Stories of Erskine Caldwell

  “You’re missing me!” Robert said. “Here I am. Growl some at me.”

  “Woof! Woof! Woof!”

  “Look! Here are some berries for the big black bear,” Elizabeth said, holding out a handful of grass. “Would you like to have some berries?”

  “Woof!” Daddy said, licking the short blades of grass from her hand. “Woof!”

  “I’m going to ride the bear!” Robert cried. “Look at me! I’m going to ride the big black bear’s back. I’m not afraid!”

  Robert ran and climbed on Daddy’s back, whipping the bear with a maple twig to make him get-up.

  “Now, let’s play horse,” Daddy said. “This is a new game. We’ve never played horse before, have we, Elizabeth?”

  “Oh, let’s do!” she said. “Hurry, Robert! Get down off the bear’s back so we can all play horse. It’s going to be lots of fun, isn’t it, Daddy?”

  “It certainly is,” said Daddy. “But who is going to be the horse?”

  “Oh, you are!” Elizabeth cried. “You be the horse.”

  “All right. I’m the horse. Now look out! Here comes the wild white horse!”

  “What’s the horse going to do?” Robert asked.

  “The horse would like some sugar,” Daddy said. “The horse likes sugar better than anything else. He likes salt sometimes, but he would rather have sugar now. He hasn’t had any sugar for a long time.”

  “Where’s the horse going to get sugar?” Elizabeth asked. “We haven’t any out here.”

  “Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!” Daddy said, galloping around in a circle on his hands and feet.

  “The horse is looking for sugar,” Robert said. “Look out! Don’t let the wild horse kick you!”

  Daddy stopped, twisted his head from side to side and raised his foot high into the air behind him.

  “Look out!” Robert cried. “The horse is getting ready to kick!”

  Daddy held his foot high up behind him a moment and kicked. He kicked so hard it made his shoe come tumbling off.

  “The horse kicked his shoe off!” Elizabeth said. “Let’s be careful, because the horse is angry with us for not giving him some sugar. Oh, where will we find some sugar!”

  “I’m not afraid of the horse,” Robert said. “Watch me! I’m going to ride him!”

  “He’ll throw you off,” said Elizabeth. “You’d better wait until he gets some sugar first.”

  “Watch me! This is the way to catch a wild horse and ride him away!”

  “Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!” Daddy said, galloping off. He stopped and kicked high into the air with his other foot. That shoe did not come off as the other one had.

  “Here I go!” Robert said. “Watch me ride the wild horse all around the pasture!”

  Daddy stood still until Robert had climbed on his back. Then he shook his head from side to side, snorted, and pawed the lawn.

  “Let me ride, too,” Elizabeth begged. “I’d like to ride the wild horse.”

  She climbed on Daddy’s back behind Robert and held Robert around the waist so she would not be thrown off when the horse bucked and reared.

  “What are you getting down flat on the ground for, Daddy?” Robert asked. “We are all on. You may get up now, Daddy. Make the wild horse snort and buck!”

  Daddy lay down flat on the lawn. Elizabeth got off, but Robert took a maple-tree twig and tried to make the horse get-up.

  “The horse won’t get-up,” Robert said. “He wants to lie down.”

  “Why don’t you play horse any more, Daddy?” Elizabeth asked. “If you are tired of playing horse, let’s play another game. I know a good one called ‘Hunting the Kitty.’ Don’t you wish to play that with us? It’s lots of fun, Daddy.”

  Robert got up and walked towards the porch. He stopped and looked back at Daddy and Elizabeth on the lawn.

  “I’m going to tell Mother you won’t play with us any more, Daddy,” he said. “She’ll come out and make you play.”

  He ran into the house. Elizabeth moved closer to Daddy and began searching for four-leaf clovers in the grass.

  The red leaves on the maples in the yard were falling to the lawn. When a sudden gust of wind blew, the leaves spun and twirled on their stems, fluttering to the ground like small pieces of torn red paper. Over on the hill the orange and gold trees rustled and bowed in the wind, shaking themselves until the underside of the leaves turned outward to the sun.

