No Country for Old Men (10 page)

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

We come here from Georgia. Our family did. Horse and wagon. I pretty much know that for a
fact. I know they's a lots of things in a family history that just plain aint so. Any
family. The stories gets passed on and the truth gets passed over. As the sayin goes.
Which I reckon some would take as meanin that the truth cant compete. But I dont believe
that. I think that when the lies are all told and forgot the truth will be there yet. It
dont move about from place to place and it dont change from time to time. You cant corrupt
it any more than you can salt salt. You cant corrupt it because that's what it is. It's
the thing you're talkin about. I've heard it compared to the rock — maybe in the bible—and
I wouldnt disagree with that. But it'll be here even when the rock is gone. I'm sure
they's people would disagree with that. Quite a few, in fact. But I never could find out
what any of them did believe.

You always tried to be available for your social events and I would always go to things
like cemetery cleanins of course. That was all right. The women would fix dinner on the
ground and of course it was a way of campaignin but you were doin somethin for folks that
couldnt do it for theirselves. Well, you could be cynical about it I reckon and say that
you just didnt want em comin around at night. But I think it goes deeper than that. It is
community and it is respect, of course, but the dead have more claims on you than what you
might want to admit or even what you might know about and them claims can be very strong
indeed. Very strong indeed. You get the feelin they just dont want to turn loose. So any
little thing helps, in that respect.

What I was sayin the other day about the papers. Here last week they found this couple out
in California they would rent out rooms to old people and then kill em and bury em in the
yard and cash their social security checks. They'd torture em first, I dont know why.
Maybe their television was broke. Now here's what the papers had to say about that. I
quote from the papers. Said: Neighbors were alerted when a man run from the premises
wearin only a dogcollar. You cant make up such a thing as that. I dare you to even try.

But that's what it took, you'll notice. All that hollerin and diggin in the yard didnt
bring it.

That's all right. I laughed myself when I read it. There aint a whole lot else you can do.

It was almost a three hour drive to Odessa and dark when he got there. He listened to the
truckers on the radio. Has he got jurisdiction up here? Come on. Hell if I know. I think
if he sees you committin a crime he does. Well I'm a reformed criminal then. You got that
right old buddy.

He got a city map at the quickstop and spread it out on the seat of the cruiser while he
drank coffee out of a styrofoam cup. He traced his route on the map with a yellow marker
from the glovebox and refolded the map and laid it on the seat beside him and switched off
the domelight and started the engine.

When he knocked at the door Llewelyn's wife answered it. As she opened the door he took
off his hat and he was right away sorry he'd done it. She put her hand to her mouth and
reached for the doorjamb.

I'm sorry mam, he said. He's all right. Your husband is all right. I just wanted to talk
to you if I could.

You aint lyin to me are you?

No mam. I dont lie.

You drove up here from Sanderson?

Yes mam.

What did you want.

I just wanted to visit with you a little bit. Talk to you about your husband.

Well you cant come in here. You'll scare Mama to death. Let me get my coat.

Yes mam.

They drove down to the Sunshine Cafe and sat in a booth at the rear and ordered coffee.

You dont know where he's at, do you.

No I dont. I done told you.

I know you did.

He took off his hat and laid it in the booth beside him and ran his hand through his hair.
You aint heard from him?

No I aint.

Nothin.

Not word one.

The waitress brought the coffee in two heavy white china mugs. Bell stirred his with his
spoon. He raised the spoon and looked into the smoking silver bowl of it. How much money
did he give you?

She didnt answer. Bell smiled. What did you start to say? he said. You can say it.

I started to say that's some more of your business, aint it.

Why dont you just pretend I aint the sheriff.

And pretend you're what?

You know he's in trouble.

Llewelyn aint done nothin.

It's not me he's in trouble with.

Who's he in trouble with then?

Some pretty bad people.

Llewelyn can take care of hisself.

Do you care if I call you Carla?

I go by Carla Jean.

Carla Jean. Is that all right?

That's all right. You dont care if I keep on callin you Sheriff do you?

Bell smiled. No, he said. That's fine.

All right.

These people will kill him, Carla Jean. They wont quit.

He wont neither. He never has.

Bell nodded. He sipped his coffee. The face that lapped and shifted in the dark liquid in
the cup seemed an omen of things to come. Things losing shape. Taking you with them. He
set the cup down and looked at the girl. I wish I could say that was in his favor. But I
have to say I dont think it is.

Well, she said, he's who he is and he always will be. That's why I married him.

But you aint heard from him in a while.

I didnt expect to hear from him.

Were you all havin problems?

We dont have problems. When we have problems we fix em.

Well, you're lucky people.

Yes we are.

She watched him. How come you to ask me that, she said.

About havin problems?

About havin problems.

I just wondered if you were.

Has somethin happened that you know about and I dont?

No. I could ask you the same thing.

Except I wouldnt tell you.

Yes.

You think he's left me, dont you.

I dont know. Has he?

No. He aint. I know him.

You used to know him.

I know him yet. He aint changed.

Maybe.

But you dont believe that.

Well, I guess in all honesty I would have to say that I never knew nor did I ever hear of
anybody that money didnt change. I'd have to say he'd be the first.

Well he'll be the first then.

I hope that's true.

Do you really hope that, Sheriff?

Yes. I do.

He aint been charged with nothin?

No. He aint been charged with nothin.

That dont mean he wont be.

No. It dont. If he lives that long.

Well. He aint dead yet.

I hope that's more comfort to you than it is to me.

He sipped the coffee and set the mug down on the table. He watched her. He needs to turn
the money in, he said. They'd put it in the papers. Then maybe these people would leave
him alone. I cant guarantee that they will. But they might. It's the only chance he's got.

You could put it in the papers anyway.

Bell studied her. No, he said. I couldnt.

