When I got to Mrs. Curran's house, it was nearly nine o'clock at night.
"Oh, Forrest," she says, an thowed her arms around me an begun to cry, an I couldn't help it an begun cryin, too. In a little while, we went inside an she made me some milk an cookies an tried to tell me about it.
"Nobody knows exactly what it was," she said. "They both got sick about the same time. It was very fast and they just kind of slipped away. She wasn't in any pain or anything. In fact, she was more beautiful than ever. Just laid in the bed, like I remember her as a little girl. Her very own bed. Her hair all long and pretty, and her face was just like it always was, like an angel. And then, that morning, she..."
Mrs. Curran had to stop for a while. She wadn't cryin anymore. She just looked out the winder at the streetlight.
"And when I went in to see her, she was gone. Lying there with her head on the pillow, almost like she was sleeping. Little Forrest was playing out on the porch, and, well, I wasn't sure what to do, but I told him to come in an kiss his mama. And he did. He didn't know. I didn't let him stay that long. We buried her the next day. Out to the Magnolia Cemetery in the family plot, alongside her daddy and her granny. Under a sugar maple tree. Little Forrest, I don't know how much he understands about it all. He don't know about his daddy. He died up in Savannah, with his folks. He knows his mama's gone, but I don't think he really understands about it."
"Can I see it?"
"What?" Mrs. Curran ast.
"Where she was. Where she was when..."
"Oh, yes, Forrest. It's right in here. Little Forrest is sleeping in there now. I've only got two..."
"I don't want to wake him up," I says.
"Why don't you," says Mrs. Curran. "It'll make him feel better, maybe."
An so I gone into Jenny's bedroom. There was little Forrest asleep in her bed, didn't know nothin really about what was happenin to him. Had a teddy bear he was huggin an a big blond curl across his forehead. Mrs. Curran started to wake him up, but I ast her not to. I could almost see Jenny there, peaceful an asleep. Almost.
"Maybe he ought to just rest tonight," I says. "They'll be time in the mornin for him to see me."
"All right, Forrest," she says. Then she turned away. I touched his face an he turned over an give a little sigh.
"Oh, Forrest," Mrs. Curran says, "I don't believe all this. So quick. And they all seemed so happy. Things sure do turn out bad sometime, don't they?"
"Yes'm," I says. "They shore do." We went on out of the room.
"Well, Forrest, I know you're tired. We've got a sofa here in the living room. I can make you a bed."
"You know, Mrs. Curran, maybe I could sleep on that swing out on the porch. I always liked that swing, you know. Jenny an I used to sit on it an..."
"Of course, Forrest. I'll get you a pillow and some blankets."
So that's what I did. An all that night the wind blew, an sometime afore dawn, it begun to rain. It wadn't cold or nothin. Just a regular ole fall night for around here where I grew up. An I don't think I slept much neither. I was thinkin about Jenny an little Forrest an about my life, which, come to think of it, hadn't been much. I have done a lot of things, but I ain't done many of them very well. Also, I'm always gettin into trouble just about the time things start goin good. Which, I suppose, is the penalty you pay for bein a idiot.
Chapter 2
Well, the next mornin Mrs. Curran come out on the porch with a cup of coffee an a doughnut. The rain had let up a little bit, but the sky was a dark pearly gray an there was thunder growlin off someplace like God was mad.
"I guess you'll want to go out to the cemetery," Mrs. Curran said.
"Yeah, I guess so," I tole her. I didn't really know if I wanted to or not. I mean, somethin was tellin me I oughta, but it was the last place I really wanted to go.
"I've got little Forrest ready," she says. "He ain't been there since... Well, I think it would be a good thing for him to go along. Just to kind of get used to it."
I looked behind her an there he was, standin behind the screen door, lookin sort of sad an puzzled.
"Who are you?" he ast.
"Why, I'm Forrest. You remember when I met you a while back? Up at Savannah."
"You're the one with the funny monkey?"
"Yeah. Sue. But he's not a monkey. He's a purebread orangutang."
"Where is he now? He here?"
"Nope. Not this time," I says. "He got bidness someplace else, I reckon."
"We're gonna go see my mama now," the little boy says, an I like to choked up right then.
"Yeah, I know," I says.
Mrs. Curran, she put us in the car an we drove out to the cemetery. Whole time, I got these horrible butterflies in my stomach. Little Forrest, he just lookin out the winder with big ole sad eyes, an I am wonderin what in hell is gonna happen to us all.
It was a really pretty cemetery, as them things go. Big ole magnolia an oak trees, an we wound around an wound around till we got to a big tree an Mrs. Curran stopped the car. It was a Sunday mornin, an someplace church bells were chimin away. When we got out, little Forrest come up beside me an looked up, an so I took him by the hand an we walked to Jenny's grave. The ground was still wet from the rain, an a lot of leaves had blown down, pretty red an gold ones, shaped just like stars.
"Is that where Mama is?" little Forrest ast.
"Yes it is, darlin," Mrs. Curran says.
"Can I see her?"
"No, but she's there," says Jenny's mama. He was a brave little boy, he was, an didn't cry or nothin, like I would of if I'd been him. An after a few minutes he found hissef a stick to play with an walked off a ways by hissef.
"I just can't believe it," Mrs. Curran said.
"I can't neither," I says. "It ain't right."
"I'll go back to the car now, Forrest. You probably want to be alone for a while."
I just stood there, kind of numb, twistin my hands. Everbody I really cared for seemed to have died or somethin. Bubba an Mama, an now poor Jenny. It had begun to drizzle a little bit now, an Mrs. Curran went an got little Forrest an put him in the car. I started to walk away mysef when I heard a voice say, "Forrest, it's okay."
I turned aroun, but ain't nobody there.
"I said it's okay, Forrest," the voice says again. It was... It couldn't be... It was Jenny!
Cept there still ain't nobody there.
"Jenny!" I says.
"Yes, Forrest. I just wanted you to know everything's gonna be all right."
I must be goin crazy, I figgered! But then alls of a sudden I kind of seen her, just in my mind, I guess, but there she was, as beautiful as always.
"You're gonna have to take little Forrest now," she says, "an raise him up to be strong and smart and good. I know you can do it, Forrest. You've got a very big heart."
"But how?" I ast. "I'm a idiot."
"No you're not!" Jenny says. "You might not be the smartest feller in town, but you've got more sense than most people. You've got a long life ahead of you, Forrest, so make the best you can of it. I've told you that for years."
"I know, but..."
"Anytime you really get stumped, I'll be there for you. Do you understand that?"
"No."
"Well, I will. So go on back and get busy and try to figure out what you're gonna do next."
"But, Jenny, I just can't believe it's you."
"Well, it's me all right. Go on, now, Forrest," she says. "Sometimes you act like you ain't got sense enough to get in out of the rain."
So I gone on back to the car, soakin wet.
"Was you talkin to somebody out there?" Mrs. Curran ast.
"Sort of," I said. "I guess I was talkin to mysef."
That afternoon, me an little Forrest sat in Jenny's mama's livin room an watched the New Orleans Saints play the Dallas Cowboys - or whatever it was they did with them. The Cowboys done scored four touchdowns the first quarter, an we ain't scored none. I had tried to call the stadium to explain where I was, but ain't nobody answered the phone in the locker room. I guess by the time I got around to callin, they had all done gone out on the field.
Second quarter it was worse, an by half-time the score was forty-two to nothin, an the sportscasters were all talkin about how I wadn't there an nobody knew where I was. I finally got through to the locker room, an all of a sudden Coach Hurley got on the phone.