‘Like he ain’t so much upset, after all,’ he thought.
Then he thought immediately: ‘No.
That ain’t right.
That ain’t just.
Because I don’t believe that.
I know that the reason he is asleep and I ain’t asleep is that he is an old man and he can’t stand as much as I can stand.’
He approached the bed.
The still invisible occupant snored profoundly.
There was a quality of profound and complete surrender in it.
Not of exhaustion, but surrender, as though he had given over and relinquished completely that grip upon that blending of pride and hope and vanity and fear, that strength to cling to either defeat. or victory, which is the I-Am, and the relinquishment of which is usually death.
Standing beside the bed Byron thought again A poor thing.
A poor thing It seemed to him now that to wake the man from that sleep would be the sorest injury which he had ever done him.
‘But it ain’t me that’s waiting,’ he thought. ‘God knows that.
Because I reckon He has been watching me too lately, like the rest of them, to see what I will do next.’
He touched the sleeper, not roughly, but firmly.
Hightower ceased in midsnore; beneath Byron’s hand he surged hugely and suddenly up.
“Yes?” he said. “What?
Who is it?
Who is there?”
“It’s me,” Byron said. “It’s Byron again.
Are you awake now?”
“Yes.
What—”
“Yes,” Byron said. “She says it’s about due now.
That the time has come.”
“She?”
“Tell me where the light ...
Mrs. Hines.
She is out there.
I am going on for the doctor.
But it may take some time.
So you can take my mule.
I reckon you can ride that far.
Have you still got your book?”
The bed creaked as Hightower moved.
“Book?
My book?”
“The book you used when that nigger baby came.
I just wanted to remind you in case you would need to take it with you.
In case I don’t get back with the doctor in time.
The mule is out at the gate.
He knows the way.
I will walk on to town and get the doctor.
I’ll get back out there as soon as I can.” He turned and recrossed the room.
He could hear, feel, the other sitting up in the bed.
He paused in the middle of the floor long enough to find the suspended light and turn it on.
When it came on he was already moving on toward the door.
He did not look back.
Behind him he heard Hightower’s voice:
“Byron!