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Speaker 1: This podcast may not be suitable for young listeners. Poachers

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by Tom Franklin. Dawn, on the first day of April,

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the three Gates brothers banked their ten foot aluminum boat

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in a narrow slew of dark water. They tied their

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hounds and strapped their rifles, and stepped out, ducking black

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magnolia branches heavy with rain and Spanish moss. The two

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thin younger brothers denim overalls tucked in their boots, lugged

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between the starfoam cooler of iced fish, coons and possums.

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The oldest brother, twenty bearded in heavy set, carried a

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sunbeam bread sack of eels in his coat pocket. Hooked

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over his left shoulder was the pink body of a

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foam they'd shot in skin and over the ride a

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stray dog, to which they'd done this With skins and

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heads gone and the dog's tail chopped off, they were

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difficult to tell apart. The Gates has climbed the hill,

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clinging to the vines and saplings and slipping in the

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red clay, their boots coated and enormous. By the time

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they stepped out of the woods. For a moment, they

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stood in the road, looking at the gray sky, the

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clouds piling up. The two younger ones kneel and Dan

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set the cooler down. Kent, the oldest, removed his limp

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cap and squeezed the water from it, and his brothers

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did the same. Then Kent nodded and they picked up

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the cooler. They rounded a curve and crossed a one

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lane bridge, stopping to piss over the rail into the creek,

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water high from all the rain, and then went on,

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passing houses on either side, dark warped boards with the

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knotholes big enough to look through, and cement blocks for steps.

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Black men appeared in the doors and windows to watch

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them go by. To most of these people, they were

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something not seen, often something nocturnal and dangerous. Along the

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stretch of the Alabama River, everyone knew that the brother's father,

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Boo Gates, had married a girl named Anna when he

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was thirty she was seventeen, and that the boys had

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been born in quick succession, with less than a year

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between them. But few outside the family knew that a

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fourth child, a daughter unnamed, had been still born, and

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that Boo had buried her in an unmarked grave and

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a clearing in the woods behind their house. Anna died

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the next day, and the three boys, dirty and naked,

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watched their father stoop shouldered descent into the earth as

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he dug her grave. And by the time he'd finished it,

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it was dark, and the moon had come up out

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of the trees, and the boys lay asleep upon each

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other in the dark, like wolf pups. The name of

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this community, if it could be called that, was Lower

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Peach Tree, though as far as anybody knew, there'd never

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been an Upper Peach Tree. Scattered along the leafy banks

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of the river were ragged houses, leaning and drafty, many

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empty and caving in so close to the water they'd

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been built on stilts. Each April, floods came and the

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crumbling land along the bank would disappear, and each May,

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when the flood waters were seeded, a house or two

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would be gone. Upriver, near the locking dam stood an

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old store, a slanting, weathered building with a steep tin

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roof and a stovepipe in the back. Two rusty gas

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pumps on the left beside the road. The regular pump,

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empty for years, had a garbage bag tied over it.

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Around the store, mimosa trees sagged water logged in front.

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Long steps led up to the door, wherein the window

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a red sign said open inside. To the right, like

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a bar upon maple counter ran along the wall, and

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behind the counter hung a rack of wire pegs for tools, hardware,

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and fishing tackle. To the left were rows of shelves

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made of boards and concrete blocks, and beyond the shelves

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a Coca Cola cooler buzzed faintly by the wall. The

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store owner, an old man named Kirksey, had bad knees,

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and this weather settled around his joints like rot. For

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most of his life, he'd been married and lived in

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a nice two story house on Highway thirty five fireplaces

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in every bedroom a china cabinet. But when his wife

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died two years ago cancer, he found it easier to

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avoid the house, to keep the bills paid in the

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grass mode, but the doors locked, to spend nights in

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the store and to sleep in the back room on

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the army cot and the warmest meals of corned beef

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and beef stew on a hot plate. He didn't mind

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that people had but stopped coming to the store. As

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long as he served a few long standing customers, he

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thought he'd stick around. He had his radio in the

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Thomasville station and money enough. He liked the area and

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knewest regulars weren't the kind to drive half an hour

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to the nearest town. For those few people, Kirksey would

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go once a week to Grove Hill to shop for goods.

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He'd resell, marking up the price just enough for a

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reasonable profit. He didn't need the money, it was just

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good business. Liquor wise, the county was dry, but that

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didn't stop Kirksey. For his regulars, he would serve plastic

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cups of cheap whiskey he bought in the next county,

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or bottles of beer he kept padlocked, and an old

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refrigerator in back. For these regulars, he would break packages

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of cigarettes and keep them in a cigar box and

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sell them for a dime apiece a nickel stale Ashburn's

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were seven cents, and he would open boxes of shotgun

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shells or cartridges and sell them for a mouse at

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varied according to caliber. And he'd known to find specialty

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items paperback novels, explosives, and once an old magneto telephone.

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At Euphrates Morset's place, Kent gates pounded on the back door.

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In Morset's yard, a cord of wood was stacked between

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two fence posts, covered by a green tarp. Brick halves

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holding the tarp down. A tire swing, turning slowly and

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full of rain water hung from a pine limb. When

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Morset appeared, he was a large, bald black man. Kent

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pointed to the fawn and dog hanging on the porch rail.

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Morset put on reading glasses and squinted at both. How

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about that, he said, stroking his chin right out, young men's.

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He closed the door. Kent sat on the porch edge,

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and his brother's on the steps. A skinny, wet dog

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trotted from under the house, wagging its tail, and Dan

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began to pet it. When he found a swollen blue

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tick in its ear, he pulled it off and flicked

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it across the yard. The door opened and Morset came

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out with three pint jars of homemade whiskey. Each brother

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took a jar and unscrewed its lid and sniffed the

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clear liquid. Morset set his steaming coffee cup on the

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window sill. He fastened his suspenders, looking at the carcasses

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hanging over the rail. The brothers were already drinking, Dan

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still petting the dog, which had its head in his lap.

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Where's the girl, Kent asked, his face twisted from the

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sour whiskey. My stepdaughter, you me morsets items apple pumped

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in his throat. She had sid far away. A rooster crode. Well,

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get her out here, Kent said. They drank again, and shuddered.

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Now she ain't of fifteen, Kent scratched his spard. She's gone.

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Look at her. When they left, the stepdaughter was standing

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on the porch in her white nightgown, barefoot and rubbing

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the sleep from her eyes. The brothers backed away, clanking

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with hardware and blushing and grinning at her. More sets

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jaw clenched. The dog watched them go, and then turned

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and trotted back underneath the house. Sipping from their jars,

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they took the bag of eels down the road to

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a half blind, conjured woman who stood waiting on her porch.

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Her house, with the stark drapes and empty bird cages

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dangling from the eaves, seemed to be slipping off into

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the gully. The younger brothers wiped their noses on their

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sleeves and shifted from foot to foot by the gate.

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As Kent walked across the muddy yard held the bag out,

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she snatched the eels from him, Squinting into the bag

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with her good eye, grunting. She paid them from a

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dusty cloth sack on her Apron muttered to herself as

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Kent turned and walked through her gate, and the three

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of them went up the dirt road. Only Dan, the youngest,

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looked back. They pedaled the rest of the things from

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their cooler and then left through the dump, pausing while

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Kent and Neil shot at liquor bottles, Dan through into

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the air out of ammunition. They stumbled down the ravine

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and the rain, following the water's edge to their boat,

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and in the back Kent wedged his jar between his thighs,

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ran the trolling motor with his foot. His brothers leaned

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against the walls of the boat, facing opposite banks, no

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sound but rain and the low hum of the motor.

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They drank silently, holding their burning whiskey in the hollows

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of their cheeks, before gathering the will to swallow. And

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along the bank's fallen trees held thick stands of cotton

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mouth black sparkling creatures, dazed and slow from winter, barely

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able to move. If not for all the rain, they

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might still be hibernating. Comatos in the banks of the

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river are beneath the soft yellow underbellies of rotten logs.

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Randing in Ben, the brother saw a small boat down river,

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its engine clear, loud and unfamiliar. It was heading this way.

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The men in the boat lifted a hand in greeting.

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He wore a green poncho and a dark hat covered

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with plastic. Kent shifted his foot, turning the trolling motor

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and steering them toward the bank, giving the stranger a

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wide berth. He felt for their outboards crank rope while

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Kneel and Dan faced forward and sat on the boat seats.

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The man drawing closer didn't look much older than Kent.

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He cut his engine and coasted up beside them, smiling

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morning fellas, he said, showing his badge. I'm the new

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District game Warden. The brothers looked straight ahead, as if

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he weren't there. The warden's engine was steaming. A flock

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of geese passed overhead. Dan slipped his hands inside the

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soft leather collars of two dogs who'd begun to growl. Now,

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you fellows ought to know, the warden said, pointing his

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long chin to the rifle at Neil's feet, that it's

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illegal to have those guns loaded on the river. Now

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I'm going to have to check them. I'll need to

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see some licenses too. When he stood, the dogs jumped forward,

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tonails scraping the aluminum. Dan jerked them back and glanced

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at Kent. Kent spat into the brown water. He met

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the warden's size, and an instant knew the man had

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seen the telephone rig and the floor of their boat.

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Pulled to the bank, the warden yelled, drawing a pistol,

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y'all are under a rest for poaching. The gates is

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didn't move. One of the dogs began to claw the hull,

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and the others joined him, and a howl rose shut

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them dogs up. The Warden's face had grown blotchy and red.

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The spiteed hound broke free in sprang over the gun

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slopper strung from his teeth, and the man most surprised

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by the game wardens shot seemed to be the game

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warden himself. His face drained of color as the noise

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echoed off the water, and died in the bent black

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limbs and the cattails that bobbed in the current. The

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bullet had passed through the front dog's neck and smacked

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into the bank behind them, missing Dan by inches. The

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dog collapsed, and there was an instant silence before the others,

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now loose, clattered overboard into the water, red eyed, tangled

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in their leashes trying to swim. Pulled to the goddamn bank,

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the warden yelled right now. Scowling, Kent leaned and spat.

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He moved his thirty thirty aside, Using the shoulders of

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his brothers for balance, he made his way to the

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prow kneel, his cheek bones flecked with the dog's blood.

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Moved to the back to keep the boat level. At

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the front, Kent reached into the water and took the

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first dog by its collar, lifted the kicking form and

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set it streaming and shivering behind him. His brothers turned

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their faces away as it shook off the water. Kent

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grabbed the rope that led to the big three legged

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hound and pulled it hand over hand until he could

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work his finger under its collar. He gave Dan a

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sidelong look, and together they hauled it in. Then Kent

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grabbed the smaller bitch while Dan got the black and tan.

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The warden watched them, his hip swaying with the rise

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and fall of the current. Rain was coming harder, now,

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spattering against the boats. Kneeling among the dogs, Kent unsnapped

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the leash and tossed the spotted hound overboard, and it

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sank and then resurfaced and floated on its side, trailing blood.

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Kent's lower lip twitched and he looked at Neil and

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opened his mouth, and Dan whispered to the dogs and

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placed his hands on two of their heads to calm them.

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They were wretching in trembling and rolling their eyes fearfully

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at the trees. Neil stood up with his hands raised

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as if to surrender. When the game warden looked at him,

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relief softening his eyes, Kent jumped from his crouch into

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the other boat, his big fingers closing around the man's neck.

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Later that morning, Kirksey had just unlocked the door and

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hung out the open sign when he heard the familiar

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rattle of Gates truck. He sipped his coffee and leant

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behind the counter and sat on a stool. The boys

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came several times a week, usually in the afternoon, before

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they started their evenings of hunting and fishing. Kirksey would

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give them what supplies they needed, bullets and fishing line

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and socks, a new cap to replaced one lost in

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the river. They would fill their trucks in cans with gas.

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Eighteen year old Dan would get the car battery from

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the charger near the wood burning stove and replace it

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with the drained one from their boat trolling motor. Kirksey

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would serve them coffee or cokes, never liquor, not to boys,

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and they'd eat whatever they chose from the shelves, usually

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candy bars or barbecue potato chips, ignoring Kirksey's advice to

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eat healthier Vienna sausages and denty moore or shift boyard.

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Today they came in looking a little spook, Kirksey thought.

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Neil stayed near the door, peering out the glass, fogging

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by his mouth. His arms folded, and Dan went to

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the candy isle and pocketed several Hershey bars. He left

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a trail of muddy boot prints behind him. Kirksey would

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have to mop later morning, young Fellas he said coffee,

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Dan nodded, Kirksey refilled a starfoam cup and then grinned

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as the boy loaded it with sugar. You take coffee

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with your sweetener, he asked Kent, lending them the computer,

250
00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:06,399
inspecting the items hanging on their pages, A hack saw

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00:16:06,679 --> 00:16:10,320
a Lucky thirteen lure, a set of Alan wrenches, a

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00:16:10,399 --> 00:16:14,840
gizmo with several uses, knife and measuring tape and all.

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He took off his cap and bought it in his fist.

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Kirksey could smell the booze on him. Y'all need something

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00:16:22,639 --> 00:16:26,519
in particular, he asked, that spotted one you give us,

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Kent said, not meeting his eyes. Won't bark no more.

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00:16:31,399 --> 00:16:34,879
She won't bark no more, no tree. Im fine, but

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won't bark neary a time? Got a shoot her his

259
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mouth full of chocolate. Dan looked at Kirksey and by

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the door, Neil unfolded his arms. Now, Kirksey said, I

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00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:50,200
ain't no need for that, Kent, do what that conjured

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00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:53,039
woman recommends. Now, go out in the woods and find

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00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:56,240
you a locus shell stuck to a tree. This is

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00:16:56,279 --> 00:16:58,480
a time of year for him, if I'm not mistaken,

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00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:03,639
akus hyeah, Kent asked, yeah, bring it back home and

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crunch it up in the dogs scraps, and that'll make

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her bark like she ought to. Kent nodded to Kirksey,

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walked to the door, and he went out, and his

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00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:18,799
brothers followed. See Kerksey called you're welcome. Dan waved with

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a hershey bar and closed the door. Kirksey stared after

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00:17:22,880 --> 00:17:25,319
them for a while. It had been more than a

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year since they'd paid him anything, but he couldn't bring

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00:17:28,279 --> 00:17:31,519
himself to ask for money. He'd even stop writing down

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what they owed. He got his coffee and leant from

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behind the counter to the easy chair by the stove.

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He shook his head at the muddy footprints on the

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candy isle. He sat slowly and tucked a blanket around

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00:17:44,720 --> 00:17:47,000
his legs, and took out a bottle and added a

279
00:17:47,039 --> 00:17:50,599
splash to his coffee and sipping, he picked up a

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novel Louis Lamore sack its Land, and reached in his

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00:17:54,920 --> 00:18:05,720
apron pocket for his glasses. Though she had been one once,

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00:18:05,799 --> 00:18:08,599
the woman named Esther wasn't much of a regular and

283
00:18:08,759 --> 00:18:12,720
Kirksey store these days. She lived two miles up river

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00:18:12,799 --> 00:18:16,319
in a shambling white house with massive magnolia trees in

285
00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:19,839
the yard. The house had to wrap around porch, and

286
00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:22,680
when it flooded, you could fish from the back, sitting

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00:18:22,759 --> 00:18:25,920
in the tall, white rocking chairs, though you weren't likely

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to catch anything. A baby alligator maybe, or sometimes bullfrogs.

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Owls nested in the trees along her part of the river,

290
00:18:34,799 --> 00:18:38,160
but in this weather they'd grown quiet. She missed her

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hollow calling. Esther was fifty. She'd had two husbands and

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six children who were gone and had ill feelings toward her.

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She'd had her female parts removed in an operation that

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she was still paying for. Now, she lived alone, and

295
00:18:54,640 --> 00:18:57,920
most of the time drank alone. If the Gates boys

296
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hadn't passed out in their truck somewhere in the woods,

297
00:19:00,440 --> 00:19:04,039
they might stop by after a night's work. Esther would

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make them strong coffee and feed them salty fried eggs

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00:19:07,599 --> 00:19:11,519
and link sausages, And some mornings, like today, she would

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00:19:11,519 --> 00:19:14,039
get a far away look in her eyes and take

301
00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:16,559
Kent's shirt and her fingers and lead him up the

302
00:19:16,599 --> 00:19:19,680
stairs and watch him close the bathroom door and listen

303
00:19:19,759 --> 00:19:23,599
to the sounds of his bathing. She smiled, knowing these

304
00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:28,039
were the only baths he ever took. When he emerged

305
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:32,039
his long hair stringy, his chest flat and hard. She

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00:19:32,119 --> 00:19:34,599
let him down the hall, past the telephone nook to

307
00:19:34,680 --> 00:19:38,400
her bedroom. He crawled under the covers and watched her

308
00:19:38,440 --> 00:19:42,440
take off her gown and step out of her underwear. Bending.

309
00:19:42,599 --> 00:19:44,960
She looked in the mirror to fluff her hair, and

310
00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:49,960
then climbed in beside him. He was gentle, at first, curious,

311
00:19:50,039 --> 00:19:52,599
and then rougher, the way she liked him to be.

312
00:19:53,680 --> 00:19:56,720
She closed her eyes, the bed frame rattling and bumping

313
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in her father's old pocket watch slipping off the nightstand.

314
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Water gurgled in the pipework in the walls as Neil

315
00:20:03,599 --> 00:20:06,160
took a bath to hoping for a turn of his own,

316
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:10,640
which never had happened, at least not yet. Slow down,

317
00:20:10,720 --> 00:20:14,599
baby Esther, whispered into Kent's ear. There's plenty of time.

318
00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:25,200
On April third, it was still raining. Kirksey put as

319
00:20:25,200 --> 00:20:28,839
out his crossword to answer the telephone. Can you come

320
00:20:28,880 --> 00:20:31,960
down to the lock, and Damn Goodlow asked, we got

321
00:20:32,079 --> 00:20:37,119
us a situation developing here. Kirksey disliked smart ass good Low,

322
00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:40,440
but something in the sheriff's voice told him it was serious.

323
00:20:41,559 --> 00:20:43,759
On the news, he'd heard that the new game warden

324
00:20:43,839 --> 00:20:47,039
had been missing for two days. The authorities had dragged

325
00:20:47,039 --> 00:20:49,599
the river all night and had a helicopter in the air.

326
00:20:50,680 --> 00:20:53,480
Kirksey sat forward in his chair, waiting for his back

327
00:20:53,519 --> 00:20:56,599
to loosen a bit. He added a shot of whiskey

328
00:20:56,680 --> 00:20:59,240
to his coffee and gulped it down as he shrugged

329
00:20:59,240 --> 00:21:02,359
into his denim jacket, zipping it up to his neck

330
00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:06,400
because he stayed cold when it rained. He put cotton

331
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:08,720
balls in his ears and set his cap on his

332
00:21:08,839 --> 00:21:11,839
bald head and took his walking. Came from beside the

333
00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:16,319
door in his truck, the four wheel drive engaged and

334
00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:19,920
the defroster on high. He sank and rose in the

335
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:23,759
deep ruts and gobs of mud flying past his windows,

336
00:21:24,079 --> 00:21:28,519
the wiper swishing across his view. The radio announcer said

337
00:21:28,519 --> 00:21:31,359
it was sixty degrees and more rain on the way.

338
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:35,839
Then the red or Lin began to sing. A mile

339
00:21:35,920 --> 00:21:39,759
from the locking down, Kirksey passed a grove Hill ambulance

340
00:21:40,039 --> 00:21:44,119
axled deep in the mud. A burly black paramedic was

341
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:46,799
wedging a piece of two by four beneath one of

342
00:21:46,839 --> 00:21:50,279
the rear tires, while the board looking driver sat behind

343
00:21:50,319 --> 00:21:54,759
the wheels, smoking and racing the engine, Kirksey slowed and

344
00:21:54,960 --> 00:21:58,000
rode down his window. Y'all going after a live one

345
00:21:58,079 --> 00:22:02,039
or a dead one? Dead to Kerksey, the black man answered.

346
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Kirksey nodded and accelerated. At the locking down, he could

347
00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:10,440
see a crowd of people and umbrellas, and beyond them

348
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:13,039
he saw the dead man lying on the ground under

349
00:22:13,039 --> 00:22:17,200
a black raincoat. Some onlooker had begun to direct traffic.

350
00:22:18,079 --> 00:22:21,559
Goodlow and three deputies and yellow slickers stood near the

351
00:22:21,599 --> 00:22:26,000
body with their hands in their pockets. Kirksey climbed out,

352
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:30,519
and people nodded sombrely and parted to let him through. Goodlow,

353
00:22:30,599 --> 00:22:34,720
who had been talking to his deputies, ceased as Kirksey approached,

354
00:22:34,759 --> 00:22:38,319
and they stood looking at the raincoat. Morning sugar Baby,

355
00:22:38,599 --> 00:22:43,039
Kirksey said, using the nickname Goodlow. Hated. Is this who

356
00:22:43,079 --> 00:22:47,839
I think it is? Yep, Goodlow, said rookie game Warden

357
00:22:48,079 --> 00:22:52,240
of the Year with his cane. Kirksey pulled back the

358
00:22:52,319 --> 00:22:56,000
raincoat to reveal the white face. He's a young fella,

359
00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:59,160
he said. There was a puddle beneath the dead man,

360
00:22:59,599 --> 00:23:01,960
twigs in his hair and a clove of moss in

361
00:23:02,000 --> 00:23:05,400
his breast pocket. With the rubber tip of his cane.

