Read Soul of a Whore and Purvis Online
Authors: Denis Johnson
Blue dog called my name
If you ever get to Houston
Boy you better walk right
You better not gamble
[
He materializes from the dark.
]
â¦You better never have no fun a-tall.
â¦Wrap yourself around me! Gimme a squeeze!
I waited for you at the Huntsville Greyhound!
Man, I broke parole to see you. Manâ
Baby baby babyâhow you doing?
I'm doing good, myself! I'm traveling!
They call me Hostage Taker 'cause I took
Some hostages, and that's my claim to fame.
Who is this guy? How come he don't talk?
Brer Jenks has got hisself a Tar Baby.
[
Sings
]
Mistah Blue-bird on mah shoul-dah!
OK OK OK let's settle down.
I waited for you! First the Houston bus
And then the Dallas, and you never came!
That's the day things started going wrong.
Parole boss say be here, or I'll get mad.
You miss the meeting and he gets his sharpened
Fingers motorvating on that phone pad
Wop bop-a-lu-bop, a wop bam boom!âlike
that
He violates your ass, and you got warrants.
That's what happens when the bus don't come!
âHow long has Brer Jenks been like this?
JOHN
: I saw you on TV.
HT
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â âNow, don't believe
Just every single thing that TV shows you.
JOHN
: I didn't say believe. I say I saw.
I saw you on there.
HT
[
with
BJ
'
s jug
]:        Want a snort?â¦To fame!
Woo. Woo. That strangles up your vocal cords.
JOHN
: How'd you get here, anyhow?
HT
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â I walked.
I walked across the fields. Across, across.
That's why I'm all red dirt up past my knees.
â¦They let you wear your hair and beard in the joint?
JOHN
: No. I been out a couple years.
HT
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â A couple?
JOHN
: Yeah. Two years.
HT
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Then what you wearing whites for?
Been gambling? Gambling treats you mean as drinking.
Either one, your wardrobe goes to hell.
Now, look at me. I'm mussed, I know, but lookâ
A brand-new suit. Use me as your example.
[
Siren in the distance.
]
âThat's that blue dog calling me. That skinny
Blue dogâ¦[
Of the cross:
] It's kinda Mexican, ain't it?
JOHN
: Yeah, it's Mexican. And so's my mother.
HT
: So's my mother? What'd you say aboutâ
JOHN
: No,
mine
.
My
mother's Mexican, not yours.
HT
: How do you know my mom ain't Mexican?
She could be an African-Mexican.
I could be an Afro-Hispanic-American,
So leave each other's mother out of it.
Did you just see a worm crawl outa my brain?
Some days I feel screwier'n Japanese jazz!
Been starin' in the pit of Hell so long
My eyes are bleeding and I'm damn near blind,
But that's all rightâ¦
Let me introduce myself.
JOHN
: You introduced yourself.
HT
: I introduced myself? OK, OK,
Then let
you
introduce
your
self to
me
.
JOHN
: I'm John Cassandra.
HT
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â And this here's Preacher Jenks.
Me and the preacher have a history.
I'm charmed I'm sure. 'Cause I heard all about you,
Uh-huh, the Cross Boy and the preacher man.
JOHN
: What's your purpose here?
HT
: My purpose on this earth?
JOHN
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â No. On this porch.
HT
: I'm just here long enough to cure my nerves.
BILL JENKS
: My age, you get to feel this vernal weather
Down in the gristleâ¦
HT
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Brother Bill!
BILL JENKS
: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Quite so!
Is it autumn, or is it spring? I can't decide.
We've got this barometric memory
That kind of senses atmospheric change
Based on what we've seen since childhood.
JOHN
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Bill,
Will you shut up?
HT
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â How long has he been like this?
BILL JENKS
: It's a proper question.
JOHN
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â No, the question
Is how long are you gonna
stay
like this?
BILL JENKS
: Either until autumn or until spring.
Old HT! I saw you on the TV.
Let's us have a drink.
HT
: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Brer Jenks! I'm out!
â¦You're out! We're out! It's time!âWe hit that number!
Baby, don't you remember? I finally hit that number.
I pulled some mischief, slick as baby shitâ
Guess where? Do you know where? In Canada!
Been up there for a year. I got a car,
I got a name, I got ID, the total package,
I had it all up there, but I missed home.
Not home in Willard. Home back at the Walls.
I missed that smell. The voices echoing.
The same day over and over and no way out.
I kind of missed that feeling like you're trapped.
BILL JENKS
: What I hear, you ain't gonna miss it long.
HT
: I feel like I'm full of poisonâemotional poison,
Physical poison, and every kind of poison.
My mind got fat. My dick won't make no juice.
What are they
thinking
about in Canada?
They make you feel ridiculousâ¦
BILL JENKS
: It wasn't Canada that made you famous.
There ain't no show called
Canada's Most Wanted
.
Nope, I believe they showed your photograph
On one they call
America's Most Wanted
,
Had it on now several Sairdy's running,
Account of this thing you did in Ellersburg,
And not the Canadian Ellersburg, no sir,
This other Ellersburg down here in Texas,
The Texas Ellersburg. A quite bad thing.
