Inside, The Tower was a long dark room with a counter at one end
and tables at the other and dancing space in the middle. They all sat down
at a board table next to the nickelodeon and Red Sam's wife, a tall
burnt-brown woman with hair and eyes lighter than her skin, came and
took their order. The children's mother put a dime in the machine and
played "The Tennessee Waltz," and the grandmother said that tune always
made her want to dance. She asked Bailey if he would like to dance but
he only glared at her. He didn't have a naturally sunny disposition like she
did and trips made him nervous. The grandmother's brown eyes were very
bright. She swayed her head from side to side and pretended she was
dancing in her chair. June Star said play something she could tap to so the children's mother put in another dime and played a fast number and June
Star stepped out onto the dance floor and did her tap routine.
"Ain't she cute?" Red Sam's wife said, leaning over the counter.
"Would you like to come be my little girl?"
"No I certainly wouldn't," June Star said. "I wouldn't live in a
broken-down place like this for a million bucks!" and she ran back to the
table.
"Ain't she cute?" the woman repeated, stretching her mouth politely.
"Arn't you ashamed?" hissed the grandmother.
Red Sam came in and told his wife to quit lounging on the counter
and hurry up with these people's order. His khaki trousers reached just to
his hip bones and his stomach hung over them like a sack of meal
swaying under his shirt. He came over and sat down at a table nearby and
let out a combination sigh and yodel. "You can't win," he said. "You can't
win," and he wiped his sweating red face off with a gray handkerchief.
"These days you don't know who to trust," he said. "Ain't that the truth?"
"People are certainly not nice like they used to be," said the
grandmother.
"Two fellers come in here last week," Red Sammy said, "driving a
Chrysler. It was a old beat-up car but it was a good one and these boys looked all right to me. Said they worked at the mill and you know I let
them fellers charge the gas they bought? Now why did I do that?"
"Because you're a good man!" the grandmother said at once.
"Yes'm, I suppose so," Red Sam said as if he were struck with this
answer.
His wife brought the orders, carrying the five plates all at once
without a tray, two in each hand and one balanced on her arm. "It isn't a
soul in this green world of God's that you can trust," she said. "And I
don't count nobody out of that, not nobody," she repeated, looking at Red
Sammy.
"Did you read about that criminal. The Misfit, that's escaped?" asked
the grandmother.
"I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he didn't attact this place right here,"
said the woman. "If he hears about it being here, I wouldn't be none
surprised to see him. If he hears it's two cent in the cash register, I
wouldn't be a tall surprised if he . . ."
"That'll do," Red Sam said. "Go bring these people their Co'-Colas,"
and the woman went off to get the rest of the order.
"A good man is hard to find," Red Sammy said. "Everything is getting
terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more."
He and the grandmother discussed better times. The old lady said that
in her opinion Europe was entirely to blame for the way things were now.
She said the way Europe acted you would think we were made of money
and Red Sam said it was no use talking about it, she was exactly right.
The children ran outside into the white sunlight and looked at the monkey
in the lacy chinaberry tree. He was busy catching fleas on himself and
biting each one carefully between his teeth as if it were a delicacy.
They drove off again into the hot afternoon. The grandmother took cat
naps and woke up every few minutes with her own snoring. Outside of
Toombsboro she woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had
visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady. She said
the house had six white columns across the front and that there was an
avenue of oaks leading up to it and two little wooden trellis arbors on
either side in front where you sat down with your suitor after a stroll in
the garden. She recalled exactly which road to turn off to get to it. She
knew that Bailey would not be willing to lose any time looking at an old
house, but the more she talked about it, the more she wanted to see it
once again and find out if the little twin arbors were still standing. "There
was a secret panel in this house," she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, "and the story went that all the family silver was
hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found . . ."
"Hey!" John Wesley said. "Let's go see it! We'll find it! We'll poke all
the woodwork and find it! Who lives there? Where do you turn off at?
Hey Pop, can't we turn off there?"
"We never have seen a house with a secret panel!" June Star shrieked.
"Let's go to the house with the secret panel! Hey Pop, can't we go see the
house with the secret panel!"
"It's not far from here, I know," the grandmother said. "It wouldn't
take over twenty minutes."
