Place Called Estherville (12 page)

They could see Kathyanne looking at them. They knew by the expression on her face that she recognized them all. Jimmy Pugh got behind Lance Clotworthy and tried to hide from her.

“She’s going to tell on us, Lance,” he whispered, thoroughly frightened. “I just know she is. She looked straight at me, and I could tell. I don’t want my folks to know. They’d never let me out again to go to the movies at night. I want to go home. I’m scared.”

Tommy grabbed Jimmy by the arm and shook him. “What’s the matter with you, Jimmy Pugh? She’s not going to tell on you. Colored girls don’t tell on white boys. It’s only white girls who do that. If you don’t believe it, you just wait and see one of these days. If you try to run away now, I’ll tell your folks on you myself. I’ll tell them that you talked the rest of us into coming down here instead of going to the movies like we wanted to. How’d you like that? You’d better go on and promise not to run away. If you don’t—-”

“I promise, Tommy. Don’t hurt me. I’ll stay. I don’t want my folks to know.”

He pushed Jimmy away and turned around toward Kathyanne. The other boys crowded closer.

“What do you white boys want?” she asked once more.

“What do white boys always want?” Todd said.

She made no reply.

“Like hell you don’t,” he told her. “Get naked.”

“Shut up, Todd!” Tommy said. “You’ll spoil everything.”

Todd laughed at him. “Why don’t you make a speech, Tommy?” he said tauntingly. “Anybody’d think a big speech-maker like you could get her to do anything you wanted. Go on and give her an oration and see what happens.” He made a derisive sound with his mouth. “Hell, the way to get her clothes off is to rip them off, if she won’t do it herself. They’ll all get busy if they know you mean business, because they don’t want them torn up. There’s no sense wasting all this time just so you can make a speech. If you’re scared to make her do it, move over and let me show you how it’s done. I didn’t come down here to listen to a Blackburn give an oration. Get out and run for sheriff, if that’s what you want to do.”

Tommy was pushed away.

“I swear I’ll rip every piece off, if you don’t take them off yourself,” Todd told her. “You’d better get busy.” He turned and shoved Tommy again. “Stay away from me, Tommy Blackburn. I know what I’m doing.” He reached down and grasped her white dress with both hands. “I’ll rip it off, if you don’t hurry and do it yourself,” he warned her.

Kathyanne hesitated momentarily, and then her golden-tinted body became visible in the faint light.

Todd was the first to speak after that. “I told you that was the way,” he boasted. “What’s the sense of hanging around and arguing about it half the night?”

Jimmy was slowly backing toward the door when Tommy saw him in time to catch him by the arm.

“Why’re you trying to slip off like that, Jimmy?” he said, shaking him. “Haven’t you ever seen a girl with all her clothes off before?”

“I don’t know,” he said, trembling. Tommy shook him. “I swear I don’t know, Tommy! That’s the truth!”

“Then why were you trying to run off?”

“I’m scared to look.”

“You’ve seen your sister naked, haven’t you?”

“Yes—but she didn’t look like—like Kathyanne.”

“They’re all the same, Jimmy. Come on back.”

He shoved Jimmy back into the shed.

“Don’t make me stay and look, Tommy,” he begged. “I don’t want to.” He tried to dodge past Tommy and get to the door. Tommy twisted his arm. “Please don’t hurt me, Tommy!” He was already crying. “Please let me go home—I don’t want to look—I’m scared to! If you let me go home now, I promise I won’t tell on you. I’ll never tell on you as long as I live.”

“I wouldn’t take chances on you now,” Tommy said, dragging him back to where the other boys were. “You’re staying here, Jimmy.”

“Will you make her promise and cross her heart not to tell on me?” he asked Tommy. “I don’t want my folks to know. My dad would beat me if he found out. I just know he would. He told me to stay away from colored girls, and I promised him I would. If he found out—”

“Aw, dry up, Jimmy Pugh!” Lance said. “I thought you were too grown-up to bawl like that. Nobody’s ever going to know about it, if you’ll shut up. If they do find out, it’ll be your own fault for making so much fuss. Your dad’ll never know about it if you keep quiet.”

Todd said boastingly, “If my old man found out, he’d be mad as hell because he wasn’t in on it.”

“I know my old man chases colored girls’,” Jake said. “Only the good-looking ones, though. I’ve seen him do it. Once he got one off the street and took her in his store and kept her there half the night. My mother found out about it. And did she give him holy hell! She almost took the roof off until my old man got down on his knees and promised her a fur-trimmed coat if she’d lay off. That didn’t stop him for long, though. He’s just more careful now.”

