"You gettin" awful old, Mama," Toomer teased.
Arrabelle answered by balling up her fist and punching him in the shoulder.
"This is the hittin"est woman in this country," her son said, shaking the reins. The mule moved out slowly, the joints of the wagon whining and rattling as it moved across the Meecham lawn and went over a curb to reach the small lane that led to Eliot Street.
"You see that, son?" Lillian said, watching the slow departure of the wagon. "We"ve been living on bases and in cities for so long that I forgot what the South really is."
"What is it?"
"You"re looking right at it," she said, "but as for you, mister, these chairs better be in the house before your father gets home."
On Sat.u.r.day afternoon Ben rounded the corner of River Street and heard Toomer"s voice calling out in a wailing summer canticle to the last shoppers of the day. In a way, Ben thought, Toomer sounded like a priest chanting during a Ma.s.s for the dead. "O be the wildflower, O come the wildflower, come the rose, come the sweet daffodil, come the good honey, come the ripe berry, come the wildflower. Come the flower, come the herb and the light of mola.s.ses." Ben noticed that while Toomer sang he never once stuttered.
He crossed the street and began to help Toomer load the back of the wagon with the potted herbs, plants, and jars of honey he had not sold. Only two bunches of flowers were left that day. In a cardboard box, a half dozen deviled crabs shifted as Ben placed the box in the wagon. "I didn"t know you sold crab, Toomer."
"I sell anything these folk want to buy, dribblin" man."
Soon the mule was pulling the wagon down River Street toward the bridge, keeping close to the parked cars on the right so the regular traffic had room to pa.s.s. At Granville Street, the mule paused, then turned to the right and started toward the bridge. A boy with bright red hair sat on a Coca-Cola box near the gas pump outside of Fogle"s General Store and shouted at Toomer. "Hey, T-t-t-t-toomer. H-h-how you doing? Wh-wh-where you g-g-going?"
Toomer just waved, shook the reins, and urged the mule on faster. Soon they had mounted the causeway and were staring at the flowing bronze river below them.
"Who was that, Toomer?"
"That boy. He ain"t n.o.body. He name Red Pettus and he and his family l-l-live not far from me over on the island. Pettus family like chickens. They h-h-h-hatch out all over this country. Red tease me about my s-s-stutter. That burn me up but R-r-red usually don"t bother too much with me. When he was just a little boy, he used to come round and mess with me some. I taught him how to throw a cast net right. Red and his family hate a black m-m-man just for being black and just laugh when I tell "em that J-j-jesus don"t cotton much to hatin" white or black and that the world"s a hatin" place and that there are t-t-too many hatin" white man and hatin" colored man runnin" around loose anyhow. B-b-but Red leave me be most of the time. He m-m-mean "cause that"s all he ever know. He used to come up and feed my dogs when I be up the river fishin" f-f-for a couple of days."
"He still do that sometime?"
"No, man. Y-you don"t leave the chicken to watch the feed. He stole some stuff from m-m-me. A shotgun my daddy gave me. I w-w-went down to talk to his daddy but his daddy just run me off."
"Why?"
"He say a n-n-n.i.g.g.e.r ain"t got nothin" his boy would want and he would "preciate it to the highest if I would h-h-hustle my black a.s.s down the same road I come up which I did as fast as this no-count mule would take me."
Toomer reached back and grabbed both bunches of leftover flowers. He asked Ben to hold the reins for a moment as he stood up and hollered up to the bridgetender"s house. "Yooo, Mr. Harper," Toomer yelled. A thin man in khaki work clothes came out of a diminutive octagonal aerie and leaned over a steel gangplank. Before the wagon pa.s.sed beneath him, Toomer tossed the flowers up to the man, who caught them in a burst of falling petals.
"How did it go today, Toomer?" Mr. Harper called down.
"Made me a million dollars today. How "bout you?"
"I bought me the Southern Railroad. See you Monday."
