Convicts Page #3

- Yes, sir.

- Get it for me.

- Yes, sir.

- I'm going hunting.

- Yes, sir.

I wouldn't go hunting today if

I was you. It's Christmas Eve.

I don't care the hell what

day it is, I'm going hunting.

Yes, sir.

- Where is Jackson?

- I don't know, sir.

I'll put the lazy son of a b*tch back on

the chain gang if he ain't careful, you hear?

Bastard.

Ben, get out here. Martha, come here.

Merry Christmas.

- What's this?

- Christmas gift.

That's Confederate money.

Ain't gonna buy you nothing.

Better hold on to it. Never can tell.

Who the hell are you?

Horace Robedaux, sir.

- How old are you?

- Thirteen, sir.

- Now, whose boy are you?

- Why, you know who he is, Mr. Soll.

- His daddy is dead, sir.

- Let him answer.

- Your daddy's dead?

- Yes, sir.

What was his name?

Paul Horace Robedaux, sir.

I knew the bastard. He

wasn't worth killing.

He was my brother's lawyer.

He helped my brother cheat me.

How did you get out here?

Mr. Albert Thornton is his uncle.

He come out here in the fall...

to help him with the store when

the crops come in. You know that.

- Where's Albert?

- He's in town.

- What the hell's he doing in town?

- He talked to you about it.

Thing's are so slow in

the store here now...

and the few customers there

are, the boy can take care of.

I don't want him here. I don't want

Paul Horace Robedaux's boy on this place.

Take him to my brother's place. He'll

take care of him. I don't want him.

- Your brother's in New Orleans.

- Take him back to town, god damn it.

He didn't mean that. He's just drunk.

He say anything when he's drunk.

He be over his drunk tomorrow.

- Now, who the hell are you?

- Horace, sir.

Oh, yes.

What was your daddy's name?

Paul Horace. Paul Horace Robedaux.

- I knew him. He's dead.

- Yes, sir.

- I have a brother. You ever meet him?

- No, sir.

He has a place next to mine,

only we don't get along here.

Mean, no-good bastard.

You know what my daddy said

to me just before he died?

No, sir.

He called me and said,

"Everybody else out of the room.

"Soll," he said, "sit down.

"Now watch out for that

son of a b*tch Tyre.

"He'll steal you blind.

He's a rattlesnake.

"He has venom in his fangs."

That's what his own

daddy thought about him.

- You want some whiskey?

- No, sir.

I was just about to come up to

the house looking for you, sir.

You said if I come up there

in a bit, you'd pay me.

Pay you for what?

For working for you, sir.

You work for me?

Yes, sir. Here in your store.

- How old are you?

- Thirteen.

Then you should pay me for

letting you work out here.

You should pay me for letting

you learn how to run a store.

Yes, sir. I suppose so.

But you agreed.

I agreed to nothing.

Yes, sir. You did. You said

you'd pay me 50 cents a week.

And I've been here six months

and you ain't paid me nothing yet.

You owe me $12.50.

You said you'd pay me that on

Christmas Eve. And that's today.

- Before that you said you'd pay me...

- Hold on.

I must've been drunk.

I remember you now, boy.

You came out here to earn the money

for your daddy's tombstone, right?

Yes, sir.

Your daddy was no good, Albert says.

Mistreated your

mother. Died a drunkard.

"Why does he want to put a tombstone

on the bastard's grave?" I asked him.

"That's how the boy is,"

he says. "He's strange."

"He'll get over that," I says.

"Some woman will help

him get over that."

You ever had a woman?

No, sir.

We're gonna have to do

something about that.

- Chewing tobacco?

- Yes, sir.

Come on. Give me a chew. Right here.

My daddy, God rest his soul in

peace, turned out to be a prophet.

But my brother Tyre is a liar,

a thief, and he's a killer.

I hope his soul rots in hell forever.

He got a b*tch of a daughter, too.

She's up there at my house

now and I know what she wants.

To know how I made out my will.

Every now and then she says, "Who you

gonna leave all this to, Uncle Soll?"

- Can you write?

- Yes, sir.

Get a pencil and a piece of

paper. Take down what I tell you.

Everything.

All my land. Everything.

- Ready?

- Yeah.

"I, Soll Gauthier...

"on my oath...

"I leave my land, my houses..."

Who am I gonna leave it to?

Everybody who's kin to me is dead

except Tyre and two ugly old daughters.

You have a brother?

No, sir. I have a sister.

Get down on your knees, and

thank God you got no brother.

'Cause they steal everything you got.

They cut your heart out

and smile all the while.

Thank you, God. We thank you, God.

- Thank you, God.

- Yeah.

You're a good boy.

Come on.

I'm going hunting. Come on with me.

Give me the gun. There's

a damn bear over there.

- No, sir. There's no bear...

- Yeah, there is, too.

And I'm gonna kill

the son of a b*tch.

- I kill it?

- I don't know, sir.

Go see. Go on.

See.

I get it?

Is Sarah Duncan still on the place?

- Sarah who?

- Sarah Duncan.

Is she the one you

asked Ben about earlier?

Ben who?

Ben Johnson. Lives up at the store.

I don't know if I

asked him that or not.

She's a small woman.

No more than five feet.

Where's her house? It was

out this way someplace.

- Well, it's not out here now.

- It's not.

If she's the one you asked

Ben about, she's dead.

- She is?

- Yup.

Nobody out here now

but you, me, and Ben...

and Martha, the convicts

and the guards...

and the Overseer and Jackson.

Who the hell is Jackson?

Well, he's the one who stays

up at the house with you.

What kind of tombstone you have

in mind for your daddy's grave?

Just a small one.

What the hell you

want a small one for?

See the one I put

on my daddy's grave?

It's the biggest goddamn

tombstone ever made.

It's got angels all over it.

Two women crying.

Come here.

Look. See, there's eight

tombstones on that graveyard.

- Now which do you like best?

- There are no tombstones over there.

You don't see any tombstones?

No, sir. There are none there.

Who the hell took them away?

Who the hell stole them?

Damn convicts. They steal everything.

Even the tombstone

off my daddy's grave.

No, sir. That's the convicts'

grave. That's not your graveyard.

- Where the hell's my graveyard?

- That's over yonder.

Yeah? Then let's go

find the goddamn place.

What are you shooting at now, sir?

Convicts. I'm gonna kill

all of them convicts.

I'm gonna have a sure enough

convict graveyard out here.

Shoot you a convict?

Go on.

Steady.

- How many we kill?

- I don't know, sir.

- A lot?

- Yeah, I guess so, sir.

Uncle Soll?

What y'all shooting at?

First he said he was shooting

at bears, and then convicts.

There ain't any bears or convicts.

Tried to keep him from laying on the

cold damp ground, but he wouldn't listen.

Mr. Soll.

Get up now. You'll catch

your death, Mr. Soll.

Damn convicts take all them

tombstones off the graves.

Now they're coming to kill me.

Stay with him while I go get Jackson.

- Get up, Sherman.

- He ain't fooling.

He's sick. He ought to

go back to the bunkhouse.

Him go back when we

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