Y’all can tell how I ’joyed myself then?
2. WHAT HAPPENED
PO GRANDPA, he never get up one mornin, and ever’body come over from Aunt Gastonia’s and said he was ’bout to die of misery. On grandpa’s pillow I laid my head down and HE tell me it ain’t so. And he yell to the Lord to git ever’body outen the house except the good hound dog. Hound dog set a-whinin’ under the bed and lick grandpa in the hand. Aunt Gastonia shoo him out. “Hound dog, shoo!” Aunt Gastonia wash my face at the pump. Aunt Gastonia, she put the rag in my ear and stop up the ear and take her finger and turn and turn till I’se ’bout to die. Well, I cry. Grandpa cry too. Aunt Gastonia’s son, he run and he run down that road and pooty soon, here come Aunt Gastonia’s son run and run back up the road and zip-zip I never seed nobody run s’fast. Then here come Mr. Otis in his big old au-to and pull up right in front of the house. Well, he was a pow’ful tall man with yaller hair, you know, and he ’membered me, and says, “Well there, what’s to become of you, li’l boy?”
Then he take grandpa by the hand, and roll up his eyeballs, and fish in the black satchel fo a thing he listen with, and listen, and ever’body else lean close and listen, and Aunt Gastonia slap her son away, and Mr. Otis ’bout to tap grandpa with one hand under th’ other on grandpa’s chest, when him and grandpa gits they eyes fixed on theirselves all sow’ful and Mr. Otis stop what he doing. “Ah, old man,” Mr. Otis say to grandpa, “and how have you been?” And grandpa show his yaller teeth in a grin and he say, and he cackle, “Yonder’s the pipe, hit’s a pow’ful smokin-pipe,” and wink at Mr. Otis. Nobody know what he talk like that fo, but Mr. Otis he know and grandpa he laugh so much he jess shake like the tree when the possum climb up in it. Mr. Otis says “Where?” and grandpa point to the shelf, still a-cacklin and ’joyin Mr. Otis so. Well, he sho liked Mr. Otis ever so much. Up yonder on the shelf so high I never seed it, Mr. Otis fetched a pipe they was talkin about. It was made outen corncob and it was the biggenest best pipe grandpa made. Mr. Otis, he look at it so sow’ful I never seed that man so. He say “Five years,” and that’s all he say, ’case that was the last time he seed grandpa, and grandpa knowed it.
After a bit, grandpa fell asleep, and ever’body stand aroun talkin till I cain’t see how anybody can sleep, and here’s what they said. They said grandpa was mighty sick and would die for sho, and me, li’l Pic, well what was they t’do with me? Oh, it was a tar’ble lot of cryin they was doin Aunt Gastonia and her friend Miz Jones, ’case they loved grandpa like I do, the son he cry too, and all the little bitty chiles that come in the door from the road t’see. Hound dog, he whined outdoor t’come in. Mr. Otis, he told ever’body t’stop worryin’ their minds so, mebbe grandpa be all right soon, but he’d no fo-sure about it, so he’s gwine see about sendin grandpa to the hospital, and there he be all right. Ever’body ’gree this is what to do and’s grateful to Mr. Otis, ’case he pay with all his money t’see grandpa try to get good again. “The boy,” he say, t’Aunt Gastonia, “you sure your husband and your father see eye to eye with you ’bout keepin that boy?” and she say, “The Lord shall bring mercy unto them.” And Mr. Otis say, “Well, I don’t reckon it will be so but you take good care of him, hear, and let me know if ever’thing’s all right.” Lordy, 1 cry when I heard ever’thing and ever’body talkin so. Oh Lordy, I cry when they takes poor grandpa and carry him to the car like some old sick run-over hound dog and lay him in the back seat, and carry him off to the hospital. I cry, Aunt Gastonia she close grandpa’s door, and he never close it, never did once close it for a hunnerd years. The tar’ble fear make me sick and like to drop on the ground and dig me a hole and cry in it, n’hide, ’case I never seen anything but this house and grandpa all my born days, and here they come draggin me away from th’ empty house and my grandpa’s done died on me and can’t help hisself dyin. Oh Lord, and I remember what he say ’bout the fence and the Lord, and ’bout Mr. Otis and ’bout my big wet feet, and remember him so awful recent and him s’far gone, I cry, and shame ever’body.
