by Mary Monroe
“Leon, you can stop now. I already told you that getting married in the courthouse is fine with me,” I chuckled. “And if you change your mind later on, we can always renew our vows in a church.”
I avoided Mama, Inez, and everybody else for the next few days. I didn’t have enough nerve to tell them that the big church wedding that they’d been wanting to experience wasn’t going to happen. At least not with me.
I got Mama’s answering machine when I called from the Hyatt Hotel in nearby Cleveland. That’s where Leon and I had checked in right after we’d exchanged vows at the courthouse, six months after our first date.
Leon didn’t believe in spending money on frivolous things, like the weeklong honeymoon in Niagara Falls I’d suggested. I didn’t argue with him at the time, but I’d pouted behind his back. I decided that it would be to my advantage to keep our disagreements to a minimum until our marriage was more secure.
I didn’t leave a message for Mama. But when I called Inez’s house and got her answering machine, too, I didn’t hesitate to leave a message telling her that Leon and I had “eloped.” Before I could hang up, Inez clicked off her answering machine and picked up the telephone.
“I’m here,” she said in a low, raspy voice.
“Please be happy for me,” I pleaded. “I love Leon, and he loves me. That’s all that counts. I never said it, but I didn’t want you to marry Vince. I was happy for you, anyway. Not that I didn’t like Vince, but I honestly didn’t think that he was the right man for you at the time.”
“Well, apparently Vince didn’t think he was the right man for me, either,” Inez told me.
“Excuse me? Inez, tell me what’s going on,” I demanded.
“I packed his shit and told him to get the hell out of my house before I threw him out. I filed for divorce yesterday.”
“Already? You’re practically still a newlywed!”
“Better now than later. He wanted to change me. He started talking about how he wanted me to tone down my wardrobe, stop wearing so much make-up, and get rid of my blond weave. No man is going to change me.”
“Are you all right?”
“I am now. Some of my best friends are bartenders.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t around to…to talk. I swear to God, Inez, if I had known, I would have been there for you.”
“You need to be there for your husband now, baby girl. I’ll be fine.”
“I’ll stop by the shop as soon as we get home, day after tomorrow. We can go for drinks,” I suggested, feeling guilty because I was so happy about my marriage, and Inez’s had just ended—again.
“Where are you?”
“We are at the Hyatt. Uh, Leon didn’t want to go to Niagara Falls or on a honeymoon cruise.”
“Well if I was him I’d have chosen the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Cleveland over Niagara Falls, too.”
“Inez, please don’t start that shit,” I said, blowing out a plaintive sigh. “You didn’t want anybody to make fun of you when you married any of your…uh…three husbands.” There was a moment of silence before we both laughed. I didn’t know about Inez, but I had to force myself to laugh. “So when and where do you want to hook up for drinks when I get home?”
“I’m getting out of town for a couple of weeks. I’ll call you when I get back and we’ll decide then. I booked a flight to Barbados this morning. As a matter of fact, the cab’s out there now,” Inez said, talking fast. Inez had already seen more of the world than any other person I knew. Being her own boss, and having the kind of money she needed to do just about anything she wanted, it was nothing for her to jet off to some exotic location at the spur of the moment.
“Will you call me as soon as you get back home so we can get together?”
“I will. And, Renee, congratulations and good luck. I really mean it.”
I was surprised when I turned around and saw Leon standing a few feet behind me.
“That was Inez. She and Vince broke up. He’s moved out, and she’s already filed for divorce.” I shook my head and looked away. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw a cruel smile cross Leon’s face.
CHAPTER 12
Leon was the one to break the news to Mama. I didn’t even know he had done it until she called the hotel the day before we checked out.
