“I just don’t trust the man.”
“But he’s got that good suit.”
“What’s that got to say about if he is about what he says he’s about?”
“Well, he ain’t no carpet bagger is what I am getting at.”
“That’s what I don’t trust, he talks like he comes from a big city and that good schoolin.”
“He’d have to be educated to be a recruiter for Robertson.”
“Ah, I ain’t buying what he is selling.”
“Would you buy into me though?”
“500 dollars, that’s a big ask.”
“I got half. I just need some pitch to get me over the line.”
“What are you going to eat after your last cent is in that man’s pocket?”
“I’ll find a way to eat.”
“Where are you going to sleep? In the gutters camped out with the Hoovers.”
“Once I’m in the air it won’t matter where my home is. I’ll live hanger to hanger, save on room and board, and I could catch a duck right out the window for feasting.”
“You just don’t understand. You gonna fail, come back here or die in that city’s gutter.”
“If I want it bad enough I can do it.”
“Guess you didn’t want it bad enough, then right?”
“But I do.”
“But if you did you’d have the 500 that man needs. You wouldn’t have spent your dimes and dollars on pulps and picture books. You would have been working not laying in the fields looking at the sky.”
“That ain’t fair.”
“Life never was.”
“I just need your pitch and I’ll pay you back.”
“Look if I just gave you the rest and you bounce out to St. Louis, with no money, no plan, no friends. You’ll be dreaming in the gutter, still a lay about.”
“Fine, then let me rain on your dreams for a change. It must be pretty powerful if you can stomach all those summer days digging ditches and pulling Turnbulls estate free of weeds.”
“You know I break my back so Pa doesn’t break my hide. I dream of getting enough to get away, but rent in the city starts at 25 dollars a month. And wages without learning would cause me to bleed out after half a year. That’s why I got what I got, I got a plan and I’m making it happen.”
“I’ll pay your rent.”
“What?”
“Look you, give me the pitch, use the rest to bleed out and before you do. I will pay all the rent.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“You calling me a liar?”
“I didn’t call you a liar.”
“Well, then I must be a truther and truth is, even if I can start to split the rent. You get your nice own apartment. I get hot water and with a few shined shoes or papers out, we’d have hot meals.”
“Sweeten it.”
“Fine, after I’m a full fledged pilot. I’ll pay all the rent for you forever.”
“To sweet.”
“Catch though…”
“Awe course, well?”
“I get to stay with you whenever I’m in the city. Drop of a hat.”
“Fair, now one last condition.”
“If you fail and ain’t a pilot-” “-Can’t fail-” “If you fail and ain’t a pilot. You kill my father and Buster Turnbull.”
hngyhngyhppo 