Nine
__4 __ NINE I WOKE UP the next morning and started thinking what to do. There wasn't any work anywhere in Harlan County that you could make a dime at. I walked on into town. It was early when I got there but there must have been thousands of people lined up and down the streets, with big canvas sacks folded under their arms, shivering under the coolness of the early morning air. They were waiting for the big doors to open at the food commodity warehouse. They would receive food to rush back to many homes throughout the county where there were hungry and sick children and parents. I made my way to the little restaurant and got me some breakfast. The cook at the oil-burning grill was JoJo. That sure shook me up a mite. He told me that him being the youngest employee on the county road gang made him the first one to be laid off. I told him I was hungry and wanted to eat anything he could fix. He sure fooled me. In about four or five minutes he brought a plate loaded with a big pile of real golden fried taters, two eggs that looked like two big eyes staring at me, four or five strips of good, lean, fresh bacon, and a big blue granite cup of steaming coffee. I told JoJo he'd make some woman a good wife, the way he could cook. I had kept a little money, not letting anyone know I had it. They would have asked for it if they'd known I had a dime. I had given them everything I had made working for the coal company. I pulled out my Bull Durham tobacco sack and counted what I had. It amounted to nearly $15. I paid for my breakfast out of the silver and bought me a sack of North State smoking tobacco. It all came to thirty cents. I hadn't smoked around Mom or Dad, but now I wished I had. Jim had started smoking in front of them when he was twelve, but he was the apple of Dad's eye. 72 I left the restaurant. I wandered off up the street to see what was causing such a crowd in a big field. It looked like there must have been over three thousand people gathered. A big fat man was standing on a flat~bedded wagon waving his arms for the people to quiet down. He wanted their attention for a few minutes. He rattled on for nearly an hour, telling what great things he had done and how he planned to do a lot of great things for Harlan County in the future if he could get their support in the coming election. He promised the people everything but the moon. For a minute there, I thought he was going to offer them that, too. Most of this mass of people had brought their canvas sacks with them to receive their government-issued food. Some of the coal companies had started reopening their mines. Mr. Ford and the ex-sheriff were standing at the rear of tile crowd, listening to the fat man make his promises. They shook their heads to each other, like they didn't believe a word he was saying. Mr. Ford saw me and came up to where I was standing. He asked about the big blacks. I told him everything, all about them telling me to leave the mountain and me giving Dad the team. Mr. Ford said, "That's a damned shame." The former sheriff said the same thing, and then some words I better not write. I sure felt good having such men as these two for friends. Mr. Ford asked me to go home with him. He said that he would like for me to make it my home till I decided what I wanted to do. I thanked him and said it was nice of him asking me. We said goodbye and then parted. As I walked through town I started thinking what in the hell was happening to me. Here I was, a grown man nearly, and didn't have a damn thing but the clothes on my back and a little over $14 in my pocket. I was trying to make up my mind of what to do. I was sure having a hard time doing so. Before I knew it, I was standing on...
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