Beverly looked at him and smiled. She admired this big man sitting beside her.
“He’s paid you,” she said. “Rewarded you for your work many times. Can’t you see how many times He’s rewarded you?”
She waited for him to answer her. He looked at her as if he didn’t know what she was talking about.
“The ones you led to that courthouse, to that fountain, don’t tremble any more when they lean over to get a drink of water. Isn’t that payment enough?”
“They’re the same ones who told me to go to hell today,” Phillip said.
“Who told you that?” Beverly asked. “How many? Five? Six? And I’m sure they don’t mean it. And even if they did, how about all the rest? There’re many more people who walk up to that courthouse today without trembling. I go up there today without trembling. Shepherd go up there today without trembling. I take my class there, and they walk all through that courthouse without trembling. Your son Patrick is in my class. He’s one of the proudest little boys you’ll ever meet. Why? Because Daddy made all this possible. Isn’t that payment enough, Reverend Martin?”
“I’m talking about my son,” he said.
“Patrick is your son too, isn’t he? Isn’t Patrick your son, Reverend Martin?”
He didn’t answer her. He didn’t know how to answer her. He didn’t like the way she was turning things around.
“You wanted the past changed, Reverend Martin,” she told him. “Even He can’t do that. So that leaves nothing but the future. We work toward the future. To keep Patrick from going to that trestle. One day I’ll have a son, and what we do tomorrow might keep him from going to that trestle. That’s all we can ever hope for, isn’t it, Reverend Martin? That’s all we work for, isn’t it?”
He didn’t answer her. She picked up his hand again.
“Your hands are so big,” she said. “So strong. The hands of a fighter. These hands belong to a fighter.”
She laid his hand back on his leg and stood up.
“You ought to go in there to her,” she said. She turned to Shepherd. “You ready to go?”
“Sure.”
Beverly went into the other room to tell Alma that she was leaving. When she came back out she went over to the sofa and kissed Phillip on the side of the face.
“You won’t let us down, will you?”
He looked at her but didn’t answer her. She turned for the door. Shepherd shook hands with Chippo, nodded to Phillip, and followed her out of the room. Chippo went as far as the door with them and then came back to the heater. He stood with his back to it and looked at Phillip.
“They married?”
“No,” Phillip said.
“I’ll give him a month.”
“You think so?” Phillip asked.
“Sure’s my name’s Erin Simon,” Chippo said.
Both of them could hear the springs as Alma turned over on the bed in the other room.
“I think I might go for a little walk,” Chippo said.
“This time of morning?” Phillip asked him.
“I’m a rover,” Chippo said. “Don’t matter to me what time it is.”
He came to the sofa to get his hat and coat.
“Just push the door if y’all leave,” he said.
“When you coming home, Chippo?” Phillip asked him.
“I’ll come in later today,” Chippo said, and went out.
Phillip sat there watching the door a long time after Chippo had gone. Finally he pushed himself up and went into the other room.
“Everybody’s gone?” Alma asked him.
“Yes, everybody’s gone.”
He lay down on the bed beside her. And she moved up close against him.
“I’m lost, Alma. I’m lost.”
“Shhh,” she said. “Shhh. Shhh. We just go’n have to start again.”
Ernest J. Gaines, In My Father's House
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