Issue 22 - 1992

Coe Review • Issue 22
The funny-talked lady kindly grinned over that and said,
“Some people don’t always cooperate with people who can help. I
hope you’re not one of them.”
I didn’t say nothing and she asked if there was anything I
needed. I’d never thought I needed anything but if she was asking,
maybe there was. So I said, “To get Little Elvis back from the place
the state put him.”
I missed hearing him sing those songs even if they were
dumb as ditch water. Many’s the time I tried to make some up but
they never came out right. Daddy always did say I sang like a
combination lock, no key. It was Little Elvis who got the talent in our
family, which was ok with me after I found out that I was the one got
the precocious.
I wouldn’t mind too bad talking to Daddy over that tore-up
car business either. The owner was the same man whose dog treed
me and who Daddy knocked down. I was the one who had to go and
climb that pine, get the dog killed, Daddy locked up, and Little Elvis
took.
I reckon Mommy’d never run off without me to bust in on
her and that neighbor man one night when I couldn’t sleep for the
racket they were raising. I screamed out, “You ain’t my daddy.” He
looked at me back over his shoulder from where he was hunkered
down in the middle of the bed like picking worms off tobacco and
said, “Damn sure ain’t, runt.” He kicked me full in the head barefoot.
Then he slapped Mommy in the jaw and I seen her naked buried
under him with her hair in her face, and her eyes crazy.
“Go on and get,” she said to me.
I ran out of the house, into the dark and way up a hillside. I
didn’t tell the funny-talked lady what it was I done up there that
night, because what I done was hold off crying every which way.
Jabbing a locust thorn in my hand worked best. Then Mommy and
the man was gone and me and Little Elvis got moved into Granny’s
trailer and Daddy was home for a summer. It was a good summer,
too.
The funny-talked lady hugged me right then, just reached out
and yanked me to her new-smelling flannel shirt and held me against
her body. I tried to squirm away but it didn’t do no good. She started
59