Joe Lansdale - The Bottoms

“Red,” she said.

“May Lynn. You’re as lovely as ever.”

She colored slightly. “Jacob isn’t here.”

Red stood in the yard and looked around, as if Daddy might appear out of the afternoon air. “Say he ain’t.”

Of course he wasn’t. I had already told him Daddy wasn’t in.

“Well now, maybe we could chat a few minutes,” Red said. “He be in soon?”

“Yes,” Mama said. Then added: “Very soon.”

“May I come in?”

Mama hesitated. She looked at me. She said, “Harry, run on with you. We’re gonna do a little grown-up talk.”

I hesitated, but went out on the screened back porch and sat in the swing. When Red came in and Mama shut the door, the air draft made the door to the screen porch push open a bit. I got up to shut it, pushed it almost to, then hesitated. I knew it wasn’t polite to listen in on other people’s conversations, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Well, sit down,” Mama said. She sounded uncomfortable and unsure of herself in her own house. I had never known her to sound like that before.

“Thank you,” Red said. I heard chairs scrape, then there was a long moment of silence.

Mama said, “I could make some coffee.”

“No. That’s all right. He’ll be back soon?”

“I can’t say exactly. He cuts hair until there isn’t any to cut.”

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, it has.”

“Nice house.”

“Thank you. It isn’t much really. Jacob and I built it. I nailed down the floors myself. My Mom and Dad helped us.”

“Floor looks sturdy,” Red said.

“Thanks.”

“How are your mother and father? I haven’t seen them in years.”

“They moved to North Texas few years back. Mama went there to be near my sister Ida. Ida was ill and had children to take care of. Ida got better, but Daddy died.”

“I’m sorry. How’s your Mama?”

“Spunky as ever. We’ve been writing each other a lot. She may move back to be near us.”

“I see. I guess that’s good.”

There was a long silence. A bumblebee buzzed behind me, and I turned to see him at the screen, bouncing up against it.

Mama broke the silence. “Could you tell me what it is you want, and I can tell Jacob?”

“I really should talk to him myself.”

“Is it about this murder business? The colored women?”

“Yeah.”

“Jacob says you don’t want him bothering with it.”

“First of all, the body wasn’t in his county.”

“It was found in the bottoms here.”

“Yes, but he had the body brought to Pearl Creek. To have a bunch of niggers tell him what had happened to her. You don’t have to be one of the city boys to know what happened to her.”

“But he wanted to know who she was, as well as what happened to her.”

“Doc Stephenson could have told him.”

“Doc Stephenson is a drunk, and a fool. And a lot less likely to know who she is.”

“He knows every nigger in these parts. He ain’t got nothing against niggers. And neither do I.”

“Stephenson is still a drunk and a fool.”

“I don’t want to argue with you, May Lynn. There was a time-”

“If the body was found here, under Jacob’s jurisdiction, what’s it matter, Red? What business is it of yours? You say it isn’t Jacob’s business, but it seems it’s more his business than yours. He drove her to your county to identify her, but she was murdered here.”

“We don’t want the niggers stirred up, May Lynn. That’s all. They got to know their place, and when Jacob starts treating them with the same concern, the same respect as white folks, then you could have problems.”

“You really believe that?”

“I do… There’s a rumor Jacob’s arrested a nigger for the murders.”

“That’s not true.”

“Story goes he’s hidin’ this nigger out. What I want to say to Jacob is this. Give the nigger up. ’Cause he don’t, it’ll go bad for him.”

“Jacob hasn’t arrested anyone for the murder. And if he has, what would be the problem with that?”

“None. We just want him to give the murderer up.”

“Just a few minutes ago you didn’t care about a colored being killed. Now it’s a concern.”

“I’m concerned a white woman – like yourself – could be next. A nigger gone on a streak like that, he won’t be satisfied with just black women. He’s gonna want a white one before long. One he killed had white blood in her.”

“Now it matters because she had white blood. I always thought folks like you thought a drop of colored blood made a person colored, no matter how much white was in them.”

“Well, I don’t think that. There are degrees. White blood can dominate. It’s the way you look makes you a nigger. How you live.”

“A life is a life, Red. Dark skin. Light skin. Anything in between. That’s what concerns Jacob.”

“Way it looks, May Lynn, is Jacob’s got the man did these murders and he’s protectin’ him ’cause he’s a nigger.”

“You know that’s ridiculous.”

“I don’t know that. Doc Stephenson claims Jacob’s pretty tight with the niggers.”

“Doc Stephenson’s an idiot.”

Red laughed. “He may be at that. I’m here to help, May Lynn. I owe Jacob. I’m here to warn Jacob.”

“I don’t think you are. I think this has to do with somethin’ else besides him pullin’ you out of a suck hole.”

“It does. I owe him for another reason. And there’s you. I don’t want nothing to happen that could come down on you too.”

“That’s considerate of you… now. Considering.”

“I was a damn fool…”

“Sssshhhhh,” Mama said. “Don’t speak of it.”

Red was silent for a while. After what seemed like a change of seasons, he said, “I want Jacob to know it could get so folks come to see him.”

“Are you talking about the Klan?” Mama asked.

“I’m just sayin’…”

“Red. I heard you’d turned bitter. That you was sympathetic to that bunch of sheet-wearing cowards-”

“Careful with your words, May Lynn.”

“I don’t need to be careful. I would have never thought it of you. I knew you when we were young, Red. I knew you to carry food down in the bottoms to that poor old colored lady, Miss Maggie.”

“We was just kids.”

“That woman practically raised you, Red.”

“She was just a nigger worked for my Daddy. I fed Daddy’s dogs too.”

“You know she more than worked for your Daddy. You suckled at her breast. Played with her kids like they was your own kin. Then your Daddy got old and so did she. She was almost your mother. She was more of a mother than your mother. And she was more of a wife to your Daddy than your mother.”

“That’s enough!”

I heard a slam, as if a hand had been slapped on the table, a chair slid back. I pushed open the door and rushed in.

“You okay, Mama?”

“Yes, hon. I’m okay.”

Red was standing at the table, his hat in his hand. His face red as his hair, his knee cocked forward slightly, turning the toe of his boot against the floors he’d not too long ago bragged on. He glared at Mama. “You done come to be just like Jacob,” Red said.

“And you’d be lucky if you were anything like him,” Mama said. “You got somethin’ in you always been there, Red. It wasn’t just me turned you like they say.”

“You didn’t help.”

Red looked at me. His hand shook as he put on his hat.

“There was a time when I thought I might should have done different than I did, Red,” Mama said. “For just a moment. But I come to a understanding with myself long ago that I was wrong about that. Still, I considered you a good man, Red. Today, I don’t know. I do know this. Jacob is ten times the man you are or ever will be.”