Bailey was looking straight ahead. His jaw was as rigid as a
horseshoe. "No," he said.
The children began to yell and scream that they wanted to see the
house with the secret panel. John Wesley kicked the back of the front seat
and June Star hung over her mother's shoulder and whined desperately
into her ear that they never had any fun even on their vacation, that they
could never do what THEY wanted to do. The baby began to scream and
John Wesley kicked the back of the seat so hard that his father could feel
the blows in his kidney.
"All right!" he shouted and drew the car to a stop at the side of the road. "Will you all shut up? Will you all just shut up for one second? If
you don't shut up, we won't go anywhere."
"It would be very educational for them," the grandmother murmured.
"All right," Bailey said, "but get this: this is the only time we're going
to stop for anything like this. This is the one and only time."
"The dirt road that you have to turn down is about a mile back," the
grandmother directed. "I marked it when we passed."
"A dirt road," Bailey groaned.
After they had turned around and were headed toward the dirt road,
the grandmother recalled other points about the house, the beautiful glass
over the front doorway and the candle-lamp in the hall. John Wesley said
that the secret panel was probably in the fireplace.
"You can't go inside this house," Bailey said. "You don't know who
lives there."
"While you all talk to the people in front, I'll run around behind and
get in a window," John Wesley suggested.
"We'll all stay in the car," his mother said.
They turned onto the dirt road and the car raced roughly along in a
swirl of pink dust. The grandmother recalled the times when there were
no paved roads and thirty miles was a day's journey. The dirt road was hilly and there were sudden washes in it and sharp curves on dangerous
embankments. All at once they would be on a hill, looking down over the
blue tops of trees for miles around, then the next minute, they would be in
a red depression with the dust-coated trees looking down on them.
"This place had better turn up in a minute," Bailey said, "or I'm going
to turn around."
The road looked as if no one had traveled on it in months.
"It's not much farther," the grandmother said and just as she said it, a
horrible thought came to her. The thought was so embarrassing that she
turned red in the face and her eyes dilated and her feet jumped up,
upsetting her valise in the corner. The instant the valise moved, the
newspaper top she had over the basket under it rose with a snarl and Pitty
Sing, the cat, sprang onto Bailey's shoulder.
The children were thrown to the floor and their mother, clutching the
baby, was thrown out the door onto the ground; the old lady was thrown
into the front seat. The car turned over once and landed right-side-up in a
gulch off the side of the road. Bailey remained in the driver's seat with the
cat -- gray-striped with a broad white face and an orange nose -- clinging
to his neck like a caterpillar.
As soon as the children saw they could move their arms and legs, they scrambled out of the car, shouting, "We've had an ACCIDENT!" The
grandmother was curled up under the dashboard, hoping she was injured
so that Bailey's wrath would not come down on her all at once. The
horrible thought she had had before the accident was that the house she
had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee.
Bailey removed the cat from his neck with both hands and flung it out
the window against the side of a pine tree. Then he got out of the car and
started looking for the children's mother. She was sitting against the side
of the red gutted ditch, holding the screaming baby, but she only had a cut
down her face and a broken shoulder. "We've had an ACCIDENT!" the
children screamed in a frenzy of delight.
"But nobody's killed," June Star said with disappointment as the
grandmother limped out of the car, her hat still pinned to her head but the
broken front brim standing up at a jaunty angle and the violet spray
hanging off the side. They all sat down in the ditch, except the children,
to recover from the shock. They were all shaking.
"Maybe a car will come along," said the children's mother hoarsely
"I believe I have injured an organ," said the grandmother, pressing her
side, but no one answered her. Bailey's teeth were clattering. He had on a
yellow sport shirt with bright blue parrots designed in it and his face was as yellow as the shirt. The grandmother decided that she would not
mention that the house was in Tennessee.
