she tried to bump my head against the tree
I told him never to speak to me again I told him
she tried to break her wrists free
let me go
stop it Im stronger than you stop it now
let me go Ive got to catch him and ask his let me go Quentin please let me go let me go
all at once she quit her wrists went lax
yes I can tell him I can make him believe anytime I can make him
Caddy
she hadnt hitched Prince he was liable to strike out for home if the notion took him
anytime he will believe me
do you love him Caddy
do I what
she looked at me then everything emptied out of her eyes
and they looked like the eyes in statues blank and unseeing and serene
put your hand against my throat
she took my hand and held it flat against her throat
now say his name
Dalton Ames
I felt the first surge of blood there it surged in strong accelerating beats
say it again
her face looked off into the trees where the sun slanted and where the bird
say it again
Dalton Ames
her blood surged steadily beating and beating against my hand
It dept on running for a long time, but my face felt cold and sort of dead, and my eye, and the cut place on my finger was smarting again. I could hear Shreve working the pump, then he came back with the basin and a round blob of twilight wobbling in it, with a yellow edge like a fading balloon, then my reflection. I tried to see my face in it.
'Has it stopped?' Shreve said. 'Give me the rag.' He tried to take it from my hand.
'Look out,' I said. 'I can do it. Yes, it's about stopped now.' I dipped the rag again, breaking the balloon. The rag stained the water. 'I wish I had a clean one.'
'You need a piece of beefsteak for that eye,' Shreve said. 'Damn if you wont have a shiner tomorrow. The son of a bitch,' he said.
'Did I hurt him any?' I wrung out the handkerchief and tried to clean the blood off of my vest.
'You cant get that off,' Shreve said. 'You'll have to send it to the cleaner's. Come on, hold it on your eye, why dont you.
'I can get some of it off,' I said. But I wasn't doing much good. 'What sort of shape is my collar in?'
'I dont know,' Shreve said. 'Hold it against your eye. Here.'
'Look out,' I said. 'I can do it. Did I hurt him any?'
'You may have hit him. I may have looked away just then or blinked or something. He boxed the hell out of you. He boxed you all over the place. What did you want to fight him with your fists for? You goddam fool. How do you feel?'
'I feel fine,' I said. 'I wonder if I can get something to clean my vest.'
'Oh, forget your damn clothes. Does your eye hurt?'
'I feel fine,' I said. Everything was sort of violet and still, the sky green paling into gold beyond the gable of the house and a plume of smoke rising from the chimney without any wind. I heard the pump again. A man was filling a pail, watching us across his pumping shoulder. A woman crossed the door, but she didn't look out. I could hear a cow lowing somewhere.
'Come on,' Shreve said. 'Let your clothes alone and put that rag on your eye. I'll send your suit out first thing tomorrow.'
'All right. I'm sorry I didn't bleed on him a little, at least.'
'Son of a bitch,' Shreve said. Spoade came out of the house, talking to the woman I reckon, and crossed the yard. He looked at me with his cold, quizzical eyes.
'Well, bud,' he said, looking at me, 'I'll be damned if you dont go to a lot of trouble to have your fun. Kidnapping, then fighting. What do you do on your holidays? burn houses?'
'I'm all right,' I said. 'What did Mrs Bland say?'
'She's giving Gerald hell for bloodying you up. She'll give you hell for letting him, when she sees you. She dont object to the fighting, it's the blood that annoys her. I think you lost caste with her a little by not holding your blood better. How do you feel?'
'Sure,' Shreve said. 'If you cant be a Bland, the next best thing is to commit adultery with one or get drunk and fight him, as the case may be.'
'Quite right,' Spoade said. 'But I didn't know Quentin was drunk.'
'He wasn't,' Shreve said. 'Do you have to be drunk to want to hit that son of a bitch?'
'Well, I think I'd have to be pretty drunk to try it, after seeing how Quentin came out. Where'd he learn to box?'
'He's been going to Mike's every day, over in town,' I said.
'He has?' Spoade said. 'Did you know that when you hit him?'
'I dont know,' I said. 'I guess so. Yes.'
'Wet it again,' Shreve said. 'Want some fresh water?'
'This is all right,' I said. I dipped the cloth again and held it to my eye. 'Wish I had something to clean my vest.' Spoade was still watching me.
'Say,' he said. 'What did you hit him for? What was it he said?'
'I dont know. I dont know why I did.'
'The first I knew was when you jumped up all of a sudden and said, 'Did you ever have a sister? did you?' and when he said No, you hit him. I noticed you kept on looking at him, but you didn't seem to be paying any attention to what anybody was saying until you jumped up and asked him if he had any sisters.'
'Ah, he was blowing off as usual,' Shreve said, 'about his women. You know: like he does, before girls, so they dont know exactly what he's saying. All his damn innuendo and lying and a lot of stuff that dont make sense even. Telling us about some wench that he made a date with to meet at a dance hall in Atlantic City and stood her up and went to the hotel and went to bed and how he lay there being sorry for her waiting on the pier for him, without him there to give her what she wanted. Talking about the body's beauty and the sorry ends thereof and how tough women have it, without anything else they can do except lie on their backs. Leda lurking in the bushes, whimpering and moaning for the swan, see. The son of a bitch. I'd hit him myself. Only I'd grabbed up her damn hamper of wine and done it if it had been me.'
'Oh,' Spoade said, 'the champion of dames. Bud, you excite not only admiration, but horror.' He looked at me, cold and quizzical. 'Good God,' he said.
'I'm sorry I hit him,' I said. 'Do I look too bad to go back and get it over with?'
'Apologies, hell,' Shreve said. 'Let them go to hell. We're going to town.'
'He ought to go back so they'll know he fights like a gentleman,' Spoade said. 'Gets licked like one, I mean.'
'Like this?' Shreve said. 'With his clothes all over blood?'
'Why, all right,' Spoade said. 'You know best.'
'He cant go around in his undershirt,' Shreve said. 'He's not a senior yet. Come on, let's go to town.'
'You needn't come,' I said. 'You go on back to the picnic.'
'Hell with them,' Shreve said. 'Come on here.'
'What'll I tell them?' Spoade said. 'Tell them you and Quentin had a fight too?'
'Tell them nothing,' Shreve said. 'Tell her her option expired at sunset. Come on, Quentin. I'll ask that woman where the nearest interurban--'
