by Mary Monroe
“We ain’t never had no dentist come to the house before,” Too Sweet said, plopping down on the arm of the couch next to Reed. She looked at him like she wanted to eat him. So did Elaine and it was no wonder. He was tall and he had an athletic body. With his slanted black eyes, curly black hair, pecan-brown complexion, and thin lips, he was way more handsome than most of the men Elaine dated.
Mama was beaming like a high-powered flashlight. She couldn’t take her eyes off Reed. Even my lanky, hard-to-please stepfather was impressed. Elmo couldn’t stop grinning, showing off his tobacco-stained teeth and the deep lines around his mouth and cloudy gray eyes. He offered Reed some of his best scotch. Mama invited him to stay for dinner. Reed took a rain check on the dinner invitation, but he didn’t hesitate to accept the scotch and he probably needed it to calm his nerves. The conversation was neutral. We discussed sports, current world events, and even some TV shows. I could see that Reed was uncomfortable, so I was not going to prolong his visit.
“We’d better leave soon or they’ll give up our restaurant reservation,” I said, looking at my watch.
Reed had only consumed half of his drink, but he glanced at me and then finished what was left in one swallow.
“Reed, I’m glad you ain’t one of them grumpy old men like Dr. Thompson, the only other black dentist I know of in this town. It’s nice for us to have such a nice-looking, young black dentist for a change.” Too Sweet grinned at him.
“Sure enough,” Mama agreed, still beaming like a high-powered flashlight. “Reed, honey, are you sure you don’t want to stay and have dinner with us? It’s a mean one today—mac and cheese, pig ears, greens, corn bread, and peach cobbler.”
After hearing Mama describe one of our typical meals, Reed looked like he wanted to puke and bolt. I didn’t know him well, but he was a dentist and he probably socialized with a lot of sophisticated people of various ethnicities. I had a feeling that the black people he associated with no longer ate pig ears and greens and whatnot—if they ever had.
“Uh, no and thanks for asking again,” he chortled, blinking hard. “Maybe next time.”
Right after he set his shot glass down on the coffee table, he and I rose at the same time. With everybody asking him all kinds of mundane questions about his practice and his recent trip to Martinique, it took another ten minutes before I could get him out the door and into his car. I decided not to waste any more time to tell him the reason I needed to see him. Just as he was about to turn on the motor of his Lexus, I blurted it all out.
“Reed, I’m going to have a baby.”
His hands froze on the steering wheel and he let out a loud gasp. He whirled around to look at me. There was such a stunned look on his face that it could have stopped a clock. “What did you just say?” he croaked.
“I’m pregnant. And you’re the father.” I sniffed. “I know a man like you is probably in a serious relationship with another girl, and I’m not trying to cause you any trouble. But it is what it is.”
Reed narrowed his eyes and blinked nervously. A few seconds went by before he spoke again, and it was in a very shaky and hoarse tone of voice. “I was involved with someone a couple of weeks before I met you, but it didn’t work out.” He paused and shook his head. “Well . . . I . . . are you sure you’re pregnant?”
“I’m pretty sure,” I said with a nod.
“Does your family know yet?”
“Uh-huh,” I replied with another nod. Last year I thought I was pregnant. When I told the boy who was responsible, the first thing out of his mouth was “By who?” I was so glad Reed had not said something that insensitive and insulting. “I told them yesterday. They were disappointed and my parents fussed at me for ten minutes nonstop, but they told me they’d be there for me, no matter what.”
“Hmmm. I’m glad to hear you have such an understanding and supportive family. I never would have guessed that they knew already, as nice as they were to me. I’m lucky your stepfather didn’t kick my ass.”
“Two of my sisters were pregnant before they got married, so me getting pregnant is no big deal. I just wanted you to meet some of my folks today, my parents especially. I told them not to mention my condition until I had told you.”
