the rider clicked his tongue and trotted off. stamp made small circles in the palm of his left handwith two fingers of his right. "you got to choose," he said. "choose anyone. they let you be if youwant em to. my house. ella. willie pike. none of us got much, but all of us got room for one more.
pay a little something when you can, don't when you can't. think about it. you grown. i can'tmake you do what you won't, but think about it."paul d said nothing.
"if i did you harm, i'm here to rectify it.""no need for that. no need at all."a woman with four children walked by on the other side of the road. she waved, smiling. "hoooo.
i can't stop. see you at meeting.""i be there," stamp returned her greeting. "there's another one," he said to paul d. "scripturewoodruff, able's sister. works at the brush and tallow factory. you'll see. stay around here longenough, you'll see ain't a sweeter bunch of colored anywhere than what's right here. pride, well,that bothers em a bit. they can get messy when they think somebody's too proud, but when itcomes right down to it, they good people and anyone will take you in.""what about judy? she take me in?""depends. what you got in mind?""you know judy?""judith. i know everybody.""out on plank road?""everybody.""well? she take me in?"stamp leaned down and untied his shoe. twelve black buttonhooks, six on each side at the bottom,led to four pairs of eyes at the top. he loosened the laces all the way down, adjusted the tonguecarefully and wound them back again. when he got to the eyes he rolled the lace tips with hisfingers before inserting them. "let me tell you how i got my name." the knot was tight and so wasthe bow. "they called me joshua," he said. "i renamed myself," he said, "and i'm going to tell youwhy i did it," and he told him about vashti. "i never touched her all that time. not once. almost a year. we was planting when it started and picking when it stopped. seemed longer. i should havekilled him. she said no, but i should have. i didn't have the patience i got now, but i figured maybesomebody else didn't have much patience either — his own wife. took it in my head to see if shewas taking it any better than i was. vashti and me was in the fields together in the day and everynow and then she be gone all night. i never touched her and damn me if i spoke three words to hera day. i took any chance i had to get near the great house to see her, the young master's wife.
nothing but a boy. seventeen, twenty maybe. i caught sight of her finally, standing in the backyardby the fence with a glass of water. she was drinking out of it and just gazing out over the yard. iwent over. stood back a ways and took off my hat. i said, 'scuse me, miss. scuse me?' she turnedto look. i'm smiling. 'scuse me. you seen vashti? my wife vashti?' a little bitty thing, she was.
black hair. face no bigger than my hand. she said, "what? vashti?' i say, 'yes'm, vashti. mywife. she say she owe you all some eggs. you know if she brung em? you know her if you seeher. wear a black ribbon on her neck.' she got rosy then and i knowed she knowed. he give vashtithat to wear. a cameo on a black ribbon. she used to put it on every time she went to him. i put myhat back on. 'you see her tell her i need her. thank you. thank you, ma'am.' i backed off beforeshe could say something. i didn't dare look back till i got behind some trees. she was standing justas i left her, looking in her water glass. i thought it would give me more satisfaction than it did. ialso thought she might stop it, but it went right on. till one morning vashti came in and sat by thewindow. a sunday. we worked our own patches on sunday. she sat by the window looking out ofit. 'i'm back,' she said. 'i'm back, josh.' i looked at the back of her neck. she had a real small neck.
i decided to break it. you know, like a twig — just snap it. i been low but that was as low as i evergot.""did you? snap it?""uh uh. i changed my name.""how you get out of there? how you get up here?""boat. on up the mississippi to memphis. walked from memphis to cumberland.""vashti too?""no. she died.""aw, man. tie your other shoe!""what?""tie your goddamn shoe! it's sitting right in front of you!
tie it!""that make you feel better?""no." paul d tossed the bottle on the ground and stared at the golden chariot on its label. nohorses. just a golden coach draped in blue cloth.
"i said i had two things to say to you. i only told you one. i have to tell you the other.""i don't want to know it. i don't want to know nothing. just if judy will take me in or won't she.""i was there, paul d.""you was where?""there in the yard. when she did it.""judy?""sethe.""jesus.""it ain't what you think.""you don't know what i think.""she ain't crazy. she love those children. she was trying to out hurt the hurter.""leave off.""and spread it.""stamp, let me off. i knew her when she was a girl. she scares me and i knew her when she was agirl.""you ain't scared of sethe. i don't believe you.""sethe scares me. i scare me. and that girl in her house scares me the most.""who is that girl? where she come from?""i don't know. just shot up one day sitting on a stump." "huh. look like you and me the only onesoutside 124 lay eyes on her.""she don't go nowhere. where'd you see her?""sleeping on the kitchen floor. i peeped in.""first minute i saw her i didn't want to be nowhere around her. something funny about her. talksfunny. acts funny." paul d dug his fingers underneath his cap and rubbed the scalp over histemple. "she reminds me of something. something, look like, i'm supposed to remember.""she never say where she was from? where's her people?""she don't know, or says she don't. all i ever heard her say was something about stealing herclothes and living on a bridge." "what kind of bridge?""who you asking?""no bridges around here i don't know about. but don't nobody live on em. under em neither. howlong she been over there with sethe?""last august. day of the carnival.""that's a bad sign. was she at the carnival?""no. when we got back, there she was — 'sleep on a stump. silk dress. brand-new shoes. black asoil.""you don't say? huh. was a girl locked up in the house with a whiteman over by deer creek.
found him dead last summer and the girl gone. maybe that's her. folks say he had her in theresince she was a pup.""well, now she's a bitch.""is she what run you off? not what i told you 'bout sethe?"a shudder ran through paul d. a bone-cold spasm that made him clutch his knees. he didn't knowif it was bad whiskey, nights in the cellar, pig fever, iron bits, smiling roosters, fired feet, laughingdead men, hissing grass, rain, apple blossoms, neck jewelry, judy in the slaughterhouse, halle inthe butter, ghost-white stairs, chokecherry trees, cameo pins, aspens, paul a's face, sausage or theloss of a red, red heart.
"tell me something, stamp." paul d's eyes were rheumy. "tell me this one thing. how much is anigger supposed to take? tell me. how much?""all he can," said stamp paid. "all he can.""why? why? why? why? why?"
