One Night in Georgia

by Celeste O. Norfleet

  Mazie was enraged, her eyes wide. “Billy, you said you loved me. You said you wanted me.”

  “Do you really think I would want your dumb nigger ass?”

  Mazie shrieked and flung herself at Billy with her arms straight out. Her nails dug into his face, leaving red bloody scratches down each side, from temple to jaw.

  “Bitch,” Billy hollered and smacked her across the face. She went down hard. Her head made a loud thud on the hardwood floor.

  Veronica reached for her, and Mazie pushed her away. “Get off me. Don’t touch me,” she yelled.

  “She’s fucking crazy.”

  “Zelda, get her out of here,” Daniel yelled.

  Mazie looked at Billy. “You liar.” She staggered to her feet and went after him again. This time he grabbed her by the neck and started choking her. Rob pulled him off. Winston struggled to get free, but Daniel held tight.

  “Mazie, stop it,” Veronica yelled, dragging her away. But as soon as Veronica got Mazie a safe distance from Billy, she went charging back at him. She grabbed a broken beer bottle from off the floor. “You son of a bitch, you lied to me.”

  “You stupid, crazy bitch,” Billy yelled and spat on her.

  I couldn’t move. It was as if time stood still.

  “I’ll kill you.” Mazie continued to charge at him.

  Billy struggled away from Rob. Winston tried to get free, but Daniel held even tighter. Rob grabbed for Billy again but was shoved aside. Billy grabbed Mazie’s wrist and wrestled the broken bottle away from her. “Get off me,” she screamed. “I’ll kill you!”

  Billy tossed the bottle and punched Mazie. She fell down, crying hysterically.

  “Son of a bitch!” Winston got free from Daniel and went after Billy. He tackled Billy from behind, and they both went down hard against the dresser. They repeatedly threw punches—some missed, some landed. Their faces were intense and shrouded with rage. Veronica, Daphne, and I dragged Mazie out of the room.

  Mazie staggered into the hall with blood all over her clothes. She was holding her arm. It was cut and bleeding. “I hate you, all of you. Get out of my house.”

  “Mazie, stop it.” I tried to talk sense into her. “Not every man is going to love you. Winston broke your heart, your dad broke your heart. It doesn’t mean you go out and sleep with someone like Billy.”

  She examined herself in a mirror hanging on a nearby wall. She started bawling.

  At that moment the fight crashed into the hallway as both men slammed against the wall. Two pictures crashed to the floor as the men kept punching each other. Winston grabbed Billy’s head and slammed it hard on the floor. Billy punched Winston in the side. We hurriedly got out of the way. It was chaos. Everybody was yelling and screaming. Billy and Winston were really going at it. The sight of it was horrendous. They were tearing up the hallway, crashing into the walls and breaking everything in sight. Daniel and Rob still tried to pull them apart, but the fight seemed to have gotten fiercer.

  “You beat her, motherfucker. I’ll kill you,” Winston yelled, pulling a switchblade from his jacket pocket.

  “Daniel, watch out,” I shouted.

  Rob pulled out a gun. “Get back,” he yelled. “Get back, everybody. I swear I’ll shoot you where you stand. Now drop the knife.”

  Winston glared at Rob and reluctantly dropped the knife on the floor. He went to Mazie’s side.

  “Get away from me.”

  “Give me my mother’s ring back,” Winston said quietly.

  She wrenched it off her finger and threw it down.

  He didn’t say another word. With the fight no longer in him, he picked up the ring and his knife and left. He never looked back.

  Rob lowered the gun.

  “What the fuck are you doing? Kill that black motherfucking ass,” Billy screamed at Rob. “Is that what you did when you was over there in Vietnam, let them Viet Cong gooks get away? You weak-ass fucker, kill that nigga. Coward! Gimme the fucking gun. I’ll kill him. I’ll kill all these niggas in here.”

  Billy rammed up against Rob to get the gun. The gun fell free and got kicked to the side in the struggle. Rob went after the gun, then Billy kicked Rob between his legs. Rob went down, and Billy jumped on top and started punching him. Daniel grabbed Billy off of Rob and punched him in the face. Blood splattered everywhere. Billy tried to hit Daniel but missed. He grabbed Daniel in a choking armlock, then Daniel elbowed him in the ribs. Billy went down in pain. It was like seeing Daniel for the first time. He was angry, and his fierce punches proved it. Billy was down, and Rob pulled Daniel free.

