Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell [41]
After her mother had left the window, Ellie May again raised herself on the sill and looked inside.
Dude had gone as far as the front door, but he lingered there to take one more look at the automobile. He stood there until Ada came out and pushed him inside and made him go into the room with Bessie.
There was barely any furniture in the room. Besides the three double beds, there was a wobbly dresser in the corner, which was used as a washstand and a table. Over it, hanging on the wall was a cracked mirror. In the opposite end of the room was the fireplace. A broom-sedge sweeper stood behind the door, and another one, completely worn out, was under Ada’s bed. There were also two straight-back chairs in the room. As there were no closets in the house, clothes were hanging on the walls by nails that had been driven into the two-by-four uprights.
The moment Dude walked into the room, Bessie slammed the door, and pulled him with her. She took the marriage license from her skirt pocket and held it in front of her.
“You hold one end, Dude, and I’ll hold the other.”
“What you going to do?”
“Marry us, Dude,” she said.
“Didn’t you get that all done at the courthouse in Fuller?”
“That wasn’t all. I’m doing the balance now.”
“When is we going to take a ride?” he asked.
“It won’t be so very long now. We want to stay here a little while first. We got plenty of time to ride around, Dude.”
“You going to let me drive it all the time?”
“Sure, you can drive it all the time. I don’t know how to drive it, noway.”
“You ain’t going to let nobody else drive it, is you?”
“You is the only one who can drive it, Dude,” she said. “But we got to hurry and finish marrying. You hold your end of the license while I pray.”
Dude stood beside her, waiting for the prayer to be finished. She prayed silently for several minutes while he stood in front of her.
“I marry us man and wife. So be it. That’s all, God. Amen.”
There was a long silence while they looked at each other.
“When is we going for a ride?” Dude said.
“We is married now, Dude. We is finished being married. Ain’t you glad of it?”
“When is we going for a ride?”
“I got to pray now,” she said. “You kneel down on the floor while I make a little prayer.”
They knelt down to pray. Dude got down on all fours, looking straight into Bessie’s nose while her eyes were closed.
“Dear God, Dude and me is married now. We is wife and husband. Dude, he is an innocent young boy, unused to the sinful ways of the country, and I am a woman preacher of the gospel. You ought to make Dude a preacher, too, and let us use our new automobile in taking trips all over the country to pray for sinners. You ought to learn him how to be a fine preacher so we can make all the goats into sheep. That’s all this time. We’re in a hurry now. Save us from the devil and make a place for us in heaven. Amen.”
There was a rustle of skirts as Sister Bessie jumped to her feet and began running excitedly around the room. She came back and pulled at Dude, making him put his arms around her waist.
Outside in the yard, Jeeter and Ellie May had been standing on their toes looking in through the window to see what Dude and Bessie were doing. There were no curtains over the windows, and the board blinds had had to be opened so there would be light in the room.
Dude stood for several minutes watching Bessie as she tried to pull him across the room. She finally sat down on one of the beds and attempted to make him sit beside her.
“You ain’t going to sleep now, is you?” he asked her. “It ain’t time to go to bed yet. It ain’t no more that noontime now.”
“Just for now,” she said. “We can go out again after a while and take a ride in the automobile.”
Dude ran to the window to look at the car. For the moment, he had completely forgotten about it. When he reached the window, he saw Jeeter and Ellie May holding to the sill with the ends of their fingers and trying to see inside.
“What you doing that for?” he asked Jeeter. “What you want to look at?”
Jeeter turned away and looked out over the brown broom-sedge. Ellie May ran around to the back of the house and tip-toed into the hall through the kitchen.