  Mother and Robert came out the front door and walked across the lawn. Mother put her finger over her lips so that no one would make a sound. She came closer, tiptoeing softly on the smooth lawn, trying not to make any noise. Robert held her by the hand, holding his finger over his lips, too. Elizabeth put her hand over her mouth, nodding her head up and down, and opening her eyes wider and wider. In another moment they could all scare Daddy, because he did not know that Mother and Robert were there.

  When Mother got almost in front of him, she took her finger from her lips and nodded at Robert and Elizabeth. He and Elizabeth were all but bursting with excitement.

  “Boo!” Mother cried, falling down beside Daddy on the grass.

  “Boo! Daddy!” Robert said.

  “Boo!” said Elizabeth, jumping up and down.

  Mother looked down at Daddy, waiting for him to raise his head and smile at her. She waited another moment and bent closer.

  A small black ant was crawling over his nose. On the back of his white shirt a big green grasshopper sat with his long legs all ready to spring.

  “Look at the funny grasshopper,” Robert said, touching it with a blade of grass. “He’s resting on Daddy’s shirt. Look at him jump so high!”

  “Shhh!” Mother said, putting her finger over her lips again. “Don’t make any sounds. Daddy is fast asleep.”

  “Then how can we play, if Daddy isn’t going to be the wild horse?” Elizabeth asked, pouting.

  “Playing horse isn’t much fun,” Robert said. “I would like to play something else when Daddy wakes up.”

  Mother sat down close to Daddy, taking one of his hands in hers. She held his hand a moment, and dropped it.

  “What’s the matter?” Elizabeth asked, clutching Mother’s skirt. “Why did you scream, Mother?”

  Mother was biting her lips and looking down at Daddy’s white shirt where the big grasshopper had been sitting. A maroon maple leaf fluttered down, spinning over and over. It fell on Daddy’s shirt and lay there.

  “Will Daddy play with us again when he wakes up?” Robert asked. “We had almost finished playing horse, and there’re some other games we wish to play, too.”

  “Daddy kicked so hard while we were playing horse that his shoe came off,” Elizabeth said. “Look! Here it is!”

  She picked it up, and Mother took it from her and held it in both of her hands, pressing it against her breast. Her fingers moved over it as if she were trying to feel what it was without looking at it.

  The little black ant on Daddy’s nose crawled up to his forehead and stopped there to look at something.

  “We must go into the house now,” Mother said, taking Elizabeth and Robert by the hands. “I want both of you to go to the playroom and stay there until I call you. Look at the pictures in your books, or build something with your blocks, but do not look out of the window until I call you. Run along now, Robert and Elizabeth. Mother will be busy for a long time.”

  They went into the house and Mother waited at the bottom of the stairs while they were going up to the playroom. She leaned against the newel post, holding close to her breast the shoe that Daddy had kicked off when he was the wild horse.

  “It’s a shame to stay indoors when it’s so nice out there,” Robert said. “All the red leaves will soon be gone.”

  “Will you call us the minute Daddy wakes up, Mother’?” Elizabeth asked. “Please do. We wish to finish playing horse — and we have some new games to play, too.”

  “Yes,” Mother said, “I’ll call you.”

  (First published in Pagany)

&nbs
p; Savannah River Payday

  A QUARTER OF A mile down the river the partly devoured carcasses of five or six mules that had been killed during the past two weeks by the heat and overwork at the sawmill, lay rotting in the midafternoon sun. Of the hundred or more buzzards hovering around the flesh, some were perched drowsily on the cypress stumps, and some were strutting aimlessly over the cleared ground. Every few minutes one of the buzzards, with a sound like wagon-rumble on a wooden bridge, beat the sultry air with its wings and pecked and clawed at the decaying flesh. Dozens of the vultures glided overhead hour after hour in monotonous circles.

  The breeze that had been coming up the river since early that morning shifted to the east and the full stench of sun-rotted muleflesh settled over the swamp. The July sun blazed over the earth and shriveled the grass and weeds until they were as dry as crisp autumn leaves. A cloud of dense black smoke blew over from the other side of the river when somebody threw an armful of fat pine on the fire under the moonshine still.

