“You better calm down and listen. Klane killed someone. Robert Haverty’s over there. I think Klane killed Delmonica.”
“What? What are you talking about now, bitch?”
“Klane killed someone. Someone fell on a knife she was holding.”
“Where are the boys?”
“They’re asleep. Don’t wake them up. What are you mad at me for?”
“Because you’ve been running around all over town while I was gone. Dave saw you. He called and told me. I’m leaving this morning, Rhoda. I’m going back to South Carolina. I’m through with this shit. I’m leaving now.”
“Don’t you care about Klane? Don’t you even want to know what happened?”
“Not particularly. I’ve seen nigger murders before. Every Saturday night in Martinsville, Georgia. I’m leaving, Rhoda. I mean it this time.”
“Then go on. Who cares. You don’t think I care, do you? I don’t give a tinker’s damn.” I stood back from him, examining his head. In the front was the ego, on the side was the superego, on the back was the id. I could see it all so clearly. All three parts fighting against themselves. “You are so goddamn dumb,” I said. “I hate being married to you. I don’t care if you leave or not. I hate you. I hate being married to you.”
He took a step toward me as if to hit me, then he backed off and turned and walked into our room. I heard the shower running. A long time later he came back into the living room carrying a small bag in one hand and his shaving kit in the other. “I’m taking the good car. Your daddy will get you another one.”
“Go on then. No one’s stopping you.” The phone began to ring. “Answer the phone, will you. It must be Robert. He’s gone down to the police station, I guess.”
“You answer it. She’s your maid. I told you not to hire her.”
“She’s the only one who can take care of Malcolm and I like her. She’s a Watusi. She’s supposed to be fierce.”
“What does that mean? Never mind. I’m leaving. I’m going, Rhoda. I’m leaving now.”
“Wait till I answer the phone, can’t you? Can’t you wait a minute?” I grabbed the phone and answered it. “Wait a minute, Robert. I can’t talk. Malcolm’s here.” I dropped the receiver and walked to the door and took Malcolm’s arm. “Help me. I need you to stay and help me. Klane killed someone. Don’t you understand?” But Malcolm shook my hand from his arm and walked down the sidewalk toward the car.
“That’s my car,” I screamed. “Don’t take my car.” He just shook his head at that and got in and started driving. I walked back into the house and picked up the phone. “I’m sorry. What’s happening? What’s going on down there?”
“Malcolm’s there?”
“He was here. He’s gone. He’s leaving me. Never mind. He doesn’t know you were here. Tell me what’s going on down there.”
“They took her off downtown. Her kids are home and her sister’s got them. I’m going to the police station. Did you get Hilton on the phone?”
“No, I never did. You want me to call her now?”
“No, I’ll call. Just meet me at the police station as soon as you can. I’ll call my cousin Edmund. He’s a lawyer. He’ll help, I think. There were five people there, Rhoda. They all witnessed it and they all say she fell on the knife. They swear she fell on the knife.”
An hour later I was down at the jail with Robert talking to policemen and lawyers. “She always had a knife,” I kept saying over and over. “She used it to cut up things. She needed it to cut up vegetables and things. She always had a knife.”
“Did you know this Delmonica was having an affair with her husband?” This from a tall redheaded cop.
“How could anyone have an affair with him? He was in jail. Klane went down to see him every day. She spent the night on Sundays.”
“Well, one of the neighbors said there was bad blood over a man. Maybe it wasn’t a husband.”
“She didn’t stab her,” I kept saying. “Klane wouldn’t stab anybody. My little boys just love her. She’s so good with children. She wouldn’t kill someone. Delmonica fell on the knife. I want to see her. I want to talk to her.”
Finally, I was allowed to talk to Klane. They took me down a hall into a concrete cell with iron bars. Klane was sitting on a cot. She looked so small, so frightened, her shoulders bent into her chest. “Rhoda,” she said. “Oh, Rhoda, where have they put my children?”
“Your sister has them. Is that okay? Are you okay?”
“Where’s she keeping them? At her house or my house?”
