“Do anything I want with it?”
Already close to selling it off.
“You have to promise me,” Pervis said, “you won’t ever part with it. Casper Mott finds out you’re gonna inherit my mountain, he’ll have me run over by a coal truck and work on you to get it. I’m gonna let him know today there’s no chance of his buyin it off me.”
Dewey said, “Casper Mott, he’s already rich as kings.”
“The day you sell Big Black you’d be richer. But I’m countin on you to preserve the highest peak in Kentucky for the enjoyment of the people livin here. You have to promise me, Dewey… you listenin?”
“Yes sir?”
“You won’t ever sell it. You’ll pass the mountain on to your heirs”-if the moron ever had any-“with their promise they won’t sell it either. You give me your word on it?”
“I get the mountain when you’re gone?”
“It’s how it works you inherit somethin.”
“But I can’t make any money off it?”
“You want your mountain stripped of its majesty?”
You bet he did.
“I’ll meet you tomorrow in Cumberland,” Pervis said, “in front of the high school. I want to see you wearin a clean shirt, a suit if you have one and no gator teeth. Boy, you’re heir to the richest mountain in the state of Kentucky. How’s that make you feel?”
Dewey said, “Well, yeah, Jesus.”
“You won’t say a word about it this evening.”
“No sir.”
Like hell he wouldn’t.
N oon there he was in a borrowed suit too big for him, no gator teeth showing, standing by the school doors checkin out girls’ asses.
Pervis got out of Casper’s limo and hung back, letting Casper go on ahead with Ms. Conlan and Raylan. He saw Raylan take her arm and she brushed his hand away. Casper had said before she got in the limo what he’d like to do to her. Suck her toes, play around with each little piggy with his tongue… Pervis asked him did he ever lick his way up to think of havin sexual intercourse with Ms. Conlan. He said Oh sure, lots of times. Pervis believed Casper would try to set him up for Ms. Conlan, who’d make the pitch for his mountain. Pervis wouldn’t mind hearin it even though he’d give the mountain to Rita when the time came and she’d hold on to it till she got tired of hearing offers pitched at her and finally pick the best one. She’d have dudes comin at her and she’d set one or two aside for fun, fun bein the girl’s nature. He’d like to see what Raylan’d do if Rita ever came after him. There was Raylan stayin close to Ms. Conlan in the crowd, Casper tryin to keep up.
Pervis waited for Dewey to spot him and come pushing past people to get to his old uncle.
“You all dressed up,” Pervis said. “You feelin good?”
Dewey said, “Yes sir, I’m proud you’re trustin me with the mountain.”
“I’m en trustin you with it,” Pervis said. “That don’t mean I trust you.” Let the nitwit chew on that. “I have a heart condition,” Pervis said, “can kill me any time it wants. I’ve seen my will lawyer and put you in for the mountain. But you’re not gonna tell anybody about it, are you?”
Dewey said, “No sir, I’ll swear to it on a Bible.”
“Say this wop gangster has you. Gonna stick your hand in a fire less you tell him your secret.”
Dewey was shaking his head.
“No,” Pervis said, “what the wop says, he’s gonna cut your nuts off and feed ’em to the squirrels you don’t tell him.”
It seemed to give Dewey pause, till he squared his narrow shoulders in the borrowed suit and said, “Uncle, this here’s nobody’s business but mine.”
T hey sat in the crowd and listened to the first part of the meeting, Pervis with Dewey next to him, bored, squirming, Pervis directing his attention to Ms. Conlan softening her accent for the boobs sitting here listening. She gave Raylan t gaey he floor and he pulled the rug out from under her, Pervis thinking, Good for you, boy. But it wouldn’t hurt Ms. Conlan none. The way she’d see it was coal miners looking for a hero. She wasn’t solving disagreements, she was the coal company.
The first part ended and Dewey asked Pervis if he’d like a drink, he had some whiskey in his car.
Pervis said, “We’ll have one and then I’m goin home.”
“But you come in Casper’s limo,” Dewey said, “you don’t have a car with you.”
“You’re right,” Pervis said. “I’ll take yours and leave it at the Dairy Queen.”
C arol sat with Casper in his limo having a cigarette while the tree huggers, sworn enemies of mountaintop mining, presented their arguments to the crowd in the gym.
Casper said, “How you gonna give the company side you don’t hear what they’re talking about.”
“They’re saying shame on us for letting our mountains go bald,” Carol said. “Our beautiful countryside gone to hell. Twelve hundred miles of streams filled with debris. Waste dumped on their homes. I’ve heard it.”
“They gonna throw flooding at you,” Casper said. “Cut down the forest they’s nothin left to catch the rain, soak up the water. You know animals are coming down from those bare-ass mountaintops? Foxes, skunks, coyotes. Fella told me he has to put his garbage on the roof of his house, keep it out of reach of bears.”
Carol said, “Really, there are bears?”
“Blasting causes damage to homes in the area, cracks the foundation-you have a house close to a mining operation-she can depreciate on you ninety percent. This home bein all the man’s got.”
“Coal’s his life,” Carol said, “in his family for generations. I’ve already talked about more work. Give us the mountains and we’ll give you jobs.”
“You don’t have enough to offer. Man’s out of work, falls behind in his payments, the bank takes his house. You gonna get health questions too,” Casper said. “More kids gettin asthma, all the coal dust in the air.”
“But a lower incidence of black lung,” Carol said, “mining from the top?”
“I suppose,” Casper said. He watched Carol light another cigarette off the one she was smoking. “I know you want that parcel a thousand feet from Big Black’s summit.”
“I don’t see that coming up at the meeting.”
“Everybody knows you’re sneaking up on the mountain, the jewel in the crown, known to be fulla coal. I bet it’ll be a question thrown at you. Gonna talk to Pervis about it?”
“As long as I’m here.”
“Like it isn’t your only reason.”
“I’ll open his eyes to possibilities.”
“Open his fly,” Casper said, “he might make you a deal.”
S he had told Raylan to wait by the car, outside. He asked how close he should stay to it. She looked at him-maybe she couldn’t think of anything good to say, so she didn’t. Carol got in the limo. After a while Casper came out, said hi and went behind the limo to take a leak, hitting sheet metal, Raylan wondering if Carol was supposed to hear him. Casper said hi again and got back in the car.
This was when Dewey Crowe came out of the school lighting a cigarette.
Chapter Twenty
Raylan walked up to him saying, “Dewey, I saw you in there during the meeting, but couldn’t make up my mind what side you’re on.” He didn’t appear to know what Raylan meant-for the mine company or against it-so Raylan said, “I saw you hangin out with Pervis, the old man treating you kindly, putting his hand on your shoulder?”
“Pervis says I’m like his son,” Dewey said.
“Which one, Dickie or Coover?”
“Neither. He said I’m like a son he never had.”
“You seemed close, Pervis smiling, and he isn’t known to smile much.”
