'All right,' I said.
'But you'll have to say you'll take it. You'll have to say it out loud.'
'Yes,' I said. 'I'll take it.'
'Now try to get back to sleep,' she said. 'I've brought a chair and I'm going to sit here where I'll be ready to wake you in time to go to the depot.'
'You go back to bed too,' I said.
'I aint sleepy,' she said. 'I'll just sit here. You go on back to sleep.' And this time, Boon again. The moon- shaped square of window had shifted, so I had slept this time, his voice trying at least for whisper or anyway monotone, looming still naked from the waist up over the kitchen chair where Everbe (I mean Miss Corrie) sat, his hand grasping the backward-straining of her arm:
'Come on now. We aint got but a hour left.'
'Let me go.' She whispered too. 'It's too late now. Let me go, Boon.' Then his rasping murmur, still trying for, calling itself whisper:
'What the hell do you think I came all the way for, waited all this long for, all this working and saving up and waiting for—' Then the shape of the mooned window had moved still more and I could hear a rooster 'somewhere and my cut hand was partly tinder me and hurting, which was maybe what waked me. So I couldn't tell if this was the same time or he had gone and then come back: only the voices, still trying for whisper and if a rooster was crowing, it was time to get up. And oh yes, she was crying again.
'I wont! I wont! Let me alone!'
'All right, all right. But tonight is just tonight; tomorrow night, when we're settled down in Possum—'
'No! Not tomorrow either! I cantl I cant! Let me alone! Please, Boon. Please!'
Chapter 8
We—Everbe and Boon 'and I—were at the depot in plenty of time—or so we thought. The first person we saw was Ned, waiting for us in front of it. He had on a clean white shirt—either a new one, or he had managed somehow to get the other one washed. But almost at once things began to go too fast for anyone to learn yet that the new shirt was one of Sam's. Ned didn't even give Boon time to open his mouth. 'Calm yourself,' he said. 'Mr Sam is keeping Lightning whilst I finishes the outside arrangements. The boxcar has done already been picked up and switched onto the train waiting behind the depot right now for you all to get on. When Mr Sam Caldwell runs a railroad, it's run, mon. We done already named him too—Forkid Lightning.' Then he saw my bandage. He almost pounced. 'What you done to it?'
'I cut it,' I said. 'It's all right.'
'How bad?' he said.
'Yes,' Everbe said. 'It's cut across all four fingers. He ought not to move it even.' Nor did Ned waste any more time there either. He looked quickly about us. 'Where's that other one?' he said. 'That other what?' Boon said.
'Whistle-britches,' Ned said. 'That money-mouthed runt boy that was with us last night. I may need two hands on that horse. Who do you think is gonter ride that race? me and you that's even twice as heavy as me? Lucius was going to, but being as we already got that other one, we dont need to risk it. He's even less weight than Lucius and even if he aint got as much sense as Lucius, he's at least old enough in meanness to ride a horse race, and wrapped up enough in money to want to win it, and likely too much of a coward to turn loose and fall off. Which is all we needs. Where is he?'
'Gone back to Arkansas,' Boon said. 'How old do you think he is?'
'What he looks like,' Ned said. 'About fifteen, aint he? Gone to Arkansaw? Then somebody better go get him quick.'
'Yes,' Everbe said. 'I'll bring him. There wont be time to go back and get him now. So I'll stay and bring him on the next train this afternoon.'
'Now you talking.' Ned said. 'That's Mr Sam's train. Just turn Whistle-britches over to Mr Sam; he'll handle him.'
'Sure,' Boon said to Everbe. 'That'll give you a whole hour free to practise that No on Sam. Maybe he's a better man than me and wont take it.' But she just looked at him.
'Then why dont you wait and bring Otis on and well meet you in Parsham tonight,' I said. Now Boon looked at me.
'Well well,' he said. 'What's that Mr Binford said last night? If here aint still another fresh hog in this wallow. Except that this one's still just a shoat yet. That is, I thought it was.'
'Please, Boon,' Everbe said. Like that: 'Please, Boon.'
'Take him too and the both of you get to hell back to that slaughterhouse that maybe you ought not to left in the first place,' Boon said. She didn't say anything this time. She just stood there, looking down a little: a big girl that stillness suited too. Then she turned, already walking.
'Maybe I will,' I said. 'Right on back home. Ned's got somebody else to ride the horse and you dont seem to know what to do with none of the folks trying to help us.'
He looked, glared at me: a second maybe. 'All right,' he said. He strode past me until he overtook her. 'I said, all right,' he said. 'Is it all right?'
'All right,' she said.
'I'll meet the first train today. If you aint on it, I'll keep on meeting them. All right?'
'All right,' she said. She went on.
