Sunset and Sawdust

“You’re a tramp pretending to be a man, going around with a gun on your hip. Does that gun make you feel like you got something you don’t got? You know, a Johnson?”

“Henry, my guess is, even with me not having a Johnson, mine’s bigger than yours.”

McBride laughed again. Henry looked at him, then back at Sunset. “Get on with it.”

“Sure you want this fella to know what I’m going to say? Not that I care. It’ll all come out soon enough.”

“He knows lots of things already. You say what you got to say, little lady. And I use the term lady loosely.”

“Most of it don’t need to be said. You’re cheating Zendo out of his land, you and the mayor were, before he went off-he didn’t go off, did he?”

“He’s not here,” Henry said.

Sunset looked at McBride. “That’s why you brought this guy in, isn’t it? To get rid of the mayor? Strong-arm people. Keep you out of it.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Mayor’s probably in some hole somewhere, like Jimmie Jo and her baby.” Sunset studied McBride. “But you know about that, don’t you?”

“I don’t put people in holes,” McBride said. “I don’t like digging. And I don’t like babies hurt.”

“Who is this guy, anyway?” Sunset asked Henry.

“McBride,” McBride said.

“He’s an associate,” Henry said. “From Chicago. I knew him through a fella.”

“Weren’t there enough thugs around here?”

“Listen here, Sunset,” Henry said. “I don’t like you. But I tell you what, I’ll cut you in for what Pete was go

“What was Jimmie Jo’s share? A dose of oil and a thirty-eight slug in the back of the head?”

“A thirty-eight slug?” McBride said.

Sunset worked up a fierce gaze. “The baby was cut out. That’s as low as it gets. That your work, McBride?”

“I didn’t know she had one in the oven,” McBride said. “That’s a bad break for the kid, that being done. I didn’t know about the kid.”

Sunset thought McBride looked surprisingly sincere.

“Don’t say so much,” Henry said to McBride.

“Nothing’s been said that matters,” McBride said.

Henry looked at Sunset, said, “No one really cares about a nigger’s land, Sunset. Not really. We could cut you in for a share of it. Hell, you’re such a nigger lover, you can give Zendo part of your share, all of it. The truth is, a nigger ain’t got the sense to run a piece of oil land, and don’t deserve the money.”

“But you do?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“How much does he get?”

“I’m a full partner,” McBride said.

“Did you start that way?” Sunset said. “You a full partner from the start? Bet not. Bet you got the mayor’s share. Where is the mayor, McBride?”

McBride gri

“That’s right,” Henry said. “They got the town council filling in until the emergency election, next month. Then I’ll run. I think I’ve got a good chance.”

“Not if the council knows about this.”

“Frankly, you’re just a fly on the end of my dick, Sunset. A third of the council is Klan, and I don’t know any of the others got much love for niggers.”

“Thing is,” Sunset said, “bet they’ll all want their little share, though, won’t they? That’ll split up your prize considerable, won’t it?”

Sunset was fishing, but she could tell from the look on Henry’s face he had thought about that, and didn’t like the idea. McBride looked like he had before. A happy green-eyed guy. A guy used to things turning out his way.

“Rooster in on this?” Sunset asked.

“He was,” McBride said. “But he left town today.”

“Way the mayor did?”

“Rooster seems to have caught a train,” McBride said. “Sheriff’s car was found out by the tracks just before we come here.”

“Listen here, girlie,” Henry said. “Let me lay it out even clearer. I won’t remove you from office. You play constable, run around with your gun and badge until the term runs out, then you give it up. Do that, I’ll give you a cut of the oil money. A good cut. There’s a little house on that land Pete built for his whore. Think about that. He built her a house and was going to make her rich on that oil money, and you, you weren’t going to get a thing out of the deal. That was part of his little blackmail scheme. A house, a piece of land, a slice of the oil money. He was go

“I wouldn’t trust you as far as two grown men could throw you,” Sunset said. “And by the way, did it occur to you, I tell Marilyn what you’ve done, you’ll be out at the sawmill?”

Henry pursed his lips, shook his head and gri

“Well, Marilyn is looking for an excuse, now that she drove her old man to suicide and she’s got the purse strings. I’ve known her a long time. I think Jones kept her in line. I think she’s got a co

“Go

McBride made with his chuckle, the one that made Sunset’s ass clench and her skin crawl.

“Something needs to be taken care of, I like to have people knows how,” McBride said. “Or do it myself, I got to. Not a bunch of crackers playing dress up, passing signs and symbols between themselves.

“Now, sweetie, you don’t know me. But I’ll tell you this. I think the Bible will back me up. A woman, she’s got a function. And it’s important. That’s how a man stays satisfied, how babies come into the world and pickles get ca

“Think you’re scaring me?” Sunset said, feeling very scared, letting her hand rest on the butt of her gun, because McBride, he’d shifted in the pew and his coat had fallen back and she could see there was one big pistol hanging from a holster under his arm. She knew he knew she could see it, meant for her to. He shifted again, let the coat close. She kept her hand on her gun, casual, but ready, determined not to show how scared she was, keeping a calm smile on her face, holding her legs stiff so her knees wouldn’t knock.

Then she saw something behind the closed curtain at the back, where the choir gathered and the curtain was pulled open when they sang. Feet sticking out from under the curtain. She said, “Who’s back there?”

“Believe me,” McBride said, “you don’t want to know.”

“Tell him to step out.”

McBride gri

Two stepped out. He was partially hidden in shadow, but there was light from the door, and it gave enough she could see him. At first he looked short, but Sunset realized he was over six feet and thick and built like an oak. He was black as wet licorice and the whites of his eyes were very white. He smiled. His gums were dark. Blue gums, they called colored people like that. He wore a bowler hat like McBride, but it fit lower. He had on regular clothes but his jacket was black and silky and had long tails. There was something about him that made her skin try and turn itself inside out.