Gang five was still working on the irrigation canal the day LeBlanc was brought to camp. A pickup truck ground along the right-of-way in second gear and stopped close to the ditch. LeBlanc sat in the front seat between two guards. He got out on the driver’s side, and the other guard slid out behind him. LeBlanc’s face was marked with scars and the bridge of his nose was crooked. He hadn’t had a haircut since he had been arrested, and the hair along his neck stuck down over his shirt collar. The two guards walked him to the area where gang five was working.
“Here’s a new one, Evans. He just got in from Angola. The warden told me to bring him on down and get him started,” the driver said.
“What’s his name?” Evans said.
“LeBlanc.”
“I been expecting him. You all can go on. I’ll get him a pick and put him to work.”
“Watch him. He spit on the cop that brought him on the train.”
“He won’t do that here.”
The guards got into the pickup, turned it around, and drove back along the right-of-way towards the gravel road.
“Come with me,” Evans said.
They went to the line shack and LeBlanc was issued a pick. They went back to the ditch.
“I ain’t eat breakfast yet,” LeBlanc said.
“You should have told them when they checked you through the office.”
“I did. Them guards was supposed to take me to the mess hall.”
“They was probably in a hurry. Get down in the ditch and go to work. You can eat at lunch time.”
“I ain’t used to working on an empty stomach.”
“You’ll get used to a lot of things around here. You come into camp with a bad record or they wouldn’t have put you on my gang. Step out of line and you’ll wish you was back in the hospital. Now start sweating some grease into that pick handle.”
“I ain’t got much use for people that wear uniforms.”
“Get down in the ditch.”
He climbed over the mound of clay and slid down the embankment.
“Hi, LeBlanc,” Avery said. “When did they bring you in?”
“I come on the train this morning.”
“How was it at the hospital?”
“They sewed up my face and put my ribs back together. I still got to wear some tape around my sides.”
“I wasn’t sure you were going to make it. You looked pretty bad when they carried you out of the jail,” Avery said.
“I’m going to even up things back there sometime.”
“You better forget about it for a while.”
“I aim to get things straight. I owe some people for messing up my face.”
“What was Evans talking to you about?”
“Who’s Evans?” LeBlanc said.
“The hack.”
“I give a cop some trouble.”
“What did you do?”
“I spit on him at the front gate.”
“Who’s the new guy?” Billy Jo said. “This is LeBlanc,” Avery said. “He came in from Angola.”
“What happened to your face?” Jeffry said. “I fell on the sidewalk playing hopscotch.”
“I was in Angola,” Billy Jo said. “So was Daddy Claxton.”
“I was there when they was going to set fire to the hacks,” Daddy Claxton said.
“Who done that to your face?” Jeffry said. “Them stitches ain’t been out very long.”
“He was in a fight,” Avery said.
“The other guy must have been using a ball bat.’
“My face ain’t your business,” LeBlanc said.
“I didn’t say it was.”
“Stare at something else, then,” LeBlanc said.
“This is the best gang in camp,” Billy Jo said. “Everybody here is doing life or they showed the hacks they don’t take crap.”
“You got a cigarette on you?” Daddy Claxton said.
“They took them away from me at the office.”
“What are you pulling?” Billy Jo said.
“Three and seven.”
“Daddy and Brother Samuel is pulling life,” Jeffry said.
The dust rose from the earth as the men worked. LeBlanc rested his pick and took off his shirt. There was a wide band of tape around his ribs and stomach. He swung the pick into the ground.
“You got something busted?” Billy Jo said.
“It’s healed up now.”
“Brother Samuel can heal it for you if it ain’t right,” Jeffry said.
“There ain’t anything wrong with me,” LeBlanc said.
“Who done it to you?” Jeffry said.
“Let the man be,” Brother Samuel said.
“I was only asking.”
“Listen to the thunder. Maybe we’ll get some rain tonight,” Daddy Claxton said.
“It ain’t going to rain. We’ll be breathing this goddamn dust the rest of the year,” Billy Jo said.
“Not us. We only got a week to pull,” Jeffry said.
“Shut up,” Billy Jo said.
“Why is everybody on my ass today?”
“Because you ask for it,” Billy Jo said.
“I ain’t done a thing and everybody is getting on my ass about it.”
“Then shut your mouth and we’ll leave you alone.”
“I can smell the rain in the air,” Daddy Claxton said. “Like a paper mill. They say it means somebody is going to die when it stays dry a long time and then it rains.”
“This weather ain’t natural,” Brother Samuel said. “I only seen it like this once before. The sky was yellow and the sun was like a red ball. When the rains come the fever come too, and people was dropping dead in the marsh like sick rabbits. They was still finding bodies two months later.”
“It’s a drought. Ain’t you guys ever seen a drought before?” Billy Jo said.
“This one ain’t natural,” Brother Samuel said. “It means something.”
“Where do you get a drink of water around here?” LeBlanc said.
“Call for the trusty.”
“Where is he?”
“Down the ditch someplace.”
“Don’t drink too much water if you can help it,” Avery said.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“It makes you sick.”
“Trusty! Bring the water barrel,” Billy Jo said.
“Why ain’t there any decent water?” LeBlanc said.
“The state don’t want to pay for digging a new well,” Jeffry said.
The trusty brought the water can. LeBlanc drank from the dipper.
“I wouldn’t water stock with this,” he said. He threw the dipper inside the can. The water splashed over the rim.
“What the hell!” the trusty said. “You got my shirt wet.”
“Go put some clean water in the can,” LeBlanc said.
“That’s all there is. You drink the same as everybody else.”
“What’s going on down there?” Evans said from the top of the ditch.
“This guy don’t want to drink the water.”
“Let him go thirsty,” Evans said.
“This water come out of a swamp,” LeBlanc said.
The other men had stopped work to watch. LeBlanc’s eyes shone hotly at Evans. The scars and the holes where his cuts had been stitched were pink against his face.
“You’re starting off your stretch the wrong way,” Evans said.
“Was you ever in the army? You look like the kind they got in the stockade,” LeBlanc said.
“Cool down,” Avery said.
“You always got a uniform and a gun, and sometimes they let you carry a stick to bust somebody’s ribs with. I seen them like you in the stockade.”
“You want to spend your first day in detention?”