Me, Mop, and the Moondance Kid

by Walter Dean Myers

  Moondance left for home but I didn't want to go. Not right away. I was sitting around talking with Mop and she was telling me what I should have done to Rocky. She made it sound easy.

  We were sitting in the Academy's auditorium, which was really a gym with a stage on one end of it. The door opened and Sister Carmelita came in. Soon as I saw her I knew she was in some kind of trouble.

  “You remember how I buy food for needy families?” she asked.

  “Sure,” I said. I had gone around with her before I left the Academy, buying food in the supermarket and helping Sister Carmelita to give it out.

  “Well, today I met this man—he said his name was Mr. Brown—and he said I didn't know anything about what poor people like to eat,” Sister Carmelita said. “So I think I know what poor people eat because I was poor all my life. But still I'm thinking, maybe he's right.”

  “So then what happened?”

  “So then he tells me to give him the money and he would go into the A&P on the Boulevard and buy the food. I should go get the station wagon to take the food around in.”

  “And you did it?”

  “I did it,” Sister Carmelita said. “But when I got back to the A&P he was gone. I knew he would be gone all the way back from the Academy. I said to myself, ‘Titi, he's going to be gone.’ “

  “Titi?”

  “I used to be Titi before I was Sister Carmelita,” she said.

  “Did you call the police?” I asked.

  “T.J., I don't want to call the police. I told Sister Marianne I just missed him, that I didn't lose the money. But I don't feel right calling the police. I did something stupid, and I want to make it up. But seventy dollars …”

  She put her hands to her head.

  “What are you going to do?” Mop asked.

  “Maybe look for him,” Sister Carmelita said. “I got one idea who might find him for us.”

  Mop and I decided to go along with her. I wasn't in that much of a hurry to get home anyway. Bergen Avenue was really tough, and if it had been dark, I might not have wanted to go over there. When we got to Bergen a couple of people gave us looks, but one of the guys on the corner recognized Sister Carmelita as a nun even though she didn't wear a habit or anything, so I thought we were okay. All the same, I was glad when the cracked wooden door we knocked on opened. But when I saw who opened the door, I was really surprised. It was Peaches.

  Peaches didn't open the door all the way. He stood looking at Sister Carmelita as she told him what had happened.

  “I thought maybe you might know him,” Sister Carmelita said.

  Peaches shrugged. “This guy knew you was a nun and he still pulled that dirty trick on you?” he asked.

  “He knew it was money for the poor,” Sister Carmelita said.

  “What he say his name was?”

  “Mr. Aaron Brown,” Sister Carmelita answered.

  “How he look?” Peaches asked.

  “He's got a real big head,” Sister Carmelita said. “And he's got a scar on his chin.”

  “Big-headed, mean-tempered fool with yeller teeth?” Peaches asked.

  “That's him!” Sister Carmelita said.

  “That ain't no Aaron Brown.” Peaches shook his head, “That's Buster Greene. He's about the meanest man in this city. He'd steal the pennies offen a dead man's eyes and pass'em to his own mama for nickels.”

  “He's not dangerous or anything, is he?”

  “He a dangerous man,” Peaches said. “Everybody know that Buster Greene would rather hurt you than say hello.”

  “Then maybe we'd just better forget the whole thing,” Sister Carmelita said.

  “You got another dollar?” The shirt Peaches was wearing had the collar ripped off and he looked funny when he buttoned it up to the top. “I think we might be able to do something about Mr. Buster Greene.”

  “Peaches, I have two dollars left,” Sister Carmelita said. “You're not trying to take my last two dollars, are you?”

  “Naw,” Peaches said. “I just got me a idea how we can get Buster loose from that money. You ever hear tell about Four Times Seven?”

  None of us had heard about any Four Times Seven and me and Mop wasn't sure about whether Peaches was being honest or whether he was just trying to get a dollar to buy some wine.

  Peaches told Sister Carmelita to give him the dollar and go back to the Academy. He would do the rest.

  “I'm going with you,” I said.