“I don’t know. I’ll go find out. Where do you want them to be?”
“At my house. I don’t like her husband. He’s not a good man. They shouldn’t be over there.”
“Klane.”
“Yes.”
“We’re going to get you out of here. They’re setting bail. We’ll get you out by tomorrow. Robert said they’d have you out tomorrow. His cousin Edmund who’s a lawyer is going to get you out.”
“I can’t stay here.” She stood up and I put my arms around her. She smelled like the night, dark and forlorn. I held her gingerly at first and then something happened to me, maybe it was the hangover or the Dexedrine I had taken as soon as Malcolm left, maybe it was the whole blown-out-of-reality spring, maybe I just went crazy, but all of a sudden I was able to really hold her in my arms, all the whole long tall black body, all the history of her people, the majesty of the Watusi, spear and lion, ancient warrior race, God knows my wild genes had not come from peaceful men, maybe I admired her, maybe it seemed absolutely logical to let your enemy fall upon your knife.
“No one’s going to keep you in the jail,” I said. “We’ll get you out of here tomorrow. I’ll go by your place and find your sister and tell her to take your kids to your house. I’ll get someone to keep them there if I have to. Klane?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Don’t call me ma’am. You said you wouldn’t do that, remember? Listen. This is going to be all right. I’m going to fix it. Robert and I will fix it. You understand that?”
“I hope so. I’ll kill myself if I have to stay in here. I can’t stay in here.”
“You don’t have to. Tell me what happened. What happened last night?” I led her over to the cot and we sat down on it.
“Delmonica and Shirley and Shirley’s husband, Willie, came over to play whist. Shirley and Willie and Brown and I been playing whist for fifteen years on Saturday nights. Ever since we came up from Lafayette when we was young. Delmonica had been out drinking. She stepped in the door and right away started talking about my roast. That roast’s not right, she said. She’s always talking about my cooking. I said, Delmonica, don’t come in here talking about my cooking in my own house. Then we dealt out the cards and Willie said, ‘Open me a beer,’ and I took out the knife to open his beer and she jumped at me. I hadn’t said a word. I just took out the knife and she jumped me across the table and then she was on the floor and the knife was in her throat and Willie started crying and Shirley said, ‘Call somebody.’ I didn’t kill her, Rhoda. I didn’t kill anybody. You got to get me out of here.”
“Time’s up.” It was the sheriff. I hugged Klane again and comforted her as best I could and then I followed the sheriff back out to the office where Robert and his cousin Edmund were talking to a clerk.
“We have to get her out,” I said. “She said she’d kill herself if she has to stay in there.”
“We’ll get her out,” Edmund said. “But you’ll have to put up bail. It might be five hundred dollars.”
Robert walked me out to my car and opened the door and put me in. “Can I see you tonight?” he asked. “I’d like to kill some more mosquitoes.” He grinned widely, holding the door for me, so sure of himself, so satisfied and vain. I started disliking him intensely.
“No. I don’t know, I have to find out if Malcolm really left. What if he stays here and he comes over? It scares me, Robert, he was really mad. Look what happened at Klane’s.”
&
nbsp; “Oh, Edmund will take care of it. No one minds if the blacks kill each other.”
“I care. And I don’t believe she did it. I talked to her. You should have seen her face. Why couldn’t someone fall on a knife? Someone could fall on a knife.”
“Oh, Rhoda. Really. Don’t talk like a fool. Of course she killed her. Nonetheless, Edmund can handle it. Can you come up with the money?”
“Of course I can. Well, I’d better go now. I have a neighbor watching the children. I don’t have any help. God, that’s all I need with Malcolm running around God knows where.”
“We’ll get your maid back. Don’t worry about it. Can I come over tonight if you find out he’s left?”
“I guess so. I’ll call you later. Where will you be?”
“Call the newspaper later. I’ll be in and out all day.”
“Thanks for helping. Thanks for getting your cousin.”
