don ’ t have no truck with him no more says he can go starve for all she cares she ’ s fed up ever since the time he made her sit out on a hillside for three whole days rain and everything because he said she ’ d see God and she didn ’ t see nothin and in fact she like to die from hunger nothin but berries and his boys too they ain ’ t so bright neither but at least they come to help him out with his damn boat so it ain ’ t just the two of us thank God for that and it ain ’ t no goddamn fishin boat he wants to put up neither in fact it ’ s the biggest damn thing I ever heard of and for weeks wee\s I ’ m tellin you we ain ’ t doin nothin but cuttin down pine trees and haulin them out to his field which is really pretty high up a hill and my God that ’ s work lemm e tell you and my wife she sighs and says I am really crazy r-e-a-14-y crazy and her four months with a child and tryin to do my work and hers too and still when I come home from haulin timbers around all day she ’ s got enough left to rub my shoulders and the small of my back and fix a hot meal her long black hair pulled to a knot behind her head and hangin marvelously down her back her eyes gentle but very tired my God and I says to my brother I says “ look I got a lotta work to do buddy you ’ ll have to finish this idiot thing yourself I wanna help you all I can you know that but ” and he looks off and he says “ it don ’ t matter none your work ” and I says “ the hell it don ’ t how you think me and my wife we ’ re gonna eat I mean where do you think this food comes from you been puttin away man ? you can ’ t eat this goddamn boat out here ready to rot in that bastard sun ” and he just sighs long and says “ no it just don ’ t matter ” and he sits him down on a rock kinda tired like and stares off and looks like he might even for God ’ s sake cry and so I go back to bringin wood up to him and he ’ s already started on the keel and frame God knows how he ever found out to build a damn boat lost in his fog where he is Lord he was twenty when I was born and the first thing I remember was havin to lead him around so he didn ’ t get kicked by a damn mule him who couldn ’ t never do nothin in a normal way just a huge oversize fuzzyface boy so anyway I take to gettin up a few hours earlier ever day to do my farmin my wife apt to lose the baby if she should keep pullin around like she was doin then I go to work on the boat until sundown and on and on the days hot and dry and my wife keepin good food in me or else I ’ d of dropped sure and no matter what I say to try and get out of it my brother he says “ you come and help now the rest don ’ t matter ” and we just keep hammerin away and my God the damn thing is big enough for a hundred people and at least I think at least it ’ s a place to live and not too bad at that at least it ’ s good for somethin but my wife she just sighs and says no good will come of it and runs her hands through my hair but she don ’ t ask me to stop helpin no more because she knows it won ’ t do no good and she ’ s kinda turned into herself now these days and gettin herself all ready and still we keep workin on that damn thing that damn boat and the days pass and my brother he says we gotta work harder we ain ’ t got much time and from time to time he gets a coupla neighbors to come over and give a hand them sucked in by the size and the novelty of the thing makin jokes some but they don ’ t stay around more than a day or two and they go away shakin their heads and swearin under their breath and disgusted they got weaseled into the thing in the first place and me I only get about half my place planted and sec to my stock as much as I can my wife she takes more care of them than I can but at least we won ’ t starve we say if we just get some rain and finally we get the damn thing done all finished by God and we cover it in and out with pitch and put a kinda fancy roof
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