Free God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell Page A

though?”
    Rosamond went back and put the revolver into the dresser drawer and shut it. Then she sat down in a chair and cried.
    Pluto did not know what to do. He did not know whether to go after Will and try to bring him back home, or whether to stay in the room and try to quiet Rosamond and Darling Jill. Darling Jill had quieted down some, and she was not crying so loudly then. But Rosamond was. Pluto leaned over and put his hand on her arm and patted it. Rosamond threw his hand off and cried even more hysterically. Pluto decided then that the best thing for him to do was to do nothing for a while. He sat down again and waited.
    Presently Rosamond got up and ran to the bed where her sister was. She threw herself upon the bed, hugging Darling Jill in her arms and bursting into tears once more. They both lay there consoling one another. Pluto looked on uneasily. He had expected to see them fly at each other, pulling hair, scratching, and calling each other names. But they were doing nothing of the sort. They were actually hugging one another and weeping together. Pluto could not understand why Rosamond did not try to shoot Darling Jill, or at least why she was not angry with her. To look at them at that moment, Pluto could not imagine how Rosamond had acted as she had a few minutes before. They were behaving as though suffering a common bereavement.
    When Rosamond’s sobs had almost ceased, she sat up and looked down at her sister. The red welts on Darling Jill’s buttocks still throbbed with intense pain, and she could not lie upon them. Rosamond touched one of the welts tenderly with the tips of her fingers as though she might be able to soothe the hurt a little thereby.
    “Lie where you are until I come back,” Rosamond told her. “I’ll only be gone a moment.”
    She ran to the kitchen and came back with a cup of lard and a large bath towel. She sat down on the side of the bed and dipped her fingers into the grease.
    “Come here, Pluto,” she said, not turning around to look at him. “You can help me.”
    Pluto came over to the bed, blushing to the tips of his ears at the sight of Darling Jill lying naked before him.
    “Lift her gently, Pluto, and hold her across your lap,” Rosamond instructed. “Now be careful. Don’t irritate those welts, whatever you do.”
    Pluto put his arms under Darling Jill, laying the palms of his hands flat against her breasts and thighs. He jerked his hands from under her, his face and neck burning.
    “Now, what’s the matter?”
    “Maybe you had better lift her.”
    “Don’t be silly, Pluto. How can I? I’m not strong.”
    He put his hands under her again, closing his eyes and compressing his lips.
    “Hurry, Pluto, and let me put this lard on those swollen places before they turn blue.”
    Pluto lifted her and turned around. He sat down on the side of the bed next to Rosamond with Darling Jill lying across his knees. Rosamond began applying the lard at once. Pluto would have watched her, but he could not take his eyes from Darling Jill’s long brown hair hanging to the floor. He raised her a little so her hair would not touch it. She winced once or twice when Rosamond touched her, but she did not protest or try to get up. When the lard had been carefully spread, Rosamond wiped her fingers on a piece of cloth and began folding the towel until it was a long thick bandage. Pluto looked down at Darling Jill’s soft buttocks with a sudden desire to touch them and try to soothe the pain. Each time he looked down at her in his lap, though, he began to blush all over again.
    “Help her to her feet, Pluto,” Rosamond said. “Lift her up and let her stand on her feet, Pluto.”
    Darling Jill stood up in front of Pluto and her sister while the towel was being fastened securely around her. Pluto’s gaze was fixed on a point of her body that happened to be the closest. He looked straight ahead, moving his eyes neither to the right nor to the left. He knew Darling Jill was looking