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The N.C. Essay
Fiction:
Story
Hour
The reason the trees all died
around the courthouse was on
account of Eljay. Eljay was a
nigger that went up one time and
sawed the dead limbs off the live
oaks, only he sawed too much. He
also forgot to spray the aborviate
hedge, and it is full of worms. The
tree trunks are still standing
around for no good reason wiQi
their dead limbs sticking up in
the air like amputees.
The whole town is backwards
like that. No wonder they moved
the county seat away from
Connelly Springs to Morganton.
Court trials don’t amount to a row
of beans anymore: a lawsuit once
a year whether somebody’s
bullpen is astraddle somebody
else’s boundary or not; Red
Circle Stores or Harmony Hard
ware work up a shoplift or a non
payment now and then. When
Connelly Springs was still a
county seat and had a circuit
court judge once a month instead
of just a justice-of-the^>eace, it
was different. There was a lively
murder trial once over a farmer
that stove in his own field hand’s
head, with a loy. But that is long
forgotten and now hardly
anybody even remembers how it
turned out. All Jimbob went to
the courthouse for anymore was
story hour.
Whenever Jimbob passed
through Uie courthouse founds
he thought about wartime on TV
and woidd rather be watching it
than going to story hour. The
dead Uve oaks with their limbs
cut off reminded him of a Marine
on TV that stepped on a booby
trap and was interviewed. He
would collect over 80 per cent
disability from the V.A. and was
set for life. The only reason
Jimbob went to story hour in the
first place was his momma made
him.
“AUrightsir. No story hour. No
TV. You can just take a restful
siesta for yourself.”
“No thanks,” said Jimbob. “A
nap is worse than story hour.”
The astronauts were going to
the moon again and if fteir
spacecraft happened to blow up
on TV (so what, we were ahead of
the Russians) he would hate like
the dickens to miss it. He figured
he was already missing the blast
off on account of being on his way
to story hour.
People said the coiu*thouse was
going to rack and ruin, and
Jimbob could see where they
were right. Weeds grew up out of
the flagstone steps. The whole
front lawn was more crabgrass
and dandelions than any&ing.
That was Eljay’s fault, the
janitor. He was already asleep by
3 p.m. when Jimbob came by.
Stretched out on a warped closet
door somebody had hired him to
plane down, on two sawhorses.
His tin cup was on a watch chain
attached to one strap of his
overalls dangling down swinging
under the door, empty. He always
carried his cup on a chain so he
wouldn’t lose it. In case
somebody offered him a drink.
Naturally he could not drink out
of the same bottle as a white
man.
Connelly Springs may be dry,
but the next county is not and
there are more bootleggers
around town than you can sh^e a
stick at. Jimbob saw an empty
pint bottle on the door with Eljay.
Bootleggers will sell to niggers,
anybody. Eljay was known to be
drunk half the time and asleep
the other half. Now he was both.
(Eljay’s only sober memories
were when they let him be bailiff
and nm for Cokes for the jury and
take up spittoons after a trid. He
was die only nigger bailiff in
North Carolina. TTien liiey went
and changed the county seat to
Morganton, and Connelly Springs
ended up with only a justice-of-
the-peace. So Eljay gave up
trying and took to (kink.)
Jimbob stepped on into the
courthouse out of the heat. There
sat Miss Poindexter in the
judge’s seat, as per usual.
Miss Poindexter read. They put
her in charge of the library since
she went and wore a NEVER
button and got out of school
teaching. All the library was was
a closet next to the jury box. It
was full of Little Colonels and
Life and old back issues of
Kiwanis Magazines. Also a stack
of half-burnt hymnals when the
dierry Log church caught fire
and they bought new ones. There
was a stack of Perry Masons, too,
but Miss P would not allow
anybody under fifth grade to read
them. Jimbob would not have
been cau^t dead in the lilx-ary
except his momma made him.
His momma felt sorry for Miss
Poindexter. Miss Poindexter was
peculiar and never got married.
The only thing anybody could
think of for a not-too-bright and
notmarried lady to do was teach
school, so she did it. Jimbob had
her himself in second grade. She
was a stretched-out tj^ woman
on the order of a telephone pole.
Her folks were all tall people, and
she took after them. Her teeth
were nice and her own, but big.
She had never in her life dipp^
snuff which left them whiter than
most. She always tucked her ears
up inside her tight hair or where
you never saw them. She had
little-bitty eyes and glasses.
Jimtxib didn’t know if she never
got married because she was
peculiar or she was peculiar
because she never got married.
When Miss Poindexter took to
school teaching, Jimbob’s
momma said, “I do believe that
woman’s found her niche in life at
last.” But if you asked Jimbob,
she was no genius at
schoolteaching. He half the time
stuck an Action Comics in his
geography when he had her, and
^e never knew the difference.
He did memorize his time-tables
off Miss Poindexter - or was it
some substitutte from Valdese?-
for Miss P was a lot out with
heart trouble and the heat. Tliat
was before they integrated. And
Miss Poindexter switched her
cameo she used to wear for a
NEVER button.
A long time ago, about World
War n, nearly every nigger in
ConneUy Springs went to Hickory
to work at Wright’s until all that
was left was one black family in
the whole county. ITiat was Eljay
and his woman Pearl and they
weren’t even married. Pearl used
to take in washing at a penny-a-
piece (be it sheet or han-
derchief), so naturally the
women aU sent sheets till she got
smart and charged a nickel. They
had this little girl, Trellis.
Jimbob doubted if Trellis ever
saw the insides of a schoolhouse
till integration came along. They
sent a marshal aU the way down
from Asheville just to put Trellis
in school.
The marshal had to sit in a
teeny-weeny grade seat like
Trellis, and not smoke.
What Miss Poindexter decided
to do was turn her backside on
Trellis and the Law of the I^d
both. Jimbob was in second grade
himself, and saw her do it. She
wouldn’t teach Trellis how to
spell cat. And pinned on a
NEVER button where her cameo
used to be, for good measure.
The whole town said she was a
mighty plucky female to buck the
government like that. Jimbob’s
momma said she put the KKK to
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