I glanced out the window and saw Elaine peeping from one living-room window and Too Sweet peeping from another. Elmo and Mama were so bold, they stood in the doorway; Elmo had his hands on his hips, and Mama was smiling and still beaming as they stared toward Reed’s car. They saw that he drove a shiny new Lexus, so I knew they were all on cloud nine, for sure, by now. I was glad when they all disappeared back into the house a few moments later.
I knew that when I got back home, those four and everybody else who’d be home at the time would get all up in my business.
Reed sighed and then he touched my shoulder and looked at me for a long time with his lips parted just enough for me to see his teeth. They were perfect and his breath was minty fresh. But I’d never known a dentist with a mouth full of yellow rotting teeth and foul breath. What Reed said next made my heart sing. I was suddenly so overwhelmed with joy and relief, it was hard for me to hold back my tears.
“Joan, I really do care about you and I certainly care about the child you’re carrying. If I’m the father, I intend to do the right thing.”
“Meaning what?” That other dude had offered to drive me to and from the abortion clinic and pay for any medicine if I needed it. I’d told him right away that I did not believe in killing unborn babies. When I found out that same night I was not pregnant and called him to let him know, he told me to “stay the hell away” from him. “What is the right thing, Reed? I’m not getting an abortion!” I said quickly.
“I should hope not! God is the only one who has the right to take a baby’s life!” he yelled. I was so glad to hear that we were on the same page about abortion. “I promised my mother that if I ever got a girl pregnant, I wouldn’t hesitate to marry her,” he said with a serious look on his handsome face.
I couldn’t believe my ears. Reed’s reaction to my news was way more positive than I had expected. The moment I’d realized I was pregnant, I started fantasizing about being married to him, but I had not expected him to suggest it so soon, if at all. I would have been happy if he had only told me he’d support the baby and have a relationship with him or her.
“You’d marry me even though we don’t know one another that well? And even though I’m still in high school?”
Reed shrugged. “Well, if you don’t want to get married, I will make sure you and the baby are taken care of. I know you’re still very young, and if being a mother gets to be too much for you, I’d be more than happy to take full custody of the child. Mother’s been praying for a grandchild to fuss over.”
“Are you serious?”
He started the motor. “Yes, I am very serious. I didn’t think I’d get married before I turned thirty, but things happen.”
“We can get a DNA test done so you’ll know I’m not lying about you being the father,” I offered.
Reed turned toward me with his mouth hanging open. “DNA?” he said with a loud gulp. “Will that be necessary?”
“No, but I don’t want you to have any doubts.”
“Were there . . . uh . . . any other men around the same time as me?”
I shook my head. “The night I met you, I hadn’t been with anybody for months. And I haven’t been with anybody since that night. And I hope you don’t think I’m lying.”
“Joan, I believe you. Now, if you want to get a DNA test just for the sake of it, we can do it. I liked you the first time I saw you, and . . .” Reed stopped talking and chuckled. “I thought I’d never tell you this, but even before I got you alone, I told my buddies at the party that I was going to marry you someday.”
“You did?”
“Uh-huh. I knew you were young when I first saw you, but the lighting was dim and I had been drinking, so you looked at least eighteen. Now that I’ve seen you in better lighting, you
look about fourteen or fifteen. Had I known you were only seventeen and still in high school, I would not have approached you.”
“I told my hairdresser I was eighteen. She wouldn’t have invited me to the party if I’d told her my real age.”
“Well, I guess I’m glad you lied about your age.”
“I’m glad I lied too.” I was so elated it was hard for me to keep myself from giggling like a giddy teenager—even though that was exactly what I was. “I’d be happy to be your wife—if my parents let me get married. I mean, I hardly know you.”
“True. Would you rather wait a couple of years so we can take our time and really get to know one another?”
“If you’re willing to marry me now, that’s fine. I don’t want to wait a couple of years to get to know you, but I can wait a couple of months. That’s enough time for us to get to know one another. . . I think.”
“What do you really want to do, Joan?”
“I want to be married before I have my baby. That’s what I really want to do.”
“Then we’ll get married. All you have to do is let me know when you want to do it.”
