Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell [39]
“Can’t you write?” he asked. “Can’t you sign your name?”
“I never learned how,” she said.
He was about to say something, when he looked up and saw her nose. His eyes opened wider and wider.
“All right, I’ll put it down for you. But it ain’t my business to do that for you. You ought to do it yourself. I don’t get paid for writing people’s names for them.”
“I’ll be powerful much obliged if you will do it for me,” she said.
“What’s your name?”
“Sister Bessie Rice.”
“You must be preacher Rice’s widow, ain’t you?”
“He was my former husband.”
“Who are you going to marry, Sister Rice?”
“That’s him back there by the door.”
“Who?”
“Dude. His name is Dude Lester.”
“You ain’t going to marry him, are you?”
“That’s what I came here to get leave of the county for. Me and him is going to get married.”
“Who—that kid?” Is he the one who’s going to marry you?”
“Dude said he would—”
“That boy ain’t old enough to marry yet, Sister Rice.”
“Dude, he’s sixteen.”
“I can’t give you a license—you’ll have to wait a while and come back next year or so.”
“Dear God,” Bessie said, dropping to her knees on the floor, “this man says he won’t give me leave to marry Dude. God, You’ve got to make him do it. You told me last night to marry Dude and make a preacher out of him, and You have got to see me through now. I’m all excited about getting married. If You don’t make the county give me leave to marry, I don’t know what evil I might—”
“Wait a minute!” the Clerk shouted. “Stop that praying! I’d rather give you the license than listen to that. Maybe we can do something about it.”
Bessie got up smiling.
“I knowed the Lord would help me out,” she said.
“Has that boy got the consent of his parents? He can’t get married unless he’s got the consent of both parents, according to the law for his age. What does he want to marry you for anyway? He’s too young to marry an old woman like you. Come here, son—”
“Don’t you try to talk him out of it,” Bessie said. “If you start that, I’ll pray some more. God won’t let you keep us from marrying.”
“What do you mean by coming here to marry this old woman, son? You ought to wait and marry a girl when you grow up.”
“I don’t know,” Dude said. “Bessie, there, brought me along with her.”
“Well, I can’t give you a license to marry,” the Clerk said. “It’s against the law for a boy under eighteen years old to marry without his parents’ consent. And no amount of praying can change the law, neither. It’s down on the books and it won’t come off.”
“Dear God,” Bessie began again, “You ain’t going to let this man put us off, is You? You know how much I been counting on marrying Dude. You ought not to let nothing stop—”
“Wait a minute! Don’t start that again!” the Clerk said. “Who are this boy’s folks?”
“His Ma and Pa don’t care,” Bessie said. “They’re glad of it. I talked to them both early this morning on the way down here to Fuller.”
“What’s his daddy’s name?”
“Jeeter Lester is Dude’s Pa, and I don’t reckon you would know his Ma if I was to call her name. Her name is Ada.”
“Sure, I know Jeeter Lester, and I don’t reckon he does care. Nor his wife, either. I had to give Lov Bensey a license to marry one of the young girls, because Jeeter said he wanted it done. She wasn’t but twelve years old then either, and it was a shame to marry her so young. But it’s in the law, and I had to do it. She was a pretty little girl. I never seen a girl before in all my life with such pretty yellow hair and blue eyes. Her eyes was exactly the same color as robins’ eggs. I swear, she was one pretty sight to see.”
“Dude is older than that,” Bessie said. “Dude, he is sixteen.”
“How old are you, Sister Rice? You didn’t tell me your age.”
“I don’t have to tell you that, do I?” she said.
“That’s the law. I can’t give you the license if you don’t state your age.”
“Well—I was thirty-eight not so long back.”
“How old are you now?”
“Thirty-nine, but I don’t show it yet.”
“Who’s going to support you two?” he asked. “That boy can’t make a man’s wages yet.”
“Is that in the law, too?”
“Well, no. The law doesn’t