by Mary Monroe
“Shut up!” Jade shook her broken shoe in my face. I moved farther away from her because the heel on that shoe looked like a dagger. “You and my mother can go to hell! Now that I know what a cold-hearted bitch she really is, I don’t need her anymore. And I don’t need a useless old crone like you trying to tell me what to do!” Jade waved and beckoned to her friend in the SUV.
Within seconds, a stocky, light-skinned young man with his reddish brown hair in cornrows piled out of the van. He trotted up the walkway with an angry look on his moon face. I knew that he, and several of Rhoda’s looky-loo neighbors, had watched the violent confrontation between Rhoda and Jade.
“Butchie, help me load up my shit so I can get the hell up out of here!” Jade commanded, snapping her fingers in her friend’s stunned face as he chewed on a toothpick.
“What the fuck is going on?” Butchie asked, looking at the broken shoe in Jade’s hand. An amused look suddenly appeared on his face. For a moment, I thought he was going to laugh. But when he looked at the handprint on Jade’s face, he shuddered. “Damn! If your mama can pack a punch like that, you better get the hell up out of here, girl!” For a man dressed like a thug, and who weighed at least 250 pounds, Butchie didn’t seem too brave to me. He began to sweat as he nervously looked toward the door. He was chewing on that toothpick like it was a stick of gum. “You always told me that your mama wasn’t nobody to mess with. I see you wasn’t lyin’. Let’s load up your shit and haul ass, girl!”
“I told you that my mama was a straight-up bitch! Now you see for yourself!” Jade told Butchie. I didn’t know Butchie personally, but I knew he was a small-time pimp. One of his hookers had shot him in his foot last year. He still walked with a slight limp. “And this fat-ass bitch here is always up in my business!” Jade barked, shaking her shoe in my direction again. “You won’t have any good luck, bitch! You’ll never get your husband back, and I hope that bastard baby of his that Lizzie is carrying pesters you every day of your life.”
Jade’s words pierced my heart like a sword. She could not have hurt me more if she had stabbed me with the sharp heel of that shoe that she was still waving in my face.
I dropped my head. I immediately slunk back into the house and joined Rhoda on the couch. I was glad that there was some Jack Daniels left. I poured myself a double; then I gave her a hug.
“Thanks. I needed that,” Rhoda told me, almost choking on her words. She glanced briefly toward the door and sighed. I had shut the door behind me, but we could still hear Jade and Butchie cussing and fussing and stumbling around on the porch while removing that stack of boxes.
“It’s going to be okay. I know everything is going to be okay. You and Jade just need some time away from each other,” I insisted in a low, uncertain voice. I hoped that Rhoda believed what I had just said, because I was not sure if I did or not. What else could I say to ease her pain? I just hoped that my words made her feel better. I didn’t feel too good myself right then. The chaos that I had just witnessed had affected me deeply. And if that wasn’t bad enough, I was afraid of what I was going to face when I got home! I wanted to put that off for as long as I could. “Rhoda, if you don’t mind, I’ll sit with you just a little while longer.”
She gave me a slight smile and a weak nod. She startled me when she lifted her Pepsi can and held it toward me. I raised my glass in a salute; then we finished our drinks.
CHAPTER 26
I KNEW THAT LILLIMAE AND DADDY WOULD PROBABLY BE OUT FOR most of the evening. And since Charlotte was at Harrietta’s house, I had nothing to hurry home to. Besides, I was afraid to leave Rhoda alone. I didn’t know what was going to happen next. With her husband at the plant dealing with one union issue after another that could go on well into the night, and Bully holed up in a hotel room, I felt that it was imperative for me to remain with her at least until Jade had departed.
We looked at each other when we heard the SUV leave, but we didn’t speak for a few moments. I ran to the window and peeped out, just to make sure Jade and her friend were both gone.
“They took all of the boxes, so I doubt if they’ll come back,” I said, returning to my seat.
