man English was in his yard there burning up some leaves and it was October and we were comin’along there after school and you could smell the leaves and it was after school and you said, “Here’s Mr. Gant, the tombstone-cutter’s son.”
—You damn fool! I don’t know what you’re talking about!—
—Yes, you do, you cheap Deke son-of-a-bitch—Too good to talk to us on the street when you were sucking around after Bruce Martin or Steve Patton or Jack Marriott—but a lifelong brother—oh! couldn’t see enough of us, could you, when you were alone?
—The damn fool’s crazy!
—Crazy, am I?—Well, we never had any old gummy grannies tied down and hidden in the attic—which is more than some people that I know can say!—you son-of-a-bitch—who do you think you are with your big airs and big Deke pin!—My people were better people than your crowd ever hoped to be—we’ve been here longer and we’re better people—and as for the tombstone-cutter’s son, my father was the best damned stone-cutter that ever lived—he’s dying of cancer and all the doctors in the world can’t kill him—he’s a better man than any little ex-police court magistrate who calls himself a judge will ever be—and that goes for you too—you—
Why, you crazy fool! I never said anything about your father—
To hell with you, you damn little bootlicking—
Come on Gene come on you’ve had enough you’re drunk now come on.
Why God-damn you to hell, I hate your guts you—
All right, all right—He’s drunk! He’s crazy—Come on, Bill! Leave him alone!—He don’t know what he’s doing—
All right. Good night, Gene…. Be careful now—See you in the morning, boy.
All right, Robert, I mean nothing against you—you—
All right!—All right!—Come on, Bill. Let him alone! Good night, Gene—Come on—let’s go to bed!—
To bed to bed to bed to bed to bed! So, so, so, so, so! Make no noise, make no noise, draw the curtains; so, so, so. We’ll go to supper i’the morning: so, so, so.
And Ile goe to bedde at noone.
Alone, alone now, down the dark, the green, the jungle aisle between the dark drugged snorings of the sleepers. The pause, the stir, the sigh, the
