Billy (10 page)

"Git off me. Git off me, girl. Git off me," Billy
screams,
then
twist his head around,
opens
his mouth, and bites into Lori's arm.

"Ya son of a bitch,
ya
nigger fuckin bastard. I'll beat the shit out of ya, ya hear me?" Lori screams
,
grabs
Billy around his neck and jerks his head back, then digs her fingers into his face.

Billy
stills to a quiver. His head is being pushed down into the mud and held. Lori sits high on his ba
c
k and
yells to
Jenny,
"Where's that
other
one, ya get him?" Jenny
shouts
back, "I couldn't get him, he hit me in the
face,
then
nm
off
in th
e
bushes." Jenny
comes closer, she
has her hand
on the

2/l I Albert French

side
of her face, her
eyes stare
down at Billy. She starts kick ing
at
his arms and head, screaming, "Look what ya all did,
you
hit my face,
you little
bastard, you asshole."

"This
one didn't get
away.
This one didn't get away, did
ya,
nigger? Did
ya?"
Lori
yells
and wiggles her
butt
down harder on Billy's back, then
yells,
"Get his arms, Jenny, get that arm. Flip him over. Hold his am1s still so I
can
flip him over."

Billy's arms are being jerked and pulled, his shoulders are being shook and
yanked.
He closes his
eyes
tightly as he is flipped over on his back, then groans when Lori's weight
comes crashing
down on his chest. "Look what I got," Lori taunts and scoots higher on Billy's chest, then gets his arms pinned under her knees. "Look what I got, look what I got," Lori taunts, then slaps Billy's face.

Billy's eyes flash open and glare up into the white face
with
the fiery hair that looks down
at
him.
"Git
off me, git
off
me, girl," Billy shouts and twists.

Lori wiggles her butt down on Billy's
chest
and taunts,
"Ya
ain't goin nowhere,
ya
hear me? Ya ain't
goin
nowhere," then spits down in Billy's face.

Billy's
eyes
glow red, his nostrils flare. Lori
screams,
"What
ya loo
kin at, huh?
,
"
then
scoots
higher up on Billy's chest, pushes her knees down harder into
his shoulders, and
with both hands
starts beating
and
clawing
at his face.

Jenny smiles
and watches,
then
yells, "Lori,
let
him go.
Let him go, he's
c
rying,
let him
go."

Billy's wiggl es,
jerks, and
lunges have
stilled.
Tears run from his glaring
eyes, blood
bubbles from the scratches
on
his face.

Lori
sits
with
ease on
his
chest. "What's wrong, ya a
litt
le

mama's boy? Ya
a
little mama's boy, huh?" Lori taunts at Billy's face. Then
slowly she
leans forward
on
her knees,

B I L L
y
I 29

lets her weight push Billy's shoulders further beneath her, then she stands with her hands on her hips and looks down at the face at her feet. "Get out of here. Ya better get, fore I change my mind."

Billy turns over on his stomach, pushes hisself up with his hands, then stands staring into Lori's eyes before he turns and slowly begins to walk away. He brings his hand to his pocket and slides it in. His fingers grab at the slippery pocket knife, then he slides his hand out of his pocket and brings it up in front of him. He slowly brings his other hand up to where he holds the folding knife and begins to pluck at it with his fingers until the blade pops out of the handle.

"Ya better get out of here. Ya better run
,
fore I come get ya again. Ya hear me?" Lori shouts at Billy as she only sees the skinny boy just walking away.

Billy moves slowly, he does not rnn.

"Damn ya," Lori yells and runs up behind him, pushing at his back.

Billy snarls over his shoulder, "Ya better leave me he's, Ah kills ya, Ah kills ya."

"God damn ya, nigger," Lori shouts, grabs Billy's back, and yanks him around.

Billy turns with Lori's yank, his right hand lunges at her, the knife blade plunges into her ribs. She gasps for air. Bill
y
pulls the knife out and lashes with it again, the blade slices into Lori's arm. Her mouth flies open, she screams, but onl
y
low moans come. She grabs her side, turns from Bill y and be gins to stagger, her legs are quivering, her arms are twitching
,
her hands shake and fill with blood.

"Ah tells ya, Ah tells ya, girl," Billy shouts, then runs into the bushes and away from the screams that come.

"Lori
,
Lori, oh God, Lori. Lori. Lori," Jenny scream
s
and

30 I Albert f'rm1ch

cnes.
her
eyes ca nnot
t urn or bli n k from the blood
she sees.

Lori is falling, her legs wobble,
she
falls to the ground and moans,
slowly
t urns herself over,
and
lays gasping.

Jenny
comes
to her
side,
kneels,
and
looks into Lori's trem bl ing face.
"Lori,
Lori, God, Lori, Lori." Now Jen ny jerks her
self
u p, turns, and ru ns from the pond, u p through the bushes, through the
tall
grass, past the fat oak tree, up the bill
and
into the fields,
screaming, "Lori's
hurt, she's blecdin
.
Lori, Lori. Aunt Ginger, A unt Ginger. Help, help, David, Da
vid,
Aunt Ginger."

