Jewel's Fury at the Coffin Window — As I Lay Dying

One lick less. That is all Jewel wants. Cash stays out there, right under the window, hammering and sawing on that goddamn box. Addie has to see him. Every breath she draws is full of his knocking, and Jewel can hear what Cash is saying without words: See. See what a good one I am making for you. Jewel told him to go somewhere else. Good God, do you want to see her in it. Nobody moved the work. Nobody asked Addie if she wanted to watch.

Jewel remembers Cash as a little boy, bringing a bread-pan back from the barn full of dung because their mother wanted fertilizer for flowers. The love was real. The delivery was wrong. Now them others sit there like buzzards, waiting, fanning themselves. Dewey Dell's arm keeps the air moving on Addie's face. Her hands lie on the quilt like two roots dug up and tried to wash, and you couldn't get them clean. Jewel said let her alone. The adze keeps going. One lick less. One lick less until everybody on the road will stop and say what a fine carpenter Cash is.

Jewel's rage runs past Cash to God and the whole county. He would take Addie to a high hill and throw rocks at every face that came to stare until she was quiet. One lick less and we could be quiet, he says, and the chapter ends on that prayer. Darl is about to ask if they are ready to leave for three dollars. What happens when the brother who wants one lick less has to walk away anyway?