"Cough." "This hurt?" "This?" "This?" "Oh, that's all right now, Sarah." "I guess I've poked and pushed at you enough." "Come on in, now." "You get yourself dressed, then come on in here." "Then we'll have a little talk." "Oh, Sarah, I haven't seen you for quite some time." "You know how it is, Dr Thomas." "Frank and the children have been going to the new doctor." "You've been going to him, too?" "Oh, no." "No." "I told Frank, "Dr Thomas has always been the Kane family doctor," ""and I'm still right satisfied with that arrangement."" "Thank you, Sarah." "Well, I do wish you had been seeing someone, though." "You must have been suffering considerable pain." "Some." "You raised a fine family, Sarah." "Fine." "Just fine." "Oh, you heard from your brother John lately?" "No." "Just a card last Christmas." "It's been seven years." "Well, now, what are we going to do about you, Sarah?" "Let's see." "I think you better see Miss Fanny Jeffers, and tell her you're not coming in to work tomorrow." "I want to put you in the Memorial Hospital this afternoon just for some tests." "You see, I want to give you some tests to find out what's causing all that pain." "Nothing to get upset about now." "Just some tests." "Lloyd?" "Oh, how do, Reverend MacGill?" "Evening, Mr Thomas." "Come in." "Come on in, boy." "Papa, have you got a minute?" "I want to talk to you." "That's why I asked you to come by." "You asked me?" "Yes." "I called your office." "Well, I didn't get it." "I'm going straight to Hill-Donaldson." "Any trouble there?" "No." "No, nothing much." "Seems to me like you ought to get that strike settled." "Why don't you get Perry Kermit out on the golf course and tell him to give those men the extra $1 and get it over with?" "Oh, Papa, you just don't understand." "They recognise this union and then they got trouble in Birmingham and Gary and..." "Well, look, I didn't come here to talk politics." "What is it you want?" "I already told Reverend MacGill part." "It concerns one of my patients," "Sarah Gabriel." "You know, works for Miss Fanny Jeffers." "Oh, yeah." "It's a tumour, malignant." "She's got maybe a few more days to live at most." "Poor sister." "A true Christian." "But what's troubling me started 35 years back." "Thirty-five years." "Oh, Papa." "A delivery, Aunt Ella Kane, Sarah's mother." "I was troubled about a breach presentation." "So I brought her in here at the office." "A sudden storm, considerable wind damage." "But there was a sudden surge, and the main transformer on the relay line at Marion Road just blew." "Well, I just finished cutting the umbilical cord when the lights came back on again." "John." "Seven pounds, three ounces." "Well, he grew up like any other little coloured boy in town." "Measles and chicken pox and all that." "Then, when he was about halfway through high school, he quit." "Now, there wasn't anything too unusual about that." "Not in those times and other, but at the age of 16, he just disappeared." "What do you mean?" "He left town." "Papa, lots of coloured boys left town." "There wasn't anything to wonder about then." "There was no trouble at home or with the police." "Then it was..." "Oh, yeah, seven or eight years went by." "Then Aunt Ella Kane had a sudden stroke." "I didn't like the signs, so I put her into the hospital for observation." "That afternoon," "Sarah's brother, John, dropped off the Trailways bus from Marion." "Few hours later, Aunt Ella had a sudden embolism and died." "The next day after the funeral, he left town." "Is that it?" "I mean, this boy showing up at his mother's deathbed?" "If you'll indulge your father for a few minutes further." "It was again years and years went by." "How many, Papa?" "I got an appointment." "Then Sarah, Aunt Ella's daughter, came to me." "The father, been a brick mason, travelled from job to job." "There'd been an accident in a five-storey business block in a small town in Indiana," "Columbus or Frankfurt." "Lafayette." "Anyway, the man died in the fall." "But there was a small insurance policy, and Sarah asked me to see if the Indiana authorities signed certain papers." "So, I was going to a Bloomington medical conference anyway, so I stopped off at Columbus." "It was Columbus." "Everything had been taken care of." "The man's son had arrived a few minutes after the accident and was with his father when he died." "That boy John, wandering God knows where, had come back to his mother's deathbed and his father's deathbed." "And now his sister Sarah was in the hospital." "Not a soul in the world who knows she has just a few days maybe to live at most." "And yet as sure as I am standing here" "I feel that boy will come back to his sister's deathbed." "Papa, there are holes in that story you could drive a truck through." "He could have found out in a perfectly ordinary kind of way." "A long-distance telephone call, telegram." "No one knows where he is." "But you don't know that for sure." "The family doesn't know that she's dying." "I was just talking to Reverend MacGill about how to break the news to the family." "That's the very important thing you had to tell me?" "I mean, that's it?" "You'll excuse me, Reverend, I have to get along." "Papa, could I see you?" "Yeah." "Yeah, can I see you, Papa?" "Excuse me, Reverend." "I swear, I don't know what's the matter with you." "I'm sorry, Lloyd." "I tell you..." "Well, no, I don't have time now," "but I got something to tell you." "Papa..." "Hi, Harry, Peter." "Papa, would you listen to me?" "George Howard was talking to me about your driving again." "And look, you put another dent in your fender." "It cost me $48 to straighten out two weeks ago." "Well, I'll take care of it in the insurance." "Papa, they have cancelled your insurance after the last accident." "I'm carrying you as an assigned risk." "What's the use?" "Papa, would you just take care?" "Drive careful." "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "Where the hell have you been?" "Union wages!" