by Mary Monroe
I lifted the telephone again and dialed Rhoda’s number; this call went straight to voice mail too. I left her a message to call me when she felt like it.
Charlotte had spent the night at Harrietta’s house again. She came home about an hour after I’d left Rhoda a voice mail, and marched up to me in the kitchen with a scowl on her face.
“I keep telling you that I hate that strange lady, Mama. Please don’t make me go back to her house again,” Charlotte said through clenched teeth.
“What in the world happened over there?” I asked, stirring the batter for the sweetbread I was making for dinner to go with the smothered pork chops Lillimae had already cooked.
“She’s a sick puppy, that’s what. I don’t like her, and I don’t want to go over there anymore,” Charlotte told me.
Lillimae was humped over the counter by the sink, peeling potatoes for a salad.
“Unless you can tell me something other than Harrietta is ‘strange’ and a ‘sick puppy,’ you’ll go over there when I tell you to. Is that clear?” I told my daughter.
“Yes, ma’am... .” Charlotte slunk back out of the kitchen like a whipped puppy with her bottom lip sticking out like a nipple.
Lillimae got my attention by loudly clearing her throat and moving closer to the table. “Do you mind if I say somethin’?” she asked, wiping her hands on the tail of the white duster she wore.
I looked up at Lillimae. “You can say whatever you want to say. But I’ll tell anybody that these kids today think they can call the shots. Well, I am not going to let my child get as out of control as Rhoda let hers,” I vowed.
There was a mysterious expression on Lillimae’s face now. “Darlin’, I think I need to stick my nose into your business right about now,” she told me. “I didn’t want to bring this subject up and get you all worried, but I can’t hold my tongue any longer.” A strange look suddenly crossed her face. That alone was enough to make me worry. I held my breath as she massaged her brow. With a straight face, she looked directly in my eyes and asked, “Just how well do you know this Harrietta woman?”
CHAPTER 30
I DIDN’T WANT LILLIMAE TO KNOW THAT HER QUESTION HAD SURPRISED me. I gave her a surprised look anyway. “What do you mean by that?” I asked, hoping she couldn’t tell how much the question had also disturbed me.
“I mean, do you know her as well as you should? Wolves got all kinds of sheeps’ clothin’ to choose from these days... .”
I shrugged. “I think I know Harrietta well enough.” I shrugged again and Lillimae’s brow shot up.
“You think you know her well enough, or you believe you know her well enough?” Lillimae asked.
I didn’t shrug this time, but I tried to speak with a more authoritative tone. “I know her well enough to feel comfortable leaving my daughter with her. Harrietta’s not just some wild woman off the street. She’s got kids; she runs a child-care business. She’s just a little stricter than Charlotte is used to, that’s all.” I glanced toward the window over my sink. From it, I could see Harrietta’s house across the street. “One thing that I can say about Harrietta is that she keeps a clean house. And she pays her bills on time. I’ve seen delinquent credit documents come across my desk on just about everybody I know except her.” I turned back to Lillimae with a concerned look on my face that I couldn’t explain. “I just can’t figure out what she does or says to her kids for them to be so ... I don’t know ... humble.”
Lillimae gave me a puzzled look. “Humble? Now that’s an odd word to describe kids as young as hers.”
“Well behaved, I mean. I never see them outside in the yard playing like all the other kids on this street. And when they come over here, they are so quiet and, oh, I can’t think of a better word to describe their behavior. Humble is the best word that I can come up with.”
“Well, that’s not the right word, if you ask me.” Lillimae let out a loud breath and gave me a serious look. “Remember that old movie The Stepford Wives? The one where the men had some kind of eerie thing goin’ on where they were pro-grammin’ their wives to act like robots?”
“Robot? Now, that’s another odd word to describe kids. Maybe we’re not being fair to Harrietta. She’s a real good mother and she deserves credit for that.”
“You’re probably right. But if you don’t know her that well, maybe you should make it your business to get to know her better soon. Let’s start invitin’ her over on a regular basis.” The look on Lillimae’s face was too serious now, and that had me worried. “If you don’t mind me stickin’ my nose even deeper into your business, I suggest you visit her house on a regular basis too. If she’s puttin’ up a front for your benefit, and the benefit of all the other kids’ parents, the best way to find out for sure is to pay her a few surprise visits. That way, if she’s up to no good, you’ll catch her.”
“I don’t like where this conversation is going. You would think that we were discussing somebody suspected of spying for the Russians or something.” I forced myself to laugh. Lillimae gave me such a stern look that it made me stop laughing right away.
“I just think you need to pop in on her when she does not expect it, that’s all,” she told me.
“She didn’t know that I was coming over there when I dropped in on her a couple of nights ago,” I reminded. “There was nothing out of the ordinary going on. I felt so comfortable there, and everything was so pleasant and well arranged, I didn’t want to leave.” I sniffed. “One thing I’m glad to know is that she doesn’t have a bunch of men parading in and out of her house. She’ll never have to worry about some devil putting his filthy hands on one of her girls, or any of the girls she takes care of, under her roof the way Mr. Boatwright did me.”