“Okay,” I mumbled. Tears of joy slid down the side of my face. I smiled all the way to the seafood restaurant we went to. We held hands in a candlelit booth while we made plans for our future.
Chapter 15
Joan
ONE THING I DIDN’T LIKE ABOUT THE WOMEN IN MY FAMILY WAS that they all gained a huge amount of weight when they got pregnant. Losing my shape was one of my biggest fears. But since I was probably going to blow up like a blimp, anyway, I promptly ordered a whole loaf of garlic bread for myself.
Reed and I decided not to tell anyone else, not even his parents, about my condition until we were absolutely sure. He volunteered to make an appointment for me with one of his doctor friends for the following week.
Lola sounded happy when I called her up later that night and told her what Reed and I had discussed. She wished me well, but after a few minutes, her tone changed. Her well wishes now sounded like complaints. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now. I’m going to miss hanging out with you,” she whined.
“Nothing will change between us when Reed and I get married,” I insisted.
“The hell it won’t. No married man is going to let his wife keep running around with her single friends. Him being a dentist, you’ll be meeting all kinds of upper-class folks. And once you have your baby, you’ll be carpooling, and planning PTA events, and having lunch with soccer moms. Next thing I know, you’ll be joining the country club and going to tea parties. . . .”
“Lola, please don’t spoil things.”
“I’m not spoiling things! You’re the one who got pregnant!”
“I didn’t plan this,” I shot back. “I thought you were happy for me.”
“I am. And I’m sorry for . . . Oh, Lord! I just thought of something! What about those old men?”
“What about them?”
“Are you going to keep writing letters to them?”
“Of course I am. I don’t see why I should stop right away. Besides, some of the letters are a hoot. Last week my old dude in Tulsa sent me a picture of his dick! I never laughed so hard in my life!” Joan guffawed. “Thank God he included a couple of hundred dollars with it.”
“But with the kind of money Reed must be making, you won’t be needing money from your pen pals.”
“What if he’s stingy and puts me on a strict budget? That’s one thing. Another thing is, for all I know, he and I might get married and not even stay together. My sister Elaine and her husband didn’t stay married a year.”
“Well, I’m happy if you’re happy. I just didn’t think things would change so drastically, all of a sudden. With a husband and a baby, you’re going to be so busy you might not have time to keep writing to your pen pals, or time for me. . . .”
“I will make time for you! Until I know how things are going to go with Reed, I’m going to keep writing to my pen pals. What about you?”
“I guess I’ll keep writing to them too,” Lola said dryly. “Why not?”
I could tell that she was more than a little concerned about the future of our relationship. She suddenly wanted to end the call and asked me to call her the next morning so we could have our usual Saturday-morning chat.
Even with Too Sweet snoring, I went to sleep as soon as I laid my head on my pillow and I slept like a baby.
I got up early the next morning. As usual, there was a ruckus going on downstairs, so it was hard to sleep in, anyway. I planned to call Lola after I had polished my nails. Before my polish had even dried, she called me. The moment I heard her frantic voice, I knew something was wrong. I was not prepared for what she told me.
When she told me that she had just gotten rid of the wife of one of my pen pals who had come to her house a few minutes ago to kick my ass, I knew it was time for us to get off our gravy train. I was afraid, and from the panic in Lola’s voice, I could tell that she was too.
I was just about to bolt and head over to Lola’s house so we could send “breakup” letters to all of our pen pals when Mama accosted me in the hallway outside my bedroom. “Don’t you leave this house, gal, until you finish that laundry you started last night,” she barked, hands on her hips.
“Yes, ma’am,” I mumbled as I scrambled downstairs to the laundry room. I plucked clothes out of the dryer and folded everything as fast as I could. Then I did a few more chores that Mama had been badgering me about. It was over an hour and a half before I was able to head over to Lola’s house.
When I arrived, stomping up the front porch steps like a clumsy mule, Bertha snatched opened the door. She never attempted to hide her annoyance with me. She parted her chapped, liver-colored lips just enough to give me a blunt greeting. “Hello, Joan. You over here again?”
