{"id":88,"date":"2021-10-29T11:15:30","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T15:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.ryerson.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/the-distributed-proofreaders-canada-ebook-of-their-eyes-were-watching-god-by-zora-neale-hurston-17\/"},"modified":"2022-01-28T11:32:55","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T16:32:55","slug":"18","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/chapter\/18\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 18","rendered":"Chapter 18"},"content":{"raw":"
<\/div>\r\n

Since Tea Cake<\/span> and Janie had friended with the Bahaman workers in the \u2019Glades, they, the \u201cSaws,\u201d had been gradually drawn into the American crowd. They quit hiding out to hold their dances when they found that their American friends didn\u2019t laugh at them as they feared. Many of the Americans learned to jump and liked it as much as the \u201cSaws.\u201d So they began to hold dances night after night in the quarters, usually behind Tea Cake\u2019s house. Often now, Tea Cake and Janie stayed up so late at the fire dances that Tea Cake would not let her go with him to the field. He wanted her to get her rest.<\/p>\r\n

So she was home by herself one afternoon when she saw a band of Seminoles passing by. The men walking in front and the laden, stolid women following them like burros. She had seen Indians several times in the \u2019Glades, in twos and threes, but this was a large party. They were headed towards the Palm Beach road and kept moving steadily. About an hour later another party appeared and went the same way. Then another just before sundown. This time she asked where they were all going and at last one of the men answered her.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGoing to high ground. Saw-grass bloom. Hurricane coming.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Everybody was talking about it that night. But nobody was worried. The fire dance kept up till nearly dawn. The next day, more Indians moved east, unhurried but steady. Still a blue sky and fair weather. Beans running fine and prices good, so the Indians could be, must<\/span> be, wrong. You couldn\u2019t have a hurricane when you\u2019re making seven and eight dollars a day picking beans. Indians are dumb anyhow, always were. Another night of Stew Beef making dynamic subtleties with his drum and living, sculptural, grotesques in the dance. Next day, no Indians passed at all. It was hot and sultry and Janie left the field and went home.<\/p>\r\n

Morning came without motion. The winds, to the tiniest, lisping baby breath had left the earth. Even before the sun gave light, dead day was creeping from bush to bush watching man.<\/p>\r\n

Some rabbits scurried through the quarters going east. Some possums slunk by and their route was definite. One or two at a time, then more. By the time the people left the fields the procession was constant. Snakes, rattlesnakes began to cross the quarters. The men killed a few, but they could not be missed from the crawling horde. People stayed indoors until daylight. Several times during the night Janie heard the snort of big animals like deer. Once the muted voice of a panther. Going east and east. That night the palm and banana trees began that long distance talk with rain. Several people took fright and picked up and went in to Palm Beach anyway. A thousand buzzards held a flying-meet and then went above the clouds and stayed.<\/p>\r\n

One of the Bahaman boys stopped by Tea Cake\u2019s house in a car and hollered. Tea Cake came out throwin\u2019 laughter over his shoulder into the house.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHello Tea Cake.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHello \u2019Lias. You leavin\u2019, Ah see.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah man. You and Janie wanta go? Ah wouldn\u2019t give nobody else uh chawnce at uh seat till Ah found out if you all had anyway tuh go.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThank yuh ever so much, \u2019Lias. But we \u2019bout decided tuh stay.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDe crow gahn up, man.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDat ain\u2019t nothin\u2019. You ain\u2019t seen de bossman go up, is yuh? Well all right now. Man, de money\u2019s too good on the muck. It\u2019s liable tuh fair off by tuhmorrer. Ah wouldn\u2019t leave if Ah wuz you.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMah uncle come for me. He say hurricane warning out in Palm Beach. Not so bad dere, but man, dis muck is too low and dat big lake is liable tuh bust.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh naw, man. Some boys in dere now talkin\u2019 \u2019bout it. Some of \u2019em been in de \u2019Glades fuh years. \u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but uh lil blow. You\u2019ll lose de whole day tuhmorrer tryin\u2019 tuh git back out heah.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDe Indians gahn east, man. It\u2019s dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDey don\u2019t always know. Indians don\u2019t know much uh nothin\u2019, tuh tell de truth. Else dey\u2019d own dis country still. De white folks ain\u2019t gone nowhere. Dey oughta know if it\u2019s dangerous. You better stay heah, man. Big jumpin\u2019 dance tuhnight right heah, when it fair off.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u2019Lias hesitated and started to climb out, but his uncle wouldn\u2019t let him. \u201cDis time tuhmorrer you gointuh wish you follow crow,\u201d he snorted and drove off. \u2019Lias waved back to them gaily.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf Ah never see you no mo\u2019 on earth, Ah\u2019ll meet you in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Others hurried east like the Indians and rabbits and snakes and coons. But the majority sat around laughing and waiting for the sun to get friendly again.<\/p>\r\n

Several men collected at Tea Cake\u2019s house and sat around stuffing courage into each other\u2019s ears. Janie baked a big pan of beans and something she called sweet biscuits and they all managed to be happy enough.<\/p>\r\n

Most of the great flame-throwers were there and naturally, handling Big John de Conquer and his works. How he had done everything big on earth, then went up tuh heben without dying atall. Went up there picking a guitar and got all de angels doing the ring-shout round and round de throne. Then everybody but God and Old Peter flew off on a flying race to Jericho and back and John de Conquer won the race; went on down to hell, beat the old devil and passed out ice water to everybody down there. Somebody tried to say that it was a mouth organ harp that John was playing, but the rest of them would not hear that. Don\u2019t care how good anybody could play a harp, God would rather to hear a guitar. That brought them back to Tea Cake. How come he couldn\u2019t hit that box a lick or two? Well, all right now, make us know it.<\/p>\r\n

When it got good to everybody, Muck-Boy woke up and began to chant with the rhythm and everybody bore down on the last word of the line:<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\r\n\r\n<!-- rend=';' -->\r\n
\r\n