HT
:
I
know.âWell, it looks likeâ¦well, it looks likeâ¦
BILL JENKS
:
Well
, HT, it looks like a double killing.
It looks like they think you did it, like they think
You did this double killing up there. So they think.
Siren in the distanceâ
HT
: It was a desperate situation, Brother Jenks.
BILL JENKS
: They're looking for you, Brother Hostage Taker.
HT
: Don't go believing everything you hear.
JOHN
: Sirens? Sirens are hard not to believe.
HT
: That's just a train. The good old K.C. Flyer.
BILL JENKS
: They want you, they want you bad, the worst. “The most.”
HT
: I'm saying it was a desperate
situation
.
BILL JENKS
: How could it be desperate? There's nothing
there
,
It's
Ellersburg
âa crossroads with a store,
A gasoline pump, and a Coke machine.
It's like a scene from 1957.
Thing still dispenses Yoo-Hoo for a dime.
HT
: Man, you don't get it, I'm
here
, I'm
here.
BILL JENKS
: And Mom and Pop slopped over on the floorâ
Which one was Mom? Which one was Pop? We'll wait
On Ellersburg's most talented mortician
To figure that one out.
HT
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â He had a gun!
BILL JENKS
: Hey, so do I. You gonna blow my head off?
HT
: What are you saying? Man, we have a deal!
Twelve months in a prison cell togetherâ
BILL JENKS
: Hey now, what was that movie, what was that movieâ¦
The Defiant Ones
, with Sidney Poitier.
“Charlie Potato, Charlie Potato!”â¦Boys,
I'm going to Huntsville, Texas, boys,
To raise this bastard's mother from the dead.
JOHN
: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Thank God!
BILL JENKS
: No. Get back. There's foodstuff caught in your beard.
JOHN
: Thank God. Thank God!
HT
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Soâwhere do I come in?
BILL JENKS
: Come in?
HT
: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Come in. Come in.
BILL JENKS
:Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â You don't come in.
HT
: I don't?
BILL JENKS
: You don't come in. Where would you fit?
HT
: That's what I'm asking in this stupid place
With sirens screaming awful bloody murder
And blah blah blahânow where do I fit in?
BILL JENKS
: Sidneyâ¦You've got no role in my movie.
My movie's got a cast of one.
It's all about this preacher silhouetted
Against a gory sunset outside Dallas
Tyin' up a rope to lynch himself.
That's the picture I'm trying to get across.
Kind of a tragic silly mystery.
HT
: Man, we have a deal, we have a deal!
BILL JENKS
: What deal? When did I ever make a bargain
With such as you?
HT
: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Man!âtwelve months in a cell?
A solid year? Me smelling your shit
And listening to you playing with yourself,
Coughing, farting, talking in your dreams,
Crying all night long the first eight weeks?
âAnd I remember the night you didn't cry,
First night you slept the night entirely through.
I didn't sleep all night that night, for joy.
BILL JENKS
: Ah! Those were the days! And then they stopped.
HT
: Brother, Brother. I waited at the Greyhoundâ¦
Do you want to know why those people got killed?
BILL JENKS
: There was this guy I knew, he was aâwell,
you
know,
I don't know what you'd call him, maybe a faggot?
That what you are? A homosexual?
HT
: O, God, O, God, this ain't my people here!
I got to get with my people, not these people!
Gimme a
sign
!
â¦Do you know why that mom and pop got killed?
Can you ever guess why those two persons died?
BILL JENKS
: 'Cause buckshot blew their brains up.
HT
: Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Can you guess?
Or should I trace it back for you? Listen:
I'm all set up, I got a job, I'm in a suit,
I'm in the Houston Public Library.
Carpet. Silence. Air-conditioning.
Holding
Street Rod News
in my black fingers.
The time has come to buy a powerful new
Machine, because I'm freeâ¦White guy comes over.
Now, I'm just looking at my magazineâ
I'm looking at pictures of engines, powerful enginesâ
Look up, 'cause now he's going hem-hem-hem
With his throat. I say to myself: White man
Coming up in the public libraryâ¦
Light brown hair, blue eyes, the one
Explain your options on the life insurance,
Sell you a washer-dryer combination.
I'm thinking, First my beautiful suit, and now
This white man in the public library.
Not young, but not exactly middle-age,
Just nonchalant, you know, ain't nothing to him.
He says, “This is my name,” and all like that,
White man in the public library.
“Don't get me wrong, I gotta show you something.
Come over here to this part of the library
For compact discs and videos and all,”
And I don't know is he a
cop
, some
Mormon
â¦
What am I gonna do but follow him there?
He leads me like we're on safari, man,
We're gonna capture something with our stealth,
White man in the public library.
Like we're stalking on a quiet field of birds
Or moving through a church,
And there, across the room,
White man in the public library
Shows me a beautiful young black woman.
She's standing by the racks, what can I say,
Looking like a lump of Lawd Have Mercy.
Short sleeveless dress of graphite gray,
Smooth black arms, incredible black face,
Had that sticky-outy posture like she tore
Herself from
Vogue
or
Ebony
or
Cosmo
;
The tiniest littlest dab of spit would melt her.
He showed her to me.
He looks at me with this face,
Like a bird dog saying with his face, There,
Master, I didn't leave
No marks of my teeth in her feathers.