362
00:23:05,519 --> 00:23:09,480
Kirksey brushed a snail from the man's forehead. He bent

363
00:23:09,559 --> 00:23:12,680
and looked into the warden's left eye, which was partly open,

364
00:23:13,079 --> 00:23:17,279
and he noticed the throat, the dark bruises there. Goodlow

365
00:23:17,359 --> 00:23:20,400
unfolded a handkerchief and blew his nose and then wiped it.

366
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:24,680
Don't go abusing the evidence, Kirksey. He stuffed the handkerchief

367
00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:29,720
into his back pocket. Evidence now, sugar baby. Good Low

368
00:23:29,799 --> 00:23:33,519
excelled and looked at the sky. Don't shit me, Kirksey,

369
00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:36,799
you know good and will who done this? I expect

370
00:23:36,839 --> 00:23:39,200
they figured the law wouldn't apply to them up on

371
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:41,759
this part of the river, the way things has been

372
00:23:41,839 --> 00:23:45,160
all these years. Them other wardens scared of him, are

373
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,839
feeling sorry for him. But I reckon that's fixing a change.

374
00:23:49,440 --> 00:23:52,680
He paused. I had to place a call to the

375
00:23:52,720 --> 00:23:55,319
capitol this morning to let him know that we was

376
00:23:55,440 --> 00:23:58,680
all out of game wardens. And you won't believe who

377
00:23:58,720 --> 00:24:02,640
they patched me through to. Kirksey adjusted the cotton in

378
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:06,880
his right ear. Oh, Frank David himself, the sheriff said,

379
00:24:07,440 --> 00:24:09,880
Ain't nothing ticks him off more than this kind of thing.

380
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:16,119
A dread stirred in Kirksey's belly. Frank David was see

381
00:24:16,200 --> 00:24:21,279
a relation to this fellow teacher, Goodlaw said, said he's

382
00:24:21,319 --> 00:24:24,079
been given lessons to young game wardens over at the

383
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:27,720
Forestry Service. He asked me a whole bunch of questions

384
00:24:28,079 --> 00:24:32,039
regular interrogation. Said this here, young fellow was the cream

385
00:24:32,079 --> 00:24:34,759
of the crop, the best new game warden there was.

386
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:40,000
Wouldn't know it from this angle, Kirksey said, good Load grunted.

387
00:24:41,519 --> 00:24:45,039
A photographer from the paper was studying the corpse. He

388
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,559
glanced at the skies if gauging the light, and when

389
00:24:48,599 --> 00:24:51,240
he snapped his first picture, Kirksey was in it like

390
00:24:51,279 --> 00:24:54,599
a sportsman. Well, what do you want from me, he

391
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:58,039
asked Goodlow. You tell them boys, I need to ask

392
00:24:58,079 --> 00:25:01,920
them some questions. Ain't fixing the traps all over the county.

393
00:25:02,319 --> 00:25:05,720
I'll drop by the store this evening if they're there.

394
00:25:05,799 --> 00:25:10,799
They're there, Kirksey said, ain't their damn father. Goodlow followed

395
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:13,359
him to the truck. You might think of getting them

396
00:25:13,359 --> 00:25:18,680
a lawyer, he said through the window. Kirksey started the engine. Shit,

397
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:22,519
sugar baby. Them boys don't need a lawyer. They just

398
00:25:22,599 --> 00:25:25,200
need to stay in the woods where they belong folks

399
00:25:25,200 --> 00:25:28,640
ought a note to let them alone by now Goodlow

400
00:25:28,720 --> 00:25:31,680
stepped back from the truck and smacked his lips. I

401
00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:36,839
don't reckon anybody got around, telling that to the deceased. Driving,

402
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:40,440
Kirksey remembered the Gates brothers when they were younger, before

403
00:25:40,480 --> 00:25:44,759
their father shot himself. He pictured the three blond heads

404
00:25:44,799 --> 00:25:47,039
in the front of Boo's boat as he motored up

405
00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:50,799
river past the store, lifting a solemn hand to Kirksey,

406
00:25:51,039 --> 00:25:53,720
where he stood with the broom on his little back porch.

407
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:58,119
After Boo's wife, a newborn daughter, had died, he taught

408
00:25:58,160 --> 00:26:00,960
those boys all he knew about the wood. It's about

409
00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:05,079
fishing and tracking and hunting and killing. He kept them

410
00:26:05,079 --> 00:26:08,160
in his boat all night as he telephoned catfish and

411
00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:11,839
checked his trotlines and jugs and shot things on the bank.

412
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:15,400
He'd given each of his sons a job to do,

413
00:26:15,920 --> 00:26:20,720
one cranking the phone, another netting the stunned catfish, the

414
00:26:20,799 --> 00:26:24,039
third adjusting the chain that dragged along the bottom and

415
00:26:24,119 --> 00:26:28,119
the wire which conducted electricity from the telephone's magnet into

416
00:26:28,160 --> 00:26:31,240
the water. Boo would tie a piece of rope around

417
00:26:31,240 --> 00:26:34,279
the sun's waists and loop the other endto his ankle

418
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:38,240
in case one of the boys fell out. Downriver in

419
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,599
the moonlight, Kent would pull in the trotlines while Dan

420
00:26:41,759 --> 00:26:44,599
handed him a cricket or a cataba worm for the hook.

421
00:26:45,519 --> 00:26:49,000
Neil took the bash or perch or catfish Kent gave

422
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:52,279
him and slid its soft, cold belly with a knife

423
00:26:52,319 --> 00:26:54,880
and ran two fingers up into the fish and drew

424
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,880
out as palm full of guts and dumped them overboard.

425
00:26:58,759 --> 00:27:02,519
Sometimes on warm nights, grinnel or cotton mouth or young

426
00:27:02,559 --> 00:27:07,359
alligators would follow them, drawn by the blood. A danger,

427
00:27:07,519 --> 00:27:10,759
too was catching a snake or snapping turtle on the

428
00:27:10,799 --> 00:27:14,079
trot line, and each night Boo whispered for Kent to

429
00:27:14,119 --> 00:27:17,400
be careful to lift the line with a stick see

430
00:27:17,400 --> 00:27:19,799
what he had there, instead of using his bare hand.

431
00:27:20,839 --> 00:27:23,119
During the morning, they would leave the boat tied and

432
00:27:23,160 --> 00:27:26,039
the boys would follow their fathers back through the trees

433
00:27:26,079 --> 00:27:30,079
from trap to trap, stepping when he stepped, and not talking.

434
00:27:31,200 --> 00:27:34,799
Boo emptied the traps and rebated them, while behind him

435
00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:39,519
Kent put the carcasses in his squirrel pouch. In the afternoons,

436
00:27:39,559 --> 00:27:43,000
they gutted and skin what they'd brought home. What time

437
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:45,759
was left before dark. They spent sleeping in the feather

438
00:27:45,839 --> 00:27:48,799
bed in the cabin where barely a memory. Their mother

439
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:53,799
and sister had died. After Boo's suicide, Kirksey had tried

440
00:27:53,839 --> 00:27:58,200
to look after the boys. Their ages twelve, thirteen and fourteen,

441
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:02,599
just old enough who must have thought to raise themselves

442
00:28:03,400 --> 00:28:05,799
for a while. Kirksey let them stay with him and

443
00:28:05,839 --> 00:28:09,519
his wife, who never had a child. He tried to

444
00:28:09,559 --> 00:28:11,960
send them to school, but they were past learning to

445
00:28:12,039 --> 00:28:15,279
read and write. Got expel the first day for fighting

446
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:19,200
and ganging up on a black kid. They were past

447
00:28:19,279 --> 00:28:22,119
the kind of life Kirksey's wife was used to living.

448
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:26,440
They scared her the way they watched her with eyes

449
00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:30,480
narrowed into black lines, the way they ate with their hands,

450
00:28:30,519 --> 00:28:34,000
and the way they wouldn't talk. What she didn't know

451
00:28:34,240 --> 00:28:37,000
was that from those years of wordless nights on the

452
00:28:37,119 --> 00:28:40,599
river and silent days in the woods, they had developed

453
00:28:40,599 --> 00:28:43,559
a kind of language of their own, the language of

454
00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:47,480
the eyes, of the fingers, and the way a shoulder twitched,

455
00:28:47,920 --> 00:28:52,240
not of the head. Because his wife's health wasn't good

456
00:28:52,279 --> 00:28:55,279
in those days, Kirksey had returned the boys to their

457
00:28:55,359 --> 00:28:59,200
cabin in the woods. He spent most saturdays with them,

458
00:28:59,240 --> 00:29:02,119
trying to take up where Boo had left off, bringing

459
00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:05,279
them food and milt and clothes and new shoes, and

460
00:29:05,319 --> 00:29:09,519
reading them books and teaching them things and telling them stories.

461
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,000
He'd worked out a deal with Esther, who used to

462
00:29:13,039 --> 00:29:15,519
take hot food to them in the evenings and wash

463
00:29:15,599 --> 00:29:20,319
their clothes. Slowing to let two buzzards hop away from

464
00:29:20,319 --> 00:29:23,359
a dead deer, Kirksey lit a cigarette and wiped the

465
00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:26,480
foggy wind show with the back of his hand. He

466
00:29:26,559 --> 00:29:31,359
thought of Frank David Alabama's legendary game warden. There were

467
00:29:31,359 --> 00:29:34,759
dozens of stories about the man. Kirksey had heard and

468
00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:37,559
told them for years, and had repeated them to the

469
00:29:37,640 --> 00:29:40,839
Gage boys, even made some up to try to scare

470
00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:44,599
them into obeying the law. Now the truth and the

471
00:29:44,640 --> 00:29:48,880
fictions were confused in his mind, and he remembered one

472
00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:52,640
a dark, moonless night, and two poachers used a spotlight

473
00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:55,160
to freeze a buck in the darkness and shoot it.

474
00:29:56,039 --> 00:29:58,759
They take hold of its wide rack of antners and

475
00:29:58,960 --> 00:30:02,319
struggled to drag them big deer, when suddenly they realized

476
00:30:02,359 --> 00:30:06,400
that now there's three men pulling. The first poacher jumps

477
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:08,720
and says, hey, it ain't supposed to be but two

478
00:30:08,720 --> 00:30:12,440
of us dragging this deer, and Frank David says, ain't

479
00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:22,200
supposed to be none of y'all dragging a deer. The

480
00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:25,759
Gates boys came in the store just before closing, smelling

481
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:29,319
like the river. Nodding to Kirksey, they went to the

482
00:30:29,319 --> 00:30:33,359
shelves and began selecting cans of things to eat. Kerksey

483
00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,680
poured himself a generous shot of whiskey. He'd stopped by

484
00:30:36,680 --> 00:30:40,119
their cabin earlier, not finding them there, left a quarter

485
00:30:40,319 --> 00:30:43,920
on the steps, a signal he hadn't used in years.

486
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:48,440
Sheriff Goodloaw's coming tonight, he said to Kent, wants to

487
00:30:48,480 --> 00:30:51,119
ask you if you know anything about that Dead Game Warden.

488
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,920
Kent shot the other boys a look, now, I don't

489
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:58,319
know if y'all ever seen that, fella, Kirksey said, And

490
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:01,279
I'm not asking you to tell me. He paused, and

491
00:31:01,279 --> 00:31:04,359
in case they wanted to, but that's what old sugar

492
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:06,839
Baby's going to have on his mind. And if it

493
00:31:06,880 --> 00:31:10,079
was y'all, I just wouldn't tell him anything. Just say

494
00:31:10,119 --> 00:31:12,519
that I was at home that I don't know nothing

495
00:31:12,559 --> 00:31:16,480
about any dead game war, nothing at all, Kent shrugged

496
00:31:16,480 --> 00:31:18,359
and walked down the aisle that he was on and

497
00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,559
stared out the back window, though there wasn't anything to

498
00:31:21,599 --> 00:31:26,519
see except trees ghostly and bent. When lightning came, his

499
00:31:26,599 --> 00:31:29,279
brothers took seats by the stove and began to eat.

500
00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:33,079
Kirksey watched and remembered when he used to read to

501
00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:36,480
them Tarzan of the Apes and the Return of Tarzan.

502
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,000
The boys that wanted to hear the books over and over.

503
00:31:40,519 --> 00:31:44,119
They loved the jungle, the elephants, the rhinos, the gorillas,

504
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:49,079
the anaconda's thirty feet long. They would listen intently, their

505
00:31:49,119 --> 00:31:52,480
eyes brighten the light of the stove. Dan holding his small,

506
00:31:52,519 --> 00:31:55,680
dirty fingers, the slinky Kirksey had given him as a

507
00:31:55,759 --> 00:32:00,359
Christmas present, his lips moving along with Kirksey's voice, spouting

508
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:03,519
some of the words the Great Apes, Numa, the Lion,

509
00:32:03,920 --> 00:32:07,920
La Queen of a poor and the Lost City. They

510
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:11,119
had listened to his Frank David stories the same way.

511
00:32:11,759 --> 00:32:14,759
The game warden rising from the black water beside a

512
00:32:14,839 --> 00:32:18,119
tree on a moonless night. A tracker so keen he

513
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:20,799
could see in the dark, could follow a man through

514
00:32:20,799 --> 00:32:23,640
the deepest swamp by smelling the fear in as sweat,

515
00:32:24,200 --> 00:32:27,799
A bent over shadows, stealing between the beaver lodges, the

516
00:32:27,839 --> 00:32:31,920
cypress trees, the tangle of limb and vine, parting the

517
00:32:31,960 --> 00:32:35,240
long wet bangs of Spanish moss with his rifle barrel,

518
00:32:35,279 --> 00:32:38,480
and creeping toward the glowing windows of the poacher's cabin.

519
00:32:39,039 --> 00:32:42,440
The deer hides nailed to the wall. The gator pelts,

520
00:32:42,759 --> 00:32:46,079
the fish with their grim smiles hooked to a clothes line,

521
00:32:46,160 --> 00:32:49,880
and turtle shells like army helmets, straying in the window sills.

522
00:32:51,119 --> 00:32:54,240
Any pit bull meant to guard the place lying behind

523
00:32:54,319 --> 00:32:57,880
him with its throat slit. Frank David slips out of

524
00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,559
the fog, with fogs still clinging to the brim of

525
00:33:00,599 --> 00:33:04,440
his hat. He circles the cabin and peers in each window,

526
00:33:04,880 --> 00:33:09,200
mounts the porch, puts his shoulder through the front door, stands,

527
00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:11,920
with wood splinters landing on the floor at his feet.

528
00:33:12,559 --> 00:33:16,079
A man of average height, clean shaven, no threat until

529
00:33:16,119 --> 00:33:20,079
the big hands come up, curling the fist, knuckles scarred

530
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:25,039
blue and sharp. Kirksey finished his drink and poured another,

531
00:33:25,319 --> 00:33:28,519
and it burned pleasantly in his belly. He looked at

532
00:33:28,559 --> 00:33:32,119
Neil and Dan occupied by their bags of corn curls.

533
00:33:32,759 --> 00:33:35,960
A Merle Haggard song ended on the radio, and Kirksey

534
00:33:36,039 --> 00:33:40,279
clicked it off, sparing the boys the evening news. In

535
00:33:40,319 --> 00:33:44,519
the quiet, Kirksey heard Goodlaw's truck. He glanced at Kent,

536
00:33:44,640 --> 00:33:48,319
who probably had been hearing it for a while outside.

537
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:51,519
Goodlaw slammed his door and he hurried up the steps

538
00:33:51,519 --> 00:33:55,480
and tapped on the window. Kirksey exaggerated his lamp and

539
00:33:55,519 --> 00:33:59,839
took his time, letting him in Good evening, Goodloaf said,

540
00:34:00,079 --> 00:34:03,160
Shaking the water from his hands. He took off his

541
00:34:03,240 --> 00:34:05,079
hat and hung it on the nail by the door,

542
00:34:05,119 --> 00:34:08,400
and then hung up his yellow slicker Evening sugar Baby.

543
00:34:08,639 --> 00:34:13,000
Kirksey said, if I can volunteer a little understatement here,

544
00:34:13,199 --> 00:34:17,960
Goodload said, it's a tad wet tonight. Yep. Kirksey went

545
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:21,480
behind the counter and refilled his glass. You just caught

546
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:24,280
the tail in the happy hour, that is, if you're

547
00:34:24,360 --> 00:34:27,159
off the wagon again, Can I sell you a tonic

548
00:34:27,239 --> 00:34:31,199
and warm you up? You know we're in a dry county, Kirksey,

549
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:35,920
Would that be a no? It's a watcher ass. Goodload

550
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:39,039
looked at the brothers, just wanted to ask these boys

551
00:34:39,079 --> 00:34:43,559
some questions. Well, have that it? Sugar baby. Goodlow walked

552
00:34:43,559 --> 00:34:47,840
to the lance rack and detached a package of Nipchie crackers.

553
00:34:48,239 --> 00:34:51,000
He opened it, offered the pack to each of the boys.

554
00:34:51,599 --> 00:34:55,599
Only Dan took one, smiling Goodlow bit of cracker in

555
00:34:55,679 --> 00:34:58,519
half and turned a chair around, sat with his elbows

556
00:34:58,559 --> 00:35:02,679
across its back. He looked over toward Kent, Half hidden

557
00:35:02,719 --> 00:35:06,559
by shadow, he chewed slowly. Come on out here so

558
00:35:06,639 --> 00:35:09,280
I can see you, boy. I ain't gonna buy nothing

559
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:13,440
but these stale ass crackers. Kent moved a step closer,

560
00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:17,840
his eyes down focused on Goodload's boots. Good Load took

561
00:35:17,840 --> 00:35:21,400
out a notepad. Where was y'all between the hours of

562
00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:25,400
four and eight am two days ago? Kent looked at

563
00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:31,360
Neil asleep. Neil said, good Load snorty. Now, come on, boys,

564
00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:34,400
the whole Dern County knows y'all ain't slept a night

565
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:37,000
in your life. Y'all was out on the river. Weren't

566
00:35:37,039 --> 00:35:40,679
you making a few telephone calls you saying he is

567
00:35:40,719 --> 00:35:45,719
a liar? Kirksey asked, I'm posing the questions here. Good

568
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:49,480
Load chewed on another cracker. Hell, everybody knows them other

569
00:35:49,559 --> 00:35:52,000
game Boardings has been letting y'all get away with all

570
00:35:52,079 --> 00:35:54,920
kinds of shit. I reckon this dead fellow had something

571
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:58,119
to prove being new, and all sounds like he ought

572
00:35:58,119 --> 00:36:01,400
to use the life jacket, Kirksey said, wiping the counter.

573
00:36:02,440 --> 00:36:06,320
It appears good Low studied Kent, that he might have

574
00:36:06,440 --> 00:36:11,840
been strangled. You got an alibi, boy. Kent lowered his eyes,

575
00:36:12,079 --> 00:36:14,320
took his hands out of his pockets and bought them

576
00:36:14,360 --> 00:36:18,840
into fists. Good Low side, I mean, Christ, is there

577
00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:24,440
anybody that can back up what you're saying? The windows flickered, Yeah,

578
00:36:24,599 --> 00:36:29,239
Kirksey said, I can. Good Low turned and faced the storekeeper.

579
00:36:29,679 --> 00:36:32,920
You that's right. They were here with me here in

580
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:39,000
the store. Good Load looked amused. They was was they? Well? Okay,

581
00:36:39,079 --> 00:36:41,920
mister Kirksey, how come you didn't mention that to me?

582
00:36:42,039 --> 00:36:46,719
This morning? Saved us all a little time. Kirksey saw

583
00:36:46,880 --> 00:36:51,239
Kent's eyes, but saw nothing there, no understanding, no appreciation,

584
00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:55,800
no fear. He went back to wiping the counter. Well,

585
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:58,719
I guess because they was passed out drunk, and I

586
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:02,599
didn't want to say anything, being as I was given

587
00:37:02,639 --> 00:37:06,800
alcohol to youngins. But now they has come down to murder,

588
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,199
you figured, you'd just better on up something like that,

589
00:37:10,400 --> 00:37:14,440
said Kirksey. Goodlaw stared at Kirksey for a long time,

590
00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:17,920
neither would look away. Then the sheriff turned to the boys.

591
00:37:18,599 --> 00:37:24,280
Y'all ever heard of Frank David? Dan nodded well, Goodlad said,

592
00:37:24,840 --> 00:37:27,880
looks like he's aiming to be this district's game warden.

