by Mary Monroe
“Mama Ruby—Mo’reen been kilt!” Bobby hollered, running down the hill.
Ruby heard him as she lay on her sofa reading the Bible. It took her five seconds to get from the sofa out to her front yard. Loraine ran out behind her, crying. Loretta followed seconds later.
Yellow Jack stopped his car a few yards away from the house, where Ruby had stopped in front of the car refusing to allow him to drive any farther.
“WHAT HAPPENED?” she roared, as she lifted Maureen’s body.
“Loomis’ woman from Silo done this, Mama Ruby!” Yellow Jack answered.
“Aaarrrggghhh!” Ruby wailed from the bottom of her heart.
Yellow Jack helped her carry Maureen into the house, then Ruby carried her to the upper room and slammed the door shut.
The whole crowd waited on the steps leading to the upper room for an hour before Ruby emerged.
“She’s goin to be fine,” Ruby said tiredly. She held the bloody knife in one hand and her Bible in the other. “Yall can go on home now.”
Everyone left silently, returning to their houses to wait.
Fifteen minutes later, Ruby came thundering down Duquennes Road toward the camp area. Her teeth were clenched, spit oozed from the sides of her mouth. Her eyes were dilated.
“Look at that devilish grin,” Irene whispered to Catty as they huddled at their front window.
“And them eyes. Like snake eyes,” Catty added.
Ruby had lost both her shoes by the time she reached Loomis’ house.
Roscoe was sitting in his front window watching as Ruby stomped up on Loomis’ front porch. She stepped over a coon dog blocking her way and with her huge wide hand she gave the front door one push and it fell in, crashing on Loomis’ living room floor.
Loomis and Othella looked toward the doorway at the same time. Ruby’s eyes were on Othella, who stood glued to her spot in back of the room holding Loomis’ telephone receiver away from her face.
“That better be Jesus you talkin to,” Ruby said calmly to Othella as she started toward her. Othella looked at the telephone, then quickly and clumsily returned it to its cradle. She then reached inside her right garter and removed a straight razor she had stolen from Loomis.
“Oh shit!” Loomis gasped, holding up both hands. “Look, Mama Ruby, don’t you come in my house startin no mess,” he pleaded. Ruby ignored him and kept moving toward Othella.
“I been waitin on this day,” Othella told Ruby. As soon as Ruby was near enough, Othella slashed her across the face and blood spurted halfway across the room. Othella stabbed Ruby in the chest repeatedly. Not once did Ruby cry out.
“Die, die, you devil!” Othella screamed as she continued to slash Ruby, both hands on the razor.
“I be goddamn!” Loomis hollered. Ruby was covered with blood from her face down. “Othella, don’t you kill Mama Ruby!” Loomis ran to them. With one hand Ruby swept him to the other side of the room. Loomis had just returned from Zeus’ house and was unaware of Maureen’s stabbing. “What is the matter with yall women?!” Loomis cried.
“I told you I was goin to get you, didn’t I?” Ruby smiled at Othella. Othella sliced Ruby across her lips.
“You big motherfucker! Is you the devil, sho nuff?! Can’t you die?!” Othella yelled, looking at Ruby incredulously. Seeing that the razor was having no effect on Ruby, Othella dropped it to the floor. Before she could get out of Ruby’s way, Ruby’s hands were on her throat. Ruby lifted her so high in the air her head knocked the ceiling. Unable to scream, Othella turned purple in silence as Ruby squeezed the life out of her body.
Loomis watched in horror as Ruby threw Othella’s body out of his open back window, where it landed in a clumsy heap, her neck twisted and broken so that her head was all but on backwards.
Othella was buried in the cemetery off Duquennes Road and when Big Red came to investigate her disappearance, no two stories matched.
71
“Mo’reen, get back to the upper room. You want to brain damage?”
“I’m fine, Mama Ruby. I been stretched out for a week now,” Maureen said weakly as she entered the living room. She joined Ruby on the sofa. A Band-Aid covered Ruby’s facial wound. Other bandages had been applied to her bosom and arms.
“Mama Ruby, that crazy Silo woman cut you up real bad, didn’t she? Just like she done me. You goin to heal good as new, you think?”
