God's Little Acre (14 page)

Darling Jill turned around and glanced at the girl’s powdered breasts in the low-cut dress. She turned back and whispered something to Griselda. Both laughed.

“What’s the matter with you, grandpa? Have you got a boil on you, or don’t you have any money?”

Ty Ty vaguely wondered if she would go away and let him alone if he told her he had no money.

He shook his head at her, moving further away.

“You’re a cheap son-of-a-bitch,” she said. “Why can’t you spend a little money at the end of the week? If I had known you were such a tight-fisted son-of-a-bitch I wouldn’t have bothered to come down here.”

Ty Ty did not answer her, and he thought she would go on back into the building. She did not even remove her foot from the runningboard, but stood waiting beside the car and looking sullenly at him.

“Let’s go, girls,” he urged. “We’ve got to be on our way.”

Darling Jill started the motor and engaged the gears. She turned around to see if the girl had removed her foot from the car. She backed several feet. The girl’s foot was dragged off the runningboard, and she stood at the curb cursing Ty Ty. When they were clear of the curbing, Darling Jill started down the street and turned the corner. In a few minutes they were in a boulevard bound for The Hill.

“I’m sure thankful you girls got me away from there,” Ty Ty said. “It looked like we was never going to get away. I’d have gone up there with her just to make her be quiet if we hadn’t left when we did. I hate to be out in the main street and have a woman swear at me like that for all the people to hear. I never could stand being cussed by a woman right in the middle of the city.”

“Oh, we weren’t going to let you go up there, Pa,” Griselda said. “We were only fooling. We wouldn’t have let you go up there and get diseased. It was only a joke on you.”

“Well, I ain’t saying I wanted to go, and I ain’t saying I didn’t. But I sure hate to have a woman swear at me like that on the main street. It doesn’t sound nice, for one thing. I never could put up with it.”

They crossed the canal and entered another boulevard. The Hill was still two miles distant, but the car was in a fast-moving stream of traffic, and they sped up the gradually rising elevation. Ty Ty was still a little nervous after his encounter with the girl who lived in the room behind the iron balcony, and he was glad it was over. He had known several girls who lived in that part of town, but that was ten to fifteen years earlier, and the ones he knew had gone away and others much younger had taken their places. Ty Ty felt uneasy in the presence of the new generation of girls down there, because they were no longer willing to stay in their rooms, or even on the balconies. Now they came down to the street and dragged men out of their cars. He shook his head, glad he was in another section of the city.

“Man alive!” Ty Ty said. “She was a she-devil, all right. I don’t know when I’ve seen such a regular little hell-cat.”

“Are you still thinking about that girl, Pa?” Griselda asked. “If you say so, we’ll turn around and go back.”

“Great guns,” he shouted, “don’t do that! Keep on the way we’re going. I’ve got to see Jim Leslie. I can’t be fooling away my time down there again.”

“Do you know which way to go now?” Darling Jill asked him, slowing down at an intersection of three streets.

“Take the right-hand one,” he said, pointing with his hand.

They drove for several blocks along a tree-lined street. There were large houses in that part of the city. Some of the large houses occupied an entire block. Up above them they could see the high towers on the Bon Air-Vanderbilt. They were in the midst of the resort hotels.

“It’s a big white house with three storeys and a big front porch,” Ty Ty said. “Now go slow while I look out for it.”

They drove two more blocks in silence.

“They all look alike at night,” Ty Ty said. “But when I see Jim Leslie’s, I’ll know it without fail.”

Darling Jill slowed down to cross a street. Just beyond was a large white house with three storeys and a large porch with white columns rising to the roof.

“That’s it,” Ty Ty said, prodding them with his finger. “That’s Jim Leslie’s as sure as God makes little green apples. Stop right where we are.”

They got out and looked up at the big white house behind the trees. There were lights in all the windows downstairs, and in some of the windows on the middle floor. The front door was open, but the screen door was closed. Ty Ty became worried about the screen door. He was afraid it was locked.

“Don’t stop to knock or ring a bell, girls. If we did that, Jim Leslie might see who we are and lock the door before we can get inside.”

Ty Ty went ahead and tiptoed up the steps and across the wide porch. Darling Jill and Griselda stayed close behind so they would not be locked outside. Ty Ty opened the screen door noiselessly, and they went into the wide hall.

