"Look, Lucien, you can talk about my wife, or my mother, or my ancestors, but don't call me a Republican."
"You look like a Republican," said Ellen.
"Does he look like a Democrat?" Jake asked, pointing at Lucien.
"Of course. I knew he was a Democrat the moment I saw him."
"Then I'm a Republican."
"See! See!" yelled Lucien. He dropped his glass on the floor and it shattered.
"Sallie!"
"Row Ark, guess who was the third white man in Mississippi to join the NAACP?"
"Rufus Buckley," said Jake.
"Me. Lucien Wilbanks. Joined in 1967. White people thought I was crazy."
"Can you imagine," Jake said.
"Of course, black folks, or Negroes as we called them back then, thought I was crazy too. Hell, everybody thought I was crazy back then."
"Have they ever changed their minds?" Jake asked.
"Shut up, Republican. Row Ark, why don't you move to Clanton and we'll start us a law firm handling nothing but ACLU cases. Hell, bring your old man down from Boston and we'll make him a partner."
"Why don't you just go to Boston?" Jake asked.
"Why don't you just go to hell?"
"What will we call it?" asked Ellen.
"The nut house," said Jake.
"Wilbanks, Row and Ark. Attorneys at law."
"None of whom have licenses," said Jake.
Lucien's eyelids weighed several pounds each. His head nodded forward involuntarily. He slapped Sallie on the rear as she cleaned up his mess.
"That was a cheap shot, Jake," he said seriously.
"Row Ark," Jake said, imitating Lucien, "guess who was the last lawyer permanently disbarred by the Mississippi Supreme Court?"
Ellen gracefully smiled at both men and said nothing.
"Row Ark," Lucien said loudly, "guess who will be the next lawyer in this county to be evicted from his office?" He roared with laughter, screaming and shaking. Jake winked at her.
When he settled down, he asked, "What's this meeting tomorrow night?"
"I want to cover the jury list with you and a few others."
"Who?"
"Harry Rex, Stan Atcavage, maybe one other."
"Where?"
"Eight o'clock. My office. No alcohol."
"It's my office, and I'll bring a case of whiskey if I want to. My grandfather built the building, remember?"
"How could I forget."
"Row Ark, let's get drunk."
"No thanks, Lucien. I've enjoyed dinner, and the conversation, but I need to get back to Oxford."
They stood and left Lucien at the table. Jake declined the usual invitation to sit on the porch. Ellen left, and he went to his temporary room upstairs. He had promised Carla he would not sleep at home. He called her. She and Hanna were fine. Worried, but fine. He didn't mention Bud Twitty.
A convoy of converted school buses, each with an original paint job of white and red or green and black or a hundred other combinations and the name of a church emblazoned along the sides under the windows, rolled slowly around the Clanton square after lunch Wednesday. There were thirty-one in all, each packed tightly with elderly black people who waved paper fans and handkerchiefs in a futile effort to overcome the stifling heat. After three trips around the courthouse, the lead bus stopped by the post office and thirty-one doors flew open. The buses emptied in a frenzy. The people were directed to a gazebo on the courthouse lawn, where Reverend Ollie Agee was shouting orders and handing out blue and white FREE CARL LEE placards.
The side streets leading into the square became congested as cars from all directions inched toward the courthouse and finally parked when they could move no closer. Hundreds of blacks left their vehicles in the streets and walked solemnly toward the square. They mingled around the gazebo and waited for their placards, then wandered through the oaks and magnolias looking for shade and greeting friends. More church buses arrived and were unable to circle the square because of the traffic. They unloaded next to the Coffee Shop.
For the first time that year the temperature hit a hundred and promised to go higher. The sky produced no clouds for protection, and there were no winds or breezes to weaken the burning rays or to blow away the humidity. A man's shirt would soak and stick to his back in fifteen minutes under a shade tree; five minutes without shade. Some of the weaker old folks found refuge inside the courthouse.
The crowd continued to grow. It was predominantly elderly, but there were many younger, militant, angry-looking blacks who had missed the great civil rights marches and demonstrations of the sixties and now realized that