How to Knock a Bravebird from Her Perch : The First Novel in the Morrow Girls Series (9780985751616)

by Bryant Simmons, D.

  “See...um...the thing is, Mister Silverman...” I had to lean in to be sure the other folks weren’t listening to my business. “I don’t want my husband to know about this account. That’s why I came all the way over here. So, if you could not send anything to my house...”

  “I see. Well, if you want to write a different address on this line we can send your statements there instead.” I nodded and scribbled Helen’s address on the line he pointed to. “Very good, ma’am. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “Then let me give you my card.” He pulled one from the little thing sitting on his desk then another from inside his drawer. “And...this is my brother’s card. He has a family law practice. He’s an attorney.”

  “Attorney?”

  “Yes ma’am. One of the best...I think, but I suppose I’m prejudiced.”

  Joseph Silverman, attorney at law. His office wasn’t but a few blocks from the bank so I thought I’d give it a shot. See if there was something he could do for me. But Nat whined the whole way. She wasn’t nothing but sleepy but that ain’t what she said. First she wanted candy then she wanted me to carry her and on and on and on...by the time we got to the door with Silverman spelled out in gold letters I was just plain wore out. The receptionist had a little basket of peppermints on her desk and she pushed it forward a few inches so Nat could get some.

  “Say thank you.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Oh she’s welcome. Mr. Silverman might be a while. He doesn’t usually take walk-ins. But if you want to make an appointment...”

  My watch said one twenty-two. The girls were gonna be outta school at three. I had time. And I was afraid to put it off. Afraid of what would happen between now and then. So, I shook my head. Nat fell asleep across my lap and I sat there, thinking about all the things he might ask me. And the one thing I ain’t wanna say.

  Joseph Silverman looked just like his name. His head was covered in silver hair but other than that you couldn’t tell his age. He was about my height and looked like he was in a decent shape. I figured his wife was more or less happy.

  “Mrs. Morrow, please have a seat.”

  “Your brother said I should see you.”

  “Oh? Which brother would that be?”

  “Mr. Silverman...” I couldn’t remember his first name. “He said you’re the best.”

  “He’s very generous. What can I do for you today?”

  No matter where I put it my right hand just wouldn’t relax. It’d curl up or just start shaking. I finally wrapped it up in my other one and held it flat against my lap. He was looking and smiling at me like he had all day to watch me fiddling with my hand. “I ain’t really sure...I just thought I’d come by.”

  “Well, how about I tell you what I do here. Hmm? I’m a divorce lawyer for the most part. I help married people who decide they don’t want to be married anymore. Sometimes this means dividing up assets, if there are children, settling custody questions, if there’s a pre-nup involved, we might challenge that...any of this sound interesting to you?”

  “Custody. How does that work?”

  “It either goes to one parent or both. Usually the mother retains physical custody.”

  “But what if...what if I can’t afford to—”

  “It’s called child support. Your husband would give you money to help take care of the children every month.”

  “So then he can’t come around no more, right? If we divorced?”

  “Well...” Mr. Silverman’s chair squeaked a little as he leaned back, tapping his fingers against the arm of it. “If he wanted to go for visitation you would have to prove that he was a danger to your daughter.”

  “I can do that.”

  “You can?”

  “Mmhmm. I mean you could ask them. They’d tell you.” His eyes shot over to Nat who was yawning in the seat next to me. “She the youngest. I got three others. Nikki, she be twelve in January and Mya just made eight and Jackie seven. They good girls, won’t say nothing to just anybody, but if I tell them to, they will. Not that they lie or nothing, not really...I just mean they’d tell the truth when I tell them to.”

  “And what is the truth?”

  “That Ricky—my husband, he um...he a danger. To um...to anybody really. Anybody that get in his way.”

  “Well before I give you official advice, I should tell you that I operate on a fee schedule. I don’t require a retainer or anything but there is an hourly rate of one hundred and fifty dollars.”

  “For an hour?”

  “Yes ma’am. For every hour that I spend working on your case.”

  “How many hours will that take?”

