I was gettin' some hungry again. I had reason to 'cause I lost most of what I ate for dinner. I think Paco ate more than me at dinner and he kept it all but he was askin' Daddy, could we eat again. Only place I could think he could put it was in that stickin' out belly but Daddy told me when Paco couldn't hear us that that belly wasn't from eatin' too much. It was from not eatin' enough. That wasn't a fat belly. It was bloated and the doctor said Paco had the malnutrition - whatever the hell that is. He said it ain't nothin' that some good eatin' won't fix so don't worry none on it. I don't think I was worryin' on Paco's belly but if I was, I was startin' to quit. The way that boy could eat, that belly would be fixed by mornin'.
Another thing that looked like it would be fixed by mornin' was how we looked. I was surprised at how much of the swole was gone from my face and when I looked at him good, I seen that Paco's eyes was all the way open. They was still all black around them but even that was startin' to get that green color that comes when that black is goin' away.
When we come back to the hotel after eatin' dinner me and Paco was takin' off them fancy clothes. Them clothes made you look real good but they made you feel like you was all hog- tied. When we was on the street, we was proud to be wearin' them. When we was in our room, we was just as proud to get shed of them. We went to pullin' them off and lettin' them lay where they fell.
Daddy said, "Hold up, boys. Do you boys like the way you look in those clothes?"
We said it together, "Yes, sir."
"Well, you have to treat them right then. When you take off those good clothes, you have to lay them out real careful on the bed. I reckon neither of you boys have ever had more than one pair of britches and those you could probably throw in the corner and it wouldn't hurt them. But if you want to keep these clothes looking nice, you have to take good care of them. Now, pick up those britches and lay them out smooth on the bed."
We done that and we'd been just wearin' them little white britches but now we was puttin' on them new cowboyin' clothes, gettin' ready to go back to the Continental. We was all dressed, gettin' ready to walk out the door when Billy Walton come to the room. He said his mama just won't have it no other way but that we come for supper. She's got it all fixed and anyway, who does my daddy think he is, gettin' two new sons and not bringin' them to see Grandma Walton? Billy said that him and Cill and Little Jasper was gonna be there too. Cill wanted to see me and Paco too.
My daddy said he reckoned that he wasn't the smartest man in the world but that he knowed enough not to argue with Ma Walton when she had her mind set. We'd be there.
We walked on down them steps with Billy. When we got to the front desk, we seen that same desk clerk as last night. Paco got that ornery grin. He walked up to that clerk and said, "Folks was sayin' that you let them stinkin' greasers stay in this hotel. If that's right, I sure as hell wouldn't sleep in here if I was you. I'd sleep in the goddam barn with the rest of the horse shit."
After he said that he just walked on out like nothin' had happened. I thought that desk clerk was gonna die from his face bein' so red and when we got outside, I thought my daddy and Billy was gonna die from laughin' so hard.
Billy had a horse so he went on ahead. We walked on over to his ma and pa's house.
That storekeeper's house was some fancy and some of the rest of them chore hirin' folks had houses that was good, but god amighty, this was a goddam castle. I ain't good at tellin' how house things are but just know, I never seen nothin' like it before. It seemed like somethin' to look at, not somethin' to live in.
I didn't think on that house too long. I didn't have time. I didn't even see her comin'. Before I knowed it, my face was pushed right in them stickin' out things on them ladies' chests and I thought I was gonna die from bein' squeezed and smothered. Whoever was tryin' to kill me smelled real good and I knowed she was likin' me but it come to me that you're just as dead do you die from somebody likin' you or hatin' you. She was still holdin' me there and sayin', "Shay, you couldn't deny this boy if you wanted to. He's the spittin' image of you."
When she was finished tryin' to kill me, she wasn't done with me. She went to kissin' me and tellin' me what a fine lookin' boy I was. I knowed she was bein' real nice to me and I was tryin' real hard not to feel nothin' but I was anyway. I ain't had the best luck with ladies. My mama wasn't the luckiest thing that could happen to a body and them fat lady Christians was just mean goddam bad luck. Anybody knowed that. I was tellin' myself about Emma and that storekeeper's woman but I was still gettin' that lady feelin' - wishin' Billy's mama would get the hell away from me. I was mad at myself for feelin' that but I couldn't help it. It come to me that maybe it was because she was some fat. I didn't know if she was no Christian.
She done the same to Paco but you could tell he was likin' it. I'd seen this with Daddy. Paco had a way of just meltin' right into somebody when they was huggin' him. Paco looked like he could stay there all evenin' and that if Billy's mama was gonna smother him to death, that was fine with him. He just loved that huggin'.
Cill was a lady too but somehow she knowed how to do both of us. She didn't try to hug me. She put both her hands on my shoulders and held her arms out straight, holdin' my shoulders, lookin' at me. "Just a miniature Shay, that's what you are. We're all so excited and happy. Welcome to our family, Sam."
I didn't say nothin' because I didn't know nothin' to say. I was likin' all them nice things folks was sayin' and I was even likin' Billy's mama when she was away from me. My face felt hot when all them people was lookin' at me and talkin' so proud on me. I think it was red.
