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"I didn't know meals like this existed anymore. How'd you pay for this?" Robert said.
"Took advantage of the credit system... Then signed your name to the bill," Willi
e said.
"Tige was telling me about your local night riders," Robert said.
"Have you heard of the White League or the Knights of the White Camellia?"
"I heard Bedford Forrest is the head of a group of some kind. Ex-Masons, I think. They use a strange nomenclature," Robert replied.
"Some are just fellows who don't want to give it up. But some will put a bedsheet over their heads and park one in your brisket," Willie said.
"What have you gone and done, Willie?"
"Abigail and Flower Jamison started up a school for Negroes or anybody else who wants to learn. I helped them get started," Willie replied.
Robert was silent.
"You haven't seen her?" Willie asked.
"Not yet."
"You going to?" Willie asked.
Robert set down his knife and fork. He kept his eyes on his plate. "Her letters are confessional. But I'm not sure what it is that bothers her. Would you know, Willie?" Robert said.
"Would I be knowing? You're asking me?" Willie said.
Robert was silent again.
"Who knows the soul of another?" Willie said.
"You're a dreadful liar."
"Don't be talking about your old pals like that."
"I won't," Robert said.
The sun was in the yard and on the trees now, and mockingbirds and jays were flitting past the window. The horse Robert had ridden from Abbeville was drinking from the bayou, the reins trailing in the water.
"You were at Mansfield when General Mouton was killed?" Robert said.
"Yes," Willie replied.
"It's true that half the 18th was wiped out again?" Robert said.
Willie looked at him but didn't reply.
"You dream about it?" Robert asked.
"A little. Not every night. I've let the war go for the most part," Willie said. He twisted his head slightly and touched at a shaving nick on his jawbone, his eyelids blinking.
The wind blew the curtains, and out on the bayou a large fish flopped in the shade of a cypress. "Thank you for the fine breakfast," Robert said.
"I see grape blowing people all over the trees," Tige said.
Robert and Willie looked at his upturned face and at the darkness in his eyes and the grayness around his mouth.
