Suttree

by Cormac McCarthy

  They went off up the path through the woods. She'd written him a list, a pinched scrawl on a piece of paper sack. He balled it in his fist and pitched it into the weeds.

  They went through the woods for a half mile and came out onto an old macadam road half grown back in patches of grass, small saplings. They followed it with its tilted slabs of paving through a countryside warped and bleared in the steamy heat. They passed the ruins of an old motel, a broken paintworn sign, a clutch of tiny cabins quietly corroding in an arbor of pines. When they came out onto the highway Suttree could see the little crossroads community at the top of the rise. A handful of houses and a stuccoed roadside grocery store with a gaspump.

  He crossed the graveled forebay and entered the store. Old familiar smells. He got a pint of chocolate milk from the cooler and drank it.

  You goin to set us up to a dope? the boy said.

  Get one.

  Let's get us a couple of cakes too and we wont say nothin about it.

  Suttree looked at him. He was rummaging among the bottles in the drink case. These here R C's cold? he called out. Suttree went on to the meatcounter.

  What for ye? said the storekeeper, appearing behind the case and taking down an apron from a nail.

  Slice me a couple of pounds of that baloney, said Suttree.

  He hung the apron back.

  Slice it thin, said Suttree.

  He got some cheese and some bread and a drum of oatmeal and two quarts of milk and some onions. When the merchant had totted up these purchases there was forty cents left. Suttree looked at the rows of coffee in their bags above the merchant's head. The merchant turned to look with him.

  What's the cheapest coffee you've got?

  Well, let's see. The cheapest I got is the Slim Jim.

  Slim Jim?

  Slim Jim.

  How much is it?

  Thirty-nine cents.

  Let me have it.

  The merchant lifted down a bag of it from the shelf and set it on the counter. It was dusty and he blew on it and gave it a little swat before he lifted it into the grocery bag.

  Right, said Suttree. He scooped the bag off the counter and handed it to the boy and they left.

  It was evening when they got back. Suttree went down and sat in the dark by the river until supper was ready, the light of the cookfire composing behind him on the high bluff a shadowshow of primitive life. He pitched small round pebbles at the river as if he were feeding it.

  They ate sandwiches of fried baloney and bowls of whitebeans. Suttree came to the fire with his cup and held it out. The old woman lifted the potlid and sniffed. Suttree watched her. The plaited hawsers of hair that bound her thin gray skull. She took up her apron in one hand to grip the pot and tilt the hot black coffee out. Suttree went back to the box where he'd been sitting and stirred the coffee and put the spoon in his cuff for safekeeping and lifted the cup and sipped.

  He sat very still, then he turned and spat the coffee on the ground. Good God, he said.

  What is it? said Reese.

  What's happened to this coffee?

  I aint drunk none of it.

  Suttree swung his nose across the rim of the cup and then pitched the coffee out on the ground and went on eating.

  Reese wiped his mouth on his knee and rose. He came back with a cup of the coffee and stood over Suttree blowing at it and then he took a sip.

  What is this shit? he said.

  Damned if I know. Slim Jim, that's the name of it.

  Reese took another sip and then tipped it out on the ground. I dont know what it is, he said. But it aint coffee.

  The girl was sitting on the far side of the fire. She flung her black hair. What'd you do to the coffee, Mama? she called.

  Reese had gone back to the fire. They had the package up trying to read it. Reese poured the coffee out on the ground. A squabble ensued.

  Suttree what is this shit?

  I dont know. I bought it for coffee.

  It dont even smell like coffee.

  They done emptied the coffee out and filled the sack back with old leaves or somethin, said the woman, nodding her head and looking about.

  Bring me a cup of it, Willard, the girl called.

  Reese cut his eyes about. It might be poison, he said.

  Put eggshells in it, Mama, the girl called. That'll rectify it.

  Where's she goin to get eggshells at, dumb-ass? They aint no eggs.

  The woman reached and swatted the boy in the top of the head with her hand.

  Ow, he said.

  You mind how you talk to your sister.

