Tishomingo Blues

"Me and Jerry and A

De

Robert glanced over. "You don't like me playing with your head. But you're cool, you can handle it." He said, "Listen, what I was saying about these people… I went to two different reenactments up in Michigan. One near Flint, a small one, only a couple hundred people dressed up, one ca

"So you were serious, too," De

"Yes, I was."

"They didn't know you were only acting serious."

"No. I was. I found myself being serious with them and it was a strange experience."

"Being in the real world for a change."

Robert said, "Yeaaah," in a dreamy tone of voice. "That's what it's like, huh?"

De

"Robert Johnson," De

"You passed the test. Eric Clapton will speak to you."

They went by a US 61 road sign and De

"Other side of Tunica, down by Clarksdale, the most famous crossroads in the history of blues. Shit, in the history of music."

"Where Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil."

"You remember-that's good."

"But I don't know what it means."

"Like Faust, man. Sell your soul you get anything you want. They say Robert Johnson made that kind of deal. He didn't say it, they did. But now Tom Johnson 's a different story. This was when Robert Johnson was still a child. Tom Johnson tells people he sold his own soul at the crossroads. I say maybe, maybe not. The man drank poison, ca

"Like a charm?"

"Mojo-yeah, like a charm, an amulet, something you use to get what you want, or be what you want. Something that's magic for you. You keep it in your mojo bag."

De

"Yeah, I forgot. Voodoo City."

"You have a mojo?"

"Wouldn't be without it."

"You keep it in a mojo bag?"

"Yeah, little bag made of fla

"It's in the room. I'll show it to you."

"What's the charm that's in it?"

"Strands of Mado

"Strands? You're kidding."

"Am I?"

Shit, this guy-De

But then Robert said, "You ever think about selling your soul?"

And De

"You stand up and say, when the time comes, Enough of this shit, I'm go

"What if you don't know what you want?"

"You have to be cool, wait for it to be offered. But when it comes, you only have the one chance to grab it. You know what I'm saying?"

"Like a job? What I've always wanted, a regular job."

"You're feeling edgy now, huh? You like to be eighty feet in the air about to do your number-a thousand fans watching and you know you have 'em in your hand. And for that," Robert said, "they pay you three hundred a day?" He stared at the highway now as he said, "Man, I can make you feel like you way higher than eighty feet. Up on an edge you won't believe."

There was a silence, De

"How'd you get it?"

Robert turned his head. "What?"

"Your mojo."

"I bought it."

"How do you know it's the real thing?"

"I believe it. That's enough to make it work."

14

WALTER KIRKBRIDE CALLED THE MEETING, in his office at Southern Living Village, Walter in casual clothes, his beard still gray, a Cuban cigar in one hand, a Confederate cavalry saber in the other. Arlen Novis, Eugene Dean, Bob Hoon and his brother Newton filed in and took seats: Arlen wearing his slouch hat, Eugene holding a sixteen-ounce bottle of Pepsi-Cola, Bob Hoon with a cigar stub showing in the thicket of his beard, Newton showing tobacco juice in his.

They all assumed this meeting was about the reenactment.

Walter corrected that notion. He brought up the hilt of the saber even with his eyes and hacked the blade down on his oak desk, hard, and their shoulders jumped, all four of them sitting right in front of the desk. Walter said:

"Do I have your attention?"

Loud, as they were looking at the new scar on the desk, next to the ones that had been varnished over. Walter lowered his voice but kept grit in it saying to Arlen, "You shot Floyd telling me it was a personal thing that had to be done. You shot Junebug without telling me anything, and I want to know why."

"Don't think I wanted to, Walter."

"You had Fish do it?"

"He's my shooter."

Walter said, "Where is he?" looking beyond them, as if Jim Rein might be lurking back there.

Eugene said, "He's minding my dog."

Now Walter had to stare at Eugene. He heard himself say in his head, He's minding your dog? With a tone that required an explanation. He heard himself say, Minding your dog is more important than…? What he said was, "I told all five of you to be here."

Eugene said, "My dog don't have somebody with her she chews up the house."

Walter had never seen this dog and was curious, but kept to his purpose. He said to Arlen, "Why Junebug?"

Arlen said, "I had him put down 'cause he was getting drunk and talking too much."

"But you let an eyewitness to your shooting Floyd walk down the street, do whatever he wants."

"I set him straight. He knows what'll happen he's called and testifies."

"And Charlie Hoke?"

"Charlie knows better." Arlen cleared his throat and said, "I don't see this has anything to do with business. It come out of our dealing with Floyd. So I don't see it has anything to do with you?"

"It's business," Walter said, "because it brings the police. I can say to myself there is nothing they can find that would tie me in with what you're doing, but I can never be absolutely sure, can I? What I think about is any one of you facing a convictiondoesn't matter what it is-could roll me over to get a reduced sentence. Or name all the names, all your friends and associates, to get immunity from prosecution."

Arlen turned his head to Bob Hoon on one side of him and then to Eugene on the other. "Walter sounds like he's ru

Bob Hoon said, "I thought he was," and nudged his brother, Newton.

"As I see it," Arlen said, "we hired him."

"At gunpoint," Walter said.