@@@@@ The sun was burning on his back, laving
@@@@@
The sun was burning on his back, laving his body with a pleasant heatSlowly he could feel himself sinking into the earth, its warmth spreading about, supporting himAll the grass and the roots and the ground smelled of sunlight, and his mind eddied back through the images of plowed earth and steaming horses, back to the afternoon when he had sat on a stone by the side of the road, and watched the colored girl walk by, her breasts jouncing against her cotton frockHe tried to remember the name of the girl he was going to see that night, and began gigglingWonder if she knows Ah'm sixteen? His wound had roused a warm and blunted nausea in his belly, almost like the bubbling of passion in his groin, and he floated along, not quite anchored to either the road beside the house where he had been born or to the valley of grass in which he layVague lusts chased themselves through his headThe tall grass, nebulous and waving, seemed as high as a forest to him; he could not remember if he was in the jungle or not, and his nose amplified the odors here, blended them into his memory of the rich fetor of the jungleGoddam, just to smell a woman again
The blood was trickling faster over his fingers, and he sweated, thinking of liquid things, lost in a welter of lovemaking, recalling acutely the feel of a woman's belly and hips, her mouthThe sun was very bright, very satisfactoryPlays hell on a man when he don' get his ass regularAh bet that's why mah insides turned back on me, an' got full of pusHis reverie was shattered by the thoughtAh don' want no op-per-ration, they gonna kill me with itWhen Ah git back, Ah'll tell 'em, Ah won' take no truck, Ah'll jus' tell 'em that all the pus jus' bled out of me, an' mah insides are fixed upHe began to giggle weaklyGoddam, when that ol' wound closes, Ah'm gonna have two belly buttons, one right under t'otherWonder what t' hell Alice'll say when she sees it?"
The sun passed behind a cloud and he felt cold and shiveredHis senses cleared again for a minute or two and he was frightened and miserableThey cain' jus' lea' me alone here, the men gotta come back for meThe grass was rustling in the wind, and he listened to it mournfully, hovering near a knowledge he did not want to confrontHe roused himself, managed to stand up in the grass for a moment, caught sight of the hills and the cliffs of Mount Anaka, and then pitched forward, sweating coldlyAh'm a man, he told himself, Ah cain't go to piecesAh never took no crap from no one, an' Ah ain't gonna start nowIf a man's chicken, he ain't worth a godd