593
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:31,719
I figure he pulled some strings what he did. Kirksey

594
00:37:31,760 --> 00:37:35,440
came from behind the counter that all your questions. It's

595
00:37:35,639 --> 00:37:38,079
past closing and these youngins need to go home and

596
00:37:38,119 --> 00:37:41,440
get some sleep. He went to the door and opened

597
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:45,960
it and stood waiting alrighty. Then the sheriff said, standing,

598
00:37:46,559 --> 00:37:48,840
I expect ought to be getting back to the office

599
00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:53,320
aity how he winked at Kirksey, see you or these

600
00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:56,000
boys don't leave the county for a few days. This

601
00:37:56,079 --> 00:37:59,559
ain't over yet. Put the crackers in his coat. I

602
00:37:59,599 --> 00:38:03,119
expect y'all might be hearing from Frank David too, he said,

603
00:38:03,199 --> 00:38:08,760
watching the boy's faces, but there was nothing to see alone. Later,

604
00:38:09,079 --> 00:38:12,400
Kirksey put out the light and bolted the door. He

605
00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,280
went to adjust a stove and found himself staring out

606
00:38:15,320 --> 00:38:18,039
the window, looking into the dark where he knew the

607
00:38:18,119 --> 00:38:22,280
river was rising and swirling tires and plastic garbage can

608
00:38:22,400 --> 00:38:26,960
lids and dead wood from upriver floating past. He struck

609
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:29,360
a match and lit a cigarette, and the glow of

610
00:38:29,400 --> 00:38:32,119
his ash reflected in the window, and he saw himself

611
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:36,519
years ago, telling the boys these stories, how Frank David

612
00:38:36,519 --> 00:38:40,159
would sit so still in the woods waiting for poachers,

613
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:44,119
that dragonflies would perch on his nose, nats would walk

614
00:38:44,159 --> 00:38:48,239
over his eyeballs. Nobody knew where he came from, but

615
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:51,079
Kirksey had heard that he'd been orphaned as a baby

616
00:38:51,119 --> 00:38:54,440
in a fire and found half starved in the swamp

617
00:38:54,480 --> 00:38:58,000
by a Cajun woman. She raised him on the slick

618
00:38:58,079 --> 00:39:01,440
red clay banks of the tom Bigbie River, among laying

619
00:39:01,599 --> 00:39:05,679
black poachers and moonshiners. He didn't even know how old

620
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:09,119
he was, people said, And they said he was the

621
00:39:09,119 --> 00:39:13,280
best poacher ever, the craftiest, the meanest. That he'd cut

622
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:16,719
a drunklogger's throat and a duke joint knife fight one night.

623
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:20,679
That he'd fled south and under age, joined the Marines

624
00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:24,719
in mobile and wound up in Korea the infantry, where

625
00:39:24,760 --> 00:39:27,840
because of his shooting ability and his stealth that made

626
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:32,159
him a sniper Before he left that country, he'd registered

627
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:36,239
over one hundred kills communists half a world away, who

628
00:39:36,280 --> 00:39:40,360
never saw him coming back home in Alabama, he disappeared

629
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:42,599
for a few years, and then showed up at the

630
00:39:42,639 --> 00:39:46,840
state Game Warden's office demanding a job. Some people had

631
00:39:46,880 --> 00:39:51,440
heard in the intervening time he'd gotten religion. What makes

632
00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:53,840
you think I ought to hire you, the head game

633
00:39:53,920 --> 00:39:56,679
Morden ask him, because I spent ten years of my

634
00:39:56,800 --> 00:40:08,639
life poaching right under your damn nose. Frank David's The

635
00:40:08,679 --> 00:40:11,480
Gates Boys pick up was the same old Ford their

636
00:40:11,519 --> 00:40:15,679
father had shot himself in several years before, heartbroken over

637
00:40:15,719 --> 00:40:18,920
their mother's death. The bullet hole and the roof had

638
00:40:19,000 --> 00:40:21,559
rusted out, but was now covered with a strip of

639
00:40:21,639 --> 00:40:25,800
duct tape from Kirksey's store. Spots of the truck's floor

640
00:40:25,840 --> 00:40:28,960
were rusted away, too, so things in the road often

641
00:40:29,039 --> 00:40:32,880
flew up into their laps, rocks and Budweiser cans, and

642
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:36,400
a king snake they were trying to run over. The

643
00:40:36,480 --> 00:40:39,239
truck was older than any of them, only one thin

644
00:40:39,360 --> 00:40:42,199
prong left of the steering wheel and the holes from

645
00:40:42,199 --> 00:40:45,599
the missing knobs and the dash. It was a three

646
00:40:45,639 --> 00:40:49,320
speed a column shifter, the gearstick covered with a bucks

647
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:53,639
dried balls sack. A window and windshield busted or shot

648
00:40:53,679 --> 00:40:57,199
out years before hadn't been replaced because most of the

649
00:40:57,280 --> 00:41:00,320
driving took them along back roads after dark or in

650
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:03,960
the fields, and the things they came upon were easier

651
00:41:04,039 --> 00:41:08,440
shots without glass. Though he'd never had a license, Kent

652
00:41:08,599 --> 00:41:14,000
drove had since he was eight. Neil road shot gun tonight.

653
00:41:14,159 --> 00:41:17,360
Both were drinking, and in the back Dan stood holding

654
00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:21,079
his rifle, trying to keep his balance below the soles

655
00:41:21,119 --> 00:41:24,159
of his boots. The floor was soft, a tarry black

656
00:41:24,199 --> 00:41:27,559
from the blood of all the animals they'd killed. You

657
00:41:27,599 --> 00:41:30,920
could see spike antlers and forelegs and hoofs of deer,

658
00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:34,960
teeth and feathers and fur, the brittle beaks and beards

659
00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:38,599
of turkeys, and the delicate hinge leg bone of something

660
00:41:38,639 --> 00:41:42,400
molded in the sludge like a fossil, just beyond a

661
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:46,360
no trespassing sign, already gnawed up by bullets. Kent swerved

662
00:41:46,360 --> 00:41:48,800
off the road and they bounced and slid through a

663
00:41:48,840 --> 00:41:53,079
field in the rain, shooting at rabbits. Then they split up,

664
00:41:53,360 --> 00:41:56,440
the younger boys checking traps, one on each side of

665
00:41:56,480 --> 00:42:00,159
the river. Kent in the boat, rebaiting their trotlines the

666
00:42:00,159 --> 00:42:03,559
way his father had shown him. They met at the

667
00:42:03,599 --> 00:42:07,360
trug just before midnight, untied the dogs and trumped over

668
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,679
a steep logging path, down on one end of four

669
00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:14,559
leashes and the lunging hounds on the other. When they

670
00:42:14,559 --> 00:42:17,039
got to the bottom land, he unclipped the leashes and

671
00:42:17,079 --> 00:42:20,039
loosed the dogs, and the brothers followed the bang ahead

672
00:42:20,079 --> 00:42:23,400
in the dark, aiming their flashlights into the black mesh

673
00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:26,599
of trees, where the eyes of coons and possums gleamed

674
00:42:26,679 --> 00:42:31,159
like rubies. The hounds bathed and frothed and clawed at

675
00:42:31,199 --> 00:42:33,599
the trunks of trees, and leaped into the air and

676
00:42:33,719 --> 00:42:37,719
landed and leaped again, and their sides pumping and ribs showing.

677
00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:41,599
When the gates came to the river two hours later,

678
00:42:41,719 --> 00:42:45,360
the dogs were lapping water and panting. Dan bent and

679
00:42:45,440 --> 00:42:48,760
rubbed their ears and let them lick his cheeks. His

680
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:52,719
brothers rested and drank, belching at the sky, and after

681
00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:56,119
a time they leased the hounds and staggered downstream to

682
00:42:56,199 --> 00:42:59,719
the live oak, where their boat was tied. They loaded

683
00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:01,880
the dog dogs in and shoved off into the fog

684
00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:06,280
and trolled over the still water in the middle. Neil

685
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,639
lowered the wire in the chain stolen from a child's

686
00:43:09,639 --> 00:43:13,480
swing set behind the boat and began cranking the old telephone,

687
00:43:13,599 --> 00:43:18,559
which he held between his legs. Dan knitted the stunned catfish.

688
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,360
You couldn't catch him with your hand, or they'd come too,

689
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:23,880
and he threw them into the cooler, where in a

690
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:27,760
few seconds the waking fish would begin to thrash. And

691
00:43:27,800 --> 00:43:30,599
in the rear, Kent propped his rifle on his knees

692
00:43:30,960 --> 00:43:33,480
and watched the bank in case of coyote, wandered down

693
00:43:33,519 --> 00:43:37,599
hunting bullfrogs. They climbed out of the woods into the

694
00:43:37,639 --> 00:43:40,360
dirt road in the misty dawn, plying through the muddy

695
00:43:40,440 --> 00:43:44,199
yards and pissing by someone's front porch and plain sight

696
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:48,239
of the face in sight a few houses down. Mor

697
00:43:48,320 --> 00:43:51,440
Set didn't come to his door, and when Kent tried

698
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:54,719
the handle, it was locked. He looked at Neil, then

699
00:43:54,760 --> 00:43:57,079
put his elbow through the glass and reached in and

700
00:43:57,159 --> 00:44:01,719
unlocked it. While his brother's searched for liquor, Dan ate

701
00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:04,639
the biscuits he found wrapped in tinfoil on the stove.

702
00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:07,519
He found a box of corn flacks in the cabinet,

703
00:44:07,519 --> 00:44:10,199
and he ate most of them too. He had to

704
00:44:10,199 --> 00:44:13,599
play the cold fried liver. Neil was in a bedroom

705
00:44:13,639 --> 00:44:16,639
looking under the bed, and in the closet he was

706
00:44:16,679 --> 00:44:20,360
going through drawers and his dirty fingers smudged white shirts.

707
00:44:20,920 --> 00:44:22,920
And in the back of the house Kent found a

708
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:27,320
bathroom door locked from in the side he Jimmy had

709
00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:30,280
opened with his knife, and when he came into the kitchen,

710
00:44:30,599 --> 00:44:33,440
he had a gallon jar of whiskey under his arm

711
00:44:33,679 --> 00:44:38,440
and euphraed. He steppdaughter by the wrist. Dan stopped chewing,

712
00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:41,960
crumbs falling from his mouth. He approached the girl and

713
00:44:42,000 --> 00:44:44,159
put his hand out to touch her, but Kent pushed

714
00:44:44,199 --> 00:44:48,159
him hard into the wall. But Dan stayed there, a

715
00:44:48,199 --> 00:44:51,159
clock ticking beside his head and a string of spit

716
00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:54,239
linking his open lips, watching as his brother ran his

717
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:58,039
rough hands up and down the girl's shivering body. Her

718
00:44:58,079 --> 00:45:02,440
eyes were closed and lips tr in prayer. Looking down,

719
00:45:02,679 --> 00:45:06,119
Kent saw the puddles spreading around her bare feet. Dan

720
00:45:06,199 --> 00:45:10,159
giggled and then put his hand over his mouth shit,

721
00:45:10,679 --> 00:45:15,559
Kent said, letting her go. She pissed herself. She shrank

722
00:45:15,599 --> 00:45:18,760
back against the wall behind the door and was still there,

723
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:21,760
along with a bag of catfish on the table when

724
00:45:21,760 --> 00:45:25,440
her stepfather came back half an hour later, ten gallons

725
00:45:25,440 --> 00:45:35,599
of whiskey under the tarp in his truck. On that

726
00:45:35,679 --> 00:45:38,840
same Saturday, Kirksey drove to the chicken fights held in

727
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:43,639
Heflin Bradford's bulging barn, deep in the woods, cloudy with mosquitoes.

728
00:45:44,599 --> 00:45:47,079
He passed a hand painted sign that had been there

729
00:45:47,159 --> 00:45:50,800
forever as long as he could remember, nail to a tree,

730
00:45:50,920 --> 00:45:55,119
it said, Jesus is coming. Kirksey climbed out of his

731
00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:58,480
truck and button his collar, his ears full of cotton.

732
00:45:59,159 --> 00:46:02,360
Heflin's wife work beneath the rented aunting and grilling chicken

733
00:46:02,400 --> 00:46:07,039
and sausages and selling cokes and beer. Gospel music played

734
00:46:07,039 --> 00:46:11,320
from a portable radio by her head. Heflin's grandson Nolan,

735
00:46:11,400 --> 00:46:13,760
took the price of admission at the barn door and

736
00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:17,000
stamped the backs of white hands and the cracked pink

737
00:46:17,079 --> 00:46:21,920
palms of black ones. Men in overalls and baseball caps

738
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:25,840
that said cat Diesel Power or STP stood at the

739
00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:29,840
tailgates of their pickup, smoking cigarettes, stooping to peer into

740
00:46:29,840 --> 00:46:33,880
the cages where the roosters paste the air was filled

741
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:37,800
with windy rainspits and the crowing of roosters. The ground

742
00:46:37,840 --> 00:46:42,480
littered with limp dead birds. A group of loggers was

743
00:46:42,559 --> 00:46:47,400
discussing Frank David, and Kirksey paused to listen. He's one

744
00:46:47,480 --> 00:46:50,920
caught that bunch over in Washington County. One man said

745
00:46:51,199 --> 00:46:55,159
them alligator poachers. Sugar Baby said to of them wound

746
00:46:55,239 --> 00:46:58,760
up in intensive care. Another one claimed said they pulled

747
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:01,079
a gun and old Frank day David went crazy with

748
00:47:01,159 --> 00:47:05,119
an axe handle. Kirksey moved on and paid the five

749
00:47:05,159 --> 00:47:08,800
dollars admission. In the barn, there were bleachers along the

750
00:47:08,840 --> 00:47:11,719
walls and a big circular wooden fence in the center,

751
00:47:11,920 --> 00:47:15,880
the dome of chicken wire over the top. Kirksey found

752
00:47:15,880 --> 00:47:18,440
a seat at the bottom, next to the back door,

753
00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:21,480
near a group of men old farts he'd known for

754
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:25,880
forty years. People around them called out bets, and bets

755
00:47:25,920 --> 00:47:30,119
were accepted. Cans of beer were lifted, and Kirksey produced

756
00:47:30,119 --> 00:47:33,559
a thermos of coffee and a dented tin cup. He

757
00:47:33,639 --> 00:47:36,280
poured the coffee, then added whiskey from a bottle that

758
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:39,840
went back into his coat pocket. The tin cup warmed

759
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:42,960
his fingers as he squinted through his bifocals to see

760
00:47:43,000 --> 00:47:47,159
which bird to bet on. In separate corners of the barn,

761
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:51,000
two bird handlers doused their roosters heads and asses with

762
00:47:51,159 --> 00:47:55,039
rubbing alcohol to make them fight harder. They tightened the

763
00:47:55,039 --> 00:47:58,719
long steel curved spurs. When the referee in the center

764
00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:01,360
of the ring indicated it it was time, the handlers

765
00:48:01,519 --> 00:48:04,880
entered the pen, each cradling his bird in his arms.

766
00:48:05,880 --> 00:48:08,719
They flashed the roosters at one another until their feathers

767
00:48:08,760 --> 00:48:12,360
had ruffled with blood lust and rage, and the roosters

768
00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:16,280
pedaled the air, stretching their necks toward each other. The

769
00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:19,519
handlers kept them a breath apart for a second, then

770
00:48:19,559 --> 00:48:24,039
withdrew them to their corners, whispering in their ears. When

771
00:48:24,079 --> 00:48:26,639
the referee tapped the ground three times with a stick,

772
00:48:26,679 --> 00:48:30,480
the birds were unleashed. They charged and rose in the

773
00:48:30,519 --> 00:48:34,159
center of the rain, gouging with spur and beak. The

774
00:48:34,199 --> 00:48:38,440
handlers circling the fight like crabs, blood on their forearms

775
00:48:38,480 --> 00:48:42,320
and faces, ready to seize their roosters. At the referee's

776
00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:47,639
cry of handle, A clown of Louisiana occasions watched, and

777
00:48:47,639 --> 00:48:51,000
they emerged red eyed from a van in a marijuana cloud.

778
00:48:51,199 --> 00:48:55,639
Skinny shirtless men with oly ponytails and goates, and tattoos

779
00:48:55,639 --> 00:48:59,639
of symbols of black magic under their arms. They carried thick,

780
00:48:59,719 --> 00:49:02,880
white hooded roosters to pit against the reds and blacks

781
00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:06,119
of the locals. Their women had stumbled out of the

782
00:49:06,199 --> 00:49:10,039
van behind them, high yellowl like gypsies, big lips and

783
00:49:10,079 --> 00:49:13,360
big chested girls, and halter tops tied at their bellies,

784
00:49:13,360 --> 00:49:17,599
and many skirts and moccasins. In the ring, the Cajuns

785
00:49:17,719 --> 00:49:21,599
kissed their birds on the beaks, and one tall, completely

786
00:49:21,679 --> 00:49:25,519
bald Cajun, wearing gold earrings in both ears, put his

787
00:49:25,639 --> 00:49:29,639
bird's whole head in his mouth. His girl, too, came

788
00:49:29,679 --> 00:49:33,039
barefoot into the ring, tattoo of a snake on her shoulder,

789
00:49:33,440 --> 00:49:36,639
and took the bird's head into her mouth. Bet on

790
00:49:36,679 --> 00:49:40,159
them white ones, a friend whispered to Kirksey. These ones

791
00:49:40,159 --> 00:49:42,760
around here ain't ever seen a white rooster. They don't

792
00:49:42,800 --> 00:49:53,360
know what they're fighting. That evening, bending to check a

793
00:49:53,480 --> 00:49:56,400
trap in the woods north of the river, Dan took

794
00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:59,159
hold of a sapling and yelped when a spray of

795
00:49:59,199 --> 00:50:03,599
water rained on him. He crouched, dripping and waited while

796
00:50:03,639 --> 00:50:07,000
the drumming of his heart slowed, forced himself to rise

797
00:50:07,119 --> 00:50:09,599
and move on so his brothers wouldn't laugh at him

798
00:50:09,639 --> 00:50:13,280
for being afraid near dark. In the wooden trap next

799
00:50:13,280 --> 00:50:15,760
to an old fence row, he was surprised to find

800
00:50:15,800 --> 00:50:19,199
a tiny white fox they'd once seen cross the road

801
00:50:19,360 --> 00:50:22,800
in front of their truck. He squatted before the trap

802
00:50:22,840 --> 00:50:25,840
and poked a stick through the wire at the thin snout,

803
00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:29,039
his hands steady, despite the way the fox snapped at

804
00:50:29,079 --> 00:50:32,239
the stick and bit off the end. Would a witch

805
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:36,239
woman want this alive? Never thought of her. He looked around.

806
00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:39,119
It felt like she was watching him, as if she

807
00:50:39,199 --> 00:50:42,280
were hiding in a tree, in the form of some animal,

808
00:50:42,599 --> 00:50:45,440
a possum, or a swamp rat or a chicken snake.

809
00:50:46,159 --> 00:50:48,480
He stood and dragged the trap through the mud and

810
00:50:48,559 --> 00:50:51,039
over the land. While in the trap, the fox jumped

811
00:50:51,079 --> 00:50:55,719
in circles, growling. A mile up stream, Neil had lost

812
00:50:55,760 --> 00:50:58,159
a boot to the mud and was hopping back on

813
00:50:58,159 --> 00:51:01,679
one foot to retrieve it. It stood buried to the ankle.

814
00:51:02,119 --> 00:51:04,480
He wrenched it free and then sat with his back

815
00:51:04,519 --> 00:51:08,239
against a sweet gum to scrape off the mud. He'd

816
00:51:08,239 --> 00:51:10,760
begun to lace the boot when he saw a hollow

817
00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:15,960
tree stump, something moved inside. With his rifle barrel, he

818
00:51:16,079 --> 00:51:19,039
rolled the thing out. It was most of the body

819
00:51:19,079 --> 00:51:22,239
of a dead catfish, and the movement from the maggots

820
00:51:22,280 --> 00:51:25,679
devouring it. When he kicked it, they spilled from the

821
00:51:25,800 --> 00:51:31,280
fish like rice pellets and lay throbbing in the mud downstream.

822
00:51:31,360 --> 00:51:34,840
As night came and the rain fell harder, Kent trolled

823
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:38,280
their boat across the river, flashlight in his mouth, using

824
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:40,760
a stick to pull up the trot line length by

825
00:51:40,920 --> 00:51:44,280
link and removing the fish or turtles, and rebating the

826
00:51:44,360 --> 00:51:48,119
hooks and dropping them back in the water. Near the bank.

