The air inside Erms bookie office was stale. Wallpaper glue gone bad, whiskey molding in the floorboards. When the doorknob turned, Ledfords breathing seized. His back was to the door.
Wake up Erminio, someone said.
Erm jerked to attention in the slatback chair across the desk from Ledford. Erm swiveled and whirled and nearly fell to the floor. The creak of the chair seized Ledford by the nerve endings. He thought about grabbing the paperweight. It made a fine weapon. Instead, he stood and turned to face whoever had entered.
It was Loaf, the giant associate from the racetrack. Uncle Fiores bodyguard. His nose was red and swollen, and the buttons on his vest were mismatched. You going to sleep while your uncle gets an ulcer? he said.
Im up, Im up, Erm answered. He fumbled with the papers on his desk as if to look useful.
Loaf sized up Ledford. Who the fuck are you? he asked. His breath was rotten from four feet off.
Ledford. We met at Hawthorne last summer.
Loaf knew who he was. The question was a customary greeting. Yeah. Ledford. He took out his handkerchief and wiped at snot and sweat alike. Loaf had little regard for his face.
On a leather love seat against the far wall, a naked woman shifted under the afghan that half-covered her. The curve in her spine was something to behold. There was a birthmark on her hip. She sighed.
Ledford sat back down and looked at the gun barrel and wished he hadnt felt the impulse to use it for clubbing the head of an unknown man. The spider was gone. The glow from the lamps green hood lit Erm a seasick hue. He coughed hard and spat in the trashcan at his feet. Im on it, he said to Loaf. The door closed.
Half-wit son of a bitch, Erm muttered. You want breakfast?
They walked to the diner on Ashland in silence. Both ordered coffee and corned beef hash and eggs. Erm kept coughing and spitting, this time on the dirty linoleum. He smeared it with his wingtip.
Ledford looked out the window. Chicago had not given him what he was looking for. The booze worked as it always had, but he wouldnt lie down with another woman. This didnt sit right with Erm. And that morning, at two a.m., a phone call had come that threw a switch in every happy man at the card table and the bar. The phone call made mugshots out of smiles. Erms cousin had been hit by a car and killed.
The cousin, Uncle Fiores favorite son, was a book-smart street enforcer with a straight job for appearances. A plumber who left behind a wife and three girls.
The waitress refilled their coffees. Listen to this, Erm said. He had the newspaper quartered in his left hand, coffee cup in his right. The diner was getting crowded. Erm took quick looks at the front door over Ledfords shoulder. He tongued his bridge of porcelain teeth between swallows. He read aloud. Louis Bacigalupo, thirty-four years old, a union plumber, was injured fatally Tuesday morning just two days after his wife and three daughters had honored him with a Fathers Day luncheon in his home. Erm took a drink. What the hell does injured fatally mean? Who ever heard of injured fatally? The waitress put their plates in front of them and Ledford said thank you. Erm kept on reading. The auto driver was charged with reckless driving and released under fifty dollars bond.
Ledford knew what came next. It had been in the whispers that started after the two-a.m. phone call. It had been in the face of an associate whod taken Erm aside at the basement card game. Theyd left soon after for Erms crowded bookie office, with Ledford down two hundred, his ace hand still on the way.
The naked woman had appeared from the hallway, lay down without a word, and slept.
There were meetings in the office corner to which Ledford was not invited, but he knew the good word. Murder was on the tongues of these men.
The auto driver was out on bond. Hed be dead inside a day.
The corned beef hash steamed. Im going to hit the road after breakfast, Ledford said. He picked up his knife and fork.
Erm set the paper down. You just got here Leadfoot. He broke bacon into little pieces and stabbed them with a fork.
Yeah.
Erm looked out the window at a couple walking by. They held hands and smiled. You feelin uneasy? This kind of shit make you squirm these days? He watched the couple turn the corner.
Youre the squirmy Ermie, Ledford said. Im just Loyal. They both laughed a little, Erms cut short. Ledford went on. Look, I been thinking too much lately. And now the baby and Rachel. He felt like talking to Erm instead of just pushing bullshit back and forth, the only thing theyd ever done. He felt like telling Erm that he wanted to read books again like he had after the war, that a theology professor was on his mind, a man whod told him of William Wilberforce and Mohandas Gandhi, that his mind was on God and birth and death, on Mack Wells and those who shared his skin color. He wanted to tell Erm that theyd been sold bad goods. That they didnt have to claw and tear and hate and kill and always, everywhere, win. But Erm wasnt the kind of friend you said such things to. Ledford had never wanted that kind.
