Gump & Co. Read Online Free Page A

see my mama now,’ the little boy says, an I like to choked up right then.
    ‘Yeah, I know,’ I says.
    Mrs Curran, she put us in the car an we drove out to the cemetery. Whole time, I got these horrible butterflies in my stomach. Little Forrest, he just lookin out the winder with big ole sad eyes, an I am wonderin what in hell is gonna happen to us all.
    It was a really pretty cemetery, as them things go. Big ole magnolia an oak trees, an we wound around an wound around till we got to a big tree an Mrs Curran stopped the car. It was a Sunday mornin, an someplace church bells were chimin away. When we got out, little Forrest come up beside me an looked up, an so I took him by the hand an we walked to Jenny’s grave. The ground was still wet from the rain, an a lot of leaves had blown down, pretty red an gold ones, shaped just like stars.
    ‘Is that where Mama is?’ little Forrest ast.
    ‘Yes it is, darlin,’ Mrs Curran says.
    ‘Can I see her?’
    ‘No, but she’s there,’ says Jenny’s mama. He was a brave little boy, he was, an didn’t cry or nothin, like I would of if I’d been him. An after a few minutes he found himsef a stick to play with an walked off a ways by himsef.
    ‘I just can’t believe it,’ Mrs Curran said.
    ‘I can’t neither,’ I says. ‘It ain’t right.’
    ‘I’ll go back to the car now, Forrest. You probably want to be alone for a while.’
    I just stood there, kind of numb, twistin my hands. Everbody I really cared for seemed to have died or somethin. Bubba an Mama, an now poor Jenny. It had begun to drizzle a little bit now, an Mrs Curran went an got little Forrest an put him in the car. I started to walk away myself when I heard a voice say, ‘Forrest, it’s okay.’
    I turned aroun, but ain’t nobody there.
    ‘I said it’s okay, Forrest,’ the voice says again. It was . . . It couldn’t be . . . It was Jenny!
    Cept there still ain’t nobody there.
    ‘Jenny!’ I says.
    ‘Yes, Forrest. I just wanted you to know everything’s gonna be all right.’
    I must be goin crazy, I figgered! But then alls of a sudden I kind of seen her, just in my mind, I guess, but there she was, as beautiful as always.
    ‘You’re gonna have to take little Forrest now,’ she says, ‘an raise him up to be strong and smart and good. I know you can do it, Forrest. You’ve got a very big heart.’
    ‘But how?’ I ast. ‘I’m a idiot.’
    ‘No you’re not!’ Jenny says. ‘You might not be the smartest feller in town, but you’ve got more sense than most people. You’ve got a long life ahead of you, Forrest, so make the best you can of it. I’ve told you that for years.’
    ‘I know, but . . .’
    ‘Anytime you really get stumped, I’ll be there for you. Do you understand that?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Well, I will. So go on back and get busy and try to figure out what you’re gonna do next.’
    ‘But, Jenny, I just can’t believe it’s you.’
    ‘Well, it’s me all right. Go on, now, Forrest,’ she says. ‘Sometimes you act like you ain’t got sense enough to get in out of the rain.’
    So I gone on back to the car, soakin wet.
    ‘Was you talkin to somebody out there?’ Mrs Curran ast.
    ‘Sort of,’ I said. ‘I guess I was talkin to mysef.’
    That afternoon, me an little Forrest sat in Jenny’s mama’s livin room an watched the New Orleans Saints play the Dallas Cowboys – or whatever it was they did with them. The Cowboys done scored four touchdowns the first quarter, an we ain’t scored none. I had tried to call the stadium to explain where I was, but ain’tnobody answered the phone in the locker room. I guess by the time I got around to callin, they had all done gone out on the field.
    Second quarter it was worse, an by half-time the score was forty-two to nothin, an the sportscasters were all talkin about how I wadn’t there an nobody knew where I was. I finally got through to the locker room, an all of a sudden Coach Hurley got on the phone.
    ‘Gump, you