward and threw the clod with all his might just as Buck ran towards him with the raised shovel. The shovel handle struck Will a glancing blow on the shoulder, flying off to the ground. The clod had missed Buck, but it hit Shaw squarely in the pit of the stomach. He bent over with pain, falling to the ground and groaning weakly.

When Buck turned and saw Shaw doubled into a knot behind him, he thought surely Will had injured him seriously. He ran forward, raising the shovel over his head, and hit Will on the forehead with all his might.

The blow stunned Will, but it did not knock him out. He was up on his feet, angrier than ever, and running after Buck before the shovel could be raised for another blow.

“All you damn Waldens think you’re tough, but we’re tougher where I come from,” Will said. “It would take you and six more like you to beat me up. I’m used to it—I have a couple of fights every morning before breakfast where I come from.”

“You damn lint-head,” Buck said contemptuously. Shaw got to his hands and knees, blinking his eyes. He looked around for a weapon of any nature, but there was nothing within his reach. His shovel was on the other side of Will.

“You damn lint-head,” Buck repeated, sneering.

“Come on, both of you sons-of-bitches,” Will shouted. “I’ll take you both down at the same time. I wasn’t raised to be scared of countrymen.”

Buck raised his shovel, but Will reached up and jerked it out of his hands, tossing it out of reach behind him. With a well-aimed blow he struck Buck on the jaw, knocking him flat on his back. Shaw ran towards him, crouched low over his knees. Will swung at him with both fists, one after the other. Shaw’s knees gave way, and he fell at Will’s feet

Buck was up again. He jumped on Will, hurling him to the ground and pinning his arms under him. Before Will could twist free, Buck had begun pounding him on the head and back. All of them were in an ugly temper by that time.

From the top of the crater Ty Ty shouted at them. He came running down the side at once, jumping into the midst of the fists and kicks. He pried Buck and Will apart, and flung them sprawling to the ground on each side of him. Ty Ty was as large as any one of the others, and he had always been able to handle a fight between them. He stood panting and blowing, looking down at them.

“That’s enough of that,” he said, still breathing hard. “What in the pluperfect hell have you boys got to fight about so much, anyhow? That ain’t digging for the lode. Fighting among yourselves won’t find it.”

Buck sat up and held his swollen jaw. He glared at Will, still undefeated.

“Send him back where he belongs, then,” Buck said. “The son-of-a-bitch hasn’t any business over here. This ain’t no place for lint-heads to hang out.”

“I’ll go when I get damn good and ready and not a minute before. Just try and make me go before then. Just try it!”

“What in the pluperfect hell did you boys go and do that for, anyhow?” Ty Ty asked Shaw, turning to see if he was all right. “There ain’t nothing for you boys to fight about like this. When we strike the lode, it’s all going to be divided up fair and square, and nobody is going to get a larger share than the next one. I aim to see to that. Now, what made you boys start scrapping one another like that?”

“Nothing started it, Pa,” Shaw said. “And it wasn’t about sharing the gold. It wasn’t about anything like that. It just happened, that’s all. Every time that son-of-a-bitch comes over here he invites a beating. It’s just the way he talks and acts. He acts like he’s better than we are, or something. He acts like he’s better because he works in a cotton mill. He’s always calling Buck and me countrymen.”

“Now that ain’t nothing to get all heated up about,” Ty Ty said. “Boys, it’s a shame we can’t keep a peaceful family all the time. That’s what I’ve aimed all my life to have.”

“Make him leave Griselda alone then,” Buck said.

“Is Griselda in this?” Ty Ty asked in wonder. “Why, I didn’t know she was all mixed up in this fight.”

“You’re a damn liar,” Will shouted. “I never said a word about her.”

“Now, boys,” Ty Ty said, “don’t start scrapping all over again. What’s Griselda got to do with all this?”

“Well, he didn’t say anything about her,” Buck replied, “but it’s just the way he looks and acts. He acts like he’s getting ready to do something to her.”

“That’s a lie,” Will shouted.

“Now, Buck, you maybe just imagine all that. I know it ain’t so, because Will is married to Rosamond and they get along first-rate together. He ain’t after Griselda. Just forget that part.”

Will looked at Buck but said nothing. He was angry because Ty Ty had separated them before he could strike the last blow.

“If he would stay where he belongs, and not come over here raising hell, I’d be satisfied,” Buck stated. “The son-of-a-bitch is a lint-head, anyway. He ought to stay with his own kind. We don’t want to mix with him.”

Will got to his feet again, looking around for the shovel.

Ty Ty ran and pushed him to the other side of the crater. He held Will with both hands, pushing him back against the side of the hole.

“Will,” he said calmly, “don’t pay any attention to Buck. That heat’s got his dander up, and about nothing. Now stay here and leave him alone.”

He ran back to the other side of the hole and pushed Buck down. Shaw was out of it then. He made no further signs of going in again.

“You boys all get up on top of the ground and cool off,” Ty Ty ordered. “You got all heated up down here in the hole, and fresh air is the only way to get it out of you. Now go on up there and cool off a while.”

He waited while Buck and Shaw climbed out and disappeared from sight. After giving them plenty of time to get away, he urged Will to get up and climb to the top for air. Ty Ty followed close behind in case Shaw and Buck were waiting just out of sight to jump on Will and resume the fight. When they got to the surface above, Shaw and Buck had gone from sight.