ALL OF the words from Cy and the danger signals from his own body did not slow Jared’s pace for the rest of the week. Each day he picked more tomatoes than the day before, and each night he was asleep before the orange sunset receded from the western sky. He did not even mind the slop they were fed for the evening meal. He chewed automatically and swallowed, too numb from fatigue to know or care what he was eating.
Cloma noticed this, and it troubled her deeply. She had never seen Jared act this way. He had always enjoyed his food and then sitting around after supper, discussing the events of the day and making trivial talk. Bennie and Kristy also noticed, but they knew the reason for his tiredness. They did not understand why their father was working at such a frantic pace, and they did not question him; but both were concerned as they watched him in the fields each day.
Saturday finally came. When the workday ended, and they reached the camp, Jared went to the room immediately and started figuring. He had picked eight hundred and fifty-two buckets for the week; Bennie had three hundred and six, and Kristy two hundred and forty. He added the figures slowly and carefully. The total of thirteen hundred and ninety-eight buckets was an earning of three hundred, forty-nine dollars and fifty cents. Then he figured the charges: forty dollars for rent, five dollars for electricity, fifty-six for the evening meals, thirty-six for the bus, eighteen dollars advanced for food, and ten dollars and fifty cents for the bottles of wine lining the wall. This came to one hundred and sixty-five dollars and fifty cents. He subtracted this from the earnings and it came to one hundred and eighty-four dollars. Then he remembered the ten dollars Creedy had advanced, and this reduced the amount of clear money to a hundred and seventy-four dollars. This, subtracted from the three hundred and seventy-two dollars and fifty cents that he owed Creedy, brought the debt down to one hundred and ninety-eight dollars and fifty cents.
He felt great relief. With a little more effort they could clear the debt the next week, and if they did not quite make it, he could pay the difference. All of the numbing tiredness suddenly rushed from his body, and his mood became jubilant. He jumped up and kissed Cloma on the forehead, and then he said, “Ev’rything’s o.k.! We’re goin’ to be just fine!”
She gave him a questioning look, then he left the room quickly and joined the pay line.
When Jared reached the table, Creedy examined the ledger; then he looked up and said, “You did pretty good this week, Jay Bird. You’ve reduced your debt by fifty dollars. That brings the total down to three hundred and twenty-two dollars and fifty cents.”
It took several moments for the words to register, and then Jared said angrily, “That ain’t so, Mr. Creedy! We made a hundred and seventy-four dollars free and clear! I don’t owe but one hundred, ninety-eight dollars and fifty cents! I figgered it myself!”
Creedy’s face flushed. He said, “Goddammit, Teeter, I keep the books! You owe what I say you owe!”
Jared stepped back because of the sudden outburst. He looked Creedy directly in the eyes and said, “Mr. Creedy, I’ll tell you what I’m goin’ to do. I got a hundred and fifty dollars left from the trip down here. I’m goin’ to give it to you. Then I’m goin’ to get my family in my van and drive out of here. I’m goin’ right through that gate and not look back, and you ain’t goin’ to stop me.”
Creedy jumped up and shouted, “Nobody leaves Angel City owin’ me money! Nobody! You understand me? You ain’t goin’ nowhere!”
Jared said calmly, “I’m goin’ to drive through that gate and leave. And you ain’t goin’ to stop me.”
Jared had not seen Jabbo standing behind him, and the blow was totally unexpected. He hit the ground on his stomach. He tried to push himself up but was too stunned to move. He lay still for a moment, waiting for his eyes to focus. There was a tremendous ringing in his ears, but he heard Creedy say, “Give him another one, Jabbo!” Then he felt the heavy brogan shoe crash into the side of his head.
Jared did not know how long he had been on the ground. When he finally pushed himself to a sitting position, the line of people was gone. Creedy was standing over him. He threw a ten-dollar bill to the ground and said, “Here’s your advance for next week, Jay Bird.” Then he turned and left.
The supper line had formed when Jared reached the hydrant beside the shower stall. He turned the water on and let it run over his head, then he walked slowly back to the room.
Cloma, Bennie and Kristy were waiting outside the door. Cloma said, “What took you so long, Jay? We’ll miss supper if we don’t hurry.” She noticed that his head was wet and that his face was beginning to swell. “Jared, what have you been doing out there?” she asked with concern.
“Not anythin’,” he answered. “I just stopped by the hydrant to wash up some. We can go to the supper line now.”
They went to the cookshed and then returned with plates of food. Jared took only a few bites, then he put the plate down and said, “Cloma, I got a thing to say, and I want all of you to listen real good.”
