The Butterfly - James M. Cain [13]
"That's his birthmark."
"I thought it was some kind of a moth."
"It's his butterfly."
"It almost scared me to death."
They went in the back room with him again, but I called Kady out. "I take it back, everything I said. He's so sweet I could eat him."
"But if you'd rather I went —
"I couldn't stand it if you did."
"I can understand how you feel."
"But I don't! Not any more. It's all gone, the devilment that's been in me, and the onriness, and all what I've been thinking about. I want you to be happy. And if the boy wants to marry you, he's not any rat, and I want you to have him."
"I'm so glad, Jess."
"Me too."
"I want to be your little girl."
"And I want to be your pappy."
"Kiss me."
I kissed her, and she kissed me back, and it wasn't like those hot kisses we'd been having, but cool and sweet like the kiss Danny gave me just before they took him away.
Chapter 6
Why she couldn't go to Blount right away she didn't tell me till one day when all four of us were sitting out under the trees and I spotted a big car coming up the creek from the state road. Then she owned up she had wired the boy, and yet she wasn't going back till he came and got her. So she and Jane ran in the house with Danny to get slicked up and in another minute there he was, kind of a tall, dark boy in slacks and blue shirt. He didn't put on any airs with me at all, but shook hands quick, and went around the cabin looking at it, and said it was just like the one his uncle had on Paint Creek, where he used to spend part of every summer. So then it turned out his father had got himself a mine, but his family were mountain people, like us. So that went with his bony look, and made me feel still better about him. Then when Kady came out and he took her in his arms, I had to begin fooling around with my shoe for fear they'd see the tears in my eyes. Then when he saw Danny for the first time in his life, in Jane's arms laughing and trying to talk as she brought him out, he went over and bent over and looked and bent down and called him old-timer and shook hands just like it was somebody he was being introduced to and could say something. Then he tried to brush off the butterfly, just like I had, and we all laughed and had some Coca-Cola and were friendly. But when they went in to get supper he said he'd have to leave for a little while. "If you're going back to town, I'll ride along with you. There's some things I ought to get."
"I'm going up the creek."
"There's nothing up the creek."
"There's a heel named Moke Blue."
"You know Moke?"
"I've seen him and I guess I've spoken to him, but I've never shaken his hand and until I got Kady's wire I never even thought about him. I'm thinking about him now, though. And I'm putting him in jail for kidnapping my boy."
"You're taking him in, yourself?"
"That's it, Jess."
"I'll go with you."
"You mean we'll do it together?"
"Soon as I get my rifle."
"I won't need it."
"How you know?"
"He's got no gun, I'm sure of it."
"He could get one, and anyway, all he'd have to do is holler and about eighteen brothers and in-laws and cousins would be there, and at least half of them have guns."
"If we bring a gun, Jess, I'll kill him."
"Maybe we better not."
We got in his car and rode up as far as the church, then got out and walked up the hollow to the end of the path, then followed the gully up to Moke's shack. Nobody was in it, and except for some beans in one corner that didn't prove much, there was no way to tell if anybody had been there for the last two or three days, or had just stepped out and would be right back, or was up the hollow or down the creek. But while we were whispering about it he held up his hand and I looked. Through a