Gump & Co. Read Online Free

angel. And then, that morning, she . . .’
    Mrs Curran had to stop for a while. She wadn’t cryin anymore. She just looked out the winder at the streetlight.
    ‘And when I went in to see her, she was gone. Lying there with her head on the pillow, almost like she was sleeping. Little Forrest was playing out on the porch, and, well, I wasn’t sure what to do, but I told him to come in an kiss his mama. And he did. He didn’t know. I didn’t let him stay that long. We buried her the next day. Out to the Magnolia Cemetery in the family plot, alongside her daddy and her granny. Under a sugar maple tree. Little Forrest, I don’t know how much he understands about it all. He don’t know about his daddy. He died up in Savannah, with his folks. He knows his mama’s gone, but I don’t think he really understands about it.’
    ‘Can I see it?’
    ‘What?’ Mrs Curran ast.
    ‘Where she was. Where she was when . . .’
    ‘Oh, yes, Forrest. It’s right in here. Little Forrest is sleeping in there now. I’ve only got two . . .’
    ‘I don’t want to wake him up,’ I says.
    ‘Why don’t you,’ says Mrs Curran. ‘It’ll make him feel better, maybe.’
    An so I gone into Jenny’s bedroom. There was little Forrest asleep in her bed, didn’t know nothin really about what was happenin to him. Had a teddy bear he was huggin an a big blond curl across his forehead. Mrs Curran started to wake him up, but I ast her not to. I could almost see Jenny there, peaceful an asleep. Almost.
    ‘Maybe he ought to just rest tonight,’ I says. ‘They’ll be time in the mornin for him to see me.’
    ‘All right, Forrest,’ she says. Then she turned away. I touched his face an he turned over an give a little sigh.
    ‘Oh, Forrest,’ Mrs Curran says, ‘I don’t believe all this. So quick. And they all seemed so happy. Things sure do turn out bad sometime, don’t they?’
    ‘Yes’m,’ I says. ‘They shore do.’ We went on out of the room.
    ‘Well, Forrest, I know you’re tired. We’ve got a sofa here in the living room. I can make you a bed.’
    ‘You know, Mrs Curran, maybe I could sleep on that swing out on the porch. I always liked that swing, you know. Jenny an I used to sit on it an . . .’
    ‘Of course, Forrest. I’ll get you a pillow and some blankets.’
    So that’s what I did. An all that night the wind blew, an sometime afore dawn, it begun to rain. It wadn’t cold or nothin. Just a regular ole fall night for around here where I grew up. An I don’t think I slept much neither. I was thinkin about Jenny an little Forrest an about my life, which, come to think of it, hadn’t been much. I have done a lot of things, but I ain’t done many of them very well. Also, I’m always gettin into trouble just about the time things start goin good. Which, I suppose, is the penalty you pay for bein a idiot.

Chapter Two
    WELL, THE NEXT mornin Mrs Curran come out on the porch with a cup of coffee an a doughnut. The rain had let up a little bit, but the sky was a dark pearly gray an there was thunder growlin off someplace like God was mad.
    ‘I guess you’ll want to go out to the cemetery,’ Mrs Curran said.
    ‘Yeah, I guess so,’ I tole her. I didn’t really know if I wanted to or not. I mean, somethin was tellin me I oughta, but it was the last place I really wanted to go.
    ‘I’ve got little Forrest ready,’ she says. ‘He ain’t been there since . . . Well, I think it would be a good thing for him to go along. Just to kind of get used to it.’
    I looked behind her an there he was, standin behind the screen door, lookin sort of sad an puzzled.
    ‘Who are you?’ he ast.
    ‘Why, I’m Forrest. You remember when I met you a while back? Up at Savannah.’
    ‘You’re the one with the funny monkey?’
    ‘Yeah. Sue. But he’s not a monkey. He’s a purebread orangutang.’
    ‘Where is he now? He here?’
    ‘Nope. Not this time,’ I says. ‘He got bidness someplace else, I reckon.’
    ‘We’re gonna go