  Something woke him in the small hours of the morning. Things moving in the dark. He took his flashlight and trained it out along the trees until it ghosted away in the dark fields downriver. He swept it toward the woods and back again. A dozen hot eyes watched, paired and random in the night. He held the light above his head to try and see the shapes beyond but nothing showed save eyes. Blinking on and off, or eclipsing and reappearing as heads were turned. They were none the same height and he tried his memory for anything that came in such random sizes. Then a pair of eyes ascended vertically some five feet and another pair sank slowly to the ground. Weird dwarfs with amaurotic eyeballs out there in the dark on a seesaw sidesaddle. Others began to raise and lower.

  Cows. He agreed with himself: It is cows. He switched off the flashlight and lay back. He could smell them now on the cool upriver wind, sweet odor of grass and milk. The damp air was weighted with all manner of fragrance. You can see it in a dog's eyes that he is sorting such things as he tests the wind and Suttree could smell the water in the river and the dew in the grass and the wet shale of the bluff. It was overcast and there were no stars to plague him with their mysteries of space and time. He closed his eyes.

  In the morning they took the womenfolk downriver to shuck the mussels there, the girls giggling, the old woman clutching the sides of the boat nervously and staring with her hooded eyes toward the passing shore. That evening after supper he went down to the river with a bar of soap and sat naked in the water off the gravel bar. He washed his clothes and he washed himself and he hung his clothes from a tree and got his towel and dried himself and sat among his blankets. After a while Reese came down through the woods on tiptoe, calling out softly.

  Over here, said Suttree.

  He crouched in front of Suttree. He looked back over his shoulder toward the camp.

  What is it? said Suttree.

  We got to go to town.

  Okay.

  I figure we ought to just go on in the mornin and get done with it.

  Suttree nodded.

  I started to let Mama and Wanda go, but you caint depend on no women to do business. What do you think?

  It suits the hell out of me.

  Reese looked toward the fire and looked back. It suits the hell out of me too, he hissed. If I dont get shitfaced drunk they aint a cow in Texas. You ever been to Newport?

  Not lately.

  Lord they got the wildest little old things runnin around up there. It's a sight in the world.

  They have?

  You daggone right. The old man checked the camp again and leaned to Suttree's ear. We go up there, Sut, we'll run a pair or two down and put the dick to em. He winked hugely and set one finger to his lips.

  They left in the early morning two days later. It had rained all night and the cars came down the long black road like motorboats and passed and diminished in shrouds of vapor. After a while an old man stopped in a model A and they rode on into Dandridge. The old man did not speak. The three of them hunched up like puppets on the front seat watched the summer morning break over the rolling countryside.

  They got a ride from Dandridge to Newport on a truck. There was a tractor on the truckbed and it kept shifting in its chains so that the travelers stood back against the stakesides with their hair blowing in the wind lest the thing break loose. They reached Newport around noon and descended blinking and disheveled into the hot street.<
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  The jeweler was sitting in a wire cage at the front of the store and he had what looked like a snuff jar screwed into his eye. The two of them stood there at the window and waited. Yes, the jeweler said. He didnt look up.

  Reese laid a pearl on the counter.

  The jeweler raised his head and sniffed and took the glass from his eye and donned a pair of spectacles. He reached and picked up the pearl. He rolled it between his thumb and forefinger and looked at it and put it back. He took off his spectacles and put the glass back in his eyes and bent to his work again. I cant use it, he said.

  Reese gave Suttree an uneasy wink. He delved up another jewel from his little changepurse and laid it by the first. Larger and more round. Hey, he said.

  The jeweler set aside a small pick with which he was sorting something in a boxlid. He looked at the two pearls before him and he looked at Reese. I cant use it.

  Reese had fished out meantime his best pearl and this he brought forth and held out in one grimy hand. I guess you cant use this one either, he said in triumph.

  The jeweler removed the glass and fitted the spectacles again. He didnt reach for the pearl. He seemed to simply want a better look at these two.

