The note was written in a scrawl

19) The Blood card
Contents    Previous    Next

Revered by some for being the local bully of Negroes, police officer Homer Dack was home and had the day off.
He normally worked the evening to night shift, fulfilling the spiritual need for race separations, and occasionally did errands for the Upstate Boys.
Dack's wife Sheron retrieved the mail and found a note. It sounded threatening so she took it inside and gave it to her husband then went back to the kitchen.
It was sticky. He yelled, what'd you spill on this thing?
She yelled back, it was in the mailbox.
Damn postman.

They lived outside town in a deep hollow with several small homes alongside relatives.
His brother lived next door. He married some jackass girl who shot a hole in the roof on their wedding night.
God damn it, why don't they clean up that place over there, and put the chickens in the fence. No wonder we got rats.

He put the note down and loosened the laces on his boots.
Then read the note again. What the hell is this thing?
You got dinner ready yet?
No.
God damn woman, doesn't get anything done.

Hey, where is my blue shirt?
It's hanging up. Don't shout at me.
Officer Dack got outside in the light so he could read the note. It was harsh and taunting and told him to leave.
Normally that kind of thing would be thrown in the hog slop behind the house, except he looked into the note and saw the picture-book of Paris that he read years ago. It was a wonderful place in his mind and he dreamed of going. He was too young to join the war, and later, when he got old enough, the war was over and they weren't taking new men.
He yelled back through the screen door, Hey, you wanna go to Paris?
What for?
I dunno. He looked back at the note and it turned soft. He felt the breeze on his face.

His brother came out next door and yelled, you got a phone call.
Dack walked over, kicked a beer can at the dog and went in to answer the phone.
It was Ammerson. He needed him for a job tomorrow.
Dack didn't ask questions.

Later he read the note again. It felt threatening one time, and next time it felt warm and happy in Paris.
We should go to Paris.
You go, I'm busy.
Will you shut up them damn kids? Damn woman wants to buy clothes and spend all my money.

What did your brother want?
Nothing. I got a job tomorrow.
The truth was he wanted to go to Paris but the decision was made and he chose the blood card instead.

When does school start? We got to get these kids out of here. Little Bobby ran up. Get me a beer out of the fridge.
Ok daddy.

River Boy was hitchhiking back from Abbeyville when Big Mak came rolling up.
Things were uncertain because Crackling tore up Grandpa's shack and Spade was killing people.
River Boy knew Mac was loyal to Top Hat and maybe to Boy Johnson, but he wasn't sure about Mak's position with Crackling.

It could be a trap, except Spade killed Big Mak's friend Arkadelphia.
Big Mak yelled, get in. Top Hat told me to come get you.
River Boy asked, what's going on?
Top Hat wants to know what Churchail said.
I don't know. Next couple days, I guess we'll see.

Then Mak gave him the real news. Johnson and Crackling are fighting ... it's a war. They're trying to kill each other. It's all over Crooks Tail and spreading.
I can't deliver whiskey, or go there ... and Blacktown is done ... and dammit they killed Arkadelphia over nothing.

River Boy asked, what happened?
They killing everybody.
No, what happened between Boy Johnson and Crackling?
Crackling raped that girl.
You mean Joddie?
Yeah. Crackling's men drug her out and beat her real bad. You and your Grandpa gave that letter to Boy Johnson. Now he's in love, so Crackling raped her.
Hold on, they know about Grandpa and me?
Of course. I told you those guys can see you miles before you get there.

But why'd he rape her?
Because Johnson wants to split from Crackling 'cause he's in love with that damn girl I guess.

Big Mak pulled off the road outside of Trinity, less than two miles from the hobo camp, saying, they're after me too. I gotta change cars.
Why're they after you?
Cause I'm in love with the damn girl too. Don't you get it? She got everybody. She got you too. That's why this started.
Gesturing with his hand, he said, look, forget that. Bob has a different car. Look for me in a black Oldsmobile.

River Boy got out as Big Mak turned the car around and went north again to get the Oldsmobile from Joddie's husband Bob.
As River Boy stepped off the road and into the woods, Officer Dack spotted him from up the road.

Jackel and Ammerson worked for the Upstate Boys and were waiting along the highway, looking for Bob.
They took Dack along since he knew the local cars.
Dack remembered seeing River Boy with Maggie whose sister was married to Bob. Hey, there's River Boy, he probably knows where Bob's hiding, but the only thing in Dack's hung-over mind was beating up River Boy, and he missed the chance to see Big Mak who was actually on his way to meet Bob.

River Boy started walking up a long hill, and then down along the next side, and across the farm valley, moving carefully along the fenceline and running across the road, down in the ditch and up the next hill into the trees.
He started following the deer trail to the top. Animals take the easiest route, and that's how you hunt them. At some point, River Boy went off the easy trail and took a steeper trail. Both routes led to the top where the logging road followed the ridgeline.

