Suttree

by Cormac McCarthy

  Mr Harrogate, the city is offering a reward for any dead bats found in the streets. We have what could become a critical situation here with rabies. That's the purpose of the reward. We have not authorized the wholesale slaughter of bats.

  Do I get the money or not?

  You do not.

  Shit.

  I'm sorry.

  Well.

  I would like to know how you managed to poison them.

  Harrogate sucked at his black foretooth. What will you give me? he said.

  The doctor leaned back in his chair and studied him all over again. Well, he said, feeling the spirit of things, what will you take?

  I'll take two dollars.

  That's too high. I'll give a dollar.

  Make it a dollar and a quarter.

  All right.

  That includes the dinner and the icecream.

  Okay.

  I done it with a flipper.

  With a flipper?

  Yessir.

  The doctor looked at the ceiling. Ah, he said. I see. What? Did you poison scraps of meat and then shoot them in the air?

  Yeah. Them sons of bitches like to never quit fallin.

  Very ingenious. Damned ingenious.

  I can figure out anything.

  Well, I'm sorry your efforts were for nothing.

  Maybe a dollar and a quarter aint nothin to you but it is to me.

  When Suttree called on him he found a shrunken djinn hulked over an applebox tracing with a chewed pencil stub a route beneath the city on a map of it. A sanguine scene, there by the bloodcolored light of the construction lantern. At Suttree's approach a bright red cat rose from before the lamp and moved away into the dark. Harrogate looked up, feet tucked and bright smile, a diabolic figure across which the shadow of a moth passed and repassed like a portent.

  How did you make out?

  Set down Sut. Not worth a shit.

  Wouldn't they pay?

  Naw. I got to hand it to em. They're smart.

  Well.

  I'm glad you come. Looky here at this map.

  Suttree glanced at it.

  It shows where all the buildings is and you can measure it on here, see, on this here scale?

  Yeah?

  Well shit. I mean, what with them caves down there and it all holler and everthing?

  So?

  Lord, Sut, it's tailormade. They're just askin for it.

  Suttree rose. Gene, he said, you're crazy.

  Set down Sut. Looky here. The goddamned bank is only ...

  I dont want to look. I dont want to hear.

  Harrogate watched him wane from the gory light toward darkness.

  It's a dead lock, Sut, he called. I need you to help me.

  Beyond in the dark of the town late traffic passed.

  Sut?

  A chained dog yapped from the shackstrewn hillside across the creek.

  I need you to help me, he called.

  In the early months of that summer a new fisherman appeared on the river. Suttree saw him humped over the oars in a skiff composed of actual driftwood, old boxes and stenciled crateslats and parts of furniture patched up with tin storesigns and rags of canvas and spattered over with daubs of tar. A crazyquilt boat sculled through the loose fog by a sullen oarsman who looked not right nor left.

  Standing at Turner's stall Suttree stared down into the long glass bier. Little beads of water ran on the heavy slant panes in their nickel and porcelain mortises. Inside on a bed of crushed ice dimly lit and lightly garlanded with parsley sprigs lay a catfish with a nine inch dinnerplate in its mouth. Old men kept drifting by to peer in and comment. A little card rested against the broad yellow flank. It said: Caught in the Tennessee River June 9 1952. Wt. 87 lbs.

  Mornin Suttree, said the fishmonger.

  Where the hell did you get this?

  Some Indian brought it in here this mornin. Aint that a fish?

  It's the biggest catfish I ever saw.

  Old Bert Vincent was by a little while ago, said it was the biggest he ever seen personally.

  I dont guess you'll be needing any fish this morning.

  Not this morning.

  Suttree crossed through the markethouse and went on toward niggertown with his fish.

  In the evening he watched the Indian set out again on his one line below the railway trestle. And back. He hove to in the blue shadow under the bluff and drifted from sight. Eighty-seven pounds, Suttree muttered.

  On his run downriver in the morning he watched for the Indian's skiff. He saw it swinging loosely below the sheer rock of the south shore. Trash hung in the vines all down the face of the bluff and a thin faultline angled up and switched back until it gained the rim of a cave a hundred feet above the river. Up there watching was the fisherman. Suttree raised his hand. The figure on the cliff gestured back. Suttree eased the oars into the river and went on.