  Go ahead, said Reese, grinning and gesturing with the pearl

  Fellers, said the jeweler, those things are not worth anything.

  They're pearls, Suttree said.

  Tennessee pearls.

  Hell, they've got to be worth something.

  Well, I hate to say it, but they're not worth a nickel. Oh, you might find somebody that wanted them. Keepsake or something. I've known people to pay three or four dollars for a really nice one that they wanted made into a pin or something, but you might have a shoebox full and I wouldnt give a dime for them.

  Reese was still holding out the pearl. He turned to Suttree. He thinks we aint never traded afore, I reckon.

  The jeweler had taken off his spectacles and was preparing to look through his glass again.

  We may look country, but we aint ignorant, Reese told him.

  Let's go, Reese.

  You aint never seen no nicer a one than that there.

  The jeweler bent with his monocle to his work again.

  Suttree took the old man's arm and steered him out the door. Reese was looking over the prize pearl for some undetected flaw. In the street Suttree turned him around and got him by the shoulder. What the hell is going on? I thought you said that big pearl was worth ten dollars?

  Shit Sut, dont pay no attention to him, he dont know the first thing about it.

  Suttree pointed toward the windowglass. He's a goddamned jeweler. Cant you see the sign? What the hell do you mean he doesnt know?

  He's just outslicked hisself is what he's done. He wants us to give him the goddamned pearls. I've traded with these cute sons of bitches afore, Sut. I know.

  Let me see those things.

  Reese handed him the pearls. Suttree looked them over in the hard light of midday. They looked like pearls. Somewhat gray, somewhat misshapen. Hell, they must be worth something, he said.

  Reese took the pearls from him. Course they are, he said. Goddamn, you think I dont know nothin?

  How many have you ever sold?

  That's all right how many I sold. I sold some.

  How many?

  Well. I sold one last year for four dollars.

  Who to?

  Just to somebody.

  Suttree was standing looking at the ground and shaking his head. After a while he looked up. Well let's try somewhere else, he said.

  They canvassed the three jewelers and two pawnshops and were again on the street. Shadows were tilting on the walk, the day'd grown cooler.

  What now? said Suttree.

  Let me think a minute, said Reese.

  That's all we need.

  We aint tried the poolhall.

  The poolhall?

  Yeah.

  Suttree turned and walked away down the street. Reese caught him up and was at his elbow with plans and explanations.

  Suttree turned. How much money do you have on you?

  He stopped.

  Come on. How much?

  Why Sut, you know I aint got no money.

  Not a dime?

  Why no.

  Well I've got fifteen cents and I'm going over here and have coffee and doughnuts. You can sit and watch if you like. Then we'd better get on the goddamned road before it gets dark and try and get a ride out of here.

  Hell Sut, we caint go back emptyhanded.

  But Suttree had already stepped into the street. Reese watched him cross and enter the cafe on the other side.

  Suttree borrowed a paper from a stack by the till as he went in and he sat at the counter. A fat man asked him what he would have.

  Coffee.

  He wrote on the ticket.

  Do you have any doughnuts?

  Plain or chocolate.

  Chocolate.

  He wrote that. Suttree craned his neck to see the price.

  The fat man went down the counter and Suttree opened his paper.

  He drank three cups of coffee and read the paper from front to back. Finally he folded the paper and went to the front and paid his bill and put the paper back and went out. He stood in the street picking his teeth and looking up and down. He waited around for the better part of an hour. The stores were closing. He eyed the failing sun. That son of a bitch, he said.

  He was passing a small cafe when something about a figure within stopped him. He stepped back and peered through the glass. At a booth in the little lunchroom was Reese. He was buttering up large chunks of cornbread. Before him sat a platter of steak and gravy with mashed potatoes and beans. A waitress shuffled down the corridor toward him with a tall mug of coffee. Reese looked up to say some pleasantry. His eyes wandered from her to the scowling face at the window and he gave a sort of little jump in his seat and then grinned and waved.

  Suttree threw back the door and went down the aisle.

  Hey Sut. Where the hell did you get to? I hunted everwhere for you.

