by Mary Monroe
“I guess I did. Y’all look . . . uh . . . interesting.” He scratched the side of his head and beckoned us into the house.
A few seconds later, Joyce came into the room, wearing black pumps and a flouncy yellow dress with black dots and ruffles at the end of the sleeves. There was a great big yellow and black bow fastened to the side of her head. She looked like a giant bumblebee. I guessed she didn’t realize Halloween wasn’t until Tuesday, either. She stopped smack-dab in front of me and stared at my blouse. Without saying a word, she whirled around and dashed toward her bedroom. She came back about a minute later with a black knitted shawl and waved it in my face.
“It’s going to get mighty warm today. Yvonne don’t need no cover-up,” Milton said with a confused look on his face.
“Um, that blouse she got on is cut a little too low. Those old setting hens at church might get offended, and we don’t want y’all to embarrass us,” Joyce explained. She wrapped the shawl around my shoulders and then had the nerve to clamp it shut with one of her fancy ivory brooches! I had hoped that I’d get through the day without her saying or doing something I didn’t like. I was sorry I had got us in this mess.
The church was only a little over a mile away, but Odell drove so fast, we got there in less than a minute. It didn’t do no good for me to hide my bosom. The moment I stepped inside, them women looked at me like they wanted to stone me. There was no room on the back pews, so me and Milton had to go up front and sit on the first one with Joyce and Odell. If sitting that close to them wasn’t bad enough, Joyce’s elderly parents occupied the same pew. They gazed at me and Milton like they was seeing us for the first time.
“Evening, Brother Mac, Sister Millie,” Milton greeted with a big smile. “Me and Yvonne sure is happy to be here today.”
“Sure enough,” I agreed.
“It’s nice to see y’all again,” Mac muttered, glancing from me to Milton and back. “I never would have guessed it’d be in a church, though,” he added in a snippy tone, with a guarded look on his beefy brown face.
Like Joyce, her parents wasn’t nothing much to look at. Mac and Millie was both overweight, had blunt features, and was covered in liver spots. He was real tall and sturdy for a man his age. But he walked with two canes. His wife was just as wide at the top as she was at the bottom. They was big shots in Branson and sweet as sugarcane in public, but I had a feeling them old goats was just as la-di-da as Joyce and Odell. They lived on our street, only a few blocks from us, but had never set foot in our house—even though we had invited them more than once. And they had never invited us to visit them. Since I knew how holy they was and how they felt about bootleggers, them being so standoffish didn’t bother me at all. But whenever we bumped into Joyce’s parents on the street, or if they happened to be in the store when we was there, they always treated us with respect.
“Daddy, be nice,” Joyce advised, giving the old man a stern look.
Like that cranky whorehouse-running Aunt Mattie, Mac and Millie had also been born into slavery. They’d done well since Lincoln set the slaves free. They liked to gloat about how successful MacPherson’s was, so every colored person in town knew they had money. I wondered how long it would take Odell to feather his nest when his in-laws died and left everything to Joyce. As big a trickster as he was, he would probably sell the store behind her back. If he done that, he wouldn’t need her no more. He’d be in hog heaven then, because he could be with the Betty Jean woman all the time.
“Odell, I wouldn’t miss your speech for the world,” Milton said with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. “I can’t wait to hear what advice you got to share with the rest of us menfolk about having a good marriage.”
I had to hold my breath to keep from laughing.
“I hate to disappoint you, but I decided not to make no speech. I didn’t know so many folks would turn out. I’m shy, so I get nervous and tongue tied speaking in front of big crowds. And I ain’t about to embarrass Joyce and my in-laws,” Odell prattled. He was about as shy as a rabid dog.
“That’s a shame, son. We understand, though,” Millie told him, patting his arm. Then she turned to Milton. “Y’all must be doing real good for you to afford that snazzy suit.”
“Yes, ma’am. I got this one at your store.” Milton cleared his throat and looked at Odell again. “I’m going to get me a few more, and a lot of other stuff from y’all.”