Yo\u2019 mama don\u2019t wear no Draws<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Ah seen her when she took \u2019em Off<\/span><\/p>\r\n

She soaked \u2019em in alcoHol<\/span><\/p>\r\n

She sold \u2019em tuh de Santy Claus<\/span><\/p>\r\n

He told her \u2019twas aginst de Law<\/span><\/p>\r\n

To wear dem dirty Draws<\/span><\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<!-- end poetry block --><!-- end rend -->\r\n

Then Muck-Boy went crazy through the feet and danced himself and everybody else crazy. When he finished he sat back down on the floor and went to sleep again. Then they got to playing Florida flip and coon-can. Then it was dice. Not for money. This was a show-off game. Everybody posing his fancy shots. As always it broiled down to Tea Cake and Motor Boat. Tea Cake with his shy grin and Motor Boat with his face like a little black cherubim just from a church tower doing amazing things with anybody\u2019s dice. The others forgot the work and the weather watching them throw. It was art. A thousand dollars a throw in Madison Square Garden wouldn\u2019t have gotten any more breathless suspense. It would have just been more people holding in.<\/p>\r\n

After a while somebody looked out and said, \u201cIt ain\u2019t gitting no fairer out dere. B\u2019lieve Ah\u2019ll git on over tah mah shack.\u201d Motor Boat and Tea Cake were still playing so everybody left them at it.<\/p>\r\n

Sometime that night the winds came back. Everything in the world had a strong rattle, sharp and short like Stew Beef vibrating the drum head near the edge with his fingers. By morning Gabriel was playing the deep tones in the center of the drum. So when Janie looked out of her door she saw the drifting mists gathered in the west\u2014that cloud field of the sky\u2014to arm themselves with thunders and march forth against the world. Louder and higher and lower and wider the sound and motion spread, mounting, sinking, darking.<\/p>\r\n

It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed. Began to roll and complain like a peevish world on a grumble. The folks in the quarters and the people in the big houses further around the shore heard the big lake and wondered. The people felt uncomfortable but safe because there were the seawalls to chain the senseless monster in his bed. The folks let the people do the thinking. If the castles thought themselves secure, the cabins needn\u2019t worry. Their decision was already made as always. Chink up your cracks, shiver in your wet beds and wait on the mercy of the Lord. The bossman might have the thing stopped before morning anyway. It is so easy to be hopeful in the day time when you can see the things you wish on. But it was night, it stayed night. Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands.<\/p>\r\n

A big burst of thunder and lightning that trampled over the roof of the house. So Tea Cake and Motor stopped playing. Motor looked up in his angel-looking way and said, \u201cBig Massa draw him chair upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh\u2019m glad y\u2019all stop dat crap-shootin\u2019 even if it wasn\u2019t for money,\u201d Janie said. \u201cOle Massa is doin\u2019 His<\/span> work now. Us oughta keep quiet.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

They huddled closer and stared at the door. They just didn\u2019t use another part of their bodies, and they didn\u2019t look at anything but the door. The time was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that door. Six eyes were questioning God<\/span>.<\/p>\r\n

Through the screaming wind they heard things crashing and things hurtling and dashing with unbelievable velocity. A baby rabbit, terror ridden, squirmed through a hole in the floor and squatted off there in the shadows against the wall, seeming to know that nobody wanted its flesh at such a time. And the lake got madder and madder with only its dikes between them and him.<\/p>\r\n

In a little wind-lull, Tea Cake touched Janie and said, \u201cAh reckon you wish now you had of stayed in yo\u2019 big house \u2019way from such as dis, don\u2019t yuh?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah, naw. People don\u2019t die till dey time come nohow, don\u2019t keer where you at. Ah\u2019m wid mah husband in uh storm, dat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThanky, Ma\u2019am. But \u2019sposing you wuz tuh die, now. You wouldn\u2019t git mad at me for draggin\u2019 yuh heah?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw. We been tuhgether round two years. If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don\u2019t keer if you die at dusk. It\u2019s so many people never seen de light at all. Ah wuz fumblin\u2019 round and God opened de door.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

He dropped to the floor and put his head in her lap. \u201cWell then, Janie, you meant whut you didn\u2019t say, \u2019cause Ah never knowed<\/span> you wuz so satisfied wid me lak dat. Ah kinda thought\u2014\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.<\/p>\r\n

As soon as Tea Cake went out pushing wind in front of him, he saw that the wind and water had given life to lots of things that folks think of as dead and given death to so much that had been living things. Water everywhere. Stray fish swimming in the yard. Three inches more and the water would be in the house. Already in some. He decided to try to find a car to take them out of the \u2019Glades before worse things happened. He turned back to tell Janie about it so she could be ready to go.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGit our insurance papers tuhgether, Janie. Ah\u2019ll tote mah box mahself and things lak dat.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou got all de money out de dresser drawer, already?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cNaw, git it quick and cut up piece off de table-cloth tuh wrap it up in. Us liable tuh git wet tuh our necks. Cut uh piece uh dat oilcloth quick fuh our papers. We got tuh go, if it ain\u2019t too late. De dish can\u2019t bear it out no longer.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

He snatched the oilcloth off the table and took out his knife. Janie held it straight while he slashed off a strip.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBut Tea Cake, it\u2019s too awful out dere. Maybe it\u2019s better tuh stay heah in de wet than it is tuh try tuh\u2014\u201d<\/p>\r\n

He stunned the argument with half a word. \u201cFix,\u201d he said and fought his way outside. He had seen more than Janie had.<\/p>\r\n

Janie took a big needle and ran up a longish sack. Found some newspaper and wrapped up the paper money and papers and thrust them in and whipped over the open end with her needle. Before she could get it thoroughly hidden in the pocket of her overalls, Tea Cake burst in again.<\/p>\r\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t no cars, Janie.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh thought not! Whut we gointuh do now?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe got tuh walk.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIn all dis weather, Tea Cake? Ah don\u2019t b\u2019lieve Ah could make it out de quarters.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOh yeah you kin. Me and you and Motor Boat kin all lock arms and hold one \u2019nother down. Eh, Motor?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHe\u2019s sleep on de bed in yonder,\u201d Janie said. Tea Cake called without moving.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMotor Boat! You better git up from dere! Hell done broke loose in Georgy. Dis minute! How kin you sleep at uh time lak dis? Water knee-deep in de yard.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

