Pop. 1280

'Y-You!' she said, fighting for breath. 'You- you-!'

'Or if they was real tall folks,' I said, 'you might poke 'em in some other bodily orifice, which could be plumb embarrassin' for you, not to mention the danger of getting your finger caught.'

She took a long, shuddery heave. Then she came over to the lounge and stood over me. 'You you you son-of-a-bitch!' she said. 'You you you rotten stinking bastard. You-you goddamned whoremongerin, double- crossing, low-down, worthless, no-good, mean, hateful, two-timing onery-'

'Now, god-dang it, Rose,' I said. 'Danged if it don't almost sound as if you was mad at me.'

'Mad!' she yelled. 'I'll show you how mad I am! I'll-'

'Better not holler so loud!' I said. 'Folks might be roused into coming up here to find out what's going on.

Rose said to let 'em come, but she lowered her voice. 'I'll damned well tell them what's going on, you dirty bastard! I'll tell them just what happened!'

'And what would that be?' I said.

'Don't you play dumb on me, damn you! You know what happened! You were outside all the time, because I heard you when you drove away! You let it happen! You stood by watching while! had to kill two people!'

'Uh-huh?' I said. 'Yeah?'

'What the hell do you mean, 'Uh-huh yeah'? Are you saying that you didn't do it, that it didn't happen that way? That you didn't plan the whole thing, an'-an'-'

'I ain't sayin' nothin' like that at all,' I said. 'All I'm saying or rather askin' is what you're goin' to tell folks. What kind of a believable explanation are you going to put together for them two dead bodies you got in your house and the blood all over the floor, and the fact that even an idjit could prove they was shot with your gun? Because no one's goin' to believe the truth Rose; they just ain't goin' to believe no such wild story. You just think about it a minute, and you'll see that they won't.'

She opened her mouth to speak, to call me some more dirty names I guess. Then she seemed to have some second thoughts on the matter, and she sat down quietly at the side of the lounge.

'You've got to help me, Nick. You've got to help me cover this up some way.'

'Well, now, I don't rightly see how I could do that,' I said. 'After all, you're guilty of murder an' fornicatin' and hypocrisy, an'-'

'Huh! Wha-at! ' She glared at me. 'Why, you forktongued son-of-a-bitch! You call me names after what you've done! And I don't suppose you're at all responsible, are you?'

'Not a speck,'! said. 'Just because! put temptation in front of people, it don't mean they got to pick it up.'

'I asked you a question, damn you! Who planned those murders? Who tells a lie every time he draws a breath? Who the hell is it that's been fornicating with me, and God knows how many others?'

'Oh, well,' I said. 'It don't count when I do those things.'

'It don't count! What the hell do you mean?'

I said I meant I was just doing my job, followin' the holy precepts laid down in the Bible. 'It's what I'm supposed to do, you know, to punish the heck out of people for bein' people. To coax 'em into revealin' theirselves, an' then kick the crap out of 'em. And it's a god-danged hard job, Rose, honey, and I figure that if I can get a little pleasure in the process of trappin' folks I'm mighty well entitled to it.'

Rose stared at me, frowning.

'What is this?' she said. 'What kind of nutty talk is that?'

'Well, now, I guess it does sound kind of nutty,' I said, 'but that ain't hardly no ways my fault. By rights, I should be rompin' on the high an' the mighty, the folks that really run this country. But I ain't allowed to touch them, so I've got to make up for it by being twice as hard on the white trash an' Negroes, and people like you that let their brains sink down to their butts because they couldn't find no place else to use them. Yes, sir, I'm laborin' in the Lord's vineyard, and if I can't reach up high, I got to work all the harder on the low-hangin' vines. For the Lord loft a willin' worker, Rose; He liketh to see a man bustin' his ass during workin' hours. And I got them hours cut way, way down with eatin' and sleepin', but I can't eat and sleep all the time.'

I'd let my eyes drift shut while I was talking. When I opened them Rose was gone, but I heard her moving around in Myra's room.

I went to the door and hooked in.

She'd stripped out of her clothes, and was trying on some of Myra's. I asked her if she was figurin' on going somewhere, and she gave me a look that would have fried an egg.

'Am I going somewhere,' she said bitterly. 'As if you didn't know what I was going to do, what I have to do!'

I said I reckoned she'd be taking the dawn train out of town, because no one would see her leave that way and she'd have a full day's start before I got excited and worried about Myra and Lennie and got around to discovering that they was murdered.

'Of course, that dawn train don't carry passengers, they just got a water-stop here. But I reckon them trainmen will be proud to let you ride when they see how friendly you are. I bet they won't charge you a cent, which makes things pretty nice since you don't have no money you can put your hands on.'

Rose bit her lips; shook her head wonderingly.

'You're actually enjoying this, aren't you? You're getting a kick out of it!'

'Not really,' I said. 'It's just part of my job, you know, to gloat over folks in trouble.'

'Nick,' she said. 'What's happened to you? When did you get like this?'

I said, well, sir, if she meant when had the truth been revealed to me, it had been happenin' for a long time. Bit by bit, I'd been given a glimpse of it, and now and then I'd think I knew what it was, and now an' then I was just mystified and scared. I didn't know from what for, and I'd get the idea that I must be goin' crazy or something. And then, tonight, at her house, as I stood outside of myself plannin' things, and then as I'd watched what I'd planned to take place, it was sort of like someone had pulled a trigger in my mind and there was one great big flash of light, and at last! saw the whole truth; at last I saw why things were as they were, and why I was as I was.

'I saw it all, honey,'! said. 'I saw the truth and the glory; and it ain't going to be nearways so bad for you as you might think. Why, a gal like you can make herself a mint in them river towns, just doin' what you like to do, and I never knew no gal that done it any better. And speakin' of that, and as long as we won't be seem' each other no more, I've got no objection to cleaving unto you for five or ten minutes even if you are sort of a fugitive from the law.'

Rose snatched up the alarm clock from the dresser and flang it at me. It smashed against the wall, and what I mean is it really smashed.

'Now, god-dang it, Rose,' I said. 'How the god-dang heck am I goin' to wake up in time for church?'

'Church! Church! ' she moaned. 'You going to church after-after-! Oh, you son-of-a-bitch! Oh, you sneaky, tricky, lying, mealy-mouthed bastard!'

'Now, there you go again,' I said. 'There ain't no sure use of pretendin' no longer, 'cause now I know you're mad at me.'

She cut loose with another blast of cuss words. Then, she whirled back around to the mirror, and began fussin' with the dress she was trying on.

'It's that Amy Mason, isn't it?' she said. 'You're getting rid of everyone so you can marry her.'