Part 16 (1/2)
”Sure,” Tommy whispered back.
Mr. Williams stopped his car in front of Mrs. Pulham's house and after she had thanked him Djuna took the cat bag and carried it up on the front porch for her. On the way he said he and Tommy would come over the next day and get the cat and take it down to the dentist for her if she wanted them to.
”See, I told you it was lucky for me that your dog tried to chase my cat,” Mrs. Pulham replied. ”I'll give you each fifty cents if you will. You'd better come in the forenoon so that you can catch that dentist before he goes out.”
”Yes, ma'am,” Djuna said politely. ”We'll come as early as we can.”
”Not too early, though,” Mrs. Pulham warned. ”I go to bed late because I can't sleep and then I stay in bed late because I can't get up.”
”Yes, ma'am,” Djuna said.
”And don't bring your dog with you,” Mrs. Pulham went on, ”or you'll have trouble with the cat.”
”Yes, ma'am,” Djuna said, and he said good-by as he scurried down the steps.
When Djuna got back to the car he told Tommy how they were going to earn a dollar between them the next day. Mr. Williams laughed and shook his head but he didn't say anything.
When they arrived at Tommy's home out on the Dixie Highway, west of Dolphin Beach, Mrs. Williams came out on the porch while they were getting out of the car. She was a tall woman, nearly as tall as Mr. Williams, and had coal black hair and white even teeth that flashed a great deal of the time because she liked to laugh. She was laughing as she came off the porch and gathered Djuna into her arms and gave him a hug and a kiss.
”My, but I'm glad to see you, Djuna,” she said, and then she smiled at Tommy and added, ”It's nice to see you two together again. How's Miss Annie?”
”Oh, she's fine, thank you,” Djuna told her. ”She is going up to spend Christmas with her sister, Mrs. Silvernails. She told me to be sure to give you her love.”
When they were inside Mrs. Williams wanted to know all about everyone in Edenboro, where the Williams family used to live and where Djuna still lived with Miss Annie Ellery.
Djuna told them all the news, including the fact that his friend Socker Furlong, a newspaper reporter, had driven over to Edenboro to wish them a Merry Christmas on the very day he had received the letter from Tommy asking him, Djuna, to visit Dolphin Beach over the holidays.
”He's that newspaper reporter on the Morning Bugle in the city where Mrs. Silvernails lives, isn't he?” Mrs. Williams asked.
”That's the one,” Djuna said excitedly. ”And I couldn't have come down here if he hadn't arrived, because Miss Annie couldn't spare the money for my fare. Socker said he could get me a special rate through his newspaper, and he did.”
”Jeepers, Socker is an awful nice man!” Tommy said stoutly and Djuna nodded his head in confirmation.
After a while Mr. Williams stood up and said, ”Look, you old ladies can gossip after supper tonight. What about taking a run out to my bean fields with me, now, while I give my supervisor the money to pay off the pickers for their day's work?”
”Sure,” Djuna and Tommy said in unison, and Mrs. Williams laughed a.s.sent.
On the way to Mr. Williams's bean fields they pa.s.sed an enormous covered platform that was built a few feet above the ground. On the end of the huge building was a large sign in six-foot letters that read: DOLPHIN BEACH FARMERS' EXCHANGE.
”That,” Mr. Williams said as he drove slowly around the platform, ”is the largest vegetable market in the world, Djuna. They s.h.i.+p out hundreds of thousands of hampers and boxes of vegetables to every part of the United States each winter. And over there,” he pointed, ”where you see all those refrigerated boxcars lined up on the rails, they s.h.i.+p about a hundred boxcars full every day during the winter season.”
”Jiminy crimps!” Djuna said as he gazed with awe at the hampers of vegetables being unloaded from small trucks on conveyers to the platform, and then reloaded on other conveyers into larger trucks for s.h.i.+pment. ”I didn't think there were so many vegetables in the world!”
The platform was over a quarter of a mile long and several hundred feet wide. The ground around it was all paved and at the north end there were fifty or sixty enormous diesel trucks parked, waiting their turn to be loaded. All around the platform there were other enormous trucks backed up to take on hampers and boxes packed with ripe corn, green beans, peppers, potatoes, eggplant, and other vegetables. Beside the larger trucks were smaller ones that had brought hampers and boxes of vegetables in from the endless fields to the west. The voices of the buyers and sellers could be heard above the roar of the trucks as the farmers sold their vegetables to the distributors. There were great piles of hampers waiting to be loaded into the refrigerated trucks and sent scurrying over the country's highways.