“Lola told me to come over,” I said defensively as I eased over the threshold, almost stepping on Bertha’s flat bare feet. She stepped out of my path and waved me toward the staircase.
I rushed up to Lola’s room, entered, and locked the door. She stood in front of her dresser with a pen in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other. “It’s about time you got here,” she said sharply.
“Mama made me do all kinds of shit first and I had to go pick up the stamps so we can mail the letters today,” I explained, my voice dropping almost to a whisper. “I got here as fast as I could.” I had run up the stairs, so I was huffing and puffing and even had to cough a couple of times to catch my breath.
Lola gave me a concerned look as I approached her. “Joan, are you feeling all right? You look terrible,” she said.
“I feel fine,” I said with a dismissive wave. “I’m just a little bit woozy and tired.”
“Well, you’d better get used to that.” Lola glanced at my stomach, then at my face, which was beginning to feel hot. I didn’t know if it was because of my condition or the real reason I had come to visit. “I still can’t believe you hadn’t told me about the mess you got yourself in sooner than you did,” she complained. “Pregnant at seventeen!”
“You didn’t tell Bertha about it yet, did you?”
“No, I didn’t tell her yet.”
“She sure was looking at me like she knew something.”
“That’s nothing new. She always thinks you’re up to no good,” Lola pointed out. “Do you want some tea or milk or something? Bobby left some weed the last time he was here. I could roll you a blunt.”
“You mean a joint? Lola, what makes you think I want to smoke some dope, especially in my condition?”
There was a scared look on her face. “I figured you’d be a little nervous after what I told you about that woman coming to beat you up. I thought you might want something to calm your nerves.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted. “And if I did need something to calm my nerves, it wouldn’t be some weed. I didn’t even know you smoked that shit.”
“I don’t and I never will. But like I said, Bobby
left some here. He’s fooling around with Cathy Harbor now, so I probably won’t hear from him again, and I don’t know what else to do with a bag of weed.”
“I’d like to stay on Elaine’s good side, so I’ll take it home and give it to her. Now let’s get this letter writing shit over with. I can’t stay long. Reed’s coming back today so we can continue discussing our plans,” I said as I plopped down onto the neatly made bed. I opened my backpack and dumped out the stamps and several pens. She had already placed the stationery and envelopes on her nightstand. She produced the list that had the names and addresses of her pen pals, and I removed mine from the front pocket of my backpack. Despite her ugly off-white furniture, the old-fashioned venetian blinds covering the windows, and the baby-shit-colored walls, I enjoyed spending time in Lola’s room because it was a lot more private than mine.
I was going to wait until I got home to write the final letter to Lee, that love-struck woman in Miami. I had changed my mind about telling her that lie about me having to take my mother to Mexico to live with my uncle Alex. Now I thought it would be better to tell her a stronger lie: I had just accepted a job with the Peace Corps and would be moving to Brazil and would write to her again once I got settled. With a story like that, I was convinced that she would not attempt to find the “man” she’d fallen in love with. I still didn’t want Lola to know that I had posed as Leroy Puckett and conned a female.
“I have a few things to do myself today, but I’m not doing anything until I get all my letters written,” she told me. I noticed her hands were shaking as she grabbed an envelope and began to address it. “I’m never doing anything like this again,” she snapped, giving me a menacing look.
“I’m not either,” I responded in a meek voice.
After we had composed all of the letters, we trotted to the mailbox at the corner. Since we had so many to mail, we decided that it might not be such a good idea to put them all in the same box at the same time. We dropped off only a couple at the first location. Then we roamed around to ten more boxes, with at least two or three blocks between each one. At one point, I got dizzy, so we stopped and sat on a bench at a bus stop for a few minutes. I couldn’t believe that I had already begun to feel like shit so early in my pregnancy. After I felt better, we left the bus stop and resumed our mission. I was so relieved when we dropped the last batch into a mailbox in front of the main library.