William Faulkner, SANCTUARY – WordPress.com - literature save 2

at her with a quality furious and questioning and sad and went away again and he crept
behind Popeye from the room.
He saw Popeye return to the kitchen, but he did not follow at once. He stopped at
the hall door and squatted there. His body began to writhe again in shocked indecision,
his bare feet whispering on the floor with a faint, rocking movement as he swayed from
side to side, his hands wringing slowly against his flanks. And Lee too, he said. And Lee
too. Durn them fellers. Durn them fellers. Twice he stole along the porch until he could
see the shadow of Popeye's hat on the kitchen floor, then returned to the hall and the door
beyond which Temple lay and where Gowan snored. The third time he smelled Popeye's
cigarette. Ef he'll jest keep that up, he said. And Lee too, he said, rocking from side to
side in a dull, excruciating agony, And Lee too.
When Goodwin came up the slope and onto the back porch Tommy was squatting
just outside the door again. "What in hell . . ." Goodwin said. "Why didn't you come on?
I've been looking for you for ten minutes." He glared at Tommy, then he looked into the
kitchen. "You ready?" he said. Popeye came to the door. Goodwin looked at Tommy
again. "What have you been doing?"
Popeye looked at Tommy. Tommy stood now, rubbing his instep with the other
foot, looking at Popeye.
"What're you doing here?" Popeye said.
"Aint doin nothin," Tommy said.
"Are you following me around?"
"I aint trailin nobody," Tommy said sullenly.
"Well, dont, then," Popeye said.
"Come on," Goodwin said. "Van's waiting." They went on. Tommy followed
them. Once he looked back at the house, then he shambled on behind them. From time to
time he would feel that acute surge go over him, like his blood was too hot all of a
sudden, dying away into that warm unhappy feeling that fiddle music gave them. Durn
them fellers, he whispered, Durn them fellers.
IX
The room was dark. The woman stood inside the door, against the wall, in the cheap coat,
the lace-trimmed crepe nightgown, just inside the lockless door. She could hear Gowan
snoring in the bed, and the other men moving about, on the porch and in the hall and in
the kitchen, talking, their voices indistinguishable through the door. After a while they
got quiet. Then she could hear nothing at all save Gowan as he choked and snored and
moaned through his battered nose and face.
She heard the door open. The man came in, without trying to be silent. He
entered, passing within a foot of her. She knew it was Goodwin before he spoke. He went
to the bed. "I want the raincoat," he said. "Sit up and take it off." The woman could hear
the shucks in the mattress as Temple sat up and Goodwin took the raincoat off of her. He
returned across the floor and went out.
She stood just inside the door. She could tell all of them by the way they breathed.
Then, without having heard, felt, the door open, she began to smell something: the