The Second Coming

name. Rosenberg was a Nazi.”
    â€œIs the Pope Catholic? I’m telling you, I know her old man, Sol Goodman.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œCheryl could make it either way. She’s got it all. Do you know who she looks exactly like? Remember Linda Darnell? Imagine a Linda Darnell who can play the violin like Evelyn and Phil Spitalny. In fact, now that she’s finished this film, she’s getting ready for her first recital.”
    He must have had a lapse of inattention or perhaps even another spell. Did he blank out? How much time passed? In any case, he must have seemed rude because the next thing he knew, Ewell McBee was standing directly over him, feet apart, hands on his hips, speaking loudly. He seemed to be in a rage.
    â€œYou want to know what your trouble is, Lawyer Barrett?”
    â€œWhy, yes,” he said with genuine curiosity, cocking his head to look up.
    â€œThe trouble with you is you always thought you were too good for anybody or anything. Nothing is ever good enough for you.”
    â€œReally?” he said, peering up at Ewell with interest. “How is that?”
    â€œYou always thought you were so damn smart. You and your daddy. But I’m here to tell you something. The only difference between you and me is money. Outside of that, you and I are exactly alike. You and your daddy are smart all right but there is such a thing as outsmarting yourself. You even think you’re smarter than your daddy, don’t you?”
    â€œIs that right?” Well, yes.
    He gazed up at Ewell with curiosity. Enemies, he knew, often tell the truth. And these days enemies, honest enemies are few and far between. Nobody says anything unpleasant. Enemies will often tell you unsuspected truths about yourself, just as a photograph or a double mirror will show your snoutish nose.
    â€œYou know I’m right, Lawyer Barrett.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    â€œAbout us being exactly alike.”
    â€œHow is that?”
    â€œYou know as well as I do we could have us a fine time having a party with Cheryl and Norma Jean, looking at the film and having some drinks and later having a real party. I mean a fine time. A little pussy never hurt anybody. You like pussy as much as I do, don’t you?”
    â€œI hadn’t thought about it lately,” he said, but thinking now of Kitty’s ass. Well, yes. How could it have slipped my mind? What time is it?
    â€œBut you don’t talk about it because you think you’re too good to have a party with me.”
    â€œA party with Sarah Goodman is not out of the question.”
    But Ewell’s anger carried him beyond listening. In a way, he’s taking another shot at me, he saw.
    â€œMe and you are alike as two peas in a pod,” said Ewell, moving his shoulders. “The only difference between us is that me and my daddy had to work like niggers and you and your daddy had your own niggers and enough money to learn lawyering and how to talk. Otherwise, we just the same.”
    â€œHow are we the same?” he asked curiously, straining up to see and hear.
    â€œYour daddy said it. What’s more, we both love money, only you were smarter about getting it and so you don’t have to talk about it. You marry the richest lady in the state, so you don’t have to worry about it. Then you can go around giving it away, so you can be man-of-the-year. Like money don’t matter to you. You’re right. It don’t matter if you got it. But if you didn’t have it, it would matter. You act like you was so sorry your wife passed. Maybe you was. She was a real fine lady. But maybe it didn’t exactly kill your soul that you inherited all that money. But you would never say. The only difference between us is that I would say. I married the meanest damn white woman in Henderson County and I was glad she passed and I don’t mind saying so. But you’re smart. And you’re ever bit as cold-blooded as I am, only you don’t have to talk about it because you got money. Money may not be everything but it sho lets you act nice. My daddy used to tell me: make the money then act as nice as you please. You’re even smarter than your daddy. Look what happened to him. But not you. You setting there right this minute eyeing me and listening and figuring something out, ain’t you?”
    â€œWhat do you think I’m figuring out, Ewell?”
    â€œI don’t know because you