They stepped out in water almost to their buttocks and managed to turn east. Tea Cake had to throw his box away, and Janie saw how it hurt him. Dodging flying missiles, floating dangers, avoiding stepping in holes and warmed on the wind now at their backs until they gained comparatively dry land. They had to fight to keep from being pushed the wrong way and to hold together. They saw other people like themselves struggling along. A house down, here and there, frightened cattle. But above all the drive of the wind and the water. And the lake. Under its multiplied roar could be heard a mighty sound of grinding rock and timber and a wail. They looked back. Saw people trying to run in raging waters and screaming when they found they couldn\u2019t. A huge barrier of the makings of the dike to which the cabins had been added was rolling and tumbling forward. Ten feet higher and as far as they could see the muttering wall advanced before the braced-up waters like a road crusher on a cosmic scale. The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred miles an hour wind had loosed his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and ran forward until he met the quarters; uprooted them like grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the houses, rolling the people in the houses along with other timbers. The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDe lake is comin\u2019!\u201d Tea Cake gasped.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDe lake!\u201d In amazed horror from Motor Boat, \u201cDe lake!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt\u2019s comin\u2019 behind us!\u201d Janie shuddered. \u201cUs can\u2019t fly.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cBut we still kin run,\u201d Tea Cake shouted and they ran. The gushing water ran faster. The great body was held back, but rivers spouted through fissures in the rolling wall and broke like day. The three fugitives ran past another line of shanties that topped a slight rise and gained a little. They cried out as best they could, \u201cDe lake is comin\u2019!\u201d and barred doors flew open and others joined them in flight crying the same as they went. \u201cDe lake is comin\u2019!\u201d and the pursuing waters growled and shouted ahead, \u201cYes, Ah\u2019m comin\u2019!\u201d, and those who could fled on.<\/p>\r\n

They made it to a tall house on a hump of ground and Janie said, \u201cLess stop heah. Ah can\u2019t make it no further. Ah\u2019m done give out.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAll of us is done give out,\u201d Tea Cake corrected. \u201cWe\u2019se goin\u2019 inside out dis weather, kill or cure.\u201d He knocked with the handle of his knife, while they leaned their faces and shoulders against the wall. He knocked once more then he and Motor Boat went round to the back and forced a door. Nobody there.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDese people had mo\u2019 sense than Ah did,\u201d Tea Cake said as they dropped to the floor and lay there panting. \u201cUs oughta went on wid \u2019Lias lak he ast me.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t know,\u201d Janie contended. \u201cAnd when yuh don\u2019t know, yuh just don\u2019t know. De storms might not of come sho nuff.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

They went to sleep promptly but Janie woke up first. She heard the sound of rushing water and sat up.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cTea Cake! Motor Boat! De lake is comin\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

The lake was<\/span> coming on. Slower and wider, but coming. It had trampled on most of its supporting wall and lowered its front by spreading. But it came muttering and grumbling onward like a tired mammoth just the same.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDis is uh high tall house. Maybe it won\u2019t reach heah at all,\u201d Janie counseled. \u201cAnd if it do, maybe it won\u2019t reach tuh de upstairs part.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cJanie, Lake Okechobee is forty miles wide and sixty miles long. Dat\u2019s uh whole heap uh water. If dis wind is shovin\u2019 dat whole lake disa way, dis house ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 tuh swaller. Us better go. Motor Boat!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhut you want, man?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDe lake is comin\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAw, naw it \u2019tain\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYes, it is so<\/span> comin\u2019! Listen! You kin hear it way off.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt kin jus\u2019 come on. Ah\u2019ll wait right here.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAw, get up, Motor Boat! Less make it tuh de Palm Beach road. Dat\u2019s on uh fill. We\u2019se pretty safe dere.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAh\u2019m safe here, man. Go ahead if yuh wants to. Ah\u2019m sleepy.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWhut you gointuh do if de lake reach heah?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGo upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cS\u2019posing it come up dere?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cSwim, man. Dat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell, uh, Good bye, Motor Boat. Everything is pretty bad, yuh know. Us might git missed of one \u2019nother. You sho is a grand friend fuh uh man tuh have.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGood bye, Tea Cake. Y\u2019all oughta stay here and sleep, man. No use in goin\u2019 off and leavin\u2019 me lak dis.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t wanta. Come on wid us. It might be night time when de water hem you up in heah. Dat\u2019s how come Ah won\u2019t stay. Come on, man.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cTea Cake, Ah got tuh have mah sleep. Definitely.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cGood bye, then, Motor. Ah wish you all de luck. Goin\u2019 over tuh Nassau fuh dat visit widja when all dis is over.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDefinitely, Tea Cake. Mah mama\u2019s house is yours.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Tea Cake and Janie were some distance from the house before they struck serious water. Then they had to swim a distance, and Janie could not hold up more than a few strokes at a time, so Tea Cake bore her up till finally they hit a ridge that led on towards the fill. It seemed to him the wind was weakening a little so he kept looking for a place to rest and catch his breath. His wind was gone. Janie was tired and limping, but she had not had to do that hard swimming in the turbulent waters, so Tea Cake was much worse off. But they couldn\u2019t stop. Gaining the fill was something but it was no guarantee. The lake was coming. They had to reach the six-mile bridge. It was high and safe perhaps.<\/p>\r\n

Everybody was walking the fill. Hurrying, dragging, falling, crying, calling out names hopefully and hopelessly. Wind and rain beating on old folks and beating on babies. Tea Cake stumbled once or twice in his weariness and Janie held him up. So they reached the bridge at Six Mile Bend and thought to rest.<\/p>\r\n

