The Upper Room

by Mary Monroe

  “Hello, who is this?”

  There was still no answer, but there was someone on the other end of the telephone line. There was no heavy breathing or background noise, only the hollow, empty sound of loneliness. An odd voice, at first vague and unfamiliar, started to speak in a stiff, mechanical fashion.

  “Verily, verily . . . I say unto you . . . ‘GET THEE HENCE AND TURN THEE EASTWARD, AND HIDE THYSELF BY THE BROOK! AND IT CAME TO PASS AFTER A WHILE, THAT THE BROOK DRIED UP BECAUSE THERE HAD BEEN NO RAIN IN THE LAND!’” The phone went dead.

  Maureen trembled as she returned the receiver to its cradle.

  “Mama, who that you talkin to?” Loretta asked, running into the room.

  “Nobody.”

  “I heard you talkin. I heard the phone ring. Was it one of them nasty men what call up ladies?” Loretta climbed into bed next to Maureen and slid under the covers.

  “Naw. I don’t know who or what it was, child.”

  She told nobody about the strange call from Ruby, but she became frightened. Ruby was constantly on her mind. It was not long before Maureen started seeing her everywhere she looked. Fat women, thin women, all began to look like Ruby. She saw her in stores where she shopped, peeking in windows at places where she had job interviews, loitering around outside her apartment building. Maureen thought she was losing her mind one night when she woke up and saw Ruby standing over her as she lay in bed.

  “Mama Ruby?!” Maureen called out. The room was dark, except for a dim coal-oil lamp on top of the dresser. Before Maureen could become fully conscious, the vision disappeared. The music coming from the tavern suddenly got louder and kept Maureen awake the rest of the night. She did not get out of bed, but when morning came she discovered her front door wide open, and three empty beer cans on her coffee table.

  81

  Ruby was not an easy person to put out of mind. She made regular nocturnal telephone calls to Maureen and hung up on her immediately after quoting a scripture. Almost every time Maureen left her apartment she returned to discover that someone had let himself in and vandalized her property.

  “How much longer you goin to let Mama Ruby and her gang torture you, Mo’reen?” Sister Goode asked, helping Maureen haul a foot tub containing corn cobs someone had left on her living room floor out to her trash can.

  “I swear to God, Sister Goode, I ain’t goin to let Mama Ruby get my goat!” Maureen vowed.

  December was dragging by and Maureen’s loneliness led her to spend several nights a week at the noisy tavern that caused her so many restless nights. On nights when her loneliness overwhelmed her, she brought home strange men who left her lonelier than ever.

  “Sometimes I wake up during the night and I hear you talkin to somebody in your room, Mama. Who do it be?” Loretta asked one day.

  “Huh?”

  “Who be in your room sometime late at night? I hear em talkin to you. Men.”

  “Oh. Them. They just friends I meet here and there.”

  “How come they just come around at night?”

  “Uh . . . they work days,” Maureen lied.

  “I wish we had another man like Black Jack comin around, Mama. He was sho nuff nice to us, huh?”

  “Yeah, he was.”

  Maureen put Loretta to bed and slipped out to the tavern that night. After her visitor left, she cried into her pillow. “Oh, Black Jack, I miss you so much! And you, Lo’raine, why’d you have to go and drown?”

  The darkness responded violently. A gigantic Bible Virgil had given her sailed across the room and hit the bedroom wall with a loud thud.

  “MAMA RUBY, I KNOW THAT’S YOU!” Maureen shouted, leaping up from the bed. She ran and clicked on the light and ran to her living room. Loretta was already in the living room.

  “What was that, Mama?!”

  “I don’t know!”

  There was nobody else in sight, but the door was standing open again and they heard the sound of heavy footsteps running down the concrete road. Returning to her bedroom, Maureen found the Bible, as thick as the Miami phone book, had been ripped in half. She gasped and called Sister Goode.

  “Can you run over here and spend the night with me and Lo’retta? We got a mess on our hands.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  Maureen called Yellow Jack and he arrived within fifteen minutes.

  “What done happened now?” he asked.

  “Somebody was here again,” Sister Goode answered for Maureen. Maureen and Loretta sat on the sofa hugging one another.

  “Who was it?”

  “Don’t know. Whoever it was, they got the strength of ten men,” Sister Goode said. She picked up the torn Bible from the coffee table and shook it in Yellow Jack’s face. “Ain’t no regular person can do this here. . . .”

