by Tiana Laveen
“You’re out of order! You better stop!” Jessica cackled, hating herself for laughing.
“Me? She better stop! Don’t let her in this house, Jess. They’re probably all over her. I’m surprised when you come up to her house to deliver her mail one of ’em ain’t come out and ask you for the grocery coupons.”
They both exploded in laughter at that.
“Melissa you are a mess! Terrible!” Jessica picked up a gum wrapper from a corner, wondering how’d it gotten way over there.
“All I’m saying is that her house is nasty. Shit should be rated XXX. Tasha said she went over there to do her laundry one day, took a pile of her and her friend’s clothes to clean them. You know she and Sharon are half-sisters.” Jessica nodded. “Said she saw ’em in the dryer. The roaches was in there singing, ‘I’ll Tumble For Ya’, by Boy George.’”
“Melissa! You’re wasting my time with this nonsense!” She leaned against the wall for a spell, thoroughly entertained.
“Okay, back to being serious now. So, after she’d already washed her clothes, she saw them in the drum of the dryer, just like I said. She yelled out, ‘The hell with this! They about to call me and my friend the bitches with no britches,’ and stormed out. Just nasty, Jess. Probably clean it once a year, on Christmas… the Lord’s birthday. I wouldn’t stub my damn toe up in there, let alone walk in, eat, wash clothes and rest my head.”
“Speakin’ of resting your head, which you do so well…” Melissa sucked her teeth and rolled her big, dark brown eyes as she turned another page of the magazine. “You look for a job today, girl? That better be the Wanted Ads you’re staring at.” Jessica tossed the empty cookie bag in the kitchen trashcan and returned to her in the living room.
Melissa’s pale wide face was sprinkled with a reddish glow to match her rosy, high cheekbones. She was a high yellow girl with a big pink mouth, sparkling teeth that were a wee bit too big and wiry black hair that never grew past her shoulders. They’d been friends since the second grade, thick as thieves.
“You know I did, Jess! I was just online today looking.” The woman blinked way too much when speaking those words.
“Mmm hmm, sounds like story time to me. Maybe you can ask the roaches from Sharon’s house for a job since they seem to keep busy.”
“I’m telling the truth. It’s hard out here.” She shrugged. “I know the fifty dollars I give you once a month ain’t much, but I’m trying, baby. Please don’t make me feel bad.”
Jessica grimaced and put her hand on her hip.
“I ain’t trying to make you feel bad, Melissa, but it’s been almost six months and you just laying around here taking up space. You told me you just needed three months, and yet here you still are. Now true, you do clean up after yourself and you can cook your ass off, but that doesn’t make up for my empty refrigerator because you suck down the food like a vacuum, your little boyfriends calling you all hours of the night, your crazy ex-husband showing up every now and again drunk and demanding your time and affections and you asking me for money. I’ve seen the new clothes in the back of that laundry room closet…” She narrowed her eyes on the little bitch. The woman tried to avoid eye contact, looking shifty-eyed like some rodent planning to dart across the floor towards a fresh morsel of cheese.
“I promise I’mma get somethin’, even though it won’t be in my field. Can’t find anything in local sales it seems. Are you sure the post office isn’t hiring, Jess?! I mean, that’s the type of job I need… something with benefits!”
“The post office? I wish I would put my name against the likes of your work history!” Chuckling, Jessica picked up a bottle of Windex and began to clean a small mirror by the front door. “Within the last two years, you don’t keep a job longer than a butt hair on an ant.” She could hear her friend sucking her teeth and flipping another magazine page. “Besides, they work us to death there. You’d quit before you’d even earned your first paycheck. You’re allergic to labor, think you’re too pretty.”
“That is not true, Jessica! See how you do me? How you talk to me?”
“I just call it like I see it. Anyway, I like my job, and I’m used to it. They’ve got me on a new route, you know.”
“How’s that going? You haven’t said much about it.”
“Well, it’s only been a few weeks, but so far so good. It’s in Sweetwater.”
