by Mary Monroe
“You didn’t know about that?!” Fast Black whispered to Virgil, loud enough for the woman sitting next to her to hear.
“Shhhhh!” the woman said. “Girl, you in the Lord’s house. And stop talkin about Mama Ruby before she come down here and snatch a knot in you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Fast Black muttered.
“Psst!” Virgil got Fast Black’s attention.
“What?” she mouthed.
He leaned over and whispered in her ear. “Take my word for it, you better not go blabbin about what I just told you what Mama Ruby done tonight. You do, you’ll never smile again, lest you smilin at her. You go to puttin bugs in folks’ ear about what happened tonight the law might come down on my mama.”
“Virgil, if I live to be a hundred, I ain’t goin to never put the word out on Mama Ruby. She told me to my face I better not tell nobody about that man what she snatched the tongue from. . . . I ain’t told nobody yet.”
19
The dusty police car driving along Duquennes Road slowed down as it approached Ruby and Maureen walking toward their hill. When Ruby and Maureen went out walking, which they did daily, they rarely walked side by side. Instead Ruby usually walked several feet in front of Maureen and a few feet off to the side.
Ten minutes away from Ruby’s house were four migrant camps, each containing two-room houses lined up like gray children’s blocks. Most of Ruby’s friends lived on the camps. Ruby and Maureen were just returning from a visit with Roscoe Mattox, Ruby’s fiance, who lived on one of the camps.
“I been meanin to come to the house and set with you, Ruby,” Roscoe had said, walking them part of the way down Duquennes Road.
Ruby turned to face Roscoe, looking him up and down. He was a tall, stout man with bright green eyes and light brown skin. His thin gray hair was always combed back and plastered to his neck with a heavy pomade.
“I want you to come by the house to see Cousin Hattie before she leave,” Ruby replied in a deep voice.
“I’ll be there,” Roscoe promised, stopping. The hot sun temporarily blinded him as he stood and watched Ruby and Maureen continue their walk. Maureen leaned down, lifted a rock, and threw it at Roscoe, missing his head by inches.
“Them rocks goin to get you in a heap of trouble, Mo’reen!” Roscoe scolded, laughing.
Roscoe turned and started back to the camp and Ruby and Maureen watched until he was out of sight. Ruby became annoyed when she recognized Big Red’s police car pulling up. The car stopped and Ruby folded her arms as she faced Big Red. He rolled the window down on the passenger’s side and leaned toward it.
“Evenin, Mama Ruby,” he said.
“Evenin,” Ruby grunted. “Who done raped a white woman?”
“Nobody I know of,” Big Red chuckled.
“Then why is you out here? I didn’t call for you.”
Maureen stood next to Ruby, kicking one of the car’s front tires with her bare toe.
“I’m kind of huntin some nigger what was last seen at Zeus’ house. Ain’t nobody seen him since the fish fry. We got him down as a missin person. Loomis, who brought that nigger out to Goons, suspect he met with foul play. Know what I mean? . . .” Big Red said, looking up into Ruby’s dilated eyes. “Um . . . what’s wrong with your eyes, darlin?”
“The sun gettin to em, I guess.” Ruby’s voice was hoarse and deep.
“About this missin nigger . . . you ain’t seen him, is you, Mama Ruby?”
“Naw.” Ruby shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.
“Think hard now, Mama Ruby. Maybe you seen him and forgot. Think hard now, darlin. Is you seen this here missin spook?”
“You thinkin he might be in my back pocket or somethin?” Ruby asked, with her eyebrow raised.
“Naw.”
“Then why you axin me about him? I ain’t seen nothin.”
“You ain’t seen nothin? Well that takes care of that,” Big Red grinned, slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand. “See . . . this missin nigger . . . he was a one-armed man. Fact is, he the same one you locked horns with in Yocko’s some years back. Snatched his arm clean off, I hear.”
“Ooooh . . . that man. A pitch-black nigger with a bad attitude? Lopsided head? Buck teeth?”
“That sho nuff sound like that nigger.”
“Naw. I ain’t seen him,” Ruby repeated.
Big Red looked in Ruby’s eyes and sighed with exasperation.
“Look-a-here. I’m on your side, darlin. You and me thick as thieves. In the first place, I ain’t goin to let nobody come down here and haul you off to jail, Mama Ruby.”
