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Chapter Twenty-Six
We got off the bus at savannah, where it was rainin to beat the band Sue an ot a cup of coffee an took it out under the eaves an tried to figger out e gonna do nex
I ain’t got no plan, really, so after I finish un to play I played a couple of songs, an lo an behole, a feller that alkin by, he thowed a quarter in s, an after a wile the coffee cup is bout haf full of change
It done quit rainin so Sue an me walked on off an in a little bit come to a park in the middle of town I set down on a bench an played soun to drop quarters an diht on, an when folks would pass by, he’d take the coffee cup an go up to theot nearly five dollars
We slep in the park that night on a bench an it was a fine, clear night an the stars an un to play the harht bucks that day an nine the nex, an by the end of the e had done pretty good, considerin After the weekend, I foun a little music shop an went in there to see if I could find another har in C all the tiettin monotonous Over in a corner I seen that the feller had a used keyboard for sale It look pretty s an that he had taught me a few chords on
I axed how much he wanted for it, an the feller say two hundrit dollars, but he will ht the keyboard an the feller even rigged up a stand on it so’s I could play my harmonica too It definately improved our popularity with the people By the end of the nex as one on back to the ht a set of used druot to where I could play theood too I chucked out the ole Styrofoaot a nice tin cup for Sue to pass aroun an as doin pretty good for ourselfs I was playin everthing fro Lo, Sweet Chariot," and I had also foun a roomin house that let ole Sue stay there, an served breakfast an supper too
Oneto the park when it started to rain again One thing about Savannah - it rains buckets ever other day there, or so it see down the street in front of a office building when suddenly I seen souely familiar
There is aon the sideith a unbrella an he is standin right in front of a big plastic garbage bag So, keepin out of the rain, an all you can see is a pair of hands reachin out froone acrost the street and looked closer, an lo and behol, I can just ons stickin out fro too I was so happy I could of just about bust, an I went up an thowed the garbage bag off an sure enough, it was ole Dan hissef, shinin shoes for a livin!
"Giettin soakin wet out here" Then he saw Sue "So you finally got married, huh?" Dan say
"It’s a he," I tole him "You reonna shine my shoes, or what?" say the feller in the suit
"Fuck off," Dan says, "before I chew your soles in half" The feller, he walked away
"What you doin here, Dan?" I axed
"What does it look like I’?" he say "I’ve becohtin in the war?" I axed
"Nah," says he, "theook Communists I’m a real Communist - Marx, Lennin, Trotsky - all that bullshit"
"Then what you shinin shoes for?" I say
"To shaured, nobody with shined shoes is worth a shit, so the more shoes I shine, the more I’ll send to hell in a handbasket"
"Well, if you say so," I says, an then Dan thowed down his rag an wheel hiit outta the rain
"Awe hell, Forrest, I ain’t no damned Communist," he say "They wouldn’t want nobody like me anyhoay I am"
"Sure they would, Dan," I says "You always tole me I could be anythin I wanted to be an do anythin I want to do - an so can you"
"You still believin that shit?" he axed
"I got to see Raquel Welch butt neckit," I says
"Really?" Dan say, "as it like?"
Well, after that, Dan an Sue an me kinda teamed up Dan didn’t want to stay in the boardin house, so he slep outside at night under his garbage bag "Builds character," was how he put it He tole bout what he’d been doin since he left Indianapolis First, he’d lost all thetrack an as lef he drank up Then he got a job at a auto shop working under cars cause it was easy for hiot tired of oil an grease bein dripped on hiood, drunken bureaseball"
Nex, he gone back to Washington where they’s havin a big dedication for some monument for us ent to the Vietnam War, an when they seen him, an foun out who he was, they axed hiood an drunk at soonna say So he stole a Bible from the hotel they put him up in, an when it come his time to speak, he read them the entire book of Genesis an was fixin to do some excerpts from Numbers when they turned off his in for a wile, but quit because it was "undignified"
I tole him about playin chess with Mister Tribble an about the srimp bidness bein so successful an all, an about runnin for the United States Senate, but he seemed more interested in Raquel Welch
"You think them tits of hers are real?" he axed
We had been in Savannah about a ood I done my one-man band act an Sue collected the money an Dan shined people’s shoes in the crowd One day a guy come from the newspaper an took our pitchers an ran the in Public Park," says the caption
One afternoon I’o on up to Charleston when I notice a little boy standin right in front of the drums, jus starin at me
I was playin "Ridin on the City of New Orleans," but the little feller kep lookin at me, not smilin or nothin, but they was solowed an in a wierd way reminded e of the croas a lady, an when I saw her, I like to fainted
Lo an behole, it was Jenny Curran
She done got her hair up in rollers an she looked a bit older, too, an sort of tired, but it is Jenny all right I am so surprised, I blowed a sour note on , an Jenny come up an take the little boy by the han
Her eyes was beamin, an she say, "Oh, Forrest, I kneas you when I heard the harmonica Nobody plays the harmonica like you do"
"What you doin here?" I axed
"We live here now," she say "Donald is assistant sales er with some people make roofin tiles We been here bout three years now"
Cause I quit playin, the crowd done drifted off an Jenny set down on the bench nex to me The little boy be foolin aroun with Sue, an Sue, he done started turnin cartwheels so’s the boy would laugh
"How come you playin in a one-reat big ole srimp bidness down at Bayou La Batre an was astory," I says
"You didn’t get in trouble again, did you, Forrest?" she say
"Nope, not this time," I says "How bout you? You doin okay?"
"Oh, I reckon I aot what I wanted"
"That your little boy?" I axed