“I don’t care what that man do to you, you better stay with him. There ain’t never been a divorce in our family,” Mama told me. “And your baby sister is mad because she spent her last penny on one of them throwaway cameras, which she bought to take pictures of the wedding with. I hope you know what you doing, gal,” Mama said in a gruff voice. I never got mad at my mother when she stuck her nose in my business. I didn’t know too many women who didn’t go through some of the same things with their mothers that I went through with mine. I usually listened to Mama, with respect and patience. After all, she had made a lot of sacrifices for me. But I was my own woman, so I always did what I wanted to do, anyway.
“I love Leon, Mama,” I purred. I had just come out of the shower. One towel covered my body; another one covered my wet hair. Leon was stretched out on the bed, in just the bottom part of the silk pajamas I’d bought him. “I’m never going to let him go,” I vowed, giving my new husband a playful kick with my damp foot. “Mama, can I call you when we get home Monday? I am still on my honeymoon.”
“And that’s another thing. When you was a little girl, all you talked about was going to Niagara Falls for your honeymoon. It’s a crying shame you ended up on a honeymoon in Cleveland of all places. Right in your own backyard!” Mama paused and clicked her teeth. “And with all that money Leon makes working for the IRS, the least he could have done was take you off somewhere romantic.” After saying such a mouthful, Mama had to stop to catch her breath. And it didn’t take her long to do that. She had other things to say that I didn’t want to hear, which she whispered. “I heard Leon was stingy. I bet he’ll be shoving chicken gizzards down your throat for dinner three times a week. You better hope you don’t lose your job at that schoolhouse.”
“Mama, I have to go now.” I hung up before Mama could get another word in. Mama was the only person I knew who could turn a dream into a nightmare. I tossed a pillow at Leon’s head. “You could have waited until I got out of the shower. I wanted to be the one to tell her.”
“Well, I didn’t. Now get dressed so we can go out and get something to eat,” he ordered, rising.
“Baby, wouldn’t it be nicer if we stayed in and ordered room service? Don’t you just want to lie here and…uh…you know.” I winked.
“Come on. We’re going out to get something to eat,” Leon replied.
“What if I don’t want to go with you?” I said, folding my arms defiantly, my bottom lip poked out like a five-year-old’s. I couldn’t believe we were already having our first disagreement as a married couple.
“You’re going. Now get your lazy butt up and get dressed. Put on that lime green dress I like so much. Sisters with your bronze tone complexion look so damned good in green.”
I removed a pair of jeans and a beige silk blouse from the small suitcase that I had packed. Before I could get dressed, Leon snatched the clothes out of my hand and tossed them to the top of the dresser. With a mischievous grin on his face, he flipped open my suitcase and fished out the lime green dress he liked so much and tossed it on top of my head. I slid into the dress without saying a word. I was in too much of a romantic mood to argue any further.
I didn’t like the fact that Leon was already making decisions without any input from me. Robbie Dunbar would never have done that. As strange as it seemed, I really missed Robbie. I knew that I was going to spend the rest of my days wondering what my life would have been like if I had married him. Poor Robbie. I prayed that he would find a suitable mate.
By the time Leon and I got to the Full Moon restaurant three blocks from the hotel, I had calmed down. Right after our stiff-lipped waiter dropped menus on our table, I excused myself to go to the ladies’ room. By t
he time I got back to the table, Leon had ordered for me.
“I didn’t want an omelet,” I protested, pinching his arm. “I wanted pancakes.”
“Well, the next time we go out to eat, I advise you to order before you run off to the ladies’ room to primp,” he said, looking at his watch. “And hurry up. There’s a game coming on in a couple of hours.”
I took a sip of water and forced myself to smile. It dawned on me that Leon was showing me another side of himself, and it was already making me uncomfortable. He liked to be in control, and that was one of the things that had drawn me to him. However, that quality had been a lot more subtle before I’d become his wife.
A cramp shot through my stomach like a comet. All of a sudden, I was concerned about my future with Leon. As much as I had always wanted a man who had more of a backbone than Robbie, I didn’t want a man who made all my decisions for me.