3. AUNT GASTONIA’S HOUSE
WELL, THEY TAKES ME DOWN THE ROAD to aunt gastonia’s house, and it’s a big old busted house ’case they’s eleben, twell folks livin there, from down the littlest baby-chile up to old Grandpa Jelkey ’at sits inside the house all old and blind. It ain’t like grandpa’s house no way. Is all them windows roundabout and a big brick chimbley, and the porch, it go clean around the house and chairs on it, and watermelon rinds and sand on the boards so’s a body can’t roll hisself without. My, I never seed such many flies in all my born days like I seed in that house. No, I don’t wantsa stay here. Trees in the barnyard, and cherry tree, and the good swing, but they’s six, seben chiles all squeal-in and squawkin and the pigs is not so good as grandpa’s pigs never nohow. I never seed nothin so tedious. No, I don’t wantsa stay here. Gots no place to sleep at night exceptin in one bed with th’ee, fo boys, and I can’t sleep with they elbows in my face.
Grandpa Jelkey, that man scare me ’case he say “Bring that boy here,” and they brings me, and he take a holt of me by th’ arms and look at me with one great big yaller eye but don’t aim it right, poor thing, and look clear over my head and can’t see nothing. Th’ other eye, it ain’t there no more, th’ eyeball sunk inside his head. He got no eyes, that old man. He holt me tight and hurt me, and he say, “This here is the boy. Well, I ain’t gots to touch the boy more’n one time a day.” Aunt Gastonia, she run up and pull me off. “Why you wantsa curse that boy when y’already cursed ever’body seven times? It ain’t his fault what his father done to your eyes, he’s jess a chile.” And Grandpa Jelkey, he shout up “I’se gwine touch him seben times afore he dies, ain’t nobody stop me.” “You ain’t neither,” Aunt Gastonia shout up, and Uncle Sim that’s Aunt Gastonia’s husband he gotsa take Aunt Gastonia outdoor, and me, I gotsa run and hide in the barnyard, ’case I’se sho scared Grandpa Jelkey reach out and catch me again. Nos’r, I don’t like Aunt Gastonia’s house, no.
Serpentine Grandpa Jelkey sit in the corner and eat offen his knee and ever’body else eat ’round the table-top, and Grandpa Jelkey hear ever’body talkin, and say “Is that you, boy?” and mean me. I hide b’hind Aunt Gastonia. “Come on stand by me, boy, so’s I can touch you twicet. T’won’t leave me none but four, and then you pays the curse.” “Never pay no mind whad he say,” Aunt Gastonia say to me. Uncle Sim he don’t say nothin, and he never look at me neither, and I’se so scared and so sickly, well, I don’t expect I’d a-lived in Aunt Gastonia’s house long but t’go die in the woods and being so lowly and blue. Aunt Gastonia say I gits sick and lose eleben pounds, I’se so awful and feeble and lain in the dust all day. “What for you wantsa cry in the dirt, chile,” say to me, “and git all that mud on your face like that?” She gotsa wipe the mud. Aunt Gastonia, it wasn’t ever her, it was Grandpa Jelkey, and Uncle Simeon, and all the chiles th’ow sand at me. And ain’t nobody take me see grandpa in the hospital. “Oh Lord, I gotsa stop cryin so.”
Grandpa Jelkey, he reach out the window and cotch me and hurt me so I’se fall down dead, and he yell, and he whoop, and he say, “Now I’se cotch the boy and now I done touch him twicet!”—Then he say, then he say, “Th’ee!—fo!—” and Aunt Gastonia she yank me away s’hard I fall in the ground. “I done seed the sign, when I reach out to cotch him,” Grandpa Jelkey yell, “and ain’t but th’ee left now.” Aunt Gastonia bust out cryin and fall on the bed and thrash hesself and don’t know what and all the chiles run down the road t’git Uncle Sim what’s in the field with the mule, and he come runnin to the road. Lordy, then that old Grandpa Jelkey come out on the porch lookin f’me and spread his arms, f’me, and he come right straight t’where I is standin like he was not blind nohow, but then he stumble over the chair and yowl out, fall down and hurt hisself. Ever’body say Oh! Uncle Sim pick up th’ old man and carry him in the house and put him on the bed, and th’ old man gaspin. Uncle Simeon, he told cousin take me outdoor, so me and cousin go stand outdoor,
and hear Uncle Sim and Aunt Gastonia a-yellin at each other.
