Baby Rube Has Gone Off-Call

Well I guess what I'd first like to know-- that is, what I'm asking, being-- how you all come to want me here answering your questions when me, I had not much say in anything to start with. I just help around the office. Keeping things clean and such as that. The Sheriff, he taught me how to fix good coffee just right, the secret there being to add a little cinnamon and not say a thing about it to a soul. If you don't tell nobody then the taste is Very distinct and fine, but if you mention just like oh well I added a little pinch of cinnamon, then that's all anyone's going to taste and you'll never be let near that pot again. Do it just exactly this way Reub, Sheriff says to me. It turns the flavor very distinct and fine Sheriff said. And him giving me my own uniform to work in in the daytime. But more than that I know how to clean the cells without help, though that is mostly only using a rag and mop and bottles of cleaner on the puke and pee and sometimes blood there in the drunk tank, if you'll pardon me talking of ugly things like that.

The most I ever really did, though this being something I wasn't supposed to, this being that once when we had a boy come get drug in for having a knife at school. Some such thing. He shouldn't have been there. The Deputy he had him drug up there by the desk, and sat him down to ask him things, but Deputy didn't put cuffs on him, see we do things different down there. Sheriff says We operate different than them big boys upstate, and when he says different he means better, and when he says boys he's meaning you all, no disrespect. Sheriff, him, you can't always take seriously all the time, Sheriff being something of a bullhead. But we had this boy with the knife in there and I was up front emptying the trashcans and Deputy is asking him all kinds of things. And I am taking my sweet time because it is not very often that I am up front at the same time that these things are going on. And this being a young fellow, we don't have him cuffed, only Letting the whole weight of the situation keep him seated, what Sheriff calls it, when they're still young enough like this boy that trick works very nice. And Deputy has his eyes down on his paper and not much looking when the boy jumps up like he got springs in him and grabs over the desk for Deputy's pistol. And Deputy he gives a shout and falls plop on his back like a baby bird and I am right there with the boy's arm pushing in. And I am pulling it up and around like he is a horse who won't sit easy. I say to him son I have your arm up right here in quite a way. I told him son, if you keep on this kicking and so on then I will must to break it, he says Break it then. Sheriff he must have heard the racket from the storage room and come up right about then, and he's there right on time to see me pop the boy's arm into something useless. And he starts yelling quite fierce No, no, no, no Reub. Goddammit. He come up and he shove me off the boy and almost fall on the desk himself, me being the bigger and older of us, and Sheriff very much sick with the whole situation as he was. Goddammit Reub you big muley retard. And he buffs me away and the boy, he's still bent over the desk, and rolls over on his side quite sluggardly like by popping it I turned his arm into a very terrible heavy thing, and he is screaming for his parents and lawyer, and he is spitting and drooling and cursing quite ugly and crying wide open all over Deputy's papers. And I don't even know what else.

That was the most I ever done. And for that, I got what we call the Siberia... sir?

Begging your pardon?

... no, sir, I didn't hit the Sheriff after he said that. Why you ask?

... Well sir I wouldn't say he said it if it wasn't what he said. I'm a good hand at remembering what folks say.

... well if you say so sir. Do I keep going?

Alright. Well.

They give me what we call the Siberia treatment for awhile. Siberia being a very far-off place with no people you understand. Anytime someone come up into the office, even just the milkman, especially even when it was the parents of that boy who I broke his arm, and them being quite eager to have words with me, even then I stay in the back. Sheriff he said Just keep your nose clean and don't worry about it Reuben, him saying this while busy with other things and not much looking at me. He does not much say my name all the way like that. I can't remember the last time he did. So I tell him, I say sorry Casey and he says Sheriff, Reub. Just keep your nose clean alright? he said to me. Don't be a baby over it. And I didn't press at him any, me trying to be grateful you see, because understand I knew he was taking on awful kinds of water from what I done to that boy. He didn't have to you understand. Anyone else, they would have just cut losses and had me shipped off to anywhere instead of paying out the nose to a lawyer, but Sheriff, instead he gave up a lot of say in how he run things down at his office in keeping me on. You don't know how big a thing that is for him to give.

And the reason he done it, you understand-- the Sheriff me and him are-- in actuality, you understand, on paper-- me, and him, we grew up together. We're brothers. He's my little brother. We try and keep it quiet from most folks you understand, what since People might think he's playing favorites. Which considering how he fixed things up for me with the boy with the arm I think he might have been playing them anyway. He run into trouble himself awhile back, with a colored family from around here, in a same sort of way you see. Sheriff he was just Defending himself in the line of duty and people trying to say he didn't need to shoot that boy who come at him. They say He was unarmed and probably didn't even charge you, but Sheriff he told Wouldn't charging me with no weapon make him all the more crazy, and yes he did charge me very aggressively, unless you want to ask him for his side of things. Sheriff got out of that one okay too. He is too sharp to let people cheat the best of him and you better believe I am happy he was sharp for me too, and him not even wanting any credit for it. He can be a bullhead but he is very generous without asking for any pat on the back you understand.

