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  Lorene ran after him, and she got there just as Clay was walking from the car.

  “Where’s Vearl?” Lorene asked excitedly.

  Clay walked to the house as though he had not heard her. She ran and caught up with him, pulling his arm.

  “Where’s Vearl, Clay?”

  They had reached the porch by that time, and Tom came through the hall carrying several tumblers.

  “Vearl?” Clay said, looking as if he had been taken by surprise. “Oh, Vearl got loose from me. He jumped loose from me before I got more than a mile or so away. I don’t know where he is now. I reckon he went up the creek, though. He’ll show up at Susan’s before dark. He don’t ever stay away all night.”

  Tom filled the glasses, placing one in Lorene’s hand. Semon picked up two and gave one of them to Clay.

  “And you didn’t take Vearl to see the doctor?” she asked, biting her lips.

  Clay drank half of his glass and set it on the floor beside him. Semon promptly filled it up again and handed it back to Clay.

  “Vearl? No. I didn’t get him all the way into town. But I happened to run into the doctor, though, and I said something to him about it. He said to give him the bottle of medicine, and bring him to town the next time I came in.”

  “I should have taken him myself,” Lorene said coldly. She glared at Clay. “I might have known you wouldn’t.”

  “I done the best I could, Lorene,” he said meekly. “That’s the truth, if I’ve ever told it, too. I wouldn’t run counter to you if I could help it.”

  “You didn’t half try,” she said. “You didn’t want to take him, and you didn’t try to keep him in the car. You let him jump out because you didn’t want to bother with him.”

  She drank the glass of liquor and set it down heavily on the floor beside the chair. Semon picked up Clay’s glass and handed it to him. He raised his own, urging Clay to follow his lead. Clay drank and wiped his mouth.

  Clay took out his harmonica and tapped it on his knee. He drew it across his mouth two or three times.

  “Let’s have a tune, Horey,” Semon urged.

  Clay blew several notes and shook his head.

  “It’s a little too early in the day for music,” he said, shaking his head from side to side. “I can’t be playing a mouth-organ before dinnertime.”

  After he had replaced it in his pocket, Semon urged him to drink some more.

  “Where’s Dene?” Clay demanded, placing the empty glass at his feet.

  “She’s around here somewhere,” Tom told him, “I saw her in the kitchen just now when I was after the glasses.”

  Clay looked across at Lorene. She was sipping the brimming glass Tom had only a moment before refilled. With several glasses of corn whisky inside of him, Clay liked to look at her. She wore well-fitting clothes, and her dark hair made something turn over inside of his mind.

  “Now, there’s a woman for you,” he said, pointing at her with one of his fingers.

  “Who?” Tom said.

  “Lorene, there.”

  “I wouldn’t say too much about her, Clay. Dene is around somewhere. She’ll be listening.”

  “That’s right,” Clay said. “I clear forgot about Dene. Now, Dene’s a woman for you.”

  “How about Sugar, Clay? Is she one for you, too?”

  “Aw, shucks, Tom. You know good and well I don’t mess around with Sugar no more.”

  Semon smiled all around. He was delighted with the progress he was making with Clay. He decided to let him talk a little while longer in the hope that he could press another glass of corn upon him.

  “Dene satisfy you, Horey?” Semon said, winking at Lorene and nodding approvingly.

  “Dene? Well, I reckon! And then some. Why, Dene can stay a jump ahead of me all the doggone time. I never have to know my own mind around Dene. She’s always giving me what I crave long before I know I crave it. And she’s always been like that. When I used to see her down there in front of her daddy’s house, she used to come up and give me a kiss on the sly, and a big hug—just like that! Soon as I got it, I knew I wanted it. But not till then. Dene never has got behind yet. She stays that jump ahead all the time.”

  “That’s her way of anticipating you,” Semon said.

  “That’s it!” Clay shouted. “That’s the big word! I never can think to say it myself, but what’s the use, anyhow? You’re always here to tell it to me.”

  “I’ve noticed that in her myself,” Semon nodded.

