Half of Paradise

The other men had stopped work to watch. LeBlanc’s eyes shone hotly at Evans. The scars and the holes where his cuts had been stitched were pink against his face.

“You’re starting off your stretch the wrong way,” Evans said.

“Was you ever in the army? You look like the kind they got in the stockade,” LeBlanc said.

“Cool down,” Avery said.

“You always got a uniform and a gun, and sometimes they let you carry a stick to bust somebody’s ribs with. I seen them like you in the stockade.”

“You want to spend your first day in detention?”

The trusty started to move off with the water barrel.

“Come back here,” LeBlanc said. He grabbed the water barrel and pulled the lid off. “Look at it. It’s swamp water.”

“That water come out of a tap,” Evans said.

“You try it.”

“You’re talking yourself right into detention.”

“Drink it,” LeBlanc said. He held the barrel up at Evans. “Drink it, you fat swine. Drink it till your fat belly is full of worms.”

“God damn you. Get up here. I’m going to make you sweat your ass off for that.”

“You filthy swine.” LeBlanc hurled the barrel at Evans’ head. The water whirled out in a shower over the men.

Evans had his pistol in his hand and was blowing his whistle. Two guards came running from further down the ditch. The inmates had scattered along the canal when Evans drew his weapon. Picks

and shovels were strewn over the ground. The wheelbarrow lay overturned on a mound of dirt.

“Bring him up here,” Evans said.

The guards slid down the side of the ditch and came towards LeBlanc. He stepped back and raised his pick over his shoulder. They stopped and one of them, a lean rough-skinned man named Rainack, drew his revolver and cocked the hammer and aimed it at LeBlanc’s head.

“I won’t miss,” he said.

“For God’s sake, put it down, LeBlanc,” Avery said.

“It’s three to one, and you ain’t got but one swing with that pick,” Evans said.

“Come closer and I’ll pin you to the ground,” LeBlanc said.

“Quit while you got a chance,” the other guard said.

“I seen your kind in the stockade. They know how to use a billy club real good. They know how to jab you where it hurts and it don’t show.”

“Let go of the pick.”

“They’ve got you. Put it down,” Avery said. “You can’t beat them like this. LeBlanc, listen to me. For God’s sake. He means what he says. He’ll kill you.”

“I ain’t waiting much longer,” the guard named Rainack said. “A few more seconds and you’re a dead man.”

Avery broke towards LeBlanc in an attempt to grab the pick. Toussaint dove into his body and dragged him against the wall of the ditch and held him there. Avery fought to get loose, saying, “He’s sick, he was in the war and his mind’s not right, don’t you understand, he should be in a hospital, you can’t shoot him down, Evans, he doesn’t know what he’s doing, he thinks you’re somebody in a stockade—”

“Be still,” Toussaint said.

“Make your play one way or another,” Rainack said.