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Chapter Twenty-Five
It was a very nice day in June e figgered it was tiot up with the sun an went down to the pond an dragged a net acrost it till it got stuck on somethin Sue tried to pull it loose first, then I tried, then we tried together till we finally figgered out the net wadn’t stuck - it was jus so full of srimp we couldn’t move it!
By that evenin we had pulled in about three hundrit pouns of sriht sortin em out in various sizes Nex mornin we put the srihed so much we damn near tumped over on the way up to Bayou La Batre
They was a seafood packin house there an Sue an hin rooht hundrit, sixty-five dollars! It is about the first honest s
Ever day for nearly teeks Sue an ht em in to the packin house When it was finally over, we had made a total of nine thousand, seven hundrit dollars an twenty-six cents The srimp bidness was a success!
Well, let me tell you - it were a happy occasion We took up a bushel basket of srimp to Bubba’s daddy an he was real happy an say he is proud of us an that he wished Bubba were there too Then ht the bus up to Mobile to celebrate First thing I done was gone to see my mama at the roomin house, an when I tole her about the ain "Oh, Forrest," she say, "I aood an all for bein retarded"
Anyhow, I tole Maonna have three times as many srimp ponds, an that we needed somebody to watch over the money an look after our expenses an all, an I axed if she would do that
"You otta move all the way down to Bayou La Batre?" Maonna do with mysef?"
"Count money," I says
After that, one down to the docks an bought Sue a big bunch of bananas, an then went an got est steak dinner I could find, with o drink me a beer someplace an jus as I am walkin by this dark ole saloon near the waterfront, I hear all this loud cussin an shoutin an even after all these years, I knowed that voice I stuck h, it were ole Curtis from the University!
Curtis were very happy to see me, callin me a asshole an a cocksucker an a motherfucker an everthin else nice he could think of As it turns out, Curtis had gone on to play pro football with the Washington Redskins after he lef the University, an then he done got put on waivers after bitin the team owner’s wife on the ass at a party He played for a couple of other teaot hissef a job on the docks as a longshoreman which, he say, was suitable for the aot at the University
Anyway, Curtis bought me a couple of beers an we talked about ole times The Snake, he say, had played quarterback for the Green Bay Packers till he got caught drinkin a entire quart of Polish vodka durin halftiame Then Snake went an played for the Nek Giants till he called a Statue-of-Liberty play in the third quarter of the Raame The Giants’ coach say ain’t nobody used a Statue-of-Liberty play in pro ball since nineteen hundrit thirty-one, an that Snake ain’t got no bidness callin one now But actually, Curtis say, it wadn’t no Statue-of-Liberty play at all The truth, accordin to Curtis, was that Snake was so spaced out on dope that when he faded back for a pass he done coot to thow the ball, an the lef end jus happen to see what is goin on, an run aroun behin him an take the ball away Anyhow, Curtis say the Snake is now assistant coach for a tinyia
After a couple of beers, I got a idea, an tole Curtis about it
"How’d you like to come work for me?" I axed
Curtis be cussin an hollerin but after a er out he is tryin to axe me what I want him to do, so I tole hionna expand our operation He cuss an holler soist of what he is sayin is "yes"
So all thru that su we be workin hard, me an Sue an Mama an Curtis - an I even had a job for Bubba’s daddy That year we er all the tioin better - Mama ain’t bawlin hardly at all, an one day we even seen Curtis sain soon as he saatchin For ht be, cause I am thinkin a lot about Jenny an what has become of her
One day, I jus decided to do soht the bus up to Mobile an went over to Jenny’s mama’s house She was settin inside, watchin tv, when I knocked on the door
When I tole her who I was, she say, "Forrest Gump! I jus can’t believe it C’mon in!"
Well, we set there a wile an she axed bout Mama an what I’d been doin an everthin, an finally I axed about Jenny
"Oh, I really don’t hear from her much these days," Mrs Curran say "I think they livin soot a roomate or somethin?" I axed
"Oh, didn’t you know, Forrest?" she say "Jenny got married"
"Married?" I say
"It was a couple of years ago She’d been livin in Indiana Then she went to Washington an nex thing I knew, I got a postcard sayin she was married, an they was movin to North Carolina or someplace You want me to tell her anythin if I hear from her?"
"No’ood luck an all"
"I sure will," Mrs Curran say, "an I’ht to of been ready for that news, but I wadn’t
I could feel ot cold an daoin someplace an curlin up into a ball the way I had that tiot kilt, an so that’s what I did I foun some shrubs in back of soot mysef into a ball I think I even co wile since n that somebody’s a idiot, unless they are a baby Anyhow, I don’t kno long I stayed there It was uess
I didn’t feel no blame for Jenny, she done what she had to After all, I am a idiot, an wile a lot of people say they is ine ould be in store if they ever uess, I aot to where I believed that Jenny an ether someday An so when I learnt from her mama that she is ain, for gettin married is not like runnin away Gettin ht I cried, but it did not hep much
It was later that afternoon when I crawled out of the shrubs an gone on back to Bayou La Batre I didn’t tell nobody what had happened, cause I figgered it wouldn’t of done no good They was some work I needed to do aroun the ponds, mendin nets an such, an I went on out by et finished it is dark, an I done onna thow mysef into the srimp bidness an work my ass off It is all I can do
An so I did
That year we made seventy-five thousan dollars before expenses an the bidness is gettin so big I got to hire et is ole Snake, the quarterback from the University He is not too happy with his present job with the tinyht football teain an spillway duties Then I find out that Coach Fellers fro with his two goons who has also retired, workin on boats an docks
Pretty soon the newspapers get wind of what is goin on an send a reporter down to interview ood" story It appears the nex Sunday, with a photo of me an Mama an Sue, an the headline say, "Certifiable Idiot Finds Future in Novel Marine Experi after that, Maet soive sos on account of we is ht bout it a wile, an then I decided to get in touch with Mister Tribble, cause he had made a bunch of hted I had called, he say, an will be on the nex plane down
A week after he gets here, Mister Tribble say we got to set down an talk
"Forrest," he say, "what you have done here is nothing short of rein so"
I axed him what bout, an he say this: "Investments! Diversification! Look, as I see it, this next fiscal year you are going to have profits at about a hundred and ninety thousand dollars The following year it will bear near a quarter of a million With such profits you must reinvest them or the IRS will tax you into oblivion Reinvestment is the very heart of American business!"
An so that’s e did
Mister Tribble took charge of all that, an we formed a couple of corporations One was "Gump’s Shellfish Company" Another was called "Sue’s Stuffed Crabs, Inc," an another was "Mama’s Crawfish ��touff��e, Ltd"
Well, the quarter of a million become haf a million an the year followin that, a million, an so on, till after four more years we done becoot nearly three hundred eetable, whose rasslin days were over, an we got them loadin crates at the warehouse We tried like hell to find po Dan, but he done vanished without a trace We did find ole Mike, the rasslin proe of public relations an advertisin At Mister Tribble’s suggestion, Mike done even hired Raquel Welch to do some television ads for us - they dressed her up to look like a crab, an she dance aroun an say, "You ain’t never had crabs till you try Sue’s!"
Anyhow, things has gotten real big-tierator trucks an a fleet of sriot our own packin house, an a office buildin, an have invested heavily in real estate such as condoas leases We done hired ole Professor Quackenbush, the English teacher from up at Harvard University, who have been fired from his job for molestin a student, an made him a cook in Mama’s ��touff��e operation We also hired Colonel Gooch, who got drummed out of the Army after e of "covert activities"