The wagon crossed the bridge and took the first paved road to the right, a road that cut through a thick forest until it emerged into the clearings of vast stretches of tomato fields that appeared even in the wildest, most inaccessible reaches of the island. A mile down this road the mule veered off toward the river, shuffling down a heavily tracked dirt road that ran parallel to a large, plowed-under tomato field. Soon they entered an archway of low-hanging oaks, the bottommost branches consumed by soft stalact.i.tes of moss. Both Ben and Toomer had to duck to avoid the moss. When Ben looked up, the wagon was pa.s.sing between a dozen beehives, six on either side of the road. Then the wagon was surrounded by dogs of every possible size and description. More were baying at them from the woods. Two of the more agile dogs leaped into the back of the wagon and joined Toomer and Ben on the seat, licking their faces until Toomer pushed both of them off.
"How many dogs you got, Toomer?" Ben asked. He saw collies, boxers, terriers, Labradors and combinations thereof.
"Twenty-s-s-s-six last time I checked," Toomer said.
"Where do you get them? Why do you have them?"
"Most of "em I just pick up off the road. Marines leave "em behind a lot when they move out from this country. Some of these dogs half dead when I find "em."
"It must cost a lot of money to feed them."
"You tellin" Toomer somethin" he don"t know? That"s a fifty-pound bag of food under that blanket back there. These are some eatin" dogs."
"They ever bother the bees in the hives?"
"If they do, it only be for one time," Toomer laughed. "B-b-bees teach "em fast."
"Where"s your house, Toomer?"
"You lookin" right at it," Toomer said.
The house was a discarded school bus stripped of its wheels. Its axles were set on piles of cinder blocks and the formerly yellow vehicle was painted a rather haphazard eggsh.e.l.l white. The logo of the State of South Carolina could be read through the whitewash. To the left were three fenced-in acres of flowers. The air was rich with the combined perfume of the garden and the river which was visible through a clearing fifty yards behind the school bus.
For the next hour, Ben helped Toomer feed the dogs, put the mule to pasture, and unload the wagon. Ben carried a basket into the school bus that was very heavy although he could not see the cargo since it was covered with a layer of Spanish moss. When he set it on the small wooden table near the wood-burning stove in the back of the bus, Toomer discarded the moss through an open window and revealed a bushel of single oysters.
"I traded some honey for Mr. Oyster t-t-today," he said. "You ever eat an oyster?"
"Raw?" Ben asked.
"That"s the only way to eat an oyster. I-i-i-if you cook "em up he becomes something d-d-different from what he really is."
"I don"t think I want to try it but you go on and eat as many as you want. I don"t mind at all."
"Let me open you up one. M-m-m-man, when you eat an oyster, you taste the ocean and the river and the marsh and shrimp b-b-boats. Man, you bite into a livin" piece of the lowcountry." He inserted a pocket knife into the joint of the sh.e.l.l and twisted his wrist to the right. The sh.e.l.l popped open. The oyster glistened in a translucent liquor that spilled onto Toomer"s hand. With a certain dramatic grandiloquence, he slurped the oyster into his mouth. "Now that"s fine. That"s f-f-fine, white boy. When I pop me open Mr. Oyster, I think about growin" up and my papa and Captain Bimbo, the first shrimp boat I e-e-ever work on. Let me pop one of these sweet things for y-y-y-you."
"Why did you quit working on a shrimp boat, Toomer?"
"This g-g-gimp foot. I caught it in the winch and it took a few t-t-toes."
"That must have hurt bad."
"You"da thought so. The way I screamed and such. Here, open wide and let it slide," he said, tilting a half-sh.e.l.l into Ben"s mouth. The oyster hit Ben"s mouth. It felt warm, salty, and had the consistency of loose phlegm. For a moment, Ben thought he was going to vomit. Somehow, he got the animal down his throat.
"Wasn"t that g-g-good?" Toomer said, opening another one. "You got to keep eating them. One oyster w-w-wouldn"t keep a sand flea alive."
This time Ben swallowed faster as though he were ingesting his own saliva. Speed, he thought, was the secret behind the enigma of why men would torture themselves by placing these raw quivering bivalves on their tongues. He couldn"t rid his mind of the image that he was eating sh.e.l.led snot. But after the second oyster, he noticed a pleasant aftertaste in his mouth similar to the one he experienced as a child when he was driving home with his family after a day at the beach. There was the tang of salt, of sun, of weakened brine, and grit dissolved in the breakers. Still, he was delighted to see Toomer fold his pocket knife and motion him to come outside the school bus.