“Girl, it’d take more than a dull razor to get me down,” Ruby coughed, touching a scab on her chin. Maureen reached over and touched Ruby’s scab.
“Mama Ruby, that woman tried to kill you. Look at that cut on your arm.”
“That little scratch? Shoot. I got bigger scabs on my feet from steppin on rocks,” Ruby laughed.
Maureen sighed and looked away.
“I can’t understand it. Why would that crazy woman want to kill me and you.”
“Crazy folks can’t be figured out. That’s why they crazy,” Ruby explained.
“I guess you right,” Maureen nodded. “Where is Lo’raine and Lo’retta?”
“With Catty.”
“What day is this, Mama Ruby?”
“Saturday. How come?”
Maureen went to the window and looked up the hill.
“Black Jack sent a bug by Yellow Jack to go in my ear. Say he comin to see me today. I might take a notion to spend Halloween with him.”
“For what?” Ruby asked, annoyed.
“I am his lady friend, Mama Ruby. He suppose to spend some time with me.”
Ruby rushed to Maureen and wrapped her arms around her waist.
“Mo’reen, last week I kilt a crazy woman over you. You think that nigger Black Jack would go out on a limb like that for you? He ain’t like me.”
“Who is, Mama Ruby?” Maureen gave Ruby a critical look.
“What is that suppose to mean?” Ruby released Maureen and moved back.
“Who in this world is like you? You need some kind of help. You need to see some trained white person what can help you straighten out yourself.”
“Girl, the only thing wrong with me is you. I been bendin over backwards to give you a good life. You was happy till Black Jack brought his black self to town!”
“Was I happy?”
“Yeah. Up until then. You was in hog heaven. We all was. Now you done put this whole house in a uproar. Them kids struttin around here talkin about wantin to move off to Miami. There’s all kinds of dangers in that city just waitin on Lo’raine and Lo’retta! Why just look what the wind blowed in last week. That crazy woman from Silo.”
“We don’t want to move to Silo. We want to move to Miami. That crazy woman wasn’t from Miami.”
“That’s where Loomis picked her up. I’m tellin you, Miami is a wicked city. Worse than that San Francisco!”
“Mama Ruby, folks in Miami is scared to come out to Goons on account of you.”
“Oh? Why?”
“See what I mean?” Maureen sighed. “You got some sho-nuff problems and can’t even see em.” Maureen returned to the sofa.
Black Jack did not come that day. By evening Maureen had given up. Ruby left the house with Fast Black and No Talk, leaving Loomis with Maureen on the front porch telling her for the fifth time his version of Ruby’s attack on Othella.
“Say Mama Ruby broke the woman’s body clean in two, huh, Loomis?”
“She sho nuff did, Mo’reen. I seen her do it. I won’t mess with Mama Ruby to save my soul!” Loomis laughed.
Now Maureen was afraid for Black Jack. She went home with Loomis and called Black Jack.
“Meet me in the blackberry patch by the Blue Lake tonight at nine, Black Jack. I need to talk to you,” Maureen whispered.
“I’ll be there,” Black Jack promised.
“We got to talk . . . things gettin sho nuff hot around here. Especially after that commotion with that woman from Silo last week. I think Mama Ruby done went all the way crazy, Black Jack.”
Black Jack waited before responding.
&n
bsp; “How can you tell the difference?” he asked.
“Huh?”
“Never mind . . .”
“I need you more than ever now. Things is sho nuff closin in on me. I got to do somethin. And it seems like it’s now or never. Please be at the berry patch tonight.”
“Mo’reen, I’ll be there,” Black Jack said firmly.
They hung up, and Maureen looked around the living room for Loomis.
“Oh, Loomis, where you at?”
“In the back room. But don’t you come in here, girl. I’m naked!”
“I just wanted to thank you for lettin me use your phone . . . bye,” Maureen called. She let herself out the door and headed for Catty’s to pick up the twins.
In Loomis’ back room Ruby, Fast Black, and No Talk sat on the bed. Loomis stood with his ear against the door, listening.
“She gone?” Ruby asked, returning the extension to its cradle.
“Yeah. I heard the screen door slam,” Loomis answered.
