“His head’s burnt, too,” Billy Jo said.
“Who’s got some grease?” Toussaint said.
“There’s some around the pipes in the latrine.”
“Go get it.”
“I ain’t going to get all dirty,” Jeffry said.
“Get some grease, Billy Jo.”
“I just got cleaned up.”
“I’ll get it,” Brother Samuel said.
“He must have tried to bust the box open with his head,” Daddy Claxton said.
LeBlanc had his hand over his eyes. He took it away and blinked at the ceiling. The pupils were small black dots.
“He can’t see nothing,” Jeffry said.
“He ain’t seen light for two days,” Toussaint said.
“I know how I’m going to do it,” LeBlanc said. “I figured it out. I kept seeing his face like it was painted inside the lid. I thought of all the ways I could do it to him, and then I decided.”
“How you going to do it?” Jeffry said.
“I got it figured.”
“Get him undressed,” Toussaint said.
Avery took off his shirt and trousers, and threw them on the floor. LeBlanc’s underclothes were yellow and foul.
“He’ll stink up everything in here,” Benoit said.
“Shut up,” Avery said.
“Here’s the grease. There ain’t much,” Brother Samuel said.
“Put it on his hands and face.”
Brother Samuel spread it thinly over the blistered swellings.
“What are you doing?” LeBlanc said.
“It will take the heat out of them burns,” Samuel said.
“How you going to get Evans?” Jeffry said.
“You’ll find out when the time comes.”
“Let’s strip him down and cover him up,” Toussaint said.
They finished undressing him and covered him with the sheet. His hands lay on top of the sheet, taut like claws and black from the grease.
“We’ll bring you some supper from the dining hall tonight,” Brother Samuel said. “When you got some rest and something to eat we’ll get you a shower. You can go on sick call tomorrow.”
“I ain’t going on sick call.”