Rhoda sniffed and blinked. “Annette, I know you have other things that you need to attend to. I’ll be fine, so I don’t want you to think that you have to stay here with me,” she told me. We had finished the bottle of Jack Daniels and half a bottle of wine.
“I don’t mind staying a little longer,” I said. “I can at least stay here until Otis gets home, in case you want me to be around when you tell him what happened. But if you’d rather be alone now, I understand.”
“Tell Otis what happened? What ... what do you mean?” Rhoda stammered. “Do you think I’m goin’ to tell my husband what happened here today?”
“Well, yeah. How are you going to explain to Otis about Bully being in a hotel, and Jade and all of her things gone?”
“Oh, I’ll think up somethin’,” Rhoda assured me.
I gave her a wan look. “Well, whatever you tell Otis, please call me up right away and tell me, so I’ll know what to say in case I run into him. And since we’re on the subject, make sure you tell me whatever you tell Pee Wee in case it comes up the next time I see him.” I wanted to talk to Rhoda some more about me seeing Pee Wee’s car in Lizzie’s driveway. But that was one thing that she didn’t need to deal with at the moment. That was another big can of worms that I would eventually open and dump in her lap anyway.
“Let’s finish the wine and then you can go. I think I need to turn in early tonight. It’s been one hell of a day,” Rhoda decided.
I called home to check my voice mail before I left Rhoda’s house. Other than a few ambiguous messages from my mother complaining about one ailment after another, and a call from Roscoe, nobody else had called me. The telephone rang as soon as I got back home. It was a few minutes past eight.
It was Harrietta. “The girls just started putting together a pizza. And after that, they want to play Monopoly. Do you mind if Charlotte stays a little longer? It would be nice if she stayed the night. The girls want to get up early in the morning to make pancakes.”
“If she wants to stay the night, it’s fine with me,” I said, knowing that if Charlotte had a choice, she’d come home—but I hoped she’d stay with Harrietta. I enjoyed being alone when I was feeling as tense as I was now. And after everything that I’d been through today, I could barely sit still. “Uh, tell her I said for her to stay the night. I’ll bring her sleepwear over in a few minutes.”
“You sound tired. Is everything all right?”
“I’m fine, but I am a little tired.”
“Well, you get some rest, then. And we’ve got plenty of sleepwear over here, so don’t you worry about bringing anything over. I’ll send Charlotte home after we eat breakfast in the morning. The girls and I have to be at church for Sunday school by ten anyway.”
“Tell Charlotte I said she’d better behave herself,” I said, anxious to get off the phone.
“Don’t worry. I got everything under control,” Harrietta assured me.
Less than a minute after I had ended my conversation with Harrietta, my telephone rang again. It was Charlotte.
“Mama, I don’t like this woman! I do not want to spend the night over here,” she whispered.
“Why are you whispering?”
“Harrietta doesn’t allow us to use the phone. She’s in the bathroom, so I have to talk fast. Unlock the front door. I’ll be home in a minute.”
“No, you won’t. You’re spending the night.”
“NO!”
“Look, you’d better watch your tone of voice, Miss Thing. I’m raising you, you’re not raising me.”
“Mama, please ...”
“You are spending the night at Harrietta’s house, Charlotte. Now this conversation is over.”
“Mama, I—I gotta go! She’s coming!”
I heard some scrambling around on Charlotte’s end; then I heard her hang up. I shook my head
and chuckled. I was so glad that the “problems” between my child and me were so trivial. But I was determined to streamline my relationship with her even more.
Charlotte was so used to having her way that she had a hard time observing other people’s rules. I did not have a problem admitting that my child was not perfect. As a matter of fact, she was just as spoiled as the next. But I thanked God that she was not even close to being as spoiled and volatile as Jade. However, she was still spoiled enough for me to keep her on a fairly short leash. I regretted the fact that I was partly responsible for my daughter being slightly bratty, but there was still time for me to turn her around. I was glad that I had a friend like Harrietta now who seemed to know how to approach children with equal amounts of authority and compassion. That was the way my mother had raised me.