“What they say, Mama Ruby? What Mo’reen and Black Jack got cooked up?” Fast Black asked, rising. No Talk rose with her, but Ruby remained on the bed with her arms folded and her top lip twitching. “What we goin to do now, Mama Ruby?”
“Get him . . .” Ruby said.
72
“Virgil, you seen Black Jack?” Maureen asked.
“I ain’t seen or heard from him in a week.”
Virgil entered Ruby’s living room from the kitchen and sat down on the sofa next to Maureen. Ruby sat on the other sofa, her Bible on her lap, watching television.
“No,” Virgil said, looking at Ruby. “Ain’t nobody seen him. He ain’t been to work. His landlord ain’t see him. Mama Ruby . . .” Virgil said, looking at the side of Ruby’s head.
She turned slowly to face him.
“What?”
“You got any idea where Black Jack could be?” Virgil asked.
Maureen’s eyes got big as she turned to Ruby and waited for her reply.
“I guess he’s still on his honeymoon,” Ruby said.
“WHAT HONEYMOON!” Maureen shouted. “Black Jack ain’t married!”
“He is now.” Ruby nodded.
Virgil looked from Ruby to Maureen.
“What is Mama Ruby talkin about, Mo’reen?”
“There is just no tellin, Virgil!” Maureen answered, jumping up from the sofa and standing in front of Ruby. “What you talkin about, Mama Ruby?! Black Jack wouldn’t get married and not tell me!”
“Why wouldn’t he? It ain’t had nothin to do with you!” Ruby snapped, looking Maureen over from her feet up.
“Virgil, did Black Jack have other women?” Maureen turned around to face Virgil.
“Not that I know of, Mo’reen,” Virgil replied, coming to stand in front of Ruby. “Mama Ruby, you know so much, who did Black Jack marry?”
“Some woman,” Ruby shrugged, gently pushing Virgil from her view of the television.
“When did he get married and why didn’t he tell me?” Maureen demanded.
“Well, for one thing, he left Miami in such a hurry I guess he didn’t have time,” Ruby said casually.
Maureen’s hands trembled.
“That’s why Black Jack didn’t meet me in the berry patch that night! You went after him,” Maureen whispered.
Loraine skipped into the room from the kitchen and interrupted the conversation.
“Oh, Mama. Can I go up by the Blue Lake and catch bugs?” Loraine asked.
“Go on, girl,” Maureen said, waving the child away with her hand, not looking away from Ruby.
Loraine ran out, slamming the screen door behind her.
73
Maureen and Virgil badgered Ruby for two hours before they finally got the whole story.
Afraid that Black Jack was on the verge of taking Maureen away, Ruby had “introduced” him to some woman Loomis had just discarded and had Reverend Tiggs marry them at Slim’s house one night.
“Some of my connections in Miami treated the newlyweds to two free weeks at a beach house near Miami Beach,” Ruby added.
“You evil witch you!” Maureen shouted. “You run my man off? How come you couldn’t be nice to him?”
“I was nice to him, Mo’reen,” Ruby said levelly. “He ain’t dead.”
Virgil sighed and shook his head angrily, then turned to Maureen.
“You better get yourself away from this crazy woman before it’s too late, Mo’reen! Somethin sho nuff bad is goin to happen if you and them kids don’t get out of this crazy woman’s house. I done told you I could get you a job at the lobster factory!”
“AAARRGGGGHHHH!”
The bloodcurdling scream from the front porch made Ruby, Virgil, and Maureen run outside.
Willie Boatwright fell into Ruby’s arms.
“AAARRRGGGHHHH!” he screamed again.
“What’s wrong, Boatwright?!” Ruby shouted.
Boatwright’s body shook and went as limp as a rag doll. His eyes rolled back in his head and his false teeth fell out of his mouth onto the porch floor.
“What’s the matter?!” Maureen yelled, slapping Boatwright’s face.
“Oh Lord! Oh me! Oh Lord! OH YALL!” Boatwright wailed. “Lo’raine done fell in the Blue Lake and drowned!”
Ruby fainted and fell on Boatwright.
