Paris Trout - Pete Dexter by Pete Dexter

Author:Pete Dexter
Language: eng
Format: epub

"Do you know what else happened?"

"Shooting," he said. "Shooting started before I got to the door."

"How many shots?"

He shook his head. "You couldn't say. Seem like firecrackers. They was almost all together, all of it didn't take but four or five seconds."

"What happened after the shooting stopped?"

"After the shooting I went out to the back, there was Momma and Rosie both coming out the house. Momma holding herself here on her breast, Rosie holding her 'tomach."

"Did you see Mr. Trout or Mr. Buster back there?"

"No sir, they gone by then."

'°Was there a pistol in the house at the time all this happened?"

"Yessir, on my side. Right under my mattress."

"Did you ever get that pistol?"

"No sir, I never bothered it till the next morning when they come out after it. I give it to a police."

"Did you fight Mr. Trout any? Did you put your hand on him?"

"No sir."

"Did he put his hand on you?"

"Yessir, but he didn't have his hand on me but a little while. He didn't touch nothing long, but when he left his hands off us, we was changed for good."

Townes stood quietly a moment, giving that time to sink in. Then he looked at Trout and said, "Your witness."

* * *

SEAGRAVES STOOD UP, undecided as to how that last remark had affected the jury. He looked at them again, trying to remember which ones were indebted to him for their city water, but in some way that would not quite come clear, they were not as familiar as they had been an hour before. He smiled, glancing down at the pad in front of Trout. j He was drawing cartoons — ducks shooting guns at each other.

"He didn't touch us long, but when he left his hands off us, we was changed for good." Seagraves repeated the boy's words in a monotone as if he were reading them.

"Yessir."

"Could you tell us how things were before Mr. Trout changed them?"

"I don't know that I exactly could," the boy said.

"Well, let's see. When you needed money, where did you go to borrow?"

The boy did not answer.

"Did Mr. Trout come to you, or did you go to him?"

"He come out that day."

"I'm not talking about the day of the shooting right now," Seagraves said. "We'll talk about that later. Right now I want to know about this beatific life you-all had that Mr. Trout changed."

The boy moved in his seat. "I didn't say it was that," he said.

Seagraves closed his eyes. "What I am getting at here is that Paris Trout was part of the reason you had the good life you did. That he had been a friend to your family, loaned you money when you needed it, and would still be a friend if you hadn't tried to cheat him on this car."

The boy did not answer.

"Am I going too fast?"

"No sir."

"Then answer the question."

"I didn't hear none."

"The question I asked you was to describe the life that you say Mr. Trout changed."

The boy paused. "Rosie's life," he said.

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