“Good. I’m happy to hear that you giving us your money, and not that place on Pike Street run by white folks that don’t give their colored customers no respect. Putting Odell in charge was the smartest move I ever made—since I married Miss Millie. He done turned our business into a bonanza I never expected.” Mac was beaming like a flashlight as he clapped Odell on the back. “Boy, thank you for being such a flawless businessman, and a heavenly son-in-law.”
“I appreciate hearing that, Mac. I work hard at both. But I couldn’t do it without God’s help,” Odell said.
I couldn’t believe my own ears! It was hard to listen to a devil like him say something so noble with a straight face. Milton must have felt the same way, because he looked like he wanted to puke. This time, the level of ecstasy on Joyce’s face was as high as it could go. Me, I was straight-up amused—and angry! Odell’s deceit was so out of control, I couldn’t go too much longer without taking him down.
For the next half hour, emotional people paraded up to the podium and praised Reverend Jessup; some even cried. Then the sorry-sounding choir sang three hymns in a row. After that, we had to listen to the preacher talk for an hour. When the collection plate came around, it got to me and Milton first. I tried to act like I didn’t notice the horrified looks on Odell’s and Joyce’s faces, and her parents’, when we dropped in a nickel apiece. They each put in a whole dollar! When the service was finally over, we seen that collection plate coming around again. Well, we wasn’t about to make another donation to a church we didn’t even belong to. We stood up and started inching toward the door. A few people stopped us along the way to shake our hands and hug us.
Joyce and Odell was roaming around, shaking hands and hugging folks, too. They finally rejoined us a few steps from the door.
“I hope y’all enjoy your lunch at Mosella’s,” I told them.
“We will. Pig ears is the lunch special on Saturdays, so I wish we could have gone yesterday,” Joyce whined. “But since Odell spends most of his Saturdays with his daddy, it’s been months since we got to enjoy that dish. No matter how I season mine when I cook them, they never turn out the way I want.”
“Well, y’all ain’t tasted no scrumptious pig ears until you taste Yvonne’s,” Milton boasted.
“I cook mine with a pinch of vinegar, gingerroot, and cayenne pepper,” I said. “Then I drop them into a pot of collard greens and let them simmer for a while. That’s what I’m cooking for supper tomorrow. Why don’t y’all join us?”
“Ooh-wee! We would love to.” Joyce grinned and elbowed Odell. “Right, baby?”
“Um, right. I love pig ears,” he replied in a dry tone.
“Then we’ll see y’all around six tomorrow evening,” I said.
The next thing I knew, Odell said something that made my head spin.
“Yvonne, several ladies made some unflattering comments about your blouse.” His tone was gentle, but he was giving me a peeved look. “I hope the next time you come to church with us, you dress more respectable, like Joyce.”
I couldn’t believe this motherfucker could say something like that to me after I’d just invited his cheesy black ass to supper! I shouldn’t have been surprised. No matter how neighborly me and Milton was to them, they still treated us like country bumpkins that didn’t have no feelings.
Odell went on. “Why don’t you come to the store and let me help you pick out some decent blouses? I want to make sure you don’t come back to my church and embarrass me and my family like you done today.”
Joyce didn’t waste no time putting in her two cents. “I guess t
hat shawl I wrapped around you didn’t help much. You can keep it, though. It still might do you some good someday.”
“Thanks, Joyce,” I muttered. “I’ll put it to good use.” I wondered what she would say if I told her I was going to use it to hand scrub my floors. “Odell, can I come pick out something tomorrow, when I go on my lunch break? I’ll ask Mr. Cunningham if I can use his truck to come into town.” My head was still spinning so bad, I could barely stand it. Before Odell could answer, I turned to Milton. “Baby, you don’t mind having lunch tomorrow without me, do you?”
“Naw,” he grunted. “I’d like to see you in some better glad rags myself.”
“Odell, I’ll be there anytime after twelve,” I chirped. “I hope you have some acceptable blouses I can choose from.”
“Every blouse I got in stock is more acceptable than the one you got on now,” he declared, gawking at my blouse like it was a fig leaf. “A married woman like you don’t need to go around dressing like a floozy.”
“Okay,” I mumbled.