The road was about ten feet above and they could see only the tops of
the trees on the other side of it. Behind the ditch they were sitting in there
were more woods, tall and dark and deep. In a few minutes they saw a c
ภายใน เดอะทาวเวอร์มีห้องมืดนานนับที่หนึ่งและตารางอื่น ๆ และเต้นรำพื้นที่ตรงกลาง พวกเขาทั้งหมดนั่งลงที่ตารางคณะขอให้โชคและภรรยาสามสีแดง ความสูงผู้หญิงสีน้ำตาลไหม้กับผมและเบากว่าผิว ตามา และเอาใบสั่งของพวกเขา แม่เด็กใส่ขนาดตัวเครื่อง และเล่น "วอลซ์เทนเนสซี" และยายที่ว่า ทำนองเพลงนั้นเสมอทำเธอต้องเต้น เธอถาม Bailey ถ้า เขาต้องการเต้นรำ แต่เขา glared ที่เธอ ไม่ได้มีการจัดการแสงแดดตามธรรมชาติเช่นเธอไม่ได้ และเดินทางทำให้เขาประสาท ตาสีน้ำตาลของยายถูกมากสดใส เธอ swayed ศีรษะของเธอจากทางด้านข้าง และ pretended เธอเต้นรำในเก้าอี้ของเธอ ดาวเดือนมิถุนายนกล่าวว่า เล่นสิ่งที่เธอไม่สามารถเคาะเพื่อให้แม่ของเด็กใส่ในขนาดอื่น และเล่นเลขอย่างรวดเร็วและมิถุนายนดาวก้าวออกสู่ฟลอร์เต้นรำ และไม่เคาะประจำของเธอ "Ain ' t เธอน่ารักหรือไม่" แดงสามภรรยา พิงผ่านเคาน์เตอร์"คุณต้องมาเป็นสาวของฉัน" ดาวเดือนมิถุนายนกล่าวว่า "ไม่ฉันแน่นอนไม่ "ฉันจะไม่อยู่ในการตใบวางสำหรับล้าน bucks " และเธอวิ่งกลับไปตาราง "Ain ' t เธอน่ารัก" ผู้หญิงซ้ำ ยืดปากเธอสุภาพ " Arn't คุณละอาย? " hissed เอง สามสีแดงมา และบอกภรรยาให้เลิกเดินเล่นบนตัวนับและรีบขึ้นกับลำดับของคนเหล่านี้ กางเกงของเขา khaki ถึงเพียงกระดูกสะโพกของเขาและเขาท้องแขวนเหล่านั้นเช่นกระสอบอาหารโลกภายใต้เสื้อของเขา เขามา และนั่งลงในตารางที่ใกล้เคียง และให้ชุดแยกกันและ yodel "คุณไม่สามารถชนะ เขากล่าวว่า "คุณไม่สามารถชนะ" และเขาเช็ดหน้าแดง sweating ออก ด้วยผ้าเช็ดหน้าสีเทา"วันนี้คุณไม่รู้ที่ใจ เขากล่าวว่า "Ain 't ที่ความจริง" "คนอย่างแน่นอนไม่ดีเหมือนที่เคย กล่าวว่า การยาย "Fellers สองมาที่นี่สัปดาห์ Sammy แดงกล่าวว่า, " ขับรถเป็นไครสเลอร์ ก็ beat-up รถเก่า แต่มันเป็นคนดี และชายเหล่านี้ทั้งหมดขวามองฉัน กล่าวว่า พวกเขาทำงานที่โรงสี และคุณรู้ว่า ฉันให้ก๊าซที่จะซื้อคิดให้ fellers ตอนนี้ ทำไมไม่ทำเช่นนั้น" "เพราะคุณเป็นคนดี" ยายที่กล่าวครั้ง "ใช่ฉัน ฉันคิดว่า นั้น, " แดงสามกล่าวว่า เขาได้หลงนี้คำตอบ ภรรยามาสั่ง แบกแผ่นห้าทั้งหมดในครั้งเดียวไม่ มีกระบะ สองในแต่ละมือและความสมดุลบนแขนของเธอ "ไม่เป็นจิตวิญญาณในโลกนี้สีเขียวของพระที่คุณสามารถไว้วางใจ เธอกล่าว "และฉันไม่นับจากที่ ไม่ไม่มีใคร ไม่มีใคร"เธอซ้ำ มองแดงSammy "ไม่ได้คุณอ่านเกี่ยวกับอาญานั้น ถามการความเหมาะ ที่จะหลบหนีไปหรือไม่"ยาย "ฉันจะไม่แปลกใจมากถ้าเขาไม่ได้ attact ดีนี่กล่าวว่า ผู้หญิง "ถ้าเขาได้ยินเกี่ยวกับเรื่องนี้อยู่ที่นี่ ไม่เป็นไม่มีประหลาดใจเพื่อดูเขา ถ้าท่านได้ยินก็ร้อยละ 2 ในเครื่องบันทึกเงินสด ฉันจะไม่แปลกใจจริงถ้าเขา... " แดงสามกล่าวว่า "ที่จะทำ "ไปนำคนเหล่านี้บริษัทของพวกเขา ' -เบอร์เกอร์, "และผู้หญิงออกไปจะได้รับส่วนเหลือของใบสั่ง "เป็นคนดีหายาก, " Sammy แดงกล่าวว่า "ทุกอย่างกำลังน่ากลัว ผมจำได้ว่า คุณสามารถไปปิด และออกจากประตูหน้าจอของคุณ unlatched ไม่อีก" และยายกล่าวถึงเวลาดีกว่า หญิงกล่าวว่าในความคิดของเธอที่ยุโรปทั้งหมดมีการ ตำหนิการ สิ่งที่ได้ตอนนี้เธอกล่าวว่า ทางยุโรปได้ปฏิบัติคุณจะคิดว่า เราทำเงินและสีแดงแซมกล่าวว่า ไม่พูดถึง เธอต้องใช้เด็กวิ่งอยู่ในแสงสีขาว