Wise Blood Read Online Free PDF Page A

man said, rolling his eyes, trying to warm up the others. Nobody laughed but the boy. Then a man stand- s« ing across from Hazel Motes laughed, not a pleasant laugh but one that had a sharp edge. He was a tall cadaverous man with a black suit and a black hat on. He had on dark glasses and his cheeks were streaked with lines that looked as if they had been painted on and had faded. They gave him the expression of a grinning mandrill. As soon as he laughed, he began to move forward in a deliberate way, jiggling a tin cup in one hand and tapping a white cane in front of him with the other. Just behind him there came a child, handing out leaflets. She had on a black dress and a black knitted cap pulled down low on her forehead; there was a fringe of brown hair sticking out from it on either side; she had a long face and a short sharp nose. The man selling peelers was irritated when he saw the people looking at this pair instead of him. "How about you, you there," he said, pointing at Haze. "You'll never be able to get a bargain like this in any store."
                Haze was looking at the blind man and the child. "Hey I" Enoch Emery said, reaching across a woman and punching his arm. "He's talking to you! He's talking to youl" Enoch had to punch him again before he looked at the peeler man.
                "Whyn't you take one of these home to yer wife?" the peeler man was saying.
                "Don't have one," Haze muttered, looking back at the blind man again.
                "Well, you got a dear old mother, ain't you?"
                "No."
                "Well pshaw," the man said, with his hand cupped to the people, "he needs one theseyer just to keep him company."
                Enoch Emery thought that was so funny that he doubled over and slapped his knee, but Hazel Motes didn't look as if he had heard it yet. "I'm going to give away a half a dozen peeled potatoes to the first person purchasing one theseyer machines," the man said. "Who's gonna step up first? Only a dollar and a half for a machine'd cost you three dollars in any store!" Enoch Emery began fumbling in his pockets. "You'll thank the day you ever stopped here," the man said, "youll never forget it. Ever' one of you people purchasing one theseyer machines'll never forget it!"
                The blind man was moving forward slowly, saying in a kind of garbled mutter, "Help a blind preacher. If you won't repent, give up a nickel. I can use it as good as you. Help a blind unemployed preacher. Wouldn't you rather have me beg than preach? Come on and give a nickel if you won't repent."
                There were not many people gathered around but the ones who were began to move off. When the machine-seller saw this, he leaned, glaring over the card table. "Hey you!" he yelled at the blind man. "What you think you doing? Who you think you are, running people off from here?" The blind man didn't pay any attention to him. He kept on rattling the cup and the child kept on handing out the pamphlets. He passed Enoch Emery and came on toward Haze, hitting the white cane out at an angle from his leg. Haze leaned forward and saw that the lines on his face were not painted on; they were scars.
                "What the hell you think you doing?" the man selling peelers yelled. "I got these people together, how you think you can horn in?"
                The child held one of the pamphlets out to Haze and he grabbed it. The words on the outside of it said, "Jesus Calls You."
                "I'd like to know who the hell you think you are!" the man with the peelers was yelling. The child went back to where he was and handed him a tract. He looked at it for an instant with his lip curled and then he charged around the card table, upsetting the bucket of potatoes. "These damn Jesus fanatics," he yelled, glaring around, trying to find the blind man. New people gathered,