Place Called Estherville (11 page)

Ganus wanted to talk some more about finding a way to shorten the length of time necessary to pay for the bicycle, but it was already after ten o’clock and he was worried about the job at Daitch’s Market. He backed out of the office and hurried down the hall. The nurse at the desk looked up as he walked through the reception room. He did not speak to her, because he was looking at the people waiting to see Dr. English, and wondering if they were really ill or if they hoped to buy an automobile or some furniture or a pair of mules. He was almost through the door when he heard the nurse calling him. He went back to the desk.

“You can hand me the payments Dr. English spoke of,” she instructed him matter-of-factly. “I’m usually right here at this desk all day Saturday. There’ll be a lot of others coming in to make payments, so please wait your turn in line like everybody else. Thank you.”

“Yes, ma’m,” Ganus replied, backing to the door.

He hurried down the stairway and ran the rest of the way. On the opposite side of Peachtree Street he could see people constantly going into and coming out of Daitch’s Market, but there was no bicycle leaning against the curb and he hoped he could still get there in time.

Claude Hutto was waiting for him at the door when he ran inside. The red-and-gray bicycle had been lifted from its rack, and already attached to it was the battery headlight, a tool kit, and tire pump.

“Well, I’m glad you got things fixed up with Dr. English, Ganus,” Claude said agreeably. “He just phoned me that it was all right for you to take the bike. I’m really glad to see you have such a fine wheel, and I want you to know I really appreciate this piece of business. I always like to do business with your people. I’m not like some storekeepers around town who cheat the colored just because they are colored. No, sir! I believe in giving every customer who walks into my place of business a square deal, no matter what color he is. We’d all be better off if all the storekeepers took that stand. Now, if you’ve got any friends who’ve been thinking about buying a bicycle, be sure and tell them to drop in to see me. I’ll be glad to talk it over with them anytime, if they’ve got a steady job.”

Ganus was walking around the bike, inspecting it from all sides. “I wish I didn’t have to buy and pay for all these things on here, Mr. Hutto,” he said, looking at the chromium-plated kickstand, the sheepskin saddle cover, and all the other accessories Claude had attached while he had been in Dr. English’s office. “It sure makes it cost a lot more. I don’t think I can afford it.”

Claude laughed easily. “You won’t notice the difference, Ganus. Besides, it’s going to make you feel mighty proud while you’re riding around town to have a bike with a handsome sheepskin saddle cover and suspended tool kit. Not to mention all the other little things that really dress up a bicycle. And here. Here’s something else you need, too.” He picked up a wire basket and hung it on the handlebar. “That’s an electrically welded galvanized wire basket, Ganus. It’s just the thing to carry groceries in and you’ll need it on your new job. I’ll add it to the bill. Don’t worry about the cost.”

He could see Claude looking around the store for something else to sell him, and he hastily rolled the bike through the door and across the sidewalk to the curb. He was straddling the bike when Claude came through the door carrying a wide leather cycling belt studded with jewel reflectors.

“Just a minute, Ganus!” Claude called, waving the belt.

Before Claude could get to him, he got on the bike and pedaled up the street as fast as he could. He looked back just before he got to Daitch’s Market. Claude was still standing at the curb, holding the cycling belt high above his head and waving it at Ganus in a last effort to induce him to come back and take it.

T
HE FIVE EXCITED BOYS
—now that the moment they had been waiting for so eagerly for the past hour was actually there—listened to the sound of footsteps on the pavement halfway up the block. They were huddled in the dark recessed doorway of Benoit’s Drug Store, nervously pushing and shoving each other as the footsteps came closer and closer. All of them were between fifteen and eighteen years of age and were bareheaded. Like most other boys in town that summer, they were wearing short-sleeve sport shirts of various colors, two-tone saddle-shoes, and dark tan cotton trousers. It was a few minutes past nine o’clock, on one of the warm, humid nights late in the month of July. There had been a heavy shower of rain earlier in the evening which, instead of clearing the atmosphere, had left the night feeling clammy and hot. Puddles of rainwater gleamed darkly on the pavement. Most of the stores along the lower end of Peachtree Street were closed and dark, and only a few of them, like Benoit’s on the corner, kept dim window lights on all night. Two blocks away, electric signs in front of the Pastime Theatre, a pool room, two drug stores, and Dave’s Round-The-Clock Cafe kept the upper end of Peachtree Street lighted with a garish red glow until midnight.