His last comment was the straw that broke the camel’s back! If I went one more day without letting him know that I knew what a fraud he was, I’d go crazy.
CHAPTER 37
MILTON
BEFORE I COULD GET MY BEARINGS BACK AFTER JOYCE’S AND Odell’s crude comments about Yvonne’s blouse, that long-winded, mulish Reverend Jessup started walking toward us.
Joyce gasped and took hold of Odell’s arm. “Oh-oh. If we don’t escape now, he’ll hem us up until the afternoon service, and we’ll miss our reservation at Mosella’s,” she mumbled. She and Odell didn’t wait long enough for us to say nothing. They eased toward the back door and bolted. The preacher was too close for us to make our getaway without looking too obvious.
“Well, now, Brother Milton and Sister Yvonne! It’s good to see y’all today! I must say I’m as surprised as everybody else must be!” Reverend Jessup boomed in his deep, throaty voice. I didn’t care how holy he was or claimed to be, I seen his eyes roaming all over Yvonne, focusing mainly on her bosom.
“We glad to be here for your anniversary celebration,” she replied, pulling the shawl tighter around her shoulders.
“I declare, Reverend Jessup, you preached a foot-stomping sermon!” I whooped. “I don’t remember the last time I seen so many sisters jump up and shout right out of their shoes.”
Instead of thanking me and being humble, Reverend Jessup scratched the side of his long face and damn near growled, “Humph! Y’all ain’t heard nothing yet. With so many high-ranking backsliders on the premises this morning, I could smell the brimstone as soon as I took to the podium. I’ll have to preach up a storm this afternoon to get the dust and cobwebs off some of these souls up in here today.” His eyes darted from me to Yvonne and back, so it was obvious he thought of us as “high-ranking backsliders.”
“Um, we won’t be able to stay for that. We made plans to attend the afternoon service at our own church. Right, Milton?” Yvonne snuck a jab to my side with her elbow.
“That’s right! And since we have to take the bus, if we don’t leave soon, we’ll be late,” I blurted out. “But we sure enjoyed being here today!”
“Well, everybody is welcome to come worship at my church, even bootleggers.” Reverend Jessup stopped talking and stood up straighter, running his crooked fingers though his thin gray hair. “In spite of the fiery road y’all stumbling down, we belong to the same flock. So, I’m going to pray for y’all . . .”
I had to force myself to keep a straight face. “That’s nice. We’ll pray for you, too.” I cleared my throat and grinned.
The way Reverend Jessup was gazing at us, shaking his head, and muttering under his breath, you would have thought we was buck naked. After a loud snort, he went on. “A bootlegging environment is akin to Babylon. Selling alcohol without authorization is a dirty business and could lead to destruction and more profound crimes. If you ask me, I’d say y’all been in the storm too long. Now, I know plenty of farmers in this county and several others. I’m sure that if I went up to them on y’all’s behalf, they’d be happy to have y’all come work for them.”
“No offense, Reverend, but the last place we want to work again is on somebody’s farm. I done picked enough cotton to make glad rags for a whole army. When I worked in the cane fields, swinging them machetes, I came close to losing fingers more times than I can count. Thank you, anyway, though. Now, you have a blessed rest of the day,” I said.
We laughed off and on about our church experience all the way to the bus stop.
Sunday night was slow. Only a dozen guests showed up. But since Lyla and Emmalou was among them, we made pretty good money. I was happy when the day ended, though. We slept like babies and didn’t wake up until 8:00 a.m. Monday morning.
* * *
I was glad Yvonne didn’t ask me to go to MacPherson’s with her today on our lunch break. She was just going to pick out some blouses and didn’t need my help no how. But I had to give her a little piece of advice on the subject, anyway.
“Don’t let Odell give you none of them drab blouses, like the ones his dowdy wife be wearing.”
“Pffft! Milton, you know better. I wouldn’t be found dead in nothing like any of them mammy-made pieces Joyce wear.”
We laughed.
A few minutes after Yvonne left, I used the telephone in Mr. Cunningham’s office and called up Willie Frank.
