Chapter 14 Henry's story

When Henry was fourteen, his long-ill father died.Henry wore a suit to the funeral home because Willie.Covington insisted that each of his sons have a suit, even if the family had no money for anything else. The family walked towards the open coffin and stared at the corpse.Willie was extremely dark, but the undertaker made him an auburn complexion.Henry's eldest sister burst into tears.She wiped off the makeup on her father's face with her hands, and screamed, "My dad doesn't look like this!"Henry's little brother wanted to climb into the coffin.His mother was crying too.

Henry watched silently.He just wants his father back. Before he learned to worship God, Jesus, or any higher power, Henry most admired his father, a mattress maker from North Carolina who stood 192cm tall and covered his chest with scars he never explained to the child. The origin of the bullet scar.He was a tough guy, he smoked one cigarette after another, and he liked to drink, but he was usually very gentle when he came home full of yellow soup at night, and would call Henry over and say: Do you love your dad? Love.Henry would say. Then come over and give Dad a hug.Give dad a kiss. Willie is an enigma, he has no real job, is very adamant about his education, collects stolen goods for a living, and has absolutely no stolen goods in his house.When Henry started smoking in the sixth grade of elementary school, his father had only one sentence: Never ask me for a cigarette.

But Willie loved his kids, and he would challenge them to ask what they were taught in school, earning a dollar for answering easy questions and ten dollars for solving math problems.Henry loves to hear him sing, especially old Negro spirituals like It's Cool Down Here by the River Jordan. But soon he stopped singing.Willie coughed and had emphysema and tuberculosis in his brain.For the last year of his life, he spent almost all of his life in bed.Henry cooked for him and brought food to his room, although his father vomited blood and ate nothing. One night, when Henry was bringing dinner into the room, his father looked up at him sadly, and said hoarsely, "Listen, son, if you don't have any cigarettes, you can get some of mine."

A week later, he died. At the funeral, Henry vaguely heard the Baptist pastor mention the soul and Jesus, but he didn't listen to most of the words.He kept thinking that his father would come back and one day suddenly appear at the door, singing his favorite song. Months passed.It didn't happen. Now that his only hero had been lost, at last Henry, the son of the scavengers, made a decision: From now on, he would take what he wanted.