A little later Djuna was even more astonished when he saw Mr. Williams's bean fields. He couldn't believe it because he had never seen beans grown any place except in short rows in backyard gardens up north. He remembered the little fifteen-foot rows he had helped Miss Annie Ellery plant and pick up in Edenboro. Here, the rows of beans ran on and on and on, as far as the eye could see and until they seemed to disappear over the horizon.
”Gee!” he said in amazement. ”I'm glad I don't have to hoe them!”
A few minutes later they pa.s.sed a group of Mr. Williams's pickers and Djuna stared at them because they were talking some language that he couldn't understand. Others were singing a plaintive, melancholy melody as they worked, swinging their bodies to the peculiar cadence of the tune.
After they had pa.s.sed them, Djuna said to Tommy, ”What were they talking about?”
”Search me,” Tommy said. ”They were speaking Spanish. A lot of the pickers come from Puerto Rico and Jamaica and South America.”
”How do they get here?” Djuna asked.
”By plane and boat,” Mr. Williams said. ”The ones from Puerto Rico and Mexico just need permits to get into the country. But the ones from foreign countries have to have regular pa.s.sports. We pay them every day, because it's pretty hard to keep track of them on any other basis. We make 'em all sign the payroll every day and produce their Alien Registration Cards or their pa.s.sports. The East Florida Border Patrol keeps a close eye on aliens to see that they don't slip north and disappear. If they lose their pa.s.sports they're really in trouble. They-”
”All right, Harry,” Mrs. Williams interrupted to say. ”That's enough beans for today. We're going home now and have supper-and not beans-and then Djuna is going to bed. He probably only half slept on that coach last night and Miss Annie would skin me alive if he got sick down here.”
”Oh, I feel fine, Mrs. Williams,” Djuna protested.
”And I'm going to see that you keep that way,” Mrs. Williams said grimly, and this time she wasn't laughing.
Chapter Two.
The Cat Meets a Dentist
THE sun was s.h.i.+ning when Djuna opened his eyes the next morning. At first his surroundings were strange to him and he couldn't remember where he was. When remembrance came to him he bobbed up in bed like a jack-in-the-box and saw that Tommy was already up. He hurried into sneakers, swimming trunks and a striped Basque s.h.i.+rt, gave his face and hair ”a lick and a promise” in the bathroom and bounced into the kitchen, a kitchen gay with red-checked tablecloth and curtains, and with the sun and red bougainvillaeas peeping in the window.
”Lazybones!” Tommy scoffed from behind a bowl of cereal and strawberries.
”Morning, Djuna,” Mr. Williams boomed from his place at the table beside Tommy.
”Don't let Tommy spoof you, Djuna,” Mrs. Williams said, flas.h.i.+ng her teeth. ”He has only been up two minutes himself. What about some dry cereal with strawberries and cream, a soft-boiled egg, toast, marmalade and milk? That's what Tommy is having.”
”Strawberries at this time of year!” Djuna exclaimed. ”Just give me anything, Mrs. Williams. I'm so glad to be here it really wouldn't make any difference if I didn't have anything to eat.”
”Well, we're just as glad to have you, Djuna,” Mr. Williams said, ”but you can't live on suns.h.i.+ne. I was up and out in the fields at daylight. By the time I get back here for breakfast I can eat like a horse, and I do.” Djuna glanced at Mr. Williams's plate and saw that it was piled high with ham and eggs and fried potatoes.
”Do your men start picking that early?” Djuna asked.
”Soon after it's daylight,” Mr. Williams told him. ”I get 'em started early and then give 'em a long siesta in the middle of the day, because it's pretty hot in the fields at that time.”
”What,” Mrs. Williams asked, ”are you boys going to do today?”
”We're going to the beach on my bike,” Tommy said.
”Not until after lunch,” Mrs. Williams said firmly. ”I have a special Florida dish for Djuna at lunchtime, so-”
”Besides, we have to take Mrs. Pulham's cat to the dentist this morning,” Djuna interposed.
”Take Mrs. Pulham's cat to the dentist!” Mrs. Williams said. ”Why, I never heard of such a thing!”