Reivers, The - William Faulkner [85]
"It was him!" Minnie said. "I know it was him! He taken it while I was asleep!"
"Hell fire," Boon said. "Somebody stole a tooth out of your mouth and you didn't even know it?"
"God damn it, listen," Miss Reba said. "Minnie had that tooth made that way, so she could put it in and take it out—worked extra and scrimped and saved for—how many years was it, Minnie? three, wasn't it?—until she had enough money to have her own tooth took out and that God damned gold one put in. Oh sure, I tried my best to talk her out of it—ruin that set of natural teeth that anybody else would give a thousand dollars apiece, and anything else she had too; not to mention all the extra it cost her to have it made so she could take it out when she ate—"
"Took it out when she ate?" Boon said. "What the hell is she saving her teeth for?"
"I wanted that tooth a long time," Minnie said, "and I worked and saved to get it, extra work. I aint going to have it all messed up with no spit-mixed something to eat."
"So she would take it out when she ate." Miss Reba said, "and put it right there in front of her plate where she could see it, not only watch it but enjoy it too while she was eating. But that wasn't the way he got it; she says she put it back in when she finished breakfast, and I believe her; she aint never forgot it before because she was proud of it, it was valuable, it had cost her too much; no more than you would put that God damned horse down somewhere that's probably cost you a damned sight more than a gold tooth, and forget it—"
"I know I never," Minnie said. "I put it back as soon as I ate. I remember. Only I was plumb wore out and tired—"
"That's right," Miss Reba said. She was talking to Ev-erbe now: "I reckon I was going good when you all come in last night. It was daybreak before I come to my senses enough to quit, and the sun was up when I finally persuaded Minnie to take a good slug of gin and see the front door was bolted and go on back to bed, and I went up myself and woke Jackie and told her to keep the place shut, I didn't care if every horny bastard south of St Louis come knocking, not to let nobody in before six oclock this evening. So Minnie went back and laid down on her cot in the storeroom off the back gallery and I thought at first maybe she forgot to lock that door—"
"Course I locks it," Minnie said. "That's where the beer's at. I been keeping that door locked ever since that boy got here because I remembered him from last summer when he come to visit."
"So there she was," Miss Reba said, "wore out and dead asleep on that cot with the door locked and never knowed nothing until—"
"I woke up," Minnie said. "I was still so tired and wore out that I slept too hard, like you do; I just laid there and I knowed something felt a little funny in my mouth. But I »just thought maybe it was a scrap of something had done got caught in it no matter how careful I was, until I got up and went to the looking glass and looked—"
"I wonder they never heard her in Chattanooga, let alone just in Parsham," Miss Reba said. "And the door still locked—"
"It was him!" Minnie said, cried. "I know it was! He been worrying me at least once every day how much it cost and why didn't I sell it and how much could I get for it and where would I go to sell it at—"
"Sure," Miss Reba said. "That's why he squalled like a wildcat this morning when you told him he wasn't going back home but would have to come on to Parsham with you," she told Everbe. "So when he heard the train whistle, he run, huh? Where do you figger he is? Because I'm going to have Minnie's tooth back."
"We dont know," Everbe said. "He just disappeared out of the surrey about half past five oclock. We thought he would have to be here, because he aint got anywhere else to go. But we haven't found him yet."
"Maybe you aint looked