Billy (21 page)

Wesley
talkin
quick
now. "Ah's
got
ta
gits
back, gots me
somethin
waitin.
Ah
need me
a
bottle ta takes wit me."

Shorty's bouncing
over in the
corner
by Big Jake,
shaking
back
and
forth with that music, but Big Jake ain't paying him no mind, had them fingers dancin on them
strings
faster than them words twisti n through his lips.

The Patch night has
its colors
too, deep
colors
that seem to
drift
into one
another,
dark bl ues
seeping
into purples, misty grays floating while
stars' yellows
sparkle. Them tall trees along the far road
stand
dark gray above the black thick bushes beneath them. The road is dark
until
the bou ncing lights
come
like
cat eyes out
of the night.

Reverend
Sims stands
watching the lights
coming,
he had heard the dogs barking, but now
can only see
the lights.
The
palms of his hands
come
together, he
steps
back from his sittin
chair,
then
goes into
the house
and closes
the
door.

Jackson Bivens
whispers
to his
wife,
Tammy,
"Git in
there, ya hear me? Git in there," then reaches
for
his
shotgun and
closes the door.

Lucy Mae's mother
stands and comes to
the
edge of
her
sittin
porch, but keeps
her eyes on
the lights. Lucy Mae
onl
y
turns her head, then
looks back
down
at
the
porch
floor boards.

Della Robinson hears the dogs
barking, looks out the s
i
de
window, then runs to the front door
and
looks
out, closes
it, and runs and
gets
under the bed.

Wesley Hal l stops
as
the
light
s come bearing
down on him, shining into his
eyes.
He
clenches
the bottle in his hands
and

B I L L
y
I 87

stands still,
then runs up into the
shacks
and
crawls under a sitti
n
porch.

Big
Jake
still sings. Shorty still bounces to the musi
c
.

LeRoy still sips that
good
bourbon. They do not
see the
lights.

Reverend
Sims hears the
yells
and shouts now,
Lucy
Mae's mother sees the lights become trucks and
cars,
then white men with sticks and guns. Then there are
more
lights, flick
ering
lights of lanterns and fire torches.
She
grabs Lucy
Mae
and runs into the house and
calls
her God.

The silence of the night has run far into the darkness.

Patch dogs howl. Harsh snarling voices
yell
and
shout. "Get
that son of a bitch. Up in there
,
get
im."
"Where's
that knifin nigger, where's that bastard?"
"Turn
this whole goddamn place over, we'll
get
him." "Get that light over here. Spread the lights
out."
"Where he at? Ya better get his ass out here."

"Fuck it, just burn it, he come out."

"Ge
t
outside here.
All
ya all up in there, get
out
her
e
.
"
"Just pull im out, burn it if they don't
get out."

"Search
each one, spread
out. Get
a
light here." "Goddamn niggers, fuckin killin bastard
s
." "Where's that boy, where's that boy at?"

"Break
it down, break it down, damn it.
Get
that light
over
here."

"Come on
out of there, get
out
here,
nigger."

"Got
one under here, look, th
e
re's one hidin th
ere."

Wesley Hall squirmed backwards, trying to
get
furth
er
back in the di1t beneath the porch. H i
s
mind
went
furt h
er
than
his
wiggling body, his mind raced
out
of the night,
far
past the darkest dark, and just
ran
until
it
could go
no
fur-

BB I Albert Fre11ch

ther, t hen it
came
back
cringing
when the lights
shined
in his
eyes
and t he
sticks
poked and dug into
his sides.

"
Get out of ther
e,
nigger. Get
yer
ass
out of
there, ya hear?

Ah
got him, Ah
got
his ass."

Shouts came
under the sittin por
c
h, then hands
c
ame and
yanked
Wesley Hall out into the flare
of
lights. Sticks beat at his back, then fists
and
clubs beat at hi
s
head,
shouts
co
me from all around like the flashin lights.

"Where's that knifin nigger? Where he hidin at?"
"Ah
don't know.
Ah
ain't
sees
him.
Ah ain't."

"Ya lyi n bastard. Cut
yer
balls
off, boy,
ya
don't
answer
here right."

"Ah
ain't knowin.
Ah's
down Lero
y's
.
Ah
ain't
sees
him
."
"What's
his name, huh? What's that
boy's
name?"

"Billy
Lee, he Billy Lee. That's his name, Billy Lee."

