A Little More Than Kin by Ernest Hebert

Author:Ernest Hebert [Hebert, Ernest]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of New England
Published: 1993-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

A DAY

Ollie Jordan got up at his usual time, about noon. It was a work day, one of the three that he helped Elman with his trash collection route from 1:00 to 5:30 P.M. Elman and Cooty Patterson worked the morning round, but old Cooty was too frail to put in a full day. Ollie worked Monday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons, and sometimes on Saturday mornings. Elman worked fifty hours a week hauling trash. At night, he struggled with his bookkeeping and with the home lessons that he told Ollie were going to lead him to a high school diploma. On weekends Elman could be found repairing his vehicles, which at the moment consisted of the honeywagon (the money-maker), a pickup truck (his fun vehicle), a ten-year-old Chrysler (to show the world he was Mr. Somebody, Ollie deduced), and a Pinto sedan (Elman said it was a girl friend for the Chrysler).

Ollie tried hard not to hold it against Elman that he was addicted to work. After all, work was only one of two flaws that Elman had, the other being clock-watching. Elman even worked when he was drinking. On Sundays, he could be found sitting on the floor of his shed, a beer at his side, a cigarette burning in the hubcap he used for an ashtray, and on the floor the parts of a machine that Ollie could not immediately identify. Ollie would be appalled by this sight. A man should drink quietly and with dignity. God had invented booze to help a man gather his thoughts. Ollie wanted to say to his friend, “Good God, man! How can you concentrate on your drinking while you are trying to fix an engine?” But Ollie reined himself in. He would not criticize Elman’s ways, any more than Elman would criticize his ways: This was in the code of their friendship. Still, the realization of Elman’s need to keep working, even as he drank his beer, left just a spot of tarnish on the enormous respect that Ollie felt for him.

Ollie viewed Elman’s clock-watching as a less serious but more bothersome flaw. Elman was constantly concerned about getting to a certain place by such and such an hour. He didn’t seem to understand that the place would be there no matter when you arrived, and if it wasn’t there, why then it didn’t make any difference at all. The worst of it was that Elman showed actual annoyance when Ollie was a little bit late for work, say half an hour. This flaw on Elman’s part was the kind of thing that eventually could try their friendship, Ollie realized. On occasion he broached the subject with Elman in the hopes of making him see how unreasonable he was. When Elman had made some comment about having to get to the dump before it closed, Ollie had said, “The dump will be there by-and-by.”

“How in the name of sweet Jesus am I supposed to do my route tomorrow if my truck is full up?” Elman had asked.

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