  Sure you did. Where did you get the money? I thought you were broke.

  Set down, set down. Honey? He raised a hand. He pointed at Suttree's head. Bring him what he wants. Boy, I'm glad I found you. Here, tell her what you want.

  I dont want a goddamned thing. Listen.

  They aint no need to cuss about it, the waitress said.

  Suttree ignored her. He leaned to Reese who was loading his jaw with a forkful of steak. You're driving me crazy, he said.

  Honey, bring him a cup of coffee.

  I dont want a cupping fuck of coffee. Look Reese ...

  Reese lowered his head and gave Suttree a queer clown's wink and nod. Sold em, he whispered. Looky here.

  Look at what?

  Down here. Looky here.

  Suttree had to lean back and look under the table where this grinning fool was holding pinched in his hand so just the corner showed a twenty dollar bill.

  What the hell are you hiding it for? Is it counterfeit?

  Shhh. Hell no son, it's good as gold.

  Who'd you hit in the head?

  Old buddy, we goin to take this to the tong games and come off with some real money.

  We better get our ass down to the bus station is what we better do.

  Honey, bring him a cup of coffee.

  He said he didnt want none.

  Suttree slumped back in the booth.

  Bring him some, said Reese, waving a piece of cornbread. He'll drink it.

  They stood in the street under the small lamps. A deathly quiet prevailed over the town.

  I wisht it wasnt summer and we could go to the cockfights, Reese said. He sucked his teeth and looked up and down the street. Got to find us a goddamned taxi. He patted his little paunch and belched and squinted about.

  Let me have a nickel and I'll go in and call one.

  Reese doled the coin easily. Suttree wore a look of dry patience. He went in and called the taxi.r />
  When it arrived Reese opened the front door and hopped in and was whispering loudly to the driver. Suttree climbed in the back and shut the door.

  Let me just take you fellers on up to the Green Room, the driver was saying. You can get anything you want up there.

  What do you say, Sut?

  Suttree looked at the back of Reese's head and then he just looked out the window.

  Course you can go anywhere you want, said the driver.

  Daggone right you can, said Reese. When ye got the money to do it with. He turned and favored Suttree with a sleazy grin.

  What kind of whiskey you boys want? You want bonded or some real good moonshine?

  Is it real good sure enough?

  Bonded, said Suttree from the back.

  They were going by narrow back streets in the small town suppertime dark, by curtained windowlights where families sat gathered. Suttree rolled down the window and breathed the air all full of blossoms.

  The driver took them up a gravel drive to the back of an old house. A yellow bulb hung burning from the naked night above them. The driver got out and a man came from the door and the two of them went across the yard and behind a garage. When they came back the driver was holding a pint of whiskey down by the side of his leg.

  He got in and palmed the whiskey to Reese. Reese held it to the light and studied the label professionally as he unscrewed the cap. They went back down the driveway with Reese's head thrown back and the bottom of the bottle standing straight up.

  Get ye a drink, he wheezed, poking the bottle over the seat at Suttree.

  Suttree drank and handed it back.

  Reese held the bottle up and eyed it and held it under the driver's chin. Get ye a drink old buddy, he said.

  The driver said he didnt drink on duty.

  They drove out through the small streets and struck the highway, Reese and Suttree passing the bottle back and forth and Reese giving the driver a history of himself no part of which was even vaguely true.

  Say you all never been to the Green Room? said the driver.

  We aint been up here in a long time, said Reese.

  They got some little old gals up here will do anything. They'd as soon suck a peter as look at ye.

  Reese was elbowing the dark of the cab behind him vigorously. You hear that, Sut? he said.

  They went out the highway several miles and turned onto a side-road that had one time been the highway. At the top of the hill stood a squat cinderblock building with neon piping along the roof. The windows were painted black and one of them was broken and fixed back with blocks of wood stovebolted through the holes. There was an iron pole in the drive with a beersign hung from the crosstrees and perhaps half a hundred cars parked in the gravel. The cabdriver switched on the domelight and looked at Reese.