Question For The Ages

Joe wonders.

Buck wasn’t about ready to back the hell down, that much I could tell. We was back to back behind a couple of wood bundles and the rifle in my hands was slippery with mud and blood ‘cuz of the cut on my palm. I could near feel Buck breathing, ragged and hasty like a horse run too far, too fast. I reckoned I was soundin’ much the same. There was four or maybe five damn Shepherdsons out there, all with guns. I poked around the edge of the woodpile with the barrel of my rifle and near caught one of ‘em in the shoulder, but my arm was cocked wrong and I missed by about two foot.

I chanced a look over my shoulder and that was a fool of a thing to do ‘cuz any moment the Shepherdson boys coulda come ‘round and peppered my front up and down and sideways with lead, and then coulda got Buck dead in the back, too. Maybe they would get lucky and get the pair with one shot, a clean one, through the chest or somethin’. But I had a mind to look out for an opening to run to, and I couldn’t look for one out the back of my head.

We was up ag’inst the Mississippi to one side, and it warn’t much use to make a run for that. No way you want to get caught in the water with five guns trained on yer back, that’s being a goddamn sitting duck. I didn’t pay no mind to the river and instead I had a good look-see at the woods down the bank. I spied a tree and a wood-rank like ours that’d make a mighty fine bunker, and warn’t it just chance it was on our turf? I went to nudging Buck with the butt of my rifle and pointed.

“Buck, Buck,” I says, “We kin make it to th’ tree all right. We kin hightail it from there.”

Buck didn’t have quite the same thought in his head. He was rankling for a reckoning, I knew it and knew it well enough, and I couldn’t blame the poor kid ‘cuz ‘tain’t every day you trip over your pap whose jus’ been shot through twice and ‘s bleeding out all over the place. So he turns and snaps at me and says; “Hell to that, we can take ‘em! Leastways we can take some of ‘em down with us!”

Well I went to say somethin’ back but instead I spin around quick and aim at one of the Shepherdsons what thought he could get a shot at ol’ Joe. I warn’t no chump. The bullet pinged off the metal rings ‘round the rainbarrel under the crook in the roof of the store, missing by at least a foot, but then it was enough to send the fool scampering back with his tail ‘tween his legs.

“We got to move, Buck,” says I, in a sort of whisper. Buck he thinked it over and kind of snorts to let me know he’s agreed. He knowed a woodpile and trees is better cover than a woodpile and nothing at all (and mud, too, which warn’t much help and warn’t too comfortable nuther), and I knowed it warn’t much time until the Shepherdsons come a-charging at our position right now and gun us down afore we can get a bullet in edgewise. Or they could come a-slipping down the river and get us flanked, ‘twixt a rock an’ a hard place. That or they give up and lit out for home, like the cowards they are, but then I knowed Buck would jump out after ‘em and o’course I’d hafta come with, ‘cuz there ain’t no way I’m leaving Buck to die all by his lonesome.

The Shepherdsons started sounding further off, near the log store somewheres, and I reckoned Buck knew it, too, ‘cuz he up and jumped to his feet and ripped off a couple shots. The kid was fast with a firearm, faster ‘n his brother Tom, anyway, ‘cuz Tom was dead in a ditch back there. Faster ‘n me, too, but I was right quick also.

There was a shout. Not just any shout, but a painful one, and I knew it that one of them Shepherdson’s was down. Buck and me bolted like a pair of pheasants. I fired random back at the Shepherdsons just to make ‘em think twice about goin’ after us. They was trying to get their wounded off the saddle anyway, and when I shot at ‘em they flinched, but one of them was up and firin’ right back at us. Buck was maybe five paces ahead of me now and he was whooping like a mad injun, and he had to zig and zag fast to get clear of one of the Shepherdson’s crosshairs; the bullet thunked into a fence post.

I did a vault over the fence and followed Buck close on his heels. We dived for the wood-rank near the tree and ended up in a sort of legs-and-arms tangle behind it. We was up and crouched with our rifles aimed in less ‘n a heartbeat and the Shepherdsons didn’t know what hit ‘em. Two of ‘em was helping the one what Buck’d shot down, and the other two charged straight for us, but me and Buck got a one-up over them ag’in and forced ‘em back with a couple of warning shots fired ‘cross their bows. After a while of dancing ‘round in front of us on their horses, the Shepherdsons about-faced an’ cleared out. I knowed they’d be back, and Buck did too, and we didn’t budge cuz Buck would be damned if we didn’t fight with all we got. They wouldn’t come behind us, we reckoned, with or without their horses, ‘cuz it was too thick and they don’t know this part of the woods like us Grangerfords do.

