“Do you remember me, boy?” Deel asked.
“No.”
“Not at all?”
“No.”
“’Course not. You were very young. Has your mother told you about me?”
“Not really.”
“Nothing.”
“She said you got killed in the war.”
“I see…Well, I didn’t.”
Deel turned and looked back through the open door. He could see Mary Lou at the washbasin pouring water into the wash pan, water she had heated on the stove. It steamed as she poured. He thought then he should have brought wood for her to make the fire. He should have helped make the fire and heat the water. But being close to her made him nervous. The boy made him nervous.
“You going to school?” he asked the boy.
“School burned down. Tom teaches me some readin’ and writin’ and cipherin’. He went eight years to school.”
“You ever go fishin’?”
“Just with Tom. He takes me fishin’ and huntin’ now and then.”
“He ever show you how to make a bow and arrow?”
“No.”
“No, sir,” Deel said. “You say, no, sir.”
“What’s that?”
“Say yes, sir or no, sir. Not yes and no. It’s rude.”
The boy dipped his head and moved a foot along the ground, piling up dirt.
“I ain’t gettin’ on you none,” Deel said. “I’m just tellin’ you that’s how it’s done. That’s how I do if it’s someone older than me. I say no, sir and yes, sir. Understand, son?”
The boy nodded.
“And what do you say?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. Manners are important. You got to have manners. A boy can’t go through life without manners. You can read and write some, and you got to cipher to protect your money. But you got to have manners too.”
“Yes, sir.”
“There you go…About that bow and arrow. He never taught you that, huh?”
“No, sir.”
“Well, that will be our plan. I’ll show you how to do it. An old Cherokee taught me how. It ain’t as easy as it might sound, not to make a good one. And then to be good enough to hit somethin’ with it, that’s a whole nuther story.”
“Why would you do all that when you got a gun?”
“I guess you wouldn’t need to. It’s just fun, and huntin’ with one is real sportin’, compared to a gun. And right now, I ain’t all that fond of guns.”
“I like guns.”
“Nothin’ wrong with that. But a gun don’t like you, and it don’t love you back. Never give too much attention or affection to somethin’ that can’t return it.”
“Yes, sir.”
The boy, of course, had no idea what he was talking about. Deel was uncertain he knew himself what he was talking about. He turned and looked back through the door. Mary Lou was at the pan, washing the dishes; when she scrubbed, her ass shook a little, and in that moment, Deel felt, for the first time, like a man alive.
THAT NIGHT THE BED seemed small. He lay on his back with his hands crossed across his lower stomach, wearing his faded red union suit, which had been ragged when he left, and had in his absence been attacked by moths. It was ready to come apart. The window next to the bed was open and the breeze that came through was cool. Mary Lou lay beside him. She wore a long white nightgown that had been patched with a variety of colored cloth patches. Her hair was undone and it was long. It had been long when he left. He wondered how often she had cut it, and how much time it had taken each time to grow back.
“I reckon it’s been a while,” he said.
“That’s all right,” she said.
“I’m not sayin’ I can’t, or I won’t, just sayin’ I don’t know I’m ready.”
“It’s okay.”
“You been lonely?”
“I have Winston.”
“He’s grown a lot. He must be company.”
“He is.”
“He looks some like you.”
“Some.”
Deel stretched out his hand without looking at her and laid it across her stomach. “You’re still like a girl,” he said. “Had a child, and you’re still like a girl…You know why I asked how old you was?”
“’Cause you didn’t remember.”
“Well, yeah, there was that. But on account of you don’t look none different at all.”
“I got a mirror. It ain’t much of one, but it don’t make me look younger.”
“You look just the same.”
“Right now, any woman might look good to you.” After she said it, she caught herself. “I didn’t mean it that way. I just meant you been gone a long time…In Europe, they got pretty women, I hear.”
“Some are, some ain’t. Ain’t none of them pretty as you.”
“You ever…you know?”
“What?”
“You know…While you was over there.”
“Oh…Reckon I did. Couple of times. I didn’t know for sure I was comin’ home. There wasn’t nothin’ to it. I didn’t mean nothin’ by it. It was like filling a hungry belly, nothin’ more.”
She was quiet for a long time. Then she said, “It’s okay.”
He thought to ask her a similar question, but couldn’t. He eased over to her. She remained still. She was as stiff as a corpse. He knew. He had been forced at times to lie down among them. Once, moving through a town in France with his fellow soldiers, he had come upon a woman lying dead between two trees. There wasn’t a wound on her. She was young. Dark haired. She looked as if she had lain down for a nap. He reached down and touched her. She was still warm.
One of his comrades, a soldier, had suggested they all take turns mounting her before she got cold. It was a joke, but Deel had pointed his rifle at him and run him off. Later, in the trenches he had been side by side with the same man, a fellow from Wisconsin, who like him had joined the Great War by means of Canada. They had made their peace, and the Wisconsin fellow told him it was a poor joke he’d made, and not to hold it against him, and Deel said it was all right, and then they took positions next to each other and talked a bit about home and waited for the war to come. During the battle, wearing gas masks and firing rifles, the fellow from Wisconsin had caught a round and it had knocked him down. A moment later the battle had ceased, at least for the moment.