Darl
The boy Darl is laughing on the train to Jackson. I am laughing on the train to Jackson. I am Darl. Darl is my brother. My brother is Darl. My brother is Jewel my brother is Cash—
Cash, with his leg turning black like Pa's gaping smile. He told me to go on the train because I burned the barn, but his leg told me to burn the barn. And the eyes of the strangers we passed, who started at the stench of my mother's coffin, of my mother's body. Why not just end it there? I did it for them strangers, I did it for Cash, I did it for Addie. But Jewelwhoisnotmybrother saved her from the fire, Jewel who is her son, not my brother. Jewel knew it was me. Jewel told 'em it was me I know.
The trees are running past in a rhythmic blur of green and brown, and I wonder if I am not a boy or a man but if I am a tree standing tall, outside. If I am not a man or a boy, but a tree, will I one day be felled and carried on a wagon for three dollars? Will someone, will Cash make a coffin out of me outside a window to hold Anse who is my father?
The train beats under me like a heart. The train is my heart—hear it beat, there is nothing but the beat of the train, bumpa bumpa bumpa bumpa bump can you hear the beat of my heart? If Vardaman's mother is a fish, Jewel's mother is a horse, what is my mother? My mother is a casket, my mother is a corpse, my mother is a train.