God's Little Acre Page 11

  “Now, you folks wait a minute,” Ty Ty said excitedly. “You folks are just going to shove it all off on me. Why can’t somebody go with me up there and help convince Jim Leslie how much in need of money I am?”

  “I’ll go with you, Pa,” Griselda said.

  “You won’t need me,” Will stated, getting out. “I couldn’t talk to him without getting mad and batting him down.”

  “Go on with Pa, Will,” Darling Jill urged. “Pa needs you along.”

  “Why don’t you go? You’re telling everybody else to go, but you don’t go yourself.”

  “Don’t be scared of Jim Leslie, Will,” Griselda said. “He can’t hurt you.”

  “Who said I was scared of anybody? Me--scared of him?”

  “It’s time to go,” Ty Ty said. “We’ll be sitting here arguing all night if we don’t make up our minds right away.”

  Buck and Shaw started up the street towards the brightly lighted theaters. Rosamond ran and caught up with them.

  “Oh, I’ll go,” Darling Jill said. “I don’t mind.”

  “We three are enough, unless Will wants to go.”

  “That’s all right with me,” Will said. “I’ll hang around here till you get back.”

  Darling Jill got out of the back seat and sat under the steeringwheel. Griselda got in with her, leaving Ty Ty alone in the rear.

  “I’ll stick around here somewhere,” Will said, looking up and down the street.

  He walked slowly away, keeping close to the curb and glancing up at the windows on the second storeys. The buildings all had iron-grilled balconies, three or four feet wide, and people were sitting in the windows and leaning over the iron railings looking down on the sidewalk.

  Somebody further down the street called Will’s name. He walked down there, looking up at the faces overhead.

  “There goes Will,” Griselda said hopelessly.

  One of the girls overhead was leaning over the railing talking to him. Will walked away looking up at other balconies. The girl who had tried to talk to him cursed and called him all the obscene names she could think of.

  Darling Jill giggled and whispered something to Griselda. They spoke in undertones for a while, and Ty Ty was unable to overhear a word they said.

  “Let’s be going, girls,” he said. “It’s a sin and a shame to stay here.”

  Darling Jill made no effort to start the car. One of the girls above them on the balcony was pointing at Ty Ty. He had already seen them up there, and he refused to look in any direction except down at his feet.

  He was biting his tongue with fear that one of the girls up there would speak to him before Darling Jill would start the car.

  “Hello, grandpa,” the girl who had pointed said. “Come on up a while and have a good time.”

  Ty Ty looked at Darling Jill and Griselda when they turned to see what he was going to do. He was wishing they would only hurry and drive away before the girls on the secondstorey balconies could say anything else to him. He would not have minded being spoken to under any other circumstance, but he did not feel free to answer anybody up there while he was with Darling Jill and Griselda. He leaned forward, poking Darling Jill with his finger, urging her to drive away.

  “Why don’t you go up there and see what’s going on, Pa?” she asked, giggling again.

  “Man alive!” Ty Ty said, blushing through his tanned skin.

  “Go on up, Pa,” Griselda urged. “We’ll wait for you. Go on up and have a good time.”

  “Man alive!” Ty Ty said again. “I’m ‘way past that age. Wouldn’t be no sense in that.”

  The girl who had been watching Ty Ty beckoned to him with her finger, jerking her head and pointing to the stairs that opened on the street. She was a small girl, not much older than sixteen or seventeen, and when she leaned over the iron railing and looked down into the car, Ty Ty could not keep from glancing up and wishing he could go up the stairs to see her. His hands clutched the thin roll of soiled one-dollar bills in his pocket, and perspiration dampened his brow. He knew Darling Jill and Griselda were waiting for him to get out and walk up the stairs, but he did not have the courage to go in their presence.

  “Don’t be a tightwad, grandpa,” the girl said out of the corner of her lips. “You’ll never be young but once.”

  Ty Ty glanced at the backs of Griselda’s and Darling Jill’s heads. They were watching the girl on the balcony above, and talking about her in undertones.

  “Go on up, Pa,” Griselda said. “You’ll have a good time up there. You ought to have a little fun sometimes after working so hard at home in the holes.”

