Joe by Larry Brown Read Free Book Online

said.
     
    “What do you think?”
     
    “Naw.”
     
    “You know he ain’t. If he did he’d of done found him a liquor store somewhere and spent it.”
     
    “Well, what we gonna do?”
     
    She just looked at him.
     
    “I don’t know.”
     
    By noon they had most of the trash cleaned out but they were having to stay out of the room where the wasp nest hung. They were sitting under the shade of some trees in a yard that honey-suckle vines had taken over. Like foraging cows they had trampled them down and flattened them.
     
    “Now how much money have we got?” the old man said to them. He looked hopeful.
     
    “I ain’t got none,” Gary said.
     
    “Don’t look at me,” said Fay.
     
    “Where’s your purse?” Wade asked her.
     
    “I said I ain’t got none,” she told him. “What, you think I’m lyin?”
     
    “I just want to check.”
     
    “I done told you I’m broke.”
     
    “Well, I just want to see.”
     
    “Well, you can just jump up my ass.” She got up and started to pick up her purse, but he caught her by the arm. They fought briefly over it until he broke the strap and snatched it away from her. He upended it and dumped the contents on the ground while she cursed at him. A comb, a mirror, two sticks of gum, hair clips, lipstick. He shook it but nothing else came out.
     
    “Now. You satisfied?” She knelt and started putting her things back in it, muttering under her breath.
     
    “We got to have somethin to eat,” he said.
     
    “You oughta thought of that before you got us out here.”
     
    “You want me to slap you?” he said. She didn’t answer.
     
    “We gonna have to do somethin,” Gary said. “Find us a job.”
     
    “Where you gonna find one at?” the old man said.
     
    “I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to go look for one. How far is it to town?”
     
    The old man looked around at the woods as if the trees bore road signs that marked the route to civilization.
     
    “It’s about ten mile, I guess.”
     
    “Ain’t there a store no closer than that?”
     
    “They’s one over here at London Hill. Or used to be.”
     
    “Reckon they’d give us some credit?”
     
    “They might. You could ask. They might give us credit.”
     
    “Well, why don’t we walk over there and see? We got to do somethin. We can’t set around here all day.”
     
    “You go. My legs is hurtin s’bad I can’t hardly get up.”
     
    The old woman had not spoken but she was unfolding limp green paper in her hands. Each of them realized it gradually, turning one by one to look at her as she sat with her head down, her fingers trembling slightly as she fumbled with the wrinkled bills. She smoothed each one on her knee as she drew it from the wad.
     
    “Where’d you find that, Mama?” Gary said.
     
    “I had it,” she said. Her hair was coated with dust and it hung limply around the sides of her head so that her ears stuck through.
     
    “How much you got?” the old man said. He was taking it off her knee and counting it. “Eight dollars? You got any more?” She shook her head.
     
    He got up immediately, his leg forgotten, and put the bills in his pocket.
     
    “I’ll go on over to the store,” he said. “See what I can buy.”
     
    Gary got up. “Let me go with you,” he said.
     
    “Ain’t no need for you to go. I can do it.”
     
    “Go with him, Gary,” Fay said, nudging him.
     
    “Just stay here. I’ll be back after while.”
     
    “You gonna get some gas?” Gary said.
     
    “Gas? What for?”
     
    “For that wasp nest.”
     
    Wade shook his head, already starting off. “I ain’t got nothin to carry it in.”
     
    “We gonna have to rob that wasp nest before we can stay in there.”
     
    “Well, if I find a jar to bring it back in I’ll buy some.” Theystood and watched him stagger away through the hot woods. When he was out of hearing Fay turned on her mother.
     
    “What’d you give him all that money for? He ain’t gonna do nothin