“We’re on the inside,” Ty Ty whispered, much relieved. “He’ll have a hard time putting us out now before I can tell him what I’m after.”

They walked slowly to the wide door on the right. Ty Ty stopped there, looking into the room.

Jim Leslie heard them and glanced up from the book he was reading with a frown on his face. He was alone in the room at the time. His wife was somewhere else in the house, probably on the floor above, Ty Ty supposed.

He walked into the room with his son.

“What are you doing here?” Jim Leslie said. “You know I don’t let you come here. Get out!”

He glanced over Ty Ty’s shoulder and saw his sister and Griselda. He frowned again, looking at them harder still.

“Now, Jim Leslie,” Ty Ty began, “you know you’re pleased to see us. We ain’t seen you in a long long time, now have we, son?”

“Who let you in?”

“We let ourselves in. The door was open, and I knew you were here, because I saw you through the window, so we just walked in. That’s the way we do out at home. Nobody ever has to knock on my door, or ring bells either, to come into the house. Out there everybody is welcome.”

Jim Leslie looked again at Griselda. He had seen her once or twice before, at a distance, but he had not realized that she was so pretty. He wondered why a girl so beautiful had married Buck and had gone to live in the country. She would have looked much more at home in a house like this. He sat down, and the others found seats for themselves.

“What did you come here for?” he asked his father.

“It’s important, son,” Ty Ty said. “You know good and well I wouldn’t come to your house uninvited unless I was in great trouble.”

“Money, I suppose,” Jim Leslie said. “Why don’t you dig it out of the ground?”

“It’s in there, all right, but I just can’t seem to get it out right away.”

“That’s what you thought ten or twelve years ago. It looks like you ought to learn some sense in fifteen years. There’s no gold out there. I told you that before I left.”

“Gold or no gold, I’ve got the fever, son, and I can’t stop digging. But you’re wrong about that, because the gold is there, if I could only locate it. I’ve got an albino now, though, and I’m aiming to strike the lode any day now. All the folks say an albino can divine it if it’s in the country.”

Jim Leslie grunted disgustedly. He looked helplessly at his father, not knowing what to say to a man who talked so foolishly.

“Don’t be a damn fool all your life,” he said finally. “That talk about diviners is Negroes’ talk. They’re the only people I ever heard of who took such things seriously. A white man ought to have better sense than to fall for such superstition. You grow worse every year.”

“You might call it that, but I’m going about the digging of the nuggets scientifically. I’ve done that clear from the start. The way I’m doing is scientific, and I know it is.”

Jim Leslie had nothing further to say about it. He turned and looked at the bookcase.

Ty Ty looked around at the richly furnished room. He had never been in the house before, and its rugs and furnishings were a revelation to him. The rugs were as soft and yielding as freshly plowed ground, and he walked over them feeling at home. He turned once to look at Griselda and Darling Jill, but they were watching Jim Leslie and did not meet his eyes.

Presently Jim Leslie slumped down in the large overstuffed chair. He locked his hands under his chin and studied Griselda. Ty Ty saw that he was looking at her steadily.

“T
HAT’S
B
UCK’S WIFE,
Griselda,” Ty Ty said.

“I know,” Jim Leslie replied without turning.

“She’s a mighty pretty girl.”

“I know.”

“The first time I saw her I said to myself: ‘Man alive! Griselda is a mighty pleasing dish to set before a man.’ ”

“I know,” he said again.

“It’s a shame your wife ain’t so pretty as Griselda,” Ty Ty said sympathetically. “It’s a dog-gone shame, Jim Leslie, if I do say it myself.”

Jim Leslie shrugged his shoulders a little, still looking at Griselda. He could not keep his eyes away from her.

“They tell me that your wife has got diseased,” Ty Ty said, moving his chair closer to his son’s. “I’ve heard the boys say a lot of these rich people up here on The Hill have got one thing and another wrong with them. It’s a dog-gone shame you had to marry her, Jim Leslie. I feel downright sorry for you, son. Did she get you cornered so you couldn’t worm out of marrying her?”

“I don’t know,” Jim Leslie said wearily.