“He’s a lawyer. This is what he does. We have him on retainer for the paper, of course. Maybe he’ll waive the fee.” He grinned again and I could just imagine the conversation where he told Edmund he was fucking me. I was really getting irritated and the sun was beating down. It was past noon and it was hot.
“I’ll call you later,” I said, and drove off and left him standing there with his totally self-satisfied expression extending even to his wrinkled seersucker suit.
When I got home, Malcolm was in the yard playing with the children. He had gotten them from the neighbor and had even fed them lunch. He had made peanut butter sandwiches and put them on little plates with potato chips and pickles. He had poured milk. “I’m glad you came back,” I said. “I love you. I want to fuck you. Let’s put them to bed and go make love.”
“I should go back to the plant. I talked to Dave, Rhoda. He said to come back over here and talk to you and give it one more try. If you want to try this again then I will too.” He stood up beside the swing set, looking so old and so young, so worried and determined. My guilt over fucking Robert covered me like a pall. It spread up my arms and legs and into my face and I knew that at any moment I might confess and wait for him to kill me. “Let me make love to you,” I said instead. “I’m so terrible, Malcolm. I’m so crazy and I drink too much but I’m going to quit. I’m getting some Antabuse and I’m going to take it. I swear I am. I won’t drink anymore, ever. I swear to God I won’t. I want you to love me. I want so much to be good.” The children had stopped playing and come to stand between us. Little Malcolm was holding on to Malcolm’s legs and Jimmy was pulling on me. “Let’s try to get them to sleep,” I said. “Let’s take them inside.” I looked up into my husband’s face. Would anything ever make up for what I had done already? Could anything forgive and wash away my badness? I was so bad I’d be lucky if I lived another day. I picked up Jimmy and moved closer to Malcolm and laid my hand upon his cheek. “Please love me,” I said. “Please try to forgive me and give me another chance.”
On Tuesday morning Klane was back in my kitchen. Subdued, darkened, but back. The trial was set for late November, almost three months away.
“Are you okay?” I asked. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I guess I will,” she answered. “I guess I’m doing okay.”
“Everyone’s testifying for you. Edmund said everybody was on your side. There’s no way you’ll be convicted.”
“If I am, I’ll kill myself. I won’t stay in no jail.”
“You won’t be in jail. I swear you won’t.” She was putting her jacket in the closet. Setting her purse on the shelf. “Look, can you baby-sit for us on Saturday? The Havertys want us to go with them to their place up on the lake. Could you stay on Saturday?”
“What time?”
“Around noon. Until six or seven at night. Could you come then?”
“I’ll try. I’ll see if I can. How’s the baby doing?”
“He’s better. Go on in and see if he’s waking up. He’s been missing you. We’ve all been missing you.”
“I’ll wait till he wakes. I need me some coffee. I didn’t get much sleep last night.” She poured herself a cup of coffee and brought it over to the table. She bent over it, then she lifted her head and looked up at me. There was so much pain in her eyes I couldn’t look at it. I lowered my eyes and she looked away.
Light was pouring in the windows. Pouring down upon the kitchen table with its blue and white china and its white-painted enamel top and the vase of lilies I had cut that morning.
Klane sipped her coffee, then set the cup down into its saucer and was still. Her hands lay in a streak of sunlight. I met her eyes again; the pain was still there, so deep and old and frazzled there was no way to untangle it.
“I know what,” I said. “We’ve got half a bottle of wine in the refrigerator. This South African wine Robert got from his cousin. Let’s drink some of it. I haven’t had a drink in the morning but once in my life and that was at a hunt breakfast. I mean, early in the morning like this. Have you ever?”
“I don’t know. You mean, when you get up, not staying up all night?”
“Yeah.” I got up, opened the refrigerator, and took out the bottle. “This is so decadent. We’ll just have one glass, then I’ll help you do the floors. The floors are a goddamn mess. They tracked in all that rain from yesterday and God knows what all.” I took down two gold-banded wineglasses and filled them with wine and handed one to her. She took it and shook her head.
