The next morning, when I came to the yard, Bonbon was there already. He told me Marcus wasn’t going in the field with me that morning, he had to go for his trial. He said Marcus would be out there that evening, though, so it wasn’t any need for me to get anybody in his place. At ten o’clock, he took Marcus to Bayonne in the truck. Marcus wore his black suit, his white shirt and his black and white shoes. The trial was at ten thirty. At eleven thirty the trial was over, and at ten minutes to twelve Bonbon had Marcus in the quarter again. When he stopped before the gate, he told Marcus to go in and change clothes because the honeymoon was over.
Charlie Jordan lived right across the road from us. Charlie was sitting out on his gallery with his right foot in a pan of Epsom salt water. Charlie said he could see how Bonbon and Marcus were talking to each other, then glaring at each other, but he didn’t know what it was all about. Marcus walked away from the truck. Bonbon watched him a few seconds, then he swung the truck around and went speeding back up the quarter. Charlie said the dust in the road was flying so much you couldn’t see the house next to yours. Bonbon went up to the big house and knocked on the screen door, but he jerked the door open before anybody could answer.
“Where is the old man?” he said to Bishop.
Bishop went to get Marshall. When they came back in the kitchen, Pauline was there, too. She stood by the stove, pretending to be busy.
“What’s with that boy down there?” Bonbon said.
“What boy?” Marshall said.
“The one I take to Bayonne.”
“Did he say anything to you?”
“He say something to me, all right,” Bonbon said. “He’s innocent and don’t have to go back in that field.”
“He is innocent,” Marshall said. “I just got a call from Bayonne.”
“Innocent?” Bonbon said.
“Yes,” Marshall said. “Didn’t you go to the trial?”
“I got other things to do,” Bonbon said. “When they start deciding these things at trial?”
“I thought they always did,” Marshall said.
“Yes?” Bonbon said.
“Yes,” Marshall said. “But maybe I’ve been wrong all these years.”
Now they just looked at each other. Bonbon knew Marshall was lying. He knew Marshall had it fixed from the start. Marshall knew Bonbon knew this. Bonbon turned to leave, and Marshall stopped him again. Bonbon didn’t turn around this time, he looked over his shoulder at Marshall.
“I want you to take me somewhere this evening,” Marshall said. “To see that bull there of Jacques. Be here at six o’clock.”
Bonbon went out. Marshall went back up the hall. Bishop and Pauline stood in the kitchen looking at each other. Pauline said, “Innocent? Innocent? Did he say he was innocent?” Bishop didn’t answer her. Bishop didn’t like Pauline at all, but this was not the reason he didn’t answer her now. He didn’t answer her because he felt too weak to answer her. He felt too weak to be standing there, too. He should have been laying down with a cold towel on his forehead.
Pauline heard the tractor coming up the quarter and she came out in the yard to meet me. She was at the crib when I drove up there. That was the first time since I had been on that plantation when I wasn’t glad to see Pauline. I parked the tractor in front of the crib and jumped down to see what she wanted.
“What’s going on, Jim,” she asked me.
“What’s the matter?” I said.
“Marcus innocent.”
“He is?” I said.
“You mean he don’t pay for killing that boy?” she asked.
“I guess not—if he’s innocent,” I said.
“What’s going on, Jim?” she said, looking straight at me. “What’s going on round here?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Yes, you do,” she said. “What’s going on round here, Jim?”
“Keep out of this, Pauline,” I said.
“Keep out of what?” she said.
“Just keep out of everything,” I said, turning away from her.
She grabbed me by the arm.
“What’s going on, Jim? What’s going on round here?”
She was squeezing my arm. Any other time I would have liked this. Right now I was just scared.
“Keep out of this, please, Pauline,” I said. “Keep out of this.”
“What’s going on, Jim?”
“Even if you knew, you couldn’t do a thing about it, Pauline,” I said.
“Is it something to do with Sidney?”
“Bonbon’s wife,” I said.
“What is it, Jim?”
“You keep your mouth shut, now.”
“What is it?”
“Marcus and Louise running away from here tonight.”
Pauline covered her mouth with her hand. I could see how her eyes were thinking. I could see how she couldn’t believe this and how, after a while, she did believe it. Then I could see how she was asking herself, “Why? Why? Why?”—then I could see her answering her own question. Her hand came slowly from her mouth.
“I see,” she said. “I see. And me?”
“You’ll have to get away from here, too,” I said.
“Go where? Do what?”
“Don’t you have people?”
The way she looked at me, I could see she didn’t want to go round her people. And maybe, after the way she had been living with Bonbon, her people didn’t want her there, either.
“Don’t stay up here tonight, Pauline,” I said. “There might be trouble.”
She didn’t answer me; she didn’t care any more.
“You heard me?” I said to her.
She didn’t answer. She looked down at the ground. She didn’t care about anything any more.
“Go back inside, Pauline. You don’t have anything on your head,” I said.
She looked up at me now. I could see she didn’t care about anything. She turned from me and went back toward the house.
When I came out in the road, I could see the truck parked in front of Bonbon’s house. As I came closer, I saw Bonbon coming out in the road to wave me down. I stopped the tractor and Bonbon came closer to talk over the noise the tractor was making. I jumped down to hear him better.
“Take Jonas with you,” he said.
“Something the matter?”
“That boy went free.”
“Free?” I said.
“Free,” he said. “They had it rigged from the start. The boy he kill don’t mean a thing.”
“Maybe the boy was wrong,” I said.
“No, they had it rigged,” Bonbon said. “Even if the boy was wrong, you just don’t go free, Geam. They had it rigged. There, they got me working that boy out there and they laughing at me behind my back. They make me the fool.”
“They haven’t started with you yet,” I thought. “Wait until tomorrow this time.”
“Take Jonas,” he said.
“You’ll be out later?”
“No, I don’t think so. Little work I got to ’tend to down the river. Got to take the old man somewhere this evening.”
I nodded.
“Listen, Geam,” he said. “Y’all take it easy out there. Corn getting thinner and we ought to finish by the weekend anyhow. How far you from that ditch now?”
“I don’t know. Fifteen, eighteen rows.”
“Go to the ditch and knock off,” he said.
“Right.”
I started to get back on the tractor. He stopped me again.
“Geam?” he said. “What you think ’bout that? You think he ought to go free?”
“What can I say? That’s the way they work it.”
“Yeah, you right,” Bonbon said. “Me and you—what we is? We little people, Geam. They make us do what they want us to do, and they don’t tell us nothing. We don’t have nothing to say ’bout it, do we, Geam?”
“Not very much,” I said.
“Take Jonas,” he said.
I got back on the tractor and drove away. When I looked over my shoulder I saw him going back in the yard. He walked with his head down. He was still thinking about what they had done to him.