She remembered how she felt that morning that she went walking by the jail, just to see if she could find out how Doll was doing, and there she was, bundled up in an Indian blanket, rocking in the chair the sheriff had set outside his office door for her, looking at the trees. The wind was taking the last few leaves. There was a little crowd of people watching her, since she was a curiosity, and a couple of men who were angry as could be to see her sitting there peaceful and at ease for all they could tell, though Doll never did give a stranger a sign that anything troubled her. The sheriff was standing on the step, talking with those men, already irritated with them.
One of them shouted, “You ought to be hanging her!”
“Doubt I can do that. She don’t weigh nothing.”
“Then shoot her.”
The sheriff laughed. “I guess I wasn’t brought up that way. To go shooting old women.”
“Well, I’d be more than happy to do it for you.”
The sheriff said, “Now, shooting a big fellow like you, I wouldn’t have a problem with that at all. And you’re about exactly the right size for hanging. Fine with me either way. You might want to keep that in mind.”
“This town is a disgrace to the whole damn country, that’s what it is! You’re a disgrace to that damn badge! I never heard of such a thing in my whole life! Setting a killer outside where she can rock and watch the world go by, like somebody’s dang grandma. If that don’t beat all. And this ain’t the only crime she ever done.” He glanced at Lila. “She stole our baby girl, just took off with her. It was out of pure spite that she done it. We been looking for the two of them all these years.”
The sheriff shrugged. “I wouldn’t know about that. She’s in enough trouble without adding to it. Just now she’s gaining strength for her trial. Judge’s orders. Gotta try her, you know. You’re getting ahead of yourself with all this talk about hanging.”
“The judge tell you not to lock her up?”
“The judge don’t give a damn.”
“Well,” he said, “this ain’t over. Not by a long shot.”
“Never said it was.”
From time to time one of the men would glance over at Lila, though Doll never looked at her, not even when Lila went up to her and put that molasses cookie on her lap. She just said, “I don’t know you,” and let the cookie lie there by her hand. So how those men would have known to watch her Lila had no idea. It might be she took after that family of hers she’d never heard of until a week ago. They looked at her as if they were asking which side she was on, and what was she supposed to do? They didn’t even bother to tell her their names or say hello. When they decided she wasn’t going to help them get their vengeance on Doll, maybe tell the sheriff that she’d been stolen by her as a child, they started looking at her with a kind of scorn, even laughing a little between themselves, like they couldn’t believe this was what all the fighting had been about. It’s just amazing how anybody at all can hurt your feelings if they want to. And she was wearing that dress she’d bought without even looking at it. It was tight across the shoulders. It had red pockets like hearts, with ruffles around them, and it was checked like a tablecloth. She kept her coat on, but still. Why you should have to stand there feeling ridiculous with a bloodstain still on your shoe, just at the time when other people are out to insult you, and not one part of it is your fault or your choice, that’s the kind of thing she didn’t understand. Because you do it to yourself. Why should she have cared for one minute what those people thought of her? Or cared that they never so much as spoke to her. She remembered a hot blush of something like anger, but more like damned old shame.
Then they came back, them and two others carrying a pine box, and set it down on the street right in front of where Doll was sitting. They took off the lid so the sheriff and all of them could see what was inside, that old man, bundled up in a sheet, just as pale as the moon. And one of them looked right at Lila when he said, “You see what she done to him. She bled him like a hog.” Doll just kept on rocking, looking at the trees. Lila did glance into the box, since everybody else did and she didn’t want to stand out. To keep her from drawing attention — that must have been why Doll acted like she’d never even seen her before, wouldn’t meet her eyes. Somebody might notice. A grudge can pass from one person to the next just because it hasn’t