Jimmy broke away from Tommy and ran to Kathyanne. He got down on the floor beside her.

Kathyanne looked as surprised as anyone else. “What’s the matter, Jimmy?” she asked him.

Tears were running down his cheeks. He tried to wipe them away before the other boys could see him.

“I’m scared, Kathyanne,” he sobbed, getting as close to her as he could. “I didn’t want to come down here. I said I didn’t want to, but Tommy Blackburn made me. He said he’d tell on me just the same if I didn’t.”

“What the hell’s Jimmy Pugh doing?” Jake Chester said. “Look at him nuzzle up to her.”

“He acts like he got scared in the dark and thinks she’s his nurse,” Todd said, laughing at him.

Kathyanne put her arm around Jimmy protectingly. “He’s too little to be going around at night with big boys,” she said with a reproachful look at Tommy Blackburn. “He’s too young for that. All you big boys ought to be ashamed for making him.”

“He’s fifteen,” Tommy told her. “Lance Clotworthy’s fifteen, too. But you don’t see Lance trying to nuzzle up to you like that.”

“That makes no difference. Jimmy’s too little, anyway.”

Jimmy had stopped trying to hide his tears. “Please don’t tell my folks on me, Kathyanne,” he begged her. “I always liked you, didn’t I? I never did anything mean to you when you worked for us out at our house, did I? My mama was mean to you, but I wasn’t, was I, Kathyanne? Please don’t tell on me.”

Kathyanne patted Jimmy tenderly, but she did not say anything.

“Tommy and Jake made me come down here,” he said, crying more loudly. “I didn’t want to, but they said I might go home and tell on them if I didn’t come. That’s why I had to. They made me.”

Tommy caught Jimmy’s arm and pulled him away from Kathyanne. “For Pete’s sake!” he said, shaking Jimmy. “I didn’t know you were such a big cry-baby, Jimmy. Don’t you ever beg to go around with me again. I’m through with you from now on. You stay away from me after this.”

“I want to go home!” he sobbed, unashamed.

“You ought’ve stayed home tonight and sucked a sugar-tit,” Tommy told him.

The startling bright beam of a flashlight suddenly burst upon them. Nobody moved. Then the dazzling beam moved slowly around the shed, momentarily revealing the terrified expression of each of the boys in turn. Finally it illuminated Kathyanne’s gleaming nakedness.

Somebody whispered, “There’s going to be all kinds of hell to pay now. I wish I’d gone to the movies tonight.”

“All right, boys,” a loud and familiar voice called out behind them. “I know every one of you. The fun’s over. Turn around and walk out the door one at a time. And don’t nobody try to knock this flashlight out of my hand, neither. I’ll slam you silly with this pistol butt. Now, get started like I told you. When you get outside, keep on walking, and don’t come back, neither.”

Tommy was the first to turn around. “It’s Will Hanford,” he said. “How’d he know we were back here?”

“It’s my business to know what goes on around town at night, Tommy,” Will told him, laughing at the rueful sound of his voice.

“It’s all your fault, Tommy Blackburn,” Jimmy said accusingly. “You made me come. I didn’t want to. I want to go home.”

“Aw, dry up, cry-baby!” Tommy told him.

The night patrolman, waving the beam of light back and forth, went to the side of the shed and waited.

“It’s me, all right, boys,” Will said, pleased with his accidental discovery of them. “Tending to my business as usual. Nothing goes on in Estherville that I don’t know about. Now, you boys go home. Everyone of you. I don’t want to catch none of you out on the street again tonight. I know who you are, and if I want you, I know where to find you. The less you talk about this, the better off you’ll be, if you want to take my advice. If you don’t want your folks to find out what I caught you at, just keep your mouths shut from now on. I’ll tell you something else, too. The next time you want to nuzzle one of these high-yellows, you’d better be sure it’s outside the city limits. Now, get going and don’t stop till you’re home. One at a time now. Tommy, you go first. Hurry it up now, like I tell you.”

The five boys left the shed one by one, and as each boy reached the alley he broke into a run. Jimmy Pugh, the last to leave, could be heard crying all the way up the street.

After they had left, Will Hanford switched off the flashlight and went for one of the empty packing cases to sit down on. Kathyanne hurriedly put on her dress before Will got back.

