Billy (15 page)

The sheriff turned back to the
counter, took
a
sip
from his glass, bu t could
still
feel Shorty's
grin grindi
n
g
against his back.
Th
e
n
,
quicker than
swatti ng
a buzzi n Uy,
I
he
sheriff

B I L L
y
I 55

spund around and brought the back of his hand
across
Shor ty's smiling face. Shorty's dwarflike body went hafeway across the room and landed on one of the tables, then he and the ta ble crashed to the floor. Shorty just laid there, wasn't a
smile
on his face. Big Jake woke up and Della Robinson
got out
of Lhere.

"Little girl ain'L hurt,
she
dead," the sheriff mumbled, then turned back to LeRoy,
saying,
"I got somethin ugly here, real ugly."

"Umm, what can Ah do for ya, Sheriff?" LeRoy asked.

"I got me a liLtle girl layin out Lhere dead. She
got a stab
from a knife that let all her blood run
out
of her. She's dead. Wasn't nothin nobody
could
do for her once that knife
was
shoved up in her." The sheriff mumbled something that LeRoy couldn't hear, then was silent for a moment.

"I wanna know, which niggers did this?"

"Ah ain't heard nothin for ya, Sheriff, been here all day." "That ain't what I asked ya, LeRoy."

"Ah
ain't heard tell of it till Shorty bring it here." "That ain't what I ask ya."

"Ain't nobody down here,
cept
Big Jake. He
sleepin all
day. Della come down here when
Shorty git
here. She ain't knowin nothin. Ah ain't heard of no drifti n folks bei n around.
If
Ah do, Ah come and gits ya myself."

"That
ain't what I asked
ya."
Silence.

Sheriff Tom leans from the
counler,
looks
over
to Big Jake, but doesn't say anything, then slowly walks towards the door, Lhen pauses in the doorway, wipes the back of his neck,
and
turns around and looks at LeRoy.

"I reckon it's
about
four-thirLy, five o'clock abouts. I
wa nt
them two boys fore that
sun goes
down. I don't
get em,
I'm

56 I Albert Fre11ch

not even gonna be ask in why. Ya hear me? Ya want ta fuck again, ya think abou t it," Sheriff Tom mumbled, but LeRoy heard him.

Reverend Sims'
eyes
went from the road to them bushes and high grass when the
corner
of his
eye
catches a glimpse of some quick jerky movement. He sees Della Robinson runnin with her hands flappin like bird wings, and watches her until she reaches the first shack at the road
's
end
and disappears behind it. He waited. He could hear her voice shouting at the porch-sitters out back of the shack, but
could
not make
out
her words. When he could see her again, he
stepped
down his two steps and walked out into his di1t
yard some,
so she'd be sure to see him. He knew she would come to him. All sheeps come to the shepherd when wolves
come,
he thinks.

Della Robinson scoots up between the
shacks and
sees Reverend Sims standing with his hands folded, his ways
call
her to him.

"Reverend, Reverend, that sheriff, he just, he, he . . .
" "What
happen,
child,
what ya tryin ta tell?"

"That Sheriff Tom he's down LeRoy's. Shmty ain't botherin him. Shorty wasn't clears
ways
across
them tables LeRoy got down there, Lakes his hand and
just
knocks poor Short
y
for nothin. Hit him just likes
ya
k nock a
mule.
Shorty just
a
layin down there, be layin down there
on
the floor, got blood comin all out his mouth. Then t hat old
sheriff
just turn on back arounds."

"Lord have mercy."

"Ah got on out of there. He
say
that
c
hild dead. After he smacks Shorty, he
say
that
child
is dead.
Ain't
no tellin what that fool man be

"Lord
have mercy. He
say
that
child
done died?"

B I L L
y
I 57

"Ah hear him say that. He smack Shorty and that
what
he say."

"Ya
just go on home now, git in the house."

The Patch dogs started barking and running down to the road. Reverend Sims turned and went back up his steps
and
went into his house, then
closed
the door.

Sheriff Tom's car came back up the road, the dogs chased it until it stopped, then they barked around its doors until the sheriff pushed the door open and got out. The dogs sniffed a little and backed away, growling and whining. The
children
had vanished.

The sheriff came around the car, and stood there with his hands on his hips while he looked up at the rows of shacks, then started up one of the paths.

Jackson Bivens was a sturdy-built man,
young
man still
in
his twenties, lived down there next to the Patch Road with his wife and their three children. Saturdays were slow for him, he had done some chores and was just sitting and waiting
on
eatin time. His wife, Tammy, wasn't too far from havin the fourth mouth to feed and was trying to keep the children quiet. They both knew Sheriff Tom was in the Patch, and that young white child was dead.

Jackson Bivens jumped when he heard the heavy footsteps come up on his porch. He got up and
went
to the door quickly but was pushed back into his sittin room by Sheriff Tom as the
sheriff
busted into the house. Tammy grabbed for her children as they ran and clung to her
side.
The youngest
started
crying.

Sheriff Tom stood in the sun
made him a massive faceless
shadow.

