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long while I found myself pressing down hard on her and yelling
something, but I can’t remember what it was. I felt pain in my
head and realized that she was pulling my hair. She was yelling too,
‘You done, Easy! It’s over…’
    ‘No,’
I cried.
    ‘Shhhh,
baby, it’s okay. You too excited to know you come.’
    When I
came to myself and realised what I’d done I turned away from
her.
    ‘That’s
okay,’ she whispered, rubbing my butt with her palm. ‘You
already loved me enough, baby. Sleep now.’ She was quivering
against my back as I fell asleep.

    Mouse and
I were standing in the swamp and mosquitoes were all over me. My
crotch was the worst bit, and I scratched until it was raw. Mouse
told me that I was going to scratch it right off, then he started
laughing.
    ‘If
you stop scratchin’,’ he said, ‘they stop bitin’
you, fool!’
    The wind
was blowing in a loud rush all around. I turned to see Momma Jo
making the wind with her breathing. She came up to me like a big
cloud, and made like to kiss me but instead she breathed down my
throat. It was a powerful smell but I couldn’t pull away from
her — she was too strong.
    I was
pushed to the ground. She was so heavy that I could hear my bones
snap, one at a time. At every crack Ernestine moaned.
    Momma came
up with my butcher’s knife. I knew she was going to cut off my
head to make her young again. I wanted to yell for Mouse to come save
me but I couldn’t catch my wind without her breath in me.

    We were
all at the dinner table. Daddy and my mother and two little girls
that I had never seen. A big gray stallion was heaped on the table.
    It had
been roasted with potatoes and carrots, and it smelled like Momma
Jo’s pussy. My mother (who was a big woman) stood up and came
toward me. All I could see was yards and yards of her gray plaid
dress coming at me like a freighter coming into the Gulf.

    ‘Easy!
Easy!’ Mouse was whispering in my ear. ‘Wake up, man! We
gotta go! Com’on!’
    I was sick
in my heart. I moaned out loud, and Mouse said, ‘Shut up. You
gonna wake’er.’
    Mouse
pulled me by the arm but I was too weak to move. I could see that he
was wearing a long gray coat.
    ‘Lemme ‘lone,’ I said.
    ‘Easy, this ain’t no time t’play.’
    ‘Raymond?’ Her voice came from somewhere in the dark
room. ‘Raymond, that you?’
    ‘Yeah, Jo. I come t’collect Easy.’
    ‘What time is it?’
    ‘It’s still dark.’
    ‘When you be back?’
    ‘I dunno. In a few days, or less.’
    ‘What you need Easy for?’ She said it like a challenge.
    ‘He my friend, Jo, like I tole you.’
    ‘Well. You go on out an’ I sen’im in a minute.’
    Mouse
leaned dose to me and smiled his golden smile. He winked, then he was
gone out the door.
    A match
struck and Momma Jo was there lighting an oil lantern. Shadows jumped
around the room and I wondered if it was really night outside. She
was just as tall but she looked different when she was naked. Her
breasts made her look more human, they didn’t stick straight
out anymore but they didn’t sag very much either. The hard
nipples curved upward like blunted black barbs on thornbush.
    ‘Mo’nin’,
Easy,’ she said gently. ‘How you?’ There was a moan
and the rustling of blankets and I could see Ernestine laying on the
pillows from where Momma Jo came; Clifton was nowhere to be seen.
    Momma
tossed a blanket over the girl and wrapped another one around her own
shoulders. She asked me to sit down there on the floor, but I shook
my head and picked up my pants.
    She stood
close to me while I dressed, letting her shoulders sag down so she
was dose to my height. ‘You gonna come back wit’ Raymond,
baby?’
    ‘No, I don’t think so.’
    ‘Why not?’
    ‘Well,
I gotta job you know, an’ we jes’ gonna say hi to his
fam’ly, then we gone.’
    ‘Raymond
say he comin’ back.’
    ‘I
ain’t got the time.’ I looked her in the face for a
second. Her eyes were full of sympathy or pity; I