The Gardener's Son Read Online Free PDF Page A

ST B LACK Everbody that aint got a say so, dont mean they dont care. In this life or out of it.
    He looks up at McEvoy.
    1 ST B LACK Is you new to these parts?
    M C E VOY Whose grave you diggin?
    2 ND B LACK Some old woman that died.
    1 ST B LACK A lady in the town. Dont know her name. She aint got no kinfolk buried here.
    A wind blows dead leaves over the road. McEvoy raises up and looks past the seated blacks toward the stones.
    2 ND B LACK Her husband give us two dollar. We supposed to get paid from Mr Evans but he said not to take his money and he give us two dollar.
    M C E VOY You dont know her name?
    1 ST B LACK No suh.
    2 ND B LACK He was up here most of the mornin . . .
    1st black looks at the second nervously, and at McEvoy.
    2 ND B LACK Went all around takin up the old dead flowers off folks’ graves . . .
    1 ST B LACK Odell . ..
    2 ND B LACK Said folks ought not to bring flowers if they wasnt fixin to come back.
    McEvoy stares down at the blacks. They look nervous. He hobbles past them down the little lane into the graveyard. They watch him go with wide eyes. In a few minutes he returns. He has their pick and shovel under his arm and he drops these in the road in front of them.
    M C E VOY You all eat your dinner and get back on down to wherever you started from. That woman’s not to be buried up here. She dont belong to the mill.
    2 ND B LACK We gots to work to suit the man what pays us. You dont want that grave dug you see him.
    1 ST B LACK Hush Odell.
    McEvoy leans toward the second black.
    M C E VOY You get your shit and get gone. I see you up here again diggin I’ll blow a hole in your black ass.
    2 ND B LACK Yessuh. I didnt mean nothin by it. I was just doin like I was told . . .
    1 ST B LACK Will you hush now, Odell? Will you?
    McEvoy steps back and the two gather up their pails and their half eaten dinners and scrabble up the picks and shovels and start off down the road half sideways, nervously watching McEvoy.
    1 ST B LACK I knowed when I seen you you was trouble.
    They turn and go on down the road, arguing among themselves. McEvoy watches them go.
    Interior. Afternoon. The McEvoy house. The mirrors in the house are covered with cloths and in the front room is a dark wood coffin trestled up on sawhorses wrapped in black crepe. The coffin is open and there is a lighted candle on a table and there are three old ladies in black mourning. Two are sitting in chairs and the third is arranging flowers in a vase. Robert McEvoy appears in the door and they all turn to look at him. He ignores them and comes into the parlor and goes to the coffin and looks down at his dead mother. The woman arranging the flowers has stopped and watches him. The other two turn and whisper and the first one looks at McEvoy with disapproval and rises and goes to the door and shuts it. At the sound of the door shutting McEvoy turns and looks at the old woman.
    M C E VOY Where’s the old man?
    No one answers.
    M C E VOY Where’s Martha?
    They regard him nervously and he turns and goes on through the house, looking in rooms.
    M C E VOY Hey.
    He returns to the front room. He looks at the old women.
    M C E VOY You all get out. I dont know you.
    O LD W OMAN We caint leave. We give word to set up with her.
    M C E VOY I want you out.
    The old women regard each other. The two seated are nervous, are ready to rise and leave. The one standing sets her jaw. When McEvoy sees her he flies into a rage. He hobbles to the door and flings it open and screams at them.
    M C E VOY Get out! Out, damn it!
    The two seated ones rise and scurry past and out the door. The other takes a last look at the coffin and giving McEvoy a hard look she goes past him. Outside she turns as if she'd say something to him but he slams the door in her face. The wind from the door sets the candle guttering. McEvoy goes to the casket and looks down. He takes the coffin lid up from behind the box and fits it over the top of the coffin and then he leans on the coffin and lets