Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell [20]
“What was that you was saying about getting married, Sister Bessie?” Jeeter asked. “Didn’t I hear you say you was going to marry yourself a new husband? Who is you going to get married to?”
“Well, I ain’t made up my mind yet. I been looking around some, though. Right now it looks like I can’t make up my mind. It’s my wish to find a man who’s got some goods and possessions, but it looks like ain’t nobody got nothing around here no more. All the men folks is poor.”
“Now, if it wasn’t for Ada, there,” Jeeter said.
“Brother Jeeter, you hush your mouth!” she giggled. “You make me feel so funny when you talk like that! How’d you know I’d take to you? You’re pretty old, ain’t you?”
“I reckon you’d better finish up the prayer,” he said. “Ada, there, gets sort of peeved when I talk about marrying another woman.”
“—Save us from the devil and make a place for us in heaven. Amen.”
Chapter VI
“YOU CLEAR FORGOT to say a little prayer for Dude,” Jeeter said suddenly. “You left Dude out all around, Bessie. Dude, he’s as big a sinner as the rest of us Lesters.”
Bessie jumped up and ran out into the yard. She clutched Dude by the arm and dragged him to the porch by her chair. She kneeled down in front of it, and tried to pull Dude down beside her.
“I don’t want to do that,” Dude said angrily. “I don’t want no praying for me. I ain’t done nothing. Pa did all the stealing of Lov’s turnips. He took them and ran off to the thicket.”
Bessie took his hands in hers and stroked his arms for several minutes without speaking. Then she stood up beside him and locked her arms around his waist. She squeezed him so hard it made the blood rush to his head.
“I got to pray for you, Dude. The Lord told me all you Lesters was sinful. He didn’t leave you out no more than He did Ellie May.”
Dude looked into her face. She pleaded convincingly enough to make him want to be prayed for, but he could not stop looking down into her nostrils.
“What you laughing at, Dude?” she said.
“Nothing,” he snickered, twisting his head until he could almost see behind himself.
“There ain’t nothing about prayer to laugh at, Dude,” she said. “All of us has got to have it some time or another.”
He felt ill at ease standing so close to her. The way she stroked his arms and shoulders with her hands made him nervous, and he could not stand still.
“Quit that jumping up and down, Dude,” Jeeter said. “What ails you?”
Bessie drew her arms tighter around his waist, and smiled at him.
“You kneel down beside me and let me pray for you. You’ll do that, won’t you, Dude?”
He put his arms around her neck, and began rubbing her as she was rubbing him.
“Hell,” he said, snickering again, “I don’t give a damn if I do.”
“I knowed you would want me to pray for you, Dude,” she said. “It will help you get shed of your sins, like Jeeter did.”
They knelt down on the porch floor beside the chair. Dude continued to rub her shoulders, and Bessie kept her arms around him. Jeeter was sitting on the floor behind them, leaning against the wall of the house and waiting to hear the prayer for Dude.
“Dear God, I’m asking You to save Brother Dude from the devil and make a place for him in heaven. That’s all. Amen.”
Bessie stopped praying, but neither she nor Dude made an effort to stand up.
“Praise the Lord,” Jeeter said, “but that was a durn short prayer for a sinner like Dude.”
“Dude don’t need no more praying for. He’s just a boy, and he’s not sinful like us grown-ups is. He ain’t sinful like you is, Jeeter.”
“Well, maybe you is right,” Jeeter said, “but Dude, he cusses all the time at me and his Ma. He ain’t got no respect for none of us. Maybe that’s as it should be, but I sort of recollect the Bible saying a son shouldn’t cuss his Ma and Pa like he does other people. Nobody never told me no different, but somehow it don’t seem right for him to do that. I’ve seen him pestering Ellie May with a stick, too, and I know that ain’t right. That’s sinful, and it ought to be prayed about.”
“Dude won’t do that again,” Bessie said, stroking Dude’s hair. “He’s a fine boy, Dude is. He would make a handsome preacher, too. He