But it was crowded. White people had preempted that point of elevation and there was no more room. They could climb up one of its high sides and down the other, that was all. Miles further on, still no rest.<\/p>\r\n

They passed a dead man in a sitting position on a hummock, entirely surrounded by wild animals and snakes. Common danger made common friends. Nothing sought a conquest over the other.<\/p>\r\n

Another man clung to a cypress tree on a tiny island. A tin roof of a building hung from the branches by electric wires and the wind swung it back and forth like a mighty ax. The man dared not move a step to his right lest this crushing blade split him open. He dared not step left for a large rattlesnake was stretched full length with his head in the wind. There was a strip of water between the island and the fill, and the man clung to the tree and cried for help.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cDe snake won\u2019t bite yuh,\u201d Tea Cake yelled to him. \u201cHe skeered tuh go intuh uh coil. Skeered he\u2019ll be blowed away. Step round dat side and swim off!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Soon after that Tea Cake felt he couldn\u2019t walk anymore. Not right away. So he stretched long side of the road to rest. Janie spread herself between him and the wind and he closed his eyes and let the tiredness seep out of his limbs. On each side of the fill was a great expanse of water like lakes\u2014water full of things living and dead. Things that didn\u2019t belong in water. As far as the eye could reach, water and wind playing upon it in fury. A large piece of tar-paper roofing sailed through the air and scudded along the fill until it hung against a tree. Janie saw it with joy. That was the very thing to cover Tea Cake with. She could lean against it and hold it down. The wind wasn\u2019t quite so bad as it was anyway. The very thing. Poor Tea Cake!<\/p>\r\n

She crept on hands and knees to the piece of roofing and caught hold of it by either side. Immediately the wind lifted both of them and she saw herself sailing off the fill to the right, out and out over the lashing water. She screamed terribly and released the roofing which sailed away as she plunged downward into the water.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cTea Cake!\u201d He heard her and sprang up. Janie was trying to swim but fighting water too hard. He saw a cow swimming slowly towards the fill in an oblique line. A massive built dog was sitting on her shoulders and shivering and growling. The cow was approaching Janie. A few strokes would bring her there.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMake it tuh de cow and grab hold of her tail! Don\u2019t use yo\u2019 feet. Jus\u2019 yo\u2019 hands is enough. Dat\u2019s right, come on!\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Janie achieved the tail of the cow and lifted her head up along the cow\u2019s rump, as far as she could above water. The cow sunk a little with the added load and thrashed a moment in terror. Thought she was being pulled down by a gator. Then she continued on. The dog stood up and growled like a lion, stiff-standing hackles, stiff muscles, teeth uncovered as he lashed up his fury for the charge. Tea Cake split the water like an otter, opening his knife as he dived. The dog raced down the backbone of the cow to the attack and Janie screamed and slipped far back on the tail of the cow, just out of reach of the dog\u2019s angry jaws. He wanted to plunge in after her but dreaded the water, somehow. Tea Cake rose out of the water at the cow\u2019s rump and seized the dog by the neck. But he was a powerful dog and Tea Cake was over-tired. So he didn\u2019t kill the dog with one stroke as he had intended. But the dog couldn\u2019t free himself either. They fought and somehow he managed to bite Tea Cake high up on his cheek-bone once. Then Tea Cake finished him and sent him to the bottom to stay there. The cow relieved of a great weight was landing on the fill with Janie before Tea Cake stroked in and crawled weakly upon the fill again.<\/p>\r\n

Janie began to fuss around his face where the dog had bitten him but he said it didn\u2019t amount to anything. \u201cHe\u2019d uh raised hell though if he had uh grabbed me uh inch higher and bit me in mah eye. Yuh can\u2019t buy eyes in de store, yuh know.\u201d He flopped to the edge of the fill as if the storm wasn\u2019t going on at all. \u201cLemme rest awhile, then us got tuh make it on intuh town somehow.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

It was next day by the sun and the clock when they reached Palm Beach. It was years later by their bodies. Winters and winters of hardship and suffering. The wheel kept turning round and round. Hope, hopelessness and despair. But the storm blew itself out as they approached the city of refuge.<\/p>\r\n

Havoc was there with her mouth wide open. Back in the Everglades the wind had romped among lakes and trees. In the city it had raged among houses and men. Tea Cake and Janie stood on the edge of things and looked over the desolation.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cHow kin Ah find uh doctor fuh yo\u2019 face in all dis mess?\u201d Janie wailed.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cAin\u2019t got de damn doctor tuh study \u2019bout. Us needs uh place tuh rest.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

A great deal of their money and perseverance and they found a place to sleep. It was just that. No place to live at all. Just sleep. Tea Cake looked all around and sat heavily on the side of the bed.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWell,\u201d he said humbly, \u201creckon you never \u2019spected tuh come tuh dis when you took up wid me, didja?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cOnce upon uh time, Ah never \u2019spected nothin\u2019, Tea Cake, but bein\u2019 dead from the standin\u2019 still and tryin\u2019 tuh laugh. But you come \u2019long and made somethin\u2019 outa me. So Ah\u2019m thankful fuh anything we come through together.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cThanky, Ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou was twice noble tuh save me from dat dawg. Tea Cake, Ah don\u2019t speck you seen his eyes lak Ah did. He didn\u2019t aim tuh jus\u2019 bite me, Tea Cake. He aimed tuh kill me stone dead. Ah\u2019m never tuh fuhgit dem eyes. He wuzn\u2019t nothin\u2019 all over but pure hate. Wonder where he come from?\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYeah, Ah did see \u2019im too. It wuz frightenin\u2019. Ah didn\u2019t mean tuh take his hate neither. He had tuh die uh me one. Mah switch-blade said it wuz him.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cPo\u2019 me, he\u2019d tore me tuh pieces, if it wuzn\u2019t fuh you, honey.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have tuh say, if it wuzn\u2019t fuh me, baby, cause Ah\u2019m heah<\/span>, and then Ah want yuh tuh know it\u2019s uh man heah.\u201d<\/p>","rendered":"

