Sweet Everlasting

4

Mrs. Gasaway went off with a nurse and left me sitting out in the waiting room, soaking wet. About thirteen hours later W.D. was born. A nurse come out and said I had a fine baby boy. She showed me a card they'd made a footprint on, the foot not much bigger than my thumb, but it looked just right—a normal baby's foot. And the first time I sat on the edge of the bed beside Susan, with W.D. snuggled up next to her asleep, Ileaned down and kissed them both. Right then I raised up all of a sudden and looked around me, like something else was supposed to happen, since I knew it deep down, knew it for a fact, that the world was never meant to be as good as that. 4 Where I live now is in Monroe, a little town about two hours north of Red Oak. I been here for about two years. I started out mostly doing yard work for folks —cutting grass and hedges and raking leaves and cleaning off roofs, but my balance is pretty well shot, and I don't trust myself up on a roof. They've got a cotton mill here, but it's a lot bigger than the one I used to work in down at Red Oak. I went over there one time and talked to the folks in the weave shop, thinking maybe I could still fixlooms, even though I ain't done it in over forty years, but I could tell as soon as I walked out on the floor that I couldn't. I looked at one of them new-type looms, and I didn't even know what I was looking at. I couldn't no more fix one of them things than I could flya jet plane. 28 I found me a room in a place above town, a house owned by a man named Pete DeAngelo. Pete's from up around Detroit somewhere , and he used to work in one of the car factories up there, but when he got laid off he found him a job down here, over in the big plant at Doraville. He got him a good deal on a house in Monroe, and he used to drive in to work everyday. His wife's been dead about ten years now, and his children— they had a boy and a girl—they live way off up North, and they got their own families,and they can't get down here to see him. It's just a little house, and I ain't got but one room barely big enough to turn around in, and me and Pete have to use the same bathroom, but then I don't pay him much rent, so I can't complain. Pete had to retire from the plant when he hurt his back. Got to where he couldn't hardly walk, much less bend over like he needed to. Then when the doctor operated on him, that made it a whole lot worse, and that's when he had to quit. Says if he had to do it over again, he wouldn't let them cut on him. Everything he does now, Pete does it straight up, like he's got a broomstick strapped to his back. Walks straight up, sits in a chair straight up, and when he wants to turn his head to look at you, he'll turn his whole body sideways. And most of the time, he's in a lot of pain. The first day I come to town, I seen a sign out in a yard saying there was a room to rent. I knocked on the door and this stiffnecked man opened it and said, "Yeah?" I said, "I seen your sign out yonder. That looks like about what I can handle." The man looked at me real hard. "Oh yeah? What's itsay?" "Twenty-five dollars a week." 29 He shook his whole body back and forth, like his head wouldn't move. Then he said it was a old sign he should have already taken down. Said it was more than what the sign said. "Well/7 1 asked him, "how much you want?" He didn't answer me right off. Frowned at me like he thought I was simpleminded or something, and...