  “I’m not sure.”

  “Oh.”

  “I don’t usually do this but...why don’t we consider this a free consultation?”

  “No, I can pay. I’ll pay. Um...today?”

  “Mrs. Morrow. Please. I’ve enjoyed meeting you. I hope that I can help you in the future.”

  “Yeah...yeah me too.”

  “We went to the silver man!” Nat said loud enough that I could hear her in the kitchen.

  Was a good thing Ricky wasn’t home. Not that he listened too tough to the things the girls said anyway but I ain’t wanna chance it. He hadn’t said much to me since he got home other than all those looks he gave. Ricky said more with his eyes than anybody I ever knew. I could feel him itching for a fight. Eventually all that family stuff he kept talking about was gonna rub off and he’d go back to his regular self.

  “So...how you doing, Pecan?”

  “Fine.”

  Helen sighed and looked me up and down, sipping from my favorite mug. “Yeah? How’s your part-time lover?”

  “Why don’t you just shout it out so the whole damn world can hear you?”

  “Ooo, somebody’s touchy.”

  “How I’m supposed to be?” I dusted another spoonful of sugar on the greens and stirred them up real good. “I’m married. And I ain’t heard from him in a while.”

  “So that’s why you and Ricky back together...because things ain’t work out with Mr. Wonderful? Girl, you hop from one man to the other. Don’t you know how to take a time-out?” She threw one leg over the other and laughed out loud like it was the funniest thing in the world. But I knew Helen ain’t mean any harm. She was just saying what other folks would say.

  “Yeah...I know.” The greens were smelling good so I moved on to check on the roast. Wasn’t that often we got to have it but since Ricky was back I made sure to get money from him for groceries. “I’m done with men!”

  “Girl, don’t even bother lying to me. I can’t get enough my damn self!”

  We were two cackling fools up in my kitchen. I even talked Helen into staying for supper. Figured more people to eat up Ricky’s food the more money I could get him to gimme. And the girls loved their Aunt Helen. She said all sorts of things they thought were funny. Just Helen being Helen. But not everybody loved Helen as she was. Ricky sat at the head of the dining table, chewing all loud and glaring at us.

  “I could put in a word for you with the store manager if you serious about working.”

  “Really? What kinda stuff would I do?”

  She shrugged and sucked down a few inches from her beer bottle. “Could be in the office, could be on the floor. You know Sears is a big company, girl. What would you wanna do?”

  “She don’t wanna do nothing except what she doing.” Ricky sliced through his meat like it did something to him personally. “Pecan, you ain’t tell your friend about our little news.”

  “What news?”

  “Nothing. He just joking.”

  Ricky swallowed real quick and went right back to slicing up another piece. “She busy. She got other things to be thinking about besides some nothing job.”

  “I don’t mind—”

  “What you wanna work for? I take care of you, don’t I? Huh? Don’t I give you whatever you want?”

 
; “Yeah, Ricky. It’s just an idea...”

  I was real grateful when Nikki decided to ask Helen about her latest boyfriend. After a while everybody forgot about my bright idea. Helen went on explaining what he looked like and the way he talked. Had us all laughing with her.

  “So, I told the man. You want all this? What you got for me? Girls, don’t let none of these knuckleheads sell you half of what you deserve. Just keep on moving. Right, Pecan?”

  “Yeah, they know.” I was too busy grinning to see what was coming next.

  “Y’all take y’all plates up in the front room.”

  “But ain’t no TV daddy.”

  “Go on do as I say.” But they stayed put, slow to follow his orders.

  “Ricky—”

  “I don’t want them listening to all your man bashing! Turn them into man eating dikes.”

  Helen giggled and nudged me under the table. “I don’t think dikes do that.”

  “Let me put it like this. I don’t want my girls turning out like you. Can’t keep a man to save your life.”

  “Ricky! She company!”

  “I look like I care? She in my house. At my table, eating my food. You tell her or I will...”

  I was so embarrassed I ain’t know what to do or say. Just sat there holding on to my napkin and staring at the middle of the table. The girls were right there with me. But Helen was new to our table. She didn’t know the rules.

