The Land of Plenty by Robert Cantwell

Author:Robert Cantwell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 2013-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

10. WALT

HE had no quarrel with Winters; he only thought it was senseless to drive the car over the tideflat and that Winters was making a fool of himself ordering Rose around, and he had tried to stop him, to bring him back to earth. It was senseless because anyone could see there was no help for the man who was hurt. He had been up there. The talk with Hagen’s boy had left him with a dull self-disgust that was partly a fear that he had put himself too much in Johnny’s hands or that the girls would make fun of him, and partly revulsion at talking down to Johnny. He had walked around the tideflat until he found the accident; it sickened him, and there seemed to be nothing he could do to help, so he wandered away again until he saw MacMahon’s car and saw Winters, evidently out of his head, yelling madly and finally getting in and driving across the tideflat.

He ran over the uneven ground after the car, conscious of the growing crowd around the head end of the mill in the distance. I told Carl to send them home, he kept thinking. He can’t say I didn’t tell him. When he caught up, he found Rose pressed back against the corner of the seat, her eyes darting at the men who ran past toward the head end of the mill, her mouth twitching nervously, and he felt sorry for her, suddenly, thinking how strange and bewildering it all must seem to her. Her features lighted up with relief when she saw him.

“Walt,” she asked, “who is it?”

He had known her in school, but then she had been only a quiet girl with few friends and he had paid no attention to her, and now the thought of all that had happened since then crossed his mind with a memory of how ordinary she had seemed then and how indifferent he had felt toward her.

“I don’t know.”

“Was it?”

“No. It was one of the men.”

She smiled shakily and sighed. The people were still coming across the tideflat. Someone stood midway between the car and the vats shouting, “Keep out of the light!” whenever anyone passed in front of the car. He was stirred again to think how much she must have been worried about her father…. “What do you suppose happened to him?” she whispered. “He’s been gone an awful long time.”

“He’s probably trying to get that poor devil free,” he said. “A log rolled on him.” She looked up toward the men moving rapidly around the vats, her eyes widening. She had changed since he had seen her, he decided, the sullenness had gone out of her face and she looked older. The long white evening dress made her look slim and cool. He did not know the boy sitting beside her, and after he had glanced up and seen the boy staring at him inquisitively he ignored him, suddenly aware of his working clothes, his dirty hands and the grease and dirt he knew must mark his face.

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