“I wish that was going on at my house. Mama has been going through school catalogs and Web sites since this afternoon. She is looking to see which schools offer housing for married students. We found out Ohio State won’t unless the athletic board approves it. In case the board says no, Mama wants to have a backup plan. Guess what I’m doing Monday after school.”
“What?”
“Taking a blood test. Mr. Pickens said it’s only right that I know without a doubt that the baby is mine. That made Michelle cry for an hour. Can you imagine her own daddy saying something like that? I said no, but Mama said I had to. The Ohio State recruiter told me and Mama not to worry about a thing. The board usually votes the way the coaching staff wants. I believe him, but Mama is still worried, and she is wearing me out with what-ifs and ‘just in cases.’ I was coming over to your house to get a break from her. Michelle and her folks left about two hours ago, but Mama is still going strong.”
Uncle Doug and Mama have gotten their coats on and made it down the stairs.
“Who did she say she was?” Mama asks.
I look at Mama and dart my eyes toward Uncle Doug, a questioning gesture, but I don’t think she can see me in the dark, or she’s doesn’t care.
“Who was it, May?” she asks again.
“It was Larry’s wife,” Uncle Doug answers. “I heard her yelling at May when I was going back out to my car. I thought I was going to have to get her, but May opened that razor on her. She’s your daughter, Gloria, through and through.” He says it like he’s bragging, and that makes me smile.
I had no idea that Uncle Doug was behind me when that crazy woman was snapping.
“Come on, Gloria, I got a place in mind that will wash it and buff it out tonight, but we got to go before this paint starts freezing.”
Out of nowhere, Mooky appears by the hood of Mama’s car, and he says, “I can wash that off for y’all. I can get it all off. I swear to God I can, and I can do it for fifteen dollars.”
We are all looking at him, and I think everybody is wondering where he came from.
“Boy, get on away from my car before I hurt you,” Mama directs. And, as mysteriously as he appeared, Mooky is gone.
While Mama is getting into the passenger seat of her car I ask, “Mama, me and Carlos are going to go up to the video store and rent some movies, and then come back here and watch them in the recreation room. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, and get me one with Denzel in it, one I haven’t seen.”
I take a step back allowing her to close the door. I watch the black Mustang with a pink paint–splattered hood pull off.
We were both lucky that Uncle Doug was here tonight: me, because I am certain the crazy woman saw him behind me, and that’s probably why she didn’t approach me, and Mama is lucky because he knows where to take her damaged car.
“Uncle Doug has been over here a couple of days huh? What’s going on with that?”
“Now you know that ain’t none of that your business.”
Uncle Doug must know about Mama’s other men friends. He said Larry’s name like it wasn’t a big deal. It makes sense that he would know. He’s been with Mama a long time. Her ways are not new to him, and at one time he was married. I guess married men have to accept a single woman having friends. After all, they have wives.
I wonder, is that why Mama dates married men, to have the freedom to have more than one man? Well, Uncle Doug living here is going to change all that.
“He’s probably going to take it to that hand carwash on Ashland. They’re open until twelve o’clock at night,” Carlos says. “Hey, did you get the job?”
“Yep, me and Edith.”
“Man, Edith too, but not me. And he was over my house, and he still didn’t say nothing about me working up there.”
I don’t think Samuel would go for me having other boyfriends. I think he thinks he is supposed to be the only one. But, should what he thinks be the way it is? It’s not like that for Mama. How she thinks is how it is. I bet all her men friends know that they aren’t the only ones.
Samuel and I are going to have to talk. He needs to know how it’s going to be. He can’t have a wife and me, and I just have him.
“May, are you going to just stand there, or are we walking up to the video store?”
“I can just stand here if I want to. You ain’t the boss of me.”
“What?”
“Never mind, let’s go.”
Chapter Ten
All our movies came from the two-dollar rental section. I got Mama Man on Fire, and Carlos picked out three action movies for us. We are in a “shoot ’em up” movie mood. He puts Blade II with Wesley Snipes in the DVD player. We both have seen it before, but watching again is not a problem. He took my favorite spot in the pit, the reclining corner with the footrest.
I let him have the seat because he is still stressed about school and the baby. Larry bought Mama this brown suede pit couch and the big-screen television. His wife would probably have a stroke if she found out about these purchases.
Her having our address will be a problem for Mama. Larry’s days are numbered with or without Uncle Doug moving in. Mama is not one for wife drama. None of her men friends have stayed around after a wife stops by.
I want to turn on the recess lights in the ceiling so I can read the labels on the other DVDs Carlos picked out, but I’m too lazy to get off the couch and turn the switch. It’s dim down here with the dark paneling and only two lamps.
Uncle Doug and some of his friends put up the maple wood paneling and laid the burgundy carpet. It’s not dark when the ceiling lights are on, but with just lamps like it is now, you need a flashlight to read anything. Mama hardly ever comes down here. She says she is waiting to get a wet bar installed. Once she gets that, she says she will hang out down here.
I am laid out on the long part of the pit with one of the pillows from my bed under my head. I should have microwaved some popcorn, but again I was too lazy to wait for it.
