Mama Ruby

by Mary Monroe

  They remained silent for a few moments. Othella looked toward the kitchen door again and let out a weak sigh. “We best get back in the house and see what’s goin’ to happen next. I hope Miss Mo’reen keeps the house closed up for the day. I could sure use the rest.”

  Despite her injuries, Maureen decided to open for business. She received a visit from Dr. White, one of her horniest and most frequent clients. The good doctor bandaged several different places on Maureen’s battered body. He also gave her some strong pain pills. Shortly after his arrival, she was up and about, barking orders like a drill sergeant.

  “Othella, get up those stairs yonder and put on some face powder and rouge. You look like a haint. Fat Fanny, Dr. White is upstairs in the end room waitin’ on you to give him a eyeopener to get him off to a good start today—and don’t bite him like you done last week!” Maureen paused to catch her breath. She glanced around the room with a sorry look on her face.

  “Damn that Buster! Some bouncer he is! He picked a fine time to go visit his daddy in that old folks’ home this mornin’. I suspect that he would be real sorry if Wally had done more damage than he done! I sure enough hope we don’t have no more violent commotions around here before Buster gets back!” Maureen stopped talking again and looked around some more. “Betty Sue, when you see that Al, tell him I said I want him to stick close by us till Buster gets back. Him bein’ colored, I don’t expect him to put his hands on none of my clients to keep them in line, but just his presence might make them behave. I wonder if I can round up somebody white to fill in for Buster till he gets his tail back here tonight.”

  Maureen groaned and rolled her eyes when she looked at Ruby, staring long and hard at her. “Mama Ruby, I guess you’ll be workin’ in the kitchen only from now on.”

  Maureen paused when someone started to bang on the front door. She dismissed everyone before she answered the door, but less than a minute later, her screams brought them all back into the parlor. Even Dr. White. He came stumbling down the stairs with his silk shirt unbuttoned and his alligator shoes in his hands.

  Standing over Maureen as she lay on her back on the floor in the middle of her parlor was Wally Yoakum. He still wore the same outfit that he’d worn the night before. He was cussing and beating Maureen with his fists and feet again.

  Marielle, Fat Fanny, Betty Sue, and Othella grabbed Wally by his arms and legs, pulling him off Maureen. Dr. White, who was too horrified and stunned to do much of anything, stood in the middle of the floor adjusting his disheveled clothes, with his mouth hanging open. Maureen rose from the floor, stumbling around like a freshly decapitated chicken. She plopped down on the settee, breathing through her mouth. A curly black wig that she had recently purchased had flown off her head and landed in a heap in a corner, looking like a dead animal. Wally had ripped her nightgown down the front, revealing her long, floppy breasts and stretch-marked belly.

  Ruby and Mazel stood in the doorway, looking at Wally like he was the Devil himself.

  “Ain’t you done enough harm in this house?” Fat Fanny screamed at Wally. “You done made your point a hundred times over! Now if I was you, I’d get out of here and I wouldn’t come back here no more! You might not be lucky enough to leave here unscathed the next time. Al! Uhhh, Al! You in the house? Get in here and help us out!” But Al was not in the house. The women were all alone with a madman who was determined to make them all suffer for the indignity he had endured the night before. “Have you lost your mind, Wally?”

  Wally was about to respond to Fat Fanny, but he stopped when he noticed Ruby standing in the doorway. “And I ain’t through with you yet neither,” he hollered, shaking his fist at Ruby. “I ain’t had the chance yet, but I am goin’ to broadcast to every man and boy I know that bogus virgin scheme y’all been pullin’! I don’t know exactly what y’all done to fool folks, and I don’t care. But whatever it was, the jig is up!” Wally calmly lifted his hat off the floor and ran out the door, still cussing.

  Everyone in the room looked from Maureen to Ruby with puzzled expressions on their faces.

  “What was he babblin’ about? Somethin’ about y’all pullin’ a bogus virgin scheme?” Marielle asked.

  “He was delirious, talkin’ gibberish,” Maureen insisted, waving her hand. “Don’t worry about it!”

  “But what did happen between him and you and Mama Ruby last night?” Fat Fanny asked. “I think the rest of us need to know so we won’t do the same thing.”

