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when he entered the house. Mama and I both looked
up and gasped.
"What did you do now, Jack," Mama asked
after a moment, "to get such a beating?"
"They ganged up on me is what happened," he wailed. "Those thieves down at Bloody Mary's." He fixed his eyes on me. "You shouldn't have left that house so fast, Gabriel. We coulda made them pay to
have you leave."
"What for, Jack? So you can go and throw it
away at some bar or over some game of chance?"
Mama snapped. "Just like you did every other
nickel?"
"It was what was coming to us," he declared,
his arms spread.
"Us, Jack? How's it us? She's the one's suffered
and she don't get one penny because you've gone and
lost or spent it all, right? Or did you put away a little
for her?" Mama asked, knowing the answer. "I . . I just been trying to build something for
this family, is all. But I got cheated, so I went back to
get back what's mine and they jumped me." He stared
at me a moment. "They give you anything before you
left?" he asked.
"No, Daddy," I said.
"And if they had, we wouldn't tell you, Jack
Landry," Mama said.
"Ahh. Women never appreciate what a man
tries to do for them," he complained, and sank in his
worn easy chair. "I got to think up a new plan here.
Those Tates can't get off this. easy," he muttered. "Instead of spending all this time sitting, there
trying to think up a new plan to rob people, why don't
you go look for honest work, Jack?" Mama said, her
hands on her hips. He gazed up, his nearly closed