827
00:51:48,199 --> 00:51:51,840
Approaching the last hook, he heard something. He looked up

828
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:54,400
with a flashlight in his teeth to see the thing

829
00:51:54,719 --> 00:51:58,320
untwirling in the air. It wrapped around his neck like

830
00:51:58,360 --> 00:52:00,760
a rope, and for an instant he thought he was

831
00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:05,880
being hanged. He grabbed the thing. It flexed and tightened,

832
00:52:06,159 --> 00:52:08,760
and then his neck burned and went numb, and he

833
00:52:08,800 --> 00:52:13,800
felt dizzy, his fingertips buzzing, his legs weak. A tree

834
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:18,199
on the bank distorting, doubling, trippling into a whole line

835
00:52:18,239 --> 00:52:23,760
of fuzzy shapes, turning sideways and floating. Kent blinked and

836
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:27,480
felt his eyes bulging and his tongue swelling. His head

837
00:52:27,559 --> 00:52:32,760
was about to explode, and then a bright light. His

838
00:52:32,800 --> 00:52:37,559
brothers found the boat at dawn, four miles downstream, lodged

839
00:52:37,599 --> 00:52:41,440
on the far side in a fallen tree. They exchanged

840
00:52:41,440 --> 00:52:44,480
a glance and then looked back across the river. A

841
00:52:44,519 --> 00:52:47,519
heavy gray fog hooded the water, and the boat appeared

842
00:52:47,559 --> 00:52:51,920
and dissolved in the ghostly limbs around it. Neil sat

843
00:52:51,960 --> 00:52:54,239
on a log and took off his boots and left

844
00:52:54,239 --> 00:52:57,519
them standing by a log, and he removed his coat

845
00:52:57,679 --> 00:53:00,639
and laid it over the boots. He had his brother

846
00:53:00,719 --> 00:53:04,320
his rifle without looking at him, left him watching as

847
00:53:04,320 --> 00:53:07,119
he climbed down the bank, hands and elbows in the

848
00:53:07,159 --> 00:53:11,880
air like a believer, waded into the water. Dan propped

849
00:53:11,880 --> 00:53:14,320
the second rifle against the tree and stood on the

850
00:53:14,360 --> 00:53:17,800
bank holding his own gun, casting his frightened eyes up

851
00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:21,679
and down the river. From far away, a woodpecker drummed

852
00:53:22,360 --> 00:53:25,320
crows began to collect in a pine tree down stream,

853
00:53:26,039 --> 00:53:29,440
and after a while Dan squatted, thinking of their dogs

854
00:53:29,480 --> 00:53:32,239
tied to the bumper of their truck. They'd be under

855
00:53:32,239 --> 00:53:37,400
the tailgate, probably trying to keep dry. Soon Neil had

856
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:40,719
trolled the boat back across, and together they pulled it

857
00:53:40,760 --> 00:53:43,079
out of the water and stood looking at their brother,

858
00:53:43,199 --> 00:53:46,000
who lay across the floor among the fish and turtles

859
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:50,800
that he had caught, one greenish terrapin, still alive, a

860
00:53:50,840 --> 00:53:54,480
hook in its lip, stared back. They both knew what

861
00:53:54,599 --> 00:53:57,559
they were supposed to think. The blood, and the sets

862
00:53:57,599 --> 00:54:01,079
of twin fang marks, and the black bruises and shriveled skin,

863
00:54:01,480 --> 00:54:04,840
the next swollen like mumps, the purple bulb of a

864
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:08,920
tongue between his lips, they were supposed to think cotton mouth.

865
00:54:10,079 --> 00:54:13,280
Ken's hands were squeezed into fists, and they were hardened

866
00:54:13,280 --> 00:54:17,000
that way. The skin wrinkled, and his eyes were half open.

867
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:20,800
His rifle lay unfired in the boat, and the telephone

868
00:54:20,880 --> 00:54:24,360
rig seemed untouched, as if indeed a snake had done this.

869
00:54:25,679 --> 00:54:28,199
But it wasn't the tracks of a snake they found.

870
00:54:28,239 --> 00:54:31,320
When they went to get the white fox. The fox

871
00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:34,400
was gone and the trap was empty. Its cat sprung.

872
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:38,360
Neil knelt his hand and ran his knuckles along the

873
00:54:38,440 --> 00:54:41,559
rim of the bootprint in the mud, not a very

874
00:54:41,559 --> 00:54:44,719
wide track, not very far from the next one. He

875
00:54:44,840 --> 00:54:47,239
put his finger in the black water that had already

876
00:54:47,280 --> 00:54:51,039
begun to fill the track, not too deep. He looked

877
00:54:51,119 --> 00:54:54,239
up at Dan, the print of an average sized man.

878
00:54:54,760 --> 00:54:59,960
In no hurry, Neil rose and they began above them.

879
00:55:00,119 --> 00:55:04,440
The sky cracked and flickered silently and quickly, no time

880
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:06,840
to get the dogs. They followed the trail back through

881
00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:10,480
the woods, losing it once and twice, and backtracking and

882
00:55:10,519 --> 00:55:14,280
working against the rain that fell and fell harder, that

883
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:18,079
puddled blackly and crept up their legs until they stood

884
00:55:18,119 --> 00:55:21,159
in the water to their ankles, rain beating on the

885
00:55:21,159 --> 00:55:24,079
brims of their caps, and they gazed at the ground

886
00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:27,320
and the sky, at the rain streaming down each other's

887
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:32,480
muddy faces. At the truck, Dan jumped into the driver's

888
00:55:32,519 --> 00:55:36,159
seat and reached for the keys. Neil appeared in the window,

889
00:55:36,239 --> 00:55:39,599
shaking his head, and when Dan didn't scoot over, the

890
00:55:39,639 --> 00:55:41,840
older boy hit him in the jaw through the window,

891
00:55:42,039 --> 00:55:44,519
and then slung open the door and pulled Dan out,

892
00:55:44,679 --> 00:55:48,320
sending him rolling over the ground. Neil climbed in and

893
00:55:48,400 --> 00:55:51,800
had trouble getting the truck choked. By the time he

894
00:55:51,840 --> 00:55:54,000
had the hang of it, Dan had gotten into the

895
00:55:54,079 --> 00:55:56,480
back and sat among the wet dogs, staring at his

896
00:55:56,599 --> 00:56:01,320
dead brother's eyes at their cabin. They carried Kent into

897
00:56:01,320 --> 00:56:03,599
the woods and they laid him on the ground and

898
00:56:03,639 --> 00:56:06,880
began digging near where their sister and mother and father

899
00:56:07,000 --> 00:56:11,880
were buried in their unmarked graves. For three hours they worked,

900
00:56:12,320 --> 00:56:15,280
the dogs coming from under the porch and sniffing around

901
00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:19,239
Kent and whining and watching the digging, finally sleeking off

902
00:56:19,519 --> 00:56:23,320
and crawling back under the porch. An hour later, they

903
00:56:23,360 --> 00:56:25,400
came out again and stood in a group at the

904
00:56:25,519 --> 00:56:29,039
edge of the yard bay. The boys paused but saw

905
00:56:29,239 --> 00:56:32,920
and heard nothing. When the dogs kept making noise, Neil

906
00:56:32,960 --> 00:56:35,880
got his rifle and fired into the woods several times.

907
00:56:36,559 --> 00:56:39,320
He nodded to his brother and they went back to digging.

908
00:56:40,760 --> 00:56:43,320
By the time they finished, it was late afternoon and

909
00:56:43,400 --> 00:56:46,440
the hole was full of slimy water, and they were

910
00:56:46,440 --> 00:56:50,039
black with mud. They each took one of Kent's boots,

911
00:56:50,280 --> 00:56:53,360
and Neil got the things from his pockets. They stripped

912
00:56:53,360 --> 00:56:56,360
off his shirt and pants and socks and lowered him

913
00:56:56,400 --> 00:56:59,360
naked into the hole, and when he bobbed to the

914
00:56:59,360 --> 00:57:02,280
top of the water, they got stones and waited them down,

915
00:57:02,800 --> 00:57:07,280
and then shoveled mud into the grave. They showed up

916
00:57:07,320 --> 00:57:12,159
at Esther's blackest tar. Where's kent, she asked, holding her

917
00:57:12,280 --> 00:57:16,199
robe at her throat. We buried him, Neil said, moving

918
00:57:16,320 --> 00:57:19,719
past her into the kitchen. She put a hand over

919
00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:22,440
her mouth, and as Neil told her what they'd found,

920
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:26,960
she slumped against the door, looking outside. An owl flew

921
00:57:27,000 --> 00:57:30,559
past in the floodlights. She thought of calling Kirksey, but

922
00:57:30,679 --> 00:57:34,000
decided to wait until morning. The old bastard thought that

923
00:57:34,039 --> 00:57:37,920
she was a slut and a corruption fortnight, she'd just

924
00:57:38,000 --> 00:57:41,880
keep them safe in her house. Neil went to the den.

925
00:57:42,159 --> 00:57:45,519
He turned on the TV. The reception was bad because

926
00:57:45,519 --> 00:57:48,920
of the weather. Dan, a bruise on the left cheek,

927
00:57:49,119 --> 00:57:52,280
climbed the stairs. He went into one of the bedrooms

928
00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:55,480
and closed the door behind him. He was chilly in

929
00:57:55,519 --> 00:57:58,119
the room, and he noticed pictures of people on the wall,

930
00:57:58,679 --> 00:58:01,559
children and a tall man and a younger woman. He

931
00:58:01,599 --> 00:58:06,599
took to be Esther. She'd been pretty. Then he stood

932
00:58:06,719 --> 00:58:09,719
dripping on the floor, looking into her black and white face,

933
00:58:10,039 --> 00:58:13,920
searching for signs of a woman he knew now. Soon

934
00:58:13,960 --> 00:58:16,960
the door opened behind him and she came in, and

935
00:58:17,039 --> 00:58:20,360
though he still wore his filthy, wet clothes, she steered

936
00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:22,840
him to the bed and guided him down onto the

937
00:58:22,960 --> 00:58:26,199
edge of it. She unbuckled his belt and removed his

938
00:58:26,280 --> 00:58:29,760
hunting knife and stripped the belt off, and she unbuttoned

939
00:58:29,760 --> 00:58:32,960
his shirt and rubbed her fingers across his chest, the

940
00:58:33,039 --> 00:58:36,920
hair just beginning to thicken there. She undid his pants

941
00:58:36,920 --> 00:58:39,800
and ran the zipper down its track. She worked him

942
00:58:39,840 --> 00:58:42,760
over his thighs and knees and ankles and draped them

943
00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:45,760
across the back of the chair. She pulled off his

944
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:48,400
boots and socks and pushed him back onto the bed,

945
00:58:48,599 --> 00:58:51,559
and pried a finger beneath the elastic of his underwear

946
00:58:51,639 --> 00:58:55,760
and felt what had already happened. He looked at her face,

947
00:58:56,159 --> 00:59:01,039
his mouth open. Esther touched his chin, the scratch of whiskers,

948
00:59:01,159 --> 00:59:05,039
his breath on her hand. Hush now, she said, and

949
00:59:05,159 --> 00:59:17,239
washed him fall asleep downstairs. The TV went off. When

950
00:59:17,239 --> 00:59:21,599
Goodlow knocked, Esther answered a cold sliver of her face

951
00:59:21,679 --> 00:59:25,559
and the crack door. The hell you won't good evening

952
00:59:25,679 --> 00:59:29,880
to you too. The gates is here, No Goodlow glanced

953
00:59:29,920 --> 00:59:32,960
at him. Believe that's their truck. It's kind of hard

954
00:59:32,960 --> 00:59:36,800
to mistake, especially for a trained lawman. We're just cruising

955
00:59:36,840 --> 00:59:39,960
by and seen it. She tried to close the door,

956
00:59:40,000 --> 00:59:42,760
but Goodlow had his foot in it. He glanced at

957
00:59:42,800 --> 00:59:46,719
the three deputies who stood importantly by the blazer. They

958
00:59:46,800 --> 00:59:50,719
dropped their cigarettes and crushed them out. They unsnapped their

959
00:59:50,760 --> 00:59:55,119
holsters and strode across the yard, standing behind Goodlow with

960
00:59:55,199 --> 00:59:58,000
their hands on their revolvers and their legs apart like

961
00:59:58,079 --> 01:00:03,360
TV deputies. Why don't you just leave them alone? Esther said,

962
01:00:03,639 --> 01:00:06,960
ain't they been through enough? Tell them I'd like to

963
01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:10,360
see them, good Load said, tell them to get their boots.

964
01:00:10,800 --> 01:00:14,920
You just walked straight to hell. Mister Dan appeared behind

965
01:00:15,000 --> 01:00:19,480
her lines from the bed, leaning on his face. Whoa nellie,

966
01:00:19,519 --> 01:00:23,559
good Load said, boy, you look plumb terrible. Why don't

967
01:00:23,599 --> 01:00:25,559
you let us carry you on down to the office

968
01:00:25,559 --> 01:00:29,159
for a little coffee, little cake. He glanced back at

969
01:00:29,159 --> 01:00:31,840
one of the deputies. We got any of that cinnamon

970
01:00:31,920 --> 01:00:35,239
roll left day? Do you have a warrant for their rest?

971
01:00:35,760 --> 01:00:39,400
Esther asked, now, I ain't got a warrant for their arrest.

972
01:00:39,840 --> 01:00:43,800
They ain't under arrest. They're fixing to get questioned. That's

973
01:00:43,840 --> 01:00:48,639
all strictly informal. Good Load winked, you reckon, you could

974
01:00:48,639 --> 01:00:51,239
do without them for a couple of hours. Fuck you,

975
01:00:51,480 --> 01:00:55,159
sugar baby. The door slammed, The good Load nodded down

976
01:00:55,199 --> 01:00:57,400
the side of the house, and two deputies went to

977
01:00:57,440 --> 01:01:00,760
make sure nobody escaped from the back. But in a

978
01:01:00,840 --> 01:01:04,000
minute Dan came out, dressed his hands in his pockets,

979
01:01:04,079 --> 01:01:07,880
and followed Goodload down the stairs, the deputies watching him

980
01:01:07,920 --> 01:01:12,760
closely and watching the house. Where's your brothers, Goodlow asked.

981
01:01:13,079 --> 01:01:16,360
He looked down. Goodload nodded to the house, and the

982
01:01:16,400 --> 01:01:19,880
two deputies went in, guns drawn. They came out a

983
01:01:19,880 --> 01:01:24,800
few minutes later, frowning must have heard us coming, Goodloaf said, well,

984
01:01:24,840 --> 01:01:27,400
we got this one. We'll find them other too tomorrow.

985
01:01:28,400 --> 01:01:30,840
They got into the blazer and Goodload looked at Dan

986
01:01:31,000 --> 01:01:34,440
sitting in the back. Put them cuffs on him, Goodload said,

987
01:01:35,440 --> 01:01:38,280
holding his rifle. Neil came out of the woods when

988
01:01:38,280 --> 01:01:41,119
the blazer was gone, and he returned to the house.

989
01:01:41,880 --> 01:01:45,400
They got Dan. Esther said, why didn't you come tell

990
01:01:45,440 --> 01:01:48,119
him they was out there? The boy got to learn,

991
01:01:48,440 --> 01:01:51,719
Neil said. He went to the cabinet where she kept

992
01:01:51,719 --> 01:01:54,920
the whiskey and took the bottle. She watched him go

993
01:01:55,000 --> 01:01:57,159
to the sofa and sit down in front of the

994
01:01:57,159 --> 01:02:02,440
blank TV. Soon she joined him in glasses. He filled both,

995
01:02:02,519 --> 01:02:06,320
and when they emptied them, he filled them again. They

996
01:02:06,360 --> 01:02:09,440
spent the night like that, and at dawn they were drunk.

997
01:02:10,199 --> 01:02:14,239
Wearing her robe. Estra began clipping her fingernails, a cigarette

998
01:02:14,239 --> 01:02:17,920
smoking in then ashtray beside her. She'd forgotten about a

999
01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:22,480
calling Kirksey. Neil was telling her about the biggest catfish

1000
01:02:22,519 --> 01:02:26,320
they'd ever called up, one hundred pounds, he swore, one

1001
01:02:26,400 --> 01:02:29,559
hundred and fifty. You could have put your whole head

1002
01:02:29,639 --> 01:02:32,440
in that old cat's mouth, he said, and sipping his

1003
01:02:32,519 --> 01:02:36,360
whiskey backfin long as you damn arm, he stood and

1004
01:02:36,440 --> 01:02:39,400
walked to the front window. There were toads in the yard.

1005
01:02:39,639 --> 01:02:43,599
With the river swelling, they were everywhere. In the evenings,

1006
01:02:43,639 --> 01:02:47,000
there were rain frosts. The yard had turned into a pond,

1007
01:02:47,239 --> 01:02:50,480
and each night the rain frog sang. It was like

1008
01:02:50,559 --> 01:02:54,039
no other sound. Esther said. It kept her up all night.

1009
01:02:54,639 --> 01:02:58,719
That and some other things, she said. Neil heard a

1010
01:02:58,760 --> 01:03:01,599
fingernail land in the a ashtray, and he rubbed his

1011
01:03:01,679 --> 01:03:05,239
hand across his chin and felt the whiskers there. He

1012
01:03:05,320 --> 01:03:08,199
watched the toads as they huddled in the yard, still

1013
01:03:08,239 --> 01:03:12,480
as rocks and bloated and miserable looking. That catfish was green,

1014
01:03:12,800 --> 01:03:16,360
he said, sipping. I swear before God, green is grass.

1015
01:03:16,719 --> 01:03:20,440
Theamn goddamn rain frogs, she said, I just lay there

1016
01:03:20,480 --> 01:03:23,679
at night with my hands over my ears. A clipping

1017
01:03:23,760 --> 01:03:26,880
rang the ashtray. He turned and went to her on

1018
01:03:26,920 --> 01:03:30,840
the sofa. There was moss growing on his nose, he said,

1019
01:03:31,039 --> 01:03:34,239
putting his hand inside her robe on her knee. Go

1020
01:03:34,360 --> 01:03:37,079
find your brother, she said, And she got up and

1021
01:03:37,159 --> 01:03:40,840
walked unsteadily across the floor and went into the bathroom

1022
01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:43,960
and closed the door. And when she came out and

1023
01:03:44,039 --> 01:03:48,920
the bottle were gone. Without kent, Neil felt free to

1024
01:03:48,960 --> 01:03:52,159
do what he wanted, which was to drive very fast.

1025
01:03:52,559 --> 01:03:55,239
He got the truck started and he spun off, aiming

1026
01:03:55,320 --> 01:03:58,639
for every mudhole that he could. He shot past the

1027
01:03:58,679 --> 01:04:01,320
house with a washing machine on the front porch and

1028
01:04:01,519 --> 01:04:05,400
two thin black men butchering a hog hanging from a tree.

1029
01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:08,960
One of the men waved with a knife, drinking. Neil

1030
01:04:09,079 --> 01:04:11,800
drove through the mountains of trash at the dunk and

1031
01:04:11,880 --> 01:04:15,119
turned the truck in circles, kicking up muddy rooster tails.

1032
01:04:16,039 --> 01:04:19,199
He swerved past the Negro church in the graveyard, where

1033
01:04:19,199 --> 01:04:22,400
a group of blacks huddle four wobbling poles over an

1034
01:04:22,400 --> 01:04:25,679
open grave, the wind tearing the preacher's hat out of

1035
01:04:25,679 --> 01:04:29,920
his hands, and a woman's umbrella reversing. When he tired

1036
01:04:29,960 --> 01:04:33,119
of driving, he left the truck in their hiding place, and,

1037
01:04:33,280 --> 01:04:36,039
using the trees for balance, stumbled down the hill to

1038
01:04:36,119 --> 01:04:40,559
their boat. He carried Kent's rifle, which he had always admired,

1039
01:04:40,599 --> 01:04:44,199
and he wore Kent's jacket. On the river, he fired

1040
01:04:44,280 --> 01:04:47,880
up the outboard and accelebrated the boat, prowl lifting and

1041
01:04:47,960 --> 01:04:51,119
leveling out, the buzz of the motor rising in the trees.

1042
01:04:52,239 --> 01:04:54,760
The water was nearly orange from the mud, and the

1043
01:04:54,800 --> 01:04:58,760
cypress sneeze nothing but knobs and tips because of the floods.

1044
01:04:59,039 --> 01:05:03,199
A cotton mouthwa around most every one of them. During

1045
01:05:03,239 --> 01:05:06,079
the old train trestle, he cut the motor and coasted

1046
01:05:06,159 --> 01:05:09,360
to a stop. He sat listening to the rain, to

1047
01:05:09,440 --> 01:05:12,119
the distant barking of a dog a half a mile away,

1048
01:05:12,360 --> 01:05:16,760
chasing something, maybe a deer. As the dog charged through

1049
01:05:16,800 --> 01:05:19,719
the woods, Neil closed his eyes and imagined the terrain,

1050
01:05:20,199 --> 01:05:22,760
marking where he thought the dog was now and where

1051
01:05:22,800 --> 01:05:26,719
he thought it was now, then the barking stopped suddenly,

1052
01:05:26,760 --> 01:05:30,480
as if the dog had run smack into a tree.

1053
01:05:30,719 --> 01:05:33,320
Neil clicked on the trolling motor and moved the boat

1054
01:05:33,320 --> 01:05:35,960
close to the edge of the river, the rifle across

1055
01:05:36,000 --> 01:05:39,360
his knees. He scanned the banks, and when the rain

1056
01:05:39,440 --> 01:05:44,039
started to fall harder, he accelerated toward the trustle from

1057
01:05:44,039 --> 01:05:47,320
beneath the cross ties. He smelled Chris soak and watched

1058
01:05:47,360 --> 01:05:50,559
the rain as it stirred the river. He looked into

1059
01:05:50,599 --> 01:05:53,320
the gray trees and thought he would drive into town

1060
01:05:53,440 --> 01:05:57,519
later see about getting Daan Kent had never wanted to

1061
01:05:57,519 --> 01:06:00,400
go to Grove Hill, and their father had warn them

1062
01:06:00,440 --> 01:06:04,079
of the police of jail and telling your truck needed

1063
01:06:04,079 --> 01:06:07,519
to have a tag in tail lights. A worked Neil

1064
01:06:07,559 --> 01:06:09,800
picked up one of the catfish from the night before.