  82

  Yellow Jack and Sister Goode left early the next morning. It was a weekday and both had to report for work.

  At nine A.M. Fast Black and Catty were banging on the door with their fists and feet.

  “Open this door, Mo’reen!” Fast Black ordered.

  Maureen took her time unlocking the two new locks Yellow Jack had installed before leaving. Annoyed beyond belief, Catty and Fast Black barked at Maureen as soon as they were inside.

  “WE GOT TO TALK TO YOU!” Catty shrieked, waving her arms.

  “WE GOT SOMETHIN TO TELL YOU!” Fast Black screamed.

  Maureen held her hands up in front of her face.

  “If it got to do with Mama Ruby, I don’t want to hear it!” Maureen warned.

  “BUT, MO’REEN! THIS IS THE BIGGEST NEWS SINCE THE PARTIN OF THE RED SEA!” Catty shrieked, tears streaming down the sides of her face.

  “Goddamn it, yall! I have had it up to here with news about Mama Ruby! Can’t I have some peace in my life?!”

  “What’s the matter, Mama?” Loretta asked, running in from her room.

  “Nothin, Lo’retta. Go on outside and play. Catty and Fast Black just come to visit,” Maureen said. She waved Loretta away.

  Catty and Fast Black looked at one another and reluctantly sat down on the sofa. Maureen fell into a chair facing them.

  “Oh, Mo’reen,” Fast Black sobbed, shaking her head.

  “I know I done upset yall, but I don’t care. Shoot. I’m sick to death of Mama Ruby. I’d like to get through one week without hearin about her and her mess!”

  “Mo’reen, this bad news sho nuff—” Catty said, rising.

  “Catty, you just sit right on back down and shet up talkin about Mama Ruby. You or Fast Black say one more word about her and I’m puttin you out of here!”

  Fast Black wiped her eyes with the tail of her skirt. Catty wiped hers with the sleeve of her blouse.

  “This the worse mess,” Catty moaned under her breath. “This the worse mess ever . . .”

  “I been patient. I know Mama Ruby the one behind somebody comin in my house makin a mess. I don’t care what she do, I ain’t never goin back to her, long as she live!” Maureen spat.

  Catty and Fast Black looked at one another and burst out crying louder.

  “What’s the matter with you two fools?”

  “We want to . . . we . . . want to tell you . . .” Fast Black sobbed. She buried her face in her lap and rocked back and forth.

  Maureen sighed.

  “Catty, how you been doin?” Maureen asked, fanning her face with her hand.

  “I been doin fine, cept, cept—OH!” Catty replied.

  “Yall drunk or crazy or both or what?” Maureen asked.

  “Mo’reen,” Catty began, rising. “I need some air—Mama Ruby—”

  “Don’t mention that woman’s name I said!” Maureen held up her hand.

  “I need me some air too! Let’s drag our tails to Logan’s Beach,” Fast Black suggested.

  “Can we stop and get somethin to eat?” Catty asked. “Mo’reen, show us to the nearest rib place.”

  After purchasing three rib sandwiches Maureen accompanied Fast Black and Catty to the beach, wh
ere they sat for three hours watching the swimmers. Before leaving, they waded in the ocean to cool off before the walk back to Maureen’s apartment.

  “Mo’reen, we’ll go back and set with you a little while before we start that long walk back out to Goons. Maybe that no-good boy of mine will show up and carry us home,” Fast Black said in a tired voice. “The least Yellow Jack can do is carry his ex-wife and mama back home.”

  “He ain’t good for nothin else,” Catty added.

  Back in Maureen’s living room, Catty and Fast Black sat sphinxlike on the sofa, staring at Maureen.

  “I wish I knowed what was wrong with yall. First you come here actin like wild women. Then at the beach you both act like the cat got your tongue. Now you both settin here lookin at me like I’m somethin good to eat,” Maureen said, looking from one face to the other.

  Catty leaned on Fast Black and turned her head to the side to look at Maureen out of the corner of her eye.

  “Mo’reen, can I have them curtains out the upper room?” Catty asked.

  “I don’t care. I sho nuff don’t want em.” Maureen sat down hard on a hassock facing the sofa. Her face lit up when Loretta skipped in and sat on the floor next to her.