  “Come on along if you want,” Peaches said.

  “Me too,” Mop said. Sister Carmelita said she was going to go back to the Academy to pray.

  Peaches, me, and Mop went over to Fairview, where a

  friend of his lived. It was an old woman who didn't have a shape. She had a shape, but not a shape where you could say she was shaped like this or shaped like that. She just sort of lumped out all over the place. She was sitting in her window and we talked to her from the sidewalk. Peaches started telling her what Buster Greene did.

  “Miss Sally, guess what that Buster Greene done did?”

  “Honey, that lowlife might have done some of anything!”

  “Do tell!”

  “What he done now?”

  “He done robbed a nun!”

  “He did?”

  “Sure as I'm standing here!”

  “You know the Lord don't like you messin’ with His people!”

  “Ain't that the truth!”

  “Who these kids?”

  “They the nun's friends,” Peaches said. “We trying to figure out a way to get they money back.”

  “Peaches, you gonna do something to make a fool outta Buster, I just know you is!” Miss Sally shifted her weight from one big elbow to the other and leaned forward. “What you gonna do?”

  “Well, I got me one dollar,” Peaches said. “If you let me borrow some ketchup and Four Times Seven for about an hour, I'll see what I can do.”

  “Four Times Seven?” Miss Sally turned her head to one side and pursed her lips. “Peaches, you always been a figuring fool. I'll let you borrow him if you wait while I gets dressed so I can see what you gonna do.”

  I wanted to know what he was going to do too. We went across the street to a small store and Peaches bought a small can of shaving cream. By the time we got back to where Miss Sally lived, she was out on the sidewalk. She was wearing a dress that didn't have much color to it and house shoes that flapped when she walked. In one hand she carried a stick and in the other she had a bottle of ketchup. Next to her was a shopping cart and in the shopping cart was a box, the kind you keep animals in.

  “How is he today?” Peaches asked, bending over so he could take a good look at the box.

  “He okay,” Miss Sally said. “He ain't been fed yet though.”

  “That in there is Four Times Seven,” Peaches said.

  Two guys came down the street and stopped and looked at the box.

  “He in there, Miss Sally?” a light-skinned guy asked.

  “He in there,” Miss Sally said.

  They looked at the box from a little distance. I looked at Mop and Mop was leaning over trying to see what was in the box. We heard a growl come from the box and we all backed off.

  “Four Times Seven was born with seven toes on each foot,” Peaches said. “That's how he got his name. He's the meanest cat that ever walked the face of the earth.”

  “A cat?” Mop asked.

  “He ain't just no cat,” Miss Sally said. “That's Fo’ Times Seven!”

  “When he was nothing but a kitten he chased a dog through the streets of Baltimore until the dog dropped dead from a heart attack!” Peaches went on.

  “Tell ‘em about that rattlesnake he killed in Monroe, Louisiana,” Miss Sally said. “A mojo man tried to throw a rattlesnake on me, and Fo’ Times Seven grabbed it and shook it till every one of its rattles come off and it had to shed its skin to get away.”

  “He a legend in his own time,” Peaches said. “Just like Babe Ruth or Joe Louis. A hobo
in East St. Louis tried to kill him by throwing him in the water. But he just swum to shore nice as you please. That hobo tried to throw him in a fire, but he just come out with half his fur burned off and a grin on his face.”

  “He got hit by a taxi once, and that didn't kill him,” another guy said. “And I seen that with my own eyes and I knowed the Egyptian fella what was driving the cab!”

  Miss Sally started pushing the shopping cart down the street. Peaches went after her. Some people were looking at us, but I was listening to the growls coming from the box¡

  We started down the street to where Peaches said Buster lived. Peaches was leading us and Miss Sally was right behind him pushing the shopping cart that held the box Four Times Seven was in.

  “Yo¡ Peaches, what y'all doing, man?” a guy called out as we passed a Bar-B-Que joint.

  “They gonna take care of Buster!” Miss Sally called out.

  “Buster Greene?”