  “Well, I think there’s a difference between not being able to keep a man and not taking no stuff. I can be miserable by my damn self. I don’t need a man for that.”

  “Yeah...” Ricky took a gulp of his beer and got up from the table. “Pecan, come on upstairs when she gone.”

  Helen ain’t even wait until Ricky was all the way upstairs before she turned to me with big eyes and said, “Ooo, girl, I ain’t know that’s what you was dealing with.”

  A quick nod and a smile was all I could manage. She kept on talking but I ain’t hear much after that. Was too busy thinking about what was coming next. Ricky’d probably jump in the shower but then he would be expecting me. Expecting me to make him feel better, feel like the man he liked to think he was and was only two ways to do that.

  “You want me to go?”

  “What? No. No, stay. He just cranky because he got this fight coming up. It’s okay. Girls, finish your supper.”

  “I don’t remember him being like that. Was he always like that?”

  “Yeah,” Jackie piped up. “I ain’t never getting married. Boys suck.”

  “I wanna get married,” Nikki said dreamily.

  Should’ve made me happy that she could still be so googly-eyed after all she’d seen but it didn’t. Just wanted to shake her and make her see reason. Make her think more about protecting herself than whatever googly-eyed thoughts were rolling through her head. I had time to set her straight so I piled one plate on top of another and headed into the kitchen. Helen followed behind me, carrying as many glasses as she could.

  “Look, I’m sorry if I was rude before. You know me. I get started talking and I can’t really stop until I say the wrong thing.”

  “You ain’t say the wrong thing. It ain’t you.”

  “No. I should learn to just keep my big mouth shut.”

  Sudsy water washed over my fingers and the words were just sitting there on the tip of my tongue. Begging to be said. So I said them. “Ricky hits me sometimes.”

  “What?” She leaned against the counter not really paying attention.

  I ain’t blame her since it was barely loud as a whisper. “He hits me,” I repeated. Then I waited. Seemed like forever. I washed a few plates, set them up to dry. And waited some more. “Helen?”

  “Yeah, I heard you.”

  “When you leave…most likely that’s what he’s gonna do. You hear me?” She gulped down whatever she was wanting to say and nodded. I ain’t never seen Helen speechless. Not until then. “Been going on for a while. Usually Clara could talk some sense into him but she gone now.”

  “How she do that?”

  “Shouting mostly. Sometimes she use a skillet or a shoe or something. Anything to get his attention.”

  “Pecan, look at me.” She squeezed both my arms until I thought she was fixing to ground me or something. My fingers dripped dishwater into little puddles all over the floor. “Why you ain’t tell me?”

  “I knew what you’d say. That I’m stupid or weak...I ain’t saying you wrong...”

  “I wouldn’t ever say that!”

  “PECAN!”

  We both leaped up outta our skins then held so tight to each other I couldn’t tell where she ended and I began. It was probably a good thing too. To have some of Helen rub off on me. Ricky kept on hollering, though. He hollered so much the girls came in the kitchen to see what I was doing. Helen just held me tighter. Then we heard his feet on the stairs. Tighter we held each other. And heard him coming down the hall. Tighter.

  “Pecan, I know you hear me—oh, you still here?”

  “Yeah,” Helen finally let me go long enough to melt her hand into mine. “But I ain’t leaving. Me and Pecan gonna have us an old-fashioned sleep over. What you girls think of that? Huh? Wanna have a sleepover?”

  I never had a better friend than Helen. The next day she took me to work with her. Told her boss that if he ain’t hire me they would miss out on the best saleswoman Chicago had ever seen. They put me on the schedule for the very next week. Said my paperwork should be processed by then. I was officially a working girl and hopefully one step closer to being one of them man eating dikes.

  Focus

  "MAMA, DON’T LEAVE.” NIKKI pleaded. “If she’s sick...”

  “She’s not sick. It’s just a cough. She’ll be fine.”

