Chaneysville Incident (17 page)

“Well, I can’t say what they mighta done to me—I suspect as how that wasn’t ma smartest move—but they never got the chance, on accounta there come a knock on the front door. The old man told Merle to set Josh an me aloose from the chairs, which he done, an’ they herded us both down the hallway towards the parlor. Josh jest walked along, calm as you please, lookin’ dead. I suspect it wouldn’ta mattered if they hadn’ta tied his hands. It was harder for me; them chains was the heaviest damn things you can imagine. They wasn’t even tied to me, jest wrapped around, an’ it woulda been easiern hell to whip ’em off if it hadn’ta been for the fact that ma arms was inside next to ma chest. There wasn’t nothin’ I could do, so I jest clanked along.

“Jest ’fore we got to the door I heard a sound. Funny sound. Like a dog makes when you hit it all the time. I stopped an’ I turned around an’ looked, an’ then I seen her. The girl. She was standin’ up to the top a the steps, lookin’ down at us. She was a little bit of a thing, with long dark hair an’ skin the color a snow an’ these big black eyes; I could see ’em starin’ at us. She was dressed all in white, in a dress that went clear to the floor, an’ the wall behind her was white, an’ there wasn’t no light up there to speak of, so all you could see was the hair an’ the eyes an’ the size of her. But you could hear her voice; that was the sound.

“Well, the old man looked up at her an’ he says, ‘Clydette, I told you to get outa sight an’ stay outa sight.’ But she didn’t pay him no attention. She says, ‘Joshua? Joshua?’ I looked at Josh, but it was like he didn’t hear her. I didn’t blame him for not turnin’ his head, I wouldn’ta turned my head for her no more neither, but it was like he didn’t even hear her. But the old man heard her, an’ went flyin’ up them steps and fetched her a good clean slap an’ knocked her sprawlin’. Then he come back, an’ him an’ Wayne an’ Merle hauled us out inta the yard.

“They was waitin’ out in the yard, all them farmers an’ Parker Adams in his sheet, laid out in a half circle. They was all carryin’ torches, an’ the whole yard was lit up brightern day. Soon as they seen Josh, the whole bunch of ’em left out a roar like a mangled she-bear, an’ for the first time it come to me jest how bad it was. I had perty much figured out I was gonna die, but I’d been too close to that too many times to let it spook me. But hearin’ that roar, I got to thinkin’ ’bout what they might do to me ’forehand, things that, well, once they happen to a man, he’d jest as soon die, an’ if you come along an’ save his life afterwards, it ain’t no kindness.

“Well, Parker waited till they quieted down, an’ then he waved his hand an’ some a them farmers come up on the porch an’ laid hold a Josh. Then Merle gives me a shove an’ I come out in the torchlight. I seen old Parker give a start, ’cause I knowed he recognized me. ‘What the hell you got there, Mr. McElfish?’ he says. Only he made his voice all high an’ whispery, an’ it come to me that didn’t nobody else there know ’xactly who he was. ‘Don’t rightly know,’ the old man says. ‘He come bustin’ into the party so’s me an’ the boys give him these chains for a door prize. Figger he must be hooked up with that un there. But I don’t see it matters none; a nigger’s a nigger, an’ if you gonna have a lynchin’, two’s as good as one.’ ‘Maybe,’ says Parker, ‘but these two runs with a third one, an’ if they’re both here, third one can’t be far off. You, Jack,’ he says, ‘where’s Moses at?’ I give ma voice a good shake, on accounta I seen a chance an’ I wanted Parker to think I was scaredern I was, an’ I says, ‘He was right here, but he went to get the sheriff, an’ when they get here you gonna be in some kinda trouble, an’ if I was you I’d turn tail an’ head back to Maryland fast as I could.’ I wanted old Parker to get it in his head that I didn’t know who he was. Only it damn near backfired. ‘Mr. McElfish,’ Parker says in that high whispery voice, ‘you told this man where I was from?’ ‘No, sir,’ says the old man. ‘He musta been listenin’ for a while ’fore he come bustin’ in.’ So I was safe; Parker musta let on to ’em he was from Maryland, which made all kindsa sense. ‘ ’Sides,’ the old man says, ‘we gonna kill him anyways, so it don’t make no diff—’ ‘Listen here, McElfish,’ Parker says. ‘You bear in mind who’s runnin’ this lynchin’. Now, maybe we’ll kill ’em both, an’ maybe we’ll let this one watch so he can go back an’ tell the rest. I ain’t decided.’ Well, jest about then Wayne perks up a little, an’ he says, ‘If we only gonna lynch that un there, kin we mess this un here up a little ’fore we leave him go?’ Parker looks at him. ‘McElfish,’ he says, ‘you shut this lump of pork fat up ’fore I decide to lynch him too.’ ‘Shup, Wayne,’ the old man says, an’ Wayne shut up.

