Free Song Yet Sung by James McBride

immense hand, placed a knee on his chest, knelt on Odgin, and squeezed, choking him.
    The three others pounced on Big Linus. Patty slammed a rifle butt against his head. Stanton, holding the tail rudder with one hand, beat him with an oar. Hodge lashed at him with a whip, then leaped on him, clinging onto his back. Both dogs savagely bit him, but it was to no avail. The giant was possessed.
    Patty frantically searched for something harder, a hammer or flatiron to clunk the giant Negro on the head with, but she could find nothing. Odgin by now had stopped struggling, the awful gurgling sounds from his throat sounding like the last desperate squeals of a pig being slaughtered. She had no choice.
    She swung the rifle around and pointed its barrel at Big Linus, who leaned atop Odgin, his knee on Odgin’s chest, his head clear of the sides of the boat.
    â€”Lean back, Hodge, she said calmly, and git them dogs out the way.
    Hodge, still grappling with the giant, turned his head, saw the drawn rifle, and clattered to the stern of the boat, saying, Christ, Patty, not out here.
    â€”Git back and hold them dogs, she said calmly.
    It was a tight fit in a dory boat with less than ten feet of space inside it. Hodge yanked the dogs’ leash with one hand, placed his knee on the trailboard, and drew his head far back as he could. Stanton, next to him, held the rudder tightly, he, too, dangling his head over the side of the boat, for the blast, he was afraid, would rock the boat hard enough to throw all of them overboard. He hung his head awkwardly out over the rear, his facial muscles squeezed tight in terrified anticipation, lest she miss and burn him with powder or, worse, a minié ball.
    Patty calmly moved to the side of the boat opposite Linus and, from near point-blank distance, placed the rifle close to Big Linus’s head, just behind his ear so as not to blow a hole in the boat, and let the hammer drop.
    The explosion resounded around the cove like the sound of a bomb, followed by the sound of splashing as a mass of flesh and spittle flew out into the water, some of it flying high into the air before coming down. The black giant’s limp body fell shoulder first into a horrified Odgin, then swayed and toppled half out of the boat, tipping the boat to the side, nearly capsizing it. This was followed by the desperate scrambling of Patty and Hodge to the other side of the boat to keep it from tipping while Stanton helped the choking, gagging Odgin, who was desperately trying to push the giant off him.
    â€”Git him off me, he said. Patty, git him off.
    It took the four of them to pull Big Linus’s nearly decapitated body back into the boat to steady it, and cut the net away from him. It took several bloody seconds before they could pry his dead hand from around Odgin’s neck and slide the big corpse into the water.
    Afterwards, Odgin collapsed to the floor, gasping and panting.
    â€”God dammit, Patty, you coulda killed me, he said.
    â€”Oh, shush, Patty said. The moon had peeked from behind the clouds, and the big body could be seen turning in the water, then slowly sinking in the moonlight.
    â€”That’s at least two thousand dollars there, she said. Gone.
    Lying on the floor, Odgin looked up at her, incredulous. That’s all you think about? he asked.
    But Patty didn’t hear him. She was already thinking of something else. She regarded the cabin, now clearly visible in the moonlight.
    â€”Why’d he run here? she asked. You think the niggers here was feeding him?
    â€”Who knows? Stanton said.
    In the far distance, from the direction of the cabin, they heard a man call out.
    â€”Where’s my boat?
    Patty and Hodge laughed.
    â€”Ain’t you gonna explain to him? Stanton hissed.
    â€”Turn this boat around, Patty said. These dogs and boat is rented. We got to return ’em before morning.
    â€”He’ll finger us if he sees this dory, Stanton said. The fool that owns it