และมองลิงในแผนภูมิของ lacy chinaberry เขาไม่ว่างจับ fleas ตนเอง และเสียดสีแต่ละคนอย่างรอบคอบระหว่างฟันของเขานั้นเป็นอาหาร พวกเขาขับรถออกอีกครั้งในตอนบ่ายร้อน ยายจะเอาแมวงีบ และตื่นทุกสองสามนาทีด้วยตนเองการนอนกรน ภายนอกToombsboro เธอตื่นขึ้น และยกเลิกการสวนเก่าที่เธอมีเยี่ยมชมในบริเวณนี้ทันทีเมื่อเธอเป็นหญิงสาว เธอกล่าวว่าบ้านมีหกคอลัมน์สีขาวทั้งด้านหน้า และมีการอเวนิวของโอ๊คนำมันและ arbors โครงแขนงไม้เล็ก ๆ สองบนข้างใดข้างหนึ่งในตำแหน่งที่คุณนั่งลงกับ suitor ของคุณหลังจากเดินเล่นในสวน เธอยกเลิกตรงที่ถนนปิดไปนั้น เธอรู้ว่า Bailey จะไม่เต็มใจจะสูญเสียก็เดิมบ้าน แต่ยิ่งเธอพูดคุยเกี่ยวกับมัน ยิ่งเธออยากเห็นอีกครั้ง และค้นหาถ้า arbors คู่น้อยยังยืน "มีแผงความลับในบ้าน, "เธอกล่าว craftily ไม่บอกความจริง แต่คิดว่า เธอถูก "และเรื่องราวไปว่า เงินที่ครอบครัวได้ซ่อนอยู่ในนั้นเมื่อเชอร์แมนผ่านมา แต่ไม่พบ... " "เฮ้" Wesley จอห์นกล่าว "ลองไปดูมัน เราจะพบมัน เราจะโผล่ทั้งหมดแสนอร่อยและ ใครอยู่ที่นั่น ที่ทำคุณปิดหรือไม่เฮ้ ป๊อป ไม่เราปิดนั่น? " "เราไม่เคยได้เห็นบ้านกับแผงลับ" ดาวเดือนมิถุนายน shrieked"ไปกันเหอะไปบ้านด้วยแผงลับ เฮ้ ป๊อป เราไปดูอาคารแผงลับ" "ไม่ไกลจากที่นี่ ฉันรู้ ยายที่กล่าว "มันจะไม่ใช้เวลากว่า 20 นาที" Bailey ถูกมองตรงไปข้างหน้า ขากรรไกรของเขาไม่แข็งเป็นเป็นการฮอร์สชู "ไม่ เขากล่าวว่า เด็กเริ่มร้อง และร้องว่า พวกเขาต้องการดูการบ้าน มีแผงลับ จอห์น Wesley เตะด้านหลังของนั่งด้านหน้าและเดือนมิถุนายนดาวแขวนเหนือไหล่ของแม่ของเธอ whined หมดเข้าไปในหูของเธอว่า พวกเขาไม่เคยมีสนุกใด ๆ แม้ในวันหยุดของพวกเขา พวกเขานั้นสามารถไม่เคยทำอะไรที่พวกเขาอยากจะทำ ทารกเริ่มร้อง และจอห์น Wesley เตะด้านหลังของนั่งจึงยากที่พ่อรู้สึกถึงพัดในไตของเขา "ทั้งหมดขวา" เขาตะโกน และดึงรถไปหยุดที่ด้านข้างของถนน "จะคุณทั้งหมดปิดค่า จะคุณทั้งหมดเพียงปิดสำหรับหนึ่งสองหรือไม่ หากyou don't shut up, we won't go anywhere." "It would be very educational for them," the grandmother murmured. "All right," Bailey said, "but get this: this is the only time we're goingto stop for anything like this. This is the one and only time." "The dirt road that you have to turn down is about a mile back," thegrandmother directed. "I marked it when we passed." "A dirt road," Bailey groaned. After they had turned around and were headed toward the dirt road,the grandmother recalled other points about the house, the beautiful glassover the front doorway and the candle-lamp in the hall. John Wesley saidthat the secret panel was probably in the fireplace. "You can't go inside this house," Bailey said. "You don't know wholives there." "While you all talk to the people in front, I'll run around behind andget in a window," John Wesley suggested. "We'll all stay in the car," his mother said. They turned onto the dirt road and the car raced roughly along in aswirl of pink dust. The grandmother recalled the times when there wereno paved roads and thirty miles was a day's journey. The dirt road was hilly and there were sudden washes in it and sharp curves on dangerousembankments. All at once they would be on a hill, looking