The Passenger (The Passenger, #1)(53)

His grandmother came in carrying bowls of mashed potatoes and beans. Western got up and followed her back into the kitchen.

What can I take?

Here, she said. Take these.

She handed him a platter of sliced ham and a bowl of biscuits with a cloth over it and she followed him out with the gravy and a bowl of corn. She brought out the coffee and poured it and they sat, he and his grandmother across from each other and Royal at the head of the table. They bowed their heads and his grandmother said grace and then said thank you for sending Bobby to us. Western had sneaked a look at his uncle. He had his eyes closed. When Granellen got to the part about thanking the Lord for Bobby he nodded. Yeah, he said. We appreciate that. Then they passed the bowls and began to eat.

Where’d you get the sweetcorn at, Ellen?

Out of the freezer, Royal. Where would you expect?

I dont understand why you caint freeze tomatoes.

I dont either, I just know you cant.

Why caint you freeze tomatoes, Bobby?

I dont know. You can freeze most fruit. Berries.

You think a tomato’s a fruit?

Pretty much. You could call it a berry too I suppose.

A berry.

Yes.

Well I’ve heard that fruit business before. Which you couldnt prove it by me. Or the berry thing for that matter. You believe that?

It’s a member of the nightshade family. Which includes belladonna. The Spanish brought it back from Mexico.

From Mexico.

Yes.

Royal stopped chewing and sat looking at his plate. What you’re sayin is that they wasnt no tomatoes till Columbus come over here and got em.

Yes. Or potatoes or corn or about half the other things we eat.

Potatoes.

Yes.

Let me ask you this.

All right.

What do you think the Italians made sauce out of if they wasnt no tomatoes?

I dont know.

What do you think the Irish ate if they didnt have no potatoes? You know what it is you’re thinkin of?

What is it that I’m thinking of?

Tobacco.

Could be.

Walter Raleigh brought tobacco back with him. That’s why they used to have Walter Raleigh cigarettes. I knew people that smoked em. Had his picture on the pack. You got coupons with em that you could send off and get stuff.

What kind of stuff?

I dont know. Toasters maybe.

Western buttered a biscuit and spooned some of the rich red gravy over it. This is delicious, Granellen.

Well thank you.

What about corn?

What?

What about corn?

Royal chewed. Yeah, he said. He might could of brought back corn. They call it Indian corn.

Or beans.

Beans.

Beans.

Royal nodded. Well as far as I know people been eatin beans since the first day of creation. I think Adam et em. Him and Eve. They’d eat a big bait and set around and toot at one another.

Royal.

Bobby smiled. Royal speared a piece of ham off the platter and set about cutting away the thin rind of fat. He shook his head. You got to watch what you say around here. You’ll see. He looked up. I’m a prisoner here, Bobby. Plain truth of the matter. I dont never go nowheres. Dont never see nobody. Nobody to talk to. He shook his head, chewing.

I told you I’d take you down to the Eagles. Anytime you wanted to go.

I dont want to set around and talk to them old farts.

His grandmother looked at Western.

Well I dont. What time is it?

Almost six.

Royal stood and tore the napkin from around his neck.

Royal you have hardly eat anything.

I’ll take it in there with me.

He disappeared into the livingroom with his plate and fork. In a few minutes they could hear the television.

He sets in there and argues with it. You’ll hear him here directly.

He seemed okay.

You’ve not heard the half of it yet. Sometimes he thinks we’re back in Anderson County. We’ve only been gone from there for thirty-eight years.

In the livingroom they could hear Royal muttering.

I guess he wishes he was back in Anderson County.

Well. I do too. For all the good it might do me.

I know you miss the house.

She nodded. My grandfather and my uncle built that house with two hands in eighteen and seventy-two. Of course they’d commenced to cuttin the timber for it before that. Ever stick of it come off the property. It was framed up out of beams and joists and they cut lumber for the better part of a year, walnut and poplar, and they hauled the logs on skids with a six mule team. Some of them logs was twenty foot long and two people couldnt reach around em. They was pictures of them in the old press in the livinroom. They built a sashmill back in the woods about a mile from the house that was powered by a steam engine and they hauled the logs in and hauled the lumber out, just stacks and stacks of it. And they put it on the stick, as they called it, and it set there in a pole barn for I dont know how long before they cut into the first board of it. I dont know how they knew to do what they done, Bobby. I want to say that they could of done anything. They didnt even own a book. Other than the Bible of course. I dont reckon they hardly even had a sheet of paper. I always thought it was a good thing that God dont let us see the future. That house was the most beautiful house I ever saw. Ever floor in it was solid walnut and some of them boards was close to three foot wide. All of it hand planed. All of it at the bottom of a lake. I dont know, Bobby. You have to believe that there is good in the world. I’m goin to say that you have to believe that the work of your hands will bring it into your life. You may be wrong, but if you dont believe that then you will not have a life. You may call it one. But it wont be one. Well. Listen at me. I just get sillier and sillier.