Cill knowed what to do with Paco too. She went to huggin' him and tellin' him what pretty eyes he had and how cute that dimple in his chin was.
Billy's mama was out in the kitchen again but she hollered out when she heard Cill say that, "Isn't that just the truth, Pricilla? He's just too pretty to be a boy. He should be a little girl."
That made Paco some mad. He said, "And you're too fat to be a lady. You should be a cow!"
Everything got real quiet. I think Paco knowed as soon as he said it, he shouldn't have. You almost can't tell when a Mexican's face gets red but you didn't have no trouble that time. Paco run to Daddy. "I didn't mean nothin', Daddy. It just come out."
He put his face on Daddy's chest and started to cry. Daddy hugged him and was tryin' to tell folks how Paco was workin' on them manners but still has some way to go. I think that's what he was sayin' but I couldn't hear it good. Billy and Judge Walton was laughin' too loud. "Ma," Billy said, "If you knew how many times I wanted to say something like that when you used to say that about me. Little Jasper's only four, but I'm going to teach him that so he'll know what to say if you ever do that to him. Paco, I just may have to rent you from your daddy to keep my mama in her place."
You'd think Billy's mama would be mad for what Paco said to her but she wasn't. She was laughin' too. She went over to Paco and pulled him away from my daddy. She hugged him and kissed his forehead and said, "You just stop your frettin', honey boy. I had that comin'."
We set around that table. Little Jasper took to Paco right off and he fussed to sit beside him so his grandma had to change some chairs all around so his mama could sit there too and help him eat. I never seen too many of them real little younguns like Little Jasper but I liked them real good. But Paco could do with them tiny younguns just like he could do with any folks. He had them likin' him real good almost before they knowed his name.
I knowed what noodles and meat was. I had that at that storekeeper's house a whole lot of times but it never tasted like this. Billy's mama, she was tellin' us to call her Grandma Walton, cooked them noodles and meat real good. Everything she cooked was real good and me and Paco ate a whole lot of it. It come to me that I was givin' in to myself on that eatin'. I don't reckon I ever went hungry like Paco did but there was a whole lot of times I had just enough. But Billy's mama and Cill kept askin' did I want more so I was givin' myself whatever I wanted. I was wonderin' was it the right thing to let yourself have whatever eatin' you wanted. I reckoned it wasn't. I knowed that I'd have to do what Daddy said; that I'd have to learn to want the right thing when it come to eatin'. I knowed I'd have to learn that but I decided not to start learnin' about that until after supper. From the way he ate, I seen that Paco decided to wait on that eatin' learnin' too.
I was glad there wasn't much said about Clayhurst. I didn't want to think about that. It wasn't so much seein' Clayhurst all shot up and bloody. It was knowin' that I almost lost my daddy just after I got him. I did hear Billy ask Daddy why he turned his back on a crazy man. Daddy said he thought Clayhurst was drunk and he knew that Clayhurst didn't have the stomach to shoot at him, drunk or sober. "He might beat on a youngun or shoot a woman but I never thought he'd take a shot at a man, especially one with my reputation. Anyway, I saw you in the doorway with your shotgun, Billy."
The Judge said, "He wasn't hisself, Shay. I seen that as soon as he come askin' where you was. I got word to Lars Linquest and he got Billy to help him keep an eye on Clayhurst. I wasn't takin' no chances. I was sittin' up there in my window with my shotgun pointed too."
Daddy said, "Well, thank you. Clayhurst has been in my craw since I was fifteen but it's still a sad end to a sad life."
There wasn't nothin' more said about Clayhurst that night and what was said, seemed like it took the hard thinkin' on it out of me.
I never done nothin' like that before: folks just bein' together, talkin' and laughin' and just likin' each other. We was just gettin' to where Little Jasper was warmin' up to me and would stay by me some instead of always wantin' to be by Paco when Daddy said, "We've got a long ride ahead of us tomorrow, boys. We'd best be getting you to bed."
Cill said, "I reckon you're right, Shay. If I don't get Little Jasper to bed soon, there'll be hell to pay tomorrow."
We walked on back to the hotel. It was cool and there was a lot of stars and we was with our daddy. I knowed they did, but Goodnight and that tumble-down cabin and that damn preacher man and his shit house and Jigger and even Clayhurst seemed like they never happened. Seemed like there was nothin' in this world but me and Paco and Daddy and stars and love.
When we got to Daddy's room he told us to go on in that other room and get to bed. He didn't have to say it twice. From all that good eatin' and I reckon from bein' some tired in the first place and then gettin' beat by Jigger, me and Paco was both real tired. We pulled off them clothes and laid they out real nice at the foot of our bed. I was gonna sleep in them little white britches but I never slept with nothin' on me in my whole life and they felt like they was chokin' my middle. I couldn't see no sense in havin' nothin' on when you was sleepin' anyway. You had them covers on you. Nobody could see nothin'. Looked like Paco didn't even think on leavin' his on. He pulled off everything and was in bed, wigglin' around, gettin' comfortable in that soft mattress.
We turned our backs to each other and pulled our knees up like you do when you're goin' to sleep. I could feel Paco's ass touchin' mine and it felt good knowin' he was there.