PARTISAN REVIEW
The woman sat down in the spot of sun and took off her bathing
cap. Her hair was short and matted and all sorts of colors, from deep
rust to a polluted lemon yellow. She shook her head and then she
looked up at Hazel Weaver 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, Haze Weaver 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 Weaver.
"Wait on me!" he shouted and waved
his
arms in front of the
car which was already rattling and starting to go. Hazel Weaver
cut off the motor. His face behind the windshield was sour and frog–
like; it looked like it had a shout closed up in it, it looked like one
of those closet doors in gangster pictures where there is somebody
tied to a chair behind it with a towel in his mouth.
"Well," Enoch said, "I declare if it ain't Hazel Weaver. How
are you, Hazel?"
"The guard said I'd find you at the swimming pool," Hazel
Weaver said. "He said you hid in the bushes and watched the swim–
ing."
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.
"Those people," Haze said, "those people named Moats-did
she tell you where they lived?"
Enoch didn't seem to hear. "You came out here special to see
me?" he said.
"Asa and Sabbath Moats-she gave you the peeler. Did she
tell you where they lived?"
Enoch eased his head out 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."
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