Tobacco Road - Erskine Caldwell [42]
“Dude,” Jeeter said, “don’t you see how bad Sister Bessie is wanting to go in the house? You go in there with her—I’ll keep my eye on the automobile.”
While Dude was being urged to go into the house, Bessie went slowly across the porch to the door, waiting to see if Dude were following.
Ellie May drew herself up on her toes and tried to look into the bedroom through the open window. Ada was still busily engaged in straightening up the room, and every few minutes she would push a chair across the floor and jerk an end of one of the beds into a new position.
“What is they going to do in there, Ma?” Ellie May asked.
Ada came to the window and leaned out. She pushed Ellie May’s hands from the sill and motioned to her to go away.
“Sister Bessie and Dude is married,” she said. “Now you go away and stop trying to see inside. You ain’t got no business seeing of them.”
After her mother had left the window, Ellie May again raised herself on the sill and looked inside.
Dude had gone as far as the front door, but he lingered there to take one more look at the automobile. He stood there until Ada came out and pushed him inside and made him go into the room with Bessie.
There was barely any furniture in the room. Besides the three double beds, there was a wobbly dresser in the corner, which was used as a washstand and a table. Over it, hanging on the wall was a cracked mirror. In the opposite end of the room was the fireplace. A broom-sedge sweeper stood behind the door, and another one, completely worn out, was under Ada’s bed. There were also two straight-back chairs in the room. As there were no closets in the house, clothes were hanging on the walls by nails that had been driven into the two-by-four uprights.
The moment Dude walked into the room, Bessie slammed the door, and pulled him with her. She took the marriage license from her skirt pocket and held it in front of her.
“You hold one end, Dude, and I’ll hold the other.”
“What you going to do?”
“Marry us, Dude,” she said.
“Didn’t you get that all done at the courthouse in Fuller?”
“That wasn’t all. I’m doing the balance now.”
“When is we going to take a ride?” he asked.
“It won’t be so very long now. We want to stay here a little while first. We got plenty of time to ride around, Dude.”
“You going to let me drive it all the time?”
“Sure, you can drive it all the time. I don’t know how to drive it, noway.”
“You ain’t going to let nobody else drive it, is you?”
“You is the only one who can drive it, Dude,” she said. “But we got to hurry and finish marrying. You hold your end of the license while I pray.”
Dude stood beside her, waiting for the prayer to be finished. She prayed silently for several minutes while he stood in front of her.
“I marry us man and wife. So be it. That’s all, God. Amen.”
There was a long silence while they looked at each other.
“When is we going for a ride?” Dude said.
“We is married now, Dude. We is finished being married. Ain’t you glad of it?”
“When is we going for a ride?”
“I got to pray now,” she said. “You kneel down on the floor while I make a little prayer.”
They knelt down to pray. Dude got down on all fours, looking straight into Bessie’s nose while her eyes were closed.
“Dear God, Dude and me is married now. We is wife and husband. Dude, he is an innocent young boy, unused to the sinful ways of the country, and I am a woman preacher of the gospel. You ought to make Dude a preacher, too, and let us use our new automobile in taking trips all over the country to pray for sinners. You ought to learn him how to be a fine preacher so we can make all the goats into sheep. That’s all this time. We’re in a hurry now. Save us from the devil and make a place for us in heaven. Amen.”
There was a rustle of skirts as Sister Bessie jumped to her feet and began running excitedly around the room. She came back and pulled at Dude, making him put his arms around her waist.
Outside in the yard, Jeeter and Ellie May had been standing