  “Like Miss Mo’reen just said, the man was delirious, talkin’ gibberish. I’m goin’ to settle this business with Wally once and for all. Fat Fanny, go crank up the car,” Ruby ordered, snapping her fingers.

  “Why don’t I fix us all some breakfast? I can make us a big pot of grits,” Mazel volunteered. “And let’s sort this thing out before company starts trackin’ in here.” Mazel forced herself to appear indifferent. But she was as curious as the other people in the room. She wanted to know what Ruby and Maureen had done to make Wally go on such a violent rampage.

  “Me, I best be hightailin’ it on out of here,” Dr. White said, talking over his shoulder as he headed for the door. He snatched it open and fled like a thief, his shoes still in his hand.

  “Fat Fanny, did you hear what I just said? Go crank up your car,” Ruby barked. “Miss Mo’reen, after today you won’t never have to worry about Wally Yoakum again.”

  Maureen was still on the settee, bleeding and moaning like a dying animal. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she said before she fainted.

  CHAPTER 48

  A FEW DAYS BEFORE HIS BIRTHDAY, WALLY HAD BOUGHT HIMSELF a brand new Packard. He had parked it on the street in front of Maureen’s house when he’d gone in to teach her and that black bitch whore of hers a lesson.

  Wally stumbled and fell down Maureen’s front porch steps as he made his way back to his car. He bruised the palm of his hand and ripped the knee on one leg of his expensive pants. That made him angry, too. It was something else for him to blame on those damn whores, he thought as he snatched open his car door and climbed in. Before he pulled away, he spotted Dr. White rushing out of Maureen’s front door. The doctor stumbled off the porch and trotted down the street to a dusty Plymouth parked at the end of the block. Wally wondered if that quack scalawag was in on that virgin scam. Well, whether he was or not, if he was present when Wally returned, he’d teach him a lesson, too.

  As soon as Wally’s Packard shot off down the street like a torpedo, he began to spew cuss words and slap his steering wheel. Even though he had been up all night and was still fairly drunk, he was able to make it home without hitting a pedestrian or a squirrel.

  “Damn bitches! I’ll destroy every last one of ’em!” he yelled, talking to himself as he staggered around in his house, undressing. He fixed himself a drink, knocked a cheap birthday card to the floor that one of his sons had sent to him, along with a note asking for a five-thousand-dollar loan. “Damn everybody to hell!” he boomed. “I’ll show ’em! I’ll show everybody that they can’t mess with Wally E. Yoakum and get away with it.” He grunted. “No siree—nobody makes a fool out of Mr. Yoakum!”

  Mr. Yoakum was about to have visitors. This time it wasn’t just Ruby and Fat Fanny. Marielle, Betty Sue, and Othella had squeezed into the backseat of Fat Fanny’s car, with Fat Fanny behind the wheel and Ruby in the front seat with her. Mazel had wanted to come. By now she was so curious, she wanted a ringside seat at the next round of events. But since Al and Buster were still away from the house, and Maureen had more injuries to be dealt with, Fat Fanny had ordered Mazel to stay in the house to look after her.

  When Maureen came to, she was surprised to find herself in her bed dressed in a different gown, with more bandages on new wounds. She was also surprised, but pleased, to see that Dr. White had returned. He and Mazel were leaning over Maureen’s bed with concerned looks on their faces.

  “Don’t move, sugar. You’ve got a nasty bump on the back of your head this time,” the doctor s
aid, gently patting Maureen’s shoulder.

  “A bump that’s as big as a goose egg,” Mazel decided, shaking her head. “I ain’t never in my life seen no man beat down a woman the way that Wally done you.”

  “A woman your age can’t take too many knocks like this, you know,” Dr. White said, shaking his head. “It’s a good thing I left my billfold on the stand upstairs and had to come back after I’d run out of here.” The doctor paused and cleared his throat. “By the way, I didn’t get to finish my session... .”

  “Don’t worry about that. I’m a businesswoman, so I know how important it is to keep you men pleased and pleasured,” Maureen croaked, coughing and rubbing her forehead. “I’ll make sure you get a double dose of whatever it is you want when my girls get back. You can even get a blow job on the house. I don’t know when those gals will be back here, but if one of my drop-in girls drops in, you are more than welcome to pester one of them.”