  “What in her?”

  “I’ve seen how she anticipates what a man wants.”

  “She didn’t do that to you, did she?”

  “I didn’t say that. I said I noticed it in her.”

  Clay scuffed his feet over the floor as though he were going to jump up. Instead, he sat up straight and looked at each of the faces around him.

  “She’d better not do it. And you’d better not do it. If I was to catch you and Dene playing that game of staying just a jump ahead, I’d—I’d—”

  “You got me wrong,” Semon assured him hastily. “I was merely telling you what you didn’t know. You’re always talking about what she does, but it takes me to fit the word in for you.”

  “Well, as long as that’s all you do, and nothing else, it’s all right by me.”

  Semon filled his glass, winking at Lorene. She got up and left the porch immediately.

  “Where’s she going?” Clay asked.

  Semon shrugged his shoulders. After Clay had taken several swallows, Semon sat down on the railing in front of him and leaned forward.

  “I’d like to have a little talk with you for just a minute,” he said, nodding towards Tom.

  They got up and crossed the porch to the other side.

  “What’s up?” Clay asked, lowering his voice so Tom could not overhear.

  “If I was to tell you something would you like to hear it, coz?”

  “Maybe I would, and maybe I wouldn’t. What’s it about, anyway?”

  “You’re feeling good, aint you?”

  “Like the world on fire,” Clay stated.

  Semon stooped down until his face was on a level with Clay’s head. He glanced behind him to see if anyone were listening. Clay followed his lead and glanced anxiously over his shoulders.

  “How’d you like to meet somebody, coz?”

  “Who? Where? Who is it?” he whispered breathlessly.

  Chapter X

  SEMON CAME CLOSER, shutting off Clay’s view of Tom Rhodes at the other end of the porch.

  “There’s a girl out there who’d like to see you, Horey. Feel like going to see her?”

  “You’re doggone right! Where is she?”

  “Never mind about that. I want to find out if you’re anxious to see her.”

  “White girl?”

  “Sure, she’s white. I wouldn’t bother you if she wasn’t.”

  “Doggone my hide!” Clay exclaimed. “Let’s go!”

  They left the porch without looking in Tom’s direction. When they had gone around the corner of the house, Semon stopped him abruptly, pulling his arm.

  “You’ve got a little money, haven’t you, Horey?”

  “Money? Maybe a little. What do you want to know that for?”

  “Well, it’s like this. You ought to give her a little something for seeing her. Now, don’t you think that would be fair and square?”

  “How much money?”

  “Three dollars would be just about right.”

  Clay drew back, shaking his head slowly. His face fell, and disappointment sobered him momentarily.

  “I haven’t got but a lone solitary dollar between me and the world. I had to buy some gas in McGuffin to get home on, and I fooled around in a little crap game for a while. A dollar’s all I got left.”

  Semon bit his lips in annoyance.

  “Are you sure, Horey? Look in your pockets and make sure. You ought to have more than a dollar. Anybody would have a dollar; you ought to have two or three, anyway.�
�

  Clay searched carefully through all his pockets, but all he could find was a single worn and soiled dollar bill. He held it up for Semon to see.

  “Maybe you could borrow some from Dene?” Semon said.

  “Dene? Dene hasn’t got a red penny to her name. She never has money except when I give her some, and there hasn’t been need of that for a long time. Dene wouldn’t have any, I know.”

  Semon walked up and down. He finally turned and looked at Clay.

  “You give me the dollar then. And if you get hold of more before Monday, you can give me the rest.”

  “That’s a lot of money to pay for just looking, ain’t it? I declare, it looks to me like it is.”

  “You can do more than that, if you want to. The sky’s the limit, Horey. You’ve paid your money, now go ahead and get your value.”

  Clay watched Semon fold the bill and put it into his pants pocket. He was on the verge of backing out of the deal when he saw his dollar go into Semon’s pocket. He made a desperate attempt to reach it, but his hand was slapped down.

  “I thought you said I was paying her,” Clay stated. “Don’t look like you ought to be putting my money in your pocket.”