  “That's right!” Peaches called back.

  When Peaches said that it was Buster Greene we were going to take care of, everybody started following us. They weren't the coolest-looking people in the world, either. A tall, skinny man ran up to Peaches and started telling him how he had better leave Buster alone.

  “Buster the meanest man in the world!” The tall, skinny guy had a patch over one eye. He reached up and switched the patch to the other eye, which seemed just as good as the first.

  “He done robbed a nun,” Peaches said. “It's high time somebody took care of him.”

  “Hey, Peaches, you really got Four Times Seven in there?”

  “It ain't no Ting Ling panda bear,” Peaches said.

  Buster lived in a house that leaned to one side. There was a barber shop one flight up with a barber pole painted on a stick outside of it. The barber came out with a comb and a pair of scissors in his hand.

  “What's going on?” he called down the stairs.

  “Peaches is gonna mess up Buster Greene!” the skinny man with the patch over his eye called up.

  “Peaches.” The barber was a fat man with heavy jowls that hung down the side of his face. “You better get on out of here before Buster tear your butt up!”

  “Peaches got Four Times Seven with him!” an old woman called out.

  “They ain't no Four Times Seven,” the barber said. “That's just a old wives’ tale.”

  “Then why don't you come on down and mess with what's in this box!” Peaches said.

  The barber came down a few steps and looked at the box in the shopping cart. Then he tilted his head to one side and looked again. “Even if there is a Four Times Seven, he can't do nothing with no Buster Greene!” the barber said.

  As Peaches went up to the front door of Buster Greene's house, I could have sworn I saw something move away from the open window. Peaches banged on the door.

  “Buster¡ I got to have a word with you!”

  There was a stirring in the folks who had moved around us and Miss Sally told them all to hush up.

  The door to Buster's house opened up and he stood there, brown and bald-headed and looking as mean as he wanted to look.

  “What you want?” he asked. He looked over Peaches’ shoulder at the crowd. The whole crowd moved back a little.

  “You done took some noney from a nun,” Peaches said. “And I come to get it back.”

  “I don't know what you talking about,” Buster said. Actually he didn't say it so much as he just growled it out. “And you better get on out my face before I lose my temper!”

  The crowd stepped back again.

  “I'm serious, Buster!” Peaches stepped back until he reached the shopping cart with Four Times Seven in it.

  “I said giti” Buster opened the door a little wider.

  People started leaving right away and I felt like going myself. In a minute I looked around and the only ones there were me, Mop, Peaches, Miss Sally, and Buster standing in the doorway looking like King Kong's ugly cousin. Everybody else had backed off and were looking from across the street.

  If I had been a little less scared, and my feet a little less heavy, I would have run too. But if I had, I would have missed seeing Four Times Seven in person.

  Peaches took the box out of the cart and put it in front of Buster. Buster looked down at it and reached for something behind the door. There was a cord hanging out of the box and Peaches grabbed on to it and wrapped it around his wrist. When the box opened, Four Times Seven came out.

  Four Times Seven looked like a cat, but he was as big as a dog. There was as much of him missing as there was there. Part of one ear and half his tail were gone, and there were chunks of fur missing from all over his body. Some of the fur that was left was black and the rest of it was a dirty gray. He hissed and strained on the leash until Miss Sally went over and pointed at Buster.

  “Sic ‘em¡ Sic ‘em!”

  Four Times Seven lunged forward until it reached the end of the leash. Then it stood up on its back legs and tried to claw at Buster. I moved around to where I could get a good look. What I saw was the ugliest cat I had ever seen in my whole life. Its head was at least as big around as a dinner plate. One eye looked one way and the other one looked in a different direction altogether. Spit was coming from its mouth, but I couldn't see any teeth. Its gums were red and its black lips were curled back.

  Buster took one look and slammed his door shut. Peaches bent down, picked up Four Times Seven, and pitched him through Buster's open window. The moment the cat was in, Peaches slammed the window shut.

