Gump & Company

So I took his advice an got me an agent. Mister Butterfield was his name.

First thing Mister Butterfield does is go an start an argument with the people at the Saints organization. Pretty soon I get called in an everbody is mad at me.

"Gump," they says, "you has already signed a contract for one thousand dollars a pass and ten thousand dollars a touchdown for this season. Now you want to go back on it. What the hell is this!"

"I du

"Butterfield! Agent my ass! That man is a crook. Don't you know that?"

When I said I didn't, they tole me that Mister Butterfield had threatened to hold me out of the playoff game if they didn't give me triple what they were now.

"Let me tell you this, Gump," the owner says, "if you miss just one game because of this ridiculous attempt at highway robbery, I will not only kick you off the team personally, but I will see to it you don't never get another job playing football anyplace—at least for money. You understand that?"

I said I did an went on out to practice.

That week I finally quit my job sweepin up at Wanda's strip joint. The hours was kind of gettin to me. Wanda said she understood, an anyway, she said she was go

Well, the day before we was fixin to leave for the Dallas game, I gone to the post office an there is a letter there from Mobile, Alabama. It is from Je

"Dear Forrest," she said. "I don't know how to tell you this. But Je

There was a bunch of other stuff she said, also, but I don't remember much of it. I kept lookin at them first lines, an my hands started tremblin an my heart begun to beat so hard I thought I was go

Well, I ain't sure exactly what I done next, but somehow I got back home an thowed some stuff in a bag an caught the bus to Mobile that afternoon. It was the longest bus drive of my life, I think. I just kept goin back over all them years with Je

When I got to Mrs. Curran's house, it was nearly nine o'clock at night.

"Oh, Forrest," she says, an thowed her arms around me an begun to cry, an I couldn't help it an begun cryin, too. In a little while, we went inside an she made me some milk an cookies an tried to tell me about it.

"Nobody knows exactly what it was," she said. "They both got sick about the same time. It was very fast and they just kind of slipped away. She wasn't in any pain or anything. In fact, she was more beautiful than ever. Just laid in the bed, like I remember her as a little girl. Her very own bed. Her hair all long and pretty, and her face was just like it always was, like an angel. And then, that morning, she..."

Mrs. Curran had to stop for a while. She wadn't cryin anymore. She just looked out the winder at the streetlight.

"And when I went in to see her, she was gone. Lying there with her head on the pillow, almost like she was sleeping. Little Forrest was playing out on the porch, and, well, I wasn't sure what to do, but I told him to come in an kiss his mama. And he did. He didn't know. I didn't let him stay that long. We buried her the next day. Out to the Magnolia Cemetery in the family plot, alongside her daddy and her gra

"Can I see it?"

"What?" Mrs. Curran ast.

"Where she was. Where she was when..."

"Oh, yes, Forrest. It's right in here. Little Forrest is sleeping in there now. I've only got two..."

"I don't want to wake him up," I says.

"Why don't you," says Mrs. Curran. "It'll make him feel better, maybe."

An so I gone into Je

"Maybe he ought to just rest tonight," I says. "They'll be time in the mornin for him to see me."

"All right, Forrest," she says. Then she turned away. I touched his face an he turned over an give a little sigh.

"Oh, Forrest," Mrs. Curran says, "I don't believe all this. So quick. And they all seemed so happy. Things sure do turn out bad sometime, don't they?"

"Yes'm," I says. "They shore do." We went on out of the room.

"Well, Forrest, I know you're tired. We've got a sofa here in the living room. I can make you a bed."

"You know, Mrs. Curran, maybe I could sleep on that swing out on the porch. I always liked that swing, you know. Je

"Of course, Forrest. I'll get you a pillow and some blankets."

So that's what I did. An all that night the wind blew, an sometime afore dawn, it begun to rain. It wadn't cold or nothin. Just a regular ole fall night for around here where I grew up. An I don't think I slept much neither. I was thinkin about Je