  When he came back upriver the Indian was cleaning fish on a rock at the foot of the bluff. When he saw Suttree he stood up and looked up at the cave and wiped his hands on the sides of his jeans.

  Suttree eased the skiff alongside the rock and shipped the inside oar. There was a shallow pool among the rocks and from the bottom countless fish heads stared up through the silty water to the streaked sunlight of a world dead to them. Coiled viscera ebbed in the murk and a few tins gave back a baleful light. Howdy, he said.

  Hey, said the Indian.

  How's it going?

  Okay.

  I saw that blue cat down at Turner's. I dont see how you got it in the boat.

  Yeah, said the Indian.

  Suttree looked out over the water and he looked up at the Indian again. A tall and ocherskinned stranger in a pair of busted out brogans, the sorry clothes, the stove knees and elbows not patched but simply puckered shut with crude stitching. Pinned to his shirt and joined by their weighted wire he wore a pair of china eyes that had once swung in a doll's skull.

  I live up the river yonder, said Suttree. Just above the bridge in that first houseboat.

  The Indian nodded. I seen you, he said. In the sun his homecut hair looked blue and his eyes were black. Suttree couldnt tell if he was looking at him or just down at his shoes.

  There's the size I catch. Suttree held up the smallest catfish in the boat.

  You want some bait?

  Bait?

  Sure.

  What kind you got?

  Wait on me till I get you some.

  Suttree watched him, sculling to recover the current. He went up the bluff like a goat.

  When he came back he handed down a jar to Suttree. Suttree took it and looked at it and turned it against the sun and unscrewed the cap and sniffed at it. Goddamn, he said.

  The Indian had squatted on the rock to watch him more closely and now he slapped his thigh and laughed.

  Shit, said Suttree. He clapped the lid back over the mess.

  Dont smell it, said the Indian, grinning.

  Now you tell me. He tilted the jar at arm's length. Will it stay on the hook?

  Sure.

  Well. Thanks. Maybe I'll catch one of those big mammyjammers.

  Sure, said the Indian.

  Suttree set the jar on the seat and pushed off from the rocks. Thanks again, he said. Come see me.

  The Indian stood and put his hands in his pockets and gave a little toss of his chin. Okay, he said.

  The next week he didnt see him. The crazy boat was gone. Suttree tried the bait but the odor of it, the gagging vomit reek, was more than he could stand. He'd wash his hands again and again after molding it on the hooks. The third morning he caught two turtles and he let the jar descend down through the duncolored water behind the last flaring dropper and went back to his cutbait and doughballs.

  Monday morning someone rapped at his door and he turned out in the dawn chill to find the Indian there. He wore the same clothes, the same shoes. The tandem eyeballs still pinned to his pocket. Hey, he said.

  Come on in, said Suttree.

>   How you do with the bait?

  Okay. Kept catching turtles.

  Hey. Turtles. Snappers, hey?

  Yeah. Watch your head.

  The Indian stooped and entered and turned.

  Sit down. Suttree motioned loosely toward the dim interior.

  Them is good to eat, said the Indian. Best meat there is.

  Yeah, well. They're a lot of trouble to fix.

  You bring him to me. I show you how to fix him.

  You want a cup of coffee?

  Sure.

  Have it in a minute. Go on, sit down.

  The Indian sat on the bunk and crossed his legs.

  I didnt see you for a couple of days.

  No.

  Suttree ladled water out of a lardpail into the coffeepot and lit the burner. He measured in the coffee. I used to know an old guy who shot turtles down on the river. I never see the meat for sale though.

  Yeah, well. I sell em sometime.

  Suttree set the pot on the burner and put the lid on and turned the flame up. He got down the spare cup. It had a dead spider curled in it and he pitched the spider into the trash and rinsed both cups. When the coffee perked he poured the cups full and turned and handed one to the Indian.

  He took the cup gravely and blew on it. He gave off a rich acidic smell of woodsmoke and grease and fish. Sparse whiskers on his fine skin. His arms lean, longmuscled, blueveined.

