Daniel sat back down. “You okay?”
“What a jackass,” Veronica said.
“Amen to that,” Daphne agreed.
It wasn’t just the shifty eyes and slicked-back greasy hair, it was everything about him that had made my skin crawl. He had an air of entitlement, like a fox in a henhouse.
“Hey, I’m sorry about that. Are you okay?” Daniel asked, touching my arm. I nodded and took a sip of my beer. It was hot and watery.
I glanced up and saw Mazie sashaying back over to us. She looked right at Daniel. “Hey, I’m back,” she said sweetly, standing in front of Daniel. Her chest in his face.
He eased away from her and returned his attention to me. “I can get you another beer if you want. Can’t promise it’s gonna be any better than that one.”
“No, that’s okay,” I said. “I’m not going to drink it anyway.”
“Hey, remember me?” Mazie asked Daniel.
We both looked at her. She grabbed her beer, which Gunner had left, and took a long swallow.
“Mazie, that’s enough drinking,” Daphne said.
“You’re not my mother,” she said before tilting the glass to her mouth.
I turned to Daphne and Veronica. “She’s drunk. Maybe we should get her home.”
“She won’t go. She saw Winston kissing some girl.”
Mazie pushed her butt between me and Daniel, then turned her back to me. Daniel moved away and she moved right with him. She grinned. “Do you want to dance?”
“No thanks,” he said. “Actually I was talking to Zelda.”
She turned around and looked at me, seemingly puzzled. “Why? I’m a beauty queen and I’m way prettier than she is. You can ask anybody.”
“Mazie, shut your stupid mouth!” Veronica yelled.
“I don’t want to talk to you, and for the record, I think Zelda is very beautiful,” Daniel said, then leaned forward and looked at me.
I looked away quickly, too embarrassed to hold his eye with mine.
“Zelda, are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded.
Mazie continued to bat her eyes and flirt with Daniel. But he ignored her, which made her even more determined. And each time he tried to strike up a conversation with me, she got madder and madder.
“What is wrong with you? I’m sitting right here. Look at me,” she demanded. “It’s my birthday,” she shouted. “Say happy birthday to me.”
“Happy birthday,” Daniel said.
“Kiss me?” she insisted.
“No.”
“Why not?” She pouted and started rubbing his leg.
He pushed her hand away. “Don’t do that,” he said firmly.
“I want to kiss you,” Mazie protested. She pouted her lips. “I bet if Zelda asked you to kiss her you’d do it. Wouldn’t you?”
My heart thudded.
“Yes. Absolutely. In a heartbeat. And what makes you think we haven’t already?”
“Fine.” She stood up. “You can have her, den. I didn’t want to kiss you and I didn’t want to dance with you.”
“I’ll dance with you, baby.”
We looked up and saw that Rob and Billy were back.
Mazie took Billy’s hand just as he walked up, and they went to the dance floor. Everything about it looked wrong.
Two other guys came over and asked Veronica and Daphne to dance.
“Did you want to dance?” Daniel asked, taking my hand.
“No. Thank you,” I said, nervously pulling away.
“You’ve seemed edgy all evening. Is it because of the kiss?” he asked. I didn’t respond. “Because if it is, and all this is moving too fast, we can—”
“No. It’s not the kiss. Not really. It’s everything—you, me, all of this. I guess I’m overwhelmed. I don’t know what to think anymore, or what to expect next. It feels like I’m haphazardly tumbling from situation to situation.”
He nodded. “I can see how you’d feel that way. It’s been chaotic.”
“To say the least.” We smiled. “Thanks for understanding.”
“I do like you,” he said. “A lot.”
I touched his hand. “Me too.”
Everybody started clapping and cheering as they moved toward the stage. Winston’s group came out dressed in shiny suits, looking like the Temptations minus one. They started singing. His a cappella rendition of Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away” was flawless. His voice was smooth and as sweet as honey, and he sounded just like him.
I could see Mazie jumping around like a fool. Billy right there by her side. He had his hand on her ass.