By the time Maureen and Virgil reached the Blue Lake a dozen people had collected on the bank. Slim and Bishop lay on the ground, wet and gasping for air. They had been the first to jump into the lake to try to save Loraine, but neither could swim. After Yellow Jack retrieved Loraine’s body, he and Bobby Boatwright had jumped in to help Slim and Bishop.
Maureen stared in disbelief at her dead child, who lay in Yellow Jack’s arms, her face blue and her body stiff.
74
The church was filled to capacity for Loraine’s funeral. Ruby fainted twice during the service. The first time she fell, she fell across an empty bench and damaged it beyond repair. The second time, she fell on Bishop and broke his leg in three places.
No Talk played the piano. Reverend Tiggs’ sister Ernestine came all the way from Boca Raton to sing “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.”
Bobby Boatwright showed up in an orange suit, white vinyl shoes, but no socks. Roscoe and Zeus, sitting by the entrance, commented on Bobby’s appearance.
“I declare, that boy’s a sho-nuff sport,” Zeus whispered in Roscoe’s ear.
“In a pig’s eye. Sport my tail. That boy’s a sho-nuff fancy man if ever there was one!” Roscoe insisted.
“Wonder what poor Mo’reen’s goin to do now,” Zeus continued.
“I ain’t goin to mention it, but Yellow Jack put a bug in Fast Black’s ear this mornin. Then she put that same bug in my ear.”
“What the bug say, Roscoe?”
“Don’t tell nobody I told you. On account of Mo’reen told Yellow Jack not to tell nobody but Fast Black and she made it her business to tell me. Roscoe, Mo’reen say she done had it sho nuff with Ruby. Mo’reen say she fixin to leave the upper room and ain’t nothin goin to stop her. She say she fixin to move on to Miami. Look over there at Mo’reen. You ever seen such misery in a woman’s eyes?”
Roscoe and Zeus looked at Maureen, sitting on a side bench facing the congregation. There was no expression on her face as she stared beyond the crowd, looking up alongside the wall.
“Roscoe, somethin tells me Ruby is about to go sho nuff crazy. If that girl do leave here, you’d be able to buy Ruby with a nickel, she’ll be so worthless. . . .”
75
Only a handful of mourners accompanied Maureen to the burial. Ruby had been returned home, halfway through the funeral, in a catatonic state.
Virgil stood with his arms supporting Maureen as they watched Loraine’s coffin being lowered into the ground.
“Virgil, how come it couldn’t have been me?” Maureen asked.
“It wasn’t your time.”
“It ain’t fair. It ain’t fair that I keep li
vin in all this misery!”
“Shhhh . . . folks is lookin at us,” Virgil replied. “We’ll talk when we get back to the house.”
“I can’t . . . I can’t go back to that house,” Maureen wailed. “If I don’t leave now—I never will!”
“Mo’reen, you is twenty-five years old. You ain’t got to stay nowhere lest you want to.”
“I’m scared Mama Ruby might commit soo-we-side if I go! She in bad shape, Virgil!”
“If Mama Ruby kill herself over somethin like that, she ain’t got no business bein alive in the first place. You can’t let her blackmail you like that. If you do, every time she want her way, she’ll tell you she goin to commit soo-we-side. You can’t live like that no more, Mo’reen. I want you to get away from Mama Ruby as soon as you can.”
It suddenly started to rain and the burial proceedings were quickly concluded.
76
“Why you sittin out here in the dark by your self,
Mo’reen?” Ruby asked. She had come into the kitchen to fix herself a pitcher of ice water and found Maureen in her nightgown sitting on the back porch steps. It was close to midnight, six days after Loraine’s funeral.
“I’m sittin here thinkin,” Maureen answered. Her voice was hollow and low.
“Thinkin about what?” Ruby asked.
“Why I was born. Why Lo’raine had to die. Why nothing good ever happened to me.”
“Look-a-here. It’s a whole lot of girls what would just love to be in your shoes, Mo’reen.”
Maureen sighed and turned around to face her. The light from the kitchen was dim and the huge shadows Ruby cast on the wall looked frightening. Maureen looked past Ruby to her shadow, then back to her face.
“Name three,” Maureen said.
Ruby dropped her head and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
“Come on in the house so we can talk,” Ruby said.