  Jake blew his nose on the ground and asked Red for a smoke. Red gave him a cigarette.

  “What time’s it now, Red?”

  Red took his watch from his overalls pocket and showed it to Jake.

  “Looks to me like it’s about three o’clock,” he told Red.

  Red jerked the pump out of the dust and kicked at the punctured tire. The air escaped just as fast as he could pump it in. There was nothing in the old car to patch the tube with.

  Jake spat at the Negro’s head on the running board and grabbed Red’s arm.

  “That nigger’s stinkin’ worse than them mules, Red. Let’s run that tire flat so we can git to town and git shed of him. I don’t like to waste time around that smell.”

  Red was open to any suggestion. The sweat had been running down his face and over his chest and wetting his breeches. He had been pumping for half an hour trying to get some air into the tire. It had been flat when they left the sawmill.

  Jake cranked up the engine and they got in and started up the road towards town. It was three miles to town from the sawmill.

  The old automobile rattled up the road through the deep yellow dust. The sun was so hot it made the air feel like steam when it was breathed into the lungs. Most of the water had leaked from the radiator, and the engine knocked like ten-pound hammers on an anvil. Red did not care about the noise as long as he could get where he was going.

  Half a mile up the road was Hog Creek. When they got to the top of the hill Red shut off the engine. The car rolled down to the creek and stopped on the bridge.

  “Git some water for the radiator, Jake,” Red said. He reached in the back seat and pulled out a tin can for Jake to carry the water in.

  Jake crawled out of the car and stretched his arm and legs. He wiped the sweat off his face with his shirttail.

  “Don’t hurry me,” Jake said, leaning against the car. “Ain’t no hurry for nothin’.”

  Red got tired holding the can. He threw it at Jake. Jake dodged it and the can rolled off the bridge down into the creek. Red propped his feet on the windshield and got ready to take a nap while Jake was going for the water.

  Jake walked around to the other side of the car and looked at the Negro. The hot sun had swollen the lips until they curled over and touched the nose and chin. The Negro had tripped up that morning when he tried to get out of the way of a falling cypress tree.

  “What’s this nigger’s name?” he asked Red.

  “Jim somethin’,” Red grunted, trying to sleep.

  Jake turned the head over with his foot so he could see the face. He happened to think that he might have known him.

  “God Almighty!” he said, shaking Red by the arm. “Hand me that monkey wrench quick, Red.”

  Red lifted up the back seat and found the monkey wrench. He got out and handed it to Jake.

  “What’s the matter, Jake? What’s the matter with the nigger?”

  Jake picked up a stick and pushed back the Negro’s lips.

  “Look at them gold teeth, Red,” he pointed.

  Red squatted beside the running board and tried to count the gold teeth.

  “Here, Red, you take this stick and hold his mouth open while I knock off that gold.”

  Red took the stick and pushed the lips away from the teeth. Jake choked the monkey wrench halfway and tapped on the first tooth. He had to hit it about six or seven times before it broke off and fell on the bridge. Red picked it up and rubbed the dirt off on his overalls.

  “How much is it worth, Jake?” he asked, bouncing the tooth in the palm of his hand trying to feel the weight.

  “About two dollars,” Jake said. “Maybe more.”

  Jake took the tooth and weighed it in his hand.

  “Hold his mouth open and let me knock out the rest of them,” Jake said. He picked up the monkey wrench and choked it halfway. “There’s about three or four more, looks like to me.”

  Red pushed the Negro’s lips away from the teeth while Jake hammered away at the gold. The sun had made the teeth so hot they burned his fingers when he picked them off the bridge.

  “You keep two and give me three,” Red said. “It’s my car we’re totin’ him to town in.”

  “Like hell I will,” Jake said. “I found them, didn’t I? Well, I got the right to keep three myself if I want to.”

