might ketch one of them social diseases. An' they ain't manly or funny, I'll tell ya"
“What you talkin' 'bout?" Cotton questioned Otis.
“I’m talkin' 'bout gettin' yer poker all festered up inside, then goin' to one of them doctors who's got them long needles they run up there in yer poker. That ain't no fun, I'll tell ya."
Cotton looked up at Otis, and then said, "What do you mean?"
“I mean they run that thing up yer poker an' then they pull on a little wire what’s inside the needle. Then a bunch of barbs stick out of it an' then he pulls back out, takin' half yer poker with it!"
Cotton grimaced at the thought, then, pensively, with raised eyebrows he asked, "You mean you had a social disease?"
“Yep."
“Well, I haven't caught nothin' yet or it'd showed up by now, wouldn't it? How’d you know if you got it?"
"You'd know!"
"How?"
Otis looked at Ben. Ben nodded his head, meaning for Otis to go ahead and tell Cotton.
"'Cause ever time you took a piss, you'd swear you'd never drink no more water."
"Why not?"
Otis pursed his lips together and shook his head, then said, "Cause, you'd have to piss it out an' it'd hurt like nothin' you ever felt."
“That why you never married?"
"One reason."
"What's another?"
Ben watched with interest while Otis tried to tell Cotton another reason he never married.
"Never figgered I made 'nough money to where I could afford to keep a woman. Then, if you married, the first thing you know you'd be goin' to church an' you'd have to shave ever day. Couldn't play no poker anymore neither or go out an' have a few drinks with the boys. Women don't like that, you know." He paused a moment, looking up into the mountains, then said, “I just want to feel that if I git a hankerin' to move on, I kin. With a woman, you can't do that."
"Why not?" Cotton asked him.
"'Cause, you'd have kids to take care of an' rent to pay an' groceries to