Daniel reached around my waist and pulled me closer. He wove his fingers through my hair and held the nape of my neck. He inched closer as if he was going to kiss me. “Your skin is soft like your lips.”
I opened my mouth to respond and he kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and enjoyed the taste of his lips with mine. He pressed his tongue between my lips and I opened wide for him. He kissed me in such a way that made my whole body want him. Deeper and deeper we kissed. Just as I was about to break the kiss, he leaned back. We were both breathless, staring at each other.
Suddenly, the noise in the barn elevated. I couldn’t hear him and he was right in front of me. “Come on,” he shouted. He stood up and took my hand. “Let’s go talk someplace quieter.” We were just about to leave when I heard someone screaming. I turned around and saw a fight.
“Zelda, come on. Let’s get out of here,” Daniel yelled.
I shook my head. “It’s Mazie screaming.”
“What?” he yelled.
“I think it’s Mazie,” I said, pointing.
He ran toward the commotion, and I followed close behind him. Someone shoved him, and I shoved them right back. Then I saw Winston in his shiny suit fighting Billy. Rob was fighting a couple of other men in shiny suits. Mazie was screaming and jumping on Winston’s back.
Daphne grabbed my arm. “We need to get Mazie.” I struggled with my girls through the crowd, leaving behind the vision of Daniel trying to break the fighting men apart. A couple of other guys were trying to help him.
“I hate you! I hate you!” Mazie screamed at Winston when everyone was finally separated. Then she fell down drunk.
“Good Lord, we have to get her out of here,” Veronica said.
There were women laughing and making fun of Mazie. We rushed over and tried to grab her, but she fought us off. Gunner came out of nowhere and grabbed her. He hoisted her up over his shoulder and hauled her, like a sack of wheat, out of the barn. We followed. I called to Daniel, who came running out. I saw a huge mass of confusion behind him in the barn. There was fighting, pushing, screaming—a battlefield of madness.
19
IT WAS PITCH-BLACK OUTSIDE, AND THE AIR WAS THICK with moisture as the sound of thunder rumbled in the far distance. We hurried to our car but discovered that it had been blocked in. We weren’t going anywhere any time soon. “Shit.”
“Here, Daniel, you have to drive,” Veronica said, pressing the key into his hand. He nodded wordlessly. We all got into the car. I sat up front beside Daniel while Veronica and Daphne were trying to take care of Mazie in the back. She was mad, drunk, and crying hysterically. We could barely understand her. She wailed louder and muttered about keeping her ring.
Daniel nudged the car forward and backward several times until he had enough room to free us. “Mazie, you’re going to have to calm down,” I shouted, looking around at the chaotically parked cars. “How the hell do we get out of this mess?”
“Mazie, you have to tell us how to get back to your mother’s house.”
“I hate him. He kissed her,” Mazie sobbed. “I saw him.”
The thunder rumbled closer, and a flash of lightning lit the inside of the car. Mazie mumbled again and continued crying. Then after a while she sniffed loudly and looked at us. “Why are men so cruel? They say they love you, but they lie. Right beside the stage I saw him with her,” she said throug
h tearful sobs that quickly turned to bawling, wailing heaves of distress. “His old girlfriend before me. She dumped him and I made him a star. Now she wants him back. He-He-He . . .” she stuttered.
Veronica put her two cents in. “She’s right. They lie. My father lies to me all the time.”
They went back and forth for a short time, until Mazie passed out.
“I can’t believe how dark it is out here. Do you even know where you’re going?” Veronica asked Daniel.
“No, but I’m following the car in front of me until hopefully I see something familiar.”
He kept driving. I saw billboards for Waller Car Sales and I remembered them from our drive over. “There should be a white church up ahead here,” I said. A few seconds later, we saw the white church. The car in front of us turned to the left. Daniel stopped.
“Do we keep following them?” Daphne asked.
“No, I think we turn down there,” I said, pointing right.
“Are you sure?” both Daniel and Veronica asked.
“No, but I think so.”