“What is it, Jared?” she asked anxiously, still puzzled and disturbed by his sudden change of mood.
“The gate is open fer the buses to go to the store. I want all of you to stand by the east end of the building. I’m goin’ to go out to the van. When I crank it, all of you run and jump in. We’re leavin’ here.”
“How come we’re doing this all of a sudden? You told me before supper that ev’rything was goin’ to be all right.”
“Just do as I say!” he said harshly.
“What about our things here in the room?”
“Leave them! And go now!”
Jared walked to the van slowly. No one was around. He put the key into the ignition and pushed the starter. The engine remained silent. He eased out of the door and opened the hood. When he looked inside he saw immediately that the battery was missing. He closed the hood and walked back to the building.
“We better get on the bus and go to the store now,” he said without emotion. “We’ll need food fer next week.”
Cloma was completely baffled by his actions. She did not understand any of this, and it was causing her great concern. Her thoughts were troubled as they joined the line of people pushing their way into the bus.
When they returned to the camp, Jared sat on the edge of his bunk, his arms draped dejectedly across his lap. His head ached, and the right side of his face had turned purple. Cloma knew that something bad had happened and that he did not wish to talk about it yet, so she remained silent and did not question him further as she mended a rip in his shirt. Kristy was sitting on her bunk making a pot-holder, and Bennie was outside somewhere.
Jared looked closely at Cloma. It seemed to him that her stomach was swelling more and more each day. She also looked very young to him, almost as young as that day in the past when he had purchased her box of fried chicken at the church social and then shared it with her at the picnic table. He remembered the day of their marriage and their first night together, then the long walks in the woods and talk of the life they would share together in the mountains at Teeter Ridge. It had been a hard life but one with many moments of happiness. He also remembered how Cloma had looked when she was carrying Kristy.
He then turned his gaze to Kristy, noticing how much she looked like Cloma at the same age. Her eyes were deep blue and filled with innocence. She could not see the things that he saw, could not comprehend the reality of their present life. It suddenly came to him just how dependent all of them were on him. Their lives were almost totally in his hands, and he could make of them whatever he wished, like a potter molding clay. The thought frightened him. It was a heavy responsibility for any man, but now he had made the weight of it even greater. He looked at them both again, and he knew they did not deserve to be here in this camp or in this dingy concrete room where he had brought them. He had turned into a very bad potter, and it saddened him to think of it. He then got up and went outside.
Cy was leaning against the wall, drinking whiskey from a quart bottle. Jared sat down beside him. Cy said, “I seen what they done to you. But what they done this time ain’t nothin’ at all when you know what they can do.”
“It was enough,” Jared said.
“You want a drink?”
“No thanks,” Jared said. Then he muttered absently, “They’s got to be a way.”
Cy put the bottle on the ground and said, “Mistuh Jay, don’t you do nothin’ foolish. Just bide yo’ time an’ wait. Ain’t nothin’ goin’ to help you none if you daid.”
“They’s gotta be a way,” Jared repeated. “We could get word to the police or somebody. Somebody would help.”
“You’d just be wastin’ yo’ time,” Cy said. He picked up the bottle and drank again, and then he said, “Folks don’t care ’bout people like us. We ain’t nothin’ to nobody. We jus’ don’t matter none at all. The sooner you learn this, the better off you goin’ to be. You gotta take it like it is. If’n you don’t, then you goin’ to end up doin’ somethin’ bad you would have never done. This the way it’s always goin’ to be. You gotta take it like it is, an’ fo’get all the rest.”
“Is that what all these people have done?” Jared asked.
“That’s what they done a long time ago. These folks is daid, Mistuh Jay. A man don’t have to stop breathin’ to be daid. They done had the life knocked outen them. They was born daid. All they doin’ now is hangin’ on and waitin’ to be planted. If they can get a place to sleep, an’ somethin’ to et, an’ a bottle of whuskey fo’ Satteday night, then they don’t mind the pain of it.”
“They’ll not defeat me!” Jared said, a determination in his voice. “Not ever! We’s mountain folk!”
“Mountain folk don’t mean nothin’ at all down here,” Cy said. “Don’t you do nothin’ foolish.” He pushed the bottle toward Jared. “Why don’t you have yo’self a snort? It would sho’ do you good: I know yo’ head is bound to be hurtin’.”
Jared took the bottle and removed the cap. He took a deep drink and handed the bottle back to Cy. The warmth of the whiskey flowing down his throat felt good, and he could feel it easing the pain in his head. He said, “Thanks. I appreciate it.” Then he went back into the room and lay on his bunk.