Read Online Cast the First Stone by Chester Himes - Free Book Online Page A

said.
    “He’s very impertinent, too,” Warren said.
    “All right, all right, all right, all right,” the deputy said, beginning to shake all over. “All right, all right, all right. Refusing to work. Put him in the hole. Put him in the hole.” He had a rapid, brittle voice. All the while he talked his head kept bobbing up and down.
    “I’m not refusing to work,” I argued. “I’ll do what I can. I’m just not able.”
    “We’ll see about it in the morning. Take him back, take him back, take him back!” He was very impatient.
    I looked around at Warren. “You hit me,” I said, biting my lips. I was going back to the hole anyway. I just may as well bust him one, I thought. I kept biting my lips, trying to get up enough nerve to sock him one. But it wouldn’t come.
    “Watch out, watch out, watch out he doesn’t hit you again,” the deputy said.
    Kish took me by the arm and pushed me through the back door into a small dressing room. There was a bunk against the concrete wall, where he slept. He handed me a pair of overalls and told me to undress. The other two fellows were sitting on the bench waiting for me. They’d already put on their overalls. I stripped naked and put on mine. I could hear Warren still talking to the deputy. But I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
    “The dirty son of a bitch,” I muttered.
    “He hit you?” Glass asked. I nodded. “Wipe that blood off your lips,” he said. I wiped the back of my hand across my mouth. My lips were swelling. The other fellow giggled. He was a little simple-minded.
    Across the room was a heavy barred door. Behind that was a door of solid steel. Kish opened both doors and motioned us to enter. We walked forward into the hole. It was completely black inside. Kish snapped on the lights.
    Inside there was a miniature cell block made of solid steel. It sat in the center of the floor. The cells, six on each side, faced outwards toward the thick, windowless walls. It was very cold and damp. My teeth began to chatter immediately. I felt my hands getting numb.
    “Put us all together,” Glass asked Kish.
    “You all want to cell together?” Kish asked.
    “I want to cell with him,” Wilkerson said, pointing to Glass. I didn’t answer.
    Kish put the three of us in the last cell, down on the North side. He locked the cell door. There was a steel strait jacket built to the inside of the door. We listened to Kish’s footsteps on the concrete floor. Then we heard the outer doors being locked. The lights were turned out. It was so dark we couldn’t see one another’s eyes.
    “What you punks in for?” The voice sounded as if it came from the other side. It had a muffled note. We didn’t answer. I could hear myself breathe.
    “Who’s a punk?” Glass shouted. It came so unexpectedly I jumped.
    “Aw, I didn’t mean no harm, buddy.” It was the laconic, indifferent voice of an old-timer. “You know I didn’t mean no harm. Got a cigarette?”
    For a time none of us replied. Finally Glass said, “No.”
    “Got a cigarette paper?”
    “No.”
    “Got a match?”
    “No. We haven’t got a thing, buddy.”
    “Go to hell then you goddamn punk. You stinking schmo. You fat gunsel.” The voice was still laconic, indifferent, unraised. I felt like laughing.
    “Aw, shut up, you screwball,” Glass said. “You’re stir-simple.”
    “Your mother’s a screwball. Your sister is stir-simple.”
    This time none of us replied. For a long time it was silent in the hole. “Ain’t you even got a butt?”
    “Kiss something, rat!” Glass yelled. I wondered why he sounded so vehement.
    “Aw, shut up, you fat louse. I bet that’s you doing all the talking. I’ll catch you out there when I empty my bucket tomorrow morning and kick your ass out your nose.”
    Glass got agitated. “I’ll meet you!” he shouted, jumping around. “I’ll fight you! I’m not scared of you!”
    He stepped on my foot and I said, “Goddammit, wait and fight him in the