  “Now, Griselda,” Ty Ty protested weakly, “I’m ‘way past that now. Don’t tease me so much. It makes me feel like I don’t know what I’m liable to do with myself.”

  The girl had left the little iron-grilled balcony. Ty Ty looked up and felt a relief. He leaned forward, prodding Darling Jill with his finger, urging her to drive away.

  “Wait just another minute,” she said.

  He could see that they were watching the stairs that opened on the street. Out of the gray darkness of the building the girl suddenly appeared in the glow of the whiteway lights.

  Ty Ty saw her and sank down in the seat hoping to get out of sight. She walked straight for the automobile, stepping off the curb and into the street beside Ty Ty on the back seat.

  “I know what’s wrong with you--you’re bashful.”

  Ty Ty blushed and sank lower. He could see Darling Jill and Griselda watching him in the little mirror on top of the windshield.

  “Come on upstairs and jazz a little.”

  Darling Jill giggled outright.

  Ty Ty said something, but no one could hear what it was. The girl put her foot on the runningboard and reached for Ty Ty’s arm to pull him out. He moved to the middle of the seat, evading her fingers.

  Darling Jill turned around and glanced at the girl’s powdered breasts in the low-cut dress. She turned back and whispered something to Griselda. Both laughed.

  “What’s the matter with you, grandpa? Have you got a boil on you, or don’t you have any money?”

  Ty Ty vaguely wondered if she would go away and let him alone if he told her he had no money.

  He shook his head at her, moving further away.

  “You’re a cheap son-of-a-bitch,” she said. “Why can’t you spend a little money at the end of the week? If I had known you were such a tight-fisted son-of-a-bitch I wouldn’t have bothered to come down here.”

  Ty Ty did not answer her, and he thought she would go on back into the building. She did not even remove her foot from the runningboard, but stood waiting beside the car and looking sullenly at him.

  “Let’s go, girls,” he urged. “We’ve got to be on our way.” Darling Jill started the motor and engaged the gears. She turned around to see if the girl had removed her foot from the car. She backed several feet. The girl’s foot was dragged off the runningboard, and she stood at the curb cursing Ty Ty. When they were clear of the curbing, Darling Jill started down the street and turned the corner. In a few minutes they were in a boulevard bound for The Hill.

  “I’m sure thankful you girls got me away from there,” Ty Ty said. “It looked like we was never going to get away. I’d have gone up there with her just to make her be quiet if we hadn’t left when we did. I hate to be out in the main street and have a woman swear at me like that for all the people to hear. I never could stand being cussed by a woman right in the middle of the city.”

  “Oh, we weren’t going to let you go up there, Pa,” Griselda said. “We were only fooling. We wouldn’t have let you go up there and get diseased. It was only a joke on you.”

  “Well, I ain’t saying I wanted to go, and I ain’t saying I didn’t. But I sure hate to have a woman swear at me like that on the main street. It doesn’t sound nice, for one thing. I never could put up with it.”

  They crossed the canal and entered another boulevard. The Hill was still two miles distant,
but the car was in a fast-moving stream of traffic, and they sped up the gradually rising elevation. Ty Ty was still a little nervous after his encounter with the girl who lived in the room behind the iron balcony, and he was glad it was over. He had known several girls who lived in that part of town, but that was ten to fifteen years earlier, and the ones he knew had gone away and others much younger had taken their places. Ty Ty felt uneasy in the presence of the new generation of girls down there, because they were no longer willing to stay in their rooms, or even on the balconies. Now they came down to the street and dragged men out of their cars. He shook his head, glad he was in another section of the city.

  “Man alive!” Ty Ty said. “She was a she-devil, all right. I don’t know when I’ve seen such a regular little hell-cat.”

  “Are you still thinking about that girl, Pa?” Griselda asked. “If you say so, we’ll turn around and go back.”

  “Great guns,” he shouted, “don’t do that! Keep on the way we’re going. I’ve got to see Jim Leslie. I can’t be fooling away my time down there again.”

  “Do you know which way to go now?” Darling Jill asked him, slowing down at an intersection of three streets.

  “Take the right-hand one,” he said, pointing with his hand.

