"Fine, where is he?"? asked Josh, talking to Mrs. Sally about his son Silas, adding, "I ought to hav gown down to the river fishin' today"? he added as Sally put down some dishes. "Keep going!"? said Mrs. Hightower to Silas, the old mount was trotting along the best it could: she now could see the house, "I suppose your father will be wanting to see you he's been a bear since you've been gone with Charles."? Mrs. Hightower had her ways like Old Josh did, and Silas knew it, he was but nineteen-now, and had lived on their plantation all his life, his father most of his life, he was stranded when he was just a boy in New Orleans, and Charles Hightower had picked him and brought him back home to work the plantation, that was going on 60-years now. Old Josh in a pale dirty white shirt, trying to manage as butler" ?trying to help Ms Sally out, Dandy, her daughter that helped in the kitchen was down with the bug, sicker than a dog, thus, she was gone, and Silas had just come back from New Orleans with Mr. Charles Hightower, and gave Mrs. Hightower a ride back from Ozark, Mr. Hightower stayed in town to play cards with his kind. Old Josh hadn't even seen his boy yet. Josh, opened the daily Ozark newspaper, turned the pages, he enjoyed the war that was starting, and the violent talk the papers hand on the North, what he could read of it that is. He was not reading word for word, he wasn't that good at reading, just bluffing his way through to show Mrs. Sally he could read, and picked out a few words like: North and South, and war, and so forth and so on, then moved about, crossed the room, passed her looking at her dress, and then at her hips and then at her breasts, then Sally would stomp her feet to wake him up from his lustful dreaming; back to work he'd go. It was twilight when the buggy pulled up in front of the house, Josh had been sitting down in the kitchen, and he rose, suddenly rising his way to the front door, and saw his son carrying Mrs. Hightower's groceries in for her, as the table was set for dinner and all. Josh grunted, like two peas in a pod, (once he saw his boy coming up the steps) opened the door for Silas and they both gave each other a big smile. Greens and Biscuits "I seed him on de street yistiddy: he jes' dind't look himself,"? said Josh to Silas, in their two room shack. "If it aint my son Silas,"? Josh repeated himself as they stood on the porch, door opened, he had been gone over three weeks. "How is you?"? he asked, with a quiver to his voice. "Po'ly,"? said Silas, "I's tired also, a long day..."? "I'se y'all kep' well, don ther in Orlens. Hightower do all he need to do I suppose?"? "Right well,"? said Silas, "whut you goin' eat pop?"? "Dey's some geens on de table..."? "I reckon I'll have a little,"? said Silas; Old Josh didn't realize how much he'd miss his son, perhaps it was that he was left with more work in addition to the missing, and now of course, Silas, could finish the work, and Jody, his younger boy by two years, was trying to handle most of the work but he avoid pop, and work like Josh did, and little got done. Plus he was in town also. "I done saw Jody downtown helping at the grocery store, old man Hightower must rent him out again I se?"? Said Silas, "he's not the same, he looks angry."? "You se rights, he takes Jody makes me work all da more, damn white-folk, so, so..."? Josh was pacing the floor as normal now. "Cant eat my teef ant much god any moo...go 'head you eit all you wants; eit yor greens when yo' can git it,"? dat whut me old mom use...da say whn I was jut' a boy, down in 'Orlens."? "Ya sir,"? repeated Silas, "I ben missin..."? then he swallowed his food, and Old Josh paced the floor as if he was Silas' Shadow. All of a sudden there was noise in the backroom and Silas jumped up to see what it was, and it was a woman trying to get out of the shack through the back window of the shack, in the Josh's bedroom, it was Sarah the young maid from down at Barchans Plantation, about ten miles down the road. "Ole man like you wid a girl that's just a kid, she ant no older than me pop; you aint 'shame?"? "Hush yo mouth boy, I'm not in de cemetery yit, you is, but I aint, and she aint and we aint, but you is. It seems since you come back talkin' loud to you papa, since yous cme back-form-Orlens, you learn dat's from da white folks I suppos'" ?jes'"? Silas lowered his eyes didn't make eye contact for a moment, lowered them somewhat, and Josh paced back and forth, he had forgotten he had the girl in his bedroom, perhaps she fell to sleep. Then Silas looked up at his father, started laughing and old Josh, started laughing. "Yor all right pop?"? said Silas. "'tel you goes to Orlens, I'll be fine son, then I get my fixin' then, her' a biscuit, eit it while you can."? Originally named "Greens and Biscuits,"? 1/23/06, but content changed 1/24/06, changing the name to "Reckless times."? |