“Do you miss going to Calumet?” I ask Carlos.
“I miss the basketball team and playing on the team. I miss the status of being a team player. I miss being a big shot at school. There is no glamour where we are now, only schoolwork, and I got to do it myself. I am not a celebrity up there, so no girls are volunteering to do my homework. Ah, and you know I miss the babes.”
“The babes? Don’t you have enough female drama in your life?” I look over at him with my best fed-up look on my face.
“Why you go there? I was remembering good times, and you jump me right back to now.” He kicks off his gym shoes and swings his feet up on the cushions. “And Michelle is not a babe. She is the babe,” he says.
The babe who has him stressed to the max, but I don’t speak to that. Flipping through my phone, I see Samuel has texted me three times.
Thinking about you.
Wish you were here.
Love you.
I am going to call him back. I see one text from Walter.
Where y’all at?
“I’m going to text Walter so he can chill with us.”
“Cool. Tell him to bring a pizza or something.”
“He ain’t got pizza money.”
“So? If you tell him to get it, he will come up with it. Just tell him and watch him get one.”
I click on his number and decide to call, and he answers halfway through the first ring. “Dang, dude, you should let it ring at least once. What are you doing? Well, come over here. Me and Carlos got some movies. We in the rec room. Nope, Mama ain’t opening the store tonight. Hey, Carlos said get a pizza. No, you know better than bringing some beer up in here. Mama will have all our asses. She was drunk when she let you drink that one beer. Get some pop and come on. Bye.”
“Told you, if you tell him jump, he’ll ask how high.”
“Yeah, but I told him you said bring the pizza.”
“That don’t matter. You asked. That’s what’s important.”
“
Is he really as good a thief as people say?”
“Yeah, but he only be stealing out of stores. He is a booster, and his mama a booster too. They got a store in their apartment.”
“You’ve been over his house?”
“Yeah, a couple of times. His mama can cook.”
“What does she look like?”
“Like him, except she ain’t got those big lips and forehead.”
“Well, how does she look like him then?”
“I don’t know, she just does. Watch the movie.”
“Is their house clean?”
“Yeah. I told you I ate there.”
“I wonder why he has never invited me over.”
“He probably don’t want you to know his mama is a booster. He’s kind of embarrassed about that.”
“My mama bootlegs and your mama has crap games. Why would what his mama does embarrass him with us?”
“Not us, you. I been over his house and met his mama.”
“Does she sell formal dresses?”
“She has all kinds of lady clothes up in there.”
“I might get a prom dress from her. Does she sell for half the ticket price?”
“Yep, and she takes orders. You can tell her what store has what you want, and she will go get it, but I thought you and Michelle were going to sew your prom dress.”
“Nope, that’s what I’m telling Mama, so me and Samuel can have that time together. Speaking of him, I need to call him.”
“Why? I saw his little red car in front of the house earlier. Ain’t you seen enough of him for one day? Damn. And I don’t want hear you talking to an old-ass married man. That shit is disgusting.” He grabs the remote and turns up the volume of the television.
“That’s okay because I’m going in the laundry room to make the call anyway. It’s a very private call.”
“I’m sure,” he says and snatches my pillow from under my head and hits me with me. I get up from the pit and walk over to the laundry room door and turn the light knob halfway to put some light in the basement.
I close the laundry room door behind me because this is not only going to be a private call but a very important call. This call will inform Samuel that he is not dealing with a starry-eyed little girl who is so infatuated with his looks that she will allow him to do whatever he wants just to be in his company. This call will let him know that he is dealing with a woman who has guidelines that he has to follow if he wants to be part of my life. The main guideline being that, since he is married, it’s only right that I have other friends, and I shouldn’t have to sneak to do it.
I hop up on the dryer. But wait, what am I going to do if he says no? That I can’t see other boys and see him? I don’t want him to quit me. I like him too much to lose him. He is fine, and he has money that he doesn’t mind giving me. Okay, okay, if he says no then I will tell him that I was only testing him to see how much he cared about me and of course, I don’t want to see anybody else. Yeah, that should work.
Sitting on top of the dryer, it’s the fifth ring before he answers, and then he whispers, “I can’t talk right now. Call me back in the morning.”
Click.
“Oh, hell no!” I dial his number right back, but it goes into his voice mail. “What!”
I dial again, voice mail, again voice mail, and again voice mail. He must have cut the phone off. I text: Call me!
Nothing. I text: Now!
I still get no reply.
“Who does he think he is?” I bang my foot against the dryer and jump down. “Bastard.” I stomp the concrete floor of the laundry room.
“What’s wrong?” Carlos yells from the pit.
“Nothing. My cell phone is not charged.”
“Good. You didn’t need to talk to his old ass anyway. Come on out here and watch the movie with me. Wesley gonna be slicing vampires up fo’ real!”
I exhale fully and breathe in a long breath. He is married, I tell myself. “You are being childish,” I say to the back of the laundry room door. But, I dial his number back again, and again I get voice mail. The message beeps. I say, “Don’t ever call me back. It’s over.” I am smiling when I click the phone off.