  They drove for several blocks along a tree-lined street. There were large houses in that part of the city. Some of the large houses occupied an entire block. Up above them they could see the high towers on the Bon Air-Vanderbilt. They were in the midst of the resort hotels.

  “It’s a big white house with three storeys and a big front porch,” Ty Ty said. “Now go slow while I look out for it.”

  They drove two more blocks in silence.

  “They all look alike at night,” Ty Ty said. “But when I see Jim Leslie’s, I’ll know it without fail.”

  Darling Jill slowed down to cross a street. Just beyond was a large white house with three storeys and a large porch with white columns rising to the roof.

  “That’s it,” Ty Ty said, prodding them with his finger. “That’s Jim Leslie’s as sure as God makes little green apples. Stop right where we are.”

  They got out and looked up at the big white house behind the trees. There were lights in all the windows downstairs, and in some of the windows on the middle floor. The front door was open, but the screen door was closed. Ty Ty became worried about the screen door. He was afraid it was locked.

  “Don’t stop to knock or ring a bell, girls. If we did that, Jim Leslie might see who we are and lock the door before we can get inside.”

  Ty Ty went ahead and tiptoed up the steps and across the wide porch. Darling Jill and Griselda stayed close behind so they would not be locked outside. Ty Ty opened the screen door noiselessly, and they went into the wide hail.

  “We’re on the inside,” Ty Ty whispered, much relieved. “He’ll have a hard time putting us out now before I can tell him what I’m after.”

  They walked slowly to the wide door on the right. Ty Ty stopped there, looking into the room.

  Jim Leslie heard them and glanced up from the book he was reading with a frown on his face. He was alone in the room at the time. His wife was somewhere else in the house, probably on the floor above, Ty Ty supposed.

  He walked into the room with his son.

  “What are you doing here?” Jim Leslie said. “You know I don’t let you come here. Get out!”

  He glanced over Ty Ty’s shoulder and saw his sister and Griselda. He frowned again, looking at them harder still.

  “Now, Jim Leslie,” Ty Ty began, “you know you’re pleased to see us. We ain’t seen you in a long long time, now have we, son?”

  “Who let you in?”

  “We let ourselves in. The door was open, and I knew you were here, because I saw you through the window, so we just walked in. That’s the way we do out at home. Nobody ever has to knock on my door, or ring bells either, to come into the house. Out there everybody is welcome.”

  Jim Leslie looked again at Griselda. He had seen her once or twice before, at a distance, but he had not realized that she was so pretty. He wondered why a girl so beautiful had married Buck and had gone to live in the country. She would have looked much more at home in a house like this. He sat down, and the others found seats for themselves.

  “What did you come here for?” he asked his father.

  “It’s important, son,” Ty Ty said. “You know good and well I wouldn’t come to your house uninvited unless I was in great trouble.”

  “Money, I suppose,” Jim Leslie said. “Why don’t you dig it out of the ground?”

  “It’s in there, all right, but I just can’t seem to get it out right away.”

  “That’s what you thought ten or twelve years ago. It looks like you ought to learn some sense in fifteen years. There’s no gold out there. I told you that before I left.”

  “Gold or no gold, I’ve got the fever, son, and I can’t stop digging. But you’re wrong about that, because the gold is there, if I could only locate it. I’ve got an albino now, though, and I’m aiming to strike the lode any day now. All the folks say an albino can divine it if it’s in the country.”

  Jim Leslie grunted disgustedly. He looked helplessly at his father, not knowing what to say to a man who talked so foolishly.

  “Don’t be a damn fool all your life,” he said finally. “That talk about diviners is Negroes’ talk. They’re the only people I ever heard of who took such things seriously. A white man ought to have better sense than to fall for such superstition. You grow worse every year.”

  “You might call it that, but I’m going about the digging of the nuggets scientifically. I’ve done that clear from the start. The way I’m doing is scientific, and I know it is.”

  Jim Leslie had nothing further to say about it. He turned and looked at the bookcase.

  Ty Ty looked around at the richly furnished room. He had never been in the house before, and its rugs and furnishings were a revelation to him. The rugs were as soft and yielding as freshly plowed ground, and he walked over them feeling at home. He turned once to look at Griselda and Darling Jill, but they were watching Jim Leslie and did not meet his eyes.

