Billy by Albert French Read Free Book Online Page B

nobody touch and that one he holds and gets to slammin down at Sunday church. That one he don't let folks touch or read, he say came through slavin time, he say his daddy carried up from slavin time, said his daddy learned the Word from it. Reverend Sims had a good livin that showed on hi m. Kept some chickens and pigs up in the sheds
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    out behind his place, had more of everything than most Patch folks had of anything, except LeRoy.
    Reverend Sims had some years too, that hair he had left was cotton-white, but when he got to preachin and jumpin up and down at the old Patch church with that sparkling sweat just a rolling down that deep-black face of his, you'd think he was just born.
    Things and time had a certain way of moving in the Patch . Folks had their predictable ways, could tell who was who b y the way they might bang a cookin pan or yank an outhouse door closed, even how they might carry a night-light, which way it swung might let you know who wa s swinging it.
    Reverend Sims put his Bible down when he saw Short y bouncing up the road, then stood and took his Bible in the house, put it away, and came back out onto the sittin porch and waited for Shorty.
    "Reverend, Reverend, hey, Reverend. " Shorty started shouting as soon as he seen Reverend Sim s, then cut off th e Patch Road and up through the side weeds and run up into the Reverend's dirt yard.
    Shorty is at the bottom of Reverend Sims' sittin-porch steps looking up at the Reverend with that smi l e on his face. "Rev erend, Ah's hearin somethin, hearin one of them little whit e girlchilds got stabbed, hear it's one of them childs of Mi s t e r Red's, that limp-walkin man that be livin out there past the waterlands. They come for Doc Grey, Sheriff Tom was way out past the hard road, soon as he gits back he goes flyin out there. They's still lookin for Mister Red, they's got to t e ll s him. Ah was sweepin up in Mister Hanner's cuttin shop , that's wheres Ah hears it. That's where that talk was at. Th ey start sayin some colored folks done did it, colored folk s don e
    44 I Albert French

    cut that child. They thinkin it might be some of them freight train-ridin coloreds might've drift back up in there from them tracks goes by out theres."
    Shorty stopped talking, kept smiling and looking up at the Reverend. Reverend Sims stopped looking down al Shorty and looked out the Patch Road, then let his eyes wander a bit. Then he looks back down at Shorty, shakes his head some like he does in the Patch church, and says, "Lord have mercy, is she dead?"
    "Folks ain't knowin, sorta waitin on Doc Grey to gits back. Doc Grey, he still be out there, and Sheriff Tom still be out there too," Shorty says, rocking back and forth like he does when he ain't walking and trying to stand still.
    The Reverend takes one of them deep sighs, then blows that air out of h is mouth so hard his lips start shaking. He looks down at Shorty and starts saying like he's praying, "Th under in the sky, gonna bring lightnin in the night. What's wrong wit folks these days? Hurtin some child like that, God have Mercy." The Reverend gets his sweat-wipin handkerchief out and starts patting and dabbing at his forehead.
    Shorty gets a chance to ask what he's been tryin to figure out. "Reverend, ya thinkin somebody down here done gone up theres and done that hurtin to that child?"
    Reverend Sims just keeps wi ping his forehead while he thinking like Shorty wants him to, then the Reverend shakes his head and says sharply, "Ah don't wants to hear that kind of talk around here. Folks around here gots they ways, but cuttin up on children ain't one of em, that ain't colored folks' ways, naw sir, ain't colored folks' ways to be hurtin white childrens like that..,
    Shorty left, started maki ng his talk in rounds. Reverend
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    Sims went back into the house, got his Bible, came back out, and started sittin and readin again, but kept looking up and down that Patch Road .
    Shorty figured he