The Up-Down Read Online Free PDF Page A

operated on the plains of northeastern Brazil in the 1920s and ’30s, mainly in the states of Mina Gerais and Bahía, whose affiliations with the various landowners for whom they worked lasted until they felt they had “lost their understanding.” When this circumstance became unavoidably evident and bothersome to them, this bunch of jagun ç os would announce their condition to the boss and state their intention to move on and find another situation. It never had to do with money, only with their degree of comfort. They made no attempt to further explain their feelings; once their “understanding” was “lost,” the resulting action was not subject to debate. The men were mercenaries who always did their best for whomever hired them, their work was never faulted and their loyalty during their period of employment could not be questioned. When it was time to go, they went, without argument.
    To be without argument was the way Pace desired to live out the rest of his life. He had no intention of remarrying; his occasional spells of loneliness were more than compensated for by a general sense of tranquility. Pace decided during his first days and weeks of confinement to write about his parents; Sailor and Lula were truly the most interesting people he had ever met. To be wild at heart and never waver on the road to one’s destiny was how everyone should live their life. Sailor and Lula had done that, despite several serious tests along the way. Yes, this is what Pace would do, not just as a tribute to his parents but as an inspiration for everyone else struggling along the road to salvation.
    Pace dug out from his disorganized pile of belongings Dr. Furbo’s book. He would write about Sailor and Lula on the empty pages of Furbo’s Guide ; an appropriate context, Pace thought. Perhaps it might even have been Dr. Furbo’s intention for those in possession of a copy to fill in the blanks. He opened the book and wrote the first sentence: “Sailor and Lula lay on the bed in the Cape Fear Hotel listening to the ceiling fan creak.”
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    Part Three

 
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    Pace found that the writing life agreed with him. He rose each morning at six and began working on his book after he’d had coffee, bread and fruit, usually by seven. He enjoyed imagining what Sailor and Lula’s early life together was like. The main theme, Pace decided, was his parents’ devotion to one another, what could be considered an intuitive spiritual connection. Lula had told Pace many times that she knew Sailor was destined to be her partner for life from the moment she met him, and that she believed Sailor felt the same way about her. “In these modern times,” Pace recalled his mother telling him, “this ain’t so usual.” Pace was ten years old the first time Lula had said this, the night before his daddy was released from prison after having served a decade behind bars for armed robbery during which two men had been shot and killed, one of them Sailor’s accomplice, a person named Bobby Peru, whom Lula referred to as a “black angel.” Sailor had not spoken much to Pace about this period of his incarceration, saying only that the penitentiary where he’d done his time, at Huntsville, Texas, was filled with liars, every inmate claiming to be innocent in one way or another of the crime for which he had been convicted. Pace, who was fifteen at the time, had asked Sailor, “Were you innocent, Daddy?” and Sailor answered, “No, son, I was both guilty and a liar. Don’t ever blame your troubles on anyone but yourself, and don’t be afraid or ashamed to ask for help when you really need it. There’ll come a day you will.”

 
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    Bitsy and Delbert Parker, the couple who lived in Dalceda Delahoussaye’s big house, were decent, intelligent people. Pace became good friends with them and they often