Mississippi Cotton by Paul H. Yarbrough Read Free Book Online Page B

college?”
    “Maybe. He wants to go to Ole Miss though. I don’t know if he could play there. You have to be very good to play there, what with all the good players they have. Daddy said he might be able to play at Mississippi College or Millsaps. Anyway, he’s got two years left in high school after this year.”
    “Why does he want to go to Ole Miss—Johnny Vaught?”
    “Dixie Daniels.”
    “You mean our Dixie Daniels? From Cotton City?”
    “Yeah, same one.”
    “She’s already at Ole Miss. Has been for the last three years.”
    “Yeah, I know. But there’s something about a guy when he starts gettin’ close to drivin’ and havin’ a driver’s license.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Well, they start payin’ close attention to girls for some reason. And two years ago, when we were here at Christmas, I noticed he was noticin’ her down at the park. And that was jus’ about the time Daddy started teachin’ him to drive. I’m tellin’ y’all—it’s weird.”
    “Why good grief, she’s old enough to be his mother. She’s gotta be over nineteen or twenty. Besides, I notice girls,” Taylor said.
    “Yeah, but not like guys that have drivers licenses do. I asked him what it was about them. I asked if was because they started using lipstick or something.”
    “What’d he say?”
    “He said that was part of it. But also when girls got older…well, their… you know…” I held my hands to the front of my chest, palms up and slightly curved, “…well, these get bigger. You know… their…their—”
    “Their bosoms.” Taylor said the magic word.
    “Yeah,” I said, “those. Now we’ve been comin’ up here since I was too little to remember, and Farley has been seeing Dixie Daniels since she was ten or eleven. So he’s watched them progress, you might say.”
    Casey walked in. He was wiping the remaining spit and toothpaste from his mouth with his hand.
    “What are y’all talkin’ ‘bout. I heard y’all say fishin’ and bosoms.”
    “Not so loud, Casey. You wanna get us killed, talkin’ about stuff like that?”
    “Talkin’ ‘bout fishin’?”
    “No! ‘Bout bosoms.”
    “I jus’ wanna know if y’all decided to go fishin’ tomorrow. Whada I care ‘bout bosoms?”
    “Jus’ a minute, we’re talkin’ about something else right now.” Taylor turned back to me. “Well, ‘progress’ sounds funny.”
    “Well, they have…progressed. I wonder why ours don’t progress,” I said.
    “They jus’ don’t. It’s jus’ a law or something. Ours don’t change. I think they’re jus’ there for balance or something. I mean it’s not like they’re a couple of hamsters and you can feed ‘em and train ‘em to make ‘em bigger.”
    We both laughed.
    Casey didn’t laugh. He just looked at us like we were crazy. “When y’all get through with your bosom talk, will y’all tell me one thing?”
    “What?” Taylor said.
    “Are we gonna go fishin’ tomorrow?”
    Taylor and I looked at one another. Then Taylor put his hand on his little brother’s shoulder for reassurance. “Definitely.”

 
     
    CHAPTER 5
    “Now I’m gonna give you boys twenty cents apiece. That’s a dime for the movie and a dime for popcorn.” We were parked in front of the Majestic, the pickup idling while Cousin Trek dropped us off. He dug into his pocket for change.
    “Thank you, Cousin Trek, but Daddy gave me some money.” I knew my daddy would want me to try to pay for myself, and anyway I felt important saying I had my own money.
    “That’s fine, Jake, but save your money. I’m treatin’ tonight. Y’all are gonna get a chance to earn a little hoeing cotton next week.”
    I thought of that extra money and smiled. Taylor and Casey didn’t smile. The thought of doing anything with cotton wasn’t special to them—money or not.
    “BB’s helpin’ work that hundred acres across the road for me and Big Trek, and he needs to get some of the weeds out. They been gettin’ ahead of him, and