Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell [56]
Jeeter came walking briskly across the street, holding out several green notes. He counted them one by one before Bessie and Dude.
“Ain’t we lucky folks, though?” he said.
“How much money did it bring?” she asked.
“He said three dollars was more than enough, but that much sounded like a heap of money to me. And here it is! Ain’t they pretty and new, though? Out there at Fuller all the money I ever saw was just about ready to fall apart, it was that worn out. Up here in Augusta the people has got good money.”
The next stop was a small grocery store. Jeeter got out and bought a large sack of soda crackers and two pounds of yellow cheese. He came back to the car and offered the food to Dude and Bessie. They all broke off chunks of cheese and stuffed their mouths full of crackers.
“Just help yourself, Bessie,” he said. “Take all you want. Run your hand in the poke and eat until you is full. Dude, there, might hog it all if you don’t take care of your own wants.”
Jeeter was feeling fine. It was the first time since he could remember that he had been to Augusta and could get something to eat when he wanted it. He smiled at Bessie and Dude, and waved to people passing along the street. When a woman passed, he took off his hat and bowed.
“Augusta is a fine place,” he said. “All these people here is just like us. They is rich, but that don’t make no difference to me. I like everybody now.”
“Where is we going now?” Bessie said.
“There’s a place to sleep right up above the store,” Jeeter said. “Supposing we sleep in there to-night, and then tomorrow morning sell the wood—ain’t that what we ought to do?”
Dude liked the suggestion, but Bessie hesitated. It looked to her as if it might cost a lot of money to spend the night in the hotel.
“Maybe it will cost too much,” she said. “You go upstairs and see how much it costs.”
Jeeter stuffed another handful of crackers and cheese in his mouth, and went up the flight of stairs where the hotel was. There was a small sign over the door, dimly lighted, which said it was a hotel.
He came back in less than five minutes.
“They’ll let us stay for fifty cents apiece,” he said. “They is pretty much crowded, and there ain’t but one room vacant, but we can stay if we wants to. I sure do, don’t you, Bessie? I ain’t never stayed all night in a hotel before.”
Bessie by that time had set her heart on spending a night in a hotel in the city, and she was ready to go up the stairs when Jeeter said it would cost fifty cents for each of them.
“Now you hold on tight to that money, Jeeter,” she said. “That’s a heap of money to lose. You don’t want to let it get away from you.”
They walked up the narrow stairway and found themselves in a small, dusty room. It was the lobby. Half a dozen straight-back chairs and a table were in the dimly lighted room. The man who ran the hotel took them to the table and told them to sign their names on the register. Jeeter told him they would have to make their marks.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
“Jeeter.”
“Jeeter what?”
“Jeeter Lester, from out near Fuller.”
“What’s the boy’s name?”
“Dude’s name is Dude, the same as mine.”
“Dude Lester?”
“That’s right.”
“And what’s her name?” he asked, looking up at Bessie.
Bessie smiled at him, and he looked at her legs. She hunched her left shoulder forward and hung her head downward. He looked her over again.
“Her name is Mrs. Dude,” Jeeter said.
The man looked at Dude and then at Bessie, and smiled. He was holding the pen for them to touch while he made the cross-marks opposite their names.
Jeeter gave him the money, and they were taken up another stairway to the third floor. The halls were dark, and the rooms shadowy and unventilated. He opened a door and told them to walk in.
“Is this where we sleep?” Jeeter asked him.
“This is the place. It’s the only room I got left, too. We’re pretty full to-night.”
“This sure is a fine place,” Jeeter said. “I didn’t know hotels was such fine places before. I wish Lov was here to see me now.”
There was only one bed in the room; it was large, flat, and high off the floor.