“Here she comes now,” Tommy Blackburn said to the other boys in an excited whisper. He was the oldest in the group and was in the habit of taking the lead in most of the things they did together. Unlike some of the other groups of boys in town, they spent most of their time swimming and going to the movies and had never been in any serious trouble. Tommy whispered cautiously, “Everybody stay back out of sight.”

He was a tall blond boy with wavy thick hair who was majoring in history at senior high school and he was proud of the fact that he had been on the debating team for two years. He wanted to be a lawyer like his father, who was now a circuit court judge. He planned to study law when he went away to college. His grandfather had been state senator for the past twelve years. The Blackburns and the Singfields were cousins, and they lived on Greenbriar Street, two blocks east of the Singfleld mansion, in a three-storied brick house with the only slate roof in town. Tommy’s older sister, Dottie, was married to Horace Ledbetter, the county solicitor. His younger sister, Mildred, had graduated from high school that spring and she was going away to college in the fall. Their mother was no longer alive.

“Look how fast she’s walking,” Todd Dudley, one of the other boys, said nervously. “Maybe she knows we’re waiting for her and she’s getting ready to run. Let’s catch her before she gets away, Tommy.”

“Don’t lose your head, Todd, just because she’s getting close,” Tommy told him in a calm, low voice. “There’s plenty of time. Just hold your dog in. I don’t want anybody to make a move till she gets right in front of us. Then we’ll all grab her before she has a chance to get away. You remember that now, Jake,” he said with a sharp thrust of his elbow into Jake Chester’s stomach. “Don’t jump out there with that face of yours and scare her away before we all get a chance to grab her. I don’t want anything to go wrong, either. This’s too good to lose. I’ve wanted to sick my dog on something fancy all summer and I swear I’ll bash the first guy who makes a wrong move.”

“But what’ll we do if she yells, Tommy?” Jimmy Pugh asked with a timorous quaver in his voice. He was nervously tugging at Tommy’s arm. “I don’t want to stay here and get caught by Will Hanford or somebody like that. I never have been caught doing anything before—not even swiping watermelons from that field near our house.”

“Aw, for crying out loud, Jimmy,” Tommy said to him. “She won’t have a chance to yell or anything if you and everybody else do like I tell you. We’ll take her around the corner to the alley just like we said a while ago. I’ll keep my hand over her mouth all the time. Once we get her in the alley she won’t even try to yell. She’ll be quiet back there. Todd, you and Jake be careful and don’t get rough with her. You don’t have to fight her—she’s no tiger. Nobody has to hurt a girl to get her to do what you want. Persuasion always counts more than anything else.”

“But suppose she kicks and fights right out there on the street where somebody might come along and see us—what will we do then, Tommy? I don’t want to get caught and have my folks find out.”

“Aw, for Pete’s sake, Jimmy!” He looked down at Jimmy Pugh in disgust. “You don’t know the first thing about girls and you won’t listen to me and learn. What kind of a fight can a girl put up if you guys do like I tell you? What do you think girls are, anyhow—screaming wildcats? Now stop getting scared and wetting your pants. You’re shaking all over like a kid waiting for Santa Claus the first time. Everybody’s got to help, or we’ll lose our chance. It might be another month before we got another chance like this. If you want to go home, go on now, or else help out like everybody else.”

“I’m going to help, Tommy,” he promised quickly. “Please don’t make me go home now. I want to stay and see what she does.”

“Then keep quiet,” he warned Jimmy in a whisper. “Here she is now.”

Kathyanne, wearing a light summer dress and high-heeled white shoes, was only a few steps from the drugstore doorway. She had been working for Jake Chester’s mother for the day, and it was Jake who had told Tommy and the others that he had found out that she would be going home from work about nine o’clock that night. Mrs. Chester had entertained her club with a bridge party that evening and she had sent for Kathyanne that morning to help her prepare a buffet dinner. All five of the boys had left home after supper to meet downtown and go to the movies, but when they got to the Pastime and Jake told them about Kathyanne, they decided to go to the movies some other time and to wait in front of Benoit’s Drug Store for Kathyanne to come past on her way home.