<\/div>\n

Since Tea Cake<\/span> and Janie had friended with the Bahaman workers in the \u2019Glades, they, the \u201cSaws,\u201d had been gradually drawn into the American crowd. They quit hiding out to hold their dances when they found that their American friends didn\u2019t laugh at them as they feared. Many of the Americans learned to jump and liked it as much as the \u201cSaws.\u201d So they began to hold dances night after night in the quarters, usually behind Tea Cake\u2019s house. Often now, Tea Cake and Janie stayed up so late at the fire dances that Tea Cake would not let her go with him to the field. He wanted her to get her rest.<\/p>\n

So she was home by herself one afternoon when she saw a band of Seminoles passing by. The men walking in front and the laden, stolid women following them like burros. She had seen Indians several times in the \u2019Glades, in twos and threes, but this was a large party. They were headed towards the Palm Beach road and kept moving steadily. About an hour later another party appeared and went the same way. Then another just before sundown. This time she asked where they were all going and at last one of the men answered her.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoing to high ground. Saw-grass bloom. Hurricane coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everybody was talking about it that night. But nobody was worried. The fire dance kept up till nearly dawn. The next day, more Indians moved east, unhurried but steady. Still a blue sky and fair weather. Beans running fine and prices good, so the Indians could be, must<\/span> be, wrong. You couldn\u2019t have a hurricane when you\u2019re making seven and eight dollars a day picking beans. Indians are dumb anyhow, always were. Another night of Stew Beef making dynamic subtleties with his drum and living, sculptural, grotesques in the dance. Next day, no Indians passed at all. It was hot and sultry and Janie left the field and went home.<\/p>\n

Morning came without motion. The winds, to the tiniest, lisping baby breath had left the earth. Even before the sun gave light, dead day was creeping from bush to bush watching man.<\/p>\n

Some rabbits scurried through the quarters going east. Some possums slunk by and their route was definite. One or two at a time, then more. By the time the people left the fields the procession was constant. Snakes, rattlesnakes began to cross the quarters. The men killed a few, but they could not be missed from the crawling horde. People stayed indoors until daylight. Several times during the night Janie heard the snort of big animals like deer. Once the muted voice of a panther. Going east and east. That night the palm and banana trees began that long distance talk with rain. Several people took fright and picked up and went in to Palm Beach anyway. A thousand buzzards held a flying-meet and then went above the clouds and stayed.<\/p>\n

One of the Bahaman boys stopped by Tea Cake\u2019s house in a car and hollered. Tea Cake came out throwin\u2019 laughter over his shoulder into the house.<\/p>\n

\u201cHello Tea Cake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHello \u2019Lias. You leavin\u2019, Ah see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah man. You and Janie wanta go? Ah wouldn\u2019t give nobody else uh chawnce at uh seat till Ah found out if you all had anyway tuh go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank yuh ever so much, \u2019Lias. But we \u2019bout decided tuh stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDe crow gahn up, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDat ain\u2019t nothin\u2019. You ain\u2019t seen de bossman go up, is yuh? Well all right now. Man, de money\u2019s too good on the muck. It\u2019s liable tuh fair off by tuhmorrer. Ah wouldn\u2019t leave if Ah wuz you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMah uncle come for me. He say hurricane warning out in Palm Beach. Not so bad dere, but man, dis muck is too low and dat big lake is liable tuh bust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh naw, man. Some boys in dere now talkin\u2019 \u2019bout it. Some of \u2019em been in de \u2019Glades fuh years. \u2019Tain\u2019t nothin\u2019 but uh lil blow. You\u2019ll lose de whole day tuhmorrer tryin\u2019 tuh git back out heah.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDe Indians gahn east, man. It\u2019s dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDey don\u2019t always know. Indians don\u2019t know much uh nothin\u2019, tuh tell de truth. Else dey\u2019d own dis country still. De white folks ain\u2019t gone nowhere. Dey oughta know if it\u2019s dangerous. You better stay heah, man. Big jumpin\u2019 dance tuhnight right heah, when it fair off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2019Lias hesitated and started to climb out, but his uncle wouldn\u2019t let him. \u201cDis time tuhmorrer you gointuh wish you follow crow,\u201d he snorted and drove off. \u2019Lias waved back to them gaily.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Ah never see you no mo\u2019 on earth, Ah\u2019ll meet you in Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others hurried east like the Indians and rabbits and snakes and coons. But the majority sat around laughing and waiting for the sun to get friendly again.<\/p>\n

Several men collected at Tea Cake\u2019s house and sat around stuffing courage into each other\u2019s ears. Janie baked a big pan of beans and something she called sweet biscuits and they all managed to be happy enough.<\/p>\n

Most of the great flame-throwers were there and naturally, handling Big John de Conquer and his works. How he had done everything big on earth, then went up tuh heben without dying atall. Went up there picking a guitar and got all de angels doing the ring-shout round and round de throne. Then everybody but God and Old Peter flew off on a flying race to Jericho and back and John de Conquer won the race; went on down to hell, beat the old devil and passed out ice water to everybody down there. Somebody tried to say that it was a mouth organ harp that John was playing, but the rest of them would not hear that. Don\u2019t care how good anybody could play a harp, God would rather to hear a guitar. That brought them back to Tea Cake. How come he couldn\u2019t hit that box a lick or two? Well, all right now, make us know it.<\/p>\n

When it got good to everybody, Muck-Boy woke up and began to chant with the rhythm and everybody bore down on the last word of the line:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

<!– rend=’;’ –><\/p>\n

\n

Yo\u2019 mama don\u2019t wear no Draws<\/span><\/p>\n

Ah seen her when she took \u2019em Off<\/span><\/p>\n

She soaked \u2019em in alcoHol<\/span><\/p>\n

She sold \u2019em tuh de Santy Claus<\/span><\/p>\n

He told her \u2019twas aginst de Law<\/span><\/p>\n

To wear dem dirty Draws<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<!– end poetry block –><!– end rend –><\/p>\n

