Darla were all astonished when a tiny half-formed baby plopped on the floor like a dead fish.
Darla hadn’t known that her uncle Gideon or one of the tramps had gotten her pregnant. She began to cry and she told them everything. She begged them not to send her back to Uncle Gideon, and Dr. Ames said don’t worry, the only things that man deserved were a vigorous horsewhipping and a long prison term.
Dr. Ames and his wife had a daughter but she had grown up and had her own children and moved away, and now they were very lonely. They looked on Darla as a gift from God. They moved her into their daughter’s old bedroom. They felt bad about what had been done to her and they couldn’t do enough for her. They bought her new clothes and shoes and ribbons for her yellow hair and whatever kind of bright gewgaw a girl twelve going on thirteen might desire. They told everyone in Elwood Darla was the daughter of a distant relative who had died. They said they would like to adopt her legally if it was all right with her and she said yes.
On Sundays, they took her to church. She had a fine singing voice and joined the youth choir.
In September, she enrolled in school. She was in the eighth grade. She felt much older than her classmates and didn’t make any real friends. But she found herself popular because she was so pretty and everyone was eager to sign the cast on her nearly mended arm, and she liked school and studied hard and made good grades.
In December, there was a lynching.
An old white woman named Bathsheba Butler had been found in her house robbed, raped, and stabbed and hacked to death with a pair of gardening shears. Earlier that same day, a colored man named Beau Jack had done some yard work at her house, and he’d been seen trimming some bushes with those very same shears.
Beau Jack was arrested and put in the local jail. That evening a mob formed and took him from the jail and out to the edge of town. They stood him in the back of a pickup truck under an oak tree with a big horizontal limb; Darla found out it wasn’t the first lynching that had happened there.
It seemed like the whole town turned out, and people were acting excited and happy, like it was the Fourth of July and they were waiting for the fireworks. Near the outskirts of the crowd Darla saw the mayor talking to the police chief; they were both laughing and smoking cigarettes. Some kids were playing Pop the Whip.
Crisp brown leaves covered the ground. It was very cold, and it was sleeting, and the sleet made a frying sound on the dead leaves.
The scene was lit up by the headlights of several cars. Beau Jack had his hands tied behind his back. He looked to be about thirty. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and well-muscled. He was naked. He was bleeding from many places. He’d been whipped and beaten, and his right ear and his private parts had been cut off.
He was shaking all over, whether from the cold or fear or the shock of his wounds Darla couldn’t say, but his face as he looked out over the crowd was completely blank. Somebody said: “Dumb nigger don’t even know what’s happening to him,” but Darla understood the blankness.
They put the rope over his neck, and somebody started up the truck. But there had been a lot of rain lately, and the truck only moved a foot or two before it got stuck in the soft ground. Beau Jack stumbled a little but regained his balance. Good natured jeers came from the crowd as they struggled to get the truck moving. The tires spun in the mud. A big fat guy named Donnie Collins unwisely got right behind one of the tires and was splattered head to toe with mud, which caused a lot of laughter. Finally the truck got traction and lurched away, and Beau Jack swung and jerked at the end of the rope for several minutes till he was still. Then people got out their cameras and posed in front of the dangling corpse.
Darla was there with Dr. and Mrs. Ames. Bathsheba Butler had been his patient and the life-long
Darla hadn’t known that her uncle Gideon or one of the tramps had gotten her pregnant. She began to cry and she told them everything. She begged them not to send her back to Uncle Gideon, and Dr. Ames said don’t worry, the only things that man deserved were a vigorous horsewhipping and a long prison term.
Dr. Ames and his wife had a daughter but she had grown up and had her own children and moved away, and now they were very lonely. They looked on Darla as a gift from God. They moved her into their daughter’s old bedroom. They felt bad about what had been done to her and they couldn’t do enough for her. They bought her new clothes and shoes and ribbons for her yellow hair and whatever kind of bright gewgaw a girl twelve going on thirteen might desire. They told everyone in Elwood Darla was the daughter of a distant relative who had died. They said they would like to adopt her legally if it was all right with her and she said yes.
On Sundays, they took her to church. She had a fine singing voice and joined the youth choir.
In September, she enrolled in school. She was in the eighth grade. She felt much older than her classmates and didn’t make any real friends. But she found herself popular because she was so pretty and everyone was eager to sign the cast on her nearly mended arm, and she liked school and studied hard and made good grades.
In December, there was a lynching.
An old white woman named Bathsheba Butler had been found in her house robbed, raped, and stabbed and hacked to death with a pair of gardening shears. Earlier that same day, a colored man named Beau Jack had done some yard work at her house, and he’d been seen trimming some bushes with those very same shears.
Beau Jack was arrested and put in the local jail. That evening a mob formed and took him from the jail and out to the edge of town. They stood him in the back of a pickup truck under an oak tree with a big horizontal limb; Darla found out it wasn’t the first lynching that had happened there.
It seemed like the whole town turned out, and people were acting excited and happy, like it was the Fourth of July and they were waiting for the fireworks. Near the outskirts of the crowd Darla saw the mayor talking to the police chief; they were both laughing and smoking cigarettes. Some kids were playing Pop the Whip.
Crisp brown leaves covered the ground. It was very cold, and it was sleeting, and the sleet made a frying sound on the dead leaves.
The scene was lit up by the headlights of several cars. Beau Jack had his hands tied behind his back. He looked to be about thirty. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and well-muscled. He was naked. He was bleeding from many places. He’d been whipped and beaten, and his right ear and his private parts had been cut off.
He was shaking all over, whether from the cold or fear or the shock of his wounds Darla couldn’t say, but his face as he looked out over the crowd was completely blank. Somebody said: “Dumb nigger don’t even know what’s happening to him,” but Darla understood the blankness.
They put the rope over his neck, and somebody started up the truck. But there had been a lot of rain lately, and the truck only moved a foot or two before it got stuck in the soft ground. Beau Jack stumbled a little but regained his balance. Good natured jeers came from the crowd as they struggled to get the truck moving. The tires spun in the mud. A big fat guy named Donnie Collins unwisely got right behind one of the tires and was splattered head to toe with mud, which caused a lot of laughter. Finally the truck got traction and lurched away, and Beau Jack swung and jerked at the end of the rope for several minutes till he was still. Then people got out their cameras and posed in front of the dangling corpse.
Darla was there with Dr. and Mrs. Ames. Bathsheba Butler had been his patient and the life-long
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