Joe Lansdale - All the Earth, Thrown to the Sky

“We’re down this way looking for Jane’s relatives,” I said. “By the way, I’m Jack, and this is Tony.”

“I guess I’m glad to meet you,” Gasper said, “but all things considered, I don’t know this is such a fine moment for any of us.”

“How’s it work?” Jane said.

“You mean the job?” Gasper said.

“I mean the slavery,” Jane said.

“Yeah, ain’t that something? I thought my people was through with that. But the way it works is you better get some rest. You’ll need it.”

“You don’t look like you’re resting,” I said.

“I was just sitting here thinking on how to get out of this situation. But you better rest. Tomorrow, before the sun comes up, he’ll come get you, and he’s got two other white men with him that’s both as big a skunk as he is. No offense meant on the white remark.”

“None taken,” Jane said.

“Those men work for him and get a cut of the pea sales to the canning factory.”

“Looks like it would be cheaper to pay labor instead of overseers,” Jane said.

Gasper shook his head. “Nope. He can work us as long as it takes. Those men, all they got to do is stand around with guns, and when the peas get gathered, they run them by truck to Lindale and get paid pretty good money, even for this depression. Good compared to some things, anyhow, and all they got to do is stand around. It’s our backs get tired, not theirs. And heck, they even get a cut of the peas. I wish I did. I especially like them crowder peas and the red rippers.”

“Don’t do that,” Jane said, “you’re going to make me hungry. They just come get us in the morning and put us to work?”

“Yep,” Gasper said. “They take you out to the field, and the men with guns are there. Shotguns. They ain’t playing, that’s what I’m trying to tell you. I seen a man run for it and they shot him.”

“Really?” I said.

“It looked real enough to me,” Gasper said. “They shot him and he didn’t get up. A couple of them dragged him off and we didn’t never see him again. I doubt they’ve given him an inside job somewhere. He’s dead.”

“Damn,” Jane said.

“Yeah,” Gasper said. “Damn. When you get there, you start working right away. You pick peas, fill your bags, and empty them in bushel baskets in the back of a truck at the ends of the rows. There’s two trucks. It goes like that until it gets solid dark, then they march you back here, give you some beans, and it starts all over the next day. That one meal is all you get. Did he promise you the three a day?”

“He did,” I said. “Can’t believe we fell for it.”

“Times like this make a person stupid,” Gasper said. “Something deep down told me this wasn’t a good idea, and I did it anyway.”

“We understand that,” I said.

For a while we just sat there and felt sorry for ourselves. Then Jane said, “Didn’t you say you been thinking on things, like maybe you know a way out?”

“I don’t know it’s a way out, but there’s something I been thinking on trying. I ain’t had the courage yet.”

“Any of the others in on it?” Jane said.

“No.”

“Why did you even mention it to us?” Jane asked.

“ ’Cause you talk to me and don’t mind sitting by me,” Gasper said. “Also, I think y’all can run fast, and maybe the others here can’t. Most of them are old worn-out men and women that ain’t got nothing to look forward to, except maybe this roof and that bowl of beans at the end of the day. They don’t like it, and they don’t deserve it, but I think maybe they’ve done given up. Us together, we might do something. One thing I learned is this stuff about how a man has to stand up and make it on his own is all right if you got money and some talent or some luck. But if all you got is two legs and two arms and have to work, it’s right tough.”

“Amen to that,” Jane said.

“What I’m thinking is, on the east side of the field, where we dump some of the peas—and you got to be in the row going that way to dump your bag—there’s a swamp. I think that’s the way out. On the other side is just woods. They got an old hound dog they can bring into things if they want. It ain’t always around, but sometimes they have it. It’ll bite too. I seen it bite a man once.”

“I don’t swim very well,” I said.

“Don’t need to,” Gasper said. “It’s about knee-deep, and once you get into it a ways, there’s trees everywhere. Still water, but trees to hide behind.”

“That doesn’t sound like much,” I said.

“No, it don’t,” Gasper said, “but there’s a little more to it. Couple days back I was by the swamp, dumping my bag of peas into baskets in the truck, and I noticed something. There was a fishing boat that had floated up. It ain’t where we are now, it’s on up the rows, but we’ll be there in about three days.”

“I see where this is going,” I said.

“Yeah,” Gasper said. “Ain’t much to it, really. And it may not even be a boat that’s all together. It could be caught up there in roots and vines and have a hole in the bottom. I only seen it from a distance. It probably come loose from along the river somewhere. It looked real worn. It might have been floating around out there for years before it come to rest in them trees. Thing is, though, it’s a good trek to get to it, and shotgun blasts travel quick. So my plan is simple: when I get up there even with it, I’m going to go for it, try and push it out in deeper water and make an escape.”

“Iffy,” I said.

“Yeah, it is,” Gasper said. “But I don’t know how much longer I can take this.”

“Maybe we could all take a look tomorrow, and then we might have some idea about it,” Jane said. “Maybe four heads will be better than one.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Gasper said.

“Forget the boat,” Tony said. “Just take the truck.”

“What, now?” Gasper said.

“Just jump in the truck and drive off.”

“I don’t reckon they leave the keys in it,” I said.

“Yeah they do,” Gasper said. “You see, they start at one end, and when we pick, they keep easing the truck up. They leave the keys in it. When I come up with my bag to dump, I seen the man pulling up and getting out, and I seen the keys. But I didn’t think nothing of it ’cause I can’t drive.”

“I can drive,” I said.

“He’s the only one of us who can,” Jane said. “Tony was about to learn how, and then Papa got the tractor rolled over him.”

“I never had nobody to teach me,” Gasper said.

“Pa only wanted to teach me so I could do the work he didn’t want to do,” Tony said.

“That’s the truth,” Jane said.

“Thing is,” Gasper said, “it won’t be any easier taking the truck than getting to the boat, ’cause they’re right there by the truck.”

“Yeah,” I said. “But wading in a swamp with a gun pointed at you ain’t all that easy of an escape either.”

“Way I figure,” Gasper said, “ain’t none of it any good.”

“No,” Jane said. “But those two ideas, right now, they’re all we got.”

36

I didn’t sleep so good, ’cause that bag I was lying on wasn’t any thicker than a wish and a prayer.

Sheriff Big Bill and another man opened the door and called us out before daylight. I was so sore from that hard ground I could hardly walk. Bill had his revolver in a holster on his hip, and the other man had a shotgun. The man with the shotgun was grinning all the time we came out. He really grinned when Jane came out.

I figured, even by not meaning to, she had already added another fly to the ointment. Her being pretty was something that bad people noticed as much as good, but the bad people didn’t have a positive mind-set about the matter.