Georgia Boy by Erskine Caldwell Page B

up there, Handsome?” Pa shouted.
    A big shower of dead bark thundered down from above, pelting Pa on the head.
    “Mr. Morris,” Handsome said, “you’ve got to do something to save me quick!”
    “What’s the matter?”
    “These peckerwoods has all started pecking on me, just like they do on the tree,” he said. “Can’t you hear them pecking on me, Mr. Morris?”
    “I don’t hear a thing in the world,” Pa said. “Don’t let them get you rattled. Just don’t pay them no mind. Hang on and try to quiet them down. They ain’t making nowhere near as much noise as they were before you went up there.”
    “That’s because they’re pecking on me, instead of on the tree, Mr. Morris,” he said. “I can’t fight them off, because if I did, I’d lose my grip around this here tree.
    “Act like you don’t notice them,” Pa said, “and they’ll quit after a while.”
    “But they just keep on pecking at the back of my head. It’s already so sore it feels like it’s going to split wide open.”
    “That’s a lot of foolishness,” Pa said. “I’ve lived a long time, and ain’t never heard of a woodpecker pecking on a human being.”
    Pa started around the corner of the house towards the back porch.
    “You’ve quieted them down real good, Handsome,” he said. “Now just stay there and see that they don’t start up that pecking on the tree again.”
    “Mr. Morris!” Handsome yelled. “Where you going, Mr. Morris! Don’t go away and leave me up this tree all by myself with all these peckerwoods!”
    Pa came on inside, and I could hear him take off his shoes and drop them beside the bed. Handsome started moaning up in the top of the tree, but after a while he stopped making any sound at all. Pa got into the bed and pulled the covers over his head.
    As soon as the sun came up, I got out of bed and went to the window. Handsome was still up at the top of the sycamore, but from the way he was hanging on, it looked as if he might slip and fall any minute. Just then I heard Pa get out of bed and start dressing. I put on my clothes as fast as I could and followed him to the backyard.
    When we got there, we could see Handsome hugging the tree with both arms and both legs. He had the big toe of one foot in a woodpecker hole, and he was hanging on like a scarecrow.
    The funny part of it was that there were woodpeckers all over him. Some of them were roosting on his head and shoulders, and a lot of them were hanging to his arms and legs. It looked as if there were twenty or thirty ’peckers on Handsome.
    Just then one of the woodpeckers woke up and made a loud screech. The screech woke up all the other ’peckers, and they all started pecking on Handsome. It looked as if they had worn themselves out and had gone to sleep and had waked up and remembered that they had Handsome to peck on. Handsome woke up with a jump.
    “Mr. Morris! Mr. Morris!” he yelled. “Where is you, Mr. Morris?” Pa and I walked around to the trunk of the sycamore and looked up at the top. The ’peckers would flutter around Handsome and find a better place on him to peck. He flung one arm around his head, trying to shoo them off. But as soon as they flew off for a minute, they came back again and started in just as hard as ever.
    “Come on down to the ground, Handsome,” Pa said. “I’m up and awake now.”
    We could see Handsome looking down at us on the ground. After that he flung an arm at the ’peckers and took his big toe out of the hole. He slid down slowly, trying to beat off the birds at the same time.
    When his feet touched the ground, he crumpled up like a half-empty potato sack. Pa caught him and pulled him back to his feet.
    “You look all tuckered out, Handsome,” Pa said.
    Handsome looked at Pa and me for a minute, but he didn’t say anything. He looked too tired to talk.
    Just then Ma came around the corner of the house. The woodpeckers were fluttering around over our heads, acting as if they were trying to