Gump & Co. by Winston Groom Read Free Book Online

like shit! Don’t you think I know that? And you have made it at least drinkable! Do you have any idea what something like this is worth? Millions! Billions! C’mon now, try to remember. What was it, er – What’s your name, anyhow?’
    ‘Gump,’ I says. ‘Forrest Gump.’
    ‘Yes, Gump – well, c’mon now, Gump – let’s go real slow through exactly what you did to this stuff. Show me what you put in it.’
    So that’s what I did, except I couldn’t remember everthin. I got out some of the little bottles an jars an stuff an tried to do it again, but I never could seem to get it quite right again. We tried an tried again, maybe fifty times, until it was way past midnight, but each time ole Alfred spit the stuff out in the sink an says it ain’t like the first batch. Meantime, Mrs Hopewell is about on her twentieth gin an orange juice.
    ‘You fools,’ she says once. ‘There ain’t no way to make that crap any good. Why don’t we all go lay down in the bed an see what happens?’
    ‘Shut up, Alice,’ Alfred says. ‘Don’t you see this is the opportunity of a lifetime!’
    ‘Opportunity of a lifetime is what I just suggested,’ says Mrs Hopewell, an she goes back out in the mirror room an starts beatin on the gong. Finally, Alfred leans up against the icebox an puts his head in his hands.
    ‘Gump,’ he says, ‘this is incredible. You have snatched me from the jaws of defeat, only to throw me back again. But I’m not finished yet. I am gonna call the police to seal this kitchen off. And tomorrow, we are gonna get an entire staff down here to pack up every conceivable thing you might have put in this stuff and ship it all back to Atlanta.’
    ‘Atlanta?’ I ast.
    ‘You bet your sweet ass, Gump. And the most prized item of all is going to be yourself!’
    ‘Me?’ I ast.
    ‘Goddamn right, Gump. Your big ass is coming along to our lab in Atlanta to put this thing together right. Just think of it, Gump. Today Atlanta! Tomorrow the
world
!’
    Mrs Hopewell’s face is smilin from the winder as I leave, an upon considerin all this, I have a feelin that trouble lies ahead.

Chapter Three
    ANYHOW, I GONE on back to Mrs Curran’s that night an phoned up Slim at his motel to say I ain’t gonna be placin no more encyclopedias in people’s homes.
    ‘Well, Gump, so this is how you repay me for all my kindness!’ he says. ‘Stabbed in the back! I should of known better.’ An he concludes with a bunch of other shit that ain’t any nicer, after which, he hung up in my face. At least I got that over with.
    Little Forrest is of course long asleep in the bedroom time I get through with all that, an Mrs Curran ast me what is goin on? I tole her I am quittin the encyclopedia bidness to go up to Atlanta an help Alfred make his new CokeCola, an that I figger I got to do this, account of it is a lot of money involved an we need to fix up little Forrest with some backup income. She agrees with me, cept she say she thinks I oughta have a conversation with little Forrest fore I go, an explain to him about exactly who I am, since his mama an daddy are dead now. I ast her don’t she think
she’d
be better off explainin all that, but she say no.
    ‘There comes a time, Forrest, when I believe a person has got to take the responsibility on himself, and that time is now. Might not be easy, but you gotta do it. And you gotta do it right, because it is gonna make a lastin impression on him.’
    In this, I know Mrs Curran is correct, but it is not somethin I look forward to.
    Next mornin I get up bright and early, an Mrs Curranmade me some cereal an helped me get my bag packed. Alfred says he is gonna pick me up at nine a.m. sharp, an so I have got to deal with little Forrest right about now. When he gets finished eatin his breakfast, I call him out on the porch.
    ‘I have got to be gone for a while,’ I says, ‘an there is some things you better know before I go.’
    ‘What is that?’ he ast.
    ‘Well, for one