* * *
Mama or Uncle Doug must be coming down the stairs with Walter. I clearly hear two people on the stairs. Looking over my shoulder to the stairs, I see Walter’s big head and a grinning Edith behind him. I pop up from the pit because it’s good to see her. It’s like we are hanging out again and I like that. I walk from the pit to her.
Me and Edith hug, and Walter says, “What about me? Do I get a hello, a hug, a thanks for the pizza and pop, something?”
I ignore him. “Girl, what gets you down here?” I ask her.
“My mama was having company, and I really didn’t feel like being bothered by them. I looked out the window and saw Walter walking down the street with a pizza, and I knew where he was heading, so here I am.”
“Hey, Edith,” Carlos greets her without looking up from the TV. “Get on over here with the pizza, man. Been waiting like forever for you.”
Walter walks from us to inside the pit. “You trippin’ right? You got a five or a ten to put on this pizza? If not, don’t say a word to me about waiting.” Walter puts the pizza down on the coffee table and strips the paper from it.
Edith and I are still standing behind them outside the pit. “Did you start on the play?” she asks me.
“Nope, it is still in the folder. You?”
“Finished it. It is a very good play. Mr. Pickens wrote it himself, and I think he wrote it so kids could play the parts. The lines are easy.” Quietly she asks, “Why didn’t Carlos come up there for a job?”
Just as hushed I answer, “Mr. Pickens didn’t invite him.”
“Why?”
“It’s complicated. I’ll tell you later. Let’s eat before their greedy butts choke themselves trying to eat it all.”
The pizza is the bomb: thin crust with big pieces of sausages, lots of cheese, green peppers, onions, and pepperoni. Walter said his mama ordered it for us.
“You be sure to tell her thanks because this is too good,” I say biting into a fresh piece. It’s a huge pie about thirty-two inches around. I doubt that we will finish it.
“A friend of hers just bought a place on Eighty-seventh Street. It used to be a bakery or something. She turned it into a pizza place. She told Mama she’s looking to hire a couple of kids to work there, nine dollars an hour plus we split the tips. We would work from five p.m. to one a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. She said the tips are anywhere from a hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars a night on the weekends. We can start next weekend, and we get paid in cash on Saturday night.”
“What’s all this we stuff?” Carlos asks between chewing the pizza and gulping the pop.
“You don’t need extra cash?” Walter asks.
“What are the hours again?” Edith asks.
I am not even entertaining the idea, and I don’t how Edith could be.
“Yeah, I need cash. I just wasn’t planning on giving up every weekend to get it. My mama and her dice games already get two weekends out of every month. So I don’t know, bro.”
“It’s four spots. If you want, Michelle can work there too.”
“Oh, you are counting me in as well?” I say.
“Yeah, you can do this and still run the store on weekends. The store don’t really get going until after three in the morning anyway.”
“Why you so gung-ho on this?” Carlos asks picking up the remote and turning the volume down.
“’Cause it’s a job, and I need a job. I’m taking it with or without y’all.”
“You said nine dollars an hour plus tips?” Edith asks scooting up on her seat cushion as if she is really interested.
“Yep.”
“And you sure Michelle can work there too?” Carlos asks.
“Mama said her friend will probably hire anybody I bring. She needs help, bad. If we go by there Monday after schoo
l, she will tell us what’s to the job.”
I’m trying not to listen and watch the movie State Property. I have a new job, the store, and my man is giving me money.
“I could use a hundred plus extra dollars a week,” Edith says. “I’ll go check it out. What can that hurt?”
“I’ll go too, and I’ll call Michelle tomorrow and let you know what she thinks,” Carlos says.
“Cool, we gonna be running the place, wait and see.”
They are all looking at me. I am looking at the television. “Nope. I ain’t going. I just got a new job, and I am not about to be working at Mama’s store and a pizza place on the same night. I am a high school student. Nope, I am not going. I am not interested.” I say all of this with my eyes locked on the television.
“You could go just to support your friends. Go to the interview because we are all going,” Edith chirps in her light, cheerful voice.
“You know, I thought I missed hanging out with you, but now I remember how you always took Carlos’s side against me,” I say, looking at her, and I am laughing because nothing is further from the truth. She and I always double-teamed Carlos.
“What!” both of them yelp.
We do finish the whole pizza, and all four of us fall asleep in the pit. I woke up once because Carlos and Walter were snoring loud enough to make my eyelids vibrate, but I fell right back to sleep. What wakes me up this time is Walter rubbing on my feet, and when I look around, I see Carlos and Edith are gone.
“They just left,” Walter says.
“Well, you got to go too. Mama come down and see just you and me here she gonna trip for real.”
“She and that Doug dude already been down here, and we were woke, but you didn’t wake up. Your mama told us we could watch the end of the movie then wake you up and leave.”
I look over at the television. He’s watching Belly, and it’s at the beginning.
“I started it over.” He grins.
“Man, you got to go. My mama ain’t stupid.”
“Are you really going to go see about the job with us?”
“Yeah, I already told you I was.”
He lifts my foot up to his mouth and kisses my toe. “Cool. Show me out,” he says.
Mama's Girl Page 11