“Listen, Klane,” I said. “I’m going over to the library later to study something. It’s by this man named Freud who discovered everything about the brain. The brain’s divided into three parts and they are always fighting against each other. One part is the ego, that’s the part that’s you and me. Like I think I’m Rhoda and you think you’re Klane. Then there’s the superego, it’s like your daddy, and the third part is the id. I don’t know what it does yet because this stuff is so hard to read and you have to work real hard to figure it out. I’m going back to the library this afternoon and read it some more.”
I lifted my glass and drank it off. Then I picked up the bottle and filled my glass again and waited while she drank hers and filled it. “We might as well finish off this little bit. What the hell, we’ve had a pretty terrible week. God, I almost died when I had to come and see you in that cell. Goddammit, Klane. I was so scared. Weren’t you scared to death?” She kept on looking at me. I reached over and took her hand. “You never have to go back in there,” I promised. “There is no way on earth that anyone will put you back into a jail.” I drank my second glass of wine. Sun poured in the window. “Listen, Klane,” I went on. “Edmund said there was nothing for you to worry about. He said there is no way on earth they are going to put you in jail and leave your little children with no one to take care of them.” A very slight breeze blew in the door, harbinger of rain coming from the Gulf. I felt very old suddenly, mean and powerful and cynical and old. I could make too many calls. I could pull strings. Robert owned the newspaper. My new friend, Speed, owned all the real estate downtown. There wasn’t any justice anyway, or any law, there was only this, knowing people and making calls and getting all the men to be in love with you. “You’re safe,” I added. “I swear you are.” I poured us a third glass of wine. “You wouldn’t believe how interesting it is to read this stuff about the brain. We just walk around all day and we don’t even know what’s up there. I mean, we all have a brain and we don’t even understand the parts of it.”
“I believe I’ll make Mr. Malcolm a gumbo for his supper tonight,” Klane giggled. “And some of them little short biscuits from that recipe his momma gave us. You ought to be nicer to him, Rhoda. He’s twice the man of Mr. Haverty. Mr. Haverty don’t ever even go to work. When I used to work for them he used to stay in bed half the day.”
“I’m nice to him. I’m nice as I can be. Well, I got to go take a bath and get dressed. I might go on over to the library as soon as it opens.” I stood up. Drinking wine in the morning was a wonderful idea. Having Klane back in the kitchen
was wonderful. It was a wonderful world and the sun was shining and would probably go on shining until two or three o’clock that afternoon. I bent down and kissed Klane on the cheek. The babies appeared in the door. They had climbed out of their beds and come to see what was going on.
“Cereal,” Jimmy said. “Cereal, potato chips.”
“Where’s my gun?” Little Malcolm put in. “Jimmy put my gun somewhere.”
“It’s right here where you left it,” Klane said. “Don’t go blaming everything on Jimmy all the time.”
“That’s probably the id part.” I was searching his skull for the divisions. “I bet that’s the id that’s always trying to start a fight. Yeah, that’s the id, over there in the middle. It’s sure not the superego. That’s us, Klane, when we boss them around.” I grabbed Little Malcolm on his way to get his gun from underneath the high chair and gave him a kiss and ran my hand across his head. Klane got up and went over to where Jimmy was standing in the doorway. She picked him up and cuddled his fat little body into her arms. She sat back down and let him hug her while she finished off her wine. I drank the rest of mine. Little Malcolm picked up his machine gun and went out into the backyard to look for targets.
“I don’t boss them,” Klane said, hugging Jimmy’s soft fragrant little body to her. “It don’t do no good to boss them, Rhoda. When you going to figure that out? All you can do is hug them and feed them and keep them out of trouble. Get trouble out of their way.”
“I haven’t finished reading it yet. I just barely got started.”
“Well, I got to get on them floors sometime today so don’t stay gone the whole time I’m here.”
“I’ll be back by noon.” I walked over to the door and looked out into the yard. Little Malcolm was pushing his playhouse toward the fence. Every week or so he managed to get it all the way to the fence and climbed out and ran away but usually we pushed it back to the middle of the yard before he made an escape. “He’s pushing his house,” I said. “How far do you think we ought to let him move it?”
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