Georgia Boy by Erskine Caldwell Page B

home?”
    “Pa’s taking a nap on the back porch,” I told her. “I’ll go tell him.”
    “Wait a second!” she said excitedly, running down the steps and grabbing me by the arm. “You show me where he is. That’ll be a lot better.”
    “What do you want to see him about?” I asked, wondering who she was if she really knew my old man. “Are you looking for somebody’s house?”
    “Never mind, sonny,” she smiled. “You take me to him.”
    We walked around the side of the house and went through the gate into the backyard. Every time the girl took a step a big wave of perfume blew off her and her stockings began sagging under her knees. My old man was sound asleep with his mouth hanging open and the back of his head resting on the top step. He always sprawled out that way when he was sleeping in the sun, because he said it was the only way he could feel comfortable while he dozed. I could see Handsome standing in the kitchen and looking out at us through the screen door while he ate the scrapple from the skillet.
    The girl put down her suitcase, pulled her stockings up under her garters, and tiptoed to where my old man was sprawled over the steps. Then she got down beside him and put both hands over his eyes. I could see Handsome stop eating just when he had raised a spoonful of scrapple halfway to his mouth.
    “Guess who!” the girl cried.
    My old man jumped sort of sidewise, the way he generally did when Ma woke him up when he wasn’t expecting it. He didn’t leap clear off the steps though, because almost as soon as he sat up, the girl pushed his head back and kept him from seeing anything at all. I could see his nose flare open and shut like a hound sniffing a coon up a tree when he got a whiff of the perfume.
    “Guess who!” she said again, laughing out loud.
    “I’ll bet it ain’t Martha,” Pa said, feeling her arms all the way up to her elbows.
    “Guess again!” she said, teasing him.
    My old man flung her hands away and sat up wild-eyed.
    “Well, I’ll be dogged!” my old man said. “Who in the world are you?”
    The girl got up from the steps, still laughing, and went for her suitcase. While all three of us watched to see what she was going to do, she opened the lid and took out an armful of brand new neckties. She had more ties than a store.
    Pa rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and took a good look at the girl while she was bending over the suitcase.
    “This would look wonderful on you,” she said, picking out a tie made of bright green and yellow cloth. She went over to where he sat and looped it around his neck. “It was made for you!”
    “For me?” Pa said, looking up and sniffing the perfume that floated all around her.
    “Of course,” she said, turning her head sideways and taking a good look at Pa and the tie. “It couldn’t suit you better.”
    “Lady,” Pa told her, “I don’t know what you’re up to, but whatever it is, you’re wasting your time at it. I ain’t got no more use for a necktie than a pig has with a sidesaddle.”
    “But it’s such a beautiful tie,” she said, dropping the armful of ties into her suitcase and coming up closer to my old man. “It just suits your complexion.”
    She sat down close beside him on the step and began tying a knot in the tie. They sat there beside each other until my old man’s face turned red all over. The perfume had drifted all over the place by that time.
    “Well, what do you know about that!” Pa said, looking as though he didn’t know what he was saying. “Who’d have ever thought a necktie would’ve suited my complexion!”
    “Let’s see you in a mirror,” she told him, patting the tie against his chest. “When you look at yourself in a mirror, you’ll know you can’t get along without that tie. Why, it’s perfect on you!”
    My old man cut his eyes around and glanced up the street towards Mrs. Howard’s house on the corner.
    “There’s a mirror inside,” he said, talking in a low voice as