Cool Hand Luke - Donn Pearce [85]
Have you got your mind right, Luke?
Yes sir, Boss. I got it right. I got it right.
Are you sure, Luke? You ain’t gonna backslide on me are yuh? You sure your mind’s right?
Yes suh, Boss. Please. Please don’t hit me no more!
All right Luke. All right. Ah won’t hit you no more.
The Building was silent.
25
THE WALKING BOSS TOLD LUKE TO FINISH filling in the ditch and leveling off the dirt in the yard, standing nearby as he worked, leaning on his cane and watching. When Luke finished he stood there, waiting for instructions. The Walking Boss didn’t move. For a full minute we sat inside the Building and waited.
Are you through, Luke?
Yes suh, Boss. I’m through.
Are you tired, Luke?
Yes suh. I am. I’m mighty tired.
All right then. Go on inside the Building. Take a hot shower and shave yourself up. Go to bed and git some sleep. As long as you got your mind right there ain’t no reason why you cain’t eat and sleep like everybody else.
I got it right, Boss. I got it right.
That’s good Luke. Ah’m really mighty glad to hear that.
After that day they let Luke sleep in the Building with the rest of us and they let him have his meals. He was no longer beaten or abused and even the Dog Boy got the point and began to keep his mouth shut. Luke’s wounds began to scab over and heal. His swollen lips went back to normal, his eye opened up and gradually faded. His hair grew out again, forming a ragged-looking crew cut spotted with bald places made by the scars. His hands hardened and his skin grew dark. The bridge of his nose mended with only a slight crook in it. He gained weight. His appetite rose to what it was during his Newcock days and his speed and endurance, his energy and strength resumed their legendary proportions.
But there was a difference. Luke no longer laughed and joked. He never sat in on the poker games. After he took a shower in the evenings he went straight to bed, looking off at nothing, silent and brooding. On weekends he would sometimes play his banjo but the music was different. There were no more of the virtuoso pieces, none of the Talking Blues. His repertory had been reduced to the plaintive and cajoling spirituals of the mountains, songs of humility, of regret and fatigue.
For Luke had been broken. His mind was right. His working partners tried to carry on as they had always done before, telling lies and exchanging insults, making phony bets and playing the Dozens. And none of the rest of us would have dared to make any comments on the changes in Luke. But even with Drag and Koko there was a difference. It just couldn’t be helped.
One day in the middle of January, Boss Godfrey was strolling up and down the road as we were pitching up dirt to the washouts. Cool Hand exercised his prerogative as a Chain Man, brushing down the clumps as they were tossed up from the ditch bottom. Boss Godfrey stood nearby, smoking a cigar and leaning on his Stick. Without shifting his weight or changing his expression, he began to growl in a low, matter-of-fact voice—
Luke. Go get the water bucket.
Cool Hand glanced up. Then he stabbed his shovel in the ground and without hesitation he called out—
Boss Paul! Gettin‘ the water bucket over yonder!
For a moment there was no answer. The guards saw the Walking Boss standing beside Luke and knew it must have been his idea. But it was too much. Luke had been made a Water Jack? Cool Hand Luke?
Boss Hughes! Boss Brown! Gittin‘ the bucket here.
Yeah. Yeah. O.K. Git it.
Luke started down the road, his feet moving with that pigeon-toed, short-stepped gait as he hobbled towards the tool truck. The guards watched him closely but Boss Godfrey turned and idly strolled up the road in the opposite direction.
Luke got the bucket and lugged it back, offering the first drink to the Walking Boss, looking down at the ground and waiting while Boss Godfrey gingerly sipped from the dipper.
Better give the guards a drink, Luke.
Luke started clambering down the shoulder of the road, across the ditch and up the back slope, pausing to call out in a clear, distinct voice,
Boss Brown!