“Well, we come to a camp.
Got shade an’ got water in pipes.
Costs half a dollar a day to stay there. But ever’body’s so goddamn tired an’ wore out an’ mis’able, they stayed there.
Ma says they got to ’cause Granma’s so tired an’ wore out.
Got Wilson’s tent up an’ got our tarp for a tent.
I think Granma gone nuts.”
Tom looked toward the lowering sun.
“Casy,” he said, “somebody got to stay with this car or she’ll get stripped.
You jus’ as soon?”
“Sure.
I’ll stay.”
Al took a paper bag from the seat.
“This here’s some bread an’ meat Ma sent, an’ I got a jug a water here.”
“She don’t forget nobody,” said Casy.
Tom got in beside Al.
“Look,” he said. “We’ll get back jus’ as soon’s we can.
But we can’t tell how long.”
“I’ll be here.”
“Awright.
Don’t make no speeches to yourself.
Get goin’, Al.” The truck moved off in the late afternoon. “He’s a nice fella,” Tom said. “He thinks about stuff all the time.”
“Well, hell—if you been a preacher, I guess you got to.
Pa’s all mad about it costs fifty cents jus’ to camp under a tree.
He can’t see that noways.
Settin’ a-cussin’.
Says nex’ thing they’ll sell ya a little tank a air.
But Ma says they gotta be near shade an’ water ’cause a Granma.”
The truck rattled along the highway, and now that it was unloaded, every part of it rattled and clashed. The side-board of the bed, the cut body.
It rode hard and light.
Al put it up to thirty-eight miles an hour and the engine clattered heavily and a blue smoke of burning oil drifted up through the floor boards.
“Cut her down some,” Tom said. “You gonna burn her right down to the hub caps.
What’s eatin’ on Granma?”
“I don’t know. ’Member the las’ couple days she’s been airy-nary, sayin’ nothin’ to nobody?
Well, she’s yellin’ an’ talkin’ plenty now, on’y she’s talkin’ to Grampa.
Yellin’ at him.
Kinda scary, too.
You can almos’ see ’im a-settin’ there grinnin’ at her the way he always done, a-fingerin’ hisself an’ grinnin’.
Seems like she sees him a-settin’ there, too.
She’s jus’ givin’ him hell.
Say, Pa, he give me twenty dollars to hand you.
He don’ know how much you gonna need.
Ever see Ma stand up to ’im like she done today?”
“Not I remember.
I sure did pick a nice time to get paroled.
I figgered I was gonna lay aroun’ an’ get up late an’ eat a lot when I come home.
I was goin’ out an’ dance, an’ I was gonna go tom-cattin’—an’ here I ain’t had time to do none of them things.”
Al said,
“I forgot.
Ma give me a lot a stuff to tell you. She says don’t drink nothin’, an’ don’ get in no arguments, an’ don’t fight nobody. ’Cause she says she’s scairt you’ll get sent back.”
“She got plenty to get worked up about ’thout me givin’ her no trouble,” said Tom.