Curly said, “Pa come home drunk and real upset early the other morning.”

This caught my attention. Not that Curly’s father had stumbled into their house drunk and raised Cain, but the fact that Curly was talking to me about it. His father’s drunkenness was Curly’s most tender spot. It was the place where we dared not tread, the same as Petey’s mixed blood or the Baylis boys’ older brother who had been hanged in the United States. Besides, it would be a stretch to say Curly and I are friends, especially not friends who would confide in each other.

His words hung in the air. I didn’t know what to say.

He went on, “I ain’t never told no one this, Red, but every once in a while when Pa’s on a bender, he whups us. He’s been hitting us like we was full-grown men for years. He didn’t this time, not to start, but he roused us all out of our sleep and made me and Quincy and Ma sit ’round the table at about three in the morning. When I saw that he had the Bible on the table in front of him, I wished we’d-a just got whupped.”

I nodded.

“He said we was all gonna stand up and, one by one, with our hand on the Bible, swear we wouldn’t tell a soul what he was gonna say.”

He paused.

“Ma swore first and slid the Bible to Quincy. He told Pa the same thing I was feeling. He said he waren’t doing it, that he didn’t trust his own mouth and didn’t want to go to hell for breaking his word on the Bible. Said Pa shouldn’t tell him no secrets, that he should just let him go back to bed in peace.”

“So what happened?”

“Ma starts bawling and begs Quince to swear for Pa, that it won’t hurt him to do it, that God will forgive him if he makes a mistake.

“Quince still won’t do it. Him and Pa are standing face-to-face. I was across the room and could smell the rotgut on Pa’s stinking mouth from that far.”

Curly went quiet.

“So Quincy didn’t swear not to tell? You didn’t either?”

Curly said, “I saw what Pa done to Quince. He ended up swearing on the Bible anyway, so I swore too.”

He laughed. “Only difference was I didn’t come out of it knocked loopy with a busted lip.”

I still didn’t know what to say.

“That ain’t right, is it? You can’t get forced to swear to do something wrong on the Bible. Right, Red?”

I felt as though I’d been slapped.

I said, “It doesn’t seem right to me, especially if you were forced to do it. But …”

Curly said, “But nothing. Pa was wrong and what he done out in the woods was wrong.”

I was dying to hear what Curly’s father had done, but Curly was having second thoughts. He started doing what Father says people do in court if they’re uncomfortable with telling the whole truth right off the bat. Father says they gift wrap the story. I was going to have to listen to a bunch of ribbons and bows and wrapping paper and excelsior and wadded newspapers before I finally got to Curly’s gift, the thing he really wanted to say.

“Pa starts this demon laugh he’s got and says, ‘They needs to give me a medal. I should be in the papers for what I done! But you think that’ll happen? Of course not; one of ’em will have something smart to say about it, and sooner or later, it’s all going to boil down to ‘Let’s throw Phineas in the hoosegow.’

“Pa says, ‘Folks been talking ’bout that scoundrel for years, but these fools in Chatham ain’t done a thing. They ain’t real men; they all talk.’

“Pa threw a plate into the wall and said, ‘Well, Phineas R. Bennett will be respected from now on! They won’t want to, but now they ain’t gonna have no choice. They’ll all have to say I’m a man what gets things done! I’m a real man.’ ”

Curly stared out at the river.

I said, “Curly! What did he do?”

Curly said, “Me and Quincy looks at each other. Pa ain’t talking to no one in particular, and if it waren’t for Ma being trapped there, we’d-a left. Or jumped him.

“Pa drops his head down on the table and starts sobbing, and that ain’t never good.

“The carving knife wasn’t but a couple of inches from Pa’s hand.”

Those words caused a cold blast to run across my scalp!

Curly said, “I seen the knife and seen how his back looked a mile wide while he had his head down. I figured this would be the perfect time and place to bury that knife.”

“Oh, Curly, say you didn’t, say you didn’t pick up the knife!”

“I was going to. I swear it, Red, but before I could, Pa raises up his head and says in this whining voice, ‘He startled me; he ain’t got no business being in our woods no way. He know he suppose to stay farther south.’ ”

I said, “Who? Who was he talking about, Curly?”

Curly said, “Pa gets up and walks over to where Ma’s sitting and falls to his knees. Ma’s stiff as a board when Pa puts his head in her lap and …”

Curly starts crying. I wanted to reach out to him, but my hands hung like weights at my side.

