Darl on the Wagon Road — As I Lay Dying

Jewel has not once looked back. The back of his neck is trimmed close, a white line between hair and sunburn like a joint of white bone. The road vanishes beneath the wagon like a ribbon and the front axle a spool. Do you know she is going to die, Jewel, Darl says. Jewel does not answer.

Darl's mind will not stay on the mules. It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That is how the world is going to end. He said to Dewey Dell, you want her to die so you can get to town, is that it. She would not say it. She kept asking are you going to tell pa, are you going to kill him. The sun sits like a bloody egg on thunderheads. The light turns copper and smells of lightning. Darl sees Peabody hauled up the path on a rope, balloon-like in the sulphurous air.

Do you know that Addie Bundren is going to die, Darl says. Addie Bundren is going to die. Jewel still has not looked back. The question hangs over the wagon while the storm gathers. Peabody is about to be dragged up that bluff. What happens when the doctor who refused Anse's tired act finally walks into the room?