“Ohhh, that’s nice.”
“Yeah, real nice area. They’ve got some nice houses over there. I took that route when Kandis moved to Louisiana.” She pulled a small waste basket up from the floor, removed the liner filled with trash and marched it to the kitchen. When she returned, Melissa had her drink back in her hand. She took a sip and looked at her with those glossy, doe-like eyes.
“Do you like it better? You know, this route over your old one?”
“I do actually, believe it or not, but it takes some getting used to. The people seem nice enough. I miss my old place though. You know I’m a creature of habit. I’d get Christmas and birthday cards, knew some of ’em by name, and you know, even the mean people you just get comfortable with.” She got a kick from the memories.
“See, after you told me about that damn dog coming after you that one time, I second guessed putting in my application last year. Mmm hmmm!” Melissa shook her head. “I been done took my foot and jammed it up Fido’s ass so hard, he’d sing, ‘Get on the good foot!’”
Jessica burst out laughing and shook her head, then headed back into her kitchen to make sure the place was spic and span before heading off to work. She grabbed her black purse from the dining room chair, flung it over her shoulder and started towards the front door.
“When I get back, I want you showered, dressed, dinner cooked and proof of at least three jobs you applied for.” She pointed at her friend. “You know I don’t have the heart to put you out, but I do demand some accountability. You better pull yourself together. You’re lucky I love you or I’d toss you out like yesterday’s trash.”
“Yes, Mama,” Melissa teased, jetting out her tongue. She snatched her cellphone from the coffee table. “I’m making steak and potatoes tonight. Is that cool?”
“Yeah. I want a salad, too.” Jessica patted her stomach. “I need to lose a few pounds. Been going too hard on the cakes and cookies lately.”
“You want some wine or tea?”
“Hell, both!”
She waved to her friend and headed out the door, ready to go to the post office, pick up her truck, and begin her route. As she reached her own truck, a black F-150, she spotted a little dingy black cat near her front wheel, hunkered down. Taking slow, steady steps, she peered at the tiny thing. It was shaking like a leaf. One ear seemed to be chewed to death like it was a damn piece of Laffy Taffy.
“Heeeey, you…” she said in a hushed voice as she moved at a snail’s pace.
“You poor thing. You got into a scuffle, didn’t you? Something took a bite out of you like you were some dessert.” She grunted as she bent down to get a better look. After a few moments of them sizing up one another, she wrapped both hands around the cat’s midsection and moved the poor animal to the sidewalk. The thing hissed, but stayed put, staring at her as if not sure what to do with itself. “I don’t even like cats, but you’re cute, little meanie!” She smiled. “Glad I saw you before I started the truck up. You wouldn’t have been dessert, but you sure as hell would’ve been flat as a pancake.” She opened her vehicle door and slid inside. When she put it in drive, she glanced over at the cat once more. It hadn’t moved a muscle. With bright, green eyes, it just gazed at her, looking lost and forlorn. Maybe no one had ever picked it up before, showed concern or care? She slowly took off, looking out of her rearview window a couple times.
It might rain later on. I hope the little thing finds some shelter. She was scared, shaking so bad. Maybe I shoulda given her some food? No, then I’d never be rid of her. She’d keep coming around and around, just like Melissa.
She chuckled to herself a
s she flipped on the radio to hear Roberta Flack crooning, ‘Killing Me Softly.’ Jessica sang along, tapping her steering wheel to the tune, then paused as she approached a red light. To her right, a tall, handsome fellow walked arm in arm with an equally tall and attractive woman. They looked silly in love. The two were studying a menu taped on a restaurant’s front window. She was certain the place would be closed soon. Nothing ever seemed to stay open too long in that area. She jumped when a horn blasted behind her.
“All right! I’m going!”