down over theblue tops of trees for miles around, then the next minute, they would be ina red depression with the dust-coated trees looking down on them. "This place had better turn up in a minute," Bailey said, "or I'm goingto turn around." The road looked as if no one had traveled on it in months. "It's not much farther," the grandmother said and just as she said it, ahorrible thought came to her. The thought was so embarrassing that sheturned red in the face and her eyes dilated and her feet jumped up,upsetting her valise in the corner. The instant the valise moved, thenewspaper top she had over the basket under it rose with a snarl and PittySing, the cat, sprang onto Bailey's shoulder. The children were thrown to the floor and their mother, clutching thebaby, was thrown out the door onto the ground; the old lady was throwninto the front seat. The car turned over once and landed right-side-up in agulch off the side of the road. Bailey remained in the driver's seat with thecat -- gray-striped with a broad white face and an orange nose -- clingingto his neck like a caterpillar. As soon as the children saw they could move their arms and legs, they scrambled out of the car, shouting, "We've had an ACCIDENT!" Thegrandmother was curled up under the dashboard, hoping she was injuredso that Bailey's wrath would not come down on her all at once. Thehorrible thought she had had before the accident was that the house shehad remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee. Bailey removed the cat from his neck with both hands and flung it outthe window against the side of a pine tree. Then he got out of the car andstarted looking for the children's mother. She was sitting against the sideof the red gutted ditch, holding the screaming baby, but she only had a cutdown her face and a broken shoulder. "We've had an ACCIDENT!" thechildren screamed in a frenzy of delight. "But nobody's killed," June Star said with disappointment as thegrandmother limped out of the car, her hat still pinned to her head but thebroken front brim standing up at a jaunty angle and the violet sprayhanging off the side. They all sat down in the ditch, except the children,to recover from the shock. They were all shaking. "Maybe a car will come along," said the children's mother hoarsely "I believe I have injured an organ," said the grandmother, pressing herside, but no one answered her. Bailey's teeth were clattering. He had on ayellow sport shirt with bright blue parrots designed in it and his face was as yellow as the shirt. The grandmother decided that she would notmention that the house was in Tennessee. The road was about ten feet above and they could see only the tops ofthe trees on the other side of it. Behind the ditch they were sitting in therewere more woods, tall and dark and deep. In a few minutes they saw a c
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