“What’s up?” he asked when he picked up on the second ring.
“Same old, same old. I just called to conversate for a few minutes. See, I got a itching to try my hand at poker again.”
“You got to be kidding,” he said with a chuckle.
“What you mean by that? I been gambling since I was fourteen. I ain’t about to quit now.”
“I didn’t mean you should quit. But don’t you think you need to lay low a little longer? You done riled up a lot of folks. And from the talk over at Aunt Mattie’s, what folks been saying ain’t in your favor.”
“Such as?”
“The word is, Oscar still got a bug up his ass about his property that got stole. He is convinced that you was the ringleader. He’s telling folks he ain’t going to stand for a colored man making a monkey out of him, and he is going to learn you a lesson you won’t never forget.”
“You tell whoever told you that, that I said for them to tell Oscar I done already learned my lesson. He ain’t got to worry about me no more. When you deliver his next order, I won’t go.”
“I doubt if he’ll order anything else from me. Yesterday one of the Dawson brothers gloated that Oscar just set up a deal to buy his liquor from them.”
“Pffft! The Dawson brothers make some of the weakest shine in the county. I heard they can barely pay off them revenuers and the laws so they won’t pester them with arrest warrants. I don’t think they’ll be in business much longer,” I pointed out.
“I heard the same thing, so I ain’t worried about them slowing down my business. When that crybaby Oscar gets tired of the Dawsons’ weak stuff, or when they get shut down, I’m sure he’ll come crawling back to me. I added two new white bootleggers to my roster this week. They’ll make up for Oscar, and then some.”
“Hmmm. That’s good news, Willie Frank. Anyway, I ain’t going to let Oscar or Cap get me down no more. I’ll find me some new poker buddies. Four of them train-station workers came in for breakfast today. They play at different places once or twice a week. I’ll join them. And I can always get a game going at my own house.”
“I just hope Cap ain’t already spreaded word around that you cheat. I’d hate for you to have to go all the way to another town where nobody knows you when you want to gamble.”
“I doubt if it’ll come to that. I’ll see you at the house tonight?”
“Yup. I’ll be there around nine, after I swing by Aunt Mattie’s to go at it with Sweet Sue again. But please watch your step, buddy.”
I couldn’t understand why Willie Frank was so worried about me
. He was beginning to sound like Yvonne. I wasn’t about to slow down my gambling, and I was not about to go out of town when I wanted to gamble again. I was going to join them railroad workers tonight.
CHAPTER 38
YVONNE
MR. CUNNINGHAM DIDN’T HESITATE WHEN I ASKED HIM TO LET me borrow his truck so I could go into town.
“Don’t run over nobody, and look out for them possums, deers, and squirrels jumping out the bushes. I just got new tires, and I don’t want no blood and guts on them,” he told me, peering at me over his silver-rimmed glasses.
“You ain’t got to worry about none of that. I been driving for years, and I ain’t never hit nothing yet.”
I took my time driving down the bumpy dirt road and still ran over a snake. “Shit!” I stopped and got out, was glad to see there wasn’t enough blood and guts for Mr. Cunningham to notice. I was a little shook up and had to sit in the truck for a few minutes and pull myself together. I drove even slower after that, so it took almost twice as long to get into town as it usually did.
When I got to the store, there was no other customers there. On one hand, I was glad. It had been a while since I’d conversated with Odell’s two busybody cashiers. I wanted to keep them happy so that the next time I came to swipe a few items, they wouldn’t pay too much attention to me. But I was also disappointed that I’d have to waste good gossip and part of my lunch break on them. I had already wasted time because of that damn snake incident.
I stopped between the two checkout counters and showed off my biggest smile. “How y’all doing? Buddy, you look like a film star in that flowered shirt. Sadie, you look younger and younger each day.” I stopped talking just long enough for them to grin and preen. Buddy stood up straighter and ran his fingers through his hair; Sadie licked her lips and brushed off her smock. I didn’t give them time to say nothing. I wanted to stay in control of the conversation, so I could end it when I wanted to. “Did y’all hear about Reverend Hayes fooling around with one of his wife’s best friends?”
