Read Online Wise Blood by Flannery O’Connor - Free Book Online Page B

there, as if by
     an invisible hand, as if, if the hand lifted up, the figure would spring across the
     pool in one leap without the expression on his face changing once.
    The woman came out of the bath house and went to the diving board. She spread her
     arms out and began to bounce, making a big flapping sound with the board. Then suddenly
     she swirled backward and disappeared below the water. Mr. Hazel Motes’s head turned
     very slowly, following her down the pool.
    Enoch got up and went down the path behind the bath house. He came stealthily out
     on the other side and started walking toward Haze. He stayed on the top of the slope,
     moving softly in the grass just off the sidewalk, and making no noise. When he was
     directly behind him, he sat down on the edge of the sidewalk. If his arms had been
     ten feet long, he could have put his hands on Haze’s shoulders. He studied him quietly.
    The woman was climbing out of the pool, chinning herself up on the side. First her
     face appeared, long and cadaverous, with a bandage-like bathing cap coming down almost
     to her eyes, and sharp teeth protruding from her mouth. Then she rose on her hands
     until a large foot and leg came up from behind her and another on the other side and
     she was out, squatting there, panting. She stood up loosely and shook herself, and
     stamped in the water drip-ping off her. She was facing them and she grinned. Enoch
     could see part of Hazel Motes’s face watching the woman. It didn’t grin in return
     but it kept on watching her as she padded over to a spot of sun almost directly under
     where they were sitting. Enoch had to move a little closer to see.
    The woman sat down in the spot of sun and took off her bathing cap. Her hair was short
     and matted and all colors, from deep rust to a greenish yellow. She shook her head
     and then she looked up at Hazel Motes again, grinning through her pointed teeth. She
     stretched herself out in the spot of sun, raising her knees and settling her backbone
     down against the concrete. The two little boys, at the other end of the water, were
     knocking each other’s heads against the side of the pool. She settled herself until
     she was flat against the concrete and then she reached up and pulled the bathing suit
     straps off her shoulders.
    “King Jesus!” Enoch whispered and before he could get his eyes off the woman, Hazel
     Motes had sprung up and was almost to his car. The woman was sitting straight up with
     the suit half off her in front, and Enoch was looking both ways at once.
    He wrenched his attention loose from the woman and darted after Hazel Motes. “Wait
     on me!” he shouted and waved his arms in front of the car which was already rattling
     and starting to go. Hazel Motes cut off the motor. His face behind the windshield
     was sour and frog-like; it looked as if it had a shout closed up in it; it looked
     like one of those closet doors in gangster pictures where someone is tied to a chair
     behind it with a towel in his mouth.
    “Well,” Enoch said, “I declare if it ain’t Hazel Motes. How are you, Hazel?”
    “The guard said I’d find you at the swimming pool,” Hazel Motes said. “He said you
     hid in the bushes and watched the swimming.”
    Enoch blushed. “I allus have admired swimming,” he said. Then he stuck his head farther
     through the window. “You were looking for me?” he exclaimed.
    “That blind man,” Haze said, “that blind man named Hawks—did his child tell you where
     they lived?”
    Enoch didn’t seem to hear. “You came out here special to see me?” he said.
    “Asa Hawks. His child gave you the peeler. Did she tell you where they lived?”
    Enoch eased his head out of the car. He opened the door and climbed in beside Haze.
     For a minute he only looked at him, wetting his lips. Then he whispered, “I got to
     show you something.”
    “I’m looking for those people,” Haze said. “I got to see that man. Did she tell you
     where they