“They put us up in front of a bunch of ’em an’ they made us march. Josh coulda run, maybe, but he looked deadern a two-day-old catfish, an’ I wasn’t gonna get too far wearin’ eighty pounds a chain. So we jest walked along, me keepin’ ma eyes peeled for a sign a Mose. I figgered he had to be doin’ somethin’, an’ I knowed it wasn’t goin’ for no sheriff. But he didn’t show hisself, an’ nothin’ happened. So all I could do was march.

“Well, they took us back down the lane to the main road, an’ they marched us south for maybe a mile or so. It musta been a sight: two colored men walkin’ along with ropes around their necks like they was dogs an’ thirty men with guns on horseback an’ wagons, an’ what all. I got to thinkin’ it musta looked jest like somebody goin’ huntin’. We was the dogs an’ they was the hunters, an’ the onliest thing we needed was a coon, only we was the coons, an’ they sure as damnit was gonna tree us, or one of us anyways, an’ that got all mixed up in ma head, an’ I started to laugh, real soft like, an’ the chains started to clinkin’ a little when ma chest moved, not much, jest a little
clink
,
clink
,
clink
, an’ that was funny too, an’ I started laughin’ a little more, an’ I marched right along while we turned off the main road an’ went up over a hill, chucklin’ an’ clinkin’, an’ I mighta turned right into the jolliest bastard in hell if it wasn’t for the fact that when we got to the other side a that hill there was a clearin’ an’ ’leven more fellas in sheets an’ a big oak tree an’ underneath of it a pile a wood, an’ it come to me that when I said lynch I thought about hangin’, but didn’t everybody think that way, some thought about burnin’. An’ I stopped chucklin’. I’m shamed to say it, but when them chains stopped clinkin’ I heard a funny sound, like hoofbeats far off. An’ Wayne, he sings out, ‘Looky, Pa, looky, that un there wet hisself.’ An’ I looked down an’ I seen he was right. But I couldn’t feel it. Even when I seen it, I couldn’t feel it.

“But nobody was payin’ no attention. The ’leven sheets come trottin’ up an’ the farmers come up closer with the torchas, an’ they looked us over. Didn’t say nothin’; didn’t nobody say nothin’. It was so quiet all you could hear was a horse snort now an’ again. They jest set there lookin’. After a minute Parker come up an’ nods to the other sheets, an’ they nodded to him, an’ one of ’em says, ‘Where’d
he
come from?’ Said it in that same high whispery voice, so’s wouldn’t nobody know him. But I knowed him. I knowed ’em all. Knowed ’em by their boots. I’d shined every damn pair, that very day. Parker tole ’em how I’d come into the party, an’ then he tole ’em how Mose was goin’ to get the sheriff, an’ they all chuckled a little, an’ I knowed why: if he
hadda
gone to get the sheriff, you coulda bet dollars to double eagles there was least two deputies that wasn’t gonna be handy. But after they was done chucklin’ they stirred a little like they was uneasy. An’ I seen why, right away: they wasn’t sure they could kill me. If Josh was to disappear wouldn’t nobody much know, or care. Me, I was another matter. Folks would miss me. An’ somebody was maybe gonna look for me. An’ the only way they was gonna be able to make folks stop lookin’ was by tellin’ ’em the truth, or somethin’ like it, an’ that wasn’t gonna go down too easy. On accounta folks is funny; they’ll get off their porches an’ pull the shades an’ keep their eyes screwed shut, but sometimes if you tell ’em what it is they ain’t seein’, they take notice.

“Well, Parker an’ the rest a them sheets trotted aside to try an’ figger out what to do. Me, I was feelin’ mighty guilty, on accounta Josh was gonna die, an’ I was feelin’ good knowin’ that I maybe wasn’t. An’ that’s the way it was lookin’, ’cause when the conference was over they hauled me over to the edge of the clearin’ an’ chained me to a tree an’ they set Wayne to keep an eye on me, an’ then they dismounted an’ set about lynchin’ Josh.

“It’s funny how you see things. Why, a day before all that, if you was to a tole me I could set there an’ watch the Klan lynch ma best friend an’ not feel a thing, I woulda laughed in your face. But the truth is I can get more riled about it layin’ here than I was then. It was jest like watchin’ somebody butcher a hog. First they pulled his clothes off him—coat, vest, tie, shirt, pants, long johns, everything—an’ they tossed the free end of a rope over the limb a that oak tree an’ looped the noose end ’round below his armpits, an’ they hoisted him up. Then Parker commenced to make some kinda speech. I couldn’t hear what he was sayin’ but I knowed what he was gettin’ at, on accounta he kept pointin’ to Josh’s privates an’ every time he done it them farmers would grumble. An’ then he pulled out a knife an’ held it right upside Josh’s parts, an’ they left out a roar. But Josh didn’t. He jest hung there. An’ that started gettin’ to ’em; I guess it don’t make no sense to lynch a man that don’t pay you no mind. So Parker said somethin’, an’ one of them farmers went to his horse an’ come back with a whip. I guess they figured to get old Josh’s attention.