Her heart beat fast and her cheeks felt hot. A strange taste filled her mouth. Perhaps it was disappointment…
Ten minutes later, she pulled up to the large lot occupied by mail trucks. She clocked in, grabbed her boxes filled with pre-sorted packages, junk mail, and envelopes, and went on her way. But that taste remained in her mouth. It happened often when she thought about love. About the strange, abstract thing that had eluded her for so long. As with all the times before, she quelled those feelings and pushed them out of her mind. She tried not to think much about it at all…
…Several hours later
“Mama I can’t really talk right now.” Jessica swallowed, placing the crinkled McDonald’s bag in the trashcan before making her way to her truck to get back on her route. She’d made a quick pitstop when her stomach grumbled. Nothing a burger and fries wouldn’t cure.
“Well, I just thought you’d wanna know that Doris died.”
“But Mama, I already told you. I never knew Doris.” She got in the driver’s seat and slammed the door closed. “You keep saying—”
“Doris! You know Doris! She is Jackie’s daughter’s aunt’s cousin’s child on her daddy’s side!”
Jessica grimaced and started up the vehicle.
“Please give ’em all my condolences, Mama. I just can’t recall who that is right now and at this rate, you’ll take every darn leaf off the family tree and I still won’t have a clue as to who you are referring to. Can I call you back after I get off work?”
“Yeah. Do you want to know where the fumerule will be held first, though?”
“The what?”
“The fumerule!”
Mama must’ve forgotten to wear her teeth.
“Oh… funeral… Mama, I doubt I’ll make it. I don’t know these people.” She merged into traffic, her nerves getting worked up from the conversation. She had to endure though. Mama was a senior citizen now, and all on her own. Lord knew that her brother, Corey, wasn’t doing anything to assist.
“Barbara come callin’ me and said she got roaches in her house now. Said crazy ol’ Sharon give them to her.”
“What do you mean gave them to her? It’s not herpes!”
“Said they got all in her bag one weekend when she spent time over there and after she returned home, they showed up. Now she can’t get rid of ’em.”
Jessica rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth.
“Mama, I am so dang on tired of hearing about roaches! Y’all making my skin itch! Melissa was talking about them all day. I also saw some mail from plenty of exterminator companies with a big ol’ roach on the front of their brochures. And now here you come talking about them, too!”
Mama burst out laughing.
“Well, how tha hell would I know that you’ve been having conferences about roaches, Jessica?! That ain’t my fault. Sharon should be ashamed of herself. We put Barbara’s name in the prayer basket…”
“For roaches, Mama? Please tell me you all are not about to gather together and bother God about this mess?!”
“Oh, yes we are!”
“I think He got better things to do than to deal with this! There’s kids starving, people being put out their homes, world wars, and you think God is going to say, ‘Hold up people getting bombed and dying, give me a minute or two. Let me help Barbara with these roaches…’”
“Ain’t nothing too big or too small for our Lord!”
“Amen. Love you, gotta go!” Jessica abruptly disconnected the call, not knowing whether to laugh, scream, or scratch her arms. “If I hear one more damn thing about a roach, I swear!”
She neared the small subdivision in Sweetwater, the new added area of her route, and one she was still getting used to. With her radio on low, she went from house to house, happy when she was able to fit all of their parcels into the mailboxes. She sighed when came across a big package, one she knew she’d have to jump out the truck for. Giving her aching knee a dedicated massage, she headed out, holding a large box from Amazon. When she got back in, she bobbed her head to Kool & the Gang’s, ‘Celebration.’ This reminds me of summer barbecues over Grandma’s house. She happily sang the lyrics and travelled down memory lane, while driving slowly to the big brick house on Cheshire Bend Drive. It was so peaceful and quiet on this part of the street. A bit too quiet.
Jessica opened the mailbox and prepared to stuff it with flyers, bills, and what not, when she noticed it was already full.
Well, this doesn’t make any sense. Maybe they’re on vacation or something. They could’ve told us. We could’ve held their mail. I can’t let this keep piling up like this. She peered at the house, but it was quite a distance away. The driveway was so long and appeared freshly paved. This sure is a nice house! It was a big cream-colored brick house built in the Mediterranean style with at least two floors, a three car garage, and ornamental black wrought iron double front doors.
