Go ahead, he said.
You go ahead.
I got to come out of this tape.
He sat on the bed and peeled away the dressings while Rawlins showered. Rawlins turned off the water and pushed back the curtain and stood drying himself with one of the threadbare towels.
We’re a couple of good’ns, aint we? he said.
Yeah.
How you goin to get them stitches out?
I guess I’ll have to find a doctor.
It hurts worse takin em out than puttin em in.
Yeah.
Did you know that?
Yeah. I knew that.
Rawlins wrapped the towel around himself and sat on the bed opposite. The envelope with the money was lying on the table.
How much is in there?
John Grady looked up. I dont know, he said. Considerable less than what there was supposed to be, I’ll bet. Go ahead and count it.
He took the envelope and counted the bills out on the bed.
Nine hundred and seventy pesos, he said.
John Grady nodded.
How much is that?
About a hundred and twenty dollars.
Rawlins tapped the sheaf of bills together on the glass of the tabletop and put them back in the envelope.
Split it in two piles, said John Grady.
I dont need no money.
Yes you do.
I’m goin home.
Dont make no difference. Half of it’s yours.
Rawlins stood and hung the towel over the iron bedstead and pulled back the covers. I think you’re goin to need ever dime of it, he said.
When he came out of the shower he thought Rawlins was asleep but he wasnt. He crossed the room and turned off the light and came back and eased himself into the bed. He lay in the dark listening to the sounds in the street, the dripping of rain in the courtyard.
You ever pray? said Rawlins.
Yeah. Sometimes. I guess I got kindly out of the habit.
Rawlins was quiet for a long time. Then he said: What’s the worst thing you ever done?
I dont know. I guess if I done anything real bad I’d rather not tell it. Why?
I dont know. I was in the hospital cut I got to thinkin: I wouldnt be here if I wasnt supposed to be here. You ever think like that?
Yeah. Sometimes.
They lay in the dark listening. Someone crossed the patio. A door opened and closed again.
You aint never done nothin bad, said John Grady.
Me and Lamont one time drove a pickup truckload of feed to Sterling City and sold it to some Mexicans and kept the money.
That aint the worst thing I ever heard of.
I done some other stuff too.
If you’re goin to talk I’m goin to smoke a cigarette.
I’ll shut up.
They lay quietly in the dark.
You know about what happened, dont you? said John Grady.
You mean in the messhall?
Yeah.
Yeah.
John Grady reached and got his cigarettes off the table and lit one and blew out the match.
I never thought I’d do that.
You didnt have no choice.
I still never thought it.
He’d of done it to you.
He drew on the cigarette and blew the smoke unseen into the darkness. You dont need to try and make it right. It is what it is.
Rawlins didnt answer. After a while he said: Where’d you get the knife?
Off the Bautistas. I bought it with the last forty-five pesos we had.
Blevins’ money.
Yeah. Blevins’ money.
Rawlins was lying on his side in the springshot iron bedstead watching him in the dark. The cigarette glowed a deep red where John Grady drew on it and his face with the sutures in his cheek emerged from the darkness like some dull red theatric mask indifferently repaired and faded back again.
I knew when I bought the knife what I’d bought it for.
I dont see where you were wrong.
The cigarette glowed, it faded. I know, he said. But you didnt do it.
In the morning it was raining again and they stood outside the same cafe with toothpicks in their teeth and looked at the rain in the plaza. Rawlins studied his nose in the glass.
You know what I hate?
What?
Showin up at the house lookin like this.
John Grady looked at him and looked away. I dont blame you, he said.
You dont look so hot yourself.
John Grady grinned. Come on, he said.
They bought new clothes and hats in a Victoria Street haberdashery and wore them out into the street and in the slow falling rain walked down to the bus station and bought Rawlins a ticket for Nuevo Laredo. They sat in the bus station cafe in the stiff new clothes with the new hats turned upside down on the chairs at either side and they drank coffee until the bus was announced over the speaker.
That’s you, said John Grady.
They rose and put on their hats and walked out to the gates.
Well, said Rawlins. I reckon I’ll see you one of these days.
You take care.
Yeah. You take care.
He turned and handed his ticket to the driver and the driver punched it and handed it back and he climbed stiffly aboard. John Grady stood watching while he passed along the aisle. He thought he’d take a seat at the window but he didnt. He sat on the other side of the bus and John Grady stood for a while and then turned and walked back out through the station to the street and walked slowly back through the rain to the hotel.