  I never ate one, Suttree said.

  One what?

  Turtle.

  You come to my place sometime I fix him for you.

  Okay, said Suttree.

  The Indian sipped the coffee and regarded him above the cuprim with grave black eyes. I got thowed in jail, he said.

  When?

  Last week. I just got out.

  What did they have you for?

  Vag. You know. They got me once before.

  How did you get out?

  They let me sweep up. They let me clean up and then they let me out. I come down this mornin and my boat was gone.

  Where did you leave it?

  Just down here. I reckon some boys took it.

  Have you looked for it?

  Yeah.

  Suttree watched him. Well, he said. Why dont we go in my boat and see if we can see it.

  I'll pay you.

  It's all right.

  He got his shoes and socks. These river rats will steal anything that's not nailed down.

  They might of sunk it.

  Would it sink?

  Put enough rocks in it.

  Suttree shook his head.

  They went downriver with Suttree rowing and the Indian bailing, bending toward each other at their tasks.

  They had a hell of a nigger in there, the Indian said.

  Where's that?

  In the jail. They had this great big nigger. They fought all over the jailhouse. They'd go in there and bust his head with slapsticks. He'd come around after a while and start cussin em all over again.

  Suttree stayed the oars.

  He raised some knots on a few of them jailers, the Indian said.

  Did he get out?

  Yeah. Somebody come and got him yesterday.

  Suttree rowed on.

  They went past the last bridge and down the bend in the river. They watched the shore.

  That's not it is it? said Suttree, pointing.

  The Indian shaded his eyes. No, he said. It's just some trash.

  Suttree dabbed his eye against his shoulder with a shrugging motion and went on.

  You want me to row awhile?

  No. It's okay.

  They found the skiff awash in shallow water near the head of the island. Suttree eased alongside and laid back the oars. The Indian stood.

  Is it stove? said Suttree.

  No. I dont think so.

  They must still be here on the island.

  The Indian scanned the steaming reaches of reed and willow. A plover was crossing the siltbar like a gallery bird. Suttree stepped out with the rope and they pulled the skiff ashore.

  There was a little path going up the island through the weeds. They went with caution. Redwings circled and cried.

  They entered a clearing where charred sticks and blackened stones marked a fire. A few empty bean tins. They walked around the glade.

  Looks like they skedaddled, Suttree said.

  Yeah.

  They cant be far.

  Let em go, the Indian said.

  Yeah?

  Sure.

  Okay.

  They turned and defiled out of the glade, Suttree behind the Indian. Dragonflies kept lifting from the tops of the reeds like little chinese kites.

  What's your name? said Suttree.

  The Indian turned and looked back. Michael, he said.

  Is that what they call you?

  He turned again. No, he said. They call me Tonto or Wahoo or Chief. But my name is Michael.

  My name's Suttree.

  The Indian smiled. Suttree thought maybe he was going to stop and shake hands but he didnt.

  They got the boat bailed and afloat and Suttree shoved it out onto the pale brown waters. The Indian took up the oars and brought it about headed upriver. What do I owe you? he said.

  Not anything.

  Well. Come see me and I'll fix you that turtle.

  Suttree raised his hand. Okay, he said. Watch out for the cops.

  The Indian dipped the oars into the river and pulled away.

  Suttree stepped into his skiff and walked to the rear of it and shoved off from the flats with one oar. The Indian's patchwork boat was soon far upriver, light winking off the sweeps where they'd been broken and pieced back with tacked and flattened foodtins. He eased his own oars into the water and started up the inside of the island. He watched for sign of the thieves along the shore and he saw a muskrat nose among the willows and he saw a clutch of heronshaws gawping from their down nest in the reeds, spikelet bills and stringy gullets, pink flesh and pinfeathers and boneless legs spindled about. He tacked more shoreward to see. So curious narrow beasties. As he pulled abreast of them a rock sang past his ears. He ducked and looked toward the shore bracken but before he could collect himself another rock came whistling out of the willows and caught him in the forehead and he fell back in the boat. The sky was red and soaring and whorled like the ball of an enormous thumb and a numb gritty feeling came up against the back of his teeth. One oar slid from its lock and floated off.

