by Mary Monroe
“Girl, don’t you never holler at me again and talk down at me like I’m a in-law like you just did. I’m subject to bust your brains out and hand em to you.”
“I’m sho nuff sorry, Catty. I didn’t mean to show out like that. It’s just that . . . I’m so tired of this same old routine.” Maureen paused and clasped her hands. “I don’t know what I’ll do with myself, with you and Yellow Jack gettin married and all.”
“Marry Bobby Boatwright. He ain’t much, but he’ll do until somebody better come along.” Catty placed her arm around Maureen’s shoulders.
Maureen frowned and shook her head slowly.
“You ever seen Bobby Boatwright buck naked?”
“Have mercy, girl—he your man, not mine! What make you think I seen him buck naked?” Catty asked, looking at Maureen with an incredulous expression on her face.
“Oh. Anyway, he got birthmarks on his butt and my mama told me that was the mark of the devil. Havin birthmarks on the butt, I mean. I don’t need to start off married life with that against me.”
“What else he got?”
“Well . . . he got this string,” Maureen whispered.
“Say what?” Catty gasped, moving closer to Maureen. “Where?”
Maureen lowered her head.
“Down there.”
“Lord . . . what is it?”
Maureen shrugged.
“I don’t know. I been wantin to ax him but I don’t know how.”
“All you got to say is ‘Bobby Boatwright, how come you got a string on your thing?’ That’s all you got to say, Mo’reen.”
Maureen giggled and removed Catty’s arm from her shoulder.
“Stop bein so nosy, Catty,” she laughed. “I wish I hadn’t told you about Bobby Boatwright’s string.”
Catty took a deep breath and stood up to smooth her skirt down. She quickly returned to her seat and turned to face Maureen, looking at her with renewed interest.
“I feel so sorry for you, Mo’reen. Too bad you ain’t the one marryin Yellow Jack like me, huh?”
“I wouldn’t marry Yellow Jack. I want somebody with excitement in his background. Somebody that’s been around,” Maureen said.
“You better not let Mama Ruby hear you talk like this,” Catty warned, glancing back at the screen door.
Maureen gave her a hard look.
“I will get married one day. Mama Ruby can’t run my life forever,” Maureen insisted. “I’ll have to leave her sooner or later; I don’t care what she say.”
“You ain’t goin no place,” Catty informed Maureen, shaking her head vigorously. “Mama Ruby say you ain’t never goin to leave the upper room. Not as long as you live.”
Maureen remained silent for a full minute before speaking again.
“Let’s talk about somethin else,” she suggested.
“OK. Now, what you goin to get me for my weddin gift?”
“Catty, I wonder what would happen if I was to marry that albino what always after me.”
“I thought you wanted to change the subject?” Catty slapped Maureen’s shoulder roughly.
“I do. We talkin about me and that albino.”
“What albino?”
“The one we call Snowball. The one from the panhandle.”
“What about him?”
“He could marry me and carry me off to the panhandle, huh?”
“Naw . . . I don’t think Mama Ruby would like livin in the panhandle,” Catty concluded.
Catty left and walked up the hill to her house. Maureen lay awake long after turning in, thinking of her future with increasing dread.
Before daylight the next morning, Maureen heard Ruby stomping up the stairs to the upper room. Ruby entered noisily. She snatched open the door, singing “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” at the top of her voice. Maureen pretended to be asleep when Ruby came and stood over her.
“Oh, Mo’reen, you sleep?” Ruby whispered. Maureen said nothing. Ruby leaned over and started to shake Maureen’s shoulder. “Oh, Mo’reen . . . you sleep?”
“Let me alone, I’m tired,” Maureen replied.
“I need to talk to you about somethin real important, darlin. Set up.”
“I know what you want . . . let me alone, Mama Ruby.”
“I do need to talk to you about somethin, Mo’reen.”
“What is it, Mama Ruby?” Maureen opened her eyes wide and sat up.
“Darlin, is Bobby Boatwright comin to the house today?” Ruby asked in a near whisper.
“I don’t know. He was just down here last night.”
“I know. What about that little albino boy that is so crazy about you?”