Then Muck-Boy went crazy through the feet and danced himself and everybody else crazy. When he finished he sat back down on the floor and went to sleep again. Then they got to playing Florida flip and coon-can. Then it was dice. Not for money. This was a show-off game. Everybody posing his fancy shots. As always it broiled down to Tea Cake and Motor Boat. Tea Cake with his shy grin and Motor Boat with his face like a little black cherubim just from a church tower doing amazing things with anybody\u2019s dice. The others forgot the work and the weather watching them throw. It was art. A thousand dollars a throw in Madison Square Garden wouldn\u2019t have gotten any more breathless suspense. It would have just been more people holding in.<\/p>\n

After a while somebody looked out and said, \u201cIt ain\u2019t gitting no fairer out dere. B\u2019lieve Ah\u2019ll git on over tah mah shack.\u201d Motor Boat and Tea Cake were still playing so everybody left them at it.<\/p>\n

Sometime that night the winds came back. Everything in the world had a strong rattle, sharp and short like Stew Beef vibrating the drum head near the edge with his fingers. By morning Gabriel was playing the deep tones in the center of the drum. So when Janie looked out of her door she saw the drifting mists gathered in the west\u2014that cloud field of the sky\u2014to arm themselves with thunders and march forth against the world. Louder and higher and lower and wider the sound and motion spread, mounting, sinking, darking.<\/p>\n

It woke up old Okechobee and the monster began to roll in his bed. Began to roll and complain like a peevish world on a grumble. The folks in the quarters and the people in the big houses further around the shore heard the big lake and wondered. The people felt uncomfortable but safe because there were the seawalls to chain the senseless monster in his bed. The folks let the people do the thinking. If the castles thought themselves secure, the cabins needn\u2019t worry. Their decision was already made as always. Chink up your cracks, shiver in your wet beds and wait on the mercy of the Lord. The bossman might have the thing stopped before morning anyway. It is so easy to be hopeful in the day time when you can see the things you wish on. But it was night, it stayed night. Night was striding across nothingness with the whole round world in his hands.<\/p>\n

A big burst of thunder and lightning that trampled over the roof of the house. So Tea Cake and Motor stopped playing. Motor looked up in his angel-looking way and said, \u201cBig Massa draw him chair upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh\u2019m glad y\u2019all stop dat crap-shootin\u2019 even if it wasn\u2019t for money,\u201d Janie said. \u201cOle Massa is doin\u2019 His<\/span> work now. Us oughta keep quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

They huddled closer and stared at the door. They just didn\u2019t use another part of their bodies, and they didn\u2019t look at anything but the door. The time was past for asking the white folks what to look for through that door. Six eyes were questioning God<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Through the screaming wind they heard things crashing and things hurtling and dashing with unbelievable velocity. A baby rabbit, terror ridden, squirmed through a hole in the floor and squatted off there in the shadows against the wall, seeming to know that nobody wanted its flesh at such a time. And the lake got madder and madder with only its dikes between them and him.<\/p>\n

In a little wind-lull, Tea Cake touched Janie and said, \u201cAh reckon you wish now you had of stayed in yo\u2019 big house \u2019way from such as dis, don\u2019t yuh?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, naw. People don\u2019t die till dey time come nohow, don\u2019t keer where you at. Ah\u2019m wid mah husband in uh storm, dat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanky, Ma\u2019am. But \u2019sposing you wuz tuh die, now. You wouldn\u2019t git mad at me for draggin\u2019 yuh heah?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw. We been tuhgether round two years. If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don\u2019t keer if you die at dusk. It\u2019s so many people never seen de light at all. Ah wuz fumblin\u2019 round and God opened de door.\u201d<\/p>\n

He dropped to the floor and put his head in her lap. \u201cWell then, Janie, you meant whut you didn\u2019t say, \u2019cause Ah never knowed<\/span> you wuz so satisfied wid me lak dat. Ah kinda thought\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.<\/p>\n

As soon as Tea Cake went out pushing wind in front of him, he saw that the wind and water had given life to lots of things that folks think of as dead and given death to so much that had been living things. Water everywhere. Stray fish swimming in the yard. Three inches more and the water would be in the house. Already in some. He decided to try to find a car to take them out of the \u2019Glades before worse things happened. He turned back to tell Janie about it so she could be ready to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cGit our insurance papers tuhgether, Janie. Ah\u2019ll tote mah box mahself and things lak dat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got all de money out de dresser drawer, already?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNaw, git it quick and cut up piece off de table-cloth tuh wrap it up in. Us liable tuh git wet tuh our necks. Cut uh piece uh dat oilcloth quick fuh our papers. We got tuh go, if it ain\u2019t too late. De dish can\u2019t bear it out no longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

He snatched the oilcloth off the table and took out his knife. Janie held it straight while he slashed off a strip.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Tea Cake, it\u2019s too awful out dere. Maybe it\u2019s better tuh stay heah in de wet than it is tuh try tuh\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

He stunned the argument with half a word. \u201cFix,\u201d he said and fought his way outside. He had seen more than Janie had.<\/p>\n

Janie took a big needle and ran up a longish sack. Found some newspaper and wrapped up the paper money and papers and thrust them in and whipped over the open end with her needle. Before she could get it thoroughly hidden in the pocket of her overalls, Tea Cake burst in again.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u202f\u2019Tain\u2019t no cars, Janie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh thought not! Whut we gointuh do now?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got tuh walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all dis weather, Tea Cake? Ah don\u2019t b\u2019lieve Ah could make it out de quarters.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh yeah you kin. Me and you and Motor Boat kin all lock arms and hold one \u2019nother down. Eh, Motor?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s sleep on de bed in yonder,\u201d Janie said. Tea Cake called without moving.<\/p>\n

\u201cMotor Boat! You better git up from dere! Hell done broke loose in Georgy. Dis minute! How kin you sleep at uh time lak dis? Water knee-deep in de yard.\u201d<\/p>\n

