by Mary Monroe
“It ain’t that big.”
“Fifteen percent might not be big to you, but it is to me. It’s a good thing you and Joyce don’t need no extra money . . .”
“Milton, where you going with this?”
“I’m just making a comment.” I sniffed, and then I got serious. “What I need to know is, When was you going to tell me you got a raise? Was you even going to tell me at all?”
“It ain’t none of your business how much more money I make!”
“Oh yes it is! But I ain’t going to get too greedy.”
Odell gave me a dismissive wave and practically spit out his next words. “Greedy? You crossed that line a long time ago! Will you stop pussyfooting around and tell me why you brung me out here?”
“Pussy? That’s a good choice of words. Especially since you getting so much of it these days.” I laughed and rubbed my hands together.
“Where is your new fishing reel?”
“Fishing reel?”
“The one you claim you wanted to show me!”
“It’s up in the attic, but that ain’t the reason I need to talk to you in private.”
“Then what is the reason?”
“You got my money?”
He rolled his eyes and folded his arms. “I figured that’s what you really wanted. Look, I done already set aside your money for this week, which I was planning to give you on Wednesday, like always.”
“I can’t wait that long. I got a financial emergency that I might need to take care of before then,” I explained.
Odell gazed into my eyes as he squinted. “Milton, if you want this thing to keep going, you got to work with me. Every time you need extra money, I have to make a bunch of adjustments.”
“Pffft! Like what? I heard about all them free goodies you let Yvonne’s kids take today. That don’t sound like you had to make ‘a bunch of adjustments’ to me. And with that big raise you just got, you can’t use that excuse no more. We all heard Joyce admit that y’all don’t need the extra money.”
“Milton, merchandise and money is two different things. It didn’t cost me a dime to let them kids take a few play-pretties. And my raise won’t kick in until next month. If you don’t mind telling me, what is your financial emergency?”
I glanced toward the door to make sure nobody was peeping or eavesdropping. “Now, don’t get mad, but it’s really two financial emergencies.”
CHAPTER 28
MILTON
“WHAT IS THEM EMERGENCIES?” ODELL WANTED TO KNOW, glaring at me like some kind of wild animal.
That didn’t even faze me, because a man that was a possible sissy was probably not the violent type. I knew I was putting the screws to him real tight, but I didn’t have no choice. If he hadn’t been so uppity in the first place, I probably would have been easier on him. He was lucky I still wanted to be friends with him. Otherwise, I would have picked him clean to the bone by now.
I moved closer and even wrapped my arm around his shoulder. “One is it ain’t fitting for a bootlegger on my level not to have a few extra bucks to fall back on. The other one is I had a little card game trouble this evening.”
“Humph! I figured gambling was involved. For you to have such limited income, I can’t believe you continue to get in them games when you almost always lose.”
“Ta-da! I didn’t lose this time,” I gloated, twirling my finger in the air. “I was on fire this evening, and I skunked everybody.”
Odell reared back on his legs and let out a snarky grunt. “That’s something I never expected to hear from you. Where at?”
“Cap Griffin’s house. Me and him and some of his regulars. The cards I insisted we play with was marked. Dummied them up myself. I put a itty-bitty dot with black ink on half the cards in the deck.”
“You cheated?”
I nodded.
“Why you telling me?”
“Well, I didn’t think it would hurt for me to let you know how far I’m willing to go when I need money,” I explained.
“Humph! I already figured that out on my own! Did you get caught?”
“Well, Cap accused me of cheating. But I wouldn’t admit it, and I took off before he could check my cards.”
“Lord have mercy, Milton. Cap is one of the nicest men I know. When I was down on my luck before I met Joyce, he let me sleep on his couch, eat his food, and he didn’t ask for nothing in return. He is the last person you should be taking advantage of. If you needed money bad enough to cheat, I bet he would have gave it to you and not asked you to pay it back.”