Lucy Mae
's
mother runs to
the
door
and
tries to
keep
it
shut,
but
goes
flying into the
wall
as the
door burst open, her eyes squint
at the
waving
lights
and
snarling
faces.

"W
hat
ya
all
want here? What
ya
want
co
min here?'
'
"Who ya gots
hidin back there?
Get her out
here."
"
Ya
all
l
eave
us
be.
We
ain't d ids
nothin
to
ya."

"Get out
her
e,
woman. Get that other
one
out
h
ere
.
"

Lucy
Mae has
come
to the fire and lights,
she
has
run through
the hou
se,
and comes to her mother's side,
sc
ream ing,
"Where's
m
y
baby?
\
r
her
e's
my baby? Ya
go
t
my baby?
Wher
e's
G umpy?"

Lucy M a
e's
moth
er g
ra b
s
at
h
er
and
s
hout
s,
''Get
ba
c
k
in
there,
gel back, shut
u p, Lucy Ma
e.
get back.""

"That's that one the
sher
iff
got. This is
t hat ni
gger's

house."

"Ya got Gumpy, Ah
want m
y
bab
y
.
ya
bri ng
him
back." "Shut
up, Lucy Ma
e.'
'

B l L L
y
I
89

"Burn that son of a bitch down."
"No,
misters, please no."

"Bring
my baby back."
"BURN
IT DOWN."

The glare from the lights and fires
shine
through Reverend Sims' windows now, loud heavy
footsteps come
pounding up the steps and shake his sittin porch. Reverend Sims whisper
s
to his wife, "Ya stay in here. Ya stay back in here. Ah
sees
what theys want." He goes to the door
with
his slavin Bible clutched in his hands. Lights flash across his face, shouts and yells smash into his
ears.

"Ya got that Billy Lee in there? Where's that nigger at?"
"He
is not here. This ain't his house."

"That's
that preacher nigger, yank his ass on out of there
."
The cries of the night went far. LeRoy knew he'd been hearing the dogs barki n, then the faint
sound of screams
wisp past his ear. "Shut up, Shorty, shut up," LeRoy shouted, then looks at Big Jake and
whispers,
"Jake, Jake, listen. Ya hear

that?"

Big Jake stilled, listened to the night, then jumps up and heads for the door. LeRoy shouts after him, "Jake, where
ya
goin?"

Big Jake shouts over his shoulder,
"Ah gots children
up there, got my babies up there. Where
ya
think Um goin?"

"Fool nigger, shit," LeRoy hisses, then rushes to the night lamp, turns it out, and stands
at
the window,
c
ursing th
e
distant flickering fires. Shorty staits
yappin
about what
he
knows is happening. LeRoy tells him
to shut
the fuck up and then wades through
the
dark until he
reaches
his
counter,
his hand jabs beneath it until he
feels the
handle
of his
pistol.

On the path from LeRoy's, Big Jake's
wal k
is
steady,
h
e

90 I Albert French

leans his
shoulders
into his
stride,
but his
eyes stare
ahead to the fires jumping in the night.

"Don't
do it, put it down, they'll kill us, please," Tammy Bivens pleads
wi th
her husband, bu t he
only
whispers harshly,
"God
damn it,
stay
back there. Keep quiet."
Now
he
stills
hisself, but his eyes twitch with
every
approaching
yell and shout.
His fingers ease from the
shotgun's
trigger, his thu mb gently pulls the hammer back until
it
locks itself, then he places his finger back on the trigger and
waits
for the door to
come crashing
open.

Della Robinson lays under her
bed with
her
hands over
her
ears, she
does not
want
lo hear the
shouts and screams com
ing from the night,
but
then the house
shakes
as the heav
y
footsteps thump up
onto
her sittin porch
.
Her
door is bashed open,
her bed is
pulled
and flung
away, but
her hands
stay on
her
ears
.

"Get
her
out,
drag
her. Get ya ass movin. Get up."

Della Robinson
screams as she is
bei ng
dragged across
th
e
floor, then
she
looks up into the
faces of the men above
her and pleads,
"Leave me be.
Please
leave
s
me be, Ah ain't done
nothin,
A h ain't bothered
nobodies.
Lets me b
e,
please."

Big Jake
comes
into the light
of
the
fire
s
and
lant
e
rn
s
. the
y
swing
his
way, shine
upon him,
then gather around
him.

"Get that
big
son of a
bitch.
Get
him
."

"Ah got childrens
up there.
Get awa
ys
from me." "Get
him.
Get
him.
Get behind him.''