1065
01:06:10,199 --> 01:06:13,199
It was cold and stiff, as if carved out of wood.

1066
01:06:13,840 --> 01:06:17,360
He stared at it, watching the green belowflies hover over

1067
01:06:17,440 --> 01:06:20,320
his fist, and then threw it over into the weeds

1068
01:06:20,320 --> 01:06:23,840
along the bank. The telephone rig was under the seat.

1069
01:06:24,400 --> 01:06:28,480
He lifted the chain quietly, considering what giant catfish might

1070
01:06:28,519 --> 01:06:31,840
be passing beneath the boat this very second. I think

1071
01:06:31,880 --> 01:06:34,679
as large as a man's thigh, with eyes the shape

1072
01:06:34,679 --> 01:06:38,920
of right plums and skin the color of mud. Catfish

1073
01:06:39,280 --> 01:06:42,440
their father had taught them, have long whiskers that make

1074
01:06:42,519 --> 01:06:46,559
them the only fish that you can call. Kirksey had

1075
01:06:46,599 --> 01:06:49,159
told Neil and his brothers that if the game warden

1076
01:06:49,280 --> 01:06:52,559
caught you telephoning, all you needed to do was dump

1077
01:06:52,599 --> 01:06:57,280
your box overboard. But Kirksey warn Frank David would handcuff

1078
01:06:57,360 --> 01:06:59,840
you and jump overboard and swim around the bottom of

1079
01:06:59,840 --> 01:07:03,960
the river until he found your rig. Neil spat a

1080
01:07:04,000 --> 01:07:07,760
stream of tobacco juice into the water, and minnos appeared

1081
01:07:07,760 --> 01:07:10,840
and began to investigate, nibbling at the dark yoke of

1082
01:07:11,000 --> 01:07:16,159
spit as he elongated and dissolved. With the rifle safety off,

1083
01:07:16,199 --> 01:07:19,199
he lowered the chain into the water, then the wire,

1084
01:07:19,400 --> 01:07:22,880
and a good distance apart, he checked the connections, and

1085
01:07:22,880 --> 01:07:26,840
then lifted the phone and began to crank Hello. He

1086
01:07:26,920 --> 01:07:30,719
whispered the thing his father had always said, grinning in

1087
01:07:30,760 --> 01:07:33,840
the dark. The wind picked up a bit, and he

1088
01:07:33,880 --> 01:07:36,599
heard a rattling in the trees, and he dialed faster.

1089
01:07:37,320 --> 01:07:40,559
Had just seen the first silver body appear behind him,

1090
01:07:40,599 --> 01:07:43,440
when something landed with a clatter in the boat. And

1091
01:07:43,440 --> 01:07:48,239
he glanced over a bottle of dynamite, sparks hissing off

1092
01:07:48,280 --> 01:07:52,000
the end, fuse already gone. He looked above him and

1093
01:07:52,119 --> 01:07:55,760
the trestle, but nobody was there. He moved to grab

1094
01:07:55,840 --> 01:07:59,559
the dynamite, but his cheeks ballooned with a hot red wind,

1095
01:08:00,000 --> 01:08:04,039
and his hands caught fire. And when the smoke cleared

1096
01:08:04,159 --> 01:08:07,559
and the water stopped boiling, silver bodies began to bob

1097
01:08:07,639 --> 01:08:11,280
to the surface, large mouth bass and brim and guar,

1098
01:08:11,480 --> 01:08:15,119
and suckers and white perch, and polly wogs and catfish.

1099
01:08:15,360 --> 01:08:19,079
Some only stunned, but others did, and pieces of pink

1100
01:08:19,119 --> 01:08:31,199
fruit like things, the water blooming darkly with mud. Kirksey's

1101
01:08:31,239 --> 01:08:34,520
telephone rang for the second time in one day, a

1102
01:08:34,600 --> 01:08:38,279
rarity that proved that his wife had always said, bad

1103
01:08:38,319 --> 01:08:42,199
news comes over the phone. The first call had been Esther,

1104
01:08:42,399 --> 01:08:46,920
telling him of Kent's death, Dan's arrest, and Neil's disappearance.

1105
01:08:47,960 --> 01:08:51,920
This time Kirksey heard Goodlow's voice tell him that somebody,

1106
01:08:52,079 --> 01:08:54,880
or maybe a couple of somebody's, had been blown up

1107
01:08:54,920 --> 01:09:00,000
on the trustle. Neil Kirksey said, sitting He arrived at

1108
01:09:00,079 --> 01:09:02,680
at the trestle and with his cane hobbled over the

1109
01:09:02,760 --> 01:09:07,920
uneven tracks. Goodload's deputies and three ambulance drivers and rubber

1110
01:09:07,960 --> 01:09:11,520
gloves and waiters were scraping pieces off the cross ties

1111
01:09:11,560 --> 01:09:15,079
with spoons and dropping the parts and zip lock bags

1112
01:09:16,079 --> 01:09:19,399
the boat. Two flattened shreds of aluminum lay on the bank,

1113
01:09:19,880 --> 01:09:23,960
and none of the water minnows darted about, nibbling christ

1114
01:09:24,279 --> 01:09:29,000
Kirksey said. He brought a handkerchief to his lips. Then

1115
01:09:29,039 --> 01:09:31,479
he went to where Goodlow stood on the bank, writing

1116
01:09:31,520 --> 01:09:34,600
in his notebook. What do you aim to do about this,

1117
01:09:34,880 --> 01:09:38,600
Kirksey demanded, We'll try to figure out who it was first,

1118
01:09:39,640 --> 01:09:43,000
you know, goddamn well who it was? Well, I expect,

1119
01:09:43,199 --> 01:09:46,479
judging from that boat over Yonder, it's either Neil or

1120
01:09:46,600 --> 01:09:50,920
Kent Gates, it's Neil. Kirksey said, Well, why do you

1121
01:09:51,000 --> 01:09:56,079
know that? Kirksey told him that Kent was dead. Goodlaw

1122
01:09:56,159 --> 01:09:59,399
studied the storekeeper. I ain't seen the body, have you.

1123
01:10:00,479 --> 01:10:04,479
Kirksey's blood pressure was going up. Fuck, sugar baby, are

1124
01:10:04,520 --> 01:10:07,720
you one bit of ware of what's going on here? Well,

1125
01:10:07,760 --> 01:10:13,239
it's fishing accident, Goodload said. His bait exploded from the bank.

1126
01:10:13,279 --> 01:10:15,920
A deputy call that he'd found most of a boot

1127
01:10:16,520 --> 01:10:19,399
foot still in it, he said, holding it up by

1128
01:10:19,439 --> 01:10:23,359
the lace. The deputy behind him gagged and turned away.

1129
01:10:24,199 --> 01:10:28,279
Tag it, Goodload said, writing something down and keep looking.

1130
01:10:28,560 --> 01:10:32,520
Puke on your own time. Kirksey poked Goodlow in the

1131
01:10:32,560 --> 01:10:36,119
shoulder with his cane. You really think Neil would blow

1132
01:10:36,199 --> 01:10:41,239
himself up? Goodload looked at his shoulder, the muddy cane print,

1133
01:10:41,359 --> 01:10:44,920
and then at the storekeeper. Not on purpose, I don't,

1134
01:10:45,359 --> 01:10:48,960
and he paused, of course, suicide does run in their family,

1135
01:10:49,680 --> 01:10:53,439
you half wit son of a bitch. What about Kent Well,

1136
01:10:53,479 --> 01:10:57,800
what about Kent christ sugar Baby? Goodlow held up his hand.

1137
01:10:58,479 --> 01:11:02,239
Just show me, Kirksey. They left the ambulsce drivers and

1138
01:11:02,279 --> 01:11:05,560
the deputies had walked the other way without talking, and

1139
01:11:05,600 --> 01:11:08,359
when they came to Goodlaw's blazer, they got in and

1140
01:11:08,439 --> 01:11:11,720
drove without talking. Soon they stopped in front of the

1141
01:11:11,760 --> 01:11:16,439
gates cabin, and instantly hounds surrounded the truck, barking viciously

1142
01:11:16,520 --> 01:11:21,119
and jumping with muddy paws against the glass. Goodload blew

1143
01:11:21,159 --> 01:11:24,279
the horn until the hounds slunk away, heads Low and

1144
01:11:24,359 --> 01:11:28,560
fang spared. The sheriff opened his window and fired several

1145
01:11:28,560 --> 01:11:32,239
times in the air, backing the dogs up before he

1146
01:11:32,279 --> 01:11:36,840
and Kirksey got out, Goodlow reloaded. The hounds kept to

1147
01:11:36,920 --> 01:11:39,960
the edge of the woods, watching while Kirksey led Goodlow

1148
01:11:40,039 --> 01:11:44,960
behind the decrepit cabin. Rusty screens covered some windows, and

1149
01:11:45,159 --> 01:11:49,319
rags of drapes others. Beneath the house. The dogs paced

1150
01:11:49,319 --> 01:11:54,560
them back here, Kirksey said, heading into the trees. Esther

1151
01:11:54,640 --> 01:11:57,199
had said that they'd buried Kent, and this was the

1152
01:11:57,279 --> 01:12:02,239
logical place. He went slow, already out of breath, stopping

1153
01:12:02,279 --> 01:12:05,720
to cough once, and sure enough there lay the grave.

1154
01:12:06,279 --> 01:12:08,960
You could see where the dogs have been scratching around it.

1155
01:12:09,760 --> 01:12:12,800
Goodlow went over and towed the dirt. You know the

1156
01:12:12,800 --> 01:12:15,920
cause of death, you dumb ass. I know the cause

1157
01:12:15,960 --> 01:12:19,359
of death. His name is Frank fucking David. I mean

1158
01:12:19,760 --> 01:12:23,920
how he was killed, said Goodlow. The boy said, snake

1159
01:12:24,039 --> 01:12:27,439
back three times in the neck. But I'd do an autopsy,

1160
01:12:27,920 --> 01:12:31,800
oh you would, good Low excelled. Okay, I'll send Roy

1161
01:12:31,840 --> 01:12:34,640
and Avery over here to dig his ass up, maybe

1162
01:12:34,680 --> 01:12:38,560
shoot these damn dogs. I'll tell you what you better do. First,

1163
01:12:38,840 --> 01:12:42,199
you better keep Dan locked up safe. I can't hold

1164
01:12:42,239 --> 01:12:47,880
him much longer, Goodload said, unless he confesses. Kirksey swung

1165
01:12:47,880 --> 01:12:50,720
at him with his cane and nearly lost his balance

1166
01:12:51,359 --> 01:12:53,840
at the edge of the woods. The dogs tensed, and

1167
01:12:54,119 --> 01:12:58,119
Goodload backed away, raising his pistol the grave between them.

1168
01:12:58,359 --> 01:13:01,960
Are you crazy, Kirksey, You've been locking that store too long,

1169
01:13:02,560 --> 01:13:05,920
good Low, Kirksey gasped. The cotton in his left ear

1170
01:13:05,960 --> 01:13:08,479
had come out, and the air was roaring through his head.

1171
01:13:09,279 --> 01:13:12,960
Even you can't be this stupid. You let that boy out,

1172
01:13:13,239 --> 01:13:18,159
and he's that cold blooded fucker's next target target, Kirksey.

1173
01:13:18,399 --> 01:13:21,800
Shit ain't nothing to prove anybody to kill them damn boys.

1174
01:13:22,239 --> 01:13:25,399
This one a snake bit. You said so yourself. That

1175
01:13:25,520 --> 01:13:29,000
other one blowing hisself up them durned gates is had

1176
01:13:29,119 --> 01:13:32,159
fished with dynamite their whole lives. You ought to know

1177
01:13:32,319 --> 01:13:35,600
that you the one gets it for him. He narrowed

1178
01:13:35,640 --> 01:13:39,239
his eyes. You're about neck deep in this damn thing,

1179
01:13:39,359 --> 01:13:41,840
you know that. And I don't mean just lying to

1180
01:13:41,880 --> 01:13:47,439
protect them boys, neither I mean selling explosives illegally to miners. Kirksey.

1181
01:13:48,159 --> 01:13:51,039
I don't give a shit if I am. Kirksey yelled.

1182
01:13:51,439 --> 01:13:54,720
Two dead boys in two days, and you're worried about dynamite.

1183
01:13:55,079 --> 01:13:57,199
You ought to be out there looking for Frank David.

1184
01:13:58,279 --> 01:14:00,560
He's supposed to be here for another week, week or two,

1185
01:14:00,720 --> 01:14:06,640
Goodloaf said, paperwork, He fired his pistol. Kirksey jumped and

1186
01:14:06,680 --> 01:14:08,960
looked down at his chest to see the blood, but

1187
01:14:09,039 --> 01:14:12,239
the sheriff was aiming passed him, and when Kirksey followed

1188
01:14:12,239 --> 01:14:14,479
his eyes, he saw the three legged dog that had

1189
01:14:14,520 --> 01:14:17,520
been creeping in it lay slumped in the mud, a

1190
01:14:17,600 --> 01:14:21,119
hind leg kicking, and blood coloring the water around it.

1191
01:14:21,920 --> 01:14:24,399
Good Load backed up a step and smoke curling from

1192
01:14:24,439 --> 01:14:28,199
the barrel of his pistol around then the other dog circled,

1193
01:14:28,319 --> 01:14:31,600
heads low, moving sideways, and the hair on their spines

1194
01:14:31,640 --> 01:14:35,159
sticking up. Let's argue about this in the truck, good

1195
01:14:35,199 --> 01:14:46,399
Loaf said. At the store, Kirksey put out the open sign.

1196
01:14:46,960 --> 01:14:49,680
He sat in his chair with his coffee and a novel.

1197
01:14:50,640 --> 01:14:53,239
He read the same page three times when it occurred

1198
01:14:53,279 --> 01:14:56,680
to him to phone Montgomery and get Frank David's office

1199
01:14:56,680 --> 01:14:59,680
on the line. It took a few calls, but he

1200
01:14:59,760 --> 01:15:02,960
soon got the number and dialed it. The snippy young

1201
01:15:03,000 --> 01:15:06,680
woman who answered told Kirksey that yes, mister David was

1202
01:15:06,760 --> 01:15:09,880
supposed to take over the Lower Peachtree district, but that

1203
01:15:10,000 --> 01:15:13,760
he wasn't starting until next week. She thought, well, where

1204
01:15:13,840 --> 01:15:20,159
is he now? Kirksey wanted to know, Florida. She said, no, Louisiana.

1205
01:15:20,279 --> 01:15:23,680
He's fishing. No, sir, he couldn't be reached. He preferred

1206
01:15:23,680 --> 01:15:28,319
his vacation's private. Kirksey slammed down the phone. He lit

1207
01:15:28,359 --> 01:15:31,880
a cigarette and tried to think it was just a matter.

1208
01:15:32,199 --> 01:15:36,439
He decided of keeping Dan alive until Frank David officially

1209
01:15:36,479 --> 01:15:40,159
took over the district. There were probably other game wardens

1210
01:15:40,159 --> 01:15:43,800
who testify that Frank David was indeed over in Louisiana

1211
01:15:43,880 --> 01:15:46,560
fishing right now, But once a son of a bitch

1212
01:15:46,600 --> 01:15:50,039
officially moved here, he'd have a motive because he'd known

1213
01:15:50,079 --> 01:15:52,960
the dead game warden, and his alibi wouldn't be as

1214
01:15:53,000 --> 01:15:56,880
strong if Dan turned up dead and Frank David would

1215
01:15:56,960 --> 01:16:00,359
be the chief suspect. Even Goodlow would be able to

1216
01:16:00,399 --> 01:16:05,119
see that. Kirksey in Hell smoked deeply and tried to

1217
01:16:05,199 --> 01:16:08,520
imagine how Frank David would think, how he would act,

1218
01:16:08,800 --> 01:16:11,640
the noise he would make or not make as he

1219
01:16:11,680 --> 01:16:14,279
went through the woods, What he would say if you

1220
01:16:14,359 --> 01:16:18,039
happened upon him or he upon you, What he would

1221
01:16:18,039 --> 01:16:21,439
do if he came into the store. Certainly, he wasn't

1222
01:16:21,439 --> 01:16:24,560
a creature that Kirksey had created to scare the boys,

1223
01:16:24,960 --> 01:16:28,680
not some wild, ghostly thing. He was just a man

1224
01:16:28,800 --> 01:16:31,279
who had had a hard life and who'd grown bitter

1225
01:16:31,399 --> 01:16:34,800
and angry. A man who chose to uphold the law

1226
01:16:34,880 --> 01:16:38,159
because breaking it was no challenge, A man with no

1227
01:16:38,239 --> 01:16:41,720
obligation to any other men or a family, just to

1228
01:16:41,840 --> 01:16:46,680
himself and his job to some damn unwritten game Warden code.

1229
01:16:47,319 --> 01:16:49,800
His job was to protect the wild things the law

1230
01:16:49,840 --> 01:16:54,000
had deemed worthy, deer and turkeys, alligators. But how did

1231
01:16:54,079 --> 01:16:57,520
the Gates Boys fall into the category of trash animal?

1232
01:16:58,000 --> 01:17:03,199
Wildcats or possums or armatie villas, snapping turtles, snakes? Things

1233
01:17:03,199 --> 01:17:06,119
you could kill any time, run over in your truck

1234
01:17:06,159 --> 01:17:08,039
and not even look in your mirror to see it

1235
01:17:08,159 --> 01:17:11,800
dying behind you. Why couldn't Frank David see that he,

1236
01:17:12,199 --> 01:17:15,079
more than a match for the boys, was exactly the

1237
01:17:15,079 --> 01:17:19,920
same as them. Kirksey drove to the highway. The big

1238
01:17:20,000 --> 01:17:23,000
thirty six he hadn't touched in years, was on the

1239
01:17:23,039 --> 01:17:25,880
seat next to him, and as he steered, he pushed

1240
01:17:25,920 --> 01:17:28,920
the cartridges into the clip and then shoved the clip

1241
01:17:29,000 --> 01:17:33,079
into the guns underbelly. He pulled the lever that injected

1242
01:17:33,079 --> 01:17:35,720
a cartridge into the chamber, and took a long drink

1243
01:17:35,720 --> 01:17:38,520
of whiskey to watch down the three pills that helped

1244
01:17:38,560 --> 01:17:40,640
all the ache in his knees and the one in

1245
01:17:40,680 --> 01:17:44,560
his gut. It was almost dark when he arrived at

1246
01:17:44,560 --> 01:17:48,399
the edge of the large field near park, facing the grass.

1247
01:17:49,199 --> 01:17:51,479
This was a place a few hundred yards from a

1248
01:17:51,560 --> 01:17:55,680
fairly well traveled blacktop, a spot no sane poacher would

1249
01:17:55,720 --> 01:17:59,720
dare use. There were already two or three deer creeping

1250
01:17:59,760 --> 01:18:03,079
in the open from the woods across the field that

1251
01:18:03,199 --> 01:18:06,039
came to eat the tall grass, looking up only when

1252
01:18:06,039 --> 01:18:10,960
a car passed, their ears swiveling, jaws frozen, and sprigs

1253
01:18:10,960 --> 01:18:13,760
of grass twitching in their lips like the legs of

1254
01:18:13,800 --> 01:18:18,960
an insect. Kirksey sat watching. He sipped his whiskey and

1255
01:18:19,039 --> 01:18:22,920
lit a cigarette with a trembling hand. Both truck doors

1256
01:18:23,000 --> 01:18:25,479
were locked, and he knew this was a very stupid

1257
01:18:25,520 --> 01:18:29,359
thing that he was doing. Several times he told himself

1258
01:18:29,399 --> 01:18:32,800
to just go home and let things unfold as they would.

1259
01:18:33,640 --> 01:18:36,199
But then he saw the faces of the two dead boys,

1260
01:18:36,520 --> 01:18:39,840
and the face of the live one when Boo had

1261
01:18:39,920 --> 01:18:43,800
killed himself. The oldest two had barely been teenagers, but

1262
01:18:43,880 --> 01:18:47,199
it was twelve year old Dan who'd found him. That

1263
01:18:47,319 --> 01:18:50,479
truck still had window glass then, and half the back

1264
01:18:50,560 --> 01:18:54,960
window shield had been sprayed red with blood. Flies had

1265
01:18:54,960 --> 01:18:57,199
gathered at the top of the truck around what Dan

1266
01:18:57,319 --> 01:19:00,520
discovered to be a bullet hole, the pistol still clenched

1267
01:19:00,520 --> 01:19:04,439
in his father's hand, the rim of Boo's hat still

1268
01:19:04,560 --> 01:19:08,600
on his head. The top blown out, and Kirksey frowned

1269
01:19:08,720 --> 01:19:11,880
thinking of it. The back of the truck was full

1270
01:19:11,920 --> 01:19:14,640
of wood Boo had been cutting, and the three boys

1271
01:19:14,680 --> 01:19:17,760
had unloaded the wood and stacked it neatly beside the road.

