God's Little Acre (6 page)

“Maybe he didn’t know you were taking a bath in the back yard, Darling Jill. He wouldn’t know it until he came around here and saw you.”

“Don’t you think he didn’t know it. If you think that, then tell me why it is he comes around the corner of the house every time I’m taking one. Pluto isn’t so dumb as he looks. He’ll fool you by his looks.”

There was a silence after that, and Pluto knew they had left the yard and gone into the house. He wrung his handkerchief again and attempted to wipe the soap out of his eyes. Feeling his way around to the front of the house, he reached the steps and sat down to wait for Darling Jill to dress and come out. He was not angry with her for throwing soap in his face; nothing could have made him angry with her. She had done things much worse than that to him many times. And she called him the worst names she could think of.

When he succeeded in drying the soap and in wiping the last of it from his face and hair, he was surprised to look up and see that the sun was almost down. He realized that he would not be able to call on any more of the voters that day. But as long as he was taking Darling Jill to Scottsville, he did not regret it. He would rather be with her than win an election.

The screen door behind him squeaked, and Darling Jill and Griselda came out.

They stood on the porch at his back looking down at the top of his head and giggling a little. He could not turn around to see them without getting up, and he decided to wait until they came down the steps before looking at them.

“Darning your socks, aren’t you, Pluto?” Darling Jill asked him. “You should have done that before you went around to the back yard.”

I
T WAS AFTER
ten o’clock when they reached Scottsville that evening. Pluto was lost in the maze of mill streets, but Darling Jill had been there many times before and she recognized the house before they got to it. Rosamond and Will’s house was apparently like all the others, but Rosamond usually had blue curtains over the windows and Darling Jill had looked for those.

Pluto stopped the car but did not shut off the motor. Darling Jill turned the switch and took out the key.

“Wait a minute,” Pluto said excitedly. “Don’t do that, Darling Jill.”

She dropped the key into her pocketbook and laughed at Pluto’s protests. Before he could stop her, she had opened the door and stepped to the street. Pluto got out and followed her up the walk to the front door.

“I don’t hear Will anywhere,” she said, stopping and trying to see through the window.

They opened the door and went into the hall. The light was burning and all the other doors were open. From one of the rooms came the sound of someone crying. Darling Jill went into one of the dark rooms and snapped on the light. Rosamond was lying across the bed with part of a sheet covering her face. She was sobbing loudly.

“Rosamond!” Darling Jill cried. “What in the world is the matter!”

She ran and fell across the bed with her sister.

Rosamond raised herself on her elbows and looked around the room. She dried the tears on her face and tried to smile.

“I wasn’t expecting you,” she said, throwing her arms around Darling Jill and bursting into tears again. “I’m glad you came when you did. I thought I was going to die. I must have been out of my head a little.”

“What did Will do to you? Where is he?”

Pluto had been standing in the doorway, not knowing what else to do. He tried not to look at Rosamond until she had noticed him.

“Hello, Pluto,” she smiled. “I certainly am glad to see you again. Take the clothes off the chair and sit down and make yourself at home.”

“Where’s Will?” Darling Jill asked again. “Tell me what happened, Rosamond.”

“I suppose he’s down the street somewhere,” Rosamond said. “I don’t know exactly where he is.”

“But what’s the matter?”

“He’s been drunk all this week,” Rosamond said. “And he won’t stay at home with me. He talks about turning the power on at the mill when he’s drunk, and when he’s sober, he won’t say anything. The last time he came home he hit me.”

Her face was badly swollen. One of her eyes was slightly discolored, and blood had been flowing from her nose.

“Isn’t he working?”

“No, of course not. The mill is still shut down. I don’t know when it will start running again. Some people say it never will. I don’t know.”

Pluto stood up, twisting his hat in his hands.

“I’ve got to be getting back home,” he said. “And that’s a fact.”

“Sit down, Pluto,” Darling Jill told him. “And be quiet.”

He sat down again, placing his hat under the chair and folding his hands in his lap.

“I came over to take you and Will home with me,” Darling Jill said. “Pa says he wants you and Will to help some. He needs Will to help dig, and you can do whatever you like. Pa’s got something on his mind about finding gold for sure this time. I don’t know what got into him.”

