“You ever been on a dog leash?” Hogg was still looking at the highway. “In the glove compartment, I got me a dog collar I always keep around. Came off an old dog I used to have—well, now where the hell else would a dog collar come from? I’d like to give you a workout on a fuckin’ leash.… With all this shit about Denny, I’m just about ready to relax for a couple of weeks and not do nothin’ but lay around. And I wouldn’t mind you layin’ around with me. A couple of weeks? Even a couple of months. About forty miles above Ellenville, I got me a shack in the woods I go to sometimes, when I want to stay out of the way, you know? Nothin’ but a bunch of niggers livin’ up around there now and the law don’t come in much—Nigg’s got a kid brother up there, shacked up with two wives, too.” Hogg looked at me and nodded deeply, like I might not believe him. “You’d probably have yourself a good time up there—man, them niggers don’t do nothin’ but fuck each other’s kids, fuck each other’s women, fuck each other’s mules. Nigg, last time I saw him, he say he’s maybe goin’ up there soon. You’d like that, too, wouldn’t you?” He grinned at me again. “I usually have me a pretty good time when I go. You know, I been at just about everybody in Nigg’s family, one time or another—except Lee-Ann, who is one of his sister-in-laws, ’cause she say right out she just don’t fancy me at all! And since I’m a visitor to the neighborhood, I got to be polite. You know what she say, too? She say, if I don’t bring somethin’ up there soon for them niggers to fuck—even if it’s just a damned sheep—they gonna stop bein’ so sociable with their own after a while. So maybe I’m just gonna take you along, huh?” Hogg laughed. “Get us some whiskey. Put them chains on that collar. Stake you down by the outhouse, cocksucker, and I could nail the outhouse door shut; and me and anybody else who come to visit would never have to go inside it again. You could lap and lick and waller and be happy as a little mud puppy.”

At the scow’s back was a cabin.

A nigger wandered out on deck, punched his fists into the air to stretch, then climbed up the garbage pile to look around. A few seconds later, a white man came out and ambled to the back rail. I couldn’t be sure, but I think he was taking a piss in the bay.