“What about him?”
“You think he might be comin this way today?”
“I ain’t see him in a long time. You know that.”
“Hmmmm. I wonder why he stopped comin over here?”
“It’s probably because you pulled a gun on him the last time he was here,” Maureen reminded Ruby.
“Oh.”
Ruby sighed and bit her bottom lip.
“When you see him, tell him I ain’t goin to mess with him. Also, ax him to bring me a few beers. If you see Bobby Boatwright first, ax him to get some of his daddy’s beers and bring em to me.”
“Boatwright say he ain’t sendin no more beer to you on credit on account of you never paid him the last time. Snowball scared to come here.”
The albino, Tommy “Snowball” Hutchins, was a twenty-one-year-old who lived on the Belknap migrant camp. He was the only person Maureen knew who was involved with drugs. He had a heroin habit and it was common knowledge that whenever he was coherent, he pursued Maureen. But Bobby was her man and she had only a vague interest in Snowball.
“I don’t want him comin to see me on account of I don’t want to see him,” Maureen said tiredly.
Ruby looked hurt and turned away from Maureen with tears starting to form in her eyes.
“Well . . . if he do come here today, ax him to go get me a few beers. I ain’t goin to mention it, but you can run up to his camp and ax him if he plans to come to see you today. That way, you can put in a bid for them beers in advance.”
Maureen let out her breath and gritted her teeth.
“OK, Mama Ruby, you win again. I’ll go see if I can find you some beer. When I get up. It’s too early to be peckin on somebody’s door.” She turned over, turning her back to Ruby.
“Oh horsefeathers!” Ruby pouted. She sighed heavily and started to ramble around in the upper room, humming another one of her spirituals. Maureen turned back over and sat up to find that Ruby was on her knees on the floor looking under the bed.
“What you lookin for, Mama Ruby?”
“. . . Um . . . you got any peanut brittle?”
“Since when did I start keepin peanut brittle under my bed?” Maureen hissed. She leaped from the bed and grabbed a wrap-around housecoat from her footstool and put it on. Ruby followed behind as Maureen left the house, trotting down Duquennes Road to Catty’s house.
“Catty, Irene, Bishop—yall come to the door!” Maureen called. She stood in front of the house with her hand shading her eyes. Irene quickly leaned her head out her bedrooom window and frowned.
“What you want this time of mornin, girl?”
“Irene, yall got any beers layin around in there?” Maureen asked.
“Naw. Why don’t you go ax Boatwright to lay some beers on you. You must be some crazy to be comin up here gettin folks out the bed axin for beer!” Irene retorted.
“Mama Ruby havin one of her beer fits. Have mercy,” Maureen begged.
Ruby stood next to Maureen with a blank expression on her face, leaning forward anxiously, hoping for a positive response from Irene. Irene shook her head as Ruby whispered in Maureen’s ear.
“Irene, Mama Ruby say get Bishop out the bed so he can go to Miami and get her some beer. Ain’t nobody out here that’ll give her credit anymore.”
“Mo’reen, you tell Ruby this old man of mine ain�
��t worth salt. I was to drag his tail out this bed he liable to beat a scab on me,” Irene said seriously.
“Irene, please lend us some beer if you got any,” Maureen pleaded.
Irene left the window and Catty suddenly appeared, wearing a stocking cap on her head.
“I got a few beers stashed away for emergencies like this. Hold on, Mama Ruby,” Catty said, leaving the window.
“Know what, I’m goin to make Catty’s weddin dress for her.” Ruby grinned. “With my own hands.”
35
“Mama Ruby, that sho nuff is some pretty material you makin Catty’s weddin dress out of. So nice and white and everything,” Fast Black commented. She stood in front of Ruby as Ruby sat on her front porch glider working on the dress. Maureen sat on the bannister watching quietly.
“Mo’reen, ain’t this some pretty material? Lacy. Snow white. All girls should wear such a pretty thing when they get married,” Fast Black said longingly. “I declare, I wish I’d have had me a real weddin. To this day I ain’t never walked down the aisle. I thought for so long me and Virgil would cut the cake,” she sighed sadly. “But he up and got hisself lost in that foreign country.” Fast Black quickly turned to face Maureen. “Mo’reen, when you get married, get Mama Ruby to make you the same kind of pretty dress. Hear?”