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "Well, I came right out here." "We've got a court order, no mass picketing." "Now, are you going to..." "Orly Ball's coming right out." "Are you going to enforce that injunction?" "Now, just take it easy, Archie." "Then we sure elected ourselves one hell of a county solicitor." "Now, wait just a damn minute." "You didn't elect anybody." "You're sure as hell gonna find out in the next primary." "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "If you think you can get along in this county without the company..." "Now, look here..." "Perry, Perry, would you let me talk to Orly?" "What do we want?" "Now, there's a court order." "Twelve pickets at the main gate." "We got a call from the New York office, and they say they heard there was a field representative coming down here from the Southern Labour Rights Council." "Now, you know damn well..." "When somebody crosses the line into Calawah County to incite violence" "I'll take care of him." "Now, in the meantime, I'm going to keep the peace." "Hey, Bill, old Sheriff Orly Ball's coming over here." "Now, you keep them going, but keep them down low." "Keep them going." "Union wages!" "Right now!" "Union wages!" "Right now!" "Hey, Charley Gray." "Hey, Sheriff." "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "You're gonna have to ask your boys to kind of thin themselves out a bit." "When do we want it?" "Right now." "They don't always do what I tell them to, Sheriff." "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "On the other hand, what the hell good is it going to do us, getting heads busted at this stage of the game, huh?" "Right now!" "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "Union wages!" "Look, you're entitled to have 12 pickets." "That's legal, right?" "Now, it don't make no nevermind to me if the rest of them watch them right out there." "Right now!" "What do we want?" "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "What do we want?" "Union wages right now!" "Union wages right now!" "It wouldn't be a bad place to watch from, Sheriff." "When do we want it?" "Right now!" "Nice talking to you, Charley Gray." "Hey, it's always a pleasure, Sheriff." "Union wages!" "When do we want it?" "And he ordered adrenaline lM on top of the oxygen, but she didn't respond." "So he called Dr Rhorbach, because he didn't want to take the responsibility without a senior head of service." "I'm sorry, Mr Gabriel." "I did think that she would have more time." "I told her time and time again to stop dosing herself with that damn pink medicine." "I don't think that would have made much difference." "Did Sarah have any other kinfolk in town?" "Just let it all out, honey." "No." "Her brother, John." "I guess you'll want to get in touch with him if anybody knows where he is." "Sit down, Frank, sit down." "You'll have to sign for the PM, Doctor." "John." "John Kane." "Dr Thomas." "I didn't know if you'd remember me." "I didn't think anyone knew where to reach you." "I suppose they didn't." "I was just passing through." "You saw Sarah?" "I mean, before she died?" "It must have been a comfort to her, although I don't think she knew." "I think maybe she guessed." "Were you far away?" "How long will you be staying in town?" "Just a little while." "Excuse me." "And I will dwell in the house of the Lord, forever." "Amen." "Who's that, Doc?" "Oh, John." "John Kane." "Sarah's brother." "Why?" "I just take a kindly interest in all strangers in town these days." "Even at funerals?" "Oh, hell, Doc." "I'm sitting on a goddamn powder keg out there at Hill-Donaldson." "All I need is some outsider coming in to blow it up." "Are you expecting one?" "So I hear." "When did he come to town?" "John Kane is no outsider." "He was born and raised right here." "Well, then where's he been, Doc?" "That's what I always want to know." "Now, try some of Sister Addy's rice here, and this is some of Sister Georgette Dexter's melon relish." "Now, you come back for some more ribs, you hear?" "Hey, Louisa, let me have some..." "Henry, get off me!" "I'm sorry." "I'm sorry." "Oh, hey, hey, hey, hey." "John, come on back here and have a drink with the boys." "Oh, listen, I'm sorry about your sister, Sarah, but when you get through with all them condolences, you come back here and have some fun with us, all right?" "You just trying to make me do all the work, and you're not doing nothing." "I do everything." "You know Papa's not feeling well." "Let's don't start an argument, okay?" "This is my niece, Louisa." "Louisa, this is Miss Sarah's brother, John." "Oh, good evening, Reverend." "Welcome, Doctor." "Thank you." "Can I fix you a cup of coffee, Doctor?" "A little plate?" "Well, I would appreciate a cup of coffee, Miss Dunbar." "Thank you." "All right." "Frank, I just can't tell you how sorry I am." "Thank you, Doctor." "You, too, Jimmy." "Marsha Jean, I know your mother had every confidence that you two would grow up to be the kind of people that would make things happen." "Now, I've got the two plates now." "Mr Thomas, I believe it's this John Kane." "Yeah, but..." "Look, it is my job to find out who he is." "Well, I don't want to say right out." "Just a minute." "Do you want to move back there like I said?" "I just don't want no trouble, Sheriff." "I told you, just move back there." "You told me to look out for somebody moving on Hill-Donaldson, right?" "Look, I ain't gonna take the responsibility, Mr Thomas." "You just come out here like I say." "Henry, I have to wash up the dishes." "No, you don't!" "What's the matter with you?" "Come now." "Come on!" "Hey, talk to me." "Ask me something." "What?" "Anything." "You still play shortstop rougher than any boy in town?" "I haven't played recently." "I didn't think you'd remember me that well." "Yes." "You