River Boy, distracted by what Big Mak told him, wasn’t paying attention.
How did Crackling and Johnson know Grandpa was writing the notes?
No wonder they broke apart the shack.
He had to make it back and tell Grandpa.

When he got to the top, he stepped out before looking.
He turned and saw Jackel and Ammerson down the hill, 200 yards away waiting just above the deer trail.
He would have run straight into them, except for changing direction on the way up.
Officer Dack was 50 yards away the other direction. River Boy didn't see him.

Dack fired his pistol, which alerted Jackel and Ammerson, and they all started chasing River Boy through the forest.
Dack tripped and his gun went off again, tearing a hole in his shirt, just about blowing out his spleen, so he threw the gun to the side, and dropped the gun belt so he could run faster.
River Boy's legs felt like cement from the day before when he raced from Trinity to Grandpa’s shack ahead of Cracking.
He just couldn't run. Dack was keeping up. That beer-swillin', car-driving, excuse of a law officer was running as fast as River Boy. Downhill.
River Boy pulled a trick and headed up a different slope that went over the side of a ridge and then dropped down to a steep ravine.
There was one place where a tree trunk lay across to the other side.

Last year's spring rain caused the tree to tip over and tear out its roots, pitching the tree at a steep downward angle on the very edge of the drop off.
There was only one way to get across, by stepping out on a root that was hanging down and then climbing up on the trunk. It was dangerous.
River Boy had gone across several times and knew the steps and handholds.
It would throw Dack off for sure.

When River Boy arrived at the root ball, he swung around and got up on the trunk and ran down the length of the tree and started up the steep slope on the other side before looking back.
Dack was still trying to find his way onto the trunk.

Dack started across, then slipped, fell into a branch and lost his balance. He screamed and would’ve fallen into the ravine except his foot was caught in a slingshot Y between the branch and tree trunk.
Hanging upside down, dangling 25 feet in the air above a creekbed of rocks, Dack was yelling, River Boy help me, help me.

River Boy ran back and came out on the log. There was no way he could reach Dack. He looked at the bottom of Dack's hobnail. The same track was in the river mud where a Negro drown a few months ago. In fact, River Boy had seen those tracks the year before where another man drowned.
Pretty good running for a lawman wearing heavy shoes, but Dack was a murderer.
A gunshot whizzed by.
Jackel and Ammerson were coming down through the trees and shooting at River Boy.
River Boy ran off the log, scrambling up the steep slope until he was out of gun range and hidden behind a cluster of sumac.
He could hear what was going on down below.
Officer Dack was screaming for help. There was a quiet moment when Ammerson reached him, and then Dack started begging, followed by a kicking sound.

River Boy peered over and saw Ammerson sitting on the log, kicking the hobnail boot, followed by a scream all the way down until Dack hit the rocks, sounding like a watermelon thrown against a hollow log. Loose shale cascaded over the body and buried his fate forever.

The sound echoed off the ravine and now the raven and lizard could smile, but the songbirds flew away and River Boy would go to the end before whispering a word about justice served by evil that day.

Dack's wife heard the crows gathering outside the house. She knew something bad happened, but the choice was made and the blood card was dealt ... except sometimes the blood card could only be sated if it came in twos.
For this one, somebody else would have to die. It might be now or might be later but the blood card had to be spent or the Deck of Life couldn't be dealt again .... but true to promises made, the Deck of Life was always dealt again.

Jackal and Ammerson tracked River Boy down to the old Hobo camp where Top Hat and seven other Negroes gathered up. They swarmed over those two men like red ants on a worm, whacking and beating and grunting with every blow.
River Boy was gone down the river to find Grandpa, and his frequent habit of leaving problems for the Negroes to sort out was noted by Top Hat, who was doubtful that Churchail would do anything to help.

A lawman showed up and fired his gun and the men scattered across the railroad into the trees, leaving Jackal and Ammerson barely able to move.

Grandpa was nowhere to be found along the river, until River Boy caught his footprint pointing back to the shack.
When he got there, Grandpa was cleaning up the mess.
Glass was broken, the front door hanging loose.
He was muttering that it was going to be hard to keep the mosquitoes out.
Shelves were down, things broken.
The cat was hanging around and the tools were there.
The saw hammer screwdriver. Planer, chisel and brace.
His wood desk was untouched, still gleaming in the light, no more than a scratch across one corner.
Grandpa was happy about that, almost laughing … not laughing about the fury vented by the Deck of Life, but that the fury hadn't dented him at all.

Contents    Top     Previous    Next
Author Page