Luther
Luther Cash gets nervous. Mr. Skinner at the store makes him nervous when he yells in that high whiny voice and gets all red in the face. Customers make Luther nervous when they want something the store doesn’t carry or that isn’t in stock right now or the last one just got sold and they act like it’s Luther’s fault. Girls make Luther nervous, especially China Doll, who is so pretty and like she might shatter if you were too rough with her, too loud. The country people make him nervous that they’re going to break something or step over the line, get Mr. Skinner thinking colored done it and it makes no difference which. Mr. Pinetop Purvis makes him nervous because they say he killed somebody. As the Reverend says in church, many are the traps and snares, the pits and sinkholes. Luther had a brother was killed over to Barbour County, talked back to the wrong man and one thing led to another till he was dying with his head stove in by a fence post. Luther is cautious and likes to see things in their proper place, which makes him the best clerk Mr. Skinner has ever had. Going to the Honeydripper or the Ace of Spades makes him nervous too, but that’s where the girls are Saturday nights and when the music gets going and people start dancing you sometimes forget all the things that could happen or people who might do you wrong and let it all go. That kind of nervous can make your heart fly.