were a good deal smaller and not much account back then, but I remember." "It's all right now." "Thanks." "What is?" "Henry Birkhardt." "He owns a GMC dump truck and a Pontiac Judge, and he can't understand why I don't find him irresistible." "You don't?" "No." "I..." "To hell with him." "Why'd you come back here?" "My sister died." "Why did you come back?" "How do you know I was away?" "Was it Chicago?" "San Francisco?" "New York." "What were you doing there?" "I was a teacher." "And until the city and the schools fell apart," "I provided a broadening cultural experience for upper middle-class children." "But that city is so uptight, like it's choking to death." "It doesn't work any more." "None of them do." "At least not for me." "You know what I mean?" "Why am I telling you all this?" "Maybe you want to interest me." "Why would I want to interest you?" "Well, for one thing, I don't own a GMC dump truck." "I'll buy that." "What about you, Brother John?" "What have you been doing?" "Working." "It's finished now." "I'm going to cool it for a few days before I split." "You teaching here?" "Stuart Street." "I went to grade school there." "Yes." "I know." "You carved your name over the toilet." "Yes." "And old Miss Hattie Drew, she beat my bottom with her bamboo pointer." "Oh, goodness." "They still do that?" "Not in my class." "I withhold approval and affection." "It's more devastating." "Right." "I'd like to see that, my name carved over a toilet." "Well, come around and visit our john, Brother John." "It'd be like Hannibal returning to Carthage in triumph." "Hannibal returning to Carthage in triumph." "You talk like that to..." "Henry Birkhardt?" "No, he'd only laugh and try to unbutton my blouse." "He's not all bad, is he?" "Well, at least I left my name someplace." "Come around and visit." "We're very advanced here in Hackley." "We're integrated as far as the second grade." "Would you come?" "Hey." "Big John?" "Hey." "Number two." "I still don't like it." "Oh, hell, we lean over backwards." "When I worked for Mr Lowery Yaw, I would have run that boy in, charged him with anything handy and then booted his butt over the line into Tarbridge County." "Damn." "The London Times." "What's that one?" "Der Spiegel, that's German." "L' humanitã©, that's the French communist paper." "Son of a bitch." "Look here." "Hey, that's Arab writing." "That's the same writing on my Shriners hat." ""This Bible was placed by the Gideons." ""Property of the Hilton Hotel, New York City."" "I told you that bastard came from up there." ""To John, truth, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder." "N.W."" "Well, I'll be damned." "Hey." "I got something." "Passport." "That's him, all right." "My, my, my." "My, my." "I'll be damned." "God damn it." "The rest is just socks and underwear and crap." "When you went to the funeral, now, did you find out anything about him?" "Well, now, why on earth..." "Papa." "Papa." "A funeral, of all places." "Papa." "Would you kindly put in your teeth?" "All right, now, did he tell you anything?" "Where's he been, what he's doing here?" "No, no, just that he's passing through." "You would like to have some milk, Son?" "No, no." "Orly?" "No, I'm fine, Doc." "Thanks." "I thought you weren't interested in him." "I thought it was just some sort of old man's story interfering with more important things," "like golf games with Perry Kermit and Archie Fanyon." "Never mind that." "Now." "His passport expires August 5." "That means he's had it five years." "You got any idea where he's been?" "London, Paris, Frankfurt, Germany, Krakow, Prague, Moscow," "New Delhi, Bombay and Kuala Lumpur, Saigon," "Dar es Salaam, Mexico City, Quito, Havana," "Nairobi, Singapore." "And that isn't all." "There were two more pages of stamps I didn't even copy down." "Now, what in the hell is he doing in all those places?" "Moscow and Prague and Havana." "Hell, you can't even go to Havana." "Maybe he hijacked a plane." "Now, look, it just don't make sense." "Here he is, a black man, as far as we know he never finished high school, so you'd figure he'd be driving a Payloader at Hill-Donaldson, sharecropping out in the county, on the food stamps." "All right, say he goes north." "Have the same kind of job in Cincinnati or New York." "I mean, where does he get off going from Paris to Saigon?" "How does he pay for it?" "What was he doing?" "What's he doing back here?" "Sarah was about to die." "Oh, I'm serious, Papa." "And you said it yourself." "Nobody knew she was that sick, not till the operation." "That's what you said." "You told me yourself, Mr Thomas." "There was that advisory from the State Bureau saying there was a fella coming down to make trouble at Hill-Donaldson." "No." "No." "Now, you take your ordinary outside agitator." "Who is he?" "He's some kid lawyer fresh out of Harvard," "living on $30-a-week expense money." "That don't pay for this." "You travel like this, you're either a millionaire, or you're working for somebody who's paying the bills." "Maybe for the airlines." "No." "That's different immigration stamps." "You see, there just aren't that many possibilities." "A newspaper, or something like that." "Good night." "An oil company." "But they aren't hiring any black kid who dropped out of high school." "It just don't make sense." "Damn it, I sure intend to find out." "Well, I say get him the hell out of town." "Let Joe Beckett over in Tarbridge County worry." "Oh, no." "No, this is something." "A black man from Hackley in Prague, East Berlin..." "God damn." "What the hell you got a hold of down there, Lloyd?" "You said it'd be confidential." "Well, yeah, but my God, man!" "Look." "You want to spend the next 10 years in a district office?" "What do you have in mind?" "I'm telling you." "Old Lowery Yaw's on his last legs." "He still thinks Lyndon Johnson's president." "All I need is one good