On the train the next day, Joe didn't make many speeches with rhymes to her, but he bought her the best things the butcher had, like apples and a glass lantern full of candies. Mostly he talked about plans for the town when he got there. They were bound to need somebody like him.
Janie took a lot of looks at him, and she was proud of what she saw. Kind of portly, like... rich white folks strange trains and people and places didn't scare him neither when they got off the train at maitland he found a buggy to carry them over to the colored town right away it was early in the afternoon when they got there so joe said they must walk over the place and look around they locked arms and strolled from end to end of the town joe noted the scant dozen of shame-faced houses scattered in the sand and palmata roots and said, God, they call this a town?
But it ain't nothing but a raw place in the woods. It's a whole heap littler than I thought. Janie admitted her disappointment.
Just like I thought, Joe said. A whole heap of talk and nobody doing nothing. I got... Where's the mayor?
He asked somebody. I want to speak with the mayor. Two men who were sitting on their shoulder blades under a huge live oak tree almost sat upright at the tone of his voice. They stared at Joe's face, his clothes, and his wife. Where y'all come from in such a big haste?
Lee Coker asked. Middle Georgie? Starks answered briskly.
Joe Starks is my name from in and through Georgie. You and your daughter gonna... "'Join with us in fellowship?'"'The other reclining figure asked."'Mighty glad to have you."'Hicks is the name."'Governor Amos Hicks from Beaufort, South Carolina."'Free, single, disengaged."'My God, I ain't nowhere near old enough to have no grown daughter."'This here's my wife.'"'Hicks sank back and lost interest at once."'Where's the mayor? '"'Starks persisted."'I wants to talk with him.'"'Use a match!' too previous for that, Coker told him. Us ain't got nothing yet. Ain't got no mayor. Well, who tells y'all what to do? Nobody. Everybody's grown, and then again, I reckon us just ain't thought about it. I know I ain't. I did think about it one day, Hicks said dreamily, but then I forgot it and ain't thought about it since then. No wonder things ain't no better, Joe commented. I'm buying in here, buying in big. Soon as we find some place to sleep tonight, us men folks got to call people together and form a committee. Then we can get things moving around here. I can point you where you can sleep, Hicks offered. Man got his house done built and his wife ain't come yet. Starks and Janie moved off in the direction indicated, with Hicks and Coker... boring into their backs with looks. That man talks like a section foreman, Coker commented. He's mighty compelment. Shucks, said Hicks. My bridges is just as long as his, but that wife of his, I'm a son of a compunction if I don't go to Georgia and get me one just like her. What with? With my talk, man. It takes money to feed pretty women. They gets a lavish of talk. Not like mine. They love to hear me talk because they can't understand it. My cold talking is too deep. Too much cold to it. You don't believe me, do you? You don't know the women I can get to my command. You ain't never seen me when I'm out pleasuring and giving pleasure. It's a good thing he married her before she seen me. I can be some trouble when I take a notion. Hmm. I'm a bitch's baby around lazy people. I'd much rather see all that than to hear about it. Come on. Let's go see what he gonna do about this town. They got up and sauntered over to where Starks was living for the present. Already the town had found the strangers. Joe was on the porch talking to a small group of men. Janie could be seen through the bedroom window getting settled. Joe had rented the house for a month. The men were all around him, and he was talking to them by asking questions. What's the real name of the place? Some say West Maitland, and some say Eatonville. That's cause Captain Eaton give us some land along with Mr. Lawrence, but Captain Eaton give the first piece. How much they give? Oh, about 50 acres. How much has y'all got now? Oh, about the same. That ain't near enough. Who owns the land joining on to what you got? Cap Meaden? Well, where is this Cap Meaden? Over there in Maitland. Except when he go visiting or something. Let me speak to my wife a minute and I'm going to see the man. You cannot have no town without some land to build it on. Y'all ain't got enough here to cuss a cat on without getting a mouthful of hair. He ain't got no more land to give away. You need plenty of money if you want any more. I expect to pay him. The idea was funny to them and they wanted to laugh. They tried hard to hold it in, but enough incredulous laughter burst out of their eyes and leaked from the corners of their mouths to inform anyone of their thoughts. So Joe walked off abruptly. Most of them went along to show him the way and to be there when his bluff was called. Hicks didn't go far. He turned back to the house as soon as he felt he wouldn't be missed from the crowd and mounted the porch. Evening, Miss Starks. Good evening. You reckon you going to like round here? I reckon so. Anything I can do to help out while you can call on me. Much obliged. There was a long, dead pause. Janie was not jumping at her chance like she ought to. Looked like she didn't hardly know he was there. She needed waking