Sunset and Sawdust

“Wasn’t no cause for that,” Plug said. “He was just talking. We all got second thoughts. He didn’t mean nothing by it. Wasn’t no need in that. We ain’t like you-either of you. We ain’t done this kind of thing before.”

The big man stood silent, the shotgun cradled in his arms. He tilted his head to one side.

Plug said, “I’m over it. I ain’t got no second thoughts.”

Hillbilly cut off a piece of Tootie’s shirt, used it to wipe the blood off the back of his neck. He dropped the cloth on the ground, went back, got in the car. The sound of the shot going off had not been right in his ear, but he had a ringing in it. Everything he heard, he heard well enough to understand, but it was as if the words were being called up to him from inside a cave.

Plug started the engine, said, “All I’m saying, Two, is you didn’t have to do that. He didn’t mean nothing. He was just nervous. He’s got a wife, a kid.”

“You think these others don’t?” Two said. “Think he’s any better than them? There’s no need to put good or bad or wives and kids into it. That sort of thing doesn’t matter. It’s not in God’s universe. Babies die all the time. Old folks die all the time. God isn’t concerned with dying. He’s concerned with souls.”

And the Other Two said, “You think it matters to me? You think anything matters to me? Wives and kids, they die like anyone else. We hold all the souls we can, and when God calls us, we give them to him. Our death will be worth more than the multitude, because we are the multitude.”

“I can see that,” Hillbilly said, and cocked an eye at Plug.

Two said, “When we get through, this car is go

“And we got to order a glass,” the Other Two said. “And get some paint. Brother McBride likes this car and he’ll want it fixed.”

When they came to the place where Sunset lived there was only the floor of the house where the tent had been and the outhouse and the tall post where Marilyn had started a clothesline.

“They done run off,” Plug said. “We ain’t go

“I don’t think they run off,” Hillbilly said.

“Sure they run off,” Plug said. “They didn’t, where are they?”

“They don’t know I’m with you,” Hillbilly said. “They don’t know I got some ideas about where they are. They’re hiding all right, but not the way you mean.”

“Tell us,” Two said.

“I think we should try Clyde’s,” Hillbilly said. “I was them, that’s where I’d go, take my tent with me, start over.”

“Clyde?” Two said.

“Deputy,” Hillbilly said.

“What about Henry?” Two said. “Brother McBride said he was arrested today. Said some maid told someone and someone told another someone, and then Brother McBride got the news.”

The Other Two said, “That’s what this is all about, you know. Henry. And the woman.”

“And the others?” Plug said. “It about them?”

“It is,” said Two. “It’s about them and this Zendo.”

“But Zendo, he don’t know nothing,” Plug said.

“He may know something now,” the Other Two said. “But what about Henry?”

“He’s with them,” Hillbilly said. “Ain’t nobody around here go

“That’s good,” said Two. “And the mother-in-law?”

“I don’t know she’s a problem,” Hillbilly said.

The Other Two said, “We’ll consider on that. I’ll tell Brother McBride, and he’ll consider on it. Hillbilly, you direct us. And Plug, drive us, please.”

“I ought to have to do something important,” Goose said. “Good as you been to me, miss. Good as Lee’s been.”

“What I want you to do,” Sunset said, “is help Clyde out. Me and Daddy, we’re going over to Zendo’s, see how it’s going with Bull. I’ve had an idea I think might be good.”

“I just want to help,” Goose said.

“I know, and thanks for asking. Stay with Clyde and Karen and Ben, watch old Henry here and the tent. That’s your job and it’s important.”

They were standing outside the tent, near the post where Henry was chained, sitting in his chair in the moonlight.

A plate he had eaten off of was on the ground and Ben was licking it.

“Can’t you make this dog go on?” Henry said. “He peed on the post a while ago. I don’t like having him around. He keeps sniffing me.”

“If I wanted to do something about him, guess I could,” Sunset said.

Lee came out of the tent. Sunset and Lee got in Sunset’s car. Lee said, “Sure we should leave them here?”

“No one knows about this place, not even people that know Clyde. He doesn’t have visitors. It’s a good idea, being here.”

“Living under a tarp, I can see that he doesn’t have visitors,” Lee said.

“Actually,” Sunset said, “it’s nicer than the house he burned down. And now, there’s the tent.”

“That tent is getting pretty crowded,” Lee said. “When this is over, back on your land, we ought to build a house, help Clyde build one here.”

“We’ll see,” Sunset said.

After they hit the main road the lights were full of grasshoppers and a tan Plymouth passing them.

“Slow here,” Hillbilly said. “It ain’t so easy to see the place in the dark. Right there. Turn there. Road ends at his place.”

“How far?” Two asked.

“Not real far,” Hillbilly said. “A piece. But not far.”

“Go down a ways, pull over and park,” said Two. “We’ll walk down and see them.”

“We’ll take what God needs,” the Other Two said.

Plug took the turn and the road was dusty and the dust rose up as they went, like a heavy mist, and grasshoppers jumped out of it, splattered against the windshield, which was already greasy with them. Plug drove a short piece, pulled in where there was a stretch of clearing, turned off the lights and parked.

Hillbilly and Two had twelve-gauge pumps. Plug had a.45 revolver. Two said, “We’ll say what and when and how.”

“Yeah,” Hillbilly said, “you fellas are the boss.”

“You say we, you mean, you, right?” Plug said.

“I mean the both of us,” Two said.

Plug nodded. “All right. I see that-I think.”

They got out of the car, walked down the road a ways, then Two stopped them.

“We’ll go ahead,” Two said. “You come down the road walking. When you hear us cut down, you come ru

“Why don’t we just sneak up on them?” Plug said.

Two turned his head slowly. He took off his bowler and shook out the sweat. The horseshoe scar looked raw in the moonlight. “We’ll sneak.”

“We as in… you two?” Plug asked.

“Correct,” the Other Two said. “Understand?”

“Sure,” Plug said.

Two nodded, went down the road quickly, then went into the woods and was gone.

Plug said, “I say we go back to the car, drive away and keep driving.”

“There’s lots of money in this,” Hillbilly said.

“Wasn’t saying there wasn’t money in it. I’m saying I don’t care anymore. Tootie was supposed to get money too, wasn’t he? He ain’t getting no money now. So what’s money to him?”

“Nothing to him,” Hillbilly said, “but maybe it’s more for us. We could ask McBride about Tootie’s share. We could maybe split it.”

Plug looked at the dirt road. “Don’t know I want to kill no woman. Don’t know I want to kill nobody. Tootie… dying like that, that was bad enough. I once shot a deer and got sick.”

“You can’t think of them as people. Got to think of them as targets. That’s the way you do it, Plug.”

“You was her friend,” Plug said.

“I don’t feel any different about her now than I did before. I don’t care for her daddy, or Clyde, cause of what they done, but her, I don’t feel any different. It hasn’t got anything to do with the way you feel.”

“The hell it doesn’t.”

“You going in, or not?”

About that time they heard a shotgun blast, and Hillbilly said, “That’s Two. Means it’s time for us.”