"Dont you call me that, Jewel."
In the tall moonlight his eyes look like spots of white paper pasted on a high small football.
After supper Cash began to sweat a little.
"It's getting a little hot," he said.
"It was the sun shining on it all day, I reckon."
"You want some water poured on it?" we say.
"Maybe that will ease it some."
“I’d be obliged," Cash said.
"It was the sun shining on it, I reckon.
I ought to thought and kept it covered."
"We ought to thought," we said.
"You couldn't have suspicioned."
"I never noticed it getting hot," Cash said.
“I ought to minded it."
So we poured the water over it.
His leg and foot below the cement looked like they had been boiled.
"Does that feel better?" we said.
“I’m obliged," Cash said.
"It feels fine."
Dewey Dell wipes his face with the hem of her dress.
"See if you can get some sleep," we say.
"Sho," Cash says.
"I'm right obliged.
It feels fine now."
Jewel, I say, Who was your father, Jewel?
Goddamn you.
Goddamn you.
Vardaman.
She was under the apple tree and Darl and I go across the moon and the cat jumps down and runs and we can hear her inside the wood.
"Hear?"
Darl says.
"Put your ear close."
I put my ear close and I can hear her.
Only I cant tell what she is saying.
"What is she saying, Darl?" I say.
"Who is she talking to?"
"She's talking to God," Darl says.
"She is calling on Him to help her."
"What does she want Him to do?" I say.
"She wants Him to hide her away from the sight of man," Darl says.
"Why does she want to hide her away from the sight of man, Darl?"
"So she can lay down her life," Darl says.
"Why does she want to lay down her life, Darl?"
"Listen," Darl says.
We hear her.
We hear her turn over on her side.
"Listen," Darl says.
"She's turned over," I say.
"She's looking at me through the Wood."
"Yes," Darl says.