  “I appreciate your generosity, ma’am.” Dr. White grinned, relieved that he was not going to miss out on his weekly escapade. “I could sure use a good female workout after witnessin’ that fracas in the parlor.” He sniffed. “Now I don’t know what y’all did to make Wally mad enough to jump you twice, but whatever it was, I suggest you settle the score and settle it soon, before somebody gets hurt real bad.”

  Somebody was getting hurt “real bad” just like the doctor predicted. While Dr. White was trying to make Maureen more comfortable, Ruby and her posse were inside Wally’s house where Ruby was beating him with her fists and feet. The only reason she was not using her switchblade was because she had dropped it on the floor in the parlor before they’d left Maureen’s house.

  Wally had already passed out, but Ruby continued to pummel him as Fat Fanny, Othella, and the other two prostitutes watched in horror. They had already given him a few slaps and kicks themselves before Ruby took over. When Wally swung at Ruby and hit Marielle instead, she slapped him.

  By the time it was over, Wally was barely recognizable, but he was still alive.

  “I’m goin’ to have to kill him, y’all,” Ruby said, out of breath. Wally’s blood had spattered all over her, leaving red polka dots of various sizes on her face, arms, legs, and dress. Had there been any more blood on her face, she would have resembled one of the clowns in that carnival that Othella had mentioned to her.

  “No! Sugar, you can’t do that! You can’t kill this man!” Othella shouted, as she and the other women began to pull Ruby toward the door. “Let’s get while the gettin’ is still good.”

  “But he’ll tell!” Ruby protested, pulling away.

  “Listen to me! You beatin’ up a white man half to death is one thing; you killin’ him would be suicide, Mama Ruby!” Othella cried.

  “It was self-defense,” Fat Fanny hollered. “We are all in this together. Mama Ruby wasn’t the only one involved. He started it and we just finished it, that’s all. Ain’t a judge in this state goin’ to send nobody to jail for protectin’ themselves.”

  There was so much confusion, nobody was thinking straight. Fat Fanny, Marielle, and Betty Sue couldn’t believe that they’d allowed themselves to get dragged into such a big mess. By them coming with Ruby and Othella, and Wally seeing their faces, they had some additional concerns. Adding to everything else that had transpired, now they had to worry about Wally coming back to Maureen’s house to attack them.

  “Self-defense? That’s easy for you to say, and you’re probably right. But it would be a whole different ballgame for me and Ruby and y’all know that,” Othella yelled, looking from one white face to another. “If we let Mama Ruby kill this white man, they’ll deep fry her quicker than they would a jumbo prawn. And probably me along with her. I say we get the hell up out of here now before he comes to.”

  “As soon as that happens, he’ll be blabbin’ all over town tellin’ everybody who beat him up,” Betty Sue said, tears streaming down her face. “I didn’t know y’all was goin’ to beat the man half to death. I wouldn’t have come if I did know. I thought we was just goin’ to talk to him!”

  “If you thought that, you should have kept your dumb white ass at the house with Miss Mo’reen!” Ruby boomed. “And don’t forget, you gave him a few licks yourself!”

  “I was upset and confused! I was drunk! I didn’t know what I was doin’!” Betty Sue said in her defense.

  “I ain’t never seen such persnickety peckerwoods as the three of y’all. No wonder y’all couldn’t keep your husbands,” Ruby said, blowing out the words like she was blowing out smoke.

  Despite their roles in the melee, all three of the white women gasped at the same time. Marielle stumbled, and if Fat Fanny hadn’t grabbed her around the waist, she would have landed on the floor with Wally. Neither one of the white women had ever heard a black person, especially a woman, address another white person the way Ruby had just done. And not a one of the white women had ever seen a black person attack a white man the way that Ruby had just done. She was way too bodacious for her own good, they all decided. They all predicted that her disregard for the proper protocol and her bad behavior toward white folks was going to be her downfall. Didn’t she know better? Didn’t she read the newspapers and listen to the news on the radio? Just last week another black person, and this time a woman, had been found hanging by the neck from some tree in a farmer’s field. Ruby had dug her own grave. By beating Wally down like a mad dog in his own house, she already had a foot and a big toe in the grave that she’d dug.

  “We shouldn’t have come here,” Marielle said, talking out the side of her mouth. She dabbed at her eyes, then blew her nose into a white handkerchief. “I don’t need to be involved in no scandal.”

