‘Well, Dom, we got yo’ fish, now what you got fo’me?’ Mouse said in his taking-care-of-business voice.
‘I got it, Ray, right in the house.’
‘Well let’s have it. Easy an’ me got some miles t’cover fo’ we can rest.’
There were hummingbirds at the sweet peas, flicking in and out of the blossoms so fast you could hardly tell they were there. I felt funny, light-headed, but I didn’t want it to change. It seemed to me that this was the Eden Dom talked about; like he built his own garden right out of the Bible.
‘Here you go, Ray.’ Dom handed Mouse a doll that had been burned and mutilated. It had once been a white baby doll but the hard-rubber skin was now burnt black and the clothes it wore were the overalls that a farmer wore. The brown hair was clipped short and the arms were straight out as if it were being crucified on an invisible cross. The eyes were painted over as the wide white eyes you see on a man when he’s frightened and trying to see everything coming his way.
Mouse smiled and took the doll from Dom. It seemed that Dom was a little uneasy about giving away his ugly toy but I knew that it was hard saying no to Mouse.
‘Thank you, brother,’ Mouse said. ‘DaddyReese gonna just love it.’
Mouse’s laugh filled Dom’s garden until all the flowers seemed to vibrate with it.
Chapter Six
‘What’s that doll fo’?’ I asked Mouse.
We’d been walking for miles. He was moody again, the way he’d been when he and Etta first got engaged.
‘Just sumpin’, man. Nuthin’.’
‘You went th’ough all that fo’nuthin’?’
‘It’s sumpin’, I tole ya!’
It was a quiet country path, far enough away from water to be light on insects but dose enough to have trees and wildlife. I was coming down with something. My hands were cold and the inside of my head felt like cotton wadding.
‘How come Domaque make them dolls?’ I asked.
At first I thought he was going to ignore me, but after a few steps he said, ‘Dom started makin’ ‘em when we was small. Ya see, Dom got a crazy mad temper. He ain’t slow or nuthin,’ ‘cause you know he can read as good as that white woman teach’im. But he got nerves. Somebody make fun’a him an’ he start to shake an’ the next thing you know he’s actin’ crazy. When we was little the other kids would mess wit’ us, ‘specially when we all get together after Sunday school. One time this little boy, Bunny Drinkwater, started to rag po’ ole Dom till Dom was a tremblin’ leaf. An’ that just made all the other kids join in laughin’. But they didn’t know that Dom had carried a butcherin’ knife wit’im that day. He never said why but I guess he was tired’a bein’ the fool. Anyway he took out after Bunny but Bunny was quick an’ Dom couldn’t move fast t’save his life so we all was expectin’ Dom t’throw that knife down an’ cry... But that’s not what happened.’
A red fox ran out into the road ahead of us. It looked up at Mouse and pulled its head back like it recognised Raymond. Then it turned tail and slipped off into the brush. Mouse laughed and seemed to get in a better mood.
‘Anyway... Dom went out after Bunny swinging his knife so wild that I half expected he was gonna cut his own self; but then Bunny tripped. All the little boys screamed like girls. Dom swung down t’gut little Bunny but he missed and just kinda cut him on the arm. Bunny was so scared by that little cut that he was frozen on the ground an’ Dom raised his hand fo’ the kill...’ Mouse stared off into the woods remembering something. I was afraid to hear the rest. ‘Shit. One’a the big boys runned out and grabbed Dom fo’ he could finish it. You know I always feel bad when I think’a that; like I’m missin’ sumpin’.’
‘But what ‘bout the dolls?’
‘Yeah.’ Mouse picked up a thick branch from the path and started snicking off the switches to smooth it into a pole. ‘I tole Dom that he had t’git hold’a hisself ‘cause the folks ‘round there didn’t like humpbacks killin’ they babies. That’s when he got his first doll. He dressed it up like Bunny. He tore at it and pissed on it; threw it in a sty an’ let the pigs stamp it.’ Mouse laughed to himself. ‘Yeah, Easy, he had a fine ole time wit’ his dolls. An’ only me an’ Jo knew it.’
After a while the path grew crooked and rutty. The branches hung so low that I had to walk stooped over half of the time. Mouse said that the road had once been the way to town from his stepfather’s farm but that Reese let it go to seed years before, after Mouse’s natural mother died.
‘The ole man fell apart after Momma died,’ Mouse said.
When we got close enough to see the place Mouse stopped, wiped his mouth, and stared.
I was feeling tired so I said, ‘Well, let’s git on wit’ it. That’s it, right?’
Mouse didn’t say a word.
‘Raymond.’ I hoped his real name would shock him into moving.
‘Yeah?’
‘Let’s go.’
‘Uh-huh,’ he said, but he didn’t move.
‘What we waitin’ fo’?’
His eyes were colder than all winter long.
‘I’m scared, Easy.’
‘We cain’t turn back.’
