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By Root 1389 0

him. Although she had not ever seen one of those tails before, she knew that all the world was divided into boys and girls, and that when boys and girls grew up they got married and became mothers and fathers, although she herself for some reason had no mother and father, and she decided on the spot that when Vernon Ingledew grew up she was going to marry him. She couldn’t wait for him to grow up, but he took such a long time doing it, and by the time she herself was already grown up he was just a little kid starting the first grade of school. What was worse, he wouldn’t have anything to do with her. He ignored her. She and his sisters played “house,” frequently, but Vernon refused to join them. They also played “mobile home,” but he would not even volunteer to drive the “truck.” They played “school” and “store” and “bank,” and tried their best to recruit him as a “pupil” or “customer,” but he would have none of it. They played “church” and told him he would go to hell unless he joined them, but he opted for hell.

One summer old Doc Swain died, and his little clinic on Main Street was abandoned, along with the other abandoned doctors’ and dentists’ offices, and the abandoned bank and mill and general store—in fact, everything on Main Street was abandoned except the old hotel, which was no longer a hotel but just a residence for Drussie and her niece Lola, both old ladies who sat on the porch all summer long staring at the boarded-up general store. When Doc Swain’s office was abandoned, all of the contents of it were left in it, and Vernon’s sisters and Jelena decided to play “doctor” and again they tried to persuade Vernon to join them, telling him that he could be the doctor and they would be the nurses and patients. This time Vernon, who was six, at least thought the matter over without flatly rejecting it, and at length decided that he didn’t mind being a doctor, so for the very first time he joined them in their play. The clinic was as fully equipped as country doctors’ clinics ever were; they dressed Vernon in the doctor’s smock, rolling up the sleeves until they fit him; and put a stethoscope around his neck and a round reflex mirror on his forehead. Sharon was the nurse, Eva the receptionist, and the rest of them patients. Vernon at the age of six had been taken to the doctor often enough, with whooping cough and measles and mumps and chicken pox, to know how a doctor deports himself, and he gave a reasonably good performance. He felt each patient’s pulse and put his stethoscope to their chests and listened—with some awe—to their heartbeats. Jelena’s breasts were well developed at the age of fourteen, and it thrilled her when Vernon’s hand put the stethoscope on her breast. “What’s your complaint?” the six-year-old boy said to her in as deep a voice as he could manage. It was the first time he had ever spoken to her. “I’m going to have a baby,” she told him. “Hhmm,” he said, and gave her a bottle of yellow pills. “Well, take two of these a day, and come back if it doesn’t go away.” The girls laughed, embarrassing him, and “Nurse” Sharon told him, “You’re ’sposed to examine her. She’s ’sposed to git on that table and have you take a look at her.” Jelena was reluctant but also excited at the idea, and she climbed onto the examination table and raised her skirt and removed her panties. Vernon came and took a look, but wouldn’t come close. “Nothing wrong with you,” he said, “’ceptin they cut off yore tallywhacker fer bein bad.” The girls laughed uproariously, and Vernon threw off his smock and stethoscope and marched out, declaring “I don’t want to play dumb games.” He never again joined any of their games, and then they were too old to play games.

When Vernon was six, he noticed for the first time that his father also had a tallywhacker, which he had already guessed, since his father wore pants and had short hair, so the next time he saw his grandfather he asked Bevis, “Grampaw, was Daddy always a good boy?” Bevis replied by telling him of the time that Hank had “stolen” one of the mules and run away to join the circus.