The Cottoncrest Curse: A Novel

Chapter 18

61 Chapter 18 Bucky was having a wonderful time. Tee Ray could not have been nicer. Tee Ray had just bought him another drink. Tee Ray wanted to hear all that Bucky had to say. It had all happened just as Bucky had imagined, from the moment he and Raifer had gotten to Cottoncrest. He was famous because he had seen the dead Colonel Judge and all. He had been where the curse had hit and had seen what it had done. People wanted to listen to him. They wanted his opinion on everything. He had shown them. He had become a real somebody. “Yessir, Tee Ray. Me and Raifer, we investigated real good. Once the Doc headed back to town, we stayed a while and questioned Cubit and Jacob, but they didn’t know nothin’. And we talked to Sally, and she don’t know nothin’. But Marcus, well, that’s a different story, ain’t it.” “Is that a fact, Bucky?” Tee Ray was solicitous. Bucky could see that Tee Ray was hanging on his every word. Maybe the others weren’t paying attention now, having gone back to their drinking and card games, but Tee Ray was still there with him, standing next to him at the bar. He could tell Tee Ray respected him for his investigation. “Fact for sure. We got Marcus talkin’ good. Where was he during the night? What did he see? We all know that times is tough, but why is it that the Colonel Judge ain’t had no one out and ain’t had no wagons full of goods going to bring stuff to Miss Rebecca but the Colonel Judge always got fresh cigars? How did they get the stuff they needed all those months? Marcus, he told us everything. Everything!” “And that,” asked Tee Ray, “explained the curse?” “Marcus explain the curse? I don’t think so. How can anyone explain the curse? It just is. But Marcus, you see, did tell us that the only white man that the Colonel Judge had let come see him and Miss 62 Rebecca in the last year is that peddler man. You know who I’m talking about?” “Yeah. Jake. The man with the cart.” “Right as gold specie. Jake, the Peddler Man. Did you know that he speaks French?” “Well, I figured as much, all that time he spends peddling down in Lamou.” Bucky paused. He should have realized that everyone knew that the peddler walked a five-parish area, and that Lamou and the other Acadian villages were on his regular route. Of course Jake had to speak some French because a lot of those folks didn’t speak English. Bucky was not going to be deterred, however, and pressed on. “Maybe, but did you know what they talked about in French? He and the Colonel Judge?” Tee Ray poured some more whiskey into Bucky’s glass. “I don’t speak no French, and you don’t either. So, how was it that you know what they were talking about?” That was more like it. Tee Ray needed him. Tee Ray needed to listen. Bucky would show Tee Ray. “We . . . Raifer and me . . . we questioned Marcus good. You know he speaks that French. Anyway, he said that they talked all about religion. Not just good Christian talk, no sir. They talked heaven and hell and lots of different religions. Religions that no respectable Christian could tolerate. The Colonel Judge had spent a lot of time at the Cotton Exposition when Cottoncrest was king of the cotton plantations, and he talked all about what he had learnt from them Chinese and Japanese and foreign folks about their religions, with lots of gods and no Christ or Virgin Mary. They were talking about how there could be so many religions and so many gods. ’Course, we all know that there ain’t no god but Jesus, but them heathens don’t know that. And then, Marcus said they even talked about . . .” Bucky paused dramatically. He waited for Tee Ray to show the proper degree of anticipation. Tee Ray did. Bucky felt that he was really getting the hang of impressing people. “Yes, Marcus said they even talked about those Jews what who killed Jesus. And you know what that Jake peddler told the Colonel Judge? Jake said he was a Jew and claimed that Jews didn’t kill Jesus or use Christian blood in their ceremonies! Imagine that.” [3.133.160...