break." "What do I need?" "State's attorney general, maybe lieutenant governor." "What do you want?" "I told you." "Come on." "I got myself out on a limb getting this stuff for you." "What is it?" "Okay." "As far as we know in the district here, this John Kane is unknown in connection with any civil rights organisations or foundations and crap like that." "And Washington got nothing, either." "That includes subversive front stuff and black militants." "Now, wait." "Under another name." "They got a pretty good cross-index up there, Lloyd." "Well, could he be working for something" "like the ClA or maybe a courier or something for the State Department?" "ClA, no." "We cross-checked." "And I called Marv Duberly on the security desk at State." "Yeah." "You really started something down there, boy." "They are running around that passport division" "like somebody squirted them with boiling water." "I mean, for God's sakes, man, Havana, Albania." "You know one of those marks turned out to be the stamp from the City Clerk's Office in Peking?" "But they don't know him?" "Hell, they don't want to know him." "They are, and I quote old Marv," ""At a loss to understand how this could happen."" "In fact, it couldn't." "I'm dead." "Hey, hey, hey!" "That's enough, that's enough." "Don't kill the man." "Soccer, soccer, play." "Let's move it." "Scoot." "Come on, come on, put your shoe on over there." "Go on, go on, scoot." "You know, I haven't been able to find any source material down here for African culture except for Tarzan, which is hardly appropriate." "ls it on a record?" "No." "I'd like to use it." "Is it published?" "I don't think so." "Where'd you learn it?" "I happened to be there at the time." "You never got married?" "No." "I've been differently occupied." "With what?" "My work." "But that's finished now, right?" "Yes." "You said you had a few days." "What do you plan to do with them?" "Nothing." "I think you're a liar, Brother John." "I think you're a very hungry man, and I think you're afraid to taste anything." "Talk to me." "Oh, hell, you're doing pretty good by yourself." "You're a very different breed of cat." "Right now, Brother John, the drums are pounding." "You hear?" "The jungle is alive with messages." "Miss Pettinghill is now going to phone Miss Henrietta Johnson, and Aunt Patience Brown can hardly wait till the Ladies Aid meets tonight." "Why?" ""Because dear Reverend MacGill's Louisa," ""you know, the one that was away, is walking down Huguenot Street" ""with Sister Sarah's Brother John." ""And it's about time, too." "I don't like to say it, Sister Williametta," ""what that girl needs is a man to settle her down."" "Fair warning, Brother John." "I only have a few days." "Want company?" "Yes." "Well, that's all it is then, just a few days to kill." "That's all." "Okay." "Then I stay here and let them wonder, and you go wherever you have to go." "Fair enough." "Yeah." "Thank you, Helen." "Sheriff's office." "I got me a good set of prints off that bathroom glass." "Well?" "He's got a record all right." "Where?" "Ludlow, Texas." "Vagrancy." "Did three months on the road gang there, and then just walked off." "And there's still a fugitive warrant out for him." "That's all?" "Well, he was in the Army." "You want one?" "Where?" "Korean War." "Anything there?" "I don't know." "He got a medical discharge." "Agnes Day, I told you, I got to work." "Atterberry?" "Hell, no." "No, he always wants to play." "He wants to play bridge instead of pinochle." "I ain't playing no damn..." "Lloyd, there's a fellow out at Hill-Donaldson from the Montgomery office of The New York Times." "So?" "Well, when The New York Times takes an interest in a town like this, we are in trouble." "Just don't start anything." "Me?" "They're gonna have a strike meeting this evening, and I'll give you goddamn long odds that boy John is gonna be there." "Maybe." "Let me pick him up on that Texas warrant." "No." "No." "If we move too fast, we'll never know." "Well, I'll tell you, Lloyd, because I've got my areas of responsibility, too." "I'm gonna keep him under surveillance, and if I get anything on him, I ain't waiting on you." "Jimmy, you cut that out." "Sarah leave insurance?" "Just enough to bury her." "You working steady?" "Just three days, part-time." "She made more money than I do." "She never told nobody, but it's the God's truth." "She said to me, "My mama was the strong one," ""and my grandmama." ""And the world put them down, and they put down their men."" "She said, "Frank Gabriel, that's gonna stop right here." ""My children is gonna know the man is the man." ""And they gonna respect their daddy for the head of the family."" "When I wasn't working, I'd meet her down on Stuart Street, and she'd bring me her money from Mr George Baylor and Miss Fanny Jeffers, and I brought it home." "She said, "Hard times for the black man ain't your fault, Frank." ""And I ain't gonna see my man get cut down in front of the eyes of the children."" "I got it, Papa." "Marsha Jean, you best put on another pot of coffee." "Papa?" "Can I help you?" "You Frank Gabriel?" "Yes." "You ain't never been in trouble before, have you, Frank?" "No." "I mean, you ain't one of them troublemakers, are you?" "Anything you want in particular, Officer?" "Don't rush me, Frank." "Don't rush me." "You know that's not good manners." "Anybody else here?" "Now, look, Officer..." "Who are you?" "That's my brother-in-law, John Kane." "I asked him, Frank." "I'm gonna tell you something, John." "You're under police surveillance." "I'm gonna save the both of us a whole lot of trouble because" "I don't believe in pussyfooting around." "You know what I mean?" "Now, you're gonna have to watch your tail around town, or you can get it whipped." "You get out of my house." "Oh, now, I thought you were a smart negro, Frank." "My name is Gabriel." "Your name is shit, you talk back