"Get aways
from
me. Ya's
hurt
my
c
hildrens, Ah breaks yer
necks."
Katey had
screamed
.
Cinder
had
come to
the
window and
looked,
seen
the
car lights,
then the
fire torches
burning.
Now she s
tand
s
in the dark
shadows of
her
porch.
Her
eyes are
keen,
she follows
the moves
of
the lights, li
s
t
e
ns to the
shout-
B I L L Y
I 91
ing below, and shuts out Katey's cries and prayers from her mind.
It
is time now. She moves silently and swiftly off the porch and into the dark. She tiptoes until
she's
around side
of
the house, then she pulls her skirt above her knees and runs
silently
into the misty blacks
and dark
grays of the fields.
Sheriff Tom turns his big
Ford
off Front Street and
onto
Dillion. Deputy Cecil Hill
sits
in the passenger seat with
his
arm resting on the open window, but his
eyes
scan the
side
walks until the car passes Jack's place, then he turns around and looks back at Jack's place.
"Damn,
Sheriff, it
sure
looks empty for a
Saturday,"
he
says.
Sheriff Tom does not look back, does not
say
anything, just grunts and speeds the
c
ar up some.
"Ain't
nobody seem to be out tonight,
Sheriff,"
Cecil
s
ays agam.
Sheriff Tom remains
silent,
bu t takes a deep
sigh.
Deputy Hill will be twenty-six in a month, but
still
li
ves
right outside of town
with
his mother. His
father
died a
cou
ple years ago, got that
cancer
and just
shrunk
down to nothin
,
that's when Cecil started helping out the
sheriff
in the
eve
nings and Saturday nights. Cecil was a big man, built
strong
and solid, been working down the sawmill
since
he got out
of
high
school,
but his
Saturday
nights was
what
he looked
for
ward to, no tellin what Saturday night might bring. He
got
used to Sheriff Tom's ways real fast, knew he
could
talk
real
slow, then knock the hell out of somebody while he was
still
talkin. Them Saturday-night
crowds
Jack's place
got could get
real unruly, didn't want to go home for nothin, get so drunk they forget who the
sheriff
is. Cecil knew the sheriff's
ways,
knew just to stand back and watch him
go
into one of them thick crowds and get right up in
a
loudmouth's face. That
's
when Cecil knew to just keep an
eye
on the
crowd,
make
sure
92 I
Alfwrl
Fre11rl1
none of them boys tried to ju mp the
sheriff
from behind.
Wasn't
loo many
Saturday
nights that
someone
didn't end
up
hein dragged oul
of somewhere, specially
them boys
come over
from
Greene County.
The
sheriff
didn't talk too much,
Cecil
k new t hat,
got
used to not asking a
lot
of
quest ions, but tonight
was
different and he had
some
questions, bu t couldn't
ask
them.
Sheriff
Tom slowed the
car
and
eased
it over the railroad tracks, then sped up again. On the other
side
of the tracks the road narrowed and the bushes alongside
of
i t were thick and grew up close to the road. The road took a few
curves
un til it got to the Catfish bridge, then narrowed even more.
Deputy Hill dipped his head so he
could
look
out
the
car's
front window as it approached
the
bridge.
"Sheriff, Sheriff, look,
somethin's
burnin
down
there," Dep u ty Hill
shouts.
Sheriff Tom drove on in
silence.
"Sheriff, what's goin on
down there? Look at that, that's in the Patch."
Deputy Hill quickly looked at t he
sheriff,
looked
for some
reaction, listen
for
hi m Lo
say somethin,
make
a grunt,
mum ble,
bu t
the
sheriff was silent
as the
car rolled across
the nar
row Catfish
bridge.
"What ya thin kin, Sheriff?
What
ya think
that is?"
"God
dam n it,"
Sheriff
Tom mu mbled, then
stomped
down
on
the
gas peda l.
The
car
l u nged
forward once, and
th
en seemed
to rear
back
and lunge
again as
t he
sheriff
quickly
shifted gears.
The black Ford
speeds.
The dark Patch Road hecomes brigh t
by
firelight.
"God
damn these
fuckin
assholes,
god
damn them,'' the
sheriff shouts and slams on
his brakes.
The
big Ford
comes
B I L L Y
/
93
to a quick halt and rocks on its shocks and springs, is still rocking when the sheriff jumps out yellin, "What the hell
y
a all doin out here? Git outta here now. Let that nigger go,
y
a hear me, Ah said let him go. All of ya all, git outta here. Git the hell out of here now. Git over here, Frank Ottum. God damn it, Ah said git over now. Ah told ya ta keep ya ass out my business. Ya and the rest of these boy
s
goin ta answer ta me
,
and ya ain't goin ta have the answers Ah want. Now, git ya asses outta here. Ya fuckin up my investigation. Um the law and ya in my law. Now, git outta here."
