Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2014 13:34:04 -0700
From: Macout Mann <macoutmann@yahoo.com>
Subject: In the Great Depression 7

This story is designed to show what life was like in the rural Southeastern
United States in the 1930s.  It covers several weeks during the summer of
1934.  I have researched as carefully as I could to make the dialogue and
events as authentic as possible.  It does contain examples of homosexual
sex, so please be warned!  The events depicted are totally fictional, and
any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.  Actual
places and products are referred to for the sole purpose of adding
authenticity to the story.

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Copyright 2014 by Macout Mann.  All rights reserved.




                           IN THE GREAT DEPRESSION

                                by Macout Mann



                                    Part 7

                          Andy Gump's Confrontation


Normally Uncle Luke would have gone to town on Saturday, but today he wants
to take his linen suit to the laundry and dry cleaners.  He has three
suits, a worsted for winter and linen for summer, both of which he bought
in Vicksburg many years ago, and a seersucker suit he ordered from the
Sears & Roebuck catalog.  None get a great deal of wear.

He invites Jason and Christopher to accompany him to Port Gibson and they
eagerly accept.  The gravel road to U.S. Highway 61 is muddy in places due
to yesterday's thunderstorm.  The federal highways are not always much
better.  It will be years before most roads are completely black topped.

After visiting the cleaners they go to Uncle Luke's lawyer's office.  There
is only one attorney in Port Gibson, Zach Ward, and he often finds himself
representing both sides in a matter.  To his credit conflict of interest
issues rarely arise.

Jason had not known before that the Osbornes leased their home from Uncle
Luke.  The property had belonged to the Baucums, an old family whose line
played out.  When the last Baucum died, Luke bought the Baucum house and
one and a half acres that surrounded it.  He was thinking that if he
outlived his ability to manage the Cromwell Plantation, he and Mary would
always have a place to live.  When the Osbornes bought the remaining Baucum
property, Luke leased the house to them to save the expense of building a
new one.  The Osbornes are far from wealthy.

"I'm worried," Uncle Luke tells his attorney. "Oborne has been a month
behind with his rent on the Baucum house for some time.  But now he's two
months behind.  I know times are tough, but I don't want to see things get
completely out of hand."

"I know," the attorney replies.  "Mr. Osborne is very concerned.  He tells
me he's even behind on his bill at the grocer's."  It's customary for
grocery stores other than the national chains to extend credit to almost
all their customers, at least to the white ones.

"Can't he sell some cattle?"

"You know as well as anybody that livestock prices are down," Mr. Ward
counters.  "He's hoping that prices will improve in the fall, and his
steers also should be heftier by then."

"Maybe he could put up a steer or heifer or two as collateral," Uncle Luke
suggests.

"I can suggest that.  But in the meantime, perhaps you might be willing to
take partial payments each month.  He could let me have the money, and I'd
be happy to keep track of the total he would still owe you.  You could pick
it up the next time you're in town, or I could deposit it for you."

"I would agree to that, if he would also put up collateral.  I sure don't
want to put anybody out of their home."

"I'll talk to him," the attorney says.

"Jason," his uncle tells him after they leave the office, "you want to be
sure never to let things get out of hand."

It still doesn't occur to Jason that he is being groomed to take over the
running of the Cromwell Estate.

They next go to the grocery store.  Cook needs oranges for the Fourth of
July barbeque.  They buy a dozen.  Finally, they stop at the ice house.
Christopher can remember when they had ice delivered in Brooklyn, before
they bought a Frigidaire; but he is still impressed by the way the black
men handling the tongs can toss around five hundred pound chunks of ice
like they were feathers.

When they return to the plantation, Aunt Mary tells the boys she has
accepted another invitation for them.  To have dinner with the Willises on
Wednesday.  "I think Sharon Willis may be sweet on Christopher," she says.
Sharon is on the verge of her sixteenth birthday.

Christopher takes some ribbing from Jason as they go in to dinner.

Afterward, the boys decide to go swimming.  As they approach the creek they
are greeted by angry voices.

"Boy, you get outta there...right now!"

"Who says?"

"I say, nigger!  This swimmin' hole's for white folks!"

Jason and Christopher realize that the confrontation is between Will and
Andy Osborne.

"Hold on!" Jason cries.  "I've told Will we have no objection to his
swimming here."

Andy's wrath is now turned onto Jason and Christopher.  "I can see how your
Yankee Cousin can be a nigger lover.  But not you!" he shouts.  "I can't
wait to tell everybody how yall tell niggers they can swim in our swimmin'
hole."

"First of all," Jason replies, "this part of the creek is Cromwell
property..."

Jason is interrupted by Will.  "And I knows sompthin' about you that I can
tell everbody," he threatens.

"What?" Andy answers.  "That I fucked your sister.  You think I give a shit
who knows that.  I already told Jason."

"Not that," Will says.  "That I saw ole Jacob, fucking you...over by the
schoolhouse the other day."

The expression on Andy's face leaves no doubt that Will is telling the
truth.  Andy had let a negro man penetrate him.

"Shit, motherfucker," Andy sneers.  "You think anybody'd believe you sayin'
I'd let a nigger fuck my ass."

"Maybe not," Christopher speaks up, "but you can bet they'll believe Jason
and me.

"Jason and I were just out taking out afternoon stroll in the woods today,
and we stumbled on a clearing, where Jacob was pumping you for all he was
worth.  We watched until he dropped his load, we could sure tell that you
weren't minding what he was doing either.  So we snuck away without either
of you knowing we were ever there.

"Isn't that how it happened, Jason?"