to me." "You get out of my house." "You red-necked cracker, get out of my house!" "You work down at the Harris lumberyard, don't you?" "Hey, Frank, I'm talking to you." "You work down at the lumberyard?" "Yes." "I can't hear you, boy." "Yes!" "Mr A.L. Harris, he's very strong for law and order." "Now, how long do you think he's going to tolerate an employee gets arrested for interfering with an officer in the performance of his duty, huh?" "Hey, what I mean, boy, is you can be replaced with any buck negro with a strong back and a weak mind." "You want me to tell him that you talking back?" "Well, let me hear you, Frank." "You got anything to say, Frank?" "Then you gonna be a good nigger and keep your liver lip shut?" "Officer?" "Yes?" "You want to talk to me?" "Yeah." "Private?" "Frank, can we use your..." "Look, John, you don't..." "Now, Frank." "Oh, no." "You go right ahead." "I told you a couple times." "Thanks, Mr Kidd." "Don't think it's too funny, boy." "Just go on over like I told you." "Any trouble?" "Not yet." "These boys don't finish right now, they're gonna pee their pants." "All right, I see any pop bottles flying, you boys are going to get whammed good." "Just keep them separated, that's all." "Now, where's George?" "George?" "Well, he had to go home." "Why?" "He wasn't feeling too good." "All right, now give me attention here for a moment." "I want you all to know that they're having a legal meeting over here." "It's their right to have it." "Johnny?" "Johnny Kane?" "Johnny Kane!" "I just knew that was you sitting in the back row." "Hey, Charley Gray." "How are you, Charley?" "What do you mean, how are you?" "Give it to me." "Give it up like that." "Johnny..." "Hey, Bill, this is Johnny Kane." "Johnny Kane, Bill Jones." "Hi, how are you?" "Glad to meet you." "Hey, I'll see you over at the Ark." "I'll be over in a minute." "Man, what are you doing down here?" "I'm just passing through." "My sister died." "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." "I heard." "I'm sorry about that, man." "Yeah." "Well, where are you running to?" "Nowhere." "Yeah, well, how come you didn't come up and say hello?" "You were conducting the meeting." "I didn't want to bother you." "Jive!" "Lou, you know how long..." "Me and this dude was in high school together." "Boy, you still just as big and black and ugly as ever." "Is that how you make friends with everyone?" "Damn, Johnny Kane!" "Johnny, if anybody told me just five years ago that we'd have a function alliance with that bunch of second-generation crackers..." "You think you can win?" "Got to, got to." "These are boiling times down here, man." "Even in Hackley." "Down here is where it's all happening." "Compliments of Local 747." "Man, I'm telling you, ain't nothing like chairing one of them meetings to dry you up." "Hey, I'm sorry, John." "No, thanks." "In fact, if you'll excuse me a minute." "Yeah." "Which reminds me." "Where in the hell have you been when we needed you?" "Working." "Hey, baby." "For the man?" "No." "Planning on staying down here?" "Sure could use you." "You've been dabbing around long enough." "Time to squat and pay some dues, man." "I've paid." "I'm going over to Marion tomorrow night to meet a man who's come in from New York with a pocketful of good, northern New York integrated money." "Sheriff Orly Ball thinks he's coming here, but I'm going to fox him." "I'm going there." "Come on, go with me, ride shotgun." "You expecting Indians?" "Hell, I don't know nothing about no Indians, but I tell you one thing." "Last time, I was chased by four crackers in a '67 Plymouth." "But if they ever catch me, they got a surprise coming." "I got an over-and-under shotgun sitting right on the front seat beside me, loaded with rusty nails." "Boy, if they ever catch me, God help them." "Come on with me." "Look at that." "Look at that." "Give me a drink." "Hey, hey, look, now." "Come on, sit down and let me buy you a drink." "No, thank you." "Oh, come on, now, sugar mama..." "Henry, please." "You saving it for the city folks, huh?" "It's just that I'm overwhelmed by your charm." "Excuse me." "You weren't so goddamn fussy before you went off to school." "You remember, huh?" "Behind..." "In the Chevy behind the gasworks." "It is one of my most poignant memories." "What did I tell you?" "Look, Henry." "Let me put it in words of one syllable." "I am not the same girl you screwed at the age of 16." "Now, let me by, or I'm going to knee you right in the groin." "She's got balls, hasn't she?" "Johnny." "Whose side you on anyway, man?" "Look, look, Lou." "Lou, will you tell this dude he gotta come with me?" "You kidding?" "Nobody can tell Brother John anything." "He is the dude that walks by himself." "John Kane." "He in trouble?" "Now, I want you to know he is a good boy." "He ain't in no trouble, Miss Nettie." "Then what did the police want with him?" "This ain't no policeman, Miss Nettie." "This is Dr Thomas." "I told you, remember?" "'Course I know." "I remember Doc Thomas." "John Kane, Miss Nettie, do you remember anything unusual about him?" "No." "That's what I told Mr McCullough when he proposed him for the scholarship at the Tubman Institute in Marion." "I said John seemed very ordinary, but don't you be fooled." "But John didn't go to Tubman." "Isn't that a shame?" "You know, I remember he came to see me before he left school." "I stressed the importance of the opportunities at Tubman, but he said he didn't have time." "I remember that." "Sixteen-year-old boy just smiling and saying he didn't have time." "His name was John, Ella Kane's boy." "Yes, Miss Nettie." "If he goes to Tubman, he can qualify and be of service to the people." "But he told me, "l can't teach them." "That's not my job."" "Why, I gave him the sharp edge of my tongue, all right." "I said, "John, your father is away working," ""and your mother needs you."" "And he said