They stepped out in water almost to their buttocks and managed to turn east. Tea Cake had to throw his box away, and Janie saw how it hurt him. Dodging flying missiles, floating dangers, avoiding stepping in holes and warmed on the wind now at their backs until they gained comparatively dry land. They had to fight to keep from being pushed the wrong way and to hold together. They saw other people like themselves struggling along. A house down, here and there, frightened cattle. But above all the drive of the wind and the water. And the lake. Under its multiplied roar could be heard a mighty sound of grinding rock and timber and a wail. They looked back. Saw people trying to run in raging waters and screaming when they found they couldn\u2019t. A huge barrier of the makings of the dike to which the cabins had been added was rolling and tumbling forward. Ten feet higher and as far as they could see the muttering wall advanced before the braced-up waters like a road crusher on a cosmic scale. The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred miles an hour wind had loosed his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and ran forward until he met the quarters; uprooted them like grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the houses, rolling the people in the houses along with other timbers. The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel.<\/p>\n

\u201cDe lake is comin\u2019!\u201d Tea Cake gasped.<\/p>\n

\u201cDe lake!\u201d In amazed horror from Motor Boat, \u201cDe lake!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s comin\u2019 behind us!\u201d Janie shuddered. \u201cUs can\u2019t fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we still kin run,\u201d Tea Cake shouted and they ran. The gushing water ran faster. The great body was held back, but rivers spouted through fissures in the rolling wall and broke like day. The three fugitives ran past another line of shanties that topped a slight rise and gained a little. They cried out as best they could, \u201cDe lake is comin\u2019!\u201d and barred doors flew open and others joined them in flight crying the same as they went. \u201cDe lake is comin\u2019!\u201d and the pursuing waters growled and shouted ahead, \u201cYes, Ah\u2019m comin\u2019!\u201d, and those who could fled on.<\/p>\n

They made it to a tall house on a hump of ground and Janie said, \u201cLess stop heah. Ah can\u2019t make it no further. Ah\u2019m done give out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us is done give out,\u201d Tea Cake corrected. \u201cWe\u2019se goin\u2019 inside out dis weather, kill or cure.\u201d He knocked with the handle of his knife, while they leaned their faces and shoulders against the wall. He knocked once more then he and Motor Boat went round to the back and forced a door. Nobody there.<\/p>\n

\u201cDese people had mo\u2019 sense than Ah did,\u201d Tea Cake said as they dropped to the floor and lay there panting. \u201cUs oughta went on wid \u2019Lias lak he ast me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t know,\u201d Janie contended. \u201cAnd when yuh don\u2019t know, yuh just don\u2019t know. De storms might not of come sho nuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

They went to sleep promptly but Janie woke up first. She heard the sound of rushing water and sat up.<\/p>\n

\u201cTea Cake! Motor Boat! De lake is comin\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

The lake was<\/span> coming on. Slower and wider, but coming. It had trampled on most of its supporting wall and lowered its front by spreading. But it came muttering and grumbling onward like a tired mammoth just the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cDis is uh high tall house. Maybe it won\u2019t reach heah at all,\u201d Janie counseled. \u201cAnd if it do, maybe it won\u2019t reach tuh de upstairs part.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJanie, Lake Okechobee is forty miles wide and sixty miles long. Dat\u2019s uh whole heap uh water. If dis wind is shovin\u2019 dat whole lake disa way, dis house ain\u2019t nothin\u2019 tuh swaller. Us better go. Motor Boat!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhut you want, man?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDe lake is comin\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAw, naw it \u2019tain\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, it is so<\/span> comin\u2019! Listen! You kin hear it way off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kin jus\u2019 come on. Ah\u2019ll wait right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAw, get up, Motor Boat! Less make it tuh de Palm Beach road. Dat\u2019s on uh fill. We\u2019se pretty safe dere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAh\u2019m safe here, man. Go ahead if yuh wants to. Ah\u2019m sleepy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhut you gointuh do if de lake reach heah?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo upstairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cS\u2019posing it come up dere?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSwim, man. Dat\u2019s all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, uh, Good bye, Motor Boat. Everything is pretty bad, yuh know. Us might git missed of one \u2019nother. You sho is a grand friend fuh uh man tuh have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood bye, Tea Cake. Y\u2019all oughta stay here and sleep, man. No use in goin\u2019 off and leavin\u2019 me lak dis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t wanta. Come on wid us. It might be night time when de water hem you up in heah. Dat\u2019s how come Ah won\u2019t stay. Come on, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTea Cake, Ah got tuh have mah sleep. Definitely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGood bye, then, Motor. Ah wish you all de luck. Goin\u2019 over tuh Nassau fuh dat visit widja when all dis is over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDefinitely, Tea Cake. Mah mama\u2019s house is yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tea Cake and Janie were some distance from the house before they struck serious water. Then they had to swim a distance, and Janie could not hold up more than a few strokes at a time, so Tea Cake bore her up till finally they hit a ridge that led on towards the fill. It seemed to him the wind was weakening a little so he kept looking for a place to rest and catch his breath. His wind was gone. Janie was tired and limping, but she had not had to do that hard swimming in the turbulent waters, so Tea Cake was much worse off. But they couldn\u2019t stop. Gaining the fill was something but it was no guarantee. The lake was coming. They had to reach the six-mile bridge. It was high and safe perhaps.<\/p>\n

Everybody was walking the fill. Hurrying, dragging, falling, crying, calling out names hopefully and hopelessly. Wind and rain beating on old folks and beating on babies. Tea Cake stumbled once or twice in his weariness and Janie held him up. So they reached the bridge at Six Mile Bend and thought to rest.<\/p>\n

But it was crowded. White people had preempted that point of elevation and there was no more room. They could climb up one of its high sides and down the other, that was all. Miles further on, still no rest.<\/p>\n