  Nat was wrapped around me like one of them monkeys at the zoo. Coughing her short dry little cough on my neck. Putting her to bed wasn’t too hard since she was barely awake. Nikki stood next to me, watching as I tucked her in.

  “She gonna wake up.”

  “Not before I get back. She’ll be fine. Okay? Just try to keep it down. Don’t y’all go screaming through the halls or nothing. Your daddy’ll be home in a few hours anyway.”

  “Why you gotta go?”

  “I gotta work.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, Nikki. I just do. Now you in charge until I get back. Y’all can go play in the snow once your daddy get home, okay? Just show him how to take her temperature and where the medicine is. Okay? You listening to me? It’s my first day. I need you to help me out.”

  “Okay.”

  Soon as she said it I had second thoughts. Wasn’t right leaving my baby alone when she was sick but I thought Nikki could handle things. The truth was I trusted her more than I trusted her daddy. But still...she wasn’t nothing but eleven years old. When I was eleven I ain’t have nobody to look out for but my dolls and stuffed animals. It was too much to put on her but she was all I had.

  “Here, I wrote down the number to the store. And you know Anise right across the street if you need anything...and your Auntie Paula...I’ll write down her number too. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Everything’s gonna be fine, okay?”

  “Okay, Mama.”

  On my way out the door I took a little detour across the street. Anise was always at home since her mama wasn’t really able to go anywhere. She answered the door on the first ring.

  “Hey, Pecan.”

  “Hey, can you go over and sit with my girls? Nat gotta little cold and I just feel better if somebody was with them. Or maybe they could come over here...”

  “Mama can’t have sick folk around her. Because of her immune system being so weak. You know she gotta have dialysis like four times a week now. They talking about just admitting her...”

  “Oh. I ain’t know.”

  “It’s okay.” Anise sighed and threw a quick glance over her shoulder. “Maybe I could go over for a little bit. When mama go down for her nap.”r />
  “Thanks.”

  “Um...Pecan?” She eased out the door damn near barefoot in her house slippers. It closed gently behind her and she rubbed her arms like she was trying to start a fire or something. “I ain’t trying to um...start nothing but I heard something I thought—I thought maybe I should tell you because we friends and all and if it was me I’d wanna know...”

  “Know what?” My watch said 3:15. I had thirty minutes to get to the store.

  “It’s just...you know how some folks like to shoot the messenger?”

  “I ain’t about to shoot you.”

  “It’s about Ricky.”

  Maybe it was her tone. Maybe it was how she looked me straight in the eye. Anise never looked folks in the eye for more than a few seconds—but there she was standing out in the cold and looking me dead in the eye.

  “What about Ricky?”

  “I…I heard he got a woman up on Chestnut.” I must have gasped something terrible because Anise started panicking and breathing all heavy, like the more air she took in the better off I’d be. “I’m sorry! Maybe it ain’t true!”

  Couldn’t say nothing, just shook my head. It was true. I could tell it just by the way the wind was blowing down the street.

  “Pecan? Say something.”

  “I gotta go to...to um...to work.” In my head I’d made it down the porch steps to the sidewalk but in reality I was still standing in the same spot. Watching Anise look at me with those sad pitiful eyes. She was thinking poor, poor Pecan. “How? Where’d you hear...?”

  “Mrs. Patton, she mama’s nurse. She come by every few days now. She asked me about you and how come you don’t never go to none of Ricky’s fights...she say there be this big hip woman always hanging around. You know the kind that look like she asking for it. That she always sit right in the front and that they be leaving together after. She say everybody know. I ain’t know so I figured you ain’t know neither. Guess I was right.”

  “I gotta go.”

  My first day as a working girl was off to a great start. I got to the store just ten minutes before I was supposed to be there but it was enough for somebody to show me how to sign in and where my locker was. And then I hit the floor. The store manager had put me in the men’s department, saying that men liked buying things from pretty girls. I started to argue with him, say I wasn’t no pretty girl. I was a year away from being thirty and I had four kids. I may have started off as a pretty girl but I wasn’t no more. Pretty girls had they pick of men. I had two that ain’t really want me.