He split an egg yolk with his fork. It doesnt have to be this way Erm, he managed.
Erm looked at him, frowned. Then he said, Fuck you Ledford, and got up and licked his thumb. He pulled two dollar bills from a thick fold and dropped them on the chipped red laminate.
A leather strap of beat-up Christmas bells hung on the doorknob. It sounded as he walked away.
LEDFORD STOOD IN the dark and looked at them. Mother and baby. Hed come in so quiet that Rachel hadnt stirred. She slept with her arm across her forehead, her chest rising slow and even. Mary lay beside her, on her back, both arms up over her head as if stretching. She was a tiny thing. Ledford smiled. Hed hold them more, he thought. Tell them that he loved them. Hed make a change.
THE HOT DOGS at Wiggins were fifteen cents apiece. Ledford sat at the countertop on a swivel stool, wiping chili from the corners of his mouth. The Very Reverend C. Rice Thompson sat to his right. He marveled at how young Ledford had eaten four hot dogs in the time it took him to put down two. Youve got no problems with your appetite, he said.
Never have. Ledford watched the proprietor move from the cash register to the counter-back. He pulled two cigars from an opened display box of White Owls. They were for the fat man in overalls paying his check. The elastic bands cut an X across the fat mans back. Ledford watched him breathe heavy at the register. Most times my stomach can hold its own, he told the Reverend, its my ears and brain that have been getting to me. He finished off his second Coke and put the bottle on the counter. Looked at the White Owl box again. Next to it was a stack of Doublemint chewing gum, and next to that, a hanging display of powdered aspirin. Ledford could always use the aspirin.
I hope that talking will help with that, Reverend Thompson said. Rachel had the right idea sending you my way. He took off his glasses and wiped at their lenses with his napkin. But I believe I know someone you might speak a little freer with than myself. He put the glasses back on and turned to Ledford, who stifled a burp. Hes just over at the college here. You may have met him in your time there. Don Staples?
Ledford shook his head in recognition. I had him one semester. Best teacher in the place.
Then you know hes a genuine theologian. Used to be with the Episcopal Church but he broke away and went to work for the CCC in the thirties. Hes dedicated his study to the work of William Wilberforce.
Ledford nodded. He spoke a good bit on Wilberforce in class.
Did you know he published a book on him?
No. Ledford wondered why Staples had not laid claim to such a thing.
Reverend Thompson leaned in and spoke soft. The man is more committed to securing rights for Negroes than anyone youre likely to meet. Wears his beard lately in the style of John Brown. A true eccentric.
You think I ought to bother him?
Oh sure. Hed enjoy your company, just as I have. But hed speak your language a little more fluent than I can, Id imagine. The Reverend, though older than Ledford, had not seen what the younger man had. Hed not lost so much for so long. He cleared his throat and signaled for the bill.
Hows that? Ledford looked at the circle-shaped smears on the Reverends lenses.
Well, he spent time overseas in the First War, and he knows a great deal about a great many things. He left it at that. It seemed enough.
After they shook hands, Reverend Thompson walked back to his church, and Ledford walked the length of Fourth Avenue to campus. He appreciated Rachel making the appointment with her Episcopalian man. The Reverend was a good sort, the kind who did not judge on attendance at Gods Sunday meeting.
At Sixteenth Street, Ledford nearly knocked over a small boy selling newspapers. He wore no shirt, just a full satchel, bandolier-style. He squinted at the sun. Ledford bought a paper and walked on. A woman crossed in front of him, holding something wrapped in butcher paper. She smiled at him, and when he looked back to see her from behind, she looked back too.
It took three people to correctly navigate his path to Professor Staples office. Its location was the basement of Old Main, just beyond the furnace room. An orange light emitted from the half-open door. Ledford knocked.
Come on in.
He pushed on the heavy steel door and stepped inside. Professor Staples?