  “I’m keeping it for her,” Semon said shortly.

  He took Clay by the arm and led him towards the barn. After they had gone several steps, Clay pulled loose.

  “Now, wait a minute. Where’s this you’re taking me?”

  “To the barn,” Semon said, reaching for his arm.

  “I can’t figure out what anybody would be doing in my barn. I’ve been living here on this place for a long time, and I never saw anybody in it before.”

  “A lot of things go on that you don’t know nothing about, Horey. Come on.”

  They walked to the barn and went inside. There was no one to be seen. The stalls were open, and the harness room door was open. Semon looked around unfamiliarly for a moment, and then he saw the ladder to the loft.

  “Let’s go up here,” he said, pushing Clay to the ladder.

  “There’s nothing up there but some bundles of fodder and a little pea-vine hay,” Clay protested. “I know what’s up there. There ain’t no use in climbing the ladder just to see fodder.”

  Semon pulled him to the ladder and pushed him up the first rung. After once starting, they went up quickly.

  When they reached the loft, they both stood up. Lorene was standing against one of the center uprights.

  “I’ll be doggone, if I won’t!” Clay exclaimed. “What are you doing up here in the loft, Lorene?”

  She beckoned to him with her finger.

  Clay turned to Semon to find out what it all meant. Semon nodded at him, and gave him a shove towards Lorene. He stumbled around over the bundles of fodder, kicking up a cloud of dust.

  “You’ve paid for it, Horey; now, go ahead,” Semon told him.

  “Why, that’s Lorene,” Clay protested. “You said there was somebody out here who wanted to see me. And I went and gave you all the money I had. That’s Lorene, there.”

  “You paid me to see Lorene,” Semon asserted. “And there she is. Now, go ahead, Horey.”

  Clay was bewildered for a while. He looked first at Lorene and then at Semon, and then he stared at the fodder under his feet.

  “Doggone,” he said. “I never knew I was paying all my money to see my fourth wife. I declare, I don’t seem able to figure it out. Looks like to me you folks is just playing a joke on me. I never heard tell of a man paying money to see his wife before. True, she ain’t my present one, but she’s my fourth one, just the same.

  “By God,” Semon said threateningly, “you’ve paid me the money, and now you’re going to get what’s coming to you for it. You’ve got to take what you bought and paid for. I’m not going to have you going around here saying I cheated you out of it. Now, go ahead, Horey. I’m not going to stand for no more foolishness. I mean business, and I don’t mean maybe, neither.”

  Semon looked around hastily for a weapon of some kind. There was a pitchfork standing under the eaves of the roof, and he jerked it up.

  “Don’t look like a preacher ought to be so all-fired cussed,” Clay said. “You ought to leave me and Lorene alone.”

  Semon raised the pitchfork, advancing on Clay, and jabbed it at him three or four times. Clay moved away from the sharp prongs and got beside Lorene.

  Lorene had sat down on a bundle of fodder, and Clay saw her at his feet when he looked down. She waited, without a word, looking up at him. She did not smile, and there was a grim line at the corners of her mouth.

  “You don’t act like you used to, sometimes,” he said, looking down at her.

  “I can’t afford to be easy,” Lorene said. “If I did that, I’d get cheated out of nearly all that was coming to me.”

  “Being as it’s me,” Clay said, “it looks like you ought to break down and smile just a little instead of looking so hard at me. I declare, you almost scare me out of my skin—you and Semon put together.”

  “Now you folks stop talking so much,” Semon said, prodding the air between them with the pitchfork. “The first thing I know, both of you will be scrapping me to get the dollar back. I won’t stand for that. I’ve earned my share of it. Now, go on and stop your foolishness.”

  “You’d better give me my share now,” Lorene said, holding out her hand. “As long as this’s business, I don’t want any misunderstanding later. Just give it to me now, Semon Dye.”

  “I haven’t got change for it now, Lorene. As soon as I can get it, I’ll give you yours. If I can’t get it before then, I’ll make change out of the collection Sunday.”

