As soon as Jim Thorne finished speaking, everyone fell silent. No one made a sound, mainly because they didn't know what to say. The looks they gave Jim Thorne, however, grew increasingly sympathetic. To be so young and already not quite right in the head—what a tragedy.
Even someone as dense as Jim Thorne could feel the strange looks from the people around him, including from his own sister. They were looking at him like he was an idiot. Furious with humiliation, he retorted, "That's what Grandma said! She said she's got no butt and no brawn. She can't carry manure, she can't chop firewood, she plants rice seedlings slower than an eighty-year-old woman, she cries more than she pees, and even a dog would turn its nose up at her."
Another gust of mountain wind blew past, and the air grew even quieter. Everyone lowered their heads and pretended to work. There was just no good way to respond to that.