“Mo’reen’s already married,” Ruby said without looking up from her sewing.
Fast Black’s breath caught in her throat as she turned back to Ruby.
“When Mo’reen get married? And who?!” she asked.
“Mo’reen married to the Lord . . . just like me,” Ruby answered calmly.
Fast Black looked at Ruby and blinked.
“Yall is the most sanctified women I ever seen in all the days of my life. I was to get so sanctified, No Talk will be fit to be tied. Flawless, yall is. Not a rotten bone in your body.” Fast Black looked at Maureen, who was annoyed. Maureen excused herself to the living room.
Ruby came in an hour later and found her lying on the sofa watching a comedy on the television. After putting her sewing materials away, Ruby sat next to Maureen.
“Where is Fast Black?” Maureen asked, not really caring.
“She went on back home. She been tryin to brighten up Yellow Jack’s bedroom. She got to make it fit for him to be bringin a wife. Shoot. Catty’s a ’phisticated gal. She likes nice things.” Ruby sighed and shook her head. “Lord, I remember when Catty was a baby and now here she is fixin to get married. Seems like just yestiddy her and Yellow Jack was in diapers and cuttin teeth.”
“So was I,” Maureen reminded.
Ruby touched Maureen’s face.
“I’m so happy I got you all to myself. I ain’t got to worry about no nasty man carryin you off, huh?”
“. . . No,” Maureen replied, rising. She was surprised when Ruby took her arm and gently pulled her back down.
“What is the real reason you won’t let me go, Mama Ruby? How come you don’t want me to be like other folks?”
“Cause you ain’t like other folks. I ain’t neither. Why, you heard Fast Black. Me and you is some sanctified. Ain’t a woman in this whole wide world as good off as you or me. We got it made, girl.”
Maureen looked at Ruby and folded her arms.
“Mama Ruby, tell me what it is about me and you that makes us so different. You keep tellin me about how much glory we got and all this other stuff. What we got?” Maureen asked, making a sweeping gesture with her hand.
“Girl, long as you got Jesus, you don’t need nothin else.”
“Everybody we know got religion.”
“Yeah, but we got a little bit more. I bet I got more religion in my baby toe than Boatwright got in his whole body. I been blessed with healin hands. You been blessed with so much beauty—girl, you is sharp as a tack. Everbody say you is. You could get you any man in the world, if you wanted him.”
“What good would it do me to want any man in the world? I can’t get married and lead no normal life.”
“Why would you want to lead a normal life? Don’t you like livin like a queen?”
Maureen sighed heavily and threw up her hands.
“I don’t know what you call livin like a queen. But I don’t think I am right now. I ain’t got nothin goin for me.”
“Here you is with a whole upstairs to yourself—”
“A whole upstairs? Mama Ruby, ain’t but one room up there. That upper room.”
“That alone is more than any queen got. I bet Queen of England would give anything to have the upper room to come home to.”
“Mama Ruby, if you believe a mess like that, you’d believe anything. I ain’t never seen or heard of nobody like you. Cousin Hattie. None of your family. They is crazy a little bit, but nothin like you. You is some nutty. I just want some good reason why you is so crazy about me stayin with you forever.”
“I’m through talkin. My head hurt when I get upset. Stop talkin crazy to me. That clear?”
Maureen slapped Ruby’s hand.
“If I make you mad enough, what would you do? Would you kill me, Mama Ruby?”
“What?” Ruby gasped.
“I really want to know what I’m up against.”
“You ain’t up against nothin but the devil. I wouldn’t harm a hair on your head, girl. Don’t you know you is my life. I was to kill you, I’d be killin myself.”
“Why you don’t never want me to go, Mama Ruby? Give me a straight answer. Don’t give me no more of them crazy explanations like you use to give Virgil when he would ax you somethin about how come you the way you is. I’m sick of you tellin me first Satan got me this way, then Jesus got me this way. I want to hear about you. I want to hear about why you have to hold on to me. Shoot. You act like I’m a dollar bill or somethin.”