When she was directly in front of the doorway, Tommy Blackburn nudged the boys beside him and they ran to her. Todd Dudley and Jake Chester caught her by the arms and twisted them behind her back while Tommy was clamping his arm around her neck and putting his hand over her mouth. Jimmy Pugh and Lance Clotworthy, doing just as Tommy had told them, got behind Kathyanne and started pushing. After that, all five of them partly pushed and partly carried her around the corner and down the side street to the alley.

Nobody happened to be passing the drug store at the time, and so they got her into the alley unobserved. The reddish glow of electric signs a block away made the alley as bright as the lower end of Peachtree Street, and they did not stop until they had taken her into the shed at the rear of the drug store. The shed, which was constructed of corrugated iron sheeting, was used as a storage room for empty syrup barrels and packing cases and was never locked day or night. The boys were excited and breathless when they put Kathyanne down gently on the floor. She did not say a word when Tommy took his hand from her mouth. Even though she was frightened by what had happened, she still had made no effort to get away.

“Didn’t I tell you it’d work as easy as that?” Tommy said triumphantly, looking at each of the boys in the dim light. “I knew it’d be as easy as pie if you guys did just like I told you. Like everything else, it’s no trouble at all when you know how. It’s clumsy butterfingers who’re always making a mess of things.”

“Cut out the orations, Tommy,” Todd said impatiently, shoving Lance and Jake aside and trying to get closer to Kathyanne. “I didn’t come around here to listen to Blackburn speech-making.”

Jimmy was the only one who was not pushing and shoving and trying to get closer. He was standing behind Lance and Jake and staring with a wonder-struck expression at Kathyanne on the floor.

Todd tried to push Tommy aside. “Just because you think you know how to handle girls, you needn’t think you can hold up everything to suit yourself. You’re not the only one around here.”

“Cool off, Todd, will you!” Tommy told him, drawing back his hand threateningly. “Your mouth’s too big for your size. I know what I’m doing.”

“Just because you’re the biggest, you always want to run everything to suit yourself,” Todd replied defiantly. “I’ve got just as much right to be here as you have. I don’t have to take orders from you, neither.”

Tommy shoved him away. Todd stood a short distance away and muttered something.

“Don’t pay any attention to him, Kathyanne,” Tommy told her. “I’ll keep him quiet.”

Jake was nudging Tommy. “Ask her if she’s going to try to run away and tell on us, Tommy.”

She looked up, startled.

“I wish you boys hadn’t made me come back here,” she said, looking appealingly first at Tommy and then at the others. “It’s not a nice way for white boys to behave. You ought to let me go now.”

“Don’t let her leave, Tommy,” Jake told him anxiously. “Don’t let her talk you out of it. Remember what we said.”

“The only way she could get out of here now,” Todd said confidently, “would be to fly out on wings. I don’t see those tucked under her arms anywhere. I can make her stay if nobody else can. I’m not scared.”

“Go on, Tommy,” Jake urged. “Make her promise she’ll stay.”

Tommy got down on the floor beside her. “You know how it is, don’t you, Kathyanne?” he said as persuasively as he could. “We didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just that we got to talking about you tonight and everybody wanted to get you to come back here. We wanted to talk it over back here so we could tell you how it is. You don’t have to worry about getting hurt.” He looked around at Jake Chester, who was leaning over his shoulder. “The first guy who doesn’t know how to behave himself is going to get thrown out. You hear that, Todd? I mean it.”

“If we listen to him,” Todd said, “it’ll turn into a Sunday school picnic.”

“Don’t look at me,” Jake said. “I don’t need you to tell me how to act. And anyway, who told everybody about her tonight? It was me, wasn’t it? If it hadn’t been for me, all you guys would be sitting up there at the movies right this minute. Well, that ought to give me the right to have a say-so about what I do. I don’t have to take orders from you, or anybody else, Tommy Blackburn.”

Kathyanne moved backward toward the wall. “What do you white boys want?” she asked fearfully.

“The same as usual,” Todd said right away.

“That’s the way,” Tommy said angrily, turning on him. “Go ahead and scare her to death.”

“Well, what the hell are we waiting for?” Todd retorted.