  “What Mama Ruby do this time?” Loretta asked, looking from Catty to Fast Black.

  “Darlin, she ain’t done nothin,” Fast Black almost whispered.

  “Then what yall come here for? All yall come here for is to tell us somethin about Mama Ruby or ax for somethin or tell Mama how crazy she is,” Loretta said.

  “Lo’retta, your mama told us she don’t want to hear nothin bout Mama Ruby no more!” Catty hollered.

  “And I meant it,” Maureen reminded, squeezing Loretta.

  “Mo’reen, can I have that chifforobe out the upper room?” Fast Black asked.

  Maureen shrugged.

  “I don’t care,” she laughed. “You can have the upper room if you want that too. I won’t be needin it. I’m stayin on my own.”

  “Can I have them end tables out the livin room?” Catty asked. “And that footstool that set in front of the window?”

  “Can I have them couches? No Talk done ruined mine with them ole long toenails of his,” Fast Black said.

  “Yall can have what you want out the upper room. The rest of that stuff you’d have to ax Mama Ruby for,” Maureen answered. “You know how crazy Mama Ruby is about all that junk in there.”

  “Speakin of junk, how come you got two locks on your door? Ain’t nothin in here nobody would want,” Catty said seriously, looking around the room.

  “Catty, did you come all the way from Goons just to talk about my house?” Maureen asked, rising. She folded her arms and faced the women angrily.

  “No. We came here to tell you Mama Ruby died in her sleep last night!” Catty said, then quickly covered her mouth.

  83

  Loomis borrowed a crane from a paper mill outside Goons to help Big Red remove Ruby’s body from the upper room, where Catty and Fast Black had found her that morning when she failed to answer the door.

  They had nervously kicked in the door and tiptoed to the upper room to find Ruby lying on her back on Maureen’s bed, the whites of her eyes showing and her huge teeth sparkling in the early morning light.

  “SHE DEAD!” Catty screamed.

  Neither she or Fast Black was brave enough to get any closer than the door.

  “MAMA RUBY DEAD! MAMA RUBY DEAD! MAMA RUBY DEAD!” Fast Black screamed, backing down the stairs, Catty on her heels. They ran out of Ruby’s house and up the hill, shouting along the way, “MAMA RUBY DEAD!”

  Bishop and Zeus, strolling down Duquennes Road on their way to the city, stopped in their tracks.

  “MAMA RUBY DEAD?” Bishop asked, gasping for breath.

  “MAMA RUBY DEAD!” Fast Black yelled, running toward the camps.

  Bishop and Zeus started running down the hill to Ruby’s house with Zeus screaming, “MAMA RUBY DEAD!”

  84

  “What they need a crane for?” Bishop asked Zeus as they sat on Ruby’s front porch glider, several hours after hearing of Ruby’s death.

  “How else they goin to get that big woman out the upper room, fool? You ever tried to lift her?”

  Zeus shook his head.

  “She way too big to be put through the window. How they goin to get her out?” Bishop asked.

  Zeus leaned back on the glider and scratched his chin.

  “We goin to knock out the side wall of the upper room.”

  “Oh,” Bishop said quietly.

  In Ruby’s living room two dozen people had gathered, sitting and standing around talking about Ruby.

  “I wonder what is takin Catty and Fast Black so long to get back here with Mo’reen,” Zeus said, looking at his watch. “They been gone all day. Everybody here but Mo’reen. Poor Virgil, he look like the world done come to a end. He locked up in his old room and won’t say nothin.” Zeus sighed and shook his head. He looked at Bishop.

  “He ain’t been in to see Ruby?” Bishop asked.

  “Naw. I overheard him tell Boatwright he more scared of her dead than when she was alive!”

  Bishop let out his breath and slapped his knee.

  “I never forget how Ruby blowed into Goons like a hurricane nigh on to twenty-six years ago. Mean as a rattlesnake even then. You know somethin, Zeus?”

  “What’s that, Bishop?”

  “I would sho nuff like to know what made Ruby the way she was. I ain’t never seen or heard of no human bein tough as Ruby was!”

  “Listen, Mama Ruby was the most dangerous woman alive.”

  “Ain’t that the truth.”

  They got silent and looked up the hill again.

  “Mo’reen better hurry on here. We got to hurry and get Ruby out that room before she swell up and bust.” Zeus looked at his watch again.