"How many
chilya got here, hoy, how many, shout shook
the
sitti n
room.

5[J
I
AllJert French

"These
here my
children.
These my
children
here,"
Jack
son
Bivens
stammered.

Silence, except
for the crying
children
and heavy breathin. The
sheriff
looks around the room, then mumbles, "Ya got two boys
around
here that killed
a
little girl. I want
em,
ya

hear?"

Out there behind the Patch, and behind Stony Mound, which
wasn't
nothin but a couple more
shacks
where some self keepin
coloreds
lived, was
what folks called
the Bad Land. Abou t the only thing the Bad Land was good for was raisin
snakes
and water rats. It was too muddy for planting and liv ing. Hafe swamp, the other hafe
wasn't
much more than clumps of hard mud with a few trees
growing
amidst them tall
cattails.
Bad Land had
some
zigzaggin little trails
cutting
through it, most of them led back to Stony
Mound.
Then that land between Stony
Mou nd
and the back
of
the Patch wasn
'
t much better than the Bad Land. It didn
'
t
have
all that
water,
just that thick muddy dirt. Its
paths zigzagged
around all through it, had to know just
where you were,
to
gel
wh
ere
you
were gomg.

Billy and Gumpy knew the paths, and
Gumpy
k new which
one
would take him
home, and
that's th
e
one
he
was
on. They had
cut
through the bushes by the tracks,
come
through them
thi n
trees
over
there and then
crossed
the
Catfish Creek
and
zigged and zagged
through the Bad Land,
come arou nd
them Stony Mound fields and into them muddy fields behind the Patch.

Gumpy's leaning
forward
in his walk, has his head down, bu t
he's
not thinking of no
snakes.
Billy's lagging
behind, s
t
ops sometimes
to
see
if Gumpy is
going
to
stop,
then runs

B I L L
y
I
59

a
little bit to
catch
up
when Gumpy
keeps
going.
Billy
looks
ahead, past Gumpy, and knows home
ain't
that far. He
can see
them brown back
shacks
of the Patch.

"Hey,
Gumpy," Billy
shouts.
Silence.

"Gumpy,
Gumpy," Billy
calls again.
Silence.

"Hey,
Gumpy,
come
on, wait up."
"Naw,"
Gumpy
shouts
back.

"Come
on,
Gumpy,
let's waits fore
we's goes
home," Billy
shouts.

Silence.

"Ah
goin home, Billy. Ah ain't
playin wit ya
no more,
ya git
us in troubles. Leave me be," Gumpy
shouts
but does not look back.

"Ya
just
scared,
Gumpy,
ya
just
scared of everything.
Ya just a big old crybaby,
ya
older than me,
ya
twelves already, but ya still be fraids
of
everythin. Ah ain't scared, Ah ain't
afraids,
Ah show
ya Ah
ain't afraids of nothin. Ya fraid, not me. Hey, Gumpy,
come
on, wait up," Billy
shouts
ahead as he lags behind.

Gumpy starts running as he
sees
the Patch
shacks.
His
eyes
widen and the tears begin to bubble up in the
corners.
He reaches the back dirt yards of the
shacks
and begins to wind down through the paths until he reaches his home, then he runs inside.

Billy
sighs
as he watches Gumpy disappear into the
shack yards,
then begi ns to quicken his steps.
When
he
gets
to his home, he does as he always does, jumps up on the
side of th
e
porch.

"Thank Jesus, thank
ya,
Jesus. Here he is, he'
s
home," Katey shouts as
she
hears Billy on the porch.

60
I Albert Frenclt

Cinder
turns from the
cook in
table. She had
calmly
started t h
e
Saturday
meal
after
Katey
came
runnin in the house
sc
r
e
amin
about
getti ng all
the
children
in because the sheriff hi t
Shorty and was
down in the Patch botherin folks.

"G
e
t in h
e
re, child,
get in here." Katey gets Billy by the
arm and pulls
him into the house, then ask, "Where's
ya been?
We been just a worryin about
ya. Where's
ya get
all
them
scratches
on
ya
face? Let me look at ya, come over here."

Cinder
yells
above Katey,
"Billy
Lee,
come
over here now. Let me see
your
face. What happened to
your
face? You and Gumpy get into a fight? He hurt you like this, did he?"

"No, Mama, he ain't hurt me, we
ain't
fights," Billy an
swers
his mother as
she
gently holds his face up in her hands and looks at the scratches and bruises.

"What
happen to
you,
then?" "Nothin, Mama, nothin."

"Billy
Lee, did
you and
Gumpy have a fight?"
"No,
Mama, no,
we
ain't fight."

"What happen to
you,
Billy Lee?
Who scratched you?" "Nothin,
Mama, Ah fall in the
stickin
bushes."

Silence.

"Billy
Lee,
you been
in a fight.
Now,
tell me, who hurt
you
like this? Somebody
scratched you real
bad,
who
hurt my baby?" Cinder ask in
a
whisper as
she
leans closer to look at Billy's
face and
turns it
from side
to
side.