Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell [50]
Jeeter raised himself on his elbow and strained his eyes to see through the darkness across the room.
“I hope you ain’t leaving us no time soon,” he said. “I’d be powerful pleased to have you sleep here all the time, Bessie.”
Ada thrust her elbow into his ribs with all her strength, and he fell down groaning with pain on the bed beside her.
Bessie could be heard getting into her bed. The corn-shuck mattress crackled, and the slats rattled as she lay down and stretched out her feet. She lay still for several minutes, and then she began to stretch her hands out towards the other side, the impact of her arms making the shucks crackle more than ever.
Suddenly she sat up in bed, throwing the quilts aside.
“Where’s Dude?” she demanded angrily, her voice gruff and unnatural. “Where is you, Dude?”
Not a sound was to be heard in the room. Ada had sat upright, and Jeeter had sprung to a sitting position on the side of the bed. Bessie’s corn-shuck mattress crackled some more, and then the thump of her bare feet on the pine floor could be heard all over the house. Jeeter still did not attempt to speak or to move. He waited to catch every sound in the house.
“You Dude—you Dude!” Bessie cried from the centre of the room, trying to feel her way from bed to bed. “Where is you, Dude—why don’t you answer me? You’d better not try to hide from me, Dude!”
“What’s the matter, Bessie?” Jeeter said.
“Dude ain’t in the bed—I can’t find him nowhere at all.”
Reaching for his overalls, Jeeter jumped to his feet. He began fumbling in his pockets for a match. At last he found one, and bending over, he struck it on the floor.
The flare of the match revealed every one in the room. Every one was there except Ellie May and Dude. Bessie was only a few feet away from Jeeter, and he tried to look at her. She was shielding her eyes from the light.
Ada crawled out of bed and stood behind Jeeter the moment she saw Bessie.
“Put them overalls on,” she commanded Jeeter. “I don’t know what you and her is up to, but I’m watching. You put them overalls on right now. I don’t care if she is a woman preacher, she ain’t got no right to stand in the floor in front of you like she is.”
Jeeter hesitated, and the match burned down to his fingers. He stepped into his overalls, put one arm through a gallus, and reached into his pocket for another match.
Bessie was still standing beside Jeeter, but when he struck the match, she ran to Mother Lester’s bed. She jerked back the covers, and saw Dude sound asleep. The grandmother was awake, and she lay trembling in her old torn black clothes.
Jeeter shook Dude awake and pulled him to the floor. Ada jerked him by the arm.
“What you mean by not getting in bed with Bessie?” Jeeter demanded, shaking him roughly by the collar.
Dude looked around him and blinked his eyes. He was unable to see anything in the flare of the match.
“What you want?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.
“Dude, he didn’t know which bed to get in,” Sister Bessie said tenderly. “He was so tired and sleepy he didn’t look to see which one we was going to sleep in, did you, Dude?”
“Dude, you can’t act that way,” Jeeter said. “You got to keep your eyes open when you get married. Bessie, here, got powerful nervous when she didn’t find you in bed.”
Ada went back to bed, and Jeeter followed her. He did not take off his overalls, and Ada went to sleep without thinking about them.
Ellie May came in after a while and got into bed with her grandmother. No one spoke to her.
The grandmother had been wide awake all the time, but no one said anything to her, and she did not try to tell Bessie that Dude was in her bed. No one ever said anything to her, except to tell her to get out of the way, or to stop eating the bread and meat.
Dude and Bessie went to their bed and lay down. Sister Bessie tried to talk to Dude, but Dude was tired and sleepy. He did not answer her. The rustling sound of the corn-shuck mattress continued most of the night.