The left turn at the Baptist church reveals that Cash Road is actually Sunnyside Road. Somewhere along the way, Sunnyside becomes Cash. But, as it is in lots of households, ash is hard to come by. Then Hawkshaw stumbles upon the Cash Baptist Church. So he turns around and checks his tripometer, his heart racing, and drives exactly 1.25 miles west.
Hawkshaw stops on the side of the road.
No one is stirring, not even a mouse. Maybe, it occurs to Hawkshaw, there is no middle man or woman, no single soul at the center of all Mississippi human endeavor. Maybe the Middle Man is the stuff of Census myth. Maybe, briefly, Hawkshaw himself was the fellow in question. Or maybe a baby being born in Tupelo or an old fellow dying in Gulfport skewed the numbers.