“What fo you wantsa keep that boy in this house what has the curse laid on him, fool woman?” Uncle Sim yell. And Aunt Gastonia, she pray and she pray, “Oh Lord, he jess a chile, he ain’t done a thing t’nobody, what for the Lord bring shame and destruction on the head of a innocent lamb, and a leastest chile.” “I ain’t got nothin to do with what the Lord decide,” yell Uncle Sim. Aunt Gastonia say “Lord God, his blood is my blood, and my sister’s blood is my blood, Oh Lord, dear Jesus, save us from sin, save my husband from sin, save my father-’n-law from sin, save my chillun from sin, and Lord, dear Lord, save ME, Gastonia Jelkey, from sin.” Uncle Sim, he come out on the porch and give the blackenest look, and walk away, ’case Aunt Gastonia she pray all night now, and he don’t got nothing to say. Grandpa Jelkey, he fall asleep.
Well cousin older’n me take me down the road and show me TOWN out yonder, ’case he knowed I’se so forlorn. He say, “Tonight Satty night, ever’body git drunk and go to TOWN yonder and they rocks, thass what they do, yas’r.” I say, “What you mean rocks?” He say, “Boy, they gots jumpinmusic and jamboree-singin and dancin all that truck. Yas’r, I seed it Satty night, had some barbecue pig and daddy he drink the bottle down like ’is”—and he throw his big head back, cousin, and he have the biggenest head, y’know, and show me, and say—“WHooee!” Then he jump around a-holtin hisself by the arms t’show me, and he say, “This here dancin. B’you cain’t go to no jamboree ’case you gotsa curse on you.” So me’n cousin go down the road a bit, and they’s all the lights of TOWN I ain’t never seed before, and we sits up in the apple tree and sees all that. But I is so low-down it don’t make no neither much to me. Lordy, what’s I care about all that old town?
Well, cousin go thisaway and I go thataway, and I traipse back up the woods and down the hill to Mr. Dunaston’s store, and hear me some radio singin again. Then, you bet, I go way down that road t’grandpa’s house. It’s all so still, s’empty, well, ain’t nobody know it but I is ’bout to die and go to my death in the ground. Old hound dog yowlin at grandpa’s door, but he ain’t livin there, and I ain’t livin there neither, ain’t nobody livin ’bout it, and he yowl his soul.
Well, grandpa seed the Lord come thu the fence a hunnerd years ago, and now he gotsa die in the hospital and never get t’see no fence nor nothin no more. I ask to th’ Lord, “What for the Lord do it to po grandpa?”
I cain’t remember no more ’bout Aunt Gastonia’s house and ever’thing done happened there.
4. BROTHER COME TO FETCH ME
A BOY LIKE ME AIN’T GOT NO PLACE TO SLEEP lessen he stay where he’s at, and I sho didn’t wantsa stay at Aunt Gastonia’s no more, but jess ain’t was nowhere for me to sleep but that po woman’s house, so I traipse back thu the black woods, yes’r and there she is, Aunt Gastonia, waitin up f’me with the oil lamp in the kitchen. “Sleep, my chile,” she say to me, and so kindly I’se like to fall and sleep on her knee, like I done on my mother’s knee when I’se a little bitty chile, before she got die. “Aunt Gastonia take care of you no matter what,” she say, and stroke m’head, and I fall asleep.
Well, I’se sick in the bed for two, th’ee, seben days and it rain and rain all the time and Aunt Gastonia feed me grits and sugar and heat up collard greens for me. Grandpa Jelkey, he sit on the other side of the house and say “Bring that boy to me,” but ain’t nobody bring me to him nor tell him where I is, and Aunt Gastonia tell ever’body to shush. Grandpa Jelkey cotch cousin thu the window like he done me, and he say, “Nope, I reckon this ain’t the boy.” And cousin he howl like I did.
I sleep two days, and don’t wake up none but for to sleep again, and Aunt Gastonia she send cousin to fetch Mr. Otis, but Mr. Otis he gone up NORTH. “Where he gone up NORTH?” she say to cousin, and cousin say, “Why he jess gone up NORTH.” “What part the NORTH he gone up there?” and cousin say, “Why, he’s gone up to NORTH VIRGINIA.” Aunt Gastonia, she bow her po head down and don’t know whatsa do.
So Mr. Otis is gone, and Aunt Gastonia pray for me, and bring Miz Jones to pray for me too.
