Part 2 (1/2)
33.”You think I'm not gone miss you?”
”You said you weren't.”
”I was lying. I don't know what I'm gone do without you. You're my baby. If I could I'd keep you with me, but that wouldn't do either of us any good. When I was your age, I was living with Mama. Daddy had already died, I didn't miss him at all. I loved Mama very much-but probably I shouldn't have stayed. I should have gone out on my own. If I had gone out on my own, I would have met somebody nice and married them. But look what happened, I stayed with Mama, and then when Mama died I went crazy out of my mind and I married Genevieve Snyder.”
”Daddy, if you hadn't married Genevieve, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you.”
”You sure?”
”Of course. What do you think? I'm Mama's girl. I'm not anybody else's daughter,”
”Then I suppose it was all for the good,” sighed James Caskey. ”Though it didn't seem much like it at the time.”
”Daddy, you'll be fine. Everybody in Perdido knows I'm up here at Vanderbilt, and everybody in town's gone want to take care of you. Loneliness isn't gone be your problem. Well, for instance, just look at the number of Caskeys there are now! You know, when I was little, I was all by myself, I didn't have anybody to play with, I didn't have anybody to talk to. But good Lord, look what it's like now! Elinor came to town during the flood, and now there's Miriam and Frances, and Queenie showed up, and Queenie's got three children-”
”Don't forget Carl!”
”Wish I could! Anyway, Daddy, the town is full of family now. They snuck up on us. You will hardly notice I'm gone.”
But a day or two following, while James Caskey was unwrapping the figurines, and ornaments, and plates he had purchased in Nashville, in his daugh- 34.ter's company and with his daughter's advice, it seemed as if each were a stone he was tossing down a deep, dry, black well that had opened itself wide at his feet.
Queenie Strickland worried that her children were too much exposed to their father's contaminating presence and conversation. She tried to keep them out of the house and removed from their father's baleful influence. She feared, however, that Malcolm was already lost. Carl had taken his elder son fis.h.i.+ng on the upper Perdido, presented him with a gun on the first day of hunting season, had even allowed Malcolm to go with him to the racetrack in Can-tonement one Sat.u.r.day afternoon. Malcolm was easily won over to his father's camp by these masculine blandishments. One day, in anger that his mother had denied him a trifling privilege, Malcolm declared that he loved Carl very very much, and that he hated Queenie's guts.
Carl tended to ignore his daughter, believing a little girl beneath his notice. He thought if Queenie taught Lucille to sew and cook and flirt, she would turn out well enough.
With Malcolm all but lost, and Lucille in little danger, it was of greatest importance for Queenie to keep her younger son free of his father's influence. As she explained to James Caskey, ”That boy is not like Malcolm, and he's certainly not like his daddy. He's so quiet and shy! He doesn't like the way his daddy talks. He doesn't like the way his daddy acts. I wish... I just wish he didn't have to live in the same house with Carl.”
”Well,” replied James, as he sat down in a chair on the other side of Queenie's desk in the outer office, ”I don't know that it's so much worse for Danjo than it is for you and Lucille.”
”It is. I'm used to it. I don't like it, but I'm used to it. Carl doesn't bother Lucille so much, 'cause she's 35.a girl. He won't take Lucille out with him, see. He won't take her hunting, he won't take her with him to the track. That's the difference. And Carl keeps on talking about getting a gun for Danjo. A gun, James! And that child is only five years old!”
The telephone rang, and the conversation was broken off, not to be resumed that day. The next morning, James was at work early. As soon as Queenie arrived, and before she had even arranged her desk, James tapped on the gla.s.s and signaled for her to come into his office.
”Morning, James.”
”Morning, Queenie. How'd you sleep?”
”Nightmares.”
”Me too. I always have nightmares in an empty house.”
”Oh, I know you miss your little girl! Have you heard from her?”
”I have. She has sent me three letters, and I get a postcard near about every day. I've got an alb.u.m to put 'em in, went out and bought it last week.”
”So Grace is doing all right up at Vanderbilt?”
”She is making one friend after another. She says she is so happy up there she can hardly stand it. She says she wants me to write her some bad news so she can come down off cloud nine.”
”James, did you have something to say to me?” said Queenie, having noted from the first a distraction in her brother-in-law's manner.
”I did. Sit down, Queenie. I've been thinking about what you said yesterday.”
”About what?”
”About Danjo.”
Queenie nodded.
”Things didn't get any better last night, did they?”
She stopped and considered the matter a moment. ”I hate to say it, James, but I think I am getting sort of used to Carl's being back. I mean, he doesn't go out beating people up anymore. I don't think he's 36.stealing. As long as he's in one room at night and I'm in another that's all right-or at least it would be if it weren't for Danjo.”
”That's what I wanted to talk to you about. I was thinking maybe you should get rid of Danjo.”
”He's my preciousest!”
”I know, but, Queenie, you don't want him contaminated! That's the word you used yesterday.”
”I sure don't, but what am I supposed to do with him?”
”Give him to me.”
”To you? You don't want him!”
”How you know that! I do want him!”
”He's so little! What would you do with a five-year-old, James?”
”I'd raise him up right. I've had experience. I raised Grace, and as you know, most of that time I was working pretty much on my own. Genevieve was mostly with you in Nashville.”
”Well, I know all that. What I mean is, what about all your pretty things?”
”I don't mind. Danjo is careful. He's been in my house before. And if some things get broken, that's all right. I can buy others. I'm not poor. I can build high shelves. Danjo will be just fine. So why don't you go on and give him to me? Queenie, I'm so lonesome without Grace, I cain't hardly stand it. I was moping around last night, just thinking that what I could use most in the world was a little boy to keep me company.”
”And you think Danjo will do?”
”Danjo would be the best, Queenie!”
”I'd hate to give him up.”
”Queenie, it's not like I'd be taking him to a different town-you could come see him all the time. And look at it this way: I wouldn't be taking him away from you, I'd just be taking him away from Carl.”
37.”I'd like that,” Queenie admitted. ”Carl will raise holy h.e.l.l.”
”What's he gone do about it?”