“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?”

“I loved your daddy but I never could abide that woman he took up with. Werent worth risking one for t’other.”

“What about C.J.?”

He grinned and I saw all his teeth were gone. I wondered if he’d pulled them himself. “C.J. were a good boy. That’s why I come down when Ermel sent word. C.J. allays had a silly streak. Dreamer, you know. I was fond of that. But he passed on from me to Ermel. He become a store man. That’s all right. I wouldnt take nobody with me.”

With that, the talk seemed to die between us. We looked at the toes of our boots.

“Why dont you come on down to the hotel, have a drink?” I said at last. “After all, hit’s your liquor.”

He rolled his shoulders around like he’d been carrying a heavy load. “I cant abide a room for long. I reckon you’re a store man, like C.J. Reckon you like a room. Like all this ugliness too. Like all these outlandish folks that made it this a way. I seen em when I come to trade with Ermel. They live like sheep. They like to be ordered around. You pull them outen the fire, they’ll jump right back in again. I cant abide em.”