  Mazie’s mother, back from where she had gone earlier, came running up the stairs, screaming, “What the hell is going on? What have y’all done to my house? Get out, all of you. Get out of my house.” She touched Mazie’s face. “Oh my God, what have y’all done to her? Mazie, baby, somebody get a doctor. What have you done to my baby? Get out! Get out, all of you! Don’t you ever come back to this house or this town again. Do you understand me? I’ll sic the law on all of you. Get out!”

  While her mother yelled, Mazie reached down and picked up the gun.

  “Mazie, give me the gun,” Daniel said calmly.

  It was suddenly silent. Everyone’s attention was focused on Mazie. She was wide-eyed and holding the gun. “Mazie,” Daniel said slowly, taking a step toward her. “Mazie, you don’t want to do this, give me the gun.”

  “I have to stop him from doing this again,” Mazie said.

  Daniel took another step.

  “Mazie, listen sweetie,” I said. “Just give Daniel the gun. Okay?”

  Mazie pulled the hammer back and aimed the gun at Billy. Nobody moved.

  “Mazie, no, you can’t do this. Give me the gun,” I said reaching out my hand.

  Standing the closest, I slowly placed my hand on the gun with hers. She held tight. “Mazie, please, give me the gun.” She looked at me and I could feel her hand loosen around the handle. I eased the gun from her hand.

  Suddenly Rob dove and flung his body to get the gun away. Startled, I pulled the trigger. The violent sound of a single gunshot cut through the angry voices of chaos. It was deafening in the closed hallway. A bitter, acrid, pungent stench of spent gunpowder hung heavily in the air.

  No! No! No! I screamed in my own head. What have I done?

  22

  I DROPPED THE GUN ON THE FLOOR. I SMELLED URINE, charcoal, and sulfur, rancid and bitter. I tasted caustic metal in my mouth, against my teeth. My eyes watered, my ears rang. I looked at Veronica and Daphne. Their eyes were wide with shock. Daniel’s were distorted in anguish and trepidation. I shook my head trying to clear away the unimaginable of what had just happened. Then I looked down.

  Rob was lying there on the floor.

  Everything around me was moving in slow motion. I couldn’t focus. Rationally, I knew what had just happened, but I couldn’t seem to wrap my head around seeing it. It was like my father all over again. This time I was holding the gun. I had pulled the trigger. I looked down at the bright red stain on the white shirt as it spread and grew bigger and bigger.

  Mazie and her mother, holding each other, began screaming at the top of their lungs. I may have told them to stop, but I could not be sure.

  All of a sudden Daniel was holding me. “Zelda, are you okay?” I must have answered him because the next thing I knew he was on the floor beside Rob. After rolling him over he checked for signs of life. Rob wasn’t moving. There was blood everywhere. His eyes were open and he was staring straight up at the ceiling.

  I shook my head, still not believing what I had done. “It was an accident,” I muttered. “He jumped and the gun went off. It was an accident.” I looked at Billy. His eyes were raging. He spotted the gun down at my feet. A wave of adrenaline surged through my body. I knew if he got the gun he’d kill all of us. I reached down in an instant and grabbed the gun again. I pointed it at him.

  “Put it down, nigger,” he threatened.

  His face was blood red and co
ntorted in a grimace so vile and hateful it made the hairs on my neck stand on end. He was drenched in sweat.

  He was the cops who had killed my father, he was the men who had come for my grandfather, he was the men who had wanted to take the car from us, he was the men sitting at the lunch table across the room jeering at us. He was all of them. He was what raw hate looked like. I cocked the hammer and aimed it at him.

  “You better kill me the first time, bitch.”

  “Zelda,” Daniel said, “don’t.”

  “No, let your nigger bitch try it. Go on. Pull the trigger. ’Cause let me clue you in, sonny. You’ll be lynched, all in a row, dancing on the end of a rope.” He laughed menacingly.

  Daniel was fast. He punched Billy so hard on the side of his head that I actually heard it. Billy fell to the floor and didn’t move again. He was out cold.

