Georgia Boy by Erskine Caldwell

Author:Erskine Caldwell [Caldwell, Erskine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-1710-8
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media LLC
Published: 2011-11-09T05:00:00+00:00

IX. My Old Man and Pretty Sooky

MY OLD MAN picked up one morning long before daylight and went off fishing without saying a word to Ma or me about it. He always liked to go off like that early in the morning before Ma was up and about, because he knew she would put her foot down if she found out what he was up to and not let him go. Sometimes he went off and stayed three or four days at a time down on Briar Creek, and the better the fish were biting the longer he stayed. My old man was a fool about fishing.

He would catch a big mess of catfish and pout-mouthed perch and fry them over a litter fire on the creek bank as fast as he could hook them on his line. My old man said there was not a bit of sense in saving them up to bring home, because the womenfolk never had learned to roll a perch in enough cornmeal to suit his taste.

That morning Ma missed him at breakfast time, but she didn’t say a word to me about it and went on acting just as if she didn’t know he wasn’t there. After breakfast I went out behind the shed and helped Handsome Brown shuck the corn and pitch down some hay for Ida. We stayed out there all morning, splitting pine lighters and talking about all the money we could make if we sold all the scrap iron we could find.

When the twelve o’clock whistle blew at the lumber mill, Ma came out behind the shed where we were and asked Handsome if he knew where Pa had gone. I didn’t say a word, because I never did like to tell on my old man. I knew all about it just the same, because Handsome had told me about how Pa had tried to get him to go along that morning.

“Handsome Brown,” Ma said, “don’t you sit there and not answer me when I speak to you. Where is Mr. Morris, Handsome?”

Handsome looked across at me and then down at the pile of lighters he had been splitting off and on all morning.

“Ain’t he around and about, Mis’ Martha?” he said after a little while, cutting his eyes around and looking up at Ma until the whites looked like dinner plates.

“You know good and well he’s not here, Handsome,” Ma said, stamping her foot. “The idea of you trying to beat around the bush like that! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”

“Mis’ Martha,” Handsome said, looking straight at Ma, “I ain’t trying to beat no bushes at all.”

“Then tell me where Mr. Morris went this morning.”

“Maybe he went down to the barber shop, Mis’ Martha. I heard him say only a little while ago that he needed a haircut bad.”

“Handsome Brown,” Ma said, picking up a little twig like she always did when she was tired waiting for what she wanted to know. “I want you to tell me the truth.

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