Then, when they come in to change everything around, they being you all up here upstate, things were more Strictly enforced and Regulated which included cuffs on the wrists of the boys who didn't belong in there. The other big thing though, this one being more important, was that the upstate sent us a lady to keep records and documents on us and other certain things. Miss Francine is a very pretty lady but I don't need to tell you that since you all have met her by now I am pretty sure. We never had women working and we never had colored folks working in there either so Miss Francine caused quite a stir you understand. On top of her being wonderful to watch and listen to you understand.

Though Sheriff was all kinds of eaten up over having some new colored lady come charging in like that, and mixing up in his business and all, him liking much more the faces that he is used to. You don't know how big a thing that is. But when she comes in and introduce herself to us, and her being so clear and not sneaky and very polite about what she was doing there, we could not help but like her. And Miss Francine already very warm to the area. She said she Visited a lot when she was younger her grandparents mostly, and so she did not make too much city of herself to us. And we could not help but like her.

By this time I was out of Siberia, and having trash to empty and coffee to make I got the chance to talk to Miss Francine very often and me I always tried to stretch the chances by emptying the trashes very slow. She said You can just call me Franky but I never did. No thank you Miss Francine. Me, I got quite a beetle in my boot over that sort of thing. Proper ladies like Miss Francine they should hang onto their proper names long as they can and not a minute less, no thank you ma'am. But then she asks Well do you care if I call you Ruby? and I say okay. I don't mind that sort of thing since most folks they call me Reub to begin with, that just being the first part of Reuben. Folks they seem comfortable with that. It makes them comfortable with me and they smile a little at each other when they call me that instead of something stuffed up like Reuben, which I'm not all that keen on if I'm honest with you. And Miss Francine being so sweet to me and nice-looking too.

I don't know what kind of work she does exactly except there were lots of papers and she had to talk with Sheriff very often. About figures and policy from upstate up here. And things like that. Sheriff says It's all gobbledy-gook to me unless I have a little coffee in me, and he offers to make her some with the pot in his office which is a French press where they can finish talking and Miss Francine she looks at him for awhile and smiles very strange at him, and she says Okay but just for awhile. And now with the new Regulations now we have to keep Sheriff's door shut all the time.

I do not like this because doors are not see-through like bars on the drunk tank and so I do not know what kind of place I am walking into even if I have been there before. This is another important thing. I am not used to doors being closed and so when I went for Sheriff's trash can I open the door not thinking anything of it and I wish I did, but I got the door open and see Miss Francine sitting in Sheriff's chair with her legs open up wide like hornet wings, her knees up by her ears almost. And Sheriff's dogged way down on the floor like folks do when they drop their glasses. For a second I'm thinking that's what this is, that Sheriff just dropped something where Miss Francis was sitting, and he's looking for it, but then I see their clothes are all mostly gone and I see that he's loving her. Not sensible though. Not in the normal way like you'd think, though. First of all he got her all naked only to give her his jacket to wear while he was loving her. And where's the sense in that? You'll excuse my ugly talk here. This is just what I'm seeing. She had his uniform jacket on but not done up or nothing, and she has her hand wrapped around the back of his neck, and Miss Francine she is pulling him to her like a waterpump.

She got Sheriff's pistol in the other hand and it's pointed at his head where he can't see, and she's looking down at him very strange all the time. Not like you would think, either. Not the way ladies do in those private books if you'll excuse me talking of ugly things. Miss Francine, she wasn't looking down the way ladies do at boys they're sweet on, and she wasn't looking aggravated or queasy like the ladies in the private books either. Scared is more like it. Yes. I think more scared.

And angry too, like she's wanting to hit him, but she's scared of doing that, too. Like when you see that snake laid out on your porch getting himself warm or a spider on your shirt, or a yellow jacket rattling around your ears and smelling up on your sweat in summer, and you want terrible to mash it crush it kill it with your boot your hand your newspaper, but for the most part usually you just set there and wait for it to be done and go on away. That's the look she had on. Real patient but only cause you have to be.

Miss Francine, that's the look she had on her, and I don't at all think high things of it. That's not a look should be there when you're loving.

Sheriff he don't see me and for a minute Miss Francine don't either, but once she does she looks up at me and I can see now that she got tears on her face and Sheriff must be hurting her I just know it I just know it. And then I am grabbing a head full of hair and Sheriff is screaming What in the hell Reub goddammit and Miss Francine, she has the gun pointed up at him still, but trying to cover herself up too, and she is still crying without making any noises just looking scared. Sheriff is still screaming Goddammit Reub you numb little shit until my hands are around under his chin, and I can smell the cinnamon coffee he drank while he's breathing hard at me and I can smell something else I can only guess about. And then his the smell's gone because Sheriff he's not breathing much.

Oh, Ruby. Miss Francine she is not looking at me but at Sheriff's gun and then at Sheriff on the floor by his trashcan. It's my name she's saying, but she won't look at me, just the pistol is what she's looking at and the place Sheriff had been between up in her. And she dropped the gun and covers her fingers up over her pretty face like she thinks it'll go to pieces, and she said Oh Ruby Ruby Oh Ruby over and over, just like that. Over and over. I swear to God all the goodness was pulled right out of me. Oh Ruby.

I wanted to ask her... begging your pardon?

... no sir, I didn't know that. Miss Francine never told me she had a brother. Much less that he'd passed away. I'm sorry to hear that.

... I didn't know that either, sir. That's awful. Some officers just abuse what they got. You boys catch the one who shot him?