480
PARTISAN REVIEW
tune sat there, but from his place at the side-and abruptly, for no
reason, with no explanation, jerk his head at Mary Fortune and say,
"Come with me," and leave the room, unfastening his belt as he
went. A look that was completely foreign to the child's face would
appear on it. The old man could not define the look but it infuriated
him.
It
was a look that was part terror and part respect and part
something else, something very like cooperation. This look would ap–
pear on her face and she would get up and follow Pitts out. They
would get in his truck and drive down the road out of earshot, where
he would beat her.
Mr. Fortune knew for a fact that he beat her because he had
followed them in his car and had seen it happen. He had watched
from behind a boulder about a hundred feet away while the child
clung to a pine tree and Pitts, as methodically as if he were whack–
ing a bush with a sling blade, beat her around the ankles with his
belt. All she had done was jump up and down as
if
she were standing
on a hot stove and make a whimpering noise like a dog that was
being peppered. Pitts had kept at it for about three minutes and then
he had turned, without a word, and got back in his truck and left
her there, and she had slid down under the tree and taken both feet
in her hands and rocked back and forth. The old man had crept
forward to catch her. Her face was contorted into a puzzle of small
red lumps and her nose and eyes were running. He sprang on her
and sputtered, "Why didn't you hit him back? Where's your spirit?
Do you think I'd a let him beat me!"
She had jumped up and started backing away from him with
her jaw stuck out. "Nobody beat me," she said.
"Didn't 1 see it with my own eyes?" he exploded.
"Nobody is here and nobody beat me," she said. "Nobody's
ever beat me in my life and
if
anybody did, I'd kill him. You can
see for yourself nobody is here."
"Do you call me a liar or a blindman!" he shouted. "1 saw
him
with my own two eyes and you never did a thing but let him do
it, you never did a thing but hang onto that tree and dance up and
down a little and blubber and if it had been me, I'd a swung my
fist in his face and ..."
"Nobody was here and nobody beat me and if anybody did
I'd kill
him!"
she yelled and then turned and dashed off through
the woods.