Frank Ottum shouts, "Sheriff, we got childr
e
n too,
c
an
'
t have no wild nigger loose. We got a right
,
Sheriff. We got a right ta protect ourselves."
"Come here, Frank," the sheriff shouts
,
then starts to mo
v
e through the gathering crowd of torchbearers. The men watch the sheriff come closer
,
Deputy Hill follows at a distance. Now the sheriff is whispering to Frank Ottum
,
"Come h
e
r
e,
Frank. Come here, ya hear me?" He is clo
s
e to Frank Ottum, so close that only Frank Ottum can make out what he i
s
mumbling.
"Frank," the sheriff is whispering, "let me tell ya
s
omethin that's gonna happen, Ah promise ya, if ya ain't outta my law
,
outta my way, if ya ain
'
t outta my sight, Um not gonna kill
y
a
,
Frank, don't worry bout that. Um just goin ta blow your god damn balls off, and every time ya try ta fuck ya can rem
e
m ber how ya got in Sheriff Tom's law. Now
,
Ah got m
y
hand on my pistol. Ah don't have ta draw it, Ah just have ta til t it. So what ya goin ta do, Frank?"
Frank Ottum backs away from Sheriff Tom and shout
s
t
o
the surrounding men,
"
Come, let's go. Sheriff says he
c
an
g
it the nigger, says he'll have him in a hit." Th
e
n h
e c
all
s
to th
e
sheriff, "Sheriff, ya n
ee
d u
s
,
y
a ju
s
t
c
all u
s
,
y
a h
e
ar
'?
"
94 I Allwrt Fre11d1
Sheriff
Tom mumbles, "Ah be
sure
la
do that, Frank." Lucy Mae's mot her
stood
outside her dirt
yard
hold ing
Lucy
Mae.
She
had
called
and
called
her
God,
now
she
is
si
lent
and only watches
her home burn
i n
the night.
Wesley Hall lays next to the road. He has
crawled
into the Lushes
and
lays holding his
side
and
gasping
for air.
Reverend Sims had
slithered
around in
the
dark, found his Bible,
and
closed i ts pages, then limped
to
his
sittin
porch
and set
on the
steps.
His head is down, he does not lok at the fire.
Della Robinson
sat
up in her dirt
yard, staring
down at the ground, and just kept trembling.
Jackson Bivens
eased
the shotgun's hammer back down and just set staring at his door with his
hands
still
shaking.
His wife, Tammy, has
all
the
children gathered
in her
arms,
and tries to
cry
quietly.
Big Jake plowed through the dark Patch paths
and
dirt
yards,
makin sure of his
children.
He has
bruises on
his arms and hands from beating off anyone that
came
too
close
to him.
LeRoy stands
in the
dark
wi th !tis pistol i n his hands. He
can still see
the d istant fires. He
does not know
they
are cooling.
Shorty stares
through the window
at
the
flames.
The
fire
light dances in his
eyes,
he smiles.
Where the waters
of
the
Ca
tfi
sh
turn, i t is
quiet. Cinder
whispers into the
silence, ''Billy,
Billy, Billy Lee,
it's
Mama."
It is
silent.
Cinder wades i nto the dark bushes.
"B
ill
y,
Billy, it's Mama. It's Mama, baby."
She
stills
herself and
li
stens,
but only hears night
bugs
B l L L
y
I 95
calling. She pushes the limbs and branches from her face
be
fore she whispers again.
"Billy,
it's Mama, baby. It's Mama, Billy Lee, Billy Lee.
"
"Mama, Mama."
"Billy, Billy, where are
you?" "Mama."
She can see him now, she pushes through the bushes until she can touch him, feel his face, bring him to her, and
put
her arms around him
.
Billy whispers into Cinder's breast, "Ah
scared,
Mama.
Ah
hear em. They's
comin
ta
gits
me?"
Cinder only holds him tight, but opens her
eyes to
the night.
Sheriff Tom and Deputy Hill walk through the smoke
and
light of the flames. Deputy Hill follows behind, looking
back
and forth at the dark faces that
stand silently
as he passes. Katey stands on the porch, stands back in the shadows, and watches the sheriff and the other man
with
the gun
come
up through the smoke and into her dirt
yard.
She calls for her God, but her lips do not move, only her breasts rise and
fall
rapidly
,
then
she
speaks.
"What ya want here now? Billy ain't here. He ain't here
,
Ah tell ya. What
ya want
here? Ya all
go away
from here.
"
"Where's
that boy's mother at? Tell her ta get her ass
out
here, ya hear me? Ah
say,
tell her ta
get
out here fore
Ah
come
i n after her."
"She gone. She
gone
too. She ai n't here
."
"Ya 1yin, get her
out
here."
"She
gone, she leaves. She ain't
comin backs
here."