Eight of us carried the coffin up the hill to the town cemetery for the burying. Isom walked alongside, supporting Gladys on one arm. Violet had already agreed that the two of them should marry.

“Look a-yonder,” Isom said, and nodded up the hill.

A lone figure stood beside the open grave. I could just catch glimpses of him as we struggled up with the coffin for I had to keep a close watch on where I put my feet. But I knew who he was. He backed away as we approached, stood beside the fence like he might jump over it and run away. I looked at him steady as we set the coffin down, and he looked back. I studied him all through the final words—his rough hide jacket, his Indian brown skin, his long dark hair streaked with gray and pulled back in a ponytail.

He turned to leave before the last prayer was done, and I followed him into the woods. I doubt I would have caught up to him, but I called out “Uncle Dillon!” and he stopped and turned around.

“So you’re that boy,” he said.

We stood face to face and I searched my heart to know what I felt about him. What I found there inside me was anger.

“You come back just to leave again?” I said. “Without a word to nobody?”

“I aint much used to talk,” he said slowly.

“I reckon not. You turn your back on folks, I reckon it’s hard to know what to say to them.”

He smiled then. “I see Ermel now and again, trade him a load of liquor for what I need. He said you was a mean one.”

“Damn straight. You set the Evil Eye on me, according to Mommy. Not that you bothered much with me after that. Nor with my daddy when he needed you, nor with C.J. You been too busy living the old ways, aint that right? Living the pure ways, the dead ways.”

He stood still as a statue.

“You could have fought back,” I said. “A long time ago, before it was too late, you could have fought back.”

“I fought back the only way I knew how.” He spat on the ground. “And I’ll fight a man that calls me a coward. Would you be a calling me that?”

I knew better than to take on a man that was all muscle and had cloudy brown eyes like an animal.

“Hell, no, I aint saying that. I just cant figure you out. I dont know you. Damn it, you come in here oncet in a while and see Ermel, and I dont even know about it. How come?”

“I didnt care for you to know. I made Ermel swear he’d not tell you when I come, or where I was. Wouldnt do you no good, nor me neither.”

“Didnt you ever want to see your family? Didnt you want to see Daddy?”