“Oh, he always has some new notion,” Rosamond said. “There’s no gold on that place, is there? If there was gold there, they would have found it long before now. Why can’t he stop digging the land full of holes and farm some?”

“I don’t know,” Darling Jill said. “He and the boys think they’re going to strike it soon. That’s what keeps them at it all the time. I wish they would.”

“The Waldens are worse than the darkies, always expecting to find gold somewhere.”

“Pa wants you and Will to come, anyway.”

“Will won’t dig. Pa ought to know that by this time. Will’s always restless when he is away from here.”

“Pa has his head set on you and Will coming over there, anyway. You know how he is.”

“We can’t go tonight. Will isn’t here and I don’t know when he’ll come back.”

“Tomorrow is soon enough. We’ll spend the night. Pluto can sleep with Will, and I’ll sleep with you.”

Pluto started to protest that he had to get back to Marion that night, but neither of them noticed him.

“You’re welcome to stay,” Rosamond said, “but the bed isn’t big enough for Will and Pluto. One of them will have to sleep on the floor.”

“Pluto can,” Darling Jill said. “Just give Pluto a pillow and a quilt and let him make himself a pallet in the hall. He won’t mind.”

Rosamond got up and fixed her hair and powdered her face. She looked better after that.

“I don’t know when Will is coming home. Maybe not at all tonight. Sometimes he doesn’t.”

“He’ll get sober when he goes back with us and digs a day or two. Pa will keep him sober, too.”

All of them turned and listened. There was a noise on the front porch, followed by the sound of someone banging on the door.

“That’s him now,” Rosamond said. “He’s still drunk, too. I can tell.”

They waited in the room while he came through the hall and appeared at the door.

“Well, for God’s sake!” Will said. “You back again?”

He stared at Darling Jill for several moments and started towards her, his hands leading him. She sidestepped, and he went on into the wall.

“Will!” Rosamond said.

“And there’s old Pluto, too! How’s everything out there around Marion these days?”

Pluto got up and tried to shake hands with Will, but Will started sideways toward the other side of the room.

Will sat down in the corner against the wall and placed his head on his arms. He was quiet for such a long time that all of them thought he had gone to sleep. They were getting ready to tiptoe out of the room, and they had got as far as the door when Will looked up and called them back.

“Trying to slip off from me again, weren’t you? Come back here, all of you, and keep me company.”

Rosamond made a gesture of helplessness and sank wearily upon the bed. Pluto and Darling Jill laughed at Will and sat down.

“How’s Griselda?” Will asked. “Is that girl as good-looking as ever? What part of the country did she come from? I’d like to go there some day and take my pick.”

“Please, Will,” Rosamond said.

“I’m going to get that girl yet,” Will said determinedly, shaking his head from side to side. “I’ve been wanting her for a long time now, and I can’t wait much more for her, either. I’m going to get her.”

“Please shut your mouth, Will,” Rosamond said.

He appeared not to have heard her.

“Tell me how Griselda’s looking these days, Darling Jill. Does she still look ripe for picking? I’m going to get her, so help me God! I’ve had my eye on her ever since she moved in the house over there. Griselda’s got the sweetest pair—”

“Will!” Rosamond said.

“Aw, what the hell is the matter with you,” Will said irritatedly. “It’s all in the family, ain’t it? Why in the hell should you bawl me out for talking about her? Buck wouldn’t care much if I did get her. He can’t use her all the time. Nobody ought to howl about just one tiny little bit when nobody is getting hurt. You act like I was getting ready to run down the King of England’s daughter.”

“Please don’t talk about it now, then,” Rosamond begged.

“Now, listen to me,” Will said. “Griselda can’t keep from being the prettiest girl in the country, no more than I can keep from wanting to get her. So what the hell does that make you? I promised myself a piece when I saw her the first time over there in Georgia, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to break my own promise. You get all you bargained for. I can’t help it if you raise a howl, either.”

“I’ll talk about it some other time, Will, if you promise to stop talking now. Try to remember who’s here.”

“It’s all in the family, ain’t it? So, what the hell!”

Darling Jill looked at Pluto and laughed. Pluto felt the blood coming over his face again, and he turned his head toward the wall where the light would shadow it. Darling Jill burst out laughing again.