“Whatever gave you the notion I needed protectin?”
“What I meant was—”
“Since when was it up to you to keep them laws off my tail?”
“Mama Ruby, I didn’t come out here to argue with you. I’m just doin my job.”
“Then how come you ain’t doin your job? How come you out here axin me about a dead man?”
“Whoa there! I ain’t said nothin about no dead man!”
“I’m lookin at one,” Ruby threatened.
Big Red gasped and covered his mouth with his hand.
“Mama Ruby, me and you been cut buddies since you come here. We ain’t never had a cross word between us. But I’m a sho-nuff lawman. Folks expect me to keep some kind of order among yall. You know how yall colored folks is. Fightin and cuttin up one another all the time. We got to keep yall in line. Them jealous up North agitators just waitin for us to cause a commotion down here, so they can have somethin to politic about. We all Christians down here, that’s the trouble. Them up North folks done been took over by Jews and communists. Now they itchin to come down here and mess with us. When the war break out between us Christians and the rest of em, me and you’ll be on the same side. Now you take somebody like that Loomis—or No Talk—folks will be shootin at them from both sides, they so ornery.”
“You through?” Ruby asked, impatient.
“Ma’am?”
“I axed if you was through?”
“Yeah. By the by, I got to report somethin about this here missin man. Can you tell me anything at all?”
“I ain’t seen no one-armed man. Now if you’ll excuse me.” Ruby took Maureen by the hand and resumed her walk down the hill.
The police car turned around in the middle of the road and slowly left.
“Mama Ruby, you think Big Red got my pig?” Maureen asked, turning to watch the car. Le Pig had not been seen since the night Ruby attacked Mack in the front yard.
“I doubt it, angel. Old goats and pigs don’t mix. Come on now, sugar. Let’s get on back to the house so we can help Cousin Hattie get packed.” Ruby lifted Maureen up in her arm and descended the hill, running wildly, her other arm flapping like a wing.
Virgil sat on the front porch shelling peanuts. He ignored Maureen and Ruby as they stepped on the porch.
“Cousin Hattie!” Ruby called, leaving Maureen on the porch with Virgil as she went inside the house. Seconds later Maureen went inside, following Ruby to Virgil’s bedroom where Hattie was quietly packing her clothes.
“Yall back already? You find Le Pig?” Hattie asked. She had occupied Virgil’s room during her visit. Ruby had made Virgil sleep on a pallet on the kitchen floor.
“We just had a nice little walk in the woods and a nice visit with my fiance,” Ruby smiled.
“And we didn’t find my pig!” Maureen pouted as she climbed up on the bed next to Hattie’s opened suitcase. As if on cue, Virgil entered the room with a can of beer. He handed it to Ruby and left without a word.
“I’m sho nuff goin to miss yall. I had me such a good time,” Hattie said sadly. She gazed at Maureen, then turned to Ruby standing in the middle of the floor drinking from her can of beer.
Ruby cocked her head to the side and smiled. “I sho nuff wish you would consider movin to Florida. I tell you, it’s the land of opportunity. Me, I been in hog heaven since I come to Florida.”
“I k
now. I just can’t up and leave Louisiana though. I’m too use to that Creole atmosphere. Least you was a young girl when you left, Cousin Ruby. A old woman like me, I ain’t got no business leavin my hometown!” Hattie declared.
Ruby laughed and shook her head, then turned the can upside down to finish her beer.
“Cousin Hattie, ain’t you goin to stay and help us find my pig?” Maureen inquired, looking at Hattie with tears in her eyes.
“I wish I could, angel. But you see, your cousin got to get on back to Baton Rouge. Somebody liable to rob my house and set it afire. Them niggers is so jealous of me back there,” Hattie lamented.
“Better you than me,” Ruby growled.
“I declare, Cousin Ruby. You ain’t never been one to take no mess. Me, I believe in a eye for a eye and all, but you do everything so final. Buryin devils right and left.” Hattie looked at Ruby for a full minute.
Virgil entered the room again and stood quietly in the doorway with his hands in his pants pockets as he listened to Ruby.
