Forrest Gump by Winston Groom Jr. Part 10.
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Well, I finally went home to Mobile again. The train got into Mobile station about three o’clock in the morning, and Sue and I got off. We walked into the town and finally found a place to sleep in an empty building.
The next morning I bought some breakfast and got Sue some bananas to eat. Then we went to see Mom. She was pleased to see me.
‘Oh, Forrest,’ she said, ‘you’re home at last!’
‘Yes, Mom,’ I said.
But I didn’t stay long. Two days later, Sue and I got the bus to Bayou La Batre, where Bubba’s parents lived, and I explained to Bubba’s daddy about the shrimp business that Bubba and I planned to start after we came out of the army. He listened, and he was very interested. And the next day he took Sue and me out in his little boat, to look for a good place to start the shrimp business.
It took almost a month to start things up – to get nets, and a boat, and everything. Finally the day came when Sue and I were ready to go shrimping. And by that night we had hundreds and hundreds of shrimps in our nets!
It was the beginning of my shrimp business. We worked hard, all that summer, and that autumn and winter and the next spring. And after a year, Mom was working for me, and Mr Tribble, and Curtis (my old football friend), and Bubba’s daddy.
At the end of that year, we had thirty thousand dollars!
Everybody was very happy. But me? I was thinking of Jenny, of course. I wanted to find her again. And one day I dressed in my best clothes and got the bus to Mobile, and I went to Jenny’s Mom’s house.
‘Forrest Gump!’ she said, when she saw me. ‘Come on in!’
Well, we talked about Mom and the shrimp business and everything. Then I asked about Jenny.
‘I don’t hear from her very often,’ she said. ‘I think they live somewhere in North Carolina now.’
‘They?’ I said.
Didn’t you know?’ she said. ‘Jenny married two years ago;
Why wasn’t I ready for that news? I don’t know, but I wasn’t. And part of me seemed to die when I heard it. But Jenny only did what she had to do. Because I’m an idiot. A lot of people say that they married an idiot, but they don’t know what it’s like to marry a real one. I cried that night, but it didn’t help.
‘I’m just going to work hard,’ I told myself. ‘It’s all I can do.’
And I did. And at the end of that year we had seventy-five thousand dollars.
Time went on. I looked in the mirror and saw lines on my face and grey in my hair. The business was doing well, but I asked myself, ‘What are you doing all this for?’ And I knew that I had to get away.
Mr Tribble understood. ‘Why don’t you tell everybody that you’re taking a long holiday, Forrest?’ he said. ‘The business will be here when you want it again.’
So I did. Sue came with me, and we went to the bus station.
‘Where do you want to go?’ the woman in the ticket office asked.
‘I don’t know,’ I said.
‘Why don’t you go to Savannah?’ she said. ‘It’s a nice town.’
‘OK,’ I said.
Sue and I got off the bus at Savannah, then I went and got a cup of coffee and sat outside the bus station. What could I do next? I didn’t know. So after I finished my cup of coffee, I took out my harmonica and began to play. I played two songs – and a man walked past and threw some money into my empty coffee cup! I played two more songs, and soon the cup was half full of money!
By the end of the next week, we were getting ten dollars a day. Then, one afternoon when I was playing to some people in the park, I noticed that a little boy was watching me carefully. Then I looked up and saw a woman who was standing near him.
It was Jenny Curran.
Her hair was different, and she looked a bit older, and a bit tired, but it was her all right. And when I finished playing, she held the little boy’s hand and came across.
She was smiling. ‘Oh, Forrest, I knew it was you when I heard that harmonica. Nobody plays the harmonica like you do.’
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked her.
‘We live here now,’ she said. ‘Donald works in a business here in Savannah. We came here about three years ago.’
When I stopped playing, the rest of the people walked away. Jenny sat next to me while the little boy started playing with Sue.
‘Why are you playing your harmonica in the park?’ asked Jenny. ‘Mom wrote and told me about your shrimp business, and how rich you were.’
‘It’s a long story,’ I said. ‘Is that your little boy?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
‘What do you call him?’
‘His name is Forrest,’ she said quietly. Then she went on, ‘He’s half yours. He’s your son, Forrest.’
I looked at the boy, who was still playing with Sue. ‘My… son?’
‘I knew that a baby was on the way when I left Indianapolis,’ said Jenny, ‘but I didn’t want to say anything. I don’t know why. I was worried that perhaps -‘
‘Perhaps he would be an idiot,’ I finished for her.
‘Yes. But Forrest, he’s not an idiot, he’s really clever.’
‘Are you sure that he’s mine?’ I asked.
‘I’m sure,’ said Jenny. ‘He wants to be a football player.’
I looked at the boy. ‘Can I see him for a minute or two?’
‘Of course,’ said Jenny, and she called to him. ‘Forrest, I want you to meet another Forrest. He’s an old friend of mine.’
The boy came and sat down. ‘What a funny animal you’ve got,’ he said.
‘He’s an ape,’ I said. ‘His name is Sue.’
‘Why is it called Sue if it’s a he?’
I knew then that I didn’t have an idiot for a son. ‘Your Mom tells me that you want to be a football player.’
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Do you know anything about football?’
‘A bit,’ I said. ‘But ask your daddy. He’ll know more than me.’
He put his arms round me for a second, then went off to play with Sue again.
Jenny looked at me. ‘How long have we been friends, Forrest? Thirty years? Sometimes it doesn’t seem true.’ She moved nearer, and gave me a kiss. ‘Idiots,’ said Jenny. ‘Who isn’t an idiot?’
Then she got up and held little Forrest’s hand, and they walked away.
Well, after that, I did a few things. First I phoned Mr Tribble and told him to give some of my money from the shrimp business to my Mom, and some to Bubba’s daddy.
‘Then send the rest to Jenny and little Forrest,’ I said.
That night I sat up thinking. ‘Perhaps I can put things right with Jenny,’ I thought, ‘now that I’ve found her again.’ But the more I thought about it, the more I finally understood that it was better for the boy to be with Jenny and her husband, and not to have an idiot for a father.
An idiot? Yes, I’m an idiot. But most of the time I just try to do the right thing.
THE END
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