"Yeah.  Both of us saw it all.  And we really ought to tell Uncle Luke what
we saw, don't you think, Chris?"

"Andy, if you know what's good for you," Christopher says, "you'll forget
everything that happened here this afternoon, and you'll stay away from
here in the future.

"And to make sure you do, and that you don't go spreading any lies about
Jason or Will here, before I go back home, I'm going to write down what I
said, put it in a sealed envelope, and give it to Jason.

"Now go!"

"Goddamned Yankee Motherfucker," Andy hisses.

Will is still in the water, and the other two boys quickly strip and jump
in.

"How come you be helpin' me out lak dat?" Will asks.

"Well, to start off with, it aint Andy's place to be carrying on like that.
If he was pissed off about you being here, he should of told Uncle Luke and
let him do what he wanted to do.  After all, it is our creek.

"Second of all he'd boasted to me about fucking your sister.  I don't know
if that was true or not, but we could sure tell what you were saying about
him taking it up the ass from Jacob was; and if he did that, he sure don't
have any cause to bitch about havin' to swim in the same place you do."

"And if he ever gives you a hard time," Christopher adds, "just let Jase
know.  He'll put out the story about our seeing Jacob put it to him."

"I'll sho nuff do dat."

Jason and Christopher begin roughhousing in the water, and soon Will
overcomes his reticence and joins in.  Christopher's hand "accidentally"
collides with Will's monster sausage a couple of times.  Between Jason and
Christopher the collisions aren't so accidental.

When they get out the white boys head one way, Will another.

"Can you believe the size of Will's prong?" Christopher muses.

"I told ya," Jason laughs.  "What's the matter?  You want to swing on it or
something?"

"God, I might.  I got half a hard-on in the swimming pool."

"And I thought that was for me," Jason teases.

"Well, if Andy is, why can't I?"

"'Cause Osbornes are goddamned white trash.  Still, blacks and whites have
been known to get together.  There're plenty of "high yellows" around here.
And I guess Andy aint the first white guy that's been with a negro man."

Jason thinks back to those years ago and wonders what could have happened.
He's not about to say anything about that though.

"I wonder what led Andy to get with Jacob?"

"No telling," Jason answers.  "Curiosity maybe.  Maybe Andy's really a
queer that can't get satisfaction anyplace else.  Like none of his
brothers'll fuck him anymore.  Like I said, they gotta be white trash.  I
used to give `em benefit of the doubt, but I don't anymore."

"Well, I know one thing.  I'm so horny my cock's about to rip a hole in my
pants."  Christopher vigorously claws his crotch.

"Poor Chris," Jason teases.  "Goanna get hot rocks?"  He gets on his knees.
"Let me help."

Christopher pulls his throbbing boner out and points it at Jason's mouth.
"Will may be watching over in the bushes somewhere," Jason laughs.

His lips surround Christopher's beautifully shaped dick.  It's a wonderful
size with a mushroom head that Jason's tongue slithers around.

"Oh fuck," Christopher moans, "I wish you would go back to New York with
me."

Jason interrupts his task to reply, "And I wish you were goanna stay down
here with me."

Soon Christopher receives the relief he is seeking, and they continue on.

They encounter Uncle Luke, when they reach the house.  He is on the way to
get the mail.

"You boys want to go?"

They race to see who could get to the Chevrolet first.  As usual,
Christopher got the front seat.

Lorman is on a "Star Route," so designated by the U. S. Post Office because
it is one of the most difficult places in the country to deliver the mail.
Christopher, of course, would know nothing about that sort of thing, but in
such places as Vermont and New Hampshire, Star Routes are associated with
massive snow drifts and ice covered bridges.  In Mississippi, they are
places where the postman's pickup truck can sink down to its axel in mud.

Each morning, Kenneth Brogan picks up twenty sacks of mail at Port Gibson
and sets out.  He drops one of these at the Willis's store and goes on his
way down the poorly graveled country roads until he reaches the end of his
route.  At each stop he picks up the mail that has been deposited and takes
it back to Port Gibson.

Mrs. Willis, the duly appointed Postmistress of Lorman, opens the bag she
has received and sorts the mail.  Everyone whose mailing address is simply
Lorman, Miss. then comes to the Post Office, and Mrs. Willis gives them
what has come for them.

Today Uncle Luke has an outgoing letter from his wife to Christopher's
mother, telling her how delighted they are to have him visit.  Luke picks
up a Sears & Roebuck Catalog, a copy of "The Progressive Farmer" magazine,
and a letter from his brother, Earnest.

Mrs. Willis seems very pleased to see the boys and tells them how much they
are looking forward to having them for dinner on Wednesday.  She has
someone to tend the store for her at dinner time, but the Post Office has
to be closed.

Luke offers to buy the boys a "drink."  That is Southern for what
Christopher would have called a "soda" or a "pop" or what many Southerners
would call a "coke."

Jason opts for "an R. C. Cola," (Royal Crown), which he tells Christopher
"is just as good as a Coca-Cola, but twice as big for a nickel," Tasting
it, Christopher has to agree.

Before they leave, Sharon comes down from the Willis house to the store.
Yes, it is quite apparent that she is taken with Christopher.  Jason may as
well not be there.  Something that he will torment Christopher once they
are abed.  Luke also decides to buy gasoline.  He says how many gallons he
wants, and a negro pumps that amount up into the globe at the top of the
gas tank in front of the store.  He then sticks the nozzle into the
Chevrolet's tank and lets what's in the globe flow down.

When they arrive back at the plantation house, Aunt Mary is ready to serve
supper.