“Papa say I been had a mean streak since I was a baby. Say I used to bite plugs out my crib mattress just to be spiteful. I come by my meanness natural. Yeah. We all got mean blood but I’m the one it come out the meanest in. Papa say his papa told him and his papa told him that his mama told him our folks come from one of the most warlike tribes in Africa. Say durin slavery couldn’t nobody do nothin with us. Shoot. I ain’t scared of nothin,” Ruby announced. “Not a snake!”
“Amen!” Hattie shouted.
“Not a gun!” Ruby added.
“Amen!” Hattie repeated.
Virgil and Maureen looked at one another and held back their laughter. Maureen ran to stand next to Virgil.
“Not a peckerwood! Not a wild bull! Not a hurricane! And not the devil!” Ruby shouted, stomping her foot.
“Glory be,” Hattie sighed. “Awesome. That’s what you is, Cousin Ruby. Sho nuff awesome.”
“Sho nuff,” Ruby agreed.
“Mama Ruby don’t take nothin off nobody”, Virgil interjected.
Ruby looked at Virgil, then back to Hattie.
“The boy’s right.” Ruby nodded.
“Mama Ruby, will you kill whoever stole my pig?” Maureen asked.
“Probably so.” Ruby shrugged.
“I’m convinced some cheapskate snatched this girl’s piggie, Mama Ruby. With Memorial Day comin up and all. Everybody’ll be barbecuing pork. A pig-nappin sounds a likely thing,” Virgil insisted.
“Somebody goin to eat up my piggie?” Maureen sobbed.
“Don’t cry, darlin. I’ll make Virgil find you a better pig,” Ruby soothed, walking to Maureen.
“I don’t want no better pig—I want my old one!” Maureen wailed.
Ruby picked Maureen up and carried her to the bed and sat her down.
“That poor little angel,” Hattie commented, looking at Maureen and shaking her head. “I ain’t never seen no child so devoted to a pig.”
When Slim arrived with his truck to take Hattie back to the bus station, the first thing he asked Ruby was, “What you ladies been up to? Ain’t heard from yall in a week.”
“We ain’t been up to nothin,” Ruby said, giving Hattie a peculiar look. Virgil and Fast Black lay on the living room floor shelling peanuts.
“I heard somethin about a commotion happenin out here . . .” Slim continued.
“Oh?” Ruby looked at him with her mouth open and her eyebrows raised. She then turned around in her seat on the sofa to face Virgil and Fast Black. “Yall kids know anything about a commotion out here?”
“Naw,” Fast Black coughed, shaking her head.
“Naw,” Virgil replied, unable to face Slim.
“You, Cousin Hattie?” Ruby asked, turning to Hattie.
“Naw,” Hattie agreed, unable to face Slim.
“See. Ain’t none of us know nothin about no commotion.” Ruby looked at Slim and smiled broadly.
“Ain’t you goin to ax me?” Maureen asked.
Ruby snatched her head around to face Maureen.
“Lamb, you know anything about a commotion out here?” Ruby cooed.
“I don’t know nothin about no commotion, but I know somethin about that man yall kilt.”
Virgil rose quickly and eased out the front door. Fast Black followed. Hattie snatched a newspaper from the coffee table and pretended to read. Slim looked from Ruby to Maureen.
“Slim, you ever kilt you a man?” Maureen continued.
“Naw, darlin,” Slim sighed, rolling his eyes back in his head. “It take a special kind to go to killin. . . .”
Ruby sat with her face straight, her eyes staring along the wall. The room got uncomfortably quiet.
“Like Mama Ruby?” Maureen asked, moving toward Slim. “She ain’t no real lady on account of Virgil say she got more nerve than a Russian. Huh, Mama Ruby?”
“Darlin, why don’t you go to the upper room and look out the window. You might see somethin,” Hattie suggested. She rose from the sofa and walked over to Maureen. “Come on, darlin. Let me carry you to the upper room, where you belong.”
“Ruby, I know it ain’t my business, this here missin, dead, one-armed man, but—”
“You said it, Slim. It ain’t none of your business. Now, you about ready to carry my cousin to the bus station?” Ruby stood up and folded her arms.
Hattie escorted Maureen to the upper room.
“Like I said, this man what can’t nobody find, his folks been down here axin questions, Ruby.”
Ruby sighed and cocked her head to the side, giving Slim an exasperated look.
“Anybody got any questions, send em to me.”