  I never heard so much hollering and banging around. Peaches was pulling on the knob of Buster's door so Buster couldn't get out.

  The skinny man with the patch over his eye had come back. He saw what had happened and came over, and he and Miss Sally held the window down. Buster's face appeared at the window and I could see he was scared stiff. His eyes were rolling around and his whole face was straining as he tried to lift the window. Then I saw a black and gray blur leap up on his shoulder and attack his face. It was Four Times Seven¡

  It took Buster two more times trying to get out the door and one more time trying to get out the window before an envelope came out from under the door.

  “Count it!” Peaches shouted.

  Miss Sally got the envelope and threw it to Mop. Mop started counting the money.

  “Sixty-eight dollars and two cents!” Mop said.

  “That's close enough,” Peaches called out. “Get the box ready!”

  Miss Sally moved away from the window and opened the box. Then Peaches moved away from the door. We heard something bang hard against the window, then we heard a yell, and then the door flew open. Buster came running out with his face covered with scratches.

  “Man, did you see how he was messed up?” somebody called out.

  I was starting to look into Buster's house when something hit me and knocked me backward¡ For a moment my eyes were closed. When I opened them, I was looking up into the face of Four Times Seven.

  “I got him!” I could hear Peaches’ voice.

  I heard his voice, but I couldn't move. Four Times Seven was on my chest and I could feel his warm breath in my face. He opened his mouth wide and I thought my heart would stop. He didn't have a tooth in his mouth, but that didn't stop him from clamping down on my face¡

  Everything went black and I died. Or maybe I nearly died, because I know my heart wasn't beating when Four Times Seven clamped down on me like that. When his mouth came off my face, it came off with a sucking sound that pulled my head right off the ground.

  “Get him up before he gum that boy to death!” I think I could hear Mop's voice. They were trying to pull Four Times Seven off me. They had him but he had me. His claws were dug into my shirt.

  Finally, Peaches put his foot on my chest and pulled the animal away from me. Part of my shirt went with him.

  Funny, I saw them push him back into the box and fasten it up, but I couldn't move the whole time they were doing it. When Mop got to
me and asked me if I was okay, I didn't know what to say. Peaches was looking at my shirt at where Four Times Seven had pulled big pieces of it away.

  “Boy, you okay,” he said. “He didn't get no flesh.”

  They helped me up and the crowd that had gathered around started cheering.

  “Four Times Seven must be getting old,” Miss Sally said. “ ‘Cause when he was young he'd a killed you stone dead!”

  I thanked her for sharing that with me.

  Peaches went with me and Mop to the Academy to take the money back to Sister Carmelita. Sister Marianne was there and she was really glad that we got the money back, but all the time we were telling how we got it back she was crossing herself. She was even smiling, so I guessed she didn't think it was so bad.

  “Mr. Peaches, would you like a job?” Sister Marianne asked when we were finished.

  Peaches looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. “I got to tell you the truth,” he said. “I don't know what I can do that's worth anything.”

  “You can help us to find out the needs of the poor in the neighborhood,” Sister Marianne said. “And I'm sure there'll be a lot of things to be done around the church, even after the Academy has closed.”

  “If that's what you want,” Peaches said, “well, that's just okay with me.”

  Mop's mouth kind of twisted funny when Sister Marianne mentioned the Academy's closing. Nobody noticed much except me, I think. Sister Marianne and Sister Carmelita were both glad to be doing something for Peaches, and I think that Peaches was glad to be getting a job.

  Peaches walked me home.

  “Say, Peaches, what happened to Four Times Seven's teeth?” I asked.

  “He ain't never had no teeth as long as I've known about him,” Peaches said. “Some say that before Miss Sally got him, he was owned by an old-time blues player in East St. Louis. A fellow broke into the little railroad

  flat where the blues player lived and robbed and killed him. They say that Four Times Seven trailed the man that killed his master all the way to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and lost all his teeth chewing through a concrete wall to get at him.”

  “He got him?” I asked.

  “That's what they say,” Peaches said.