There was no use in any of them trying to talk as long as Will was there.

Rosamond suddenly began to cry.

“There ain’t a bit of sense in taking on like that,” Will said doggedly. “It’s all in the family, ain’t it? Well, what the hell! Old Pluto, there, is having a good time with Darling Jill, or would if he could, and I reckon I take you plenty of times, except when you get uppity and start talking about the God damn sacredness of approaching a female, or some such talk. So, why in hell can’t I talk about getting Griselda if I want to? You can’t expect a girl like Griselda to put a plug in herself. Why, that would be a God damn shame! It would be a heathen sin. I swear it would. That’d be the damnedest shame I ever heard about!”

He began to cry at the thought of it. He stood up and the tears ran down his face and he sounded as if his heart were breaking. He tried to stop the flow of tears by twisting his fists into his eyesockets, but the tears fell as heavily as ever.

Rosamond got up off the bed.

“I’m glad that’s over with,” she said, sighing. “He’ll be all right now. Just leave him alone for a little while, and he’ll be himself again. Come on into the other room. I’ll turn the light out so it won’t hurt his eyes.”

Pluto and Darling Jill followed her, leaving Will crying in the corner.

When they had all found chairs in the other room, Rosamond turned to Pluto.

“I’m awfully ashamed of what happened in the next room, Pluto,” she said. “Please try to forget it and not think of it again. When Will gets drunk, he doesn’t know what he’s saying. He didn’t mean a word of it. I’m sure of that. I wouldn’t have let him embarrass you for anything, if I could have helped it. Please forget all about what he said.”

“Oh, that’s all right, Rosamond,” he said, blushing a little. “I don’t hold anything against you or Will.”

“Well, I don’t suppose you would,” Darling Jill broke in. “It’s none of your business, anyway. Just sit tight, Pluto, and keep your mouth shut.”

She and Rosamond began talking about something else then, and Pluto was unable to follow the conversation. He was almost on the other side of the room from them, and their voices were lowered. He sat uncomfortably in the little chair, wishing he could sit on the floor where he would have a wider seat.

Presently Will came to the door. His face was drawn, but he showed little indication of his drinking. Apparently he had sobered.

“Glad to see you, Pluto,” he said, going over and shaking hands. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you. It’s been nearly a year, hasn’t it?”

“I reckon it has, Will.”

Will drew up a chair and sat down, leaning back to look at Pluto.

“What are you doing now, the same thing as usual?”

“Well, I’m a candidate for sheriff this year,” Pluto told him. “I’m running for office.”

“You’ll make a humdinger,” Will said. “It takes a big man to hold the office of sheriff. Why that is, I don’t know, but it seems to be a fact. I don’t remember ever seeing a skinny sheriff.”

Pluto laughed good-naturedly. He went to the window and spat tobacco juice on the ground.

“I ought to be back home now,” he said, “but I’m glad to have the chance of coming over here to see you and Rosamond. I’ve got to get back the first thing in the morning though, and do some canvassing. I didn’t get a thing done all day. I reckon I started early enough, but I only got as far as the Waldens, and now here I am over here in Carolina.”

“Are the old man and the boys still digging holes in the ground over there?”

“Night and day, almost. But they’re going to get an albino from the swamps to divine it for them. That’s where they are tonight. They left a little before we did.”

Will laughed, slapping his legs with his broad hands.

“Conjur stuff now, huh? Well, I’ll be damned. I didn’t know Ty Ty Walden would start using conjur, old as he is. He’s always been trying to tell me how scientific he is about digging for gold. And now he’s using conjur stuff! I’ll be a suck-egg mule!”

Pluto wished to make a defense of some kind, but Will was laughing so much he was afraid to bring it up.

“That might help some, at that,” Will continued. “And then again it mightn’t. The old man ought to know, though; he’s been fooling around that farm digging for gold nearly fifteen years now, and he ought to be an expert at it by this time. Reckon there’s gold in that ground, sure enough, Pluto?”

“I’d hate to say,” Pluto replied, “but I reckon there must be, because people have been picking up nuggets all over the country around there ever since I can remember. There’s gold somewhere around there, because I’ve seen the nuggets.”