  “None of us need to be. I should have run out the door in the opposite direction when Mama Ruby told me to go crank up my car,” Fat Fanny said, looking from Marielle to Betty Sue. “We ain’t got no business gettin’ caught up in this mess. If a race riot comes out of this, a lot of folks will suffer—colored and white.”

  “You should have thought about that before we left the house. You didn’t have to bring Mama Ruby out here. Y’all know how she is,” Othella shrieked.

  “I had to do it,” Ruby insisted with a pout. “I had to come over here and teach Wally a lesson, y’all.”

  Wally stirred and moaned like a dying man. It was the sorriest, most frightening sound that Othella had ever heard before in her life. She shuddered and whimpered as she moved toward the door. “Let’s get out of here, y’all,” she insisted. Nobody moved. All eyes were still on Wally. “I’m gone!” Othella snatched open the door and took off running toward Fat Fanny’s car. Before she could get into the backseat and close the door, the rest of the women ran out of the house and piled into the car.

  By the time they made it back to Maureen’s house, Maureen had everything that Othella and Ruby owned packed and ready to go. As soon as Ruby got close enough, Maureen handed her the switchblade she had dropped.

  “Miss Mo’reen, what’s all this?” Ruby asked, looking at the luggage on the parlor room floor.

  Just then, Mazel entered the room with a wet towel that she immediately placed on the wounds on Maureen’s forehead. Maureen had a black eye, a busted lip, and numerous other injuries on her body, from her head all the way down to her toes.

  “Y’all stupid as hell, but you ain’t blind,” Mazel sneered. “What do it look like? Miss Mo’reen done fired y’all!”

  Maureen sniffed and nodded. “Mama Ruby, I want you and Othella to get out of my house—lickety-split,” she told them in a weak voice.

  “Please don’t do this to us, Miss Mo’reen,” Ruby begged.

  “At least give us a chance to come up with a plan. All we need is a few days. We might even be out of here by the end of the week.” Getting fired and evicted was a blessing in disguise as far as Othella was concerned. It would save her the trouble of having to tell Miss Maureen that they wanted to leave. However, she didn’t want to leave before she could come up wi
th a plan.

  “Y’all got to be two of the craziest niggers I ever seen in my life!” Mazel roared, shaking a finger in Ruby’s direction. She glared from Ruby to Othella, so angry with them you would have thought that they’d beaten her down, too. “I been prayin’ to God that Miss Mo’reen would come to her senses and run y’all off her property! It’s colored buffoons like y’all that gives us decent colored folks a bad name!”

  “Shet up, Mazel, or you’re goin’ to be prayin’ to God again! This is between us and Miss Mo’reen,” Ruby advised, hands on her hips.

  “Shet up my ass! Look at all that blood on you, girl! Lord knows what you been up to now! Y’all can’t hang around here and get us all killed,” Mazel hollered, stomping her heavy, flat foot. “I been here longer than anybody, and I ain’t goin’ to stand by and let two uppity heifers like y’all ruin my life.”

  “It don’t take no genius to know where y’all went, and I got a pretty good idea what went on,” Maureen said, dabbing tears and snot from her eyes and nose. “Mama Ruby, you and Othella are too dangerous to remain in this house. Like Mazel said, y’all might get us all killed, and I can’t allow nothin’ like that to happen. The Klan’ll come burn down my house in no time—with me in it! Now tell me this, is Mr. Yoakum still alive?”

  “Yessum. We just wanted to teach him a lesson,” Ruby volunteered.

  “All I did was kick him, and bite him, and pinch him a few times,” Marielle said quickly. “Didn’t I?” she said, turning to Betty Sue for support.

  “Sure enough. And I didn’t even do that much. I spit on him, and I just slapped him about the head a few times,” Betty Sue admitted. “Mama Ruby done the most harm. The way his jaw was juttin’ out like a iceberg, I suspect she broke it.”

  “Fat Fanny, you know that old colored sportin’ house out on Granger Road?” Maureen asked through her busted lips, immediately turning to Ruby and Othella. “A colored woman that used to clean for me runs it. I sent a note to her by Dr. White a little while ago, that y’all was comin’ to see her.” Maureen paused and looked at Fat Fanny again. “You drive these two colored young’uns out to that house. Don’t say nothin’ to nobody about it, or about anything else that went on here between us and Wally.”