Читать книгу Bivouac - Kwame Dawes - Страница 21

nine

“What the hell you mean you never took the report?” Lucas was shouting down at Ferron, who tried to ignore him, watching the television. Mother was tense. She had tried to calm Lucas, but he wouldn’t listen. Clarice wrote in her notebook. They had just finished their Sunday dinner. They missed the old man. Nobody sat at his place. Clarice had unintentionally prepared a setting for him. When she was clearing it, Mother told her to leave it, so they ate with his empty plate staring at them. Little was said. Ferron went through a few of the details for the funeral. Clarice and Mother asked questions. Lucas stayed silent, concentrating on his food. Clarice asked what Lucas would be doing. Ferron said he had not thought of that. Clarice and Mother both turned to Lucas, who stared in his plate. Ferron became uncomfortable. He could tell that they had been talking in his absence, and it had something to do with Lucas being the oldest and the funeral plans. He stopped talking about the plans he had made. But after dinner it exploded.

Lucas walked back and forth around Ferron, interrogating.

“I never said I didn’t take one; the man never gave me one.” Ferron tried to stay calm. He didn’t want to fight. “He said it was routine. Hemorrhaging from the fall. That was it. I saw the coroner’s comment.”

“Didn’t give you one?” Lucas moved to the window. “You mean you hear them giving him autopsy, you see police and everything, and you don’ ask nothing? That’s what you telling me?”

“Bingo.”

“Don’t fucking bingo me! Don’t take that tone with me, man!”

“Lucas!” Clarice shouted, trying to drown Lucas. “You don’t have to talk like that . . .”

“Jesus,” Mother said. She was patting her chest.

“What the hell wrong with this man, eh? You can tell me? Just tell me that and I will be quiet.” Lucas directed his words at Clarice. Then he turned to Ferron. “Is like you feel you have special right to know everything, eh? You think you know every damn thing, right?”

“That is your field, man.” Ferron stared at the television. It was an old movie. He had no idea what he was watching.