  Daniel came to me with his hand out. I turned the gun away and gave it to him. “Listen to me,” he said. “Go in your room and get your stuff together. Do it now.”

  “No,” Mazie’s mother yelled. “Y’all not leaving all this on us.”

  “Don’t worry. No one’s gonna leave this on you,” Daniel assured her.

  “But what about him and . . .”

  “He’s dead. No one can save him now. We need to save us.”

  “I’ll tell them I did it. It was an accident,” I said.

  “They’ll never believe you,” Veronica said.

  “Go, get your stuff together.”

  We girls rushed into our room. We quickly changed into our traveling clothes. I grabbed my suitcase and my tote bag and stuffed everything inside. My things, Daphne’s things, Veronica’s things—we would sort it out later. I stopped for a brief instant and prayed. Daphne stood at the window staring out.

  “Daphne, we have to leave now,” Veronica said.

  She shook her head. “They’re gonna kill us, aren’t they.”

  “Listen to me. Daniel wants us to pack and leave, and that’s what we’re gonna do. Do you hear me? Now, come on. We’re leaving now,” I insisted.

  We grabbed our bags. I walked out of the room first. In the hallway, Mazie was still whimpering and her mother was holding her. But where was Daniel?

  “Daniel,” Veronica called out.

  “I’m here,” he said, coming down from the third floor. He put his suitcase on the floor.

  “I know I’m not taking the blame. I gave Zelda the gun. She pulled the trigger. It wasn’t me,” Mazie said.

  “What? You did this,” Veronica shouted. “This is all your fault. You were flirting with him at the barn and you brought that evil in here to make Winston jealous.”

  Mazie looked at Veronica, then at her mother fearfully. “No, Mamma, he followed us here. I swear. He told me so. He came in the front door and I tried to make him leave. That’s when he hit me. That’s when he . . . he . . .” She started crying again.

  “We don’t have a lot of time,” Daniel said. He took my hand in his. I watched as Mazie looked down at our intertwined hands and frowned. “We need to come up with a story.”

  “It was self-defense,” Veronica said.

  “No, the gun just went off. It was an accident,” I said.

  “Maybe in the North, but in the South when a colored kills a white boy, it’s a lynching offense,” Mazie’s mother said.

  “She’s right. Unless a colored didn’t kill him,” Daniel said. We all looked down the hall to Billy, still knocked out on the floor. This is what happened tonight,” Daniel began. “Mazie, you met Billy at the barn. You were nice to him. He got drunk and came over here later expecting sex. When you said no, he started beating you. You screamed. Rob was in the car out front. He heard your screams and ran up to help you. They fought in your bedroom and out here in the hall. Billy got Rob’s gun and tried to shoot you. Rob jumped in front and saved you. Billy threatened to kill you. I punched him and knocked him out.”

  “What about us?” Veronica asked.

  “You three heard the fight, panicked, and ran.”

  “What about me?” Mazie asked. “What do I say?”

  “You don’t remember anything. You fainted from the beating you took. That’s all you know.”

  Mazie nodded. “I can say that. I got beat and I fainted.”

  “Good. Okay.” Daniel looked at Mazie’s mother. “You came into the house and—”

  “No,” she said softly but firmly. “I can’t say that. Nobody can know I was out last night. The man I was with, nobody can know. I fell asleep on the back porch. I do dat sometimes when it’s hot and rainy.”

  Daniel nodded. “Good,” he said. “You were asleep on the back porch and you heard fighting and a gunshot.”

  “Yes,” she said, “and I ran to my daughter as the three of them ran out. Mazie fainted.”

  “Good,” Daniel said. “Then that’s what happened. We all have to lie like our lives depend on it, because they do.”

  “Billy’s not going to say that’s what happened,” Mazie said.

  “Billy’s drunk. He beat you. Look at your face.”

  We all looked at Mazie. She had a black eye, a split lip, cuts, bruises, and a swollen jaw.

  “What about Winston?” Mazie asked.

  “Find him and tell him he wasn’t here tonight.”

  We nodded in agreement. His plan sounded so simple that I could almost believe it.

  Mr. Jackson came out of his bedroom and into the hall.