Ruby started to cry. She slowly removed her handkerchief from her bosom and wiped her eyes and nose.
“Don’t you . . . don’t you know?” Ruby choked.
“I only know what you tell me. I got a feelin you leavin something out.” Maureen looked into Ruby’s tear-filled eyes. For years Maureen had suspected Ruby was hiding something important from her. During their visit to Louisiana, Ruby had admitted there were secrets she wouldn’t share with her. Maureen was convinced it had to do with her birth. Had she really had a lame, deformed daddy? Or perhaps he had been a foreigner, or a Jew? Perhaps the man who had fathered her had been a villain of some sort, some ungodly rogue on the loose who had been unable to fulfill his role as a husband and a father. “Tell me everything I need to know about myself, Mama Ruby, and you tell me right now!”
Ruby jumped and cried harder.
“Stop cryin and tell me!” Maureen ordered.
“After all . . . after all I had to go through for you . . . lost me my boy . . . my man . . . the devil is still on my case . . . now . . . now you treatin me like a stepmama,” Ruby wailed. She started to choke on her teeth. Maureen slapped her hard on the back.
“Don’t set here and choke to death. Not till I get the whole story out of you. What is the real reason you so crazy about me?”
Ruby stopped crying and returned her handkerchief to her bosom. She took a deep breath and cleared her throat.
“All you care about is Bobby Boatwright and that albino. You just itchin to run off with one of em so you can spite me.”
“If I was goin to do somethin like run off, why would I run off with Bobby Boatwright or Snowball? They some of the things I’d be runnin off from. Shoot! You talk about San Francisco bein such a sordid place. I bet ain’t nothin bad as what go on here goin on in San Francisco.”
“Girl, you go to San Francisco and you ain’t never comin back. I told you the truth. That’s Babylon. You subject to turn into a pillar of salt if you was to go there. It happened in the Bible when they was runnin to get out of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
“You done said so many bad things about that place, I want to see it all the more. I just might—”
Ruby held her breath and her body stiffened. M
aureen gasped as she watched Ruby’s eyes dilate.
“Lord—what’s the matter, Mama Ruby?”
“Eeeeeeeeeeeeee,” Ruby babbled, saliva sliding out the sides of her mouth. “Eeeeeeeeeeeeee.”
Maureen stood up and slapped Ruby on the back.
“I ain’t goin no place, Mama Ruby! I declare I ain’t! Don’t set here and die on me!”
Ruby started to cough and gasp for air. A sudden knock on the door startled her.
“Who is that now?” she asked, talking in a normal voice, looking toward the door. “Go see, Mo’reen. It liable to be that ole bill collector from Krogers.” Ruby stood up and waved her arms toward the door.
“I thought you was sick. The way you was just now talkin—”
“Girl, don’t stand there runnin off at the head. See who at the door.”
Maureen composed herself, dismissing Ruby’s odd behavior.
“Well—want me to get you your thing, Mama Ruby?”
“Yeah. And make certain it’s loaded.”
Maureen went to Ruby’s bedroom off to the side and returned a minute later with a shotgun.
36
Fast Black and Irene had helped Ruby and Maureen get Ruby’s house in order for Catty’s marriage to Yellow Jack. Irene mopped. Fast Black washed and starched the drapes, and Ruby and Maureen dusted and rearranged the furniture.
It seemed like everybody in Goons showed up for the event hours before the ceremony began. The house was filled to capacity and dozens of people stood on the front porch and in the yard.
Catty was as proud as any other bride-to-be. Loomis had donated the money to pay for Catty to have her hair done by a fancy beautician in Miami and Willie Boatwright had stood for the wedding fee, which he paid Reverend Tiggs with a postdated check. Ruby had cooked for two days and Big Red had put on a suit for the first time in seventeen years.
The ceremony got under way an hour late, since Catty insisted on opening her gifts first to make sure a Ray Charles album was among them. To her surprise she found not one but three, and was suddenly more enthusiastic than ever.