Or wouldnt.

Wouldnt then. How much money is it?

I dont know what you're talkin about.

All right.

You care if I smoke? she said.

I think we're still in America.

She got her cigarettes out and lit one and turned her face and blew the smoke out into the
room. Bell watched her. How do you think this is goin to end? he said.

I dont know. I dont know how nothin is goin to end. Do you?

I know how it aint.

Like livin happily ever after?

Somethin like that.

Llewelyn's awful smart.

Bell nodded. You ought to be more worried about him I guess is what I'm sayin.

She took a long pull on the cigarette. She studied Bell. Sheriff, she said, I think I'm
probably just about as worried as I need to be.

He's goin to wind up killin somebody. Have you thought about that?

He never has.

He was in Vietnam.

I mean as a civilian.

He will.

She didnt answer.

You want some more coffee?

I'm coffeed out. I didnt want none to start with.

She looked off across the cafe. The empty tables. The night cashier was a boy about
eighteen and he was bent over the glass counter reading a magazine. My mama's got cancer,
she said. She aint got all that long to live.

I'm sorry to hear that.

I call her mama. She's really my grandmother. She raised me and I was lucky to have her.
Well. Lucky dont even say it.

Yes mam.

She never did much like Llewelyn. I dont know why. No reason in particular. He was always
good to her. I thought after she got diagnosed she'd be easier to live with but she aint.
She's got worse.

How come you live with her?

I dont live with her. I aint that ignorant. This is just temporary.

Bell nodded.

I need to get back, she said.

All right. Have you got a gun?

Yeah. I got a gun. I guess you think I'm just bait settin up here.

I dont know.

But that's what you think.

I cant believe it's all that good a situation.

Yeah.

I just hope you'll talk to him.

I need to think about it.

All right.

I'd die and live in hell forever fore I'd turn snitch on Llewelyn. I hope you understand
that.

I do understand that.

I never did learn no shortcuts about things such as that. I hope I never do.

Yes mam.

I'll tell you somethin if you want to hear it.

I want to hear it.

You might think I'm peculiar.

I might.

Or you might think it anyway.

No I dont.

When I got out of high school I was still sixteen and I got a job at Wal-Mart. I didnt
know what else to do. We needed the money. What little it was. Anyway, the night before I
went down there I had this dream. Or it was like a dream. I think I was still about half
awake. But it come to me in this dream or whatever it was that if I went down there that
he would find me. At the Wal-Mart. I didnt know who he was or what his name was or what he
looked like. I just knew that I'd know him when I seen him. I kept a calendar and marked
the days. Like when you're in jail. I mean I aint never been in jail, but like you would
probably. And on the ninety-ninth day he walked in and he asked me where sportin goods was
at and it was him. And I told him where it was at and he looked at me and went on. And
directly he come back and he read my nametag and he said my name and he looked at me and
he said: What time do you get off? And that was all she wrote. There was not no question
in my mind. Not then, not now, not ever.

That's a nice story, Bell said. I hope it has a nice endin.

It happened just like that.

I know it did. I appreciate you talkin to me. I guess I'd better cut you loose, late as it
is.

She stubbed out her cigarette. Well, she said. I'm sorry you come all this way not to do
no better than what you done.

Bell picked up his hat and put it on and squared it. Well, he said. You do the best you
can. Sometimes things turns out all right.

Do you really care?

About your husband?

About my husband. Yes.

Yes mam. I do. The people of Terrell County hired me to look after em. That's my job. I
get paid to be the first one hurt. Killed, for that matter. I'd better care.

You're askin me to believe what you say. But you're the one sayin it.

Bell smiled. Yes mam, he said. I'm the one sayin it. I just hope you'll think about what I
did say. I aint makin up a word about the kind of trouble he's in. If he gets killed then
I got to live with that. But I can do it. I just want you to think about if you can.

All right.

Can I ask you somethin?

You can ask.

I know you aint supposed to ask a woman her age but I couldnt help but be a bit curious.

That's all right. I'm nineteen. I look younger.

How long have you all been married?

Three years. Almost three years.

Bell nodded. My wife was eighteen when we married. Just had turned. Marryin her makes up
for ever dumb thing I ever done. I even think I still got a few left in the account. I
think I'm way in the black on that. Are you ready?

She got her purse and rose. Bell picked up the check and squared his hat again and eased
up from the booth. She put her cigarettes in her purse and looked at him. I'll tell you
somethin, Sheriff. Nineteen is old enough to know that if you have got somethin that means
the world to you it's all that more likely it'll get took away. Sixteen was, for that
matter. I think about that.

Bell nodded. I aint a stranger to them thoughts, Carla Jean. Them thoughts is very
familiar to me.

He was asleep in his bed and it still mostly dark out when the phone rang. He looked at
the old radium dial clock on the night table and reached and picked up the phone. Sheriff
Bell, he said.

He listened for about two minutes. Then he said: I appreciate you callin me. Yep. It's
just out and out war is what it is. I dont know no other name for it.

He pulled up in front of the sheriff's office in Eagle Pass at nine-fifteen in the morning
and he and the sheriff sat in the office and drank coffee and looked at the photos taken
in the street two blocks away three hours earlier.

There's days I'm in favor of givin the whole damn place back to em, the sheriff said.

I hear you, said Bell.

Dead bodies in the street. Citizens' businesses all shot up. People's cars. Whoever heard
of such a thing?

Can we go over and take a look?

Yeah. We can go over.

The street was still roped off but there wasnt much to see. The front of the Eagle Hotel
was all shot up and there was broken glass in the sidewalk down both sides of the street.
Tires and glass shot out of the cars and holes in the sheet-metal with the little rings of
bare steel around them. The Cadillac had been towed off and the glass in the street swept
up and the blood hosed away.