“They sure as hell had Wayne’s. He could barely keep his eyes off ’em while they was uncoilin’ that whip an’ gettin’ people moved around to give the sheet that had it enough room to swing. He started closer an’ closer so’s he could get a good look at what was goin’ on. Matter a fact, one a the sheets seen how far from me Wayne was gettin’ to be, an’ he come over to take care a that. That was what I figgered, anyways. Only when that sheet came up to Wayne, he walked right on by him. Or looked to. Then he stopped an’ turned, an’ went back t’other way. An I couldn’t figger what
that
was all about, until all the sudden Wayne goes ‘Wheeyoo,’ real soft like, an’ falls on his face. The sheet kept right on walkin’. It was too dark for me to see the boots, but it wasn’t too dark for me to count, an’ when he got back to the middle a the clearin’ there was thirteen sheets there.

“I didn’t waste no time.

“They hadn’t bothered to chain me good, jest wrapped ’bout eighty pounds a chain round me an’ a tree. So I wriggled around as much as I dared, made a little noise, but there wasn’t nobody near enough to hear ’sides Wayne, an’ I was perty certain Wayne wasn’t listenin’. I twisted an’ turned, an’ I bruised maself on that chain, but I was gettin’ a little play when they started in to whippin’ Josh.

“The first crack made me jerk ma head up. Now, you gotta understand, that there wasn’t no ridin’ crop. It was a bullwhip. If it’d been me I woulda screamed when the first one caught me, but Josh didn’t make a sound. The sheet that was whippin’ him started windin’ up for another go; they was set on gettin’ sound outa Josh. Only you don’t bullwhip a man too long—it ain’t sound that comes out; it’s his guts to come out. I had to do somethin’ fast. All I could think about was Wayne’s pistol. I wanted that pistol so bad I could taste it. An’ I started twistin’ harder, an’ pert soon I could see ma way out. I needed to give three good jerks, that was all. Trouble was, I was gonna have to make noise, lotsa noise. But if they heard that there chain clinkin’, that was gonna be the end of everything. So I had to time it. I jest hoped Josh could take three more cracks.

“The second one come. Whip went slappin’ through the air an’ I twisted them chains. They give a little. Not enough. Josh, he didn’t give at all. He jest swung there, his face jest as blank as a whitewashed board.

“The third one come. I got so close to bein’ aloose I coulda cried. Close, but close ain’t there. Josh still wasn’t sayin’ nothin’. I could see blood startin’ to drip on the wood underneath him, but he didn’t make a sound, he jest swung back an’ forth like a scarecrow in the wind.

“The fourth one come. I got it that time, an’ I left them chains fall easy as I could, an’ I dropped an’ scooted across the ground to where good old Wayne was layin’ in the dust. It took a minute to work his pistol out from under him, but ’fore they was ready to give Josh another crack I was lined up. I waited. Sights was lined up perfect. That sheet wound up an’ let the whip go, an’ jest about the time it was halfways to Josh I squeezed that trigger jest as gentle as I could. I was aimin’ for the chest but the slug dropped moren I’d figgered an’ took the bastard in the hip. Blowed him halfways into the woods. Well, they stood there for a second, like they didn’t know what the hell happened. I lined up on Parker. Coulda taken a closer shot, but I couldn’t be sure about ’xactly who the others was, you see. Well, I was hurried an’ the shot went high, but that second shot sure attracted some attention. One a them sheets looks over an’ shouts, ‘The nigger’s loose,’ an’ one a the other sheets shouts, ‘You all get him, I’ll watch this sonofabitch.’ An’ then they come.

“Those bastards was stupid. Farmers can’t do nothin’ in the woods at night, an’ them sheets was even worse—they was all the time gettin’ their hems caught. I backed away real fast, an’ soon as I was in the woods I left off the other three shots in the pistol to slow ’em down, an’ then I lit out. I coulda got shed of ’em in two or three minutes, but I pulled ’em along for a good ten, lettin’ ’em catch sight a me—they couldn’t read sign worth a damn—takin’ ’em uphill all the damn time so they’d wind theyselves good. After about a mile an’ a half a dodgin’ tree trunks an’ playin’ peekaboo, I cut back downhill an’ left ’em play tag with theyselves.

“By the time I got back to the clearin’, Mose had got his knife outa Wayne an’ had Josh cut down from the tree an’ tied onto a horse. Josh wasn’t blank-lookin’ no more. I guess that whip had cut loose a lotta things. He jest set there, cryin’ like I ain’t never seen a man cry. I don’t know if it was the pain or the fear or the way that girl done him, but he wasn’t good for nothin’. Soon as I was on horseback—Mose had picked out three good ones, an’ run off the other horses—we rode out.