Half of Paradise

“Shut your mouth. Who’s seen Billy Jo and Jeffry?”

No one answered.

“God damn you, where are they?”

“I ain’t seen them since it started raining,” Daddy Claxton said.

“They was down in the ditch. You ain’t blind. What happened to them?” Evans said.

“They could have got mixed up in another gang,” Daddy Claxton said.

“Somebody here saw them. I want to know where they are.”

“Go talk to a wall,” LeBlanc said.

“I’m going to send you back to the box for that.”

“You fat swine.”

Evans struck him across the mouth with the heel of his hand.

“I’ll use my pistol barrel the next time you say it,” he said.

“It don’t matter what you do. You ain’t got long.”

There was a smear of red across LeBlanc’s lips. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and spit.

“You got dirty hands,” he said.

Evans hit him again, this time across the nose.

“Get in the truck, you sonofabitch. Get moving, every one of you.”

“I know how I’m going to do it. It’s going to hurt,” LeBlanc said.

“Move! I’ll get straight with you later.”

They walked across the clearing through the mud and the rain and climbed in the back of the truck. LeBlanc got in and looked at Evans.

“You seen a hog cut before?” he said.

“You’ll pay through the ass for this,” Evans said, and slammed the doors shut and snapped the padlock.

There was no light inside the truck. The men sat on the benches in their wet clothes and listened to the rain beat on the roof. They could hear Evans speaking to the captain outside.

“I’m missing two,” Evans said.

“Where are they?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they got in with another gang.”

“How long have they been gone?”

“I didn’t miss them till I ordered the others out of the ditch.”

“Can’t you keep watch over seven men without losing somebody?”

“There was a dozen guys down there that didn’t belong to my gang. I couldn’t tell which ones was mine.”