1272
01:19:18,880 --> 01:19:22,479
Kirksey shifted in his seat, imagining the boys pushing that

1273
01:19:22,600 --> 01:19:26,600
truck for two miles over dirt roads, somehow finding the

1274
01:19:26,680 --> 01:19:30,640
leverage or whatever the goddamn strength to get it home,

1275
01:19:31,479 --> 01:19:34,520
to pull their father from inside and bury him, to

1276
01:19:34,600 --> 01:19:39,600
clean out the truck. Kirksey shuddered and thought of Frank David,

1277
01:19:39,800 --> 01:19:43,159
and then made himself think of his wife instead. He

1278
01:19:43,239 --> 01:19:47,239
rubbed his biceps and watched the shadows creep across the field,

1279
01:19:47,399 --> 01:19:51,800
the tree line dimming beginning to disappear. Soon it was

1280
01:19:51,880 --> 01:19:55,600
full dark. He unscrewed the interior light bulb from the

1281
01:19:55,640 --> 01:19:58,079
ceiling and rolled down the window and pull the door

1282
01:19:58,119 --> 01:20:02,239
lock up. Quietly, holding his breath, he opened the door

1283
01:20:02,840 --> 01:20:05,680
and outside, he propped the rifle on the side mirror,

1284
01:20:06,000 --> 01:20:08,960
flicked the safety off, and he reached through the window

1285
01:20:09,039 --> 01:20:12,000
and felt alongside the dash for the headlights switch and

1286
01:20:12,079 --> 01:20:16,319
pulled it. The field blazed with the eyes of deer,

1287
01:20:16,800 --> 01:20:21,359
red hovering dots staring back at him. Kirksey aimed and

1288
01:20:21,399 --> 01:20:24,920
squeezed the trigger at the first pair of eyes, Not

1289
01:20:24,960 --> 01:20:26,920
wanting to see if he'd hit the deer, he moved

1290
01:20:26,920 --> 01:20:30,640
the gun to another pair. He'd gotten off seven shots

1291
01:20:30,680 --> 01:20:33,960
before the eyes began to vanish. When the last echo

1292
01:20:34,039 --> 01:20:37,199
from the gun faded, at least three deer lay dead

1293
01:20:37,319 --> 01:20:40,920
or wounded in the glow of the headlights. One dough

1294
01:20:41,000 --> 01:20:45,119
bleeded weakly and bleeded again, and Kirksey coughed and took

1295
01:20:45,119 --> 01:20:47,640
the gun back into the truck and closed the door

1296
01:20:47,680 --> 01:20:52,479
and reloaded in the dark. Then he waited. The doe

1297
01:20:52,560 --> 01:20:56,720
kept bleeding, and things in the woods took shape, detached

1298
01:20:56,800 --> 01:21:00,600
and whisked toward Kirksey over the grass like spoon ukes,

1299
01:21:01,319 --> 01:21:05,520
and the little noises, things like footsteps, and the stories

1300
01:21:05,880 --> 01:21:09,119
Frank David appearing in the bed of someone's moving truck

1301
01:21:09,159 --> 01:21:12,359
and punching through the back glass, grabbing and breaking the

1302
01:21:12,479 --> 01:21:15,880
driver's arm, leaping from the truck and watching while it wrecked.

1303
01:21:16,600 --> 01:21:21,560
Quit it. Kirksey croaked, you damn school girl several more

1304
01:21:21,600 --> 01:21:24,560
times that night. He summoned his nerve and flicked on

1305
01:21:24,640 --> 01:21:28,079
the headlights, firing at any eyes he saw or thought

1306
01:21:28,119 --> 01:21:31,800
he saw, or firing at nothing. And when he finally

1307
01:21:31,800 --> 01:21:35,359
fell asleep at two am, his body numb with painkillers

1308
01:21:35,359 --> 01:21:38,520
and whiskey, he dreamed of his wife on the day

1309
01:21:38,520 --> 01:21:42,439
of her first miscarriage, the way the nurses couldn't find

1310
01:21:42,479 --> 01:21:45,000
the vein in her arm, and how they'd kept trying

1311
01:21:45,000 --> 01:21:47,880
with the needle, and the way she'd cried and held

1312
01:21:47,880 --> 01:21:52,279
his fingers tightly like a woman giving birth. He started

1313
01:21:52,279 --> 01:21:56,960
to wake, terrified, as if he'd fallen asleep. Driving Caring

1314
01:21:57,079 --> 01:21:59,720
less for silence, he stumbled from the truck and flicked

1315
01:21:59,720 --> 01:22:03,239
on the lights and fired, though now there were no eyes.

1316
01:22:04,960 --> 01:22:07,760
He lowered the gun and for no reason found himself

1317
01:22:07,800 --> 01:22:11,720
thinking of a time when he'd tried fly fishing, standing

1318
01:22:11,760 --> 01:22:14,199
in his yard, with his wife watching from the porch,

1319
01:22:14,560 --> 01:22:17,520
tarzan of the apes in her lap, and him whipping

1320
01:22:17,560 --> 01:22:20,039
the line in the air, showing off, and then the

1321
01:22:20,159 --> 01:22:23,680
strange pulling you get when you catch a fish, and

1322
01:22:23,720 --> 01:22:27,159
Betty jumping to her feet, the book falling, and her

1323
01:22:27,279 --> 01:22:31,199
yelling that he'd caught a bat. For Heaven's sakes, a bat.

1324
01:22:32,000 --> 01:22:34,680
He climbed back into the truck, his hands shook so

1325
01:22:34,920 --> 01:22:38,000
hard that he had trouble getting the door locked. He

1326
01:22:38,079 --> 01:22:40,359
bowed his head and missing her so much that he

1327
01:22:40,439 --> 01:22:46,119
cried softly for a long time. Dawn found him staring

1328
01:22:46,279 --> 01:22:50,520
at a field littered with dead doughs and yearlings and fawns,

1329
01:22:51,319 --> 01:22:54,039
and one of the deer, only wounded, was trying to

1330
01:22:54,119 --> 01:22:57,960
crawl toward the safety of the trees. Kirksey got out

1331
01:22:57,960 --> 01:23:01,520
of the truck and vomited colorless water, and then stood

1332
01:23:01,520 --> 01:23:05,920
looking around the foggy morning. He lifted his rifle and

1333
01:23:06,000 --> 01:23:09,159
limped into the grass in the drizzle, and a quick

1334
01:23:09,239 --> 01:23:12,199
hip shot put the live deer out of its misery.

1335
01:23:13,720 --> 01:23:16,239
He was sitting on the open tailgate trying to light

1336
01:23:16,279 --> 01:23:19,439
a cigarette when Goodlow and a deputy passed in their

1337
01:23:19,479 --> 01:23:23,680
blazer and stopped. The sheriff stepped out, signaling for the

1338
01:23:23,720 --> 01:23:27,880
deputy to stay put. He sat beside Kirksey on the

1339
01:23:27,880 --> 01:23:32,279
tailgate the truck, dipping with his weight. His stomach was growling,

1340
01:23:33,119 --> 01:23:36,760
You old fool, good Loaf said, staring at Kirksey and

1341
01:23:36,800 --> 01:23:39,920
then behind them at the field. You figured to make

1342
01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:44,399
Frank David show himself. He shook his head. Good Lord,

1343
01:23:44,439 --> 01:23:47,399
almighty Kirksey, what'll it take to prove to you that

1344
01:23:47,479 --> 01:23:52,039
there ain't no durned vigilanti game warden out there? Kirksey

1345
01:23:52,079 --> 01:23:55,720
didn't answer. Goodlaw went to the blazer and told the

1346
01:23:55,760 --> 01:23:58,359
deputy to pick him up at the old man's store.

1347
01:23:59,079 --> 01:24:01,479
Get Dave over here to load up them deer quick,

1348
01:24:01,600 --> 01:24:04,000
he said, Tell him to gut them and drop them

1349
01:24:04,039 --> 01:24:07,520
off at my place in the barn. The deputy put

1350
01:24:07,520 --> 01:24:10,640
the blazer into gear. Can I have some of the tenderloin's?

1351
01:24:10,640 --> 01:24:15,319
Boss good Load slammed the door at Kirksey's truck. He

1352
01:24:15,399 --> 01:24:18,239
helped the old man into the passenger's seat and went

1353
01:24:18,279 --> 01:24:21,279
around and got in the driver's seat. He took the

1354
01:24:21,359 --> 01:24:24,720
rifle and unloaded it and put his clip in his pocket.

1355
01:24:25,079 --> 01:24:27,880
We'll talk about them dear later, he said, now I

1356
01:24:27,960 --> 01:24:31,600
better get you back. They gone a silent mile. When

1357
01:24:31,680 --> 01:24:36,319
Kirksey said, would you mind running me by Ester's Goodload

1358
01:24:36,399 --> 01:24:40,159
shrugged and turned that way. His stomach made a strangling

1359
01:24:40,279 --> 01:24:44,279
noise and he patted it absently. The rain and the

1360
01:24:44,279 --> 01:24:47,359
wind were picking up rocking the truck, and the sheriff

1361
01:24:47,359 --> 01:24:50,760
took a bottle of bourbon from his pocket. It's medicinal,

1362
01:24:50,880 --> 01:24:54,840
he said, handing it to Kirksey. It's just been two

1363
01:24:54,920 --> 01:24:59,000
freak accidents, that's all, Kirksey. I seen some strange shit

1364
01:24:59,079 --> 01:25:02,520
in my life, stranger in this. I seen a nigger

1365
01:25:02,560 --> 01:25:06,399
had rabies one time off foaming at the mouth, bit

1366
01:25:06,439 --> 01:25:09,279
his terrned wife on her teddy before she shot him.

1367
01:25:09,760 --> 01:25:12,119
It's a hell of a thing, buddy boy, and he

1368
01:25:12,199 --> 01:25:15,079
took the bottle back them gates. Is is just an

1369
01:25:15,159 --> 01:25:18,720
unlucky bunch period. I ain't one to go believe it

1370
01:25:18,760 --> 01:25:22,319
in curses, Kirksey, but I swear to God if they

1371
01:25:22,359 --> 01:25:27,840
ain't just down right snake bit. Soon Goodload parked in

1372
01:25:27,840 --> 01:25:30,600
front of Esther's and they sat waiting for the rain

1373
01:25:30,680 --> 01:25:33,880
to slick, and Kirksey rubbed his knees and looked out

1374
01:25:33,920 --> 01:25:36,920
the windows where the bottoms of the trees were submerged

1375
01:25:36,920 --> 01:25:41,039
in the rising floodwaters. They say old esther has a

1376
01:25:41,279 --> 01:25:45,319
root seller, good Load said, taking a sip she had.

1377
01:25:45,359 --> 01:25:47,359
I expect it's full of water this time of year,

1378
01:25:47,399 --> 01:25:50,840
ain't it. She's probably got cotton mouse wrapped around her plumbing.

1379
01:25:51,520 --> 01:25:54,439
He shuddered and offered the bottle, and Kirksey took it

1380
01:25:54,520 --> 01:25:58,159
and sipped. He gave it back, and then Goodload drank

1381
01:25:58,199 --> 01:26:03,079
and drank again. That they don't hit the spot. When

1382
01:26:03,079 --> 01:26:05,880
I was in the service, good Low went on over

1383
01:26:05,960 --> 01:26:09,319
in tie Land. They had them little bitty snakes, then

1384
01:26:09,399 --> 01:26:13,479
banded crates. They call them poison his cobras, what they

1385
01:26:13,600 --> 01:26:16,359
told us used to hide up under the commode lid.

1386
01:26:17,199 --> 01:26:19,479
Every time you took a shit, you'd have to lift

1387
01:26:19,479 --> 01:26:23,840
the lid up. See was one there? He drank? Yep,

1388
01:26:23,880 --> 01:26:26,359
it was many a time I kicked one off in

1389
01:26:26,439 --> 01:26:30,039
the water and flushed it down the commode. Wait here,

1390
01:26:30,439 --> 01:26:33,319
Kirksey said, and he opened the door, and his pants

1391
01:26:33,399 --> 01:26:36,640
legged darkened as the rain poured in, cold as needles.

1392
01:26:37,600 --> 01:26:40,479
He set his knee out deliberately and planted his cane

1393
01:26:40,520 --> 01:26:43,399
in the mud and pulled himself up. Stood in the

1394
01:26:43,439 --> 01:26:47,119
water to his ankles. He leaped across the yard with

1395
01:26:47,199 --> 01:26:50,399
his hand before his face, blocking the rain, and there

1396
01:26:50,439 --> 01:26:53,720
were two chickens on the front porch, their feathers fluffed

1397
01:26:53,720 --> 01:26:57,880
out so that they looked strange and menacing. Kirksey climbed

1398
01:26:57,920 --> 01:27:00,279
the porch steps with the pain so strong in his

1399
01:27:00,359 --> 01:27:03,960
knees that stars were popping near his face. By the

1400
01:27:04,000 --> 01:27:07,600
time he reached the top. He leaned against the house,

1401
01:27:07,760 --> 01:27:11,279
breathing hard, touching himself at the throat where a tie

1402
01:27:11,359 --> 01:27:14,920
might have gone, and then he rapped gently on the

1403
01:27:14,960 --> 01:27:18,000
hook of the cane and the door opened immediately. It

1404
01:27:18,119 --> 01:27:21,079
was dark inside, and she stood there looking at him.

1405
01:27:21,800 --> 01:27:25,399
How come you don't ever stop by the store anymore? Well,

1406
01:27:25,479 --> 01:27:30,560
she folded her arms. Neil's dead, he said, I heard

1407
01:27:31,199 --> 01:27:34,520
esther said, now I'm leaving. Fuck this place and every

1408
01:27:34,560 --> 01:27:38,039
one of y'all. She closed the door, and Kirksey would

1409
01:27:38,039 --> 01:27:42,399
never see her again. At the store. Goodload nodded for

1410
01:27:42,439 --> 01:27:45,000
the deputy to stay in the blazer, and then he

1411
01:27:45,039 --> 01:27:47,920
took Kirksey by the elbow and helped him up the steps.

1412
01:27:48,840 --> 01:27:50,960
He unlocked the door for the old man and held

1413
01:27:51,000 --> 01:27:54,239
his icy hand as he sank in his chair. He

1414
01:27:54,279 --> 01:27:57,680
want those boots off. Good Low ass spreading a blanket

1415
01:27:57,720 --> 01:28:02,159
over Kirksey's lap and unlaced the left and then the right.

1416
01:28:03,000 --> 01:28:06,640
Pick up your foot, now the other one. He set

1417
01:28:06,680 --> 01:28:09,600
the wet boots by the stove. It's a little damp

1418
01:28:09,640 --> 01:28:13,119
in here. I like this thing. He found a box

1419
01:28:13,159 --> 01:28:15,880
of kitchen matches on the shelf under the counter, among

1420
01:28:15,920 --> 01:28:20,199
the glass figure ings Kirksey's wife had collected, the little Deer,

1421
01:28:20,520 --> 01:28:24,800
the figure skater, the unicorn. Goodlow got a fire going

1422
01:28:24,840 --> 01:28:27,760
in the stove and stood, warming the backs of his legs.

1423
01:28:28,479 --> 01:28:31,279
I'll bring Dan by a little later, he said, But

1424
01:28:31,479 --> 01:28:42,359
Kirksey didn't seem to hear. Goodlaw sat in his office

1425
01:28:42,399 --> 01:28:45,600
with his feet on his desk, rolling a cartridge between

1426
01:28:45,600 --> 01:28:49,840
his fingers. A plate of ribs sat untouched before him.

1427
01:28:50,680 --> 01:28:53,680
Despite himself, he was beginning to wonder if Kirksey might

1428
01:28:53,720 --> 01:28:57,479
be right. Maybe Frank David was out there on the prowl.

1429
01:28:58,439 --> 01:29:02,520
Good Lawman would at least cons the possibility. He stood

1430
01:29:02,600 --> 01:29:04,760
and took off his pistol belt and walked to the

1431
01:29:04,840 --> 01:29:07,800
back and pushed open the swinging door and had Roy

1432
01:29:07,840 --> 01:29:12,640
buzzhm through. So far he'd had zero luck getting anything

1433
01:29:12,680 --> 01:29:15,239
out of Dan. The boy just sat in a cell,

1434
01:29:15,359 --> 01:29:18,600
wrapped in a blanket, his head shaved for lice, not

1435
01:29:18,720 --> 01:29:22,560
talking to anybody, and not eating. Goodlow had told him

1436
01:29:22,600 --> 01:29:26,079
about his brother's death, and he'd seen no emotion across

1437
01:29:26,159 --> 01:29:30,319
the boy's face. Goodlow figured that it wasn't this youngest

1438
01:29:30,319 --> 01:29:33,359
one who'd killed that game warden. It'd probably been the

1439
01:29:33,399 --> 01:29:37,239
other two. He knew that this boy wasn't carrying a

1440
01:29:37,279 --> 01:29:40,359
full cylinder by the way he never talked, but most

1441
01:29:40,479 --> 01:29:45,159
likely he had been a witness. Goodlow had even considered

1442
01:29:45,199 --> 01:29:48,680
calling a psychologist from the Searsing Mental Hospital to give

1443
01:29:48,720 --> 01:29:53,039
the boy an evaluation. Come on, said Goodlow, stopping by

1444
01:29:53,119 --> 01:29:56,640
Dan's sell and jingling the keys. I'm fixing to put

1445
01:29:56,680 --> 01:30:00,920
your talent to some good use. Up the boy cuffed

1446
01:30:00,960 --> 01:30:05,000
as the deputy drove them toward the Trustle. Turn your head, Dave,

1447
01:30:05,279 --> 01:30:09,399
Goodloaf said, handing Dan a pint of old crow. The

1448
01:30:09,439 --> 01:30:11,720
boy took it in both hands and unscrewed the lid

1449
01:30:11,760 --> 01:30:15,319
and began to drink too fast. Slow down, their partner,

1450
01:30:15,479 --> 01:30:18,880
good Loaf said, taking back the bottle. You need to

1451
01:30:18,920 --> 01:30:22,720
be a bit of alert. Soon they stood near the trustle,

1452
01:30:22,920 --> 01:30:25,439
gazing at the flat shape of the boat on the bank.

1453
01:30:26,560 --> 01:30:29,680
Dan knelt and examined the ground. The deputy came up

1454
01:30:29,720 --> 01:30:32,840
and started to say something, but good Low motion for quiet,

1455
01:30:33,439 --> 01:30:36,399
just like a bloodhound, he whispered. Maybe I ought to

1456
01:30:36,399 --> 01:30:40,800
give him your job. Reckon what he's after, the deputy asked.

1457
01:30:41,960 --> 01:30:44,800
Dan scrambled up the trustle and the two men followed,

1458
01:30:45,239 --> 01:30:48,239
and the boy walked slowly over the rails, first staring

1459
01:30:48,279 --> 01:30:52,159
into the trees and then examining the spaces between the crossties.

1460
01:30:53,199 --> 01:30:56,399
He stopped and bent down and peered at something, and

1461
01:30:56,479 --> 01:30:59,399
he picked it up. Well you got there, boy, good

1462
01:30:59,399 --> 01:31:03,079
Low call, going and squatting beside him. He took a

1463
01:31:03,119 --> 01:31:07,760
sip of old crow. When Dan hit him two handed.

1464
01:31:07,960 --> 01:31:10,760
The bottle flew one way and Goodlow flew the other.

1465
01:31:11,479 --> 01:31:14,279
Both landed in the river, and Goodlow, with his hand

1466
01:31:14,359 --> 01:31:17,439
clapped to his head to keep his hat on, He

1467
01:31:17,520 --> 01:31:21,199
came up immediately, bobbing and sputtering, and on the trestle.

1468
01:31:21,279 --> 01:31:24,239
The deputy tackled Dan. When they went down, fighting on

1469
01:31:24,359 --> 01:31:29,000
the crossties below. Goodload dredged himself out of the water,

1470
01:31:29,399 --> 01:31:32,159
and he came ashore, dripping and tugged his pistol from

1471
01:31:32,159 --> 01:31:35,279
its holster. He held it up so that a trickle

1472
01:31:35,319 --> 01:31:38,359
of orange water fell, and he took off his hat

1473
01:31:38,439 --> 01:31:41,439
and looked up to see the deputy disappear, belly first

1474
01:31:41,600 --> 01:31:45,439
into the face of the river. Dan sprinted back down

1475
01:31:45,520 --> 01:31:49,359
the track toward the swamp. The deputy came bowling ashore.

1476
01:31:49,920 --> 01:31:52,960
He had his own pistol drawn and was looking around vengefully.