When the telephone rang again a few minutes later, I assumed it was Charlotte calling back. But this time it was Pee Wee.
“I need to see you as soon as possible. Tonight,” he said.
“I’ve had a very long day. Can’t whatever it is wait until tomorrow?” I asked. The image of Pee Wee’s car parked in Lizzie’s driveway flashed through my mind. “Whatever it is, it can’t be that important,” I said, wondering if he was going to tell me why he had visited Lizzie today.
“It could wait until tomorrow, but I think the sooner you hear what I have to say the better,” he responded.
He had my attention.
“Can’t you tell me what it is over the telephone?” It was bad enough that I had to hear his voice while I was so distressed; I wasn’t too wild about seeing his face too.
“I could, but I don’t want to,” he declared. “Look, you’ve been avoidin’ my calls since the last time I saw you. You know that we are goin’ to have to sit down and talk sooner or later anyway, so why don’t you just do it now and get it over with.”
“Is the something that ‘could wait until tomorrow’ about that woman?”
“Yes, it’s about Lizzie.”
“I will tell you now that I am not in the mood for any more surprises. If this is something that is going to piss me off, I don’t want to hear it tonight.”
“I can’t say if it’s goin’ to piss you off or not. But I would like to see you anyway. I miss you... .”
“All right. I’ll be up for another hour,” I replied. “If the lights are all out when you get here, you’re too late, so don’t bother to knock. Once I get in the bed, I don’t want to get back up.”
“I’m on my way,” he said quickly.
A few minutes after I had hung up and kicked off my shoes, I heard somebody stomping up on my front porch. Before I could make it off the couch to see who it was, the door flew open. Lillimae waddled in, huffing and puffing. She sat down hard at the other end of the couch, making it squeak and tremble like somebody had dropped a piano on it. Even though she looked tired and somewhat sad, she didn’t waste any time telling me about the good time that she’d had with Daddy. They had dinner at an Italian restaurant and visited a nearby jazz club. They went in Daddy’s truck, and I was happy to hear that Lillimae did the driving. She dropped Daddy off at home and parked his truck in front of my house.
“Your mama wasn’t too happy about me and Daddy goin’ out without her,” Lillimae told me. “We invited her, but she said she had to stay home and scrub her kitchen floor. Daddy said she must have forgot to tell me that she’d just scrubbed that same floor the day before... .”
“As long as you had a good time anyway, that’s what’s important.” I smiled, which seemed to put Lillimae more at ease. For one, she knew I was her strongest ally when it came to my mother. But it was a difficult position for me to be in. On one hand, I was glad that she and Daddy were enjoying each other’s company so much. On the other hand, it made me sad to know that it was also hurting my mother, and that there was not a thing that I could do about it.
“How did your visit to Rhoda’s house go today? You and that pit-bull daughter of hers didn’t lock horns again, I hope,” Lillimae said with a sharp chuckle. I was glad she had changed the subject, but it was another painful one.
“Girl,” I began, shaking my head and rubbing my forehead with the ball of my thumb. “It was no picnic,” I groaned. “Are you sure you want to hear about it?”
CHAPTER 27
“OH YES, I DO. I WANT TO HEAR ALL OF THE DETAILS!” Lillimae yelled, giving me an impatient look.
After I had told her everything that had transpired in Rhoda’s house, she stared at me in slack-jawed amazement. I had left no stone unturned. I even told her about Rhoda’s handprint on Jade’s face. However, I didn’t see any reason to tell Lillimae about Rhoda and Bully being lovers.
“Some folks get more pissed off at the messenger than they do the perpetrator. Do you think I should have minded my own business and not told Rhoda what I witnessed?” I asked, rubbing the back of my head. “I keep asking myself that so much now, that each time I get light-headed.”
Lillimae gave me a guarded look. “I really don’t know how to answer that.”