"You gotta make friends with the Gray," Toomer said.
"Who"s the Gray?"
"Come on out here and you"ll see "im. I got to get you to make friends or the Gray"s gonna eat you up when I ain"t lookin". There he is. Get on out here, dog. I see you."
At the edge of the forest, a huge lean dog fixed a cold, green eye on Ben. His lips were curled back over his teeth and Ben thought the dog was probably a combination of Great Dane and German police. But one look at the animal cleared up any doubts Ben might have had about the acknowledged monarch of the pack.
"What"s he mad about?"
"He don"t like white folk too much."
"That"s funny. Okra hates colored people worse than poison."
"Yeah, but that little ol" ugly dog of yours can"t do much but a little bit of barkin". The Gray there would be all over you if you didn"t come up that road with me and the mule."
"I bet all the dogs would."
"No. Most of these is g-g-good dogs. All except the Gray. I got s-s-some more that"ll jump you if they catch fire. I try to keep "em stayin" right around here. Folks have shot a few of my d-d-dogs."
Slowly, the gray dog left the woods, walking with its head c.o.c.ked to one side, sidling toward Toomer with one eye riveted on Ben. The other dogs cleared a path for the entrance of the Gray to the fraternity that surged through the yard. When he reached Toomer, he reared back on his hind legs and lifted his head to be scratched by the black man. But one eye stayed with Ben.
"Here, man, f-f-feed him this biscuit."
Ben held out the biscuit, but he did not offer the gift audaciously. The biscuit was held between his index finger and his thumb, and Ben"s entire weight was shifted to his back foot in case the dog was more inclined to sup on his forearm than on a piece of bread.
"You"re a-a-afraid of the little dog."
"d.a.m.n right I am."
The dog, detaching its forepaws from Toomer"s shoulders, moved toward Ben, menacing, suspicious. With strange delicacy, the dog removed the biscuit without touching Ben"s flesh.
"You ack like you feedin" an a-a-alligator, boy," Toomer laughed.
"This is the meanest looking dog I ever seen."
"Naw, what you talkin" about, m-m-man?" Toomer said, the dog licking his face. "He"s not mean. He"s just prejudiced."
Behind him, beneath the giant oaks arched over water, the sun had dipped below the western line and Ben saw over Toomer"s shoulder a deep and chilling gold cutting across the river and lighting in small pools of water across the marsh. A blue heron panned for small fish and a sail blazed against the shimmering green of the marsh. Toomer"s dogs swirled around them, nipping at each other, and keeping their distance from the Gray.
That night, Toomer put Ben in the front of a wooden bateau and steered him through small creeks, a river, and a vast sound before landing on the backside of one of the most remote barrier islands. With a Coleman lantern to lead him, Toomer secured the boat and then plunged through the woods until he came to a row of dunes covered with sea oats. The crash of breakers against sand and the distance of the journey alerted Ben while he was trailing Toomer through the forest that whatever surprise Toomer was planning had a strong relationship to the Atlantic Ocean.
No matter what ploy Ben tried, Toomer would not explain their presence on this wild and seething stretch of beach. But Toomer"s eyes never wavered from the waves. The full moon hung low, a fresh coin that threw its silver grandly on the water in a ribbon that dazzled for a thousand miles.
Finally, at eleven o"clock Toomer pointed toward the breakers. Ben looked and saw nothing. Then his eye focused on the enormous shape of a sea turtle struggling out of the sea and ponderously making its way up the sand. Holding Ben"s arm, Toomer put his fingers to his lips for silence. They watched as the turtle selected her spot and positioned herself for the night"s excavation. With her back flippers, she began digging the hole that would become the womb of her offspring. It was not until she began laying her eggs into the hole that Toomer rose, and with his strangely graceful limp, made his way down to the turtle.
"This is the biggest thing I"ve ever seen, Toomer," Ben screamed. "Why didn"t we come right down?"
