Read I Will Send Rain for Free Online Page B

have a bowl of chili. And more coffee.”
    â€œYou ever serve rabbit here, Jeanette?” Styron asked. His voice came out too high, like a boy’s, and he reached quickly for his coffee.
    Jack shook his head. “Don’t you mind him.”
    â€œWell, no, Mr. Styron, no, we don’t. You don’t see something you like?” She cocked her hip and Jack felt sad for her then, for the gesture of her younger hopeful self.
    â€œJust thinking about our current abundance is all,” Styron said stiffly.
    â€œPlenty of people skinning and eating what they catch these days,” Jeanette said, nodding hello to the fellows who walked in. “Just not sure they want to see it on the menu.” She walked away calling back, “I’ll get that chili to you, Mayor.”
    â€œOut with it,” Jack said to Styron.
    â€œOkay. People are angry about the drought, and here are these little animals multiplying, hopping around destroying gardens and what little crops are growing.”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œAnd people are struggling. Rabbits are meat.”
    â€œStyron—”
    â€œAn event. A roundup.”
    â€œA roundup?”
    â€œWe round up all the rabbits. Pen them in.”
    â€œWe?”
    â€œDivide up the meat at the end. Make it festive. It’ll be a sporting event. A hunt.”
    â€œIt’s not a hunt if they’re in a pen.” Jack was already unsettled by the idea.
    Jeanette returned with coffee and a small chipped bowl of chili.
    â€œDon’t worry, I’m not listening,” she said.
    As Jeanette walked away, Jack leaned in and lowered his voice. “You’re talking about a bloodbath.”
    â€œRodents,” Styron said.
    â€œHares,” Jack said.
    â€œPests. Whatever they are. Besides, it’s not a big deal for these folks to kill animals.”
    â€œJesus, Styron.”
    Styron lifted his hands in defense. “I bet people would come from all over the county for it. All’s I’m saying.”
    Even though he usually drank it black, Jack dropped a sugar cube into his coffee. He pushed the chili away, the smell turning his stomach.
    And then there she was. Annie Bell. Walking down First in a blue dress and matching hat, her eyes cast down but her pace brisk, a paper sack in her arm. As she neared Ruth’s, she looked in and caught Jack staring. With a curious tilt of her head, she smiled back.
    â€œI’ll see you back at the office,” he said to Styron, surprising himself as he sprang up from the table.
    â€œWait, what? What about the rabbits?”
    Jack clumsily counted coins and spilled them onto the table.
    â€œDo whatever you want.”
    *   *   *
    A NNIE NEEDED WHITE thread, pins, lard, and cornmeal. Or so she’d told Samuel. She did need those things, but not today, not enough to make a separate trip into town. But standing in her hot kitchen, having swept the floorboards again, and put the bread to rise and chased grasshoppers from the windowsill, and snapped the beans, she thought about the Woodrows on a road to where it was green. Sure, there was no perfect life waiting for them in the West. She imagined them foraging for grubs and weeds in a highway ditch to fill their bellies on the way. But there had to be relief in leaving the drought behind. She wiped the hair from her face and felt a soft itchy flutter in her chest, like the beating wings of moths trapped in a lantern. I must get out, she thought. And once she had thought it, she couldn’t shake it. She waited until Samuel had finished his lunch.
    â€œDo you need anything while I’m out?” she asked, trying to slow her breath.
    â€œI’m all right for now,” he said. He licked peanut butter from his fingertips. “Oh, you know what? I need some stamps. If you could swing by the post office. You might ask after Edward’s wife. Her joints are bad again.” He pushed away from the