he couldn't help that." "He had to go." "I asked him when he's coming back." ""When the wind comes again."" "He's back now, Miss Nettie." "Oh, isn't that nice?" "Although, I do believe the scholarship to Tubman is already awarded." "I'm afraid it is." "You ask him to come to see me." "I wanna see his journal." "Journal?" "I gave it to him for a going-away present." "I told him, "John, you keep your eyes open" ""and your mind busy, and you write down something worthwhile every day."" "It's a lovely journal." "Brown Morocco leather with gold design, and a pretty silk ribbon to keep your place." "Did you write anything in it, Miss Nettie?" "I always do." "I write the same thing." ""To," you know, whoever it is," ""truth, like beauty," ""is in the eyes of the beholder."" "Signed, "N.W."" "For Nettie Wheelock, of course." "I do hope he hasn't lost it." "He's still got it, Miss Nettie." "I warned you about Uncle Earl's sermon." "I think he meant you personally." "He was looking right at you when he said, "Are you saved?"" "Poor Uncle Earl." "He's not too relevant." "All that talk about hellfire, damnation, judgement day..." "Oh, I believe in hellfire." "I've seen that." "Oh?" "How about damnation?" "That's possible." "And judgement day?" "Are you ready to answer for your sins?" "Maybe it won't be that way." "Each man answering for his own sins." "Maybe man will answer as a species, not so much for what he was, but for what he might become." "That's not fair." "Maybe." "Anyway, it won't be tonight." "Do you know who they are?" "My man, he is scared." "Hold it, now, hold it." "Now, hold the water." "Here we go." "I got them!" "He's scared now." "Get off the road!" "Goddamn fools." ""Let me out of this car." "I wanna get back to Henry."" "Go on, get him again." "All right." "I'm driving." "I know what I'm doing, fools." "Give me some of that water." "Give me that stuff." "Hit it." "Come on." "Don't be scared." "Everything's under control." "Hey, you fool!" "What's he doing?" "Okay, okay." "Okay, okay." "Hey, boy!" "I wanna..." "Come on out of there!" "Come on, get out!" "Get out." "We are damned tired of you agitators coming down..." "Open up." "Open up this door." "Coming here like King Shit, thinking you can take everything over." "Stop it!" "Who in the hell do you think you are?" "Just 'cause some fancy-ass whore is putting out for you, you think you can take everything over?" "Get out of there and fight." "What the hell." "Get out of there, nigger!" "You tell him now, John." "Come on out, big man." "Big man." "Thinks he is." "I don't think so." "I got it." "This is gonna be nice." "I am gonna rip your ass." "All right, now." "Just what the hell is going on here?" "What's it all about?" "Ain't nothing." "We just having a little discussion, that's all." "Is that right?" "What are you doing around here anyway?" "I was just passing through." "This thing still running?" "Yes." "I think so." "Keep on passing through, then." "Get in it, and get the hell out of here." "Wait a minute." "Hey, man, you won." "Louisa..." "All right, now, come on, come on." "Wait a minute, wait a minute." "All I can say..." "I don't know how to say it, except that all I can give you is what I got." "I love..." "You'll never know." "You'll never know." "Come in." "I'd better not." "Tomorrow's my last day." "Tomorrow?" "Well, well..." "What the hell, Brother John?" "What the hell?" "Yeah, what the hell?" "What do we have to lose, huh?" "Well..." "We really had them going there for a while, didn't we?" "Old Miss Pettinghill," "Miss Henrietta Johnson," "Aunt Patience Brown." ""Praise the Lord!" ""Louisa done found herself a man before it's too late."" "I don't want you to go." "Stay with me." "Marry me, or don't." "I don't give a damn." "But stay." "You said you understood." "Well, I'm a liar." "Look, man, you can't just split." "I mean, you can't go walking with a girl and then just cut out on her." "I love you." "Stay a little longer." "A week, another day." "I can't." "All right." "I'll go with you." "I got nothing here." "I'll go with you." "I have to go alone." "When will you be back?" "I won't be back." "Just like that? "Bye, baby." ""lt sure killed time between buses."" "Did I come on too strong, Brother John?" "Give me time." "I'll back away." "I'm not proud, just tell me you love me when and if it creeps up on you." "I love you now." "But there's no time." "There is no time at all for anything." "Not for making love or living together, getting married, having kids, fighting, making up, sitting down to" "dinner." "I would like to be a father and sit at the head of a table and slice the meat and pass it to my son." "I would like to leave my name someplace besides the toilet of the Stuart Street school." "I would like to live and die." "A simple life like my father and my mother and my sister and Charley Gray." "However hard it was, I'd buy it." "If I had the time." "What do you mean, Charley Gray?" "He isn't dead." "I love you, Louisa, but it makes no difference." "Oh, well." "Love sure kills the time till the last bus." "I don't understand, Brother John, but will you say goodbye to me before you go?" "Yes." "I promise." "But he said he didn't have time." "I remember that." "Sixteen-year-old boy just smiling and saying he didn't have time." "I said, "John, your father is away working," ""and your mother needs you. "" "And he said he couldn't help that." "He had to go." "I asked him when he's coming back." ""When the wind comes again. "" ""When the wind comes again. "" "Now, you drink this, Papa." "The car is a total wreck, Mr Thomas." "You're gonna have to send out a wrecker for it." "All right, I'll take care of it." "He said he was coming here, but he was out on Route 16, heading north." "I told you he was going to hurt hisself someday." "Yeah, yeah, thank you." "It's over $50 damage." "Now, I gotta file a 326." "Now, just look at