IVJULIA
Overheadthe high thin air swished, beaten by the wings of wild ducks that flew swiftly across the sky in an even fan-shaped line. Uncle kept looking up at them. Once when he spoke to them in strange muttered words, Big Sue observed:
“Lawd, do listen at Uncle! A-talkin’ to dem ducks same as if dey was speerits!”
The trees leaned dreamily over the water which trembled as the sun turned it to dark blood. Uncle’s pulling slackened. The flat touched the firm earth at last.
With amazing nimbleness the old man hopped out and tied it fast to a tree, his crooked fingers fumbling stubbornly with the frayed rope until he was satisfied it would hold; then he followed Big Sue and Breeze up a short sandy climb where the road made a swift bend and ran underneath great trees whose thick branches lapped overhead, shutting out all but small white pieces of the sky.
A bony gray mule hitched to a two-wheeled car stood tethered to a limb. Uncle hobbled to the beast’s head: “Wake up, Julia! Open you’ eyes, gal! You too love to nod! Dat’s de biggest fault I got to find wid you! Lula was a wakeful mule! Lawd, yes!”
Big Sue was panting and climbing in over the cart’s wheel, using the hub for a step. She sat on a board laid across the body. Breeze got in and sat on the floor.Uncle crawled over the dashboard, and jerking the rope lines urged Julia to move on.
“Mind, Julia! Don’ git me vexed! I ain’ used to no triflin’ ways! Lula was pearter’n dis!” Uncle sat up very straight and his tone was terribly threatening.
Julia shook the gnats out of her ears, then snorted them out of her nose, but not until Uncle got to his feet and, raising a long dry stick high as his arm could reach, brought it down on her hip with a powerful whack did she move out of her tracks.
“Git up, Julia!” He gave her another lick, and she turned slowly about and got into the sandy road.
Big Sue heaved a weary sigh.
“Julia is de laziest mule I ever seen in my life, Uncle! Whilst you was a-buyin’ one, whyn’t you git a spry one?”
“Julia ain’ lazy. E’s just careful. Julia knows dis cart ain’ so strong.”
“I hear-say Julia kicks awful bad sometimes!”
“Who? Julia? No, ma’am! Julia’s kind as kin be!”
“E looks awful old, Uncle.”
“Julia ain’ no more’n ten.”
“How come e front knees is so bent over if e ain’ old?”
“Bent over? Julia’s got to bend e knees to walk, enty?”
“Well do, fo’ Gawd’s sake, lick em an’ make em walk a li’l’ faster. We wouldn’t git home befo’ to-morrow if you don’t. Lawd, I’m sorry Lula’s dead.”
“Me too, Big Sue. Now Lula was a mule fo’ true. Lula was de finest mule ever was on Blue Brook. Julia ain’ got no time wid em. Lula had sense like people. I miss em too bad. I ruther de boll-evils had eat up all de cotton on de plantation dan to ’a’ had Lula pizened.I told April to don’ fetch dat pizen to de place. I knowed somet’ing bad was gwine happen soon as he done it. But April is a headstrong man. Nobody can’ change him when he gits his mind made up.”
“April tries to be big doins’ like de buckra, enty?”
“No, gal, not like de buckra. April’s done passed by de buckra! April aims to do like Gawd now!”
“Shut you’ mouth, Uncle! You’s a case!” Big Sue roared with laughter.
“April better quit pizenin’ all dem bugs Gawd put in de cotton!” Uncle contended.
Big Sue pondered over this, but presently she grinned and slipped a look at Uncle.
“When Lula died, whyn’t you bought a awtymobile, Uncle? I hear-say you got plenty o’ money buried all round you’ house.”
“Who? Me? Great Gawd! I ain’ got fi’ cents buried! But if I had a t’ousand dollars I wouldn’ buy a awtymobile! Not me!”
“How come so?”
“Lawd, dey smells too bad! An’ I seen how dey treats de buckra. Dey goes sound to sleep on de road any time dey gits ready. Soon’s dey gits in deep sand whe’ de pullin’ is tight, dey squats right down an’ dozes off. You can’ lick ’em wid no stick like I licks Julia to wake ’em up. No, ma’am. You have to set an’ wait on ’em till dey nap is out. Dey kin dead easy too. I wouldn’ trust to buy one. No, Jedus. Dey breath is stink as a pole-cat too.”
“Lawd, Uncle, you is a case in dis world! A heavy case!”
Uncle’s eyes twinkled. “You ax me so much a questions, now le’ me ax you one. How come you’ wind is so short, daughter? You been puffin’ like a steamboat ever since you come up dat li’l’ small hill.”
Big Sue’s hands caught at each other anxiously. “I dunno, Uncle. My wind is short fo’ true. E’s been short since last Sunday was a week. I eat a piece o’ possum what was kinder spoilt fo’ my supper last night, an’ I ain’ been hardly able to travel all day. Spoilt victuals never did set right in my stomach, somehow. I don’ know how come so.”
As Uncle studied, his eyes snapped. “Sp’ilt possum meat wouldn’ hurt nobody. You looks to me like you’s conjured. You’ eyes looks strainin’. You must ’a’ crossed somebody dat Sunday.”
Big Sue’s fat face looked ready to cry. “I ain’ never done nobody a harm t’ing in my life, Uncle. I stays home all de time. I goes to church on Sunday, den I comes straight back home. I don’ hardly go to meetin’ on Wednesday night. I went all de way to Sandy Island to git dis boy, by I was so lonesome yonder home by myself. Who you reckon would conjure me, Uncle?”
Uncle shook his head gravely. That was hard to tell. Some people get mighty mean if you cross them.
“I don’ cross nobody, Uncle.” Big Sue was whimpering. “Not nobody! I ever was peaceable.”
“Is you an’ Leah friendly dese days? Leah is a mighty jealous ’oman, Big Sue.” Uncle’s eyes sparkled as they sought Big Sue’s, but she met them boldly.
“I ain’ got April to study ’bout, Uncle.”
A smile twitched Uncle’s dry wrinkled face. “How ’bout de new town preacher, daughter? I hear-say you an’ Leah all two is raven ’bout em. Better mind. De next t’ing you know dat same preacher’ll make you have sin.”
Big Sue laughed with relief. “No, Uncle. You’s on de wrong trail now. A preacher couldn’t make me have sin, anyhow.”
“How come so?”
“De preacher’s a Christian man, enty? An’ I is a Christian, enty? One clean sheet can’ soil another, Uncle.”
“Shut you’ fool-mouth, Big Sue. You, neither dat preacher, neither Leah, ain’ no cleaner’n nobody else. You kin have sin de same as me. Sho’ you kin!”
Uncle brought his stick down with a whack on Julia’s back.