“Mazie, wake up,” Veronica said, shaking her. Mazie moaned but didn’t verbally respond. “Shit.”
Daniel turned right. Ten minutes later we were driving through the center of town and saw the place where we had eaten breakfast. “Okay, I think this road should lead us back to the other side of the tracks.”
Daniel kept going and turned where I remembered Winston had turned earlier. We crossed over railroad tracks and kept going. He turned down another street, and I saw the small park and on the other side a big yellow house. “We’re here,” he said.
Daniel parked near the front of the house. The car we’d seen pull up earlier was gone. It took a few minutes, but we finally woke Mazie up and got her out of the car. “I’m gonna be sick,” she slurred, staggering up the porch steps. Her mother met us as we opened the screen door. She was dressed as if she was going out.
“You’re back early,” she said. “Well, at least you beat the storm.” Examining Mazie’s condition, she asked, “What the hell happened? What did y’all do to her?” she screamed. “Move, move, give me my baby,” she yelled, pushing us out of the way and cradling Mazie as if she were a child. Mazie threw up all over her as soon as we released her. “What did y’all do to her?” her mother screamed again.
“We didn’t do anything. She got drunk.”
“Y’all are lying! She doesn’t drink. Y’all gave my baby drugs, didn’t you?” her mother yelled at us. “What is wrong with you? Mazie is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or smoke or do drugs. Now y’all tell me the truth. What did y’all give her?”
“Nothing. She got herself drunk.”
“You were supposed to protect her,” she said, pointing to Daniel. “What kind of man are you?”
“He tried to help her,” I defended.
“Don’t you lie to me.”
We looked at each other, stunned. Mazie threw up again, this time all over the living room floor.
“We’re not lying. You can ask just about everybody at the barn. They’ll tell you.”
“As if I would believe that pack of low-life scum. They’ve always been jealous of Mazie, of us. Y’all were supposed to be her friends and take care of her.”
“Ma’am, we tried to help her,” Daniel said.
“I just bet you did,” she said sarcastically, then turned to Mazie. “Baby, what happened? Who did this to you?”
Mazie barely opened her eyes. She shook her head. “I don’t remember. I feel sick.”
“You’re sick. Sick! All of you, to do this to someone who saved your asses from sleeping on the street. We gave you food and a place to lay your heads tonight. I won’t throw you out, although God knows I should. But I’m a Christian woman. So y’all just get out of my sight. I don’t want to see you. Go, get out of my sight!”
We went upstairs to our room and Daniel to his. As soon as we closed the door we rolled our eyes. “What the hell happened at the barn that started this chaos?” I asked.
“Mazie was dancing with that white guy and she got really suggestive.”
“And so did he,” Veronica added.
Daphne nodded. “Yes, and so did he. And so when Winston saw her he went ballistic and came down from the stage.”
“Oh, but he didn’t just come down. He literally dove off the stage and flew onto them,” Veronica said. “If I’m lying, I’m dying.”
“He was just like Superman,” Daphne added.
We laughed, making sure to keep our voices low to prevent Mazie’s mother from hearing us.
“It all happened so fast. All of the sudden that white guy picked Mazie up and they were almost doing it right there in the middle of the dance floor right in front of Winston singing onstage. He stopped singing and yelled, ‘What the fuck!’ He flew down from the stage right on top of the white guy. Then the other white guy tried to pull Winston off, and that’s when everybody else onstage jumped in,” Veronica said.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I just kept shaking my head.
Through the door, we heard Mazie’s mother take her to her bedroom. A few minutes later we heard her fussing as she walked back downstairs. The front door slammed, then moments later the screen door opened and closed.
“Sounds like she went out,” Daphne said.
Veronica yawned. “Well, that’s it, I’m done. Let’s get some sleep so we can get out of this crazy-ass town first thing in the morning. I’ve had it with this place.”
Veronica and Daphne changed into their nightclothes. I didn’t.
“Aren’t you going to bed?” Veronica asked.
“I’m too charged up to sleep. I’m gonna step outside and get some air,” I said.