He said, “This is what happens all the time. First he’s sorry and weepy to Ma, then he’s tanning her hide. I swore if he hit Ma this time, I was gonna stab him. And I meant it. But me and Quincy’s thinking just alike, and Quince grabbed the knife first. I couldn’t believe it when he walks up behind where Pa’s sitting on the floor.”

My heart was racing.

Curly said, “Pa tells us, ‘So I falls to sleep out by the big bend in the river, and all the sudden, I wakes up and it’s got dark and the moon’s high and I look and someone’s bent over down by the river. I blinks a couple times ’cause I can’t believe what I’m seeing. It ain’t nothing but luck that I had my pistol with me. I ain’t scared, but I grab it outta my coat. You can’t never be too sure.

“ ‘He ain’t s’pose to be ’round here and he done thiefed from white folks his whole life, so I decides I’m ’bout to make one of them citizen arrests. I starts to creep closer to get this scalawag. I didn’t make a peep, but what they says is true; he’s got the hearing of a dog.

“ ‘All the sudden he stands up and whips ’round at me. I done what I had to. I done what anyone woulda.

“ ‘I yells, “Stop!!!” But he keeps coming! He growls like a madman and raises this club as big as a tree over his head and … and … I shot. He was gonna kill me and I got him ’fore he could! He dropped like a sack of rocks.’ ”

There were tears in Curly’s eyes.

“Pa wraps his arms ’round Ma, stops crying, and begins laughing again. He stands up, sees Quincy standing there with his hand behind his back. I’m thinking, Do it! Do it, Quincy!

“Pa raises his arms above his head and tells us, ‘Boys, don’t ever let no one tell you no different. Your pa’s a hero! There ain’t no more bears nor wolves in these woods, and after tonight, there ain’t no more lions neither. I done shot that wild South Woods darky! His thieving days is over.’ ”

I was stunned.

Curly said, “Pa didn’t even notice that the knife fell outta Quincy’s hand. He screams, ‘They needs to build me a statue in the middle of Chatham!’ Then he runs out into the night.”

I don’t know how long I stood there before I found my voice. “Curly, you said he shot him. Did he say he killed him?”

Curly said, “I don’t know. He said he shot him, I guess. The coward probably fired and run off.”

“Did you tell the constable?”

Curly said, “The constable? You know I don’t have nothing to do with him. Besides, Pa’s probably lying.”

I said, “But, Curly, you’re crying. You’re crying. You must know he’s telling the truth. You know he shot that poor man.”

Curly looked at me like I was crazy.

“Poor man? You think I’m crying about that crazy Lion Man fool? You think I care one raccoon turd about him?”

He stood in my face like he was going to hit me.

“I’ll tell you why I’m crying, Red.”

He wiped his nose on his shirtsleeve. “Have you ever wondered what it’s like to know you’re seconds away from killing someone, Red? We’ve all got so mad we said ‘I’m gonna kill so and so,’ but that’s just talk. Have you ever wondered how it feels to know you’re going to do it? That if it don’t happen tonight, it will tomorrow or, by God, for sure on the day after? That you’re not just talking?”

“Well …”

“Well, I know. I cried ’cause Quince is gonna kill Pa. I cried ’cause I know, Red. I thought about it and I ain’t gonna let Quince throw his life away. He’s always been the good one. He’s always done good in school and ain’t been the burden to Ma that I been.”

Curly was openly sobbing. “Ever since I can remember, we all knowed which of us was like Pa and which waren’t. I thought hard on it and I ain’t gonna have Quince toss out all the work he’s done. I’m gonna do it, Red. I’m crying ’cause I know the only difference twixt me being a kid and being a murderer is time.

“There’s a rope waiting for me at the gallows, Red, that’s why I’m crying.”

He raised his shirt to wipe at his tears. Tucked into the waistband of his pants was the butt of a huge pistol.

Curly was hurting horribly, and that probably should have mattered to me. But it didn’t. The only thing I could think about was how the Lion Man had looked at me and apologized. That wasn’t something one could easily forget.

Maybe Curly’s father was telling the truth. Maybe the Lion Man was lying dead out at the river. Or maybe he’d missed him completely. Or maybe he hadn’t been killed and was lying in the woods slowly bleeding to death.

“I have to go.”

He yelled after me, “I trust you, Red. Don’t tell no one you seen me cry.”

If it weren’t for the fact that I sounded so pathetic and silly when I practiced doing it at home in the mirror, I would have roundly and vilely cursed out Curly Bennett and his entire family.