As I Lay Dying - William Faulkner [66]
"Hit's what paw says," he said.
MacGowan
It happened I am back of the prescription case, pouring up some chocolate sauce, when Jody comes back and says, "Say, Skeet, there's a woman up front that wants to see the doctor and when I said What doctor you want to see, she said she wants to see the doctor that works here and when I said There aint any doctor works here, she just stood there, looking back this way."
"What kind of a woman is it?" I says. "Tell her to go upstairs to Alford's office."
"Country woman," he says.
"Send her to the courthouse," I says. "Tell her all the doctors have gone to Memphis to a Barbers' Convention."
"All right," he says, going away. "She looks pretty good for a country girl," he says.
"Wait," I says. He waited and I went and peeped through the crack. But I couldn't tell nothing except she had a good leg against the light. "Is she young, you say?" I says.
"She looks like a pretty hot mamma, for a country girl," he says.
"Take this," I says, giving him the chocolate. I took off my apron and went up there. She looked pretty good. One of them black eyed ones that look like she'd as soon put a knife in you as not if you two-timed her. She looked pretty good. There wasn't nobody else in the store; it was dinner time.
"What can I do for you?" I says.
"Are you the doctor?" she says.
"Sure," I says. She quit looking at me and was kind of looking around.
"Can we go back yonder?" she says.
It was just a quarter past twelve, but I went and told Jody to kind of watch out and whistle if the old man come in sight, because he never got back before one.
"You better lay off of that," Jody says. "He’ll fire your stern out of here so quick you cant wink."
"He dont never get back before one," I says. "You can see him go into the postoffice. You keep your eye peeled, now, and give me a whistle."
"What you going to do?" he says.
"You keep your eye out. I'll tell you later."
"Aint you going to give me no seconds on it?" he says.
"What the hell do you think this is?" I says; "a studfarm? You watch out for him. I'm going into conference."
So I go on to the back. I stopped at the glass and smoothed my hair, then I went behind the prescription case, where she was waiting. She is looking at the medicine cabinet, then she looks at me.
"Now, madam," I says; "what is your trouble?"
"It's the female trouble," she says, watching me. "I got the money," she says.
"Ah," I says. "Have you got female troubles or do you want female troubles? If so, you come to the right doctor." Them country people. Half the time they dont know what they want, and the balance of the time they cant tell it to you. The clock said twenty past twelve.
"No," she says.
"No which?" I says.
"I aint had it," she says. "That's it." She looked at me. "I got the money," she says.
So I knew what she was talking about.
"Oh," I says. "You got something in your belly you wish you didn't have." She looks at me. "You wish you had a little more or a little less, huh?"
"I got the money," she says. "He said I could git something at the drugstore for hit,"
"Who said so?" I says.
"He did," she says, looking at me.
"You dont want to call no names," I says. "The one that put the acorn in your belly? He the one that told you?" She dont say nothing. "You aint married, are you?" I says. I never saw no ring. But Like as not, they aint heard yet out there that they use rings.
"I got the money," she says. She showed it to me, tied up in her handkerchief: a ten spot.
"I'll swear you have," I says. "He give it to you?"
"Yes," she says.
"Which one?" I says. She looks at me. "Which one of them give it to you?"
"It aint but one," she says. She looks at me.
"Go on," I says. She dont say nothing. The trouble about the cellar is, it aint but one way out and that's back up the inside stairs. The clock says twenty-five to one. "A pretty girl like you," I says.
She looks at me. She begins to tie the money back up in the handkerchief.