They passed a dead man in a sitting position on a hummock, entirely surrounded by wild animals and snakes. Common danger made common friends. Nothing sought a conquest over the other.<\/p>\n

Another man clung to a cypress tree on a tiny island. A tin roof of a building hung from the branches by electric wires and the wind swung it back and forth like a mighty ax. The man dared not move a step to his right lest this crushing blade split him open. He dared not step left for a large rattlesnake was stretched full length with his head in the wind. There was a strip of water between the island and the fill, and the man clung to the tree and cried for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cDe snake won\u2019t bite yuh,\u201d Tea Cake yelled to him. \u201cHe skeered tuh go intuh uh coil. Skeered he\u2019ll be blowed away. Step round dat side and swim off!\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after that Tea Cake felt he couldn\u2019t walk anymore. Not right away. So he stretched long side of the road to rest. Janie spread herself between him and the wind and he closed his eyes and let the tiredness seep out of his limbs. On each side of the fill was a great expanse of water like lakes\u2014water full of things living and dead. Things that didn\u2019t belong in water. As far as the eye could reach, water and wind playing upon it in fury. A large piece of tar-paper roofing sailed through the air and scudded along the fill until it hung against a tree. Janie saw it with joy. That was the very thing to cover Tea Cake with. She could lean against it and hold it down. The wind wasn\u2019t quite so bad as it was anyway. The very thing. Poor Tea Cake!<\/p>\n

She crept on hands and knees to the piece of roofing and caught hold of it by either side. Immediately the wind lifted both of them and she saw herself sailing off the fill to the right, out and out over the lashing water. She screamed terribly and released the roofing which sailed away as she plunged downward into the water.<\/p>\n

\u201cTea Cake!\u201d He heard her and sprang up. Janie was trying to swim but fighting water too hard. He saw a cow swimming slowly towards the fill in an oblique line. A massive built dog was sitting on her shoulders and shivering and growling. The cow was approaching Janie. A few strokes would bring her there.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake it tuh de cow and grab hold of her tail! Don\u2019t use yo\u2019 feet. Jus\u2019 yo\u2019 hands is enough. Dat\u2019s right, come on!\u201d<\/p>\n

Janie achieved the tail of the cow and lifted her head up along the cow\u2019s rump, as far as she could above water. The cow sunk a little with the added load and thrashed a moment in terror. Thought she was being pulled down by a gator. Then she continued on. The dog stood up and growled like a lion, stiff-standing hackles, stiff muscles, teeth uncovered as he lashed up his fury for the charge. Tea Cake split the water like an otter, opening his knife as he dived. The dog raced down the backbone of the cow to the attack and Janie screamed and slipped far back on the tail of the cow, just out of reach of the dog\u2019s angry jaws. He wanted to plunge in after her but dreaded the water, somehow. Tea Cake rose out of the water at the cow\u2019s rump and seized the dog by the neck. But he was a powerful dog and Tea Cake was over-tired. So he didn\u2019t kill the dog with one stroke as he had intended. But the dog couldn\u2019t free himself either. They fought and somehow he managed to bite Tea Cake high up on his cheek-bone once. Then Tea Cake finished him and sent him to the bottom to stay there. The cow relieved of a great weight was landing on the fill with Janie before Tea Cake stroked in and crawled weakly upon the fill again.<\/p>\n

Janie began to fuss around his face where the dog had bitten him but he said it didn\u2019t amount to anything. \u201cHe\u2019d uh raised hell though if he had uh grabbed me uh inch higher and bit me in mah eye. Yuh can\u2019t buy eyes in de store, yuh know.\u201d He flopped to the edge of the fill as if the storm wasn\u2019t going on at all. \u201cLemme rest awhile, then us got tuh make it on intuh town somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was next day by the sun and the clock when they reached Palm Beach. It was years later by their bodies. Winters and winters of hardship and suffering. The wheel kept turning round and round. Hope, hopelessness and despair. But the storm blew itself out as they approached the city of refuge.<\/p>\n

Havoc was there with her mouth wide open. Back in the Everglades the wind had romped among lakes and trees. In the city it had raged among houses and men. Tea Cake and Janie stood on the edge of things and looked over the desolation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow kin Ah find uh doctor fuh yo\u2019 face in all dis mess?\u201d Janie wailed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAin\u2019t got de damn doctor tuh study \u2019bout. Us needs uh place tuh rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

A great deal of their money and perseverance and they found a place to sleep. It was just that. No place to live at all. Just sleep. Tea Cake looked all around and sat heavily on the side of the bed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell,\u201d he said humbly, \u201creckon you never \u2019spected tuh come tuh dis when you took up wid me, didja?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce upon uh time, Ah never \u2019spected nothin\u2019, Tea Cake, but bein\u2019 dead from the standin\u2019 still and tryin\u2019 tuh laugh. But you come \u2019long and made somethin\u2019 outa me. So Ah\u2019m thankful fuh anything we come through together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThanky, Ma\u2019am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou was twice noble tuh save me from dat dawg. Tea Cake, Ah don\u2019t speck you seen his eyes lak Ah did. He didn\u2019t aim tuh jus\u2019 bite me, Tea Cake. He aimed tuh kill me stone dead. Ah\u2019m never tuh fuhgit dem eyes. He wuzn\u2019t nothin\u2019 all over but pure hate. Wonder where he come from?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, Ah did see \u2019im too. It wuz frightenin\u2019. Ah didn\u2019t mean tuh take his hate neither. He had tuh die uh me one. Mah switch-blade said it wuz him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPo\u2019 me, he\u2019d tore me tuh pieces, if it wuzn\u2019t fuh you, honey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have tuh say, if it wuzn\u2019t fuh me, baby, cause Ah\u2019m heah<\/span>, and then Ah want yuh tuh know it\u2019s uh man heah.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"menu_order":18,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[49],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-88","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":3,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/88\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/88\/revisions\/147"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/3"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/88\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=88"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=88"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.library.torontomu.ca\/theireyeswerewatchinggod\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}