Birdie cried out, “Help me, Jesus . . . !”
Del slung his shotgun off his shoulder.
Preacher said, “He still on’em! How you gonna shoot?”
Del said, “I got to do something!”
Birdie quit flinging his foot about and whimpered a prayer. Del couldn’t get over the behavior of the snake. It made a chewing movement on Birdie’s foot, like it wanted to eat it.
Del gripped the barrel of his shotgun and smacked the stock over the lower end of the snake. It released Birdie’s foot and Birdie stumbled backward, bumping into Preacher as Del flipped the gun around, aimed, and pulled the trigger. Where the head had been disappeared. The body rippled and curled as if still alive. Birdie pointed a shaky finger at his foot. Both Del and Preacher bent down, studying two tiny puncture wounds with twin spots of blood not much bigger than a pinprick.
Del said, “Don’t move.”
Birdie was too scared anyway and could only nod. Del removed his belt and used it like a tourniquet, cinching it just above Birdie’s knee.
When he was done, he said “Kin you walk?”
Birdie had calmed down some, his fear turning to wonder as he said, “I can’t tell I been bit. Ain’t no pain. Don’t feel nuthin’。”
Preacher said, “Maybe it didn’t get you too bad.”
Del said, “Damndest thing I ever seen, how it chewed on him.”
They returned to the work area and Birdie, who apparently had recovered from his initial fright, described to some of the other workers how he’d come upon it. Del listened to him tell his story, and he seemed all right, but a snake bite was a snake bite.
“He was hanging on me like a Christmas ornament on a tree not five minutes ago.”
Big’Un bent over and examined Birdie’s foot.
He said, “Can’t see nothing.”
Birdie said, “He done got me all right. I ain’t feeling so bad, though.”
Del said, “Look, if you can’t work . . .”
Birdie was quick to say, “Oh, I gone work. I ain’t wantin’ no whip.”
Del said, “It ain’t what I mean. Hell, I don’t even own a whip. What I meant was, you been snake bit, might want to take it easy.”
Birdie frowned as if Del spoke to him in another language.
He bent down, undid the belt, and handed it to Del. “Naw suh, I got to work.”
“All right. It’s up to you, but take it easy.”
“Yessuh.”
Del walked to the designated drifts to see what the other workers had done, and as the afternoon progressed, he kept thinking one of two things would happen. Somebody would come and tell him Birdie was sick, or Crow would make an appearance to run his mouth. Neither happened, but still, it was midafternoon before Del’s shoulder muscles eased. The day came to a searing end and as they gathered back in the hang-up area to grab their dinner buckets and load into the wagon, Del spotted Birdie, moving a bit slow, but otherwise the man appeared unfazed by his earlier encounter. As he drew closer, Del noticed his dark skin had turned ashen, and his eyelids drooped. Still, he’d worked all day and was probably just tired.
Del said, “You done all right today?”
Birdie said, “Yeshuh.”
Del frowned. When Birdie worked through the afternoon, he’d seemed fine, but now he sounded like he’d been drinking. Del reckoned any of them could sneak a little juke’n juice, but it wasn’t something he wanted them doing. He didn’t need a bunch a drunk workers getting hurt because they couldn’t see straight.
He said, “You been drinking?”
“Naw shuh.”
Del couldn’t be sure if he was lying or if it was something else. Birdie weaved about.
“You sure? ’Cause if I catch you lyin’， I’m gonna have to dock your pay.”
He’d learned from his pap it hurt a man the most when you hit him in his pockets.
Birdie held both his hands up. “I ain’t. I shwear.” And he stumbled and weaved some more as he talked.
Del was hardly convinced.
Preacher said, “He ain’t never touched a drop I know of. It’s what killed his daddy. He ain’t about to touch it.”
Right before Del’s eyes Birdie slowly crumpled to the ground. Del rushed to his side and the man’s body convulsed. The workers circled around him, muttering amongst themselves, unsure of what was happening.
Del said, “I ain’t ever known nobody bit by a coral snake. Anyone of you here know anything about it?”