I glanced at the floor, then back to Lillimae. “Rhoda didn’t get mad at me for getting in her business, but Jade sure as hell did. But no matter what, I probably did do the right thing. Rhoda feels the same way. If she didn’t, she would not have confronted Jade the way she did.”
“Well, I’m glad to hear that Rhoda reacted the way she did. I would hate for you to lose her friendship over somethin’ that crazy-ass daughter of hers did. But from now on, before you get involved in other folks’ business, think about it long and hard first. Rhoda and her daughter may never be close again because of what you told Rhoda.”
“That’s good advice, but I don’t know how I will react if I’m ever in another situation like this one.” Now it was my turn to look tortured.
“What’s the matter, sugar?” Lillimae asked, looking alarmed. “All of a sudden you look like you want to cry.”
I did want to cry, but I managed to hold back my tears. I had done enough crying lately. “A lot of people knew about Pee Wee and Lizzie way before I did. Nobody cared enough about my feelings to tell me,” I whined.
Lillimae gave me a surprised look. “Would it have been better to hear it from a third party or from Pee Wee and Lizzie the way you did?”
“I guess it was better that I heard it from them,” I admitted.
“If one of your friends had told you first, I guarantee you that Pee Wee would have denied it.”
“No matter what, I think I did the right thing by Rhoda,” I insisted. “And Bully too. He was the real victim in this mess.”
Lillimae slapped the side of her head. “What I can’t figure out is, why would a young girl like Jade want a man like Bully? He’s handsome, sexy, and well-built. But when I met him that other time I was up here, his personality seemed kind of dull to me,” Lillimae said as she began to cornrow braid her shoulder-length blond hair.
“Who knows why Jade went after Bully. You know how crazy young folks are these days,” I replied.
“Well, from what you’ve told me, it sounds like the girl is on drugs. Why else would she go off on her own mother like that over a man? Especially a man who has been a friend of the family for so long. Rhoda told me one time that Bully used to change Jade’s diapers!”
“Uh-huh, that’s true,” I said with a nod.
Lillimae shook her head. “But for Rhoda to throw Jade out on the streets, even after what the girl did, that sounds a little extreme to me.”
I was taken aback by Lillimae’s comment. “What would you have done if your child had talked to you the way Jade did to Rhoda, and then got violent too? I think a lot of mothers would have done the same thing that Rhoda did. Lord knows I hope I am never put in the position to find out... .”
“I don’t know how I would react if one of my kids went off on me like Jade did Rhoda. And I hope I never have to find out,” Lillimae said with a heavy sigh and a yawn. “On that note, I’m goin’ to bed.”
Pee Wee arrived thirty minutes after my telephone conversation with him. I let him in and waved him to the living room couch. “You want a plate? Lillimae cooked enough for an army,” I said dryly.
“No, I’m not hungry. I went by that rib shack on Noble Street and had a combo a couple of hours ago.” Pee Wee let out a loud, heavy sigh as he sat down and crossed his legs, tapping his knee with his finger. “I heard about Jade,” he told me with a disgusted look on his face. “Rhoda called me up a little while ago. I am glad you happened to be there when that ruckus took place.”
Pee Wee and Rhoda communicated on a regular basis. They had been close friends for so long that sometimes I wondered why they had not become lovers.
“It was ugly.” Just thinking about that nasty scene made me cringe. “But I told Rhoda to give Jade some time and she’ll come around. I’m going to get myself a beer. You want one?” I asked, already moving toward the kitchen.
“Don’t mind if I do,” Pee Wee said.
I handed him a can of Bud Light. As soon as I popped open a can for myself, he started. “Annette, I went to talk to Lizzie today.” He took a long drink and let out a mighty belch. Without excusing himself like he usually did, he continued talking, “Me and Lizzie had a real long talk.”
“I know you were over there. I saw your car in her driveway on my way to Rhoda’s house this afternoon,” I said with a sneer. I eased down on the love seat. One thing I was glad of was that I was not nervous. If anything, I was defiant—ready to do more battle with him if I had to. But I knew that he knew better. It was to his advantage not to provoke me.