Raney by Clyde Edgerton

by that?"
    "Nothing."
    It's too bad Charles was a only child brought up without any family around. When he went to see a aunt or uncle, his mama and daddy had to carry him to another state. He just don't have a single sense about family, about having family.
    When Uncle Nate is sober he's as nice as he can be. And you'll never find anybody neater. His clothes are always pressed and starched. Well, Mama keeps them that way, but he keeps everything hung up and straight and folded. Then he'll get drunk and filthy and come home and cuss something awful. And nobody able to do a thing unless it's the law. Dorcus Kerr, the deputy sheriff, can usually handle him pretty well. Mama hates it when it comes to that. Daddy usually calls Dorcus, and Dorcus comes in his uniform. He puts it on if he's off duty. Uncle Nate respects a uniform.
     
     
    By Friday night, Uncle Nate had gotten sober on his own, thank goodness. After supper he wanted to hear "Give Me the Roses," so Charles and me got out our instruments and did it. It's one of our favorites too. It goes like this:
    Wonderful things of folks are said       
    When they are passed away.
    Roses adorn their narrow bed       
    Over the sleeping clay.
    Give me the roses while I live,       
    Trying to cheer me on.
    Useless are flowers that you give       
    After the soul is gone.
     
     
    And it has a couple more verses.
    Then Daddy wanted to hear "Unclouded Day," which Charles has been wanting to learn ever since I met him. We learned it about three weeks ago. So we did that, and then "Are You Tired of Me, My Darling?" and "Fifty Miles of Elbow Room," two other Carter family tunes Daddy and Charles like. We tried to get everybody to sing on "Fifty Miles," but Uncle Nate and Daddy would be so far off key everybody would start laughing and that would get me laughing and that would get Charles laughing.
    When we finished singing, Uncle Nate told about the Christmas Uncle Pugg went to Raleigh to sell wreaths and holly and mistletoe and got lost and was too proud to ask anybody the way home. He slept that night in a church and the next morning the preacher saw him come out and asked him if he was the man who'd come to fix the steps. Uncle Pugg said he was. He had his tools in a box in the wagon. He fixed the steps and the preacher asked him to fix the roof and so he did that. Then the preacher asked him if he brought the window to put in. Uncle Pugg said he didn't but that a man over in Bethel had the window and could the preacher tell him how to get there. The preacher told him, and Uncle Pugg came on home.
    At about ten o'clock when everybody else was going to bed, me and Charles walked out to the pier. Charles said he wasn't even sure about the names of anybody in his family, besides his mama and daddy and aunts and uncles. I couldn't imagine aunts and uncles not sitting around and telling all about their aunts and uncles.
    Out on the pier the breeze was steady and cool and the air had that fresh salty smell without the dead fish smell. The moon was coming up over the water, and waves hit against the poles, moving the pier the least bit. The moon was a dark red — because of the atmosphere, Charles said. He said it looks big at the horizon because it's magnified by the air, which I'd never thought about. I always thought the orbit was closer when it came up, and then moved away. It sure looks that way. Charles said the red was because of chemicals and such in the atmosphere. He knows about stuff I never think about. Anyway, the moon got whiter and higher and soon reflected white off the water.
    We stood against the rail, pushing our shoulders together, and Charles sung this little song:
     
    I see the moon and the moon sees me. And the moon sees the one that I want to see. God bless the moon and God bless me. And God bless the one that I want to see.
     
    I love Charles more than anything. Sometimes he's hard to get along with, and sometimes he has some problems with