Uncle Sim, he look at me once, and he say to Aunt Gastonia, “That boy’s ’bout to folly his grandaddy I reckon,” and she look up to the roof and say, “Amen, the world ain’t fit for no such a lamb, Jesus save his soul.” “Well,” say Uncle Sim, “I don’t guess it’s but one less mouf t’feed,” and she shriek “Oh Jehovah guide my man from sinful ways.” “Shush your mouf, woman, this man ain’t got no time for sinful ways and he ain’t a-gonna get no new stove this winter neither, ’case that tobacco patch been cursed, hear, the bugs done started eatin leaves since that boy been here.” And he stomp out the door.
Well, thass the longest talk I ever hear that man make.
I lay in the bed one Satty mornin, and W H O O P! they’s ever’body yellin and talkin outdoor, and carryin on so loud I try to see and stretch my head way out but cain’t see nothin. They all comes traipsin up the porch. Well I pull my head back ’case I’se sick. Well, who do you guess come in that door, and all the chillun grinnin behind?
If it ain’t my brother, dog my cats, and he change so much since he go away from me and grandpa, I cain’t for sure say who that man is standin in the door, ’case he gots a little bitty round hat on his head with a little bitty button on top of it, and hairs a-hangin from his chin p’culiar, and he all thin, and lean, and all drew-out tall, and sorry-lookin too. He laugh and laugh when he see me, and come over to the bed for t’catch me, and look at me in th’eye. “Here he is,” he say, and it ain’t nobody he talk it to, ’case he say it to hisself, and smile, and me, I’se so s’prised I don’t say nothin. Well, y’know, I’se so s’prised it make me sit up in the bed.
All the chillun is grinnin, but Aunt Gastonia she trouble and fuss hesself, poor soul, and she keep lookin over her shoulder for fear Uncle Sim come up the road, ’case he don’t like my brother neither, I don’t reckon. “Looky here John, where you been and what’s you come here for?” she say to my brother, and he say “Hey now” and jump up and do the most comical shufflin ’bout the house I ever seed, and I laugh, and all the chillun laugh with me, and Grandpa Jelkey, he rare up and say, “What fo ever’body laugh?”
“I come here to fetch Mister Pic, ma’m, and bring him on my magic carpet up NORTH to NEW YORK CITY, your grace,” he say, and do the most comical bow-down and fetch off his comical hat and show ever’body his head. The chiles and me, we gotsa laugh again and you ain’t never seed such ’joyin and laughin. “Who that talkin?” Grandpa Jelkey say, and he say “Why-all’s them chillun laugh so?” But ain’t nobody tell him.
“How come you here?” Aunt Gastonia ask my brother, and he tuck his hat under his arm and say, “Why, for to get my brother, that’s how come,” and he don’t traipse about no more, and the chillun teeter on th’ edge of their feets, ’case they wantsa laugh some more, but now the big folkses solemn actin.
Me, well great day in the mornin, I get up and trample on the bed with m’feet, hear, I cotch m’ breath so hard and feel so good. Whoo!
“You dassn’t,” Aunt Gastonia say to him, and he say “Yes I do, and why do you say I dassn’t?” “Why?” Aunt Gastonia say, “and ain’t you some no-account man come in here and say you’s gwine take this sick chile away from the roof over his head?”
“No roof of his own, Aunt Gastonia,” he say, and that woman rare up and yell, “Don’t Aunt Gastonia with me none, folks around know you’s no-account and never did anything b’drink and traipse around the highway ever’ blessed night and then jess up and leave when you most was needed by your po old folks. Go away, go away.”
“Who that in the house?” Grandpa Jelkey yell, and fuss and pull at th’arms of his chair and look around. Well, you know, me and the chillun don’t laugh no more now.
“Lady,” say my brother, “how you talk,” and Aunt Gastonia she yell, “Don’t lady me, and don’t come here fetchin no chile from outen my roof and learn him the way
s of evil like you done learned from your pappy. YES,” she yell, “you no better’n your pappy ever was and no better’n no Jackson ever was.”
Well, I seed all about my life right then. “Who that man in the house?” yell Grandpa Jelkey, and he was so pow’ful mad I ain’t never seed that old blind man so mad. He fetch up his cane and holt it tight. Well, right then here come Uncle Sim on the porch, and when that man see my brother standin in the middle of the house his eyes git big they’s like chicken eggs, and white, and round, as hard. And he say soft, and p’culiar, “You ain’t got no call bein in this house, man, and you knowed that.” He don’t turn away none but reach behind the door and pull out that old shovel what’s leaning there. “Git out of here.” Aunt Gastonia cotch her neck quick, and open her mouth to scream, but ain’t scarce ready yet, and ever’body wait.