  “Are you still aiming to preach at the schoolhouse?” Clay asked, watching the pitchfork.

  “I am, I am,” Semon said. “That’s what I came here for. I’m going to preach nearly all day Sunday.”

  “Looks like you sort of got side-tracked, then. First you say you’re going to preach, and now you’re out bargaining about money to see Lorene. It don’t look to me like the two go hand-in-hand. Maybe they do, but it don’t look like they ought to, somehow.”

  “Stop arguing, Clay, and get down here,” Lorene said, pulling at his hand. “So much talking back at each other won’t do any good.”

  She pulled Clay down on his knees beside her. Clay waited for Semon to go down the ladder; but he sat down on a bundle of fodder instead, showing that he had no intention of leaving the loft.

  “I don’t reckon anybody else will be prowling around out here and come up the ladder,” Clay said uneasily. “There’s Tom here. He might take it into his head to look around.”

  Lorene ignored his concern. She pulled him closer.

  Semon was observing them closely. He did not turn around to look the other way, and he acted as though he was an invited guest.

  The moment when Clay felt Lorene’s arms around his neck he forgot that anyone else was there. He kissed her to the quick.

  “This feels like old times, don’t it, Lorene?” he said huskily.

  Her arms were tight around his neck, but she squeezed him more tightly. He had to fight for breath.

  When he saw the flaring curves of her hips and the lissom swell of her breasts, he forgot all that had gone before. She no longer had to hold him with her embrace. Clay fell upon her, gouging his fists into her breasts and searching eagerly for her lips. Lorene had always been like that to him, but he had not realized until that moment how much he had missed her.

  Semon had been forgotten. He had been apart from them, and it was hard for Clay to remind himself of him. He heard Semon speaking, his voice carrying as if from a great distance, but he did not try to hear what was being said. He was not interested, anyway.

  Lorene was smiling at him and running her fingers through his hair. He closed his eyes and seeped himself in his thoughts of her.

  Presently Clay turned his head to one side, his face pressed warmly against Lorene. His eyes were open, but nothing did he see.

  “I do
n’t reckon there’s ever been anybody like us,” he said for her to hear.

  She tried, until tears came to her eyes, to hold securely their ultimate possession.

  “It used to be like this all the time, didn’t it, Clay?”

  He nodded, looking at her.

  Semon was standing over them then. He looked down upon them, urging them to leave the loft.

  “I’ll be back again sometime, Clay,” she promised. “I won’t stay away always. I’ll come back.”

  He nodded again, accepting her word.

  Semon had tossed the pitchfork aside, and he was waiting impatiently. He walked back and forth beside them, trying to separate them from their thoughts.

  “It’ll be all right if you’re satisfied with Dene until I come back the next time. I can satisfy you better, but I can’t stay. It’s too late now. I’ve got to go back to Jacksonville where I belong. Maybe when I get tired of staying there, and if you stop liking Dene, I’ll come back to stay some day. I’d rather do that than anything else, after I’m through with Jacksonville.”

  On the way back to the house, Lorene and Clay walked side by side, and yet several feet apart. Semon followed several paces in the rear. None of them had anything to say on the way to the porch. They walked slowly, not seeming to care how long it took them to get there.

  Dene and Tom Rhodes were there. Tom winked, smiling at all three of them. He had known what would happen when they left for the barn.

  “Dene’s been asking me where you folks went to,” he said. “I didn’t hardly know what to answer her.”

  No one said anything; yet all eyes were directed at Dene. Clay did not wish to look at her then, but he could not help himself.

  After they had seated themselves, Dene looked boldly at Clay.

  “Where’ve you been, Clay?”

  Clay looked off into the woods along the creek on the other side of the road. He looked at the tops of the trees, at the blue sky overhead, and at the row of sagging fence posts that bordered the road.

  “Where did you go just a while ago, Clay?” she asked persistently.

  “Who? Me?”

  He glanced at Dene to see her nod her head.

  “When? Just now?”