“Well, Kathyanne,” Will began talking to her, “you went and got yourself in trouble tonight, didn’t you? A good-looking girl like you ought to be more careful. You ought to know better than fool around with those school kids, anyhow. Kids like them will always get you in trouble. They don’t know nothing at that age.”

“I didn’t do anything, Mr. Hanford,” she protested earnestly. “It wasn’t my fault at all. It was those white boys. They made me come in this shed. That’s the truth, Mr. Hanford.”

Will laughed at her.

“I’m telling the honest truth, Mr. Hanford,” she pleaded.

“You ought to know it won’t do you no good to try to put the blame on them, Kathyanne. Nobody’ll ever believe it. You colored girls around town start all the trouble, and you know it. I’ve never seen a colored girl yet who wouldn’t egg on a white boy. You know good and well not a single one of those boys would’ve been in this shed if you hadn’t got them to come back here. You couldn’t lie out of me finding you in here naked to the skin with them, now could you? See how it is? You can’t fool me. I see too much of it around town to be fooled. I’ve heard all the tales you colored girls’ve made up, thinking some fancy story will keep you out of the jailhouse.”

“Mr. Hanford, they caught me out there in front of the drug store while I was on my way home and brought me back here. I didn’t want to come. I didn’t even see them till they jumped out and caught me. That’s the honest truth, Mr. Hanford. They’d tell you that, if you asked them. I just know they would. Please ask them.”

“I didn’t hear you yelling for help,” he remarked, laughing at her efforts to convince him. “I’ve been in this part of town since dark, too.”

“I didn’t try to do that, because I was afraid they’d hurt me if I did.”

“Is that so?” he said, with a loud mocking laugh. “If it went to court, and they testified you lured them to this alley, you wouldn’t want to see yourself stand up and swear on the Bible that five white boys were telling a lie, would you now, Kathyanne? That wouldn’t show good sense, would it?”

“No, sir, but—”

“Then quit that lying about it.”

“But, Mr. Hanford, I’m not—”

“If you’re smart, you’ll leave things just like they are. When you go to court in the morning, it’ll only be twenty-five days or twenty-five dollars. That’s all. Have you got twenty-five dollars to pay the fine with?”

“No, sir, Mr. Hanford,” she answered, frightened.

“I can do a little talking, and I could find somebody who’d maybe pay your fine for you, if all went well.”

“I don’t want you to do that, Mr. Hanford,” she told him.

Will lit a cigarette and then offered one to her. She shook her head. By that time, Will had moved close to her.

“I’ll tell you something, Kathyanne,” he began, moving the box until he was touching her. “I think maybe I could help you out, myself. I don’t always do it, you understand, but this time I might could. I’ve seen you around town a lot of times, and I always get the notion I’d like the chance to talk it over with you. This is the first really good chance I’ve had. How’s that strike you?”

“What do you mean, Mr. Hanford?”

“Well, I wouldn’t mind helping you out, instead of letting somebody else do it, if you want to listen to reason. I don’t have to make it hard on you, unless I want to. Nobody knows about it yet, except those kids, and I scared them out of opening their mouths. That’s what I’m getting around to. What do you say, Kathyanne? I think maybe I’d like to forget all about it and let you go on home tonight.”

He was watching her closely. She did not say anything.

“That’s right, Kathyanne. I’ll play ball with you, if you’ll play with me. You’ll have to promise not to say anything about it, though. I’ve got a job to protect. That’s the important thing. Now, me and you. There’s plenty of places around town where I can always get anything good I want, but I don’t know nobody that’s got your looks to go along with it. You’re one hell of a good-looking woman all the way from the ground up. I’d say that about you any time of the day or night. It’s a shame you had to go and get born colored instead of white. But that don’t bother me. I always could get crazier in the head over a half-and-half than I could over a pure white. I’d make a fool of myself over you. Now, what do you say, Kathyanne? Just me and you. Them kids’ll never talk. They’re too scared.”

He stopped and swung his knee against her leg.

“You don’t want to have to go to jail, do you, Kathyanne?” he said meaningfully. “And you don’t have to, neither, if you play ball with me. You know that. I don’t have to take you in. All you have to do is get agreeable and you can forget all about that jailhouse. There’s no sense in a good-looking girl like you going behind the bars. I know you don’t want to stand up in court tomorrow morning. What do you say now, Kathyanne? Want to get in the ball game?”