  Presently Jim Leslie slumped down in the large overstuffed chair. He locked his hands under his chin and studied Griselda. Ty Ty saw that he was looking at her steadily.

  Chapter XII

  “That’s Buck’s wife, Griselda,” Ty Ty said.

  “I know,” Jim Leslie replied without turning.

  “She’s a mighty pretty girl.”

  “I know.”

  “The first time I saw her I said to myself: ‘Man alive! Griselda is a mighty pleasing dish to set before a man.’“

  “I know,” he said again.

  “It’s a shame your wife ain’t so pretty as Griselda,” Ty Ty said sympathetically. “It’s a dog-gone shame, Jim Leslie, if I do say it myself.”

  Jim Leslie shrugged his shoulders a little, still looking at Griselda. He could not keep his eyes away from her.

  “They tell me that your wife has got diseased,” Ty Ty said, moving his chair closer to his son’s. “I’ve heard the boys say a lot of these rich people up here on The Hill have got one thing and another wrong with them. It’s a dog-gone shame you had to marry her, Jim Leslie. I feel downright sorry for you, son. Did she get you cornered so you couldn’t worm out of marrying her?”

  “I don’t know,” Jim Leslie said wearily.

  “I sure hate to see you married to a diseased wife, son. Now just look at those two girls, there. Neither of them is diseased. Darling Jill is all right, and so is Griselda. And Rosamond ain’t diseased either. They’re all nice clean girls, son, the three of them. I’d hate to have a girl in my house diseased. I’d feel so ashamed of it that I’d hide my face when people came to see me at the house. It must be pretty hard for you to have to live with a diseased woman like your wife. Why is it, anyhow, that so many of these rich girls here in Augusta have got the diseases, son?”

  “I d
on’t know,” he replied weakly.

  “What is it she’s got, anyhow?”

  Jim Leslie tried to laugh at Ty Ty, but he could not even force a smile to his lips.

  “Don’t you know the name of it, son?”

  Jim Leslie shook his head, indicating that he had no answer to give.

  “The boys said she has gonorrhea. Is that right, son? That’s what I heard, if I remember right.”

  Jim Leslie nodded his head almost imperceptibly. As long as he could sit there and look at Griselda he was willing to let Ty Ty’s questions pass over his head. He had no interest in them as long as Griselda was there.

  “Well, I’m sorry for you, son. It’s a dog-gone shame you had to marry a girl with a disease. I reckon, though, you wouldn’t have done it if she hadn’t cornered you so you couldn’t worm out of it. If you couldn’t get out of it, then that’s something God Himself couldn’t have helped. You deserve a little better, though. It’s a dog-gone shame you had to do it.”

  Ty Ty moved his chair closer to Jim Leslie’s. He leaned forward, nodding his head towards Griselda.

  “It’s a dog-gone shame about your wife, son, if I do say it myself. Now, just take Griselda, there. She ain’t diseased, and she’s the prettiest girl you can ever hope to see. Just look at her! Now, you know good and well you’ve never seen a prettier girl, all over, have you, son?”

  Jim Leslie smiled, but said nothing.

  “Aw, now, Pa,” Griselda begged anxiously, “please don’t say those things again now. Don’t say things like that in front of him, Pa. It’s not nice, Pa.”

  “Now you just wait, Griselda. I’m mighty proud of you, and I aim to praise you. We ain’t strangers here, anyhow. Ain’t Jim Leslie one of the family, just like Darling Jill, there, and the rest of them? I aim to praise you mightily, Griselda. I’m as proud of you as a hen is of a lone chick.”

  “But don’t say any more then, please, Pa.”

  “Son,” Ty Ty said, turning towards Jim Leslie, “Griselda is the prettiest girl in the whole State of Georgia, and I reckon that’s something to be proud of. Why, man alive! She’s got the finest pair of rising beauties a man ever laid eyes on. If you could see them there under the cloth, you’d know I’m telling the truth as only God Himself could tell it if He could only talk. And you wouldn’t be the first one to go plumb wild just looking at them, either.”