Ginger Pasko is annoyed by the dogs barking,
she
moves away from the cooking
stove
and looks
out
the window. She wipes her hands
on
her apron and
sighs,
thi nking it is too
early
for her h usband lo be
comi ng
home.
She
peers through the window, then walks to the
screen
door
and
looks
down
the red dirt road that leads to the house.
She shrugs
and
starts
to
yell
at the barking dogs.

David
and
Kevi n Pasko
are
in the
yard behind
the barn. David bas
also
heard t he dogs
barki ng and comes to
the fence, peeks
over,
then
yells, "Shu t
up.
Shut
that
barki
n
up."
The dogs whine, then
bark agai n.

Ginger
Pasko begins to tu rn Lack to
the cooking stove,
then hears
screams and
runs
out onto
t he porch. J enny
is
ru nning
and screaming across
the
fields. Ginger
Pasko
yells
for her
son, "David,
David."'

The
howls
and barks
of
the Pasko
dogs
pierce into
the hot sticky
air. They pull
at
their ropes and
chains.

"Come
on, Kevin." David
ye
ll
s,
jumps
over
the
fence,
and

breaks into a run
across
the barnyard
and then
into the
fields.
"Jenny, Jenny, what's wrong'?"
h
e yells.

B I L L
}'
I 31

Jenny's run slows to a
stagger,
she begins to
stumble
and fall, then gets back up again, running and
screaming, "Lori,
Lori, Lori's bleedin, Lori's hurt, she's bleedin."

Ginger Pasko
can see
Jenny stumbling and waving her hands in the far field. She
snatches
her apron off, runs
off
the porch, and starts running across the field,
yelling, "Jenny,
where's Lori? What happened? Where's Lori, where's Lori?" David has reached Jenny, takes her into his hands, holds her gently and asks, "What's wrong?
What
happen, Jenny? Where's Lori
at?"
Jenny jerks her head
over
her
shoulder,
tears fling from her
eyes,
she screams,
"She
bleedin,
she's
bleedin down the by pond, she's hurt, David,
she's
hurt bad.

That nigger stuck her
with
somin."

David runs for the pond, his heart pounds across the field, down the hill, past the fat oak, into the high grass, and
down
through the bushes. He is yelling, "Lori,
where
are
you?
Lori, Lori." He sees her lying on the other side of the pond and
runs
around the muddy bank, then dives to his knees as he reaches her
side.
He looks at her face, touches it, then looks at the blood soaking her shirt and flowing through her hands.
"Oh
my God," he gasps. He reaches for her hand and
gently
pulls it from her chest. When he touches her he
can feel
her tremble and
shake.
He hears her moaning, "Momm
y,
Mommy . . .
"
He whispers to her, "It's David, I'm here, Lori. Just lay
still."
H
e
moves her hand, opens her shirt, and pulls it awa
y
from h
er
skin. Blood i
s
squirting
from the hole beneath her breast. H
e
reaches for his handkerchief, then gently begins to pat at th
e
wound, but the blood
still
comes. He
gently
lifts her into hi
s
arms, but carries her as fast as he
can
and
whispers
down
into
her ear, "I got
ya,
Lori, I
got ya, you
be all right. We
'
ll
be
home soon, Mama
can
fix
it,
don't
cry,
Lori, Mama
ca
n mak
e
it better."

32 I Albert French

Kevin
has neared
and
is
shouting,
asking what happen,
will
Lori be all right,
but
David only
says, "Kevin,
do as I
say,
go
get
the truck,
go
into town,
get
Doc Grey. Tell him Lori's knife-stabbed, then find Daddy, tell him some nigger knifed Lori.
Go,
Kevin, for God
sake
hurry."

David reaches the top
of
the hill and
can quicken
his
steps
on the level field. His mother's screams have reached him
.
She is running to him, he
yells
to her,
"She's
alive, Mama
,
she's still
alive."

Lori's mother's hands
can
touch her
now, she
rubs the
hair
from Lori's face and looks into her
eyes as she gently
pulls the bloody shirt from her side and lifts the handkerchief
from
her skin. "Hurry, David, get her into
the
house,"
Ginger
Pasko quickly says, then whispers,
"Bab
y
, baby, it's
Mama,
Mama's here."

The dogs are barking furiously, their howls
shriek through
the air, birds flutter
for
the
sky.
Jenny
sits on
the porch
steps crying.
The
younger boys
have
come
to
her
,
they sit beside
Jenny and begin
to cry
as
they
watch their
big brother carry
ing Lori up the
steps and
into the
house. They saw
the
blood
and their
mother's
tears.

David lays
his sister on
his
mother's bed, then gently take
s
her legs and
eases them so that Lori la
ys
comfortably. Hi
s
mother shouts,
"David, get that white pan from under the
sink,
get
some
water, and get some clean sheets,
hurry '

David runs
from
the
room.
It
is quiet
,
and Ginger Pasko can
hear her daughter's
short, gasping breath. She leans over
Lori and rubs the hair
from
her
face, look
s
into
her
eyes, then
quickly looks back
at
the bloody
wound. She dabs the blood
away with the already
soaked
handkerchief.
She is
thinking the wound does not look
bad, but she
has
to get
the
bleeding stopped.
Again
she reaches for
Lori's
face and rubs
her