“Uh huh . . . and they’ll meet up with a accident, Mama Ruby?”
“I ain’t got nothin to do with no accidents. No murders. No nothin. Shoot. Big Red done already been out here messin with me. The last thing I need, is for my man to third degree me. I don’t want to hear nothin else about that missin man. That clear?”
Slim nodded and joined Virgil and Fast Black on the front porch.
20
After Slim and Ruby left with Hattie, Virgil chased Maureen back to the upper room so he could romance Fast Black in private on the living room sofa.
Staring out the front window of her room, Maureen hoped to see her pet pig waddle down the hill. After sitting in the window for an hour, she was convinced she would never see Le Pig again. Suddenly, she leaped up and ran from the room and down the stairs. Virgil had transferred Fast Black to his bedroom and was unaware of Maureen’s frenzy. She threw herself on the living room floor and sobbed frantically.
An hour later when Slim and Ruby returned, Virgil greeted them by running out on the porch with his mouth stretched open and his arms waving. Fast Black stood in the window peeking out, biting her nails.
“Mama Ruby, Mama Ruby—Mo’reen done run away from home on account of her pig got kidnapped!” Virgil shouted. Ruby took a deep breath and narrowed her eyes to see Virgil better.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” she roared.
“I said, Mo’reen done run away from home cause her pig got stole!”
Ruby fainted on the front porch and the whole house shook.
21
The upper room was deathly silent as Fast Black entered to search for Maureen.
Because of the palm trees on one side of the house, the room always seemed dark. At the back window the view was obscured by a sumac tree and a jasmine bush, but there was only the bayou to be gazed at anyway.
Maureen’s favorite spot was the front window. A footstool sat before it and she would sit for hours at a time looking up the hill toward Duquennes Road, hoping to see something. But the most fascinating thing to be seen from the upper room was the Blue Lake, off to the side of the hill. People came from as far away as the state’s panhandle to fish in it. The lake was a popular swimming pool among Goons’ youth, and in the summertime, fish fries were held on its banks. Everyone Maureen knew who had been baptized had been baptized in the
Blue Lake, at least twice.
But the Blue Lake had also been a source of misery. Twenty-year-old Earl Cundiff, just back from four years in the marines, had got drunk at his welcome-home party on the bank of the lake, had fallen in, and had drowned. Two of Maisy Carter’s teenage daughters stole a visiting preacher’s car and drove it down by the lake. The youngsters lost control of the vehicle and it went into the water. Both girls had drowned.
Too young to understand death, Maureen had not been bothered by the drownings. The Blue Lake was her favorite playground. Parts of it were shallow enough to wade in and she loved making mud pies with water from the lake. On a very hot day the water on the Blue Lake glistened, and gnats, crayfish, and turtles kept Maureen and her young friends from under Ruby’s feet for hours.
Fast Black stared out the front window in the upper room with her eyes shaded, looking at the Blue Lake. She sighed and turned away.
“Mo’reen,” she called out, looking slowly around the room. “Come out from hidin and I’ll give you a kiss and a nickel.” There was no response.
This was the first time Fast Black had ever been in the upper room. No man, excluding Virgil and the preacher, had ever been allowed in.
“Mama Ruby say ain’t no regular man or boy allowed in the upper room on account of if one go in there, he’ll take the devil with him,” Virgil explained to Loomis one evening when he had come to the house looking for a place where he could hide from an irate lover. Fast Black had never been allowed to enter the upper room.
“Fast Black is too much like a man,” Ruby had decided. “She get loose in the upper room and Mo’reen’ll never be the same.”
Fast Black was not liking what she felt, saw, or smelled. There were fresh-picked flowers in jars sitting on the floor and on all three of the window sills. Lilac, dandelion, rose, and other wild fragrances filled the air.
“Smell like a funeral parlor in here . . .” Fast Black said out loud. “Feel like one too.”
The wallpaper had started to crack and curl up at the ends. Long jagged cracks had formed on the ceiling. Other than Maureen’s bed—a limp roll-away with two wheels missing—a large chifforobe backed up into the corner next to the back window, and a lopsided easy chair at the foot of the bed, there was little else in the room. The cardboard box with a pillow in it where Le Pig had slept sat at the head of Maureen’s bed.