“I don’t know about that. He was pretty pissed off when I wouldn’t let him check my cards. If I hadn’t ran out the door when he started getting aggressive, he might have beat my brains out. I guess my guardian angel was looking out for me.”
Odell got this glazed-over look on his face. For about five seconds, he just stared at me, shaking his head. “W-well, if you won, what did you do with that money?”
“I still got it. But to keep the peace, I might give it back.”
“What in the hell is wrong with you, man? You know gamblers ain’t nobody to mess with. You could get killed!”
“Pffft! I know all that. It’s just that when money is involved, I get so slaphappy, I make bad decisions. But if I give the money back, I won’t have to worry about Cap and his friends.”
“Give the money back.” Odell blinked and ran his fingers through his hair. Then he pressed his lips together and shook his head some more. “I think I get the picture now. If you give that money back, you’ll be broke again. That’s why you dragged me out here, right?”
“Right. Not only that, but something tells me them suckers might take not only the money I skunked from them, but also the money I went out there with.”
I could see that Odell was exasperated, but it wasn’t my fault he was so sensitive. “Today is Monday. You’ll have them eight dollars I owe you on Wednesday.”
“True. But I still need to have a few dollars to fall back on for the time being. Especially if I have to give them assholes their money back before Wednesday.”
“Milton, if you don’t straighten up and fly right, you might end up in a world of trouble. I heard about you and Willie Frank taking Oscar’s equipment.”
I gulped. “Who told you that lie?”
“Oscar came in the store just before I closed up this evening and told me hisself. He was mad as hell.”
“Me and Willie Frank ain’t stole nothing! Honest to God!”
“Then tell me this. Where did y’all get the stuff y’all sold to Oscar’s brother-in-law?”
“Huh? Oh! Um, we bought it off Amos, one of Oscar’s field hands.”
“Amos stole it?”
“I guess he did. All I know is, Oscar told me and Willie Frank about the stuff he had, and he admitted that he had told Amos and his other field hand, too. He got some nerve accusing me of stealing!”
“You better straighten out this mess, and be quick about it. Oscar got three shotguns in his house, and he ain’t scared to use one.”
I gave Odell a thoughtful look. At the same time, I was thinking about Oscar’s shotguns. “When you see him, tell him what I said about Amos.”
He shook his head. “Man, that cock-and-bull story ain’t going to fly. Amos’s mama checked him into the hospital for foot surgery the day before Oscar’s property went missing. He had some complications and just got released today. She told me that herself this afternoon, when she came to the store to get more bandages for him.”
I had to swallow hard to loosen up the lump that suddenly got stuck in my throat. “All right. I’ll come clean. Um . . . I don’t like to tattle on my friends, but Willie Frank stole it. I was just along for the ride.”
“It don’t matter which one of y’all stole it. You and him in it together. You done already riled up them gamblers, and people been talking about how some of them other bootleggers and jook-joint owners got axes to grind with you and Yvonne for taking some of their long-
standing customers.”
“Hmmm. I was only going to ask you for money so I could get Cap and them other gamblers off my back. But now I might as well get enough to calm Oscar down.”
“You done spent the money you got for selling the stuff you stole from him?”
“The stuff Willie Frank stole.”
“Whatever you say, Milton. If that’s the case, I’m sure Willie Frank gave you part of that money.”
“Uh-huh. But since my name is already in the boiling pot, I might get beat down whether I give the money back or not. So, I think I should keep it. Besides, Oscar can’t prove nothing.”
“Didn’t you just admit that Willie Frank stole it and that you was with him? Milton, you ain’t got a leg to stand on. Don’t you know that?”
I sighed in exasperation. “You know something, buddy? You could be right.” I sighed again and massaged my temples. “Oh well. I guess I’ll send Willie Frank to visit Oscar and give him the money we got from Eugene. But I got a good mind to keep what I won at Cap’s place for all the aggravation it done caused me. Shoot!”
“If you plan on doing that, why do you need extra money from me now?”
