Read The Gardener's Son for Free Online Page A

sitting and fetches up the jar and holds it to the light and passes it on. They drink. Pinky takes the potato with the knife stuck in it and cuts the remaining piece in two and passes one slice to McEvoy and eats the other and takes a new potato from the bib of his overalls and falls to peeling it. He shakes his head slowly.
    P INKY Lord dont they hate whiskey over to that mill.
    F IRST M AN They hate for you to drink it. That aint sayin they wont take a drink their own selves.
    P INKY The old man would by god not take one.
    F IRST M AN No. You right about that.
    P INKY I guarangoddamntee ye.
    F IRST M AN What about James?
    P INKY That son of a bitch will take a drink.
    The jar comes around to the second man. He takes it and shakes his head.
    S ECOND M AN Never thought I’d live to see the day. Niggers runnin crazy killin folks. Right in ye own county.
    He drinks.
    P INKY Dont get him started on the niggers, for God’s sake.
    Second man slices potato and eats and passes the jar on to the third man. Third man takes jar.
    T HIRD M AN Thing about James. He never did want to put the jam on the lower shelf where the little man could get some.
    F IRST M AN Get ye a little old drink there, Housecat.
    T HIRD M AN Theys plenty of rhubarb all around the farm. And another little drink wont do us any harm.
    Exterior. Night. Robert McEvoy drunk staggering through a field.
    McEvoy on a narrow country road, reeling along on his crutch. He pauses to rest, leaning against a barn. He listens to the silence. A few dogs bark in the distance. He goes on. There is a horse leaning over a fence and he and the horse look at each other and McEvoy moves on.
    McEvoy hobbling up the road to Graniteville. He has passed a few houses and now several dogs have come into the road behind him and circle to pick up his scent and howl. They are seen by the light of a lamp in the window and their hackles are up and they howl after McEvoy who wobbles on into the darkness.
    Exterior. Dawn, sound of the mill bell. People shuffling through the semi-darkness toward the mill. The mill coming to life.
    Dawn, light coming in an old abandoned shed. McEvoy waking. Sound of the second mill bell. McEvoy standing disheveled in the light from the window while the bell tolls. When it is done he puts his cap on and takes up his crutch.
    Exterior. Mill. The stockholders arriving at the mill.
    Interior. Mill. Patrick McEvoy comes down the aisle and takes his place at his machine. The other workers watch him. He looks haggard and somewhat grim. The overseer comes to him and puts his hand on his shoulder.
    O VERSEER Pat, we didnt need for you to come in today. McEvoy is doggedly setting up his machine.
    O VERSEER Did you know your boy was back?
    O VERSEER He was up at the cemetery yesterday where they was preparin your missus’ restin place and he come up there and run the ... run the niggers off with a pistol. Told em not to dig no more that she wasnt to be buried there.
    Patrick looks up at the man and goes back to his work.
    O VERSEER I just wanted to tell ye. I wish you could see him and talk to him fore he gets hisself in trouble.
    M R M C E VOY I dont know where to hunt him at. He went to the house they said and he run everbody off up there. I dont know what to tell ye.
    Robert McEvoy on the road toward the mill. The mill against the sky in the background. McEvoy pauses, then he goes on again.
    Interior. Mill office boardroom. The boardroom is laid out for a banquet with long tables and china. James Gregg looks over the boardroom. He checks the watch in his waistcoat and he takes a cigar from his pocket and bites off the end and lights it.
    Interior. Mill. Bobby clumping down the aisle past the machinery and the workers. They watch him but he doesnt watch back.
    Interior. Mill office. James Gregg entering his office and looking through papers at his desk. The sound of the mill machinery is muted in these office scenes and very loud in the mill scenes.
    Robert McEvoy enters