" "Cause mama would-a gone back h-h-home," Toomer answered, stooping down behind the turtle and catching four of the eggs as they dropped into the hole. "We"ll keep these four to eat and let mama have the r-rest. Don"t get near mama"s m-m-mouth, Ben. She can do an arm some powerful hurt."
"She"s crying."
"You ever see a w-w-woman have a baby? It hurt."
"I"d like to see my father run over this turtle with his car. This hunk would blow him right off the road."
"This mama don"t go on no trips "cept this one right here. She b-b-born right here on this beach and like it so well she come back and have her kids."
Unpacking his knapsack, Toomer soon started a fire on the beach. He made coffee, grits, bacon, and fried the turtle eggs as he and the white boy watched the turtle cover her eggs, camouflage her tracks, and plunge back into the sea. Opening up four oysters he had also carried with him, Toomer pa.s.sed two of them to Ben who ate them with greater ease in the glow of firelight and with the coffee to wash them down.
"This is the best time I"ve had since I"ve come to this smelly town, Toomer."
"That"s good. On our way back we"ll gig us a few f-f-flounder at a sandbar near here. Tomorrow morning, if Gray don"t get you d-d-during the night, I"ll show you how to get honey out of them hives."
"I ain"t going near no bees," Ben said.
"Mr. Bee is a gentlemans. He don"t bother no one that don"t bother him. Ain"t this a fine night, white boy?" Toomer said lying on his back and staring straight up into the stars.
Ben lay back too and thought about his mother and how right she could be about some things. He knew that her sending him out with Toomer had a lot to do with his father and things he was and was not learning as the son of a fighter pilot. Here in the night he thought that somehow the secret of this marsh-haunted land resided in the quivering flesh of oysters, the rich-flavored meat of crabs, the limp of the flower boy, and the eggs of the great turtles that navigated toward their birthing sands through waters bright with the moon.
Chapter 10.
Before the change of command ceremony, the weeks seemed composed of six Sat.u.r.days to the Meecham children. Their father, as Mary Anne would say, was too much with them. One Tuesday afternoon, the heat of August lying on the town like a corpse, Colonel Meecham ordered Ben and Matthew into the car for a trip to the base.
"Why are we going to the base?" Matthew asked.
"Because I said we"re going to the base," his father answered.
"No special reason, Dad?" Ben asked cautiously.
"Yeah, sportsfans. I got a special reason. I"m gonna blow apples off your head with hand grenades. Now get in the car," his father replied.
On the way to the base Colonel Meecham announced to his sons in a calm, didactic voice that they were both in critical need of a haircut.
"You"re starting to look a little scruffy. Your mother let you grow too much hair on your noggins while I was overseas. You got to remember the old Marine sayin", "Hair is the glory of a woman, but the shame of a soldier." "
"We aren"t soldiers," Matt said.
"You ain"t women either," Bull answered.
"We just got one two weeks ago, Dad," Ben whined.
"Well, we"re startin" back with the old regime now. The Old Corps. From now on it"s gonna be a haircut every week by a qualified Marine barber. If you don"t like it, you can stick it up your b.u.t.ts "cause I ain"t asking you if you like it or not. I"m telling you." Then with an arch, almost imperial toss of his head, he said, "The Great Santini has spoken."
Argument was fruitless once the name of Santini was invoked, both boys knew that, and both knew that if they continued to milk the issue they were merely inviting calamity. Of all the strategic fields on which to wage war against Bull Meecham, the automobile was the most precipitate. It was an enclosed arena with limited avenues of escape. The doors, of course, but their value decreased as the speed of the car increased. Also missing in the necessary props for a showdown was the presence of Lillian Meecham. Ben had instructed Matt and his sisters never to confront, challenge, or anger Bull unless their mother was in shouting distance. Over the years Ben had formulated fire-tested strategies. The other children looked to him as their strategist, their Clausewitz, and Matthew said nothing as they drove up to the main gate of the Ravenel Air Station.
As they walked into the PX, Bull asked his sons, "Do both of you have your I.D. cards?"
"Yes, sir," Ben said.
"Let me check "em to be sure they haven"t expired," Bull said.