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.”
Red opened his mouth as if to speak. He looked at me and the steam went out of him. He trembled slightly.
“I could say somethin’,” he said.
“You could. And if you must, say it. But I’ve said my somethin’, and I’ve got one more thing to say. I see you’re still wearin’ your shirts with the sleeves rolled down.”
There was a movement in Red’s face that frightened me. But it was just a twitch, then it was gone.
“You tell Jacob what I said, hear? He’s been warned. I’ve paid my debt.”
“You think that’s paying a debt, you’re wrong, Red. Let me tell you somethin’. Now you’ve been warned. Don’t you ever step foot on this property again. You hear?”
“I hear.”
Red went to the door, turned, looked at me and Mama. “That’s a fine-looking boy you got there, May Lynn. And you got that little girl out there too. So innocent. I believe she’s gonna look a lot like you. Already starting to get your face. I hate to think of you bringing them up to think niggers are the same as us. It’ll just bring them grief, put them on the same level as the niggers. You too, May Lynn.”
“Good day, Constable,” Mama said.
Red unconsciously rubbed his left hand along his right sleeve, went out without shutting the door, got in his dented black Ford and drove away.
A thin plume of dust followed after the car and drifted in the air long after he was gone.
11
Mama made me swear not to tell Daddy about Red’s visit. She said she wanted to do it. Word it right so he didn’t get angry and go off half-cocked. I didn’t worry much about that. Daddy could be a little impatient at times, and I had seen him angry, but I hadn’t never seen him go off half-cocked.
That night I listened with my ear close to the wall to find out what Mama told Daddy about Red, but they were whispering so light I couldn’t make anything out but their bedsprings making noise. I drifted off to sleep finally, and when I awoke the next morning I remembered faintly dreaming of the Goat Man.