1477
01:31:54,000 --> 01:31:56,640
Good Low climbed the trestle in time to see Dan

1478
01:31:56,760 --> 01:31:59,960
disappear in the woods. The sheriff chased him for a while,

1479
01:32:00,119 --> 01:32:04,119
all ducking limbs and vines, but stopped and breathing hard,

1480
01:32:04,199 --> 01:32:07,960
his hands on his side and his cheeks red. Dan

1481
01:32:08,079 --> 01:32:10,800
circled back through the woods and went quickly over to

1482
01:32:10,880 --> 01:32:13,800
the soft ground, scrambling up the sides of hills and

1483
01:32:13,840 --> 01:32:17,920
sliding down the other sides. Two haulers over, he heard

1484
01:32:17,920 --> 01:32:21,720
the deputy heading in the wrong direction. Dan slowed a

1485
01:32:21,720 --> 01:32:24,199
little and trotted for a long time in the rain,

1486
01:32:24,720 --> 01:32:28,760
the cuffs rubbing his wrists raw. He stopped and looked

1487
01:32:28,760 --> 01:32:31,960
at what he'd been carrying in one hand, a match

1488
01:32:32,439 --> 01:32:36,640
limp and black. Now with water nearly dissolved, he stood

1489
01:32:36,680 --> 01:32:40,439
looking at the trees around him. The hanging Spanish moss,

1490
01:32:40,439 --> 01:32:43,319
and the cypress sneeze rising from the stagnant creek to

1491
01:32:43,399 --> 01:32:46,720
his left. The hair on the back of his neck rose,

1492
01:32:46,960 --> 01:32:49,600
and he knelt, tilting his head and closing his eyes,

1493
01:32:49,640 --> 01:32:53,319
and he listened. He heard the rain, heard it hit

1494
01:32:53,359 --> 01:32:56,079
the leaves and wood, and heard the puddles lapping at

1495
01:32:56,119 --> 01:33:00,640
their tiny banks. But beyond those sounds there were other sounds.

1496
01:33:01,479 --> 01:33:05,199
A walking bird walking, a blue jay, a squirrel barking,

1497
01:33:05,439 --> 01:33:09,359
another answering, and the deputy falling a quarter mile away.

1498
01:33:10,279 --> 01:33:16,239
Then another sound, this one close, a match striking. Dan

1499
01:33:16,359 --> 01:33:19,520
began to run before opening his eyes, and crashed into

1500
01:33:19,560 --> 01:33:23,479
a tree. He rolled to his feet, ran again, tearing

1501
01:33:23,520 --> 01:33:27,159
through limbs and briers and spider whips. He leapt small

1502
01:33:27,239 --> 01:33:30,079
creeks and slipped and got up. And he kept running,

1503
01:33:30,520 --> 01:33:33,920
and at every turn he expected Frank David. And he

1504
01:33:34,039 --> 01:33:37,920
was near tears when he finally stumbled into his family's graveyard.

1505
01:33:39,479 --> 01:33:42,199
The first thing he saw was that kent had been

1506
01:33:42,359 --> 01:33:46,560
dug up. Wooden steak surrounded the hole and fenced it

1507
01:33:46,640 --> 01:33:50,800
with yellow tape that had words on it. Dan approached slowly,

1508
01:33:50,880 --> 01:33:54,760
his fists under his chin. Something floated in the grave.

1509
01:33:55,560 --> 01:33:58,880
With his heart pounding, he peered inside. It was the

1510
01:33:58,920 --> 01:34:03,359
big three legged, wary of the trees behind him. He

1511
01:34:03,439 --> 01:34:06,920
crept toward their backyard, stopping at the edge, and he

1512
01:34:07,000 --> 01:34:10,039
crouched and blew into his hands to warm his cheeks,

1513
01:34:10,319 --> 01:34:13,279
and gazed at the dark windows of their cabin, and

1514
01:34:13,319 --> 01:34:17,279
then circle the house, keeping to the woods. He saw

1515
01:34:17,319 --> 01:34:19,800
the pine tree with the low limb they used for

1516
01:34:19,920 --> 01:34:24,279
stringing up larger animals to clean, and the rusty chain hanging,

1517
01:34:24,640 --> 01:34:27,399
and the iron pipe they struck through the back legs

1518
01:34:27,399 --> 01:34:31,239
of a deer or the rare wild pig. Kent and

1519
01:34:31,359 --> 01:34:34,720
Neil had usually done the cleaning, while Dan fed the

1520
01:34:34,760 --> 01:34:37,560
guts to their dogs and tried to keep them from fighting.

1521
01:34:38,800 --> 01:34:42,239
And there past the tree scattered and laid the rest

1522
01:34:42,279 --> 01:34:48,039
of the dogs, all shot dead, partially eaten, buzzards standing

1523
01:34:48,079 --> 01:34:50,720
in the mud, staring boldly at him, with their heads

1524
01:34:50,760 --> 01:35:01,880
bloody and their beaks open. It was dark when Kirksey

1525
01:35:02,039 --> 01:35:05,800
woke in his chair. He'd heard the door creak. Someone

1526
01:35:05,840 --> 01:35:08,800
stood there, and the storekeeper was afraid until he smelled

1527
01:35:08,800 --> 01:35:13,880
the river. Hey boy, he said, Dan ate two cans

1528
01:35:13,880 --> 01:35:16,600
of potted meat with his fingers, and a candy bar

1529
01:35:16,640 --> 01:35:20,319
and a box of saltines. Kirksey gave him a coat

1530
01:35:20,359 --> 01:35:23,199
from the red cooler and he drank it, took another

1531
01:35:23,239 --> 01:35:25,640
one while Kirksey got a hike saw from the rack

1532
01:35:25,720 --> 01:35:29,640
of tools behind the counter. He slipped the cardboard wrapping

1533
01:35:29,680 --> 01:35:33,640
off and nodded for Dan to sit. The storekeeper pulled

1534
01:35:33,720 --> 01:35:36,199
up another chair and faced the boy and began sawing

1535
01:35:36,279 --> 01:35:40,199
the handcuff chain. The match dropped out of Dan's hand,

1536
01:35:40,399 --> 01:35:43,720
but neither saw it. Dan sat with his head down

1537
01:35:43,800 --> 01:35:46,520
and his palms up and his wrists on his knees,

1538
01:35:46,640 --> 01:35:51,439
breathing heavily while Kirksey worked, and silver shavings had accumulated

1539
01:35:51,520 --> 01:35:55,279
in a pile between their boots. The boy didn't lift

1540
01:35:55,279 --> 01:35:58,279
his head the entire time, and he'd been asleep for

1541
01:35:58,359 --> 01:36:00,920
quite a while. When Kirksey found he saw it through.

1542
01:36:02,319 --> 01:36:05,239
The old man rose, flexing his sore hands, and he

1543
01:36:05,279 --> 01:36:08,119
got a blanket from a shelf, and he unfolded it,

1544
01:36:08,439 --> 01:36:11,399
shook out the dust, and spread it over Dan. He

1545
01:36:11,439 --> 01:36:14,920
went to the door and turned the dead bolt. The

1546
01:36:14,960 --> 01:36:18,279
phone rang later. It was good Low, asking about the

1547
01:36:18,279 --> 01:36:23,119
boy and telling what had happened. Kirksey nearly smiled, You've

1548
01:36:23,119 --> 01:36:27,600
been lost all this time? Sugar baby reckon, I have good, Low, admitted,

1549
01:36:28,039 --> 01:36:31,680
and we still ain't found Deputy Dave yet. For a

1550
01:36:31,720 --> 01:36:35,359
week they stayed in the store together. At times Kirksey

1551
01:36:35,399 --> 01:36:37,960
could barely walk, and other times the pain in his

1552
01:36:38,079 --> 01:36:41,199
side was worse than ever. He gave the boy a

1553
01:36:41,239 --> 01:36:44,119
stocking cap to cover his skinned head and put him

1554
01:36:44,119 --> 01:36:48,359
to work sweeping and dusting and scrubbing the shelves. He

1555
01:36:48,399 --> 01:36:51,199
had Dan pull a table next to his chair, and

1556
01:36:51,279 --> 01:36:55,079
Kirksey did something he hadn't done in years. He took inventory.

1557
01:36:55,760 --> 01:36:58,600
With the boy's help, he counted and ledgered each item,

1558
01:36:58,920 --> 01:37:03,279
marking it in his life Green book. The backshelf contained

1559
01:37:03,359 --> 01:37:08,600
canned soups, vegetables, sardines, and tins of meat. Many of

1560
01:37:08,600 --> 01:37:11,520
the cans were so old that the labels fleked off

1561
01:37:11,560 --> 01:37:14,960
in Kirksey's hand, and so they were unmarked when Dan

1562
01:37:15,079 --> 01:37:18,159
replaced them in the rings. They'd made not only in

1563
01:37:18,199 --> 01:37:21,640
the dust, but on the wood itself. In the back

1564
01:37:21,640 --> 01:37:25,079
of that last shelf, Dan discovered four tens of underwood

1565
01:37:25,119 --> 01:37:29,439
deviled ham and as their labels fell away at Kirksey's touch,

1566
01:37:29,720 --> 01:37:33,039
he remembered a time when he'd purposely unwrapped the paper

1567
01:37:33,119 --> 01:37:37,720
from these cans because each label showed several red dancing devils,

1568
01:37:38,079 --> 01:37:41,920
and some of his colored customers had refused to buy them.

1569
01:37:42,600 --> 01:37:45,920
Kirksey now understood that his store was dead, that it

1570
01:37:46,039 --> 01:37:50,479
no longer provided a service. His colored customers had stopped

1571
01:37:50,479 --> 01:37:54,199
coming for years, the same with Esther. For the past

1572
01:37:54,239 --> 01:37:57,840
few years, except for an occasional hunter or logger, he'd

1573
01:37:57,880 --> 01:38:01,600
been in business for the Gates boys alone. He looked

1574
01:38:01,600 --> 01:38:04,760
across the room at Dan sprang a window with winds

1575
01:38:04,800 --> 01:38:09,640
and wiping it absently. Gazing outside, The boy wore the

1576
01:38:09,720 --> 01:38:12,960
last of the new denim overalls Kirksey had in stock,

1577
01:38:13,359 --> 01:38:17,079
and they were too short by an inch or two. Once,

1578
01:38:17,119 --> 01:38:19,880
when the store had thrived, he'd had many sizes, but

1579
01:38:19,920 --> 01:38:22,520
for the longest time now the only ones he'd stok

1580
01:38:22,600 --> 01:38:27,760
were the boys sizes. That night, beneath his standing lamp,

1581
01:38:27,920 --> 01:38:31,520
Kirksey began again to read his wife's copy of Tarzan

1582
01:38:31,880 --> 01:38:35,479
of the Apes to Dan. He sipped his whiskey and

1583
01:38:35,560 --> 01:38:38,720
spoke clearly to be heard over the rain, and when

1584
01:38:38,760 --> 01:38:40,880
he paused to turn a page, he saw that the

1585
01:38:40,880 --> 01:38:44,039
boy lay asleep across the row of chairs they'd arranged

1586
01:38:44,079 --> 01:38:48,279
in the shape of a bed. Looking down through his bifocals,

1587
01:38:48,399 --> 01:38:51,039
Kirksey flipped to the front of the book and saw

1588
01:38:51,079 --> 01:38:55,079
his wife's name written in her neat script. He moved

1589
01:38:55,119 --> 01:38:57,720
his thumb over to it, and he read it to himself,

1590
01:38:58,279 --> 01:39:00,000
and then he turned to the back of the book

1591
01:39:00,079 --> 01:39:03,680
to the list of other Tarzan novels, twenty four in all,

1592
01:39:03,960 --> 01:39:06,479
and he decided to order them through the mail so

1593
01:39:06,560 --> 01:39:09,720
that he and Dan would know the complete adventures of

1594
01:39:09,840 --> 01:39:14,399
Tarzan of the Apes. In the morning, Goodlow called and

1595
01:39:14,479 --> 01:39:18,720
said that Frank David had officially arrived. The sheriff himself

1596
01:39:18,760 --> 01:39:21,600
had witnessed the swearing inn, and he was now this

1597
01:39:21,760 --> 01:39:26,239
district's new game warden. Pretty nice fellow, good Loaf said,

1598
01:39:26,720 --> 01:39:30,239
kind of quiet and polite. Asked me how the fishing was.

1599
01:39:31,119 --> 01:39:36,039
Then it's over, Kirksey thought. A week later, Kirksey told

1600
01:39:36,119 --> 01:39:39,720
Dan that he had business in Grove Hill. He'd spent

1601
01:39:39,840 --> 01:39:42,560
the night before trying to decide whether to take the

1602
01:39:42,600 --> 01:39:45,560
boy with him, but had decided not to that he

1603
01:39:45,600 --> 01:39:49,960
couldn't watch him forever. Besides, town wasn't the best place

1604
01:39:50,039 --> 01:39:53,920
for a gates. Before he left, he gave Dan his

1605
01:39:53,960 --> 01:39:57,119
thirty all six and told him to stay put not

1606
01:39:57,239 --> 01:40:00,960
to leave for anything and for himself. Kirksey took an

1607
01:40:01,000 --> 01:40:03,479
old twenty two bolt action and placed it in the

1608
01:40:03,520 --> 01:40:06,119
back window rack of his truck, and he waved to

1609
01:40:06,199 --> 01:40:09,399
Dan and he drove off. He thought that if the

1610
01:40:09,399 --> 01:40:12,239
boy wanted to run away, it was his own choice.

1611
01:40:12,960 --> 01:40:17,960
Kirksey owed him the chance, at least. At the doctor's office,

1612
01:40:18,039 --> 01:40:21,720
the tired looking young surgeon frowned and removed his glasses

1613
01:40:21,760 --> 01:40:25,199
when he told Kirksey that the cancer was advancing, that

1614
01:40:25,279 --> 01:40:28,399
he'd need to check into the hospital and mobile immediately.

1615
01:40:28,920 --> 01:40:31,880
It was way past time. Just look at your color,

1616
01:40:32,119 --> 01:40:35,800
the surgeon said, and Kirksey stood and thanked the man,

1617
01:40:36,359 --> 01:40:40,359
put on his hat and he leaped outside. He went

1618
01:40:40,359 --> 01:40:42,720
by the post office and placed his order for the

1619
01:40:42,760 --> 01:40:45,760
Tarzan books, and he shot for the supplies in the

1620
01:40:45,840 --> 01:40:49,079
dollar store, using the buggy for support, and then the

1621
01:40:49,079 --> 01:40:52,279
pigloo wiggily and had the checkout boys put the boxes

1622
01:40:52,279 --> 01:40:55,560
in the front seat beside him. Coming out of the

1623
01:40:55,640 --> 01:40:58,920
drug store, he remembered that it was Saturday, that there'd

1624
01:40:58,920 --> 01:41:02,720
be chicken fights to day. Impossible news about Frank David.

1625
01:41:04,199 --> 01:41:07,760
At Heflin's, Kirksey paid his five dollars admission and let

1626
01:41:07,800 --> 01:41:10,199
heflin help him to a seat in the bottom of

1627
01:41:10,239 --> 01:41:13,640
the stands. He poured some whiskey into his coffee and

1628
01:41:13,680 --> 01:41:18,159
sat studying the crowd. Nobody had mentioned Frank David, but

1629
01:41:18,239 --> 01:41:20,880
a few old timers had offered their sympathies for the

1630
01:41:20,960 --> 01:41:24,560
deaths of Kent and Neil down in the Pith. The

1631
01:41:24,640 --> 01:41:27,720
Cajuns were back, and during the eighth match, one of

1632
01:41:27,760 --> 01:41:31,239
the Cajun whites versus the local red the tall ball

1633
01:41:31,319 --> 01:41:34,720
Cajuns stooping and circling the tangle birds and licking his

1634
01:41:34,760 --> 01:41:37,600
lips as his rooster swarmed the other and hooked it.

1635
01:41:38,359 --> 01:41:41,600
The barn smoky and dark, and rain splattering on the

1636
01:41:41,680 --> 01:41:46,920
tin roof, and the door swung open instantly. The crowd

1637
01:41:47,199 --> 01:41:52,239
was hushed, feathers subtle to the ground. Even the Cajuns

1638
01:41:52,319 --> 01:41:56,159
knew who he was. He stood at the door, unarmed,

1639
01:41:56,159 --> 01:41:59,560
his hands on his hips. He was a wiry man,

1640
01:42:00,000 --> 01:42:02,720
lifted his chin and people tried to hide their drinks.

1641
01:42:03,279 --> 01:42:07,680
His giant ears that hook nose the eyes. The bird

1642
01:42:07,680 --> 01:42:11,239
handlers reached over their shoulders, clawing at the numbered pieces

1643
01:42:11,239 --> 01:42:14,880
of masking tape on their backs. The two handlers and

1644
01:42:14,920 --> 01:42:18,000
the referee in the rings sidled out, leaving the roosters

1645
01:42:19,640 --> 01:42:23,239
for a full minute. Frank David stood staring, and people

1646
01:42:23,279 --> 01:42:26,319
stepped out the back door and climbed out the windows.

1647
01:42:27,119 --> 01:42:30,359
Half naked boys in the rafters were frozen like monkeys

1648
01:42:30,359 --> 01:42:34,520
and hypnotized by a snake. Frank David's gaze did not

1649
01:42:34,640 --> 01:42:38,760
stop on Kirksey, but settled instead on the roosters, the

1650
01:42:38,800 --> 01:42:43,880
white one pecking at the red's eyes. Outside, trucks roared

1651
01:42:43,880 --> 01:42:48,920
to life, backfiring like gunshots. Kirksey placed his hands on

1652
01:42:49,000 --> 01:42:52,520
his knees. He rose and turned up his coat collar

1653
01:42:52,720 --> 01:42:56,439
and flung his coffee out, and Frank David still hadn't

1654
01:42:56,439 --> 01:43:00,119
looked at him. Kirksey planted his cane and made made

1655
01:43:00,159 --> 01:43:02,800
his way painfully out the back door and through the mud,

1656
01:43:04,279 --> 01:43:08,159
not a person in sight, just clattering tailgates vanishing into

1657
01:43:08,159 --> 01:43:12,560
the woods. From inside his truck, Kirksey watched Frank David

1658
01:43:12,600 --> 01:43:15,199
walk away from the barn and head toward the trees.

1659
01:43:16,079 --> 01:43:19,399
He watched him step around a mud puddle. Now he

1660
01:43:19,560 --> 01:43:23,479
was just a bury bowlegging man with white hair. Kirksey

1661
01:43:23,720 --> 01:43:26,800
felt behind him for the twenty two rifle with one

1662
01:43:26,840 --> 01:43:30,600
hand while rolling down the window with the other he

1663
01:43:30,680 --> 01:43:33,640
had a little trouble aiming the gun with the shaky arms.

1664
01:43:34,199 --> 01:43:37,119
He pulled back the boat. He flicked the safety off.

1665
01:43:37,640 --> 01:43:41,119
The sight of the rifle wavered between Frank David's shoulders

1666
01:43:41,119 --> 01:43:44,199
as the game warden walked as if an old storekeeper

1667
01:43:44,439 --> 01:43:49,760
were nothing to fear. Closing one eye, Kirksey pulled the trigger.

1668
01:43:50,600 --> 01:43:53,359
He didn't hear the shot, though later he would notice

1669
01:43:53,399 --> 01:43:58,359
his ears ringing. Frank David's coat bloomed out to the side,

1670
01:43:58,720 --> 01:44:01,319
and he missed a step, and he stopped and put

1671
01:44:01,319 --> 01:44:03,760
his hand to his lower right side and looked over

1672
01:44:03,800 --> 01:44:06,720
his shoulder at Kirksey, who was fumbling with the rifle's

1673
01:44:06,760 --> 01:44:11,600
bolt action. And then Frank David was gone, Just wasn't there.

1674
01:44:12,079 --> 01:44:15,159
There were only the trees bent in the rain and

1675
01:44:15,399 --> 01:44:19,199
shreds a fog in the air. For a moment, Kirksey

1676
01:44:19,279 --> 01:44:21,720
wondered if he'd seen a man at all, or if

1677
01:44:21,720 --> 01:44:25,359
he'd shot at something out of his own imagination, if

1678
01:44:25,359 --> 01:44:28,600
the cancer that had started in his pancreas had spread

1679
01:44:28,680 --> 01:44:31,359
up along his spine and into his brain and was

1680
01:44:31,439 --> 01:44:35,319
deceiving him, forming men out of air and walking them

1681
01:44:35,359 --> 01:44:38,520
across fields, giving them hands and eyes and the power

1682
01:44:38,640 --> 01:44:45,039
to disappear from inside the barn Aroosto Crode, Kirksey remembered Dan.

1683
01:44:45,760 --> 01:44:48,239
He hung the rifle in the rack and started his

1684
01:44:48,399 --> 01:44:52,119
truck and gunned the engine. He banged over the field

1685
01:44:52,199 --> 01:44:55,560
and flattened saplings in a fence, and though he couldn't

1686
01:44:55,560 --> 01:45:00,119
feel his feet, he drove very fast. Not until two

1687
01:45:00,159 --> 01:45:03,840
days later in the VA hospital and mobile with Kirksey

1688
01:45:03,920 --> 01:45:07,439
finally began to piece it all together. Parts of that

1689
01:45:07,520 --> 01:45:11,800
afternoon were patchy and hard to remember. Shooting at Frank David,

1690
01:45:12,199 --> 01:45:15,239
going to the store and finding it empty, no sign

1691
01:45:15,279 --> 01:45:18,720
of a struggle, and the thirty six gone, as if

1692
01:45:18,800 --> 01:45:21,840
Dan had walked out on his own and taken the gun.