  The skiff drifted down past the landing and down past the end of the island. Suttree lay sprawled in the floor with blood running in his eyes. A tree branch turned against the sky. He pulled himself up, gripping the side of the skiff. He could taste a tincture of iron in his throat and he spat a bloody mucus into the water. He knelt over the side and palmed water at his face and his face was slippery with blood and blood lay in the water in coagulate strings. He touched gently an eggshaped swelling. His whole skull was throbbing and even his eyes hurt. He looked upriver toward the island and swore murderously. The other oar was floating a few yards downriver and he sculled after it. Light kept winking up on the riffles and blood was dripping from his forehead and he felt half nauseous. He recovered the drift oar and rowed back upriver in the main channel. He watched along the shoreline of the island but he saw nothing. After a while his head quit bleeding.

  Doll came to the door at Ab's and looked him up and down. Hunh, she said. What happen to you?

  Some son of a bitch hit me with a rock.

  Mm-mmm, she said, shaking her head. Come in.

  How's Ab?

  She shut the door behind him.

  Suttree turned in the stale and darkened room. Why didnt you tell me he was all screwed up?

  I caint do nothin with him.

  Where is he, in the back?

  She gestured him on with one hand and he pushed back the curtain. At first he could not see him well but gradually the black's half closed and swollen eyes appeared, his glistening misshapen face. His broken mouth mo
ved painfully. He said: Hey Youngblood.

  Suttree heard his breath suck in the quiet. Hey Ab, he said. How are you.

  I'm okay. I's just slippin me a nap. What you up to in the heat of the day? You catchin any fish?

  Not to amount to anything. Have you had a doctor?

  A throaty laugh shook the sagging bedsprings. He moved his head on the pillows as if he'd seek a darker place to rest it. What I needs with a doctor?

  I think you need some help.

  That may be. But I aint in need of bein patched up and prayed over.

  What can I get you?

  Ah Youngblood. I dont need nothin.

  Somebody told me you tried to whip everybody at city jail.

  You caint do nothin with them crackers. They needs they wigs tightened ever little bit.

  I remember the last time they picked up Byrd and Sam Slusser you saw cops for weeks all over Knoxville with bandages and black eyes limping around.

  Jones chuckled.

  I guess far as that goes we might look for some this week.

  Ah, said Jones. Aint but one of em I wants.

  Who's that, Quinn?

  Jones didnt answer. How's you little buddy? he said. He aint drownded hisself in that boat yet is he?

  Not yet.

  He come by here other day tryin to sell the old woman what he call scobs.

  Scobs?

  What he call em. Look like old pigeons to me. He had em all dressed and everthing. He some kind of a mess, aint he?

  He's crazy as a mouse in a milkcan.

  Jones chuckled.

  I'm going uptown. You want me to bring you anything?

  Naw.

  You sure you okay?

  He turned his battered face. Do somethin for me, Youngblood.

  Name it.

  Go see Miss Mother for me. Tell her I needs to see her.

  Wouldnt Doll go for you?

  Doll dont want me to have no truck with her. She wont run her off if she comes down here. You tell her.

  What else?

  That's all. I'd be much obliged.

  Okay. Take care and I'll see you later.

  Yeah, said the black.

  He crossed the fields and went up Front Avenue and turned down a steep cinderpath past a run of chickens, a sleeping dog. The path went through a locust wood and the huge beanpods hung everywhere in a sunlight stained and made obscure by windblown papers staked out among the blackened upper branches, tents of newsprint and trash and the ruins of kites all tattered and rainleached and impaled upon the locust spikes. He crossed an iron sewer main half out of the ground and he descended into an old limestone sink that had been filled back as a city dump and graded over years ago. Now it was a small glade and there was a raw board shack in the center of it. Suttree came down the path and out from the last of the trees. The ninekiller flew. A few garish outland birds leaned from the limbs to watch him, gaudy longtailed fowl, he didnt know what kind. Their moult feathers lay about in the dust of the yard. He crossed to the door and tapped with his knuckles.