Leon had made it clear that he was in no hurry to have another child. He had a nine-year-old daughter by a woman that he had lived with for several years. He loved his child, and he took good care of her, but even though she was only nine, Collette was a mess. Not only was she moody and materialistic, she had a hard time getting along with other kids. She had been kicked out of every elementary school in Butler. Leon had just enrolled her in a swank private school in Cleveland Heights. More than once he had told me that he was glad he had only one child to deal with.
But I wanted a child, and I wanted one soon. That’s why I flushed my birth control pills down the toilet as soon as we got back to our hotel room.
CHAPTER 13
Inez stayed in Barbados for ten days. I received a postcard from her, letting me know that after she left that island, she was going to stop off in Jamaica for an additional few days. Unlike Inez, I didn’t like to run away from my problems. I liked to sit down with someone who cared about me and talk things over. Inez was the best listener I had ever known. There was not a psychiatrist, or a bartender, in town that I would rather tell my troubles to before Inez.
I was glad that I had made the decision on my own to try and get pregnant, but this was something that I wanted to discuss with my best friend. Not that I wanted her to give me any advice, but it would have been nice just to have her around to listen to me.
I enjoyed being married. I felt like a totally different woman. I looked and acted differently. And other people noticed, even some of my second-grade students. “Miss Beakes, why come you all the time smiling and humming stupid songs now?” asked Walter Marrell, the most obnoxious youngster in my class this year. Walter looked like a gnome, with his lopsided head, long ears, and round, flat nose. But he still liked to draw attention to himself. His small black eyes seemed to look right through me as he anxiously awaited my response.
“Walter, you must remember that I am Mrs. Webb now. No more Miss Beakes. I got married,” I said proudly. I stood in front of my class, with the latest Harry Potter book in my hand, preparing to read a few excerpts to them.
“Why did you get married, Miss Beakes?” the same boy asked, with a giggle, his two front teeth missing. “Now you got to sleep in the same bed with a strange man.” The whole class snickered.
“Walter, married people sleep together. Now if you don’t mind, let’s confine our attention to our good friend Harry Potter,” I said firmly, holding up the front of the book. I didn’t read much for my own pleasure, but when I did, it was usually a novel by a popular African American author, like Carl Weber or Mary B. Morrison. I’d already read most of the classics and more textbooks than I could remember, so Harry Potter was as much a treat for me as it was for my students.
But Walter seemed more interested in my story than Harry’s. He occupied a desk at the front of the classroom, right across from my cluttered desk, so he was hard to ignore. “My daddy makes all kinds of strange noises when he’s in the bed with my mama,” Walter announced, facing his classmates. Then he turned to me. “Miss Beakes, do you and your husband make a lot of strange noises in the bed?” This time the class roared with laughter.
The bell rang before either Walter or I could say another word. And the subject was never brought up again. At least not in my classroom. I wanted to share cute little stories like this one with Leon, but he didn’t have a lot of interest in what went on in an elementary school. I didn’t bother to tell him about little Walter’s comments. However, I told him about the time that Mindy Stargen came to school with a condom she’d found in her father’s pants pocket, blowing it up like a balloon during show-and-tell. Leon didn’t laugh or even comment about that incident, or any of the others that I shared with him, even though I gave him my undivided attention all the times he held me hostage for hours on end, repeating conversations he’d had with difficult taxpayers. Inez seemed to be the only one who was genuinely interested in my day-to-day life, and that’s why I spent so much time hanging around her nail shop.
The two sisters that Inez employed, Pat Jenkins and Shonda Jones, got sick of me coming into Soulful Nails while she was still out of the country, whining about how I needed to talk to Inez. Their impatience and exasperation showed on their faces each time they saw mine. But I didn’t let that stop me.
“She didn’t tell you what hotel she was going to be staying in?” I asked, looking from Pat to Shonda. Both of them had on more make-up than Ronald McDonald. Like Inez, they thought their shit didn’t stink, but in a good way. I was one woman who was not afraid to admit that I admired and envied confident women.