“Do you want us to go with you?”
“No, you two get some sleep. I’ll be fine.”
I grabbed my shawl and went downstairs. There was a dim light on in the living room. The front door was open, and the screen door was unlatched. I stepped outside onto the porch. It was quiet except for the sound of crickets.
I was out there for several minutes when I saw a figure in the park across the street. He was in shadow, but I recognized him as he moved closer to the streetlamp. It was Daniel. He still looked dashing and dangerous.
I began to walk toward him, slowly at first, as if I was going to change my mind at any minute. He started walking toward me too. We both moved faster until we met in the middle of the street. My heart was racing. He touched my face and kissed me tenderly.
“I was thinking about you.”
I nodded. “I was thinking about you too.”
He took my hand and kissed it while looking deeply into my eyes. Unnervingly, there was a flash of light and a heavy rumble of thunder. We looked up, and as if a spigot had suddenly been turned on, it began to rain just enough to let us know the storm was arriving.
Daniel took my hand, and we ran back to the guesthouse. By the time we reached the porch, wet and breathless, we were laughing hysterically.
“Zelda, I’ll never ask you to do anything you don’t want to do,” he said. “So if you don’t want me to . . .” He stopped and let the sentence rest there. I heard the aching hesitation in his voice. I didn’t say anything for a few seconds. “Come on, I’ll walk you to your room.”
“No,” I finally said, “I want to go to your room.”
I looked down at my trembling hand and tried to steady it as I reached out to him. His hand was gentle and strong. “I’m ready.”
20
WE WENT UP THE STAIRS TO HIS ROOM ON THE THIRD floor. It was smaller than the one we girls shared. The lighting set a warm ambiance, illuminating from a small lamp. From across the room, Daniel looked at me all shy like he was a boy on his first date. I felt an electricity pulling us together.
All of the sudden I felt emboldened. “So, Daniel, do you come here often?” I joked. I loved his laugh. It was from the gut, and it made me smile and feel good inside, like everything was going to be okay n
o matter what.
“This is a nice room,” I said, walking over to him like it was the most natural thing in the world. “What would you like to do tonight?”
He took my hand and placed it on his chest. I could feel his heart pounding wildly. “This is what you do to me.”
I laid my other hand on his chest and spread my fingers wide, feeling the solid strength beneath his shirt. My insides quivered.
“Are you a virgin?” he asked in almost a whisper.
I shook my head no. I was not ashamed and I knew exactly what I was doing. With my mother going on and on about saving myself until marriage, and since I wasn’t sure I’d ever get married, I had wanted to experience it. It was no big deal. I didn’t see what all the fuss was about. I did it with a guy I’d met at Howard University when I came home on spring break in my freshman year. It was during a frat party, and we did it in his dorm room. I saw him once, we did it once, and that was it. I never saw him again and didn’t particularly want to. Not that the experience was bad. It was that he was unremarkable.
“Do you want a drink?”
“Um, yeah, sure.”
He opened his suitcase and pulled out a flask. “This belonged to my father,” he said proudly. “A general gave it to him after my father saved his life.” He grabbed two glasses from the bathroom and poured liquid into each. “What is that?” I asked.
“It’s called schnapps, peach schnapps.”
“Schnapps. I’ve never heard of it before.”
He handed me a glass. I put my nose to the rim and inhaled. “Mmm, it smells like sweet peaches,” I said, smiling.
“It is kind of. I think you’ll like it.”
Our glasses clinked and we each took a sip. He looked at me cautiously. At first there was nothing, just warmth in my mouth. Then I sensed heat, and it seemed to simmer down my throat, but not in a bad way. Afterward I tasted the sweetness of peaches left behind. “Mmm.”
I took a bigger sip and then ran the tip of my tongue across my lips. He slid the glass from my hand and set it on the dresser along with his. He leaned down slowly and we kissed. Six, seven, eight, nine times, one right after another our lips danced together playfully. We kissed over and over and over again. Smiling. Kissing. Laughing.
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