Free Losing Battles by Eudora Welty Page B

jail on his wedding night!” said Uncle Noah Webster. “And don’t you know Curly enjoyed doing it?”
    “Suppose you’d put up the bail!” Aunt Cleo said. “But what about Grandpa Vaughn—wasn’t he still awake, to scare off all comers?”
    “Grandpa wasn’t going to stand in the way of justice, Sister Cleo. Only unless Curly had tried that in church, before Grandpa had married ’em. Then Curly’d seen what he got out of Grandpa.”
    “Or even what he got out of Jack,” said gentle Aunt Beck.
    “I still hold Jack Renfro wasn’t born that easy to take by surprise,” said Aunt Birdie in loyal tones.
    “His wedding night may have been the prime occasion they could risk it,” Uncle Curtis said.
    “Who’d Curly bring along to partner him this time?” Aunt Cleo asked. “He still playing with Homer Champion?”
    “Oh no, he’s already declared for office against Homer!” cried Uncle Noah Webster. “Old Curly’s brought Charlie Roy Hugg, the one that’s got the Ludlow jail.”
    “What’s his style?”
    “Drunk and two pistols. Makes his wife answer the phone.”
    “We got his twin in Piney.”
    “Sister Cleo, this entire family had to sit where we’re all sitting now and see Jack Jordan Renfro carried limp as a sack of meal right off this porch and down those steps on his wedding night. He’s open-mouthed.”
    “Just the caps of his toes dragging,” said Etoyle, smiling.
    “Curly had to hold up his other arm. And partly hold up Charlie Roy Hugg before they all got on and fired off. And at Banner Store there sits Aycock on the bench like he’s waiting for a ride. Charlie Roy stops and Curly hops out of the sidecar and they fold Aycock in. Charlie Roy carried those boys away to Ludlow in a weaving motorcycle—too drunk to drive anything better.”
    “If Charlie Roy Hugg hadn’t been kin to Aycock’s mother, and hadn’t had an old daddy living in Banner, I believe Jack might have come to and tended to him before they got to Ludlow, right from where he’s holding on behind him,” said Uncle Curtis.
    “He may have had the most he could do just keeping Charlie Roy awake. I believe Aycock went to sleep on both of ’em in the sidecar. Twenty-one miles is a heap of distance after the sun goes down,” said Uncle Percy, whispering. “And with all the creeks up. And Mrs. Hugg give ’em a room in the jail and no pie at all with their supper.”
    “That wasn’t any kind of a way to treat one of mine,” Granny said. “No, it wasn’t. Tell ’em I said so. I’m in a hurry for him back.”
    “We told ’em. Maybe they’ve already sent him. Maybe he’s here in this crowd now, and you just can’t see him,” teased Aunt Cleo.
    “Hush up, Sister Cleo! None of that! Take your nursing tricks away from here!” cried Miss Beulah.

    Uncle Noah Webster leaned away out from his chair and caught a baseball flying in from the pasture. Prancing down the steps, he wound up and threw it back into the game. “So the next thing we knew,” he cried, coming back, straddling the chair as he sat down again, “there we all was at the trial. Cleo, I wish it had been your privilege to be with us our day in court.”
    “Even if I’d known it was going on and got a free ride toLudlow, my first husband wouldn’t have let me sit with you all: he was still living,” said Aunt Cleo.
    “Excuse me,” said Uncle Noah Webster.
    “Though I love a good trial as well as the next fellow,” she said.
    “We’d had to squeeze to make room for one more, down front where we was all sitting. Grandpa was holding down one end of our pew, just a little bit more bent over on his cane than before, and Beulah held down the other end, with the rest of us in between. It’s a wonder everybody could get there! It wasn’t like it was any other time of year. It was spring! The whole world was popping, needing man. Oh, it needed Jack bad! And the wedding and the trial, that made two days in a row. But everybody was there, all