that." "Don't worry." "He'll surrender his licence tomorrow morning." "Hope he does." "Papa, were you drinking again?" "No, no." "Just my usual bourbon and branch, that's all." "Are you sure?" "Mr Thomas, you wanna come out here a minute?" "Come on, Papa." "Now, you drink." "He's trying it under the ultraviolet." "I don't want them damaged." "Oh, don't worry." "I got a regular executed search-and-seizure warrant from Judge Picker." "You tell him what for?" "Hell, no." "I can't find anything, Mr Ball." "You got anything else you can use on it?" "Not in the field kit." "You ought to send these things up to the state lab at Marion." "No." "What the hell are we looking for?" "Well, I thought it might be some kind of record." "lt is." "I could try a stronger solution." "Why should you think his secret would be so conveniently listed in that manual?" "Oh, Papa." "Oh, yes." "Who knows what they do where he comes from?" "Oh, yes, he comes from somewhere else." "He's gone all over the world, making those records that you can't read." "What for?" "Well, that's the interesting question." "Well, then, where's he supposed to be going to now?" "Papa, I'm going to drive you home." "He'll make his report on what he's observed all over the world." "Boy, how you going to like that, boy?" "Come on, come on." "And you, Orly Ball and old Lowery Yaw." "He's the one." "John Kane." "Yeah." "I brought him into this world." "I know." "That little kinky-haired black baby, and what happens to every damn one of us depends upon what he puts in those journals." "You're a stubborn old man." "Those blank pages." "Come on, I'm going to put you to bed." "No, I am going to stay right here." "I want to see him." "Papa, Papa..." "I want to be here tomorrow when the wind comes again." "What tomorrow?" "That's when he'll leave." "He said so." "Is that right?" "Well, that's what I heard." "Well, now, listen, Orly, you pick him up." "You don't let him get away." "Now, you wait just a minute, now." "When I said before to pick him up and get him out of the county, you said no." "Now he's going out on his own steam." "Now, you just get him." "You hold him." "Now, look, Mr Thomas..." "Till I find out who the hell he is and what he's doing." "Now, do I have to get Judge Picker out of bed and get a bench warrant?" "No." "Where is he?" "Who?" "John Kane." "He's gone." "Where to?" "Now, look here, John." "You're in trouble." "Now, look here, John." "You're in trouble." "You want me to ship you back to Ludlow, Texas?" "No." "Well, then, you better answer my questions." "I have been for some time." "All right." "Now, you tell me why you've been travelling to all these places in this passport." "To see the world." "Who paid for it?" "I did." "Where did you get the money?" "I worked." "And what about this" "Cuba, Albania, China?" "You know, American citizen isn't supposed to go there." "Nobody stopped me." "Say, what's this book?" "It's..." "It's in Arabic, right?" "Yes." "What is it?" "It's the Bible." "That is quotations from the Koran." "Can you read that?" "Do you speak Russian?" "Yes." "Chinese?" "Yes." "What else?" "Swahili." "French." "Spanish." "German." "How did you learn?" "I listened." "What's this?" "A journal." "Well, you've been carrying it around for years." "Yes." "Why are the pages blank?" "I haven't written in them." "Why not?" "lt wasn't necessary." "Well, then why'd you keep them?" "To remember." "Good morning, Orly." "Good morning." "Yep?" "Yeah, he's here." "Yeah, I'll tell him." "Mr Thomas?" "You got company." "Reverend MacGill." "Damn it." "All right." "Put him in a cell." "Mr Thomas, I've had a lot more experience than you, interrogating niggers." "You wanna see what I can get out of him?" "No, I don't want any smart lawyer pulling a Miranda and Escobedo on me." "Now, just put him in a cell." "Morning, Reverend." "Morning, sir." "Good morning." "You'll have to excuse me." "I haven't had a chance to shave." "I was told you arrested John Kane this morning." "That's right." "What for?" "He escaped from a county road gang." "When?" "Oh, some years ago." "When did you first know about this, Mr Thomas?" "Now, look, I don't have to account to you for my official actions." "Well, he's been here never about a week, and I..." "Well, I just received word on the Texas case." "Sheriff Ball's man told John he was under police surveillance several days ago." "Why?" "I don't have to tell you that." "Because they think he's an outside agitator come to cause trouble at Hill-Donaldson." "Papa." "I'm not making any comment." "Mr Thomas, he spent a great deal of time with my niece." "John has not been involved with anything here in town." "That's right, ain't it, Louisa?" "Yes." "Brother John is not at all involved." "I'll be honest with you, Reverend." "I'm holding him on that Texas warrant because I want some information." "Now, how much do you know about him?" "Very little." "I don't think he's a Christian." "I don't mean that." "Louisa..." "Miss MacGill, is it?" "Do you know why he came here?" "His sister died, and he had a few days to kill." "George!" "George, George!" "Yeah?" "You get Calvin and the Oakes boys and Logan Pierce." "Tell them to get their tail out to Hill-Donaldson." "Mr Thomas, I gotta talk to you." "Reverend MacGill, you, too." "Get me the highway patrol barracks at Marion." "What is it?" "I tell you, we got a damn mess on our hands." "Tarbridge County Sheriff's Office just called." "They found that Charley Gray about three miles outside of Monroe." "Dead?" "Blew the middle out of him with his own shotgun." "Son of a bitch!" "Reverend MacGill, I gotta talk to you." "God rest his soul." "Yeah, well, I'll tell you, God's gonna be pretty busy." "Now, look." "White is white and black is black, and I've always been straight with you." "And I'm going to tell you straight now." "I don't know who killed him, and I'll swear to that." "But