  Reverend Tiggs was in Virgil’s old bedroom trying to console him.

  “Leave me be, Reverend Tiggs. I know Mama Ruby had to die someday. Just like all the rest of us. But she wasn’t sick or nothin. She wasn’t that old. She grieved herself to death cause of Mo’reen leavin her!”

  “Ruby was hopeless attached to Mo’reen. It’s natural for a woman to be hopeless attached to her only daughter,” the preacher said, pacing the room with Virgil, stopping and turning each time he did.

  “She was such a strange lady. She done so many things! Lord, she goin to answer to God! She’ll still be standin in line answerin a hundred years from now. Oh, Reverend Tiggs! I wanted so much for my mama to be saved when she passed!”

  “Ruby was saved, boy!”

  Virgil stopped and stood in front of the naive preacher.

  “Reverend Tiggs, my mama done a lot of crazy things she hadn’t been forgiven for. The worse was . . . was . . .”

  “Was what?”

  “Mo’reen . . . nobody know . . . Mama Ruby . . . I . . .”

  “Virgil, if it’s that hard for you to get it out, I don’t need to know.”

  “I want to tell somebody! I can’t die with it on my conscious! I been wantin to tell somebody! I ain’t even told my woman!”

  “What is it, boy?” Reverend Tiggs grabbed Virgil by his arms and shook him.

  “Reverend Tiggs, I’m sorry. What I got on my mind is somethin I guess I’ll have to keep there till I face my maker.”

  “You don’t want to tell me?”

  Virgil pulled away.

  “I can’t. Mama Ruby would have wanted me to keep it to myself to my grave. Like she done.”

  “Oh, Virgil—come out here! Here come Mo’reen down the hill with Catty and Fast Black and Lo’retta!” Irene yelled.

  Virgil and Reverend Tiggs ran out to the porch.

  “Psssst,” Bishop said to Zeus, talking low so Virgil would not hear. “I’ll be glad when this mess is over so we can go fishin.”

  “Me too. Big Red say he got a relation what’s got a piano case we can use for a coffin,” Zeus told him.

  “That’s g
ood.” They paused and waited. Maureen ran into Virgil’s arms and he took her into the house. Catty, Fast Black, and Loretta followed.

  Bishop and Zeus sighed and shook their heads.

  “I sho nuff hope Loomis and Big Red got that crane figured out.” Bishop looked toward the side of the house where Loomis and Big Red were trying to determine the best way to maneuver the crane sitting outside the upper room.

  Inside the upper room, Maureen and Virgil stood over Ruby’s body. Loretta stood in the doorway among the crowd that had come to look. Catty and Fast Black stood next to Loretta, crying. Others who had never even been on the steps leading to the upper room pushed their way in, looking around, searching for some clue to explain Ruby’s mysterious rule.

  “She dead, Virgil,” Maureen whispered, crying, her face against Virgil’s chest. “I kilt her!”

  “You ain’t done nothin of the kind! It was just her time to go!” Virgil replied.

  Maureen pulled away from Virgil and leaned over Ruby. She closed Ruby’s eyes with her fingers. Maureen did not hear the comments that followed.

  “Jesus must be some good to send Mo’reen back home.”

  “Mama Ruby always said Mo’reen would come back to the upper room.”

  “Mo’reen can’t survive outside the upper room.”

  “You reckon Mo’reen’ll die now too?”

  The room got quiet but the silence was short. A scream from the crowd distracted Maureen. Outside Loomis cursed and screamed at Big Red for falling off the roof.

  “Big Red done fell off the roof!” someone shouted.

  “Please, yall, everybody . . . go see about Big Red and let me and Virgil and Lo’retta spend a few minutes alone with Mama Ruby,” Maureen pleaded. She turned to face her friends, the inside of her mouth dry as sand.

  Bishop and Zeus still sat on the front porch glider talking. Neither moved when the crowd rushed out the front door and ran to the side of the house to see about Big Red.

  “Fast Black, No Talk, Loomis, and Catty won’t have nothin to do with they spare time no more. They was like Ruby’s shadows. And poor Big Red. He goin to be just lost without Ruby. From what I hear, Ruby was runnin the Miami po’lice department through Big Red. He had a lot of pull down there. Ruby havin so much pull with him, naturally had a lot of pull in the po’lice department,” Zeus said.