  “It’s a damn shame,” Mr. Jackson said as he walked over. We all looked at each other. “I heard everything. Every word. Dem boys fighting over Mazie like dat. Den the one boy said he was gonna kill her. The gun went off and somebody fell to the floor. It’s a damn shame.”

  I smiled. I believed him.

  “Mr. Jackson, for a near-blind man, you’re as sharp as a tack,” Daniel said.

  “That I am, young fella, that I am.”

  “Don’t touch anything. I know it hurts, but leave your face exactly like that. The police need to see it. They need to see everything.”

  “The police around here are—”

  “I’m calling the military police, not the locals. Rob told us that they were AWOL. It’s a military shooting and they’ll take jurisdiction,” Daniel said. “Where’s your telephone book?”

  “Downstairs in the living room.”

  Daniel nodded. “It’s time to go.”

  “Mr. Jackson, take care of yourself,” I said, hugging him.

  “You too, Zelda, you too.”

  I grabbed Daniel’s hand and held tight as we went downstairs. “Zelda, Daphne’s in shock, but you make her hear me. Say it over and over again until she believes it. Do you hear me? You heard the shot and you ran. Say it.”

  “We heard the shot and we ran away.”

  “Again.”

  “We didn’t see anything. We heard the shot and ran.”

  “Good. If you get stopped by the locals, stick to the story until the military police take over. They’ll ask you questions and try to trick you. Don’t believe them. Stick to what we said and you’ll be just fine. Trust me.”

  “I trust you,” I vowed, believing every word. He leaned in and quickly kissed me.

  “Good. Now go.”

  Veronica grabbed the bags and pulled Daphne out the door. I turned. “Wait, you’re not coming with us, are you?” I asked.

  “No, Zelda, I have to stay with them. I have to make this right. I have to protect you. Billy’s not going after you and your friends. I promise you that.”

  “No, it’s like before at the sheriff’s office. We all go together.”

  “Baby, I wish I could. But I can’t. Not this time.”

  “Please, please come with us. Don’t stay. If the local police come . . .” My voice cracked as a well of tears spilled free.

  “Zelda, you can do this. I’ll see you in Atlanta.”

  “No. I did this. I have to take responsibility for my actions.”

  “Not this time, baby,” he said
, gently stroking my face.

  “Then, I’ll stay here with you.”

  “No. I need you to be safe and that means you have to leave.”

  I shook my head. “I can’t go without you, please, Daniel.”

  “You have to go on without me. Whatever happens, know that I love you.”

  “I love you too,” I said, letting the words flow freely from my heart.

  He smiled. “That’s all I ever wanted to hear.” He kissed me. “Go. Now.”

  I started walking away from him slowly. With each step I could feel my heart falling apart. Outside, dawn was hovering on the horizon. The sun was creeping up just above the line of trees across the street. It was already hot and humid. There was no one out. Veronica and Daphne were already in the car. I hurriedly put the rest of the bags in and Veronica drove off. I turned to Daniel one last time. I saw him standing in the screen doorway. He raised his hand and so did I.

  “Please keep him safe,” I said in prayer, not knowing if God heard me or if he even cared.

  We got on I-85 and drove a long time. I didn’t know exactly where we were, but I knew we would be in Atlanta soon.

  Daphne was lying down in the back seat. Her eyes were open, staring blankly.

  “How’s Daphne?” Veronica asked.

  “She’s in shock,” I said.

  “We all are.”

  “I’m sorry this happened.”

  “Zelda, this isn’t your fault, so don’t you think that, you hear me?”

  Lost in our own thoughts for several miles, neither one of us noticed the patrol car that had made a U-turn and was driving up behind us until the lights came on. Veronica pulled to the side of the road. We looked at each other. “We didn’t see anything. We ran,” we said in unison.

  The cop got out of his car and walked up to us. I’m sure we looked guilty as sin. “What are you doing in this brand-new car? Did you steal it?”

  I was almost relieved by his question.

  “No, sir. It’s my college graduation gift.”

  “We’ll see about that.” He saw Daphne stretched out on the back seat. “What’s wrong with her?” He looked at Veronica and me with suspicion, like we had kidnapped her or something.