By Michelle Bentley

It seems to me,  Darl was left blowing in the wind at the end of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. I decided I was not ready to let Darl go so easily. I have written one last Darl section.

Darl

Rain drops glide across the glass between the iron bars. Each shimmering droplet tells a story. One carries the story of Dewey Dell. Her life with young Darnell falls before me. I watch as Dewey Dell prepares dinner for Darnell, standing in her dirt floor kitchen. I feel bad for Dewey Dell; I know she is the reason I was put into this place. I don't begrudge her, it. I wish she had somewhere as nice to go. When you have a tub of guts inside your guts, I reckon you have to be thankful for whatever kind of man is willing to take you in. Dewey Dell's husband Mr. Everest is nearing his sixties. He needed a maid more so than a wife--after the death of his beloved. And Dewey Dell needed a home after the new Mrs. Brundren sent her away because of her condition. There was no room in the home for two newborns.

Now I see the drop carrying that damn child, Not Darnell, but the child Mrs. Brundren has given to Pa. And why not start over with a new child. Dewey Dell is done gone off and married with a bastard child of her own. My dear brother Cash was buried in Jefferson next to Ma, only two weeks after he had returned home from the trip to bury her. His box was not nearly as nice. It was a plain rectangle, no bevel, no balance—just a box. It looked like the boxes you find outside of those big stores in Jefferson. They have not seen Vardaman since that night. I see him living with some nice folks in the city; he is sitting next to a warm fire watching his trains drive around the track. The boy laughs every time the whistle blows. Trains are for city boys; my brother Vardaman is a city boy. There is no drop for Jewel, as if our connection died with Ma.

"Are you alright Darl," asks the nurse, "you have been starring out theta winda for six 'ours. Its visit'n day you ain't had a single visitor, or letter since your arrival. Don't you have any kin, Darl?"

Hum...I love it here. It is so peaceful.