When I handed him the tray he hunkered down on that crate, eating like a hungry animal.
He started in with the chicken and didn’t even stop when he licked the plate clean. He took the chicken bones, cracked them open with his teeth, and sucked the marrow out from every one.
I went over to the bed to wait for him to finish; when I laid back I felt all the strength go out of me.
‘What’s your problem, Clifton?’ I asked when he was through.
‘What you mean?’
‘Com’on, man, you know what I mean. What you doin’ here shakin’ like that and so hungry you eatin’ bones?’
Clifton downed a whole glass of whiskey and doubled up trying to keep it down. I was sure he was going to vomit but he just put his hands on his knees and made snorting noises until he could straighten out.
‘Yo’ friend come out to the witch’s house night before last.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Uh-huh, an’ he said that the word come down to a deputy out here called Jim, an’ Jim is on my trail.’
‘He said that?’
‘Then he say that I gots ta run ‘cause Jim is a quarter injun an’ he always find what he looks fo’. He say I’m a sittin’ duck out at the witch house so I better run.’
‘What Jo say?’
‘Witch don’t say nuthin’. She just ask yo’ friend if it’s true an’ he say yeah.’ Clifton took another big drink and went through the same pain.
After he was sitting up again I asked, ‘Where’s Ernestine?’
‘He say that I cain’t run wit’ no girl so I should go alone. But I tole him that I ain’t gonna listen t’that shit an’ Ernestine comin’ ‘long wit’ me!’ Clifton yelled the last words and I could imagine Mouse smiling right then; it gave me goose flesh. ‘But Ernestine tole me t’go. She said she don’t wanna run from the law an’ she said that I gotta take this on myself.’ Clifton wept and took another drink. ‘When I seen she ain’t gonna come I said I be back but she said don’t even bother wit’ that.’
He put his head to his knees and cried.
I was too weak to comfort him but I knew what was right. I knew that I should tell him everything I knew about Mouse; what a rotten man he was and how he messed with other people’s lives. Even if Clifton didn’t believe me I should have told him and then my conscience would’ve been clean. I should have taken that boy in the car and gone back home to Houston, but I was sick and tired. Even when he told me Mouse’s plan I stayed quiet.
‘Yo’ friend tole me t’meet him t’night. He showed me a place in the woods where I could sleep an’ then he said I should meet him t’night an’ he gotta plan fo me t’get away. I axed why he doin’ all that for me an’ he said he doin’ it fo’ Ernestine so the law don’t get on her. So what can I do?’
I wake up nights remembering Clifton sitting there with his hands stretched out. I had the answers but I didn’t give them to him because Mouse was my friend and you don’t cross your friends.
Or maybe I just didn’t care. Maybe that’s what was wrong with us back then. Life was so hard that we were too tired from just living to lend a hand.
Clifton left after a while and I didn’t even think about going with him. He knew that Mouse was up to no good but he needed someone else to say it so that he could change his mind.
He’d have been lucky if it was Big Jim on his trail.
The second-night drunk never feels as good as the first. I finished the whiskey and laid in a funk all night. I didn’t sleep at all. I just had visions of people coming in and out of my room; some of them I knew and some I didn’t.
My daddy came in and sat on the bed. He looked at me with sad eyes and I felt I had done something wrong. I asked why he never came back and he said that he died; that he wanted to come back but death was too much and he finally gave out.
Mouse came in with a young woman. He was talking to me but feeling on her at the same time. I asked him to stop but he said, ‘You know you like t’watch, Ease.’ And then he pulled out his thing, it was so big that the girl got scared but Mouse sweet-talked her and she said okay...
Then the door opened and Domaque came in. He stood next to the bed and said, ‘You up, Easy?’
‘Do I look like I’m up?’
‘Well... you lyin’ down but yo’ eyes is open...’
I just waited for him to disappear like the rest of my dreams but then he said, ‘I wanted t’talk wit’ someone, Easy. An’ you Raymond’s friend too...,’ He went on, ‘I met that girl an’ she real pretty, an’ she be out to Momma’s house.’
‘At Jo’s?’
‘Uh-huh. She called Ernestine an’ I like her an’ she said she come out an’ look at my house if Momma wanted her to.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Uh-huh, Easy. She kinda pretty an’ she wanna stay out to there wit’ momma...’
When I saw the sky lightening into dawn the dreams went away. I knew that I had fever but it didn’t matter because I was sure now that I had to go home. I was going to go to church with Miss Alexander and then I was going to find the road to Rags Pond. And when I got back to Houston I was going to learn how to read and write. That was all I knew; in that I guess I was lucky.
