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PARTISAN REVIEW
speech off in a hurry, airmail. I'd just run out of postage stamps.
HENRY:
Man, you're crazy.
JESSE :
Crazy? What's crazy about sending Marianne out to post a
manuscript?
HENRY:
Don't you know what's going on around here? Do you live
here in this neighborhood, or someplace up in the clouds? Don't you
know that no Negro, male or female, with a bit of sense, that is,
would dare go to Suttonville after dark, for anything-let alone pos–
tage stamps?
JESSE:
No, I didn't know that.. ..
HENRY:
Well, you just listen to me and I'll tell you.
H e stoops down for the bottle and then sets it agam on the
floor.
You know, Jesse, that what you've told me has upset me so that I
don't think I'll be able to drink any more of your sour mash. I'm
that worried.
JESSE:
For God's sake, Henry, what's so special about the store in
Suttonville?
HENRY:
Here is the information that you as a grown man were sup–
posed to have had before you sent Marianne off on your errand:
About two weeks ago, a widow, a white woman, Mrs. Parks, was
raped down Suttonville way. And by a Negro. By a no-good, loafing
Negro, Smiley Pete. And of course a committee was formed to have
a lynching party, and of course Sam Hollis didn't want them to have
that lynching party, though none of us had a good word to say for
Smiley Pete. And Sam smuggled him out of the county, but he's not
yet gotten him out of the state. That's why Sam Hollis looks so
anxious these days. He's got plenty on his mind.
JESSE:
Very interesting. But I don't see what that's got to do with
Marianne.
HENRY:
H ere's what it's got to do with Marianne. The Widow Parks
has a nephew, Young Williams, and Young Williams has stated in
public that he's going to take personal vengeance on any Negro, no
matter who, that dares show up after dark in Suttonville. Williams
is always hanging around nights in that store where you sent Marianne,
my sister, for postage stamps.
JESSE:
But Henry, I don't believe that anyone would lay a hand on
the wife of Jesse Prince. I'm a man of some reputation.
HENRY:
That you are, Jesse, on account of your books. But let me tell
you something about Young Williams. He couldn't possibly have read
any of your books. He's illiterate.
