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Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Summary

Part II opens in Fort Smith, Arkansas, with July Johnson, the sheriff — twenty-four, still yellow with jaundice caught at a trial in Missouri, and four months married to Elmira, who has lost patience with him. His deputy is Roscoe Brown, forty-eight, lazy, a compulsive whittler, and widely blamed for letting Jake Spoon get away after the shooting of July's brother Benny, the dentist and mayor. Benny's widow Peach — huge, quarrelsome, and named nothing like a peach — comes across the street carrying a rooster to demand that July ride after the killer, wringing the bird's neck mid-conversation when it pecks her. July's sense of duty is to the town rather than to Benny, who was never once kind to him. Elmira opposes the trip because Peach wants it. Between his wife and his sister-in-law, July is boxed in.

Analysis

The second front opens, and it mirrors the first: a man leaving home on an errand that will kill everyone he takes with him. Peach wringing the rooster's neck mid-sentence sets the register — casual violence under a comic surface — that governs the entire Arkansas plot.

Plates

Part II opens on the main street of Fort Smith, dry for once, with July Johnson and his deputy Roscoe Brown sitting out in front of what passes for a jail.
00 Part II opens on the main street of Fort Smith, dry for once, with July Johnson and his deputy Roscoe Brown sitting out in front of what passes for a jail.
On the jailhouse porch, Roscoe tells July that now he has turned twenty-four he can't expect no mercy, and that he shouldn't have got married.
01 On the jailhouse porch, Roscoe tells July that now he has turned twenty-four he can't expect no mercy, and that he shouldn't have got married.
The jail itself — one cell, a lock that doesn't work, and the chain they have to wrap around the bars instead.
02 The jail itself — one cell, a lock that doesn't work, and the chain they have to wrap around the bars instead.
That morning at home, Elmira tells July she wishes he'd turn back white, her mouth tight, looking right through him.
03 That morning at home, Elmira tells July she wishes he'd turn back white, her mouth tight, looking right through him.
Peach comes picking her way across the main street toward the jail, carrying her red rooster.
04 Peach comes picking her way across the main street toward the jail, carrying her red rooster.
Peach stands over the two seated men and asks July when he is aiming to start after that murderer.
05 Peach stands over the two seated men and asks July when he is aiming to start after that murderer.
Roscoe snorts at the mention of Jake Spoon's Ranger friends, complains about his thirty dollars a month, and is uneasily aware that half the town blames him for letting Jake get away.
06 Roscoe snorts at the mention of Jake Spoon's Ranger friends, complains about his thirty dollars a month, and is uneasily aware that half the town blames him for letting Jake get away.
The rooster pecks her hand, Peach wrings its neck without an instant's hesitation, and the headless body lies jerking in the dust of the street.
07 The rooster pecks her hand, Peach wrings its neck without an instant's hesitation, and the headless body lies jerking in the dust of the street.
Peach carries the dead rooster off by its feet, telling July that being a little yellow doesn't mean he can't ride a horse.
08 Peach carries the dead rooster off by its feet, telling July that being a little yellow doesn't mean he can't ride a horse.
July gives Roscoe a wave and walks off home to a wife he can't read, leaving the deputy whittling on the porch and little Joe roping a stump down the street.
09 July gives Roscoe a wave and walks off home to a wife he can't read, leaving the deputy whittling on the porch and little Joe roping a stump down the street.