It’s not that far really. It’ll only take me a second. After shutting off her truck, she loaded the new mail in with the old mail, piling it all into an empty bin and marched up the driveway. When she approached, she saw several flyers shoved into the door and the front stoop was littered with dried, withered leaves that appeared to have been there quite some time. Jessica rang the bell, but no one answered. She tapped her knuckles against the door, yet no one came. Taking a step back, she could see a light on in an upstairs room… and then, the curtains moved.
What the hell is going on in there?
She rapped on the door one more time. The light went out.
I don’t have time for this mess. She huffed, setting the box down on the stoop. I’ll just leave this here and collect it tomorrow. She turned on her heels to leave when the door suddenly swung open. A man stood there, and her throat instantly went dry…
He was a towering hulk of a man, standing about six foot five with broad shoulders and a lean, muscular build…
And no damn no shirt.
His long arms were brawny, and a small black tattoo of something she couldn’t quite make out adorned his neck, close to his right shoulder. A silver chain with a crucifix hung from his neck. Dark brown hair threaded with natural deep honey highlights swept over his shoulders. A neatly cut dark beard and moustache covered his face and chiseled jawline. His light, piercing blue eyes were hooded and slightly slanted at the ends, his brows thick, and his nose long and narrow with slightly flared nostrils.
He’s beautiful. Can a man be beautiful? I suppose they can.
“Can I help you?” His baritone voice rumbled through her very soul.
She gave him a once over, noting his slouchy, worn jeans and bare feet.
“I, uh… I can’t get your mail in your mailbox. It’s stuffed.” She hitched her thumb behind her. He stared at her for a moment, then followed the direction of where she’d motioned to.
“Yeah, I…” He ran his hand along his jawline. “I hadn’t been out in a while.” It was rather dark behind him, but the sunlight allowed her to see the incredible interior architecture of the beautiful home. Oddly enough, the space seemed to be filled with boxes and junk. Perhaps he’d just moved in?
“Are you new to the area?” she asked with a smile, feeling rooted to the ground as she fell deeply in lust.
“To Texas? Nah.” He shook his head.
“No, I mean to the neighborhood.”
“Oh… well, kinda. Been here a little over a year. I’m originally from Dallas.” She nodded in understanding, but really, from the looks
of his place, she didn’t understand at all. He’d been there long enough to not have the place in such disrepair.
“All right… Well, don’t want to keep you.” She cracked a weak smile, and he reciprocated with much of the same. Boy, he has some nice teeth. “I’m going to leave this bin right here, okay? Get your mail, sort through it, and tomorrow I will come fetch the container.” She bent down to pick it up, but he took it from her grasp, taking the heavy load with ease. Their hands glided against one another’s. She looked down and noted what appeared to be a class ring on his left middle finger.
“Thank you,” he said in almost a whisper.
“You’re welcome. You enjoy the rest of your day.” She turned around and began to walk away.
“You do the same.”
She found herself walking faster than normal. Not quite running, but making a clean getaway for certain. Once back in her truck, she took a deep breath, rested her head against the seat, and closed her eyes. Gripping the steering wheel, she realized her heart was beating damn near out of her chest. It had been a long time since she’d seen a man who literally made her tongue-tied at the sight of him. The tall, handsome stranger was, well… strange, but she liked him just the same. When she pulled off to finish her route, she glanced back at the house and nearly screamed. He was still standing there…
He raised his arm and waved. She quickly waved back and practically floored it, then had to stop short before she missed her next stop, a mere fifty feet away. The wheels of the truck squealed as it came to an abrupt halt. She could’ve sworn she’d heard him chuckle before closing his door. Gathering her wits, she bundled together the mail for the next house, scanned a package, and tried with all of her might to get the gorgeous man’s face out of her mind. Unfortunately, she couldn’t shake him loose.
