she said. "I recognized you at
once!"
"Yes'm," the man said, smiling
slightly as if he were pleased in
spite of himself to be known,
"but it would have been better
for all of you, lady, if you
hadn't of reckernized me."
Bailey turned his head sharply
and said something to his
mother that shocked even the
children. The old lady began to
cry and The Misfit reddened.
"Lady," he said, "don't you get
upset. Sometimes a man says
things he don't mean. I don't
reckon he meant to talk to you
thataway."
"You wouldn't shoot a lady,
would you?" the grandmother
said and removed a clean
handkerchief from her cuff and
began to slap at her eyes with
it.
The Misfit pointed the toe of
his shoe into the ground and
made a little hole and then
covered it up again. "I would
hate to have to," he said.
"Listen," the grandmother
almost screamed, "I know
you're a good man. You don't
look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must
come from nice people!"
"Yes mam," he said, "finest
people in the world." When he
smiled he showed a row of
strong white teeth. "God never
made a finer woman than my
mother and my daddy's heart
was pure gold," he said. The
boy with the red sweat shirt
had come around behind them
and was standing with his gun
at his hip. The Misfit squatted
down on the ground. "Watch
them children, Bobby Lee," he
said. "You know they make me
nervous." He looked at the six
of them huddled together in
front of him and he seemed to
be embarrassed as if he
couldn't think of anything to
say. "Ain't a cloud in the sky,"
he remarked, looking up at it.
"Don't see no sun but don't see
no cloud neither."
"Yes, it's a beautiful day," said
the grandmother. "Listen," she
JOY FEELINGS | DECEMBER ISSUE
242