  Red jerked the monkey wrench off the running board and socked Jake on the head with it. The blow was only hard enough to stun him. Jake reeled around on the bridge like he was dead drunk and fell against the radiator. Red followed him up and socked him again. A ball-of skin and hair fell in the dust. He took all the gold teeth and put them into his overalls pocket. Jake was knocked out cold. Red shook him and kicked him, but Jake didn’t move. Red dragged him around to the back seat and threw him inside and shut the door. Then he cranked up the car and started to town. The tire that was punctured had dropped off the wheel somewhere down the road and there was nothing left except the rim to ride on.

  Red had gone a little over a mile from the bridge when Jake came to himself and sat up on the back seat. He was still a little dizzy, but he knew what he was doing.

  “Hold on a minute, Red,” he shouted. “Stop this automobile.”

  Red shut off the engine and the car rolled to a stop. He got out in the road.

  “What you want now, Jake?” he asked him.

  “Look, Red,” he pointed across the cotton field beside the road. “Look what’s yonder, Red.”

  A mulatto girl was chopping cotton about twenty rows from the road. Red started across the field after her before Jake could get out. They stumbled over the cotton rows kicking up the plants with every step.

  Jake caught up with Red before they reached the girl. When they were only two rows away, she dropped her hoe and started running towards the woods.

  “Hey, there!” Jake shouted. “Don’t you run off!”

  He picked up a heavy sun-baked clod and heaved it at her as hard as he could. She turned around and tried to dodge it; but she could not get out of the way in time, and it struck her full on the forehead.

  Red got to her first. The girl rubbed her head and tried to get up. He pushed her down again.

  Jake came running up. He tried to kick her dress above her waist with his foot.

  “Wait a minute,” Red said. He shoved Jake off his feet. “I got here first.”

  “That don’t cut no ice with me,” Jake said. He started for Red and butted him down. Then he stood over him and tried to stomp Red’s head with his heels.

  Red got away and picked up the girl’s hoe and swung it with all his might at Jake’s head. The sharp blade caught Jake on the right side of his head and sliced his ear off close to his face. Jake fell back and felt his face and looked at the ear on the ground.

  Red turned around to grab the girl, but she was gone. She was nowhere in sight.

  “Come on, Jake,” he said. “She run off. Let’s git to town and dump that nigger. I want ’bout a dozen good stiff drinks. I don?
??t work all week and let payday git by without tankin’ up good and plenty.”

  Jake tore one of the sleeves out of his shirt and made a bandage to tie around his head. It did not bleed so much after that.

  Red went back to the car and waited for Jake. The dead Negro on the running board was a hell of a lot of trouble. If it had not been for him, the girl would not have got scared and run away.

  They got into the car again and started to town. They had to get to the undertaker’s before six o’clock, because he closed up at that time; and they did not want to have to carry the dead Negro around with them all day Sunday.

  “What time’s it now, Red?” Jake asked him.

  Red pulled out his watch and showed it to Jake.

  “Looks like it’s about five o’clock,” Jake told him.

  Red put the watch back into his overalls pocket.

  It was about a mile and a half to town yet, and there was a black cloud coming up like there might be a big thunderstorm. The old car had got hot again because they did not get the water at Hog Creek, and the engine was knocking so hard it could be heard half a mile away.

  Suddenly the storm broke overhead and the water came down in bucketfuls. There was no place to stop where they could get out of the rain and there was no top on the car. Red opened the throttle as wide as it would go and tried to get to town in a hurry. The rain cooled the engine and made the car run faster.

  When they got to the edge of town, the old car was running faster than it ever had. The rain came down harder and harder all the time. It was a cloudburst, all right.

  Then suddenly one of the cylinders went dead, and the machine slowed down a little. In a minute two more of the cylinders went dead at the same time, and the car could barely move on the one that was left. The rain would drown that one out, too, in a little while.

  The car went as far as the poolroom and stopped dead. All the cylinders were full of water.

  “Git out, Red,” Jake shouted. “I’ll bet you a quart of corn I can beat you five games of pool.”

  Red was right behind Jake. The rain had soaked every thread of their clothes.