“I disappointed Yvonne today by not coming home in time to help entertain her kids. I want to make it up to her by buying her some new glad rags.”
“That’s fine. We got some nice new stuff in stock. You can pick out something for her and not worry about charging it to your account. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll keep the few dollars I got on me, and I’m going to go finish my drink. Then I’m getting the hell up out of here. I knew I shouldn’t have let Joyce drag me over here tonight!”
Odell turned to leave, but I grabbed his arm. “You ain’t going no place until you give me some money.”
“Milton, I see now I can’t reason with you.” He cussed under his breath and reached in his pocket and pulled out his wallet. There was a wad of bills in that damn thing big enough to choke a mule. “How much?” he barked.
I didn’t even answer. I grabbed his wallet and reached in and took it all. And then I told him, “I’ll see you on Wednesday for my regular pay.”
“You finished with me? Is there anything else you got to say before I go back to the living room?”
“Since you asked, I got just one more thing to conversate about.” I pursed my lips and looked at him with my eyes narrowed. That made him more uncomfortable than he already was, and he let me know that by tapping his foot and rolling his eyes. “How is Betty Jean doing these days? With that juicy butt she got behind her, I bet frolicking in bed with her is like riding on the back of a horse.” I had to stop talking long enough to laugh. Odell’s face looked like it had turned to stone. I stopped laughing, and in a serious tone I asked, “And what about the boys? I hope them cute little cherubs is doing all right, too.”
His reaction made me shudder. He gave me the evil eye and shook his head so hard, he caused a light breeze. “Don’t worry about my boys! They doing just fine,” he snarled. “What do you care?”
“I just wanted to make sure you was being a real man and is taking good care of them. It’s a shame you can’t bring your boys to Branson and let them run loose in the store, the way you let Yvonne’s kids do today. It must be real hard on you keeping them cut off from the world.”
CHAPTER 29
YVONNE
“MILTON, WHAT WAS YOU AND ODELL TALKING ABOUT OUT on the back porch?” I asked. It was a few minutes past midnight. Everybody had left, and we was cleaning up.
“Huh?” he asked, almost dropping ajar. “Was you roaming around this house, spying on me?” Milton had been guzzling some of Willie Frank’s strongest brew all night. He was so drunk now, he could barely stand up straight. I’d had only one and a half drinks, so I was still fairly sober.
I stopped sweeping and let the broom fall to the floor. “This is my house, too. I can roam around in it as much as I want to. I just happened to go in the kitchen to get a glass of water, and I heard y’all talking out on the porch.”
“Oh? If you heard us, why you asking me what we was talking about?”
“With all the noise coming from the rest of the house, I couldn’t make out nothing y’all was saying.”
“Well, I just wanted to get Odell alone so I could thank him for being so nice to you and the kids today.”
Just him mentioning my children made my eyes water. “Joyce practically promised that when and if she ever learn to drive, she’ll drive me over to Mobile to visit them. I’m going to tell her tomorrow that I can do the driving, if Odell don’t mind.”
“Humph. You know how possessive Prince Charming is when it come to his car.”
“I might ask him, anyway.”
Milton gave me a dry look. “Go ahead, then. He might be generous about letting folks take stuff from the store and lending money, but I don’t think he’ll be generous enough to let you, me, or nobody else drive that damn car. So, I wouldn’t count on that if I was you.”
“If you was more responsible, you’d stop gambling so much and start putting money aside so we can get a car! Why can’t you be more like Odell?”
Milton flinched, and his face scrunched up like I had slapped him. I assumed that to some men, being compared to one that had so much more going for him was a slap in the face. But I did wish Milton was more like Odell. “That did it!” He kicked over the coffee table, and jars and ashtrays went flying every which way. With his eyes bugged out and his lips turned down like a horseshoe, he swayed from side to side and then crumbled to the floor like a stale tea cake.
