Paris Trout Read Online Free PDF

know you made that," Mr. Trout
said. He paused, as if he were figuring something out. "Yessir,"
he said a moment later, "you make enough, and you seen it first
out here. I guess it's rightfully yours .... "
    They walked back into the store, and Mr. Trout held
the office door open while Henry Ray walked in. They signed the
papers. The car was $800. Mr. Trout charged $227 more for insurance.
Then he added some and subtracted some, and when he came out with the
real number, it was $17.50 a week.
    "You sure you want to do this, boy?" Trout
said. "Onct you made a deal with me, I get my money."
    Henry Ray was standing up over the desk, and from
there he could see the car out the open door. He pictured himself
again, his face in the speedometer.
    " Onct you made a deal
with me, you get your money too," he said.
    * * *
    ROSIE SAYERS HAD BEEN living with Mary McNutt three
days when Henry Ray came home with the car. She had not spoken to him
yet, waiting to be spoken to first. It was in the morning, and she
had just made the beds in Miss Mary's side of the house. All the beds
but Mr. McNutt's. Miss Mary made that herself.
    Rosie's own bed was in that part of the house,
against the wall in the first room. She was fourteen years old, and
it was the first bed she'd ever had — at least the first one that
sleeping in it didn't depend on getting to it before her brothers and
sisters.
    She made her own bed last, tearing it up twice to get
the sheets to lie even, the way Miss Mary had shown her, and then
walked out on the porch to rest before she began on the floors. Miss
Mary told her to rest whenever she wanted. She'd said, "Take
your time, child. The faster you go, the less you gain."
    Rosie did everything Miss Mary told her, the way Miss
Mary said to do it. She had just settled into a porch chair when she
saw the car. It was black and shiny, and a trail of dust followed it
as it came up the road. It reminded her of a snake. She sat up and
watched it come, and before long it was close enough that she could
hear the engine.
    She saw Henry Ray behind the wheel then. There and
leaning half out of the window. Henry Ray was coal black and
evil-looking even sitting still. She wished it was Thomas coming home
instead. Thomas was lighter-colored and quieter, like herself. Henry
Ray pulled the Chevrolet into the yard and chased off the neighbor
children before they could touch it. Then he walked around to the
back, wiping at little spots of dirt with the leg of his pants. Once
or twice he glanced in the direction of the porch. Rosie sat still
and watched, and when he looked up again, he smiled.
    "You like young Henry Ray better now, doesn't
you?"
    She folded her hands in her lap and studied her
knuckles. "I like everybody the same," she said.
    She heard him laugh; she did not look up. "You
can't like nobody you ain't spoke to yet," he said.
    " I like ]esus," she said quietly.
    "What's that?"
    She couldn't think with him watching her. She felt
him looking and was afraid to look back.
    " You want a ride, Rosie Sayers?" he said.
She shook her head no.
    " Ain't got time for no rides," she said.
    He said, "I see you busy."
    " I be busy soon as I stand up."
    He left the car and climbed the steps to the porch.
He sat on the railing and stared at her, up and down. "I ain't
gone to hurt you," he said in a minute.
    She looked at her knuckles.
    " You think young Henry means to hurt your pretty
self?" She shook her head again. "What then?"
    " They is some people that gets hurt by
accident," she said.
    He seemed to think that over. "I bet you ain't
never been in no car," he said. "That°s what you scared
of."
    She brought her eyes up then and looked at the
automobile. Henry Ray squatted next to her and put his hand on her
leg. It looked like a spider. She saw herself connected to the car in
that spider web way too. Every time she pushed away, she was caught
that much tighter. He moved his hand up until it could touch both her
legs at once, and she felt the heat