Native Son - Richard Wright [56]
He went back to the basement, dragged the trunk to the door, lifted it to his back, carried it to the car and fastened it to the running board. He looked at his watch; it was eight-twenty. Now, he would have to wait for Mary to come out. He took his seat at the steering wheel and waited for five minutes. He would ring the bell for her. He looked at the steps leading up to the side door of the house, remembering how Mary had stumbled last night and how he had held her up. Then, involuntarily, he started in fright as a full blast of intense sunshine fell from the sky, making the snow leap and glitter and sparkle about him in a world of magic whiteness without sound. It’s getting late! He would have to go in and ask for Miss Dalton. If he stayed here too long it would seem that he was not expecting her to come down. He got out of the car and walked up the steps to the side door. He looked through the glass; no one was in sight. He tried to open the door and found it locked. He pushed the bell, hearing the gong sound softly within. He waited a moment, then saw Peggy hurrying down the hall. She opened the door.
“Hasn’t she come out yet?”
“No’m. And it’s getting late.”
“Wait. I’ll call her.”
Peggy, still dressed in the kimono, ran up the stairs, the same stairs up which he had half-dragged Mary and the same stairs down which he had stumbled with the trunk last night. Then he saw Peggy coming back down the stairs, much slower than she had gone up. She came to the door.
“She ain’t here. Maybe she’s gone. What did she tell you?”
“She said to drive her to the station and to take her trunk, mam.”
“Well, she ain’t in her room and she ain’t in Mrs. Dalton’s room. And Mr. Dalton’s asleep. Did she tell you she was going this morning?”
“That’s what she told me last night, mam.”
“She told you to bring the trunk down last night?”
“Yessum.”
Peggy thought a moment, looking past him at the snow-covered car.
“Well, you better take the trunk on. Maybe she didn’t stay here last night.”
“Yessum.”
He turned and started down the steps.
“Bigger!”
“Yessum.”
“You say she told you to leave the car out, all night?”
“Yessum.”
“Did she say she was going to use it again?”
“No’m. You see,” Bigger said, feeling his way, “he was in it….”
“Who?”
“The gentleman.”
“Oh; yes. Take the trunk on. I suppose Mary was up to some of her pranks.”
He got into the car and pulled it down the driveway to the street, then headed northward over the snow. He wanted to look back and see if Peggy was watching him, but dared not. That would make her think that he thought that something was wrong, and he did not want to give that impression now. Well, at least he had one person thinking it as he wanted it thought.
He reached the La Salle Street Station, pulled the car to a platform, backed into a narrow space between other cars, hoisted the trunk up, and waited for a man to give him a ticket for the trunk. He wondered what would happen if no one called for it. Maybe they would notify Mr. Dalton. Well, he would wait and see. He had done his part. Miss Dalton had asked him to take the trunk to the station and he had done it.
He drove as hurriedly back to the Daltons’ as the snow-covered streets would allow him. He wanted to be back on the spot to see what would happen, to be there with his fingers on the pulse of time. He reached the driveway and nosed the car into the garage, locked it, and then stood wondering if he ought to go to his room or to the kitchen. It would be better to go straight to the kitchen as though nothing had happened. He had not as yet eaten his breakfast as far as Peggy was concerned, and his coming into the kitchen would be thought natural. He went through the basement, pausing to look at the roaring furnace, and then went to the kitchen door and stepped in softly. Peggy stood at the gas stove with her back to him. She turned and gave him a brief glance.
“You make it all right?”
“Yessum.”
“You see her down there?”
“No’m.”
“Hungry?”
“A little, mam.”
“A little?” Peggy laughed. “You’ll get used to how this house is run on Sundays. Nobody gets up early and when they do they