“Get your black ass up off that floor and talk to me!” I demanded, pulling him up by his arm.
As soon as he was on his feet, he belched and farted loud enough for everybody on our block to hear. He dropped to the floor again, with me on top of him. “Arghhh!” he howled as we teetered back up on our feet. I was still holding his arm, and he was still wobbling. Next thing I knew, he pinched my hand so hard, I didn’t have no choice but to turn him loose. And I moved back a few steps. He stiffened, stood ramrod straight, and folded his arms.
“I done had enough of your sweet talk about Odell—in my face and in my own house at that! Ain’t it bad enough we have to listen to Joyce spew that same shit?” Milton did a good imitation of Joyce. He bucked his eyes out, licked his lips, and chanted, “Odell this, Odell that. I’m so lucky I got me such a sweet man for a husband! Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus!” Then his voice got downright mean. “If me and Odell emptied our bladders in different buckets ain’t a woman in the world would be able to tell his pee from mine. And another thing, I bet a dollar to a doughnut you wouldn’t be nowhere near as happy as you is now if I was more like Odell!”
That last comment threw me for a loop. “How do you know I wouldn’t?”
“Because . . . because Odell ain’t what you think he is.”
“Pffft! I know he’s snooty and probably two-faced. But who ain’t? Me and you bad-mouth him and Joyce as much as they probably do us. So what?”
“You ain’t listening.” Milton’s grouchy tone annoyed me. “You don’t know the Odell I know. I been wanting to tell you the truth about him for a long time. What I know about him is so hot, it would put blisters on your ears. But . . . um . . . I swore to him I wouldn’t snitch.”
I walked up to him and looked straight in his eyes. “What do you mean by that? What do you know about Odell to snitch?”
He held up his hands. His lips was moving, but no words was coming out. Then he put his hands down and mumbled in a baby-like voice, “Nothing.”
“Nothing, my ass! You ain’t getting off that easy. You going to tell me what you getting at!”
“I ain’t getting at nothing,” he insisted, dismissing me with a wave. “I’m drunk and . . . and I’m talking out of my head! I’m fixing to go to bed. I’ll finish cleaning up tomorrow—”
I stomped my foot and shook my fist in his face, which was so twisted up by now, it looked like he had put on a mask. “Oh hell no!
You ain’t leaving this room until you tell me ‘the truth’ about Odell!”
He kept quiet and just blinked.
“Milton, you scaring me. I can’t imagine what it is about Odell that has got you acting like a fool. What is it?” I gave him a few seconds to answer, but all he done was blink some more. “Look, if you don’t tell me right here and now, I’ll go up to him tomorrow and ask him what you swore you wouldn’t snitch about him!”
“Please don’t do that! It would ruin everything!” he yelled, wringing his hands.
“It’s up to you. Now, shit or get off the toilet!”
Milton was not the crying type, even in the worst situations. Six months ago, a thief broke into our old house while we was visiting Willie Frank. That sucker stole a ham, a clock I had just bought, and a jug of white lightning. None of them items mattered much. But he—or she—also took a medal that Milton’s grandfather on his mama’s side had got when he was a soldier for the Yankees during the war between the North and South. It had been in his family since then, passed from one generation to the next. Aside from me, that medal had always been Milton’s most cherished possession. I cried like a baby, but he didn’t shed a single tear. He was the only person I knew that could peel a dozen onions in one setting and not get teary eyed. He told me that he’d cried so much when he lost his mama and daddy, his body had mysteriously programmed itself so that the death of somebody he cared about was the only thing that could make him cry now.
But he must have thought I was going to kill him, because he looked like he was about to bust out crying now. He didn’t, though. I held my breath and moved a few steps away from him.
“All right,” he whimpered, wringing his hands some more. “I’ll tell you.”
“And you better not leave nothing out, or you’ll be sorry,” I warned. I didn’t care what I had to do. I wasn’t letting Milton leave the room until he told me what I needed to know.
