A Gathering of Old Men Read Free Page B

is make you tell me the truth, Candy,” I said.
    “I told you the truth,” she said. But she knew that I knew better. “Now, you can do one of two things,” she said. “Help me or leave.”
    “Leave?” I said. I didn’t have to look at Beau again. I didn’t have to look at Mathu. She knew I wouldn’t leave, couldn’t leave. “Leave?” I said.
    “Help me, then,” she said.
    “Help you how, Candy?”
    “I need more guns,” she said.
    “What?”
    “Get me more twelve-gauge shotguns,” she said. “Get me more people here.”
    “More people?” I asked her. “More people for what, Candy?”
    “You see what they’re doing?” she said, nodding toward the porch.
    I had already seen them, so I didn’t have to look again. “I see old men with shotguns, I see that,” I said.
    “Yes,” she said. “And I need more. Mapes come here, he’ll beat up two till they talk, then he’ll take one. I need more people here.”
    “Candy, are you crazy?” I said. “Are you crazy? Do you know what you’re saying?”
    “I know what I’m saying, I know what I’m doing,” she said. “Get me some more people here quick.”
    “Get who?” I said.
    “Who?” she said. She looked at me the way you look at somebody playing dumb. But I was not playing dumb; I didn’t know who she was talking about. “Who?” she said again. “There’s not a black family in this parish Fix and his crowd hasn’t hurt sometime or other. You’re older than I am, you know that better than I do. Get any of them, get all of them. Now is their chance to stand.”
    “And be killed? Is that what you want? Blood all over this place?”
    “Look around you, Miss Merle,” she said, waving her hand toward the porch. I didn’t have to look around to know how quietly they sat, watching and listening. “Aren’t they ready to die?” she asked. “Look at Mathu. Do you know who Mathu is, Miss Merle? Miss Merle, I ask, do you know who Mathu is?”
    “I know who Mathu is, Candy,” I told her. “I knew Mathu long before you were ever born.”
    And I looked at her long enough to let her know that I knew it was he who had done it, and not she. She turned away quickly.
    “Look at Rufe,” she said, trying to throw my mind off Mathu. “Look at Johnny Paul.”
    “Candy?” I said.
    “We don’t have much time,” she said. “We have to notify Mapes sooner or later. I want an hour jump on him at least. Iwant Lou here before he gets here. I want more people here with twelve-gauge shotguns, and number five shells. Empty number five shells. Empty. Now, you don’t have much time. Talk to Janey.”
    “Talk to Janey about what, Candy?”
    “In case you have forgotten what Fix has done to these people around here, maybe she can remind you. I will not let Mapes or Fix harm my people.”
    “Candy?” I said. I reached out to take her arm, but she moved back out of my reach. “Candy?” I said.
    “No, I won’t let them harm my people,” she said. “I will protect my people. My daddy and all them before him did, and I—”
    “Candy?” I said.
    “I’ll stand alone,” she said. “Before I let them harm my people, I’ll stand alone.”
    “Candy, please. Please, Candy,” I said.
    “I did it,” she said.
    “Nobody in this parish will ever believe that.”
    “I don’t care what people in this parish believe,” she said. “What do I care about what people in this parish believe? I’ll stand alone.”
    I turned from her and looked at Mathu squatting there, black as pitch, with that double-barrel shotgun cradled in his arms. How many times had I stood in that yard talking to him while he squatted there, and she sitting across from him at the end of the porch? How many times had I driven by, not stopping, but waving at him while he squatted there, and she sitting on the steps or at the end of the porch talking to him? How many times had I sat on the porch at Marshall House talking to him while he sat on the steps, holding his hat