if I get him, he's gonna stand trial." "And there ain't gonna be no phoney jury turn him loose." "You believe me?" "...right down through the middle." "I believe you." "All right." "Well, now, your people are going to be damn mad, and I don't want to have to call in the highway patrol, because those boys are mean, and there'll be heads busted" "and gas and every damn thing." "What do you want me to do?" "They ain't going to believe a damn word I say." "I want you to come with me, and Folsom from the Baptist church, and Davis Higbee from the NAACP." "And we'll all go out to the main gate at Hill-Donaldson." "I'm trying to get Perry Kermit out at Hill-Donaldson now." "You tell Perry we'll be out there in about 10 minutes." "Did you get the highway patrol batch yet?" "No, I'll get them right away." "I gotta tell Lottie Gray." "He knew." "He knew about Charley." "He knew Charley was dead." "What you talking about, girl?" "Last night, John knew Charley was dead." "He listed them, his mother, his father," "Sarah and Charley, all dead." "Before it happened?" "You hush your mouth." "You don't know what you're talking about." "It seemed like a slip." "He knew about Charley." "You want to get John in more trouble?" "Oh, Mr Thomas, how long you going to hold John here?" "Just a few days, till I can get the answers I want." "Excuse me." "Orly." "Come on home, Louisa." "I've got 12 men here." "Will you let me handle this?" "Well, just tell them to lay off until..." "Damn it, I didn't ask for any help yet." "I do not want them in here." "That's all there is to it." "I've got enough men to handle it myself." "I don't know what's going to happen if those highway patrol boys come in here." "I've got more than enough to handle it ourselves." "No, no, I'm not." "You bet." "Sheriff Ball here." "We've got problems." "Papa." "Papa, you go on home and..." "Willy?" "Hold on, Doc." "Say, I'm glad you come down, Doc." "I've got a drifter over in the back cell with the diarrhoea, and it's a goddamn mess." "I'll take care of him later." "Who are you looking for, Doc?" "Kane." "John Kane." "Hey, boy!" "Drop your pants." "The doctor's coming." "John Kane." "Holler up when you want out, Doc." "Charley Gray is dead." "They just found him." "Now, you told Louisa he was dead last night." "Now, the trouble is, my boy, Lloyd and Orly Ball are going to think you had something to do with it, 'cause you knew about it beforehand." "They're not going to understand." "The weather report on TV says, "Fair and warmer."" "Poor Lloyd." "He's hoping you'd be some kind of foreign agent, so he could run for congress against old Lowery Yaw." "Well, I guess maybe you are." "It won't do him any good." "I told him what you've been doing, going all over the world, observing, making records in your journals." "Don't worry, he doesn't believe me." "See, it's not that I'm afraid." "I'm about done for anyway." "I get sick and tired of lying awake in bed at night," "listening to my own arteries harden." "I'll tell you, more than once, I've thought of running 10, 15 ccs of morphine into a hypodermic, cutting my losses." "But all the same, I do wonder." "You see, I brought you into this world." "I mean, I kept you alive." "When you were six years old, you stepped on a rusty nail." "I did that for you." "They couldn't." "And so I must be part of whatever the hell it is, and I do wonder." "What have you seen?" "Oh, I won't tell anybody." "They wouldn't believe me anyway." "What have you seen?" "What have you seen?" "I've seen people" "all over the world." "I've seen death and starvation and cruelty." "I've seen a county road gang in Ludlow, Texas, and beggar children shovelled off the streets of Calcutta into the river, and the fat and sleek oiling their bodies in the sun." "I have seen prisons" "in Africa and China." "And I have seen war" "in Korea, in Sinai, in Biafra," "in Vietnam." "And I have smelt flesh burning and the stink of excrement when a man is killed and his gut squeezes out the last of life." "I have seen" "people swarming all over the world" "like maggots on a rotten apple, getting ready to leap off the Earth." "First to the moon, and then to the stars." "Is that it?" "They just don't want us out there?" "Will it be fire?" "What's the difference?" "Fire, ice, fallout..." "I guess maybe you don't care." "I care." "I wondered if you did." "What do you want from me, Dr Thomas?" "I can't tell you anything." "I know." "You might just be a paranoid schizophrenic, and I might be a senile psychotic, sharing your delusion." "That's possible." "I thought it might be some comfort to you to talk to someone who knew." "They kind of stacked the cards against us, didn't they?" "Send you to be born black in a town like this." "Was it..." "Did they plan that, or was it just the luck of the draw?" "It sure come home to roost, didn't it?" "There are certain faces that I would like to see at the appropriate moment." "Well, I don't want to argue the point with you." "I'm just an old man, and when the time comes," "I got things in my bag I can take." "But I do wonder." "Have you seen any..." "Have you seen hope?" "Improvement?" "A chance?" "I've seen what's there." "And what about the innocent?" "Children?" "Just good people?" "Don't they count?" "What about love?" "Man isn't just an animal." "He is capable of love." "That might not be enough." "Lloyd." "He's going to have duck fits." "He's counting on climbing over you to get to Washington." "You don't have to do this." "I figure, but I brought you into the world, didn't I?" "And I ought to be here when you go." "That makes sense, doesn't it?" "Willy!" "Right with you, Doc." "What will they do?" "How long will it be?" "When will it come?" "Tomorrow?" "The day after?" "When?" "My God, there must be something we can do even now." "We won't be seeing one another again, will we, John?" "No, Dr Thomas, we won't." "Goodbye."