Free Trouble in July by Erskine Caldwell

as willing as they ever get. Right then I out and asked her how about meeting me when the picking-day was over, and she said she would.”
    He paused and looked around to see if anyone else had come up to the smudge. The other men looked at Katy on the porch while they were waiting for Milo to continue. DeLoach pranched around excitedly, nudging him.
    “A little before sundown, when the pickers was leaving the field to go home, I made a sign at Katy, and she followed me to the fieldhouse where we had been dumping our pickings all day. I crawled inside and waited, watching her through a crack in the wall as she came across the field. Pretty soon she came jumping in and climbed over the cotton to where I was. I never saw a girl so man-crazy before in all my life. In no time at all she had stripped herself down to her bare skin. I’m here to tell you I never saw a prettier sight than I saw then. She stretched out on the cotton, all naked and soft-looking. Where her legs came together at her belly it looked exactly like somebody had poked his finger in one of those toy ballons, and the place had stayed there. She—”
    There was a commotion in the crowd around the step. Milo stepped and turned around to see what was happening. Katy was laughing nervously and pulling the dress together where it had fallen open.
    “Hi there, Katy! Don’t forget me!” somebody shouted above the uproar.
    DeLoach, the barber, again began nudging Milo in his ribs. Milo jumped every time the barber’s sharp elbow jabbed him.
    “What did you do then?” the barber urged.
    One of the other men took out a bottle and passed it around. They drank it empty and tossed it aside.
    “I didn’t do nothing then, to tell the truth,” Milo said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “She lay there carrying on with herself like I never saw before in all my life. Then the next thing I knew she had started in on me the same way. We started rolling around getting at each other. That fieldhouse of Bob Watson’s is about thirty or forty feet square on all sides, and one time we would be bumping up against the side of one wall, and the next time against the other wall, that far away. She got hold of me with her teeth, and I thought she was going to kill me, it hurt so much. I yelled loud enough to be heard a mile away. I reckon I must have lost my head, because I started beating her with my fists, the pain was so bad. It looked like she didn’t mind that at all, because right away she started making a sound like pigeons cooing. Her teeth-bites didn’t hurt as much after that, and all I could hear was that pigeon-cooing sound. That lasted I don’t know how long, but the next thing I knew we was rolling again, all over the cotton. We smashed into a wall, knocking me silly as a jaybird. I didn’t care. What brought me to, was her getting a fresh grip on me with her teeth. I tried to beat her off with my fists, but she wouldn’t let go no matter how hard I hit her. The next thing I remember was when I opened my eyes and saw blood smeared all over both of us. Them sharp teeth of hers had took a bite out of my shoulder the last time, and I’ve got the scar right this minute to show for it. I reckon that scar will be there on me for the rest of my life.”
    There was nothing said after he had finished. DeLoach, the barber, stood staring at him. After a while he walked off into the darkness towards the barn.
    Milo and the other men moved towards the crowd around the porch step.
    “Hi, Katy!” somebody shouted at her.
    Milo pushed forward and took a good look at her.
    “She’s got that same look on her,” he said, whispering to one of the men who had followed him from the smudge. “That’s exactly the way she looked that time in Bob Watson’s fieldhouse.”
    Moths were fluttering around the light bulb on the porch ceiling, many of them flying against her face. She raised her hand and brushed some of them away. When her dress fell open, she pulled the