Inman thought about this question for a moment. For a long time, he decided that it was no good to think too much about what would happen in a day. It would make a person either hope too much or despair too much. Experience tells him that these two mistakes are the same, which will make people feel upset, but he also has to admit that there is no cheese in his mind this morning.
The woman sat in a chair by the fireside, took off her shoes and stretched out her feet to the foot of the stove. The color of her calf was brown and fish-scale skin was almost like a chicken leg. She hit the oven door, broom and straw stick to light a heather pipe, then took off her hat and scratched her head, thinning her hair. No matter from any angle, she could see the pink scalp.
You just killed someone in Petersburg. Come on, she asked.
Well, this thing has to be seen from the other side. It seems that for a long time, people have been trying to kill me.
Did you run away or something
Inman lifted his collar and showed her the ferocious scar on his neck. He was injured and took a vacation, he said
What certificate?
lose
Oh, I thought you must have lost it, she said, taking a drag on her cigarette, and her toes were tilted up, and her dirty soles were facing the fire. Inman ate the last pancake and took a sip of goat whey to wash it away, but the taste of whey was unexpected
I’m out of cheese, so I have to make some more, or I can give you some now.
You’ve been living here, boss. Inman asked
There’s nowhere else to go, and I can move away at any time. I’m tired of staying, so I don’t want to stay any longer.
Inman looked at the small caravan and it was still hard and narrow. He remembered the vines wrapped around the spokes and said, how long have you been camping here?
She stretched out her palms and looked at her fingers. Inman, she wanted to count her fingers year after year. Who wants her hand to turn over and look for a long time? The wrinkled back of her hand was covered with criss-cross lines, and the steel carving shadow. She went to the narrow cupboard and hinged the cupboard door. She rummaged through piles of leather diaries for a long time to find the one she wanted, and then got up and looked through it page by page.
This year is 163, it will be 25 years, she finally said
This year is 164, Inman said
That’s twenty-six years
You have lived here for twenty-six years.
The woman looked through her diary again and said that it would be 27 years next April.
Oh, my God, Inman said, glancing at the floor again.
She buttoned up her diary and put it on the top of the table. I could leave at any time. She said that a set of goats pulled the wheels from the soil and went on my way. My car used to be pulled by goats and I could go wherever I wanted. I have traveled all over the world, from the north to Richmond to the south, and I have been to Charleston.
You’ve never been married, I guess.
The woman pursed her lips and sniffed like yogurt. I was married. She said that she might still be married now, although I think he must have died a long time ago. At that time, I was an innocent little girl. He was an old man who had married three wives and died in front of him, but his family almost sold me directly to him. Now I can dream about his yellow hair once a year. He sent me home from the dance and kissed me every corner, but they gave me to the old man. Treat me like a crop. The first three wives are buried in a hanging bell tree on the mountain. He will sit there alone. Have you ever seen this kind of old man who is sixty-five or seventy years old? He consumes five wives and keeps them working, having children and abusing them until he kills them. One night, I wake up next to him and think that my end is just the fourth in a row of five tombstones. My horse got up and rode on him. It’s best to run away before dawn. A week later, I changed the horse to this car. The goats have been taller than the first one.
So a person came over, Inman asked
Not a day goes by without me going to a small village half a day away from here in the north, where I go to eat goat’s milk cheese on my own, and eat mutton when the number of breeding exceeds my needs in a year. I eat all kinds of wild vegetables and catch birds. I want you to know where to find the world full of free food. I go there to exchange cheese for potatoes, food and lard. I cook soup and sell medicine powder to make medicinal liquor and ointment, and I also treat sexually transmitted diseases.
So you are a girl, Inman said
Besides, I occasionally make snacks and sell some pamphlets.
What kind of pamphlet
One is to redeem the crime, and she said that I sold a lot. She also talked about diet and told people that they should give up eating meat and get used to eating root foods such as wheat, bread and potatoes. The other was that craniography taught people how to understand a person through craniotomy.
She reached out to touch Inman’s scalp, and he quickly turned away and said, I’m hungry after buying a diet, so just look at it. Then he took out a stack of various banknotes from his pocket.
I coin and she says three cents.
Inman tinkered in his pocket for a long time to find three cents for her. The woman took a yellow booklet from the cupboard and handed it to Inman.
The cover says that you can change your life by following its instructions. She said, but I won’t say anything, so you should read it yourself.