“I sure hate to see you married to a diseased wife, son. Now just look at those two girls, there. Neither of them is diseased. Darling Jill is all right, and so is Griselda. And Rosamond ain’t diseased either. They’re all nice clean girls, son, the three of them. I’d hate to have a girl in my house diseased. I’d feel so ashamed of it that I’d hide my face when people came to see me at the house. It must be pretty hard for you to have to live with a diseased woman like your wife. Why is it, anyhow, that so many of these rich girls here in Augusta have got the diseases, son?”

“I don’t know,” he replied weakly.

“What is it she’s got, anyhow?”

Jim Leslie tried to laugh at Ty Ty, but he could not even force a smile to his lips.

“Don’t you know the name of it, son?”

Jim Leslie shook his head, indicating that he had no answer to give.

“The boys said she has gonorrhea. Is that right, son? That’s what I heard, if I remember right.”

Jim Leslie nodded his head almost imperceptibly. As long as he could sit there and look at Griselda he was willing to let Ty Ty’s questions pass over his head. He had no interest in them as long as Griselda was there.

“Well, I’m sorry for you, son. It’s a dog-gone shame you had to marry a girl with a disease. I reckon, though, you wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t cornered you so you couldn’t worm out of it. If you couldn’t get out of it, then that’s something God Himself couldn’t have helped. You deserve a little better, though. It’s a dog-gone shame you had to do it.”

Ty Ty moved his chair closer to Jim Leslie’s. He leaned forward, nodding his head towards Griselda.

“It’s a dog-gone shame about your wife, son, if I do say it myself. Now, just take Griselda, there. She ain’t diseased, and she’s the prettiest girl you can ever hope to see. Just look at her! Now, you know good and well you’ve never seen a prettier girl, all over, have you, son?”

Jim Leslie smiled, but said nothing.

“Aw, now, Pa,” Griselda begged anxiously, “please don’t say those things again now. Don’t say things like that in front of him, Pa. It’s not nice, Pa.”

“Now you just wait, Griselda. I’m mighty proud of you, and I aim to praise you. We ain’t strangers here, anyhow. Ain’t Jim Leslie one of the family, just like Darling Jill, there, and the rest of them? I aim to praise you mightily, Griselda. I’m as proud of you as a hen is of a lone chick.”

“But don’t say any more then, please, Pa.”

“Son,” Ty Ty said, turning towards Jim Leslie, “Griselda is the prettiest girl in the whole State of Georgia, and I reckon that’s something to be proud of. Why, man alive! She’s got the finest pair of rising beauties a man ever laid eyes on. If you could see them there under the cloth, you’d know I’m telling the truth as only God Himself could tell it if He could only talk. And you wouldn’t be the first one to go plumb wild just looking at them, either.”

“Oh, Pa!” Griselda begged, covering her face and trying to hide from sight. “Please don’t say any more, Pa. Please don’t!”

“Now you just sit and be quiet while I praise you mightily, Griselda. I know what I’m doing. I’m proud to discuss you, too. Jim Leslie has never seen the likes of what I’m talking about. His wife don’t appear to be in the running at all. She looks like she’s all mashed down on the chest and can’t rise up. It’s a shame and a pity, I’ll be dog-gone if it ain’t, that he had to many a girl with her awful looks. It’s a wonder he can stand it, on top of the disease. Now, don’t try to stop me while I’m praising you, Griselda. I’m mighty proud of you, and I aim to praise you sky-high.”

Griselda was already beginning to cry a little. Her shoulders shook in jerks and she had to hold the handkerchief tight against her eyes so the tears would not fall on her lap,

“Son,” Ty Ty said, “ain’t she the prettiest little girl you ever did see? When I was a young man, I used to think that all girls were alike, more or less, after allowing for a little natural difference, and I reckon maybe you’ve thought the same up till now; but when you’ve got an eyeful of Griselda, there, you know durn well you’ve been missing a heap thinking such foolishness all your life. Son, I reckon you know what I mean. You sit there and look at her and you get to feeling something trying to stand up on the inside of you. That’s it. I ain’t been around much outside of Georgia, and so I can’t speak for the other parts of the world, but I’ve sure-God seen a heap in my time in Georgia and I’m here to tell you that it ain’t no use to go no further away when it comes to looking for such prettiness. Man alive! Griselda totes around with her so much prettiness that it’s a shame to look sometimes.”

Griselda cried brokenly.

Ty Ty felt in his pocket for a quarter, finally picking it out of a handful of nails, harness brads, and loose change. He gave it to Griselda.