Impatient customers were lined up in chairs along the wall like convicts. Pat and Shonda were both frantically filing and buffing the fingernails and toenails of the two women who occupied the seats in front of them.
“Inez didn’t want nobody to know how to find her,” Shonda said, tossing her head back so that her blond weave flopped and fluttered like a scarf. She handled the nail drill like it was a Gatling gun, looking up from the customer in front of her just long enough to glance at my shabby nails and give me a disgusted look.
“If Inez calls, tell her to call me,” I ordered, curling my fingers into a fist to hide my raggedy nails.
Just when I was about ready to start climbing the walls, Inez came home four days after my last visit to the nail shop. It was Halloween night, so when I went to answer the doorbell, I carried a large bowl that I had filled with suckers and other goodies.
“Trick or treat!” I yelled as I snatched open my door, expecting to see the faces of some of the neighborhood kids grinning up at me. I was shocked to see Inez standing in my doorway, loaded down with gifts and souvenirs.
What was even more shocking was the fact that Leon was with her. “This handsome devil you married was sweet enough to pick me up and drive me home from the airport,” Inez squealed. She leaned toward me and air-kissed my cheeks.
“He what?” I mouthed, puzzled. The bowl suddenly felt twice as heavy in my hand.
“I tried to call you, and everybody else I know, to come pick me up. Leon was the only person I was able to reach,” Inez explained, with a sheepish look on her face. Over her shoulder, I saw Leon dragging his feet up our walkway. There was an odd expression on his face. He looked like the grinning jack-o’-lantern I had set on our front porch banister a few days ago. “Your honey was sweet enough to bring me by here first.” Inez said the word “honey” like it was painful. I looked from her to Leon and back to her, trying to figure them both out. They were not acting like two people who couldn’t stand one another.
I didn’t know what confused me more: the fact that Inez had suddenly returned and come straight to my house, or the fact that Leon—who had just referred to her as the poor man’s Paris Hilton the night before—had picked her up from the airport.
“Girl, I’ve been dying to talk to you!” I squealed, hugging Inez. I set the bowl of candy on the end table next to my sofa and threw my arms around her. She had lost a few pounds, which made her body look even more luscious. But with her hair hidden under a scarf and no make-up, she loo
ked rather plain from the neck up.
“I want to hear all about Barbados and Jamaica,” I told Inez, smiling at Leon as he made his way into the living room.
“I’m going to fix myself a drink. Why don’t I fix you sisters something, too?” he suggested, his gaze darting back and forth from Inez to me.
I looked at Leon and blinked. There was a nervous smile on his face.
“I’d like a large cosmopolitan,” Inez said, flopping down on the sofa, dropping the shopping bags on the floor.
“A cosmo it is,” Leon sang. “And I’ll fill up the largest glass in the house,” he added, with a chuckle. He stepped forward a few feet, with his arms stretched open like he wanted to hug the world. This was one man who was full of surprises.
“And don’t be stingy with the vodka,” Inez warned Leon.
I was surprised but pleased to see my best friend and my husband speaking in such a friendly manner. It was a reason for me to celebrate.
“I’d like a margarita,” I chirped, smiling at Inez as I eased down on the other end of the sofa. As soon as Leon left the room, I turned to her, with both my eyebrows raised. “It takes thirty minutes to get here from the airport.”
“True,” Inez said, tilting her head to the side, an amused look on her face. She slid the scarf back off her face, revealing mild sunburn on her forehead. “And?”
“And what did you and Leon talk about for thirty minutes?” I wanted to know. I was so pleased to see Inez that I didn’t really care what she had discussed with my husband. It was enough for me to see that they had reached such a milestone in their “relationship.”
Inez shrugged. “Nothing much. I slept most of the way.” She rose, lifting one of the shopping bags. “I got you one of those straw purses you’ve always wanted.”
I sighed, suddenly slipping back into the slight and mysterious depression I’d been experiencing since my marriage. “Let’s do lunch tomorrow. I need a sounding board,” I told Inez.