up. Folks must be mighty closed-mouthed where you come from. That's right, but it must be different at your home. He was a long time thinking, but finally he saw and stumbled down the steps with a surly, Bye. Goodbye. That night, Coker asked him about it. I saw you when you ducked back into Stark's house. Well, how did you make out? Who, me? I ain't been near the place, man. I've been down to the lake trying to catch me a fish. Hmm. That woman ain't so awfully pretty no how when you take the second look at her. I had to sort of pass by the house on the way back and seen her good. There ain't nothing to her except that long hair. Hmm. And anyhow, I done took a liking to the man. I wouldn't harm him at all. She ain't half as pretty as a gal I run off and left up in South Carolina. X? I'd get mad and say you was lying if I didn't know you so good. You just talking to consolate yourself by word of mouth. You got a willing mind, but you too light behind. A whole heap of men seen the same thing you seen, but they got better sense than you. Now you ought to know you can't take no woman like that from no man like him. A man that ups and buys 200 acres of land at one whack and pays cash for it? No. He didn't buy it sure enough. He sure did come off with the papers in his pocket. He done called a meeting on his porch tomorrow. Ain't never seen no such a colored man before in all my born days. He's going to put up a store and get a... post office from the government. That irritated Hicks, and he didn't know why. He was the average mortal. It troubled him to get used to the world one way and then suddenly have it turn different. He wasn't ready to think of colored people in post offices yet. He laughed boisterously. Y'all let that stray donkey tell y'all any old lie. A colored man sitting up in a post office. He made an obscene sound. He'd liable to do it too, Hicks. I hope so, anyhow. Us colored folks are too envious of one another. That's how come us don't get no farther than us do. Us talks about the white man keeping us down. Shucks! He don't have to. Us keeps our own self down. Now, who said I didn't want the man to... Get us a post office. He can be the king of Jerusalem for all I care. Still and all, there ain't no use in telling lies just cause a heap of folks don't know no better. Your common sense ought to tell you the white folks ain't gonna allow him to run no post office. That we don't know, X. He say he can't, and I believe he know what he talking about. Now, I reckon if colorful folks got their own town, they can have post office and what so... wherever they please, regardless. And then again, I don't expect the white folks way off yonder. Give a damn. Let's just wait and see. Oh, I'm waiting all right. Expects to keep on waiting till hell frees over. Oh, get reconciled. That woman don't want you. You got to learn that all the women in the world ain't being brought up on no tepidine still and no sawmill can't. There's some women that just ain't for you to broach. You can't get up with no fish sandwich. They argued a bit more, then went on to the house where Joe was and found him in his shirt sleeves, standing with his legs wide apart, asking questions and smoking a cigar. Where's the closest sawmill? He was asking Tony Taylor. About seven miles gone towards Apopka, Tony told him. Thinking about building right away? My God, yeah, but not the house I specs to live in. That can wait till I make up my mind where I want it located. I figures we all needs a store in a big hurry. A store? Tony shouted in surprise. Yeah, a store right here in town with everything in it you needs. It ain't a better use than everybody proging way over to Maitland to buy a little meal and flour when they could get it right here. That would be kind of nice, Brother Stalks, since you mention it. I got, of course it would. And then again, a store is good in other ways. I got to have a place to be at when folks come to buy land. And furthermore, everything has got to have a center and a heart to it. And a town ain't no different from nowhere else. It would be natural for the store to be a meeting place for the town. That sure is the truth now. Oh, we'll have this town all fixed up, Treggly. Don't miss being at the meeting tomorrow. Just about time for the committee meeting, called to meet on his porch next day. The first wagon load of lumber drove up, and Jody went to show them where to put it. Told Janie to hold the committee there until he got back. He didn't want to miss them, but he meant to count every foot of that lumber before it touched the ground. He could have saved his breath, and Janie could have kept right on with what she was doing. In the first place, everybody was late in coming. Then, the next thing, as soon as they heard where Jody was, they kept right on up there where the new lumber was rattling off the wagon and being piled under the big live oak tree. So that's where the meeting was held, with Tony Taylor acting as chairman and Jody doing all the talking. A day was named for roads, and they all agreed to bring axes and things like that and chop out two roads running each way. That applied to everybody except Tony and Coca. They could carpenter. So Jody hired them to go to work on his store bright and soon the next morning. Jody himself would be busy driving around from town to town telling people about Edenville and drumming up citizens to move there.