Just call me Don, son. The man looked at Ledford over spectacles worn low on his nose-bridge. His beard was full and long. Blocked in black and gray like the coat of some animal. In his hand was a book. Everywhere were books. Stacked in rows on his desk, the floor, in front of the full bookshelves. What can I do for you? he said.
Reverend Thompson from Trinity Episcopal said I might speak with you. Ledford had trouble reading the mans eyes, which were locked on him but elsewhere simultaneously. The left one was lazy, off kilter.
The Very Right Reverend, Staples said. The crème de le crème, the cream of the cash crop. He kept up his staring, sniffed hard. Oh, Thompson is a good man of God. Im only pullin your leg. He smiled. I had you in class once before?
Yessir.
Where you from?
Here.
Whats your name?
Ledford.
Staples thought for a moment. You have people in Mingo?
Yessir. My grandfather was from Naugatuck.
You have people in Wayne County?
I believe I might.
Ledford, the older man said, considering the surname. He sniffed again, then set his book down and wiped at his nose with his thumb. I knew a Franklin Ledford up at Red Jacket.
My great uncle, I believe. Dead.
Oh yes, dead. Matter of fact, all the Ledfords in those parts are long dead, arent they?
That or moved away. He was still holding the doors edge in his hand. Youre from Mingo?
Staples shook his head no. Spent some time there as a young man. But Im a McDowell County boy. Keystone. He smiled again. Come on in and sit down. Just move those books off to the floor there.
Ledford did so and sat. The seat of his chair was half-rotten. Under his backside, it felt as if it might go any time. I hope Im not bothering you, he said.
Depends on what youre here for. Staples leaned back and crossed his long legs. He took off his glasses and folded them shut. Held them two-handed across his belly.
Well, Ledford said. Thats . . . He couldnt spit it out. I . . .
Staples did not move an inch. He sat and stared and breathed slow but noticeable through the nose he kept snorting. It whistled. The lamplight flickered under the orange scarf hed laid across it.
I have questions about God. And man. Ledford cracked his knuckles against his thighs.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, Staples said. And the Very Reverend, he didnt give you answers on those?
Well, he thought maybe Id understand them a little better if they came from you.
Is that right? Well . . . He came forward suddenly, slapped both his shoes on the floor. From his desk drawer he pulled a pipe and tobacco pouch. Whats the weather doin?
Sunny. Hot.
You want to go for a walk?
Sure. Yessir.
It was Sadie Hawkins Day, and coed girls chased boys across the green like theyd heard a starter gun salute. Staples ignored them and walked at a quick clip and talked with his teeth clamped around his pipe, which looked to be on its last leg. Are you married?
Yessir.
How long?
A year next month.
Child?
Yessir.
Boy or girl?
Girl.
Have you kept your pecker in your pants otherwise? He did not break stride. They cut across the grass, dry and patchy.
Yessir.
Good. Staples stopped dead and pointed to a big maple tree ten yards off. This is the tree, he said. The skin on his hand said hed seen a good bit of sun. Long fingers. He was roughly Ledfords size, and hed not stooped with age.
Ledford followed him to the tree. Staples sat down Indian-style next to a surfaced root. Ledford looked around. A Sadie Hawkins girl squealed and hurdled a green bench. In the distance, the GI dormitory trailers sat quiet and squat, brown rectangles in the sun. Ledford took a seat on a wide root.
Staples knocked his pipe on the tree trunk. You were overseas, Id imagine?
Yessir.
Pacific or Atlantic?
Pacific. Guadalcanal.
Navy?
Marine Corps.
Staples looked down at the black ash and made a strange shape out of his mouth. Hed not figured the young man for a Marine. He cleared his throat with a booming cough. You werent drafted?
I enlisted.
Your mother and daddy were okay with that?
They died in 35.
Staples had stuck his thumb in the mouth of his pipe. He shook his head. I am sorry son, he said. You want to talk about booze now or save that for another day? He pocketed the pipe in his jacket. Before Ledford could answer, Staples said, You read much Ledford?
I do some.
What are you reading now?
The Bible some. And a book called The Growth of the American Republic.
Staples nodded and stood up. Hed gotten a case of the fidgets. Lets walk a while, he said, and then youll accompany me to my office, where Ill load you up with some new reading material. He brushed off the seat of his brown slacks. Hows that sound to you, Ledford?