“Buck.” I looked up quick, right startled I was, and why, up in the tree was a boy! Buck’s age, I reckoned. Buck looked ‘round stupidly, still with his head fogged with the excitement, and I pointed up.

“George!” says Buck, and a smile made his face light right up. It was gone soon enough, and he jerked a thumb after the Shepherdsons. “Keep a sharp eye, George. Them damned Shepherdsons ain’t gonna be gone long, they’ll be working up some devilry.”

I peered up through the branches at George. He was a skinny kid, looked pretty scared, too. I reckoned he’d never been part of a feud afore. I nodded at him awkward-like and turned back to peepin’ over the wood-rank alongside the barrel of my rifle. There was a kind of strangled sound comin’ from Buck and I glanced at him. He had his teeth clenched like a bear-trap and he was red in the face. I coulda swore I saw water in his eyes.

“I ain’t gonna let those Shepherdsons git away with what they done.”

“No, we ain’t gonna do that, Buck,” says I, quiet-like.

“Kill’t Pap, they did. Kill’t him and Tom and Bob, too. We ain’t gonna let ‘em live with that, eh, Joe?”

“I don’t reckon so,” I says, ‘cuz I knowed I would stand with Buck to the death.

Buck was snifflin’ up a storm now, and I was mighty uncomfortable, so I didn’t say nothing more. I figger’d I’d let him do the talking.

“I ain’t gonna go down without a fight! By God, there’s gonna be a few more Shepherdsons to join those others by the end of the day.” Buck shouts suddenly, and pounds on the ground. “Not like Pap an’ Tom and Bob. They was stupid. Shoulda waited on our relations. I knowed it, four of us couldn’t never take on them Shepherdsons without Uncle Willy’s gang.

I hunched my shoulders a bit. I guessed Pap warn’t too happy about getting’ to the battlefield so durned late, nuther. Some time later, George’s voice sounded from the branches. “Buck, what happened to young Harney Shepherdson and Miss Sophia?”

Buck ground his teeth together. “Gone, gone far away. Cross’d the river this morning, didn’t they, and aren’t they all safe an’ happy over there! Why if I coulda shot that Shepherdson dog through the skull ‘stead of through the hat, this’d never happen. Lordy, I do wish. Cain’t believe I jus’ went an’ let him go like that! Damn it.”

Well, George was right quiet after that.

I gave a snort. It were just like Sophia to go and do that. She were always all kinds of selfish. I’d have never thought it of her to actually go and put her foot in it, though. I wondered, when Sophia runnoft with that damn Harney Shepherdson, was she thinkin’ she’d cause her pap to git hisself kill’t? I bet she never did think of the trouble she’d cause fer her brothers, nuther.

Suddenly I feel like there’s this red-hot iron punching me through the shoulder. Well I most fell forwards and knocked my head ag’inst the wood-pile. Buck was shouting and he turned and aimed but he dropped his rifle and clutched at his hand, which was already bright red. Another bullet rang against the wood-pile near where Buck was crouched.

I tried to get up and fell backwards ag’inst the tree, an’ saw George clinging there, his eyes ‘bout as wide as saucers. Hain’t he never seen a body shot afore? Christ. But I didn’t have much time to socialize. I grabbed Buck by the good arm and we tore out of there as fast as we could.

Shepherdsons. Well I would have felt like a fool if I had the time, but I guess what’s done’s done, and there hain’t much to do about it.

We went through the woods first, and I had my rifle on my good shoulder and was shooting wild back at ‘em. I reckon I hit maybe two of ‘em but I couldn’t tell ‘cuz I warn’t looking. I heard them shouting, though. Buck he grabbed for the gun and swung around and let loose, hitting mostly trees but I reckon he didn’t care much. They was firin’ back quick, and I snatched up Buck’s shirt collar and a-yanked him behind a tree and he dropped the rifle.

There warn’t much for it, so we dove straight into the river and struck out with the current. The shock hadn’t worn off yet but I realized I couldn’t move my shoulder right and it made swimming mighty tough. Buck was worse off, ‘cuz of his two fingers was shot clean off and that had to be hell to swim with.

‘Course, we couldn’t swim too long. The red-hot iron was back, and with a fury, getting me through the legs and damn it, even square in the back. I gulped in water tryin’ to scream but it made it worse ‘cuz I couldn’t figger what hurt more, water in the lungs and up the nose or bullets in the back.

As I felt m’self kind of slipping off, a thought occurred to me.

What was it all for?

Author's Note

We had an assignment to write a story from a character's point of view. I chose Buck Grangerford's cousin, Joe.

Heh well, obviously this is written in Twain's style so don't mind the grammar. At all. Please.

Reviews

[Ripple of Aqua]

I love the way that you don't just tell the story from what the character would see or think, but you also added the accent that he has. That was really smart. I really liked reading this.