1693
01:45:23,159 --> 01:45:27,159
Kirksey could remember getting back into his truck. He planned

1694
01:45:27,159 --> 01:45:30,279
to drive to Grove Hill in the courthouse, the game

1695
01:45:30,319 --> 01:45:34,720
Warden's office and find Frank David finished the job, but

1696
01:45:34,800 --> 01:45:37,479
somewhere along the way he blacked out behind the wheel

1697
01:45:37,560 --> 01:45:41,199
and veered off the road into a ditch. He barely

1698
01:45:41,239 --> 01:45:44,479
remembered the rescue workers and the lights and the sirens.

1699
01:45:44,920 --> 01:45:56,520
Goodlow himself pulling Kirksey out. Later that night, two coon

1700
01:45:56,600 --> 01:46:00,680
hunters had stumbled across Dan wandering along the river, his

1701
01:46:00,800 --> 01:46:04,640
face and shirt covered in blood, the thirty six nowhere

1702
01:46:04,640 --> 01:46:08,640
to be found. When Goodlow told the semi conscious Kirksey

1703
01:46:08,680 --> 01:46:12,560
what happened, the storekeeper turned silently to the window, where

1704
01:46:12,600 --> 01:46:15,760
he saw only the reflected face of an old, dang

1705
01:46:15,960 --> 01:46:20,960
failed man, and later, still in the warm haze of morphine,

1706
01:46:21,359 --> 01:46:25,439
Kirksey lowered his eyelids and let his imagination unravel and

1707
01:46:25,560 --> 01:46:29,800
retwine the mystery of Frank David. It was as if

1708
01:46:29,840 --> 01:46:34,159
Frank David himself appeared in the chair where Goodlow had sat,

1709
01:46:34,359 --> 01:46:36,920
As if the game warden broke the seal on a

1710
01:46:36,960 --> 01:46:40,239
bottle of jim Beam and leaned forward on his elbows

1711
01:46:40,239 --> 01:46:43,399
and touched the bottle to Kirksey's cracked lips, and whispered

1712
01:46:43,399 --> 01:46:46,560
to him a story about boots going over land, and

1713
01:46:46,600 --> 01:46:49,760
then gun shot and rain washing the blood trail away

1714
01:46:49,960 --> 01:46:53,479
even as the boots passed, about a tired old game

1715
01:46:53,520 --> 01:46:56,439
warden taking his hand out of his coat and seeing

1716
01:46:56,479 --> 01:46:59,560
the blood there and feeling it trickle along his side

1717
01:46:59,600 --> 01:47:02,079
and down the back of his leg, And about the

1718
01:47:02,119 --> 01:47:06,640
boy in the game warden's truck, handcuffed and gagged and blindfolded,

1719
01:47:07,239 --> 01:47:10,600
about driving carefully through the deep ruts in the road,

1720
01:47:10,840 --> 01:47:15,159
stopping behind Esther's empty house and carrying the kicking wet

1721
01:47:15,199 --> 01:47:19,920
boy inside on his shoulder. When the blindfold is removed,

1722
01:47:20,159 --> 01:47:23,319
Dan has trouble focusing, but knows where he is because

1723
01:47:23,319 --> 01:47:27,560
of her smell bacon and soap and cigarettes and dust,

1724
01:47:27,680 --> 01:47:30,560
and Frank David holds what looks like a pillow case.

1725
01:47:31,800 --> 01:47:34,439
He comes across the room and puts the pillow case down.

1726
01:47:35,079 --> 01:47:37,760
He rubs his eyes and sits on the bed beside Dan.

1727
01:47:38,279 --> 01:47:40,920
He puts on a pair of reading glasses and opens

1728
01:47:40,920 --> 01:47:44,079
a book of matches and lights a cigarette, holds the

1729
01:47:44,119 --> 01:47:48,319
filtered into Dan's lips, but the boy doesn't inhale, and

1730
01:47:48,399 --> 01:47:51,239
Frank David puts a cigarette in his own lips and

1731
01:47:51,279 --> 01:47:54,920
the embers glow. Then he drops it on the floor

1732
01:47:55,119 --> 01:47:58,079
and crushes it out with his boot and picks up

1733
01:47:58,119 --> 01:48:02,039
the butt, slips it into his shirt pocket. He puts

1734
01:48:02,039 --> 01:48:05,039
his hand over the boy's watery eyes, the skin of

1735
01:48:05,079 --> 01:48:08,159
his palm dry and hard, cool, and the faint smell

1736
01:48:08,199 --> 01:48:11,560
of blood, and he moves his fingers over Dan's nose

1737
01:48:11,720 --> 01:48:15,039
and lips and chin. He stops at his throat and

1738
01:48:15,079 --> 01:48:19,520
holds the boy tightly, but not painfully, in a strange way.

1739
01:48:19,880 --> 01:48:24,960
Dan can't understand, and he finds it reassuring. His studying

1740
01:48:25,000 --> 01:48:29,640
heart slows. Something is struggling beside his shoulder, and Frank

1741
01:48:29,720 --> 01:48:33,239
David takes the thing from the back. Now the smell

1742
01:48:33,279 --> 01:48:36,279
of the room changes and Dan begins to thrash and

1743
01:48:36,319 --> 01:48:39,720
whip his head from side to side. My damn son,

1744
01:48:40,079 --> 01:48:52,319
Frank David whispers, I hate to civilize you. Good Low

1745
01:48:52,399 --> 01:48:55,640
began going to the Veterans Hospital and mobile once a week.

1746
01:48:56,199 --> 01:49:00,239
He brought Kirksey cigarettes from a store. There weren't any

1747
01:49:00,279 --> 01:49:03,760
private rooms available in the hospital, and the beds around

1748
01:49:03,760 --> 01:49:07,840
the storekeeper were filled with dying ex soldiers who never talked.

1749
01:49:08,399 --> 01:49:11,600
But Kirksey was beside a window and Goodload would raise

1750
01:49:11,640 --> 01:49:15,560
the glass and prop it open with a novel. They

1751
01:49:15,600 --> 01:49:19,560
smoked together and drank whiskey from paper cups, listening for nurses.

1752
01:49:20,199 --> 01:49:23,680
It was the tall, mean one. One more time, God

1753
01:49:23,760 --> 01:49:26,600
damn it, she said, coming out of nowhere and plucking

1754
01:49:26,640 --> 01:49:29,600
the cigarettes from their lips so quickly that they were

1755
01:49:29,640 --> 01:49:34,279
still puckered. Sometimes Goodlow would push Kirksey down the hall.

1756
01:49:34,319 --> 01:49:37,199
When they would get a good wheelchair. The IV rack

1757
01:49:37,279 --> 01:49:40,880
attached by a stainless steel contraption with a black handle

1758
01:49:41,039 --> 01:49:43,560
the shape of a flower, and they would go to

1759
01:49:43,600 --> 01:49:46,760
the elevator and ride down three floors to the covered

1760
01:49:46,800 --> 01:49:50,720
area where people smoked and talked about the weather. There

1761
01:49:50,720 --> 01:49:55,239
were nurses and black cafeteria workers in white uniforms and hairnets,

1762
01:49:55,279 --> 01:49:59,640
and people visiting other people, and a few patients. A

1763
01:50:00,479 --> 01:50:04,000
in the halls, they'd see some mean old fart Kirksey knew,

1764
01:50:04,319 --> 01:50:07,520
and they'd talk about hospital food or chicken fighting, or

1765
01:50:07,560 --> 01:50:10,880
the fact that Frank David had surprised everyone by deciding

1766
01:50:10,920 --> 01:50:14,840
to retire after only a month of quiet duty, that

1767
01:50:14,960 --> 01:50:18,079
the new game warden was from Texas and a nigger

1768
01:50:18,159 --> 01:50:22,640
to boot. Then Goodlow would wheel Kirksey back along the

1769
01:50:22,680 --> 01:50:25,520
long window, out of which they could see the tops

1770
01:50:25,520 --> 01:50:29,880
of oak trees. On one visit, Goodlow told Kirksey they'd

1771
01:50:29,920 --> 01:50:34,279
taken Dan out of intensive care three weeks later. He said,

1772
01:50:34,319 --> 01:50:37,479
the boy had been discharged. I give him a ride

1773
01:50:37,479 --> 01:50:41,000
to the store. Good Load said. This was in late May,

1774
01:50:41,159 --> 01:50:44,319
and Kirksey was a yellow skeleton with hands that shook.

1775
01:50:45,039 --> 01:50:47,840
I'll stop buying check on him every evening, good Loa

1776
01:50:47,960 --> 01:50:50,880
went on, It'll be okay, The doctor says, he just

1777
01:50:50,920 --> 01:50:53,920
needs to keep them bandages changed. I can do that,

1778
01:50:54,039 --> 01:50:58,239
I reckon. They were quiet then for a time, just

1779
01:50:58,319 --> 01:51:01,079
the costs of the dying men, and the soft swishing

1780
01:51:01,119 --> 01:51:05,319
of nurses thighs, and the hum of ivy machines. Goodlaw,

1781
01:51:05,840 --> 01:51:09,000
Kirksey whispered, I'd like you to help me with some

1782
01:51:10,479 --> 01:51:13,560
The sheriff leaned in to hear, an unlit cigarette behind

1783
01:51:13,560 --> 01:51:17,880
his ear like a pencil. Kirksey's tongue was white and cracked,

1784
01:51:17,920 --> 01:51:22,000
and his breath was awful. I'd like to change my will,

1785
01:51:22,399 --> 01:51:27,640
he said, make the boy the beneficiary, all right, said Goodlow.

1786
01:51:28,359 --> 01:51:33,640
I'm obliged, whispered Kirksey, and he closed his eyes. Near

1787
01:51:33,680 --> 01:51:36,399
the end, he was delirious. He said he saw a

1788
01:51:36,439 --> 01:51:39,600
tiny black creature at the foot of his bed. He

1789
01:51:39,720 --> 01:51:43,079
said it had him by the toe. In surprising fits

1790
01:51:43,079 --> 01:51:45,880
of strength, he would throw his water pitcher at it,

1791
01:51:46,079 --> 01:51:50,399
or his box of tissues, or the reader's digest. Restraints

1792
01:51:50,439 --> 01:51:54,119
were called for, and his coma was a relief to everyone,

1793
01:51:54,520 --> 01:52:05,840
and he died quietly in the night in Kirksey's chair

1794
01:52:06,159 --> 01:52:10,399
in the store. Dan hadn't seemed to hear Goodload's questions.

1795
01:52:11,119 --> 01:52:13,479
The sheriff had done some looking into the Grove Hill

1796
01:52:13,600 --> 01:52:18,399
Public Library, research was the modern word, and discovered that

1797
01:52:18,439 --> 01:52:22,520
one species of cobra spat venom at its victim's eyes,

1798
01:52:22,920 --> 01:52:26,960
but there weren't such snakes in southern Alabama anyway. The

1799
01:52:27,000 --> 01:52:30,159
hospital lab had confirmed that it was the poison of

1800
01:52:30,199 --> 01:52:34,199
a cotton mouth that had blinded Dan. The question, of course,

1801
01:52:34,319 --> 01:52:37,439
was who had put the venom in his eyes. Goodloads

1802
01:52:37,479 --> 01:52:41,039
shuddered to think of it. How they'd found Dan staggering about,

1803
01:52:41,279 --> 01:52:44,520
howling in pain and bleeding from his tear ducts, the

1804
01:52:44,560 --> 01:52:48,680
skin around his eye sockets dissolving, exposing the white ridges

1805
01:52:48,720 --> 01:52:53,439
of his skull. In the investigation, several local blacks, including

1806
01:52:53,479 --> 01:52:57,600
Euphrates more Sets, stated to Goodload that the youngest Gates

1807
01:52:57,640 --> 01:53:01,920
boy and his two dead brothers had tested euphrates stepdaughter

1808
01:53:02,239 --> 01:53:06,000
in their own home. There was a rumor that several

1809
01:53:06,039 --> 01:53:09,840
black men dressed in white sheets with a pillowcases for hoods,

1810
01:53:09,880 --> 01:53:12,920
had caught and punished Dan as he alurked along the river,

1811
01:53:13,279 --> 01:53:17,119
peeping in folks windows and doing unwholesome things to himself.

1812
01:53:18,439 --> 01:53:21,920
Others suggested that the conjured woman had cast a spell

1813
01:53:21,960 --> 01:53:25,239
on the gateses that she summoned a swamp demon to

1814
01:53:25,359 --> 01:53:29,680
chase them to hell, and still others attributed the happenings

1815
01:53:29,720 --> 01:53:34,159
to Frank David. There were a few occurrences of violence

1816
01:53:34,199 --> 01:53:37,199
between the local whites and the Blacks, and some fires

1817
01:53:37,279 --> 01:53:40,279
and a broken jaw, but soon it died down. In

1818
01:53:40,319 --> 01:53:43,079
good Low file the deaths of Kent and Neil Gates

1819
01:53:43,119 --> 01:53:48,520
as accidental, but he listed Dan's blinding as unsolved. The

1820
01:53:48,560 --> 01:53:51,800
snake venom had bleached the boy's pupils white, and the

1821
01:53:51,840 --> 01:53:56,239
skin around the eye socket had required grafts. The surgeons

1822
01:53:56,279 --> 01:53:59,399
had had to use skin from his buttocks, and because

1823
01:53:59,439 --> 01:54:02,680
his buttock were hairy, the skin around his eyes began

1824
01:54:02,760 --> 01:54:06,399
to grow hair too. In the years to calm, the

1825
01:54:06,439 --> 01:54:09,319
loggers who clear cut the land along the river would

1826
01:54:09,319 --> 01:54:12,439
occasionally stop in the store, less from a need to

1827
01:54:12,439 --> 01:54:15,760
buy something, and more from a curiosity to see the

1828
01:54:15,800 --> 01:54:21,039
hermit with the milky, hairy eyes. The store smelled horrible,

1829
01:54:21,239 --> 01:54:24,159
like the inside of a bear's mouth, and dust lay

1830
01:54:24,239 --> 01:54:27,920
thick and soft on the shelves. Because they had come in,

1831
01:54:28,039 --> 01:54:31,560
the loggers felt obligated to buy something, but every item

1832
01:54:31,680 --> 01:54:35,520
was moldy or stale beyond belief, except for the things

1833
01:54:35,560 --> 01:54:38,800
in the cans, which were unlabeled, so they never knew

1834
01:54:38,800 --> 01:54:42,680
what they'd get. Nothing was marked as to price either,

1835
01:54:43,000 --> 01:54:46,199
and the blind man wouldn't talk. He just sat by

1836
01:54:46,279 --> 01:54:50,279
the stove. So the loggers paid more, some less than

1837
01:54:50,319 --> 01:54:52,960
what they thought a can was worth, leaving the money

1838
01:54:53,000 --> 01:54:55,800
on the counter by the telephone, which hadn't been connected

1839
01:54:55,800 --> 01:55:00,920
in years. When Plumper Gray or Goodlow came by on

1840
01:55:00,960 --> 01:55:04,760
the occasional evening, smelling of booze, he'd take the bills

1841
01:55:04,760 --> 01:55:07,720
in coins and puts them in Kirksey's cash shower and

1842
01:55:07,800 --> 01:55:11,239
the rest in his pocket. He was no longer sheriff,

1843
01:55:11,399 --> 01:55:14,920
having lost several elections back to one of his deputies,

1844
01:55:15,119 --> 01:55:19,239
roy Or Dave. He still wore the same khaki uniform,

1845
01:55:19,479 --> 01:55:22,199
but now he drove a lance truck, and his route

1846
01:55:22,239 --> 01:55:26,079
included the hospitals and the county, and every other month

1847
01:55:26,279 --> 01:55:30,800
the prison. Damn boy, he once cracked to Dan, this

1848
01:55:30,880 --> 01:55:34,359
store's doing better business now than it ever has. You

1849
01:55:34,399 --> 01:55:38,359
sure you don't want a cookie rack? When Goodlow left,

1850
01:55:38,439 --> 01:55:41,399
Dan listened to the rattle of the truck as it faded.

1851
01:55:42,279 --> 01:55:46,880
Sugar Baby, he whispered, and many a night for years

1852
01:55:46,920 --> 01:55:49,760
after until his own death. In his sleep, Dan would

1853
01:55:49,880 --> 01:55:52,720
rise from the chair and move across the floor, taking

1854
01:55:52,800 --> 01:55:55,680
Kirksey's cane from where it stood by the coat rack,

1855
01:55:56,520 --> 01:55:59,039
and he would go outside and down the stairs like

1856
01:55:59,079 --> 01:56:01,920
a man who could see, and his beard nearly to

1857
01:56:01,960 --> 01:56:05,279
his belly, and he would walk soundlessly the length of

1858
01:56:05,319 --> 01:56:08,319
the building, knowing the woods even butter now as he

1859
01:56:08,399 --> 01:56:11,479
crept down the rain rutted gully toward the river, whose

1860
01:56:11,520 --> 01:56:14,640
smell never left the caves of his nostrils in the

1861
01:56:14,720 --> 01:56:17,720
roof of his mouth. At the river bank, he would

1862
01:56:17,760 --> 01:56:20,560
stop and sit with his back against a small pine,

1863
01:56:20,960 --> 01:56:23,760
and lifting his white eyes to the sky, he would

1864
01:56:23,760 --> 01:56:27,079
listen to the clicks and hum and thrattle of the woods,

1865
01:56:27,479 --> 01:56:30,920
seeking out each noise at its source, and imagining it

1866
01:56:31,720 --> 01:56:36,199
an acorn nodding and detaching its thin ricochet, and the

1867
01:56:36,239 --> 01:56:40,960
way it settled into the leaves, a bullfrog's bubbling throat,

1868
01:56:41,199 --> 01:56:43,920
and the things it said, And the trickle of the

1869
01:56:44,000 --> 01:56:47,840
river over rocks, around the bases of cattails and cypress sneeze,

1870
01:56:47,880 --> 01:56:51,720
and through the wet hanging roots of trees. And then

1871
01:56:51,800 --> 01:56:57,920
another sound familiar, the soft, precise footsteps of Frank David

1872
01:56:58,800 --> 01:57:04,960
down Wind, coming closer, not going away, circling, the striking

1873
01:57:05,039 --> 01:57:08,239
of a match, and the sizzle of ember and fall

1874
01:57:08,279 --> 01:57:13,840
of ash, the ascent of smoke, strange and terrifying comfort

1875
01:57:13,960 --> 01:57:19,039
for the rest of Dan Gates life. I hope you

1876
01:57:19,079 --> 01:57:23,600
all enjoyed that story. Poachers is a short story by

1877
01:57:23,680 --> 01:57:26,880
Tom Franklin. It is a story from a collection of

1878
01:57:26,960 --> 01:57:30,920
short stories by the same name, Poachers. I think the

1879
01:57:30,960 --> 01:57:34,560
book won an award. I think it's the Edgar Award.

1880
01:57:35,159 --> 01:57:38,680
I'm not sure. I saw an interview with Tom Tom Franklin,

1881
01:57:38,720 --> 01:57:40,960
and he said it won an award, and he didn't

1882
01:57:40,960 --> 01:57:43,520
even know what the award was. He had to ask

1883
01:57:43,560 --> 01:57:46,680
his agent. He goes, what award is this? I'm sure

1884
01:57:46,720 --> 01:57:50,279
he knows now. Anyway. I sent an email to Tom

1885
01:57:50,560 --> 01:57:52,479
about a month ago and I asked him if I

1886
01:57:52,479 --> 01:57:55,439
could read a story or two from this book, and

1887
01:57:55,560 --> 01:57:58,520
his answer back to me was hell, yes, that's all

1888
01:57:58,520 --> 01:58:02,039
he sent back. And so he's probably a He's probably

1889
01:58:02,079 --> 01:58:05,800
a pretty good guy if he hears this. I certainly

1890
01:58:05,840 --> 01:58:09,239
do appreciate him giving me permission to read this great story.

1891
01:58:09,239 --> 01:58:12,079
I love this style of writing. It's so easy for

1892
01:58:12,159 --> 01:58:15,439
me to follow especially when it's set in a region

1893
01:58:15,520 --> 01:58:18,520
where I'm familiar with and I can relate to the characters,

1894
01:58:18,600 --> 01:58:23,239
and so I love this story. Tom has several novels available,

1895
01:58:23,640 --> 01:58:27,800
plus this book of short stories. I'll put his author

1896
01:58:28,119 --> 01:58:32,760
page linked in Amazon in the description, and you guys

1897
01:58:32,760 --> 01:58:34,840
can look him up and buy his books and you

1898
01:58:34,920 --> 01:58:38,560
will not be disappointed. If you like good literature, good

1899
01:58:38,680 --> 01:58:42,159
modern literature, you'll enjoy this stuff. So thank you all

1900
01:58:42,159 --> 01:58:45,119
for listening, and we will see you on the next podcast.

1901
01:58:45,239 --> 01:58:45,600
Thanks