“Boatwright is probably burnt to a crisp in hell by now, so we can forget about him,” Lillimae snapped. She rubbed my shoulder and patted the side of my head. “You’ve been through too many ugly situations to ever let your guard down again, girl.”
I had always thought of myself as a smart, practical person. I managed a fairly large group of employees at the collection agency that I worked for. One of my toughest job responsibilities was that I had to go after some pretty hardcore deadbeats to get them to pay their delinquent bills. Therefore, I had to be on my toes all the time, so keeping my wits about me was essential.
I had experienced so many ups and downs in the past few years that I couldn’t afford to ever let my guard down again. And I didn’t plan to. Especially when it came to my personal life.
But even being alert had not been enough for me to avoid a catastrophe. I was alert back in March—or so I thought. But I didn’t even know that Lizzie was having an affair with my husband until Pee Wee and Lizzie told me! Losing my husband to another woman was a hard thing for me to live with. It wasn’t something that I couldn’t get beyond, though. But when it came to my child, it was a different story. I knew that if something bad happened to her, I would never get over it the way I could get over losing my husband to another woman. I knew that there was never enough parents could do to protect their children. My mother had watched me like a hawk when I was a child, but I had still been victimized by a man my mother and everybody else had trusted.
Shortly after Pee Wee had left me for Lizzie, I’d dated Jacob Brewster, one of my former boyfriends. When I felt that he was getting too chummy with my daughter, I severed my relationship with him immediately. Well, other things had occurred that had also prompted me to make that decision, but my daughter had been the main reason. I knew that the world was full of sharks and wolves, and unless I could spend every minute of the day with my daughter, there was no way that I could protect her from them all.
But I would never let her get too close to the men I socialized with. Other than Pee Wee and my daddy, no other men slept over at my house. Roscoe seemed more comfortable taking me to his place. And Ronald only visited me at my house for about an hour each time when he came. And sometimes he didn’t even stay that long. The last couple of
times that I was with him, it was at a motel. The last time Ronald paid me a visit at my house, Muh’Dear quietly and unexpectedly showed up. Without alerting me that she was even on the premises, she walked into my bedroom while Ronald was on top of me. I thought I’d never hear the end of that. Visiting Ronald’s house had never appealed to me. He had five frisky dogs and several free-loading relatives. That was why I had no problem meeting him in other locations.
Charlotte ate her lunch in her room, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d said about Harrietta earlier in the day, and all of the days before. I took Lillimae’s advice and invited Harrietta and her daughters to eat dinner with us that evening, and I planned to do so a few times a month.
If this woman was going to be looking after my child from time to time, I did need to know more about her. One thing I needed to know was exactly what her relationship was with men. I tried not to be nosy, but I did notice that the only men I’d ever seen at her front door were her ex, the mailman, and the pizza delivery guy. Since I worked during the day, and I didn’t peep out of my windows on a regular basis when I was home, like some of my other neighbors, I couldn’t keep close tabs on her. But I had no reason to believe that there was anything going on in Harrietta’s house that I needed to know about. It was not possible for me to know everything about her, anyway; just like it was not possible for people to know everything there was to know about me.
For all I knew, Harrietta might not have wanted to be friends with me if she knew how much alcohol I consumed. And since Harrietta didn’t date, if she knew how often I thought about sex, and how easily I slid into bed with three different men, it might have a profound effect on what she thought of me.
Jade had kissed up to me for years and had fooled me into thinking that she was my friend. But that was because I had something she wanted: my husband. I had nothing that Harrietta wanted, so she had no reason to kiss up to me, other than the fact that she wanted me as a friend.
CHAPTER 31
LILLIMAE HAD PLANS TO GO OUT WITH DADDY AGAIN THAT evening. When I told Charlotte that I had invited Harrietta to eat dinner with us, her eyes bulged out like she’d seen a ghost. “Dang, Mama! Ain’t it bad enough that I have to be around that lady in her gloomy house? Do I have to be around her in our house too?” she complained.
“If you don’t want to eat in the dining room with Harrietta and me and her girls, you can eat in the kitchen or your room,” I suggested. “I really want to get to know this woman better, so I can figure out what it is you don’t like about her.” I rubbed my daughter’s back. “Now, she’ll be here soon, so go wash your hands and remove that stupid look off your face.”
Charlotte chose to eat dinner in her room, but when I suggested Harrietta’s girls join her, Harrietta protested. “I don’t ever let my girls manipulate me. I told them before we left the house this evening that they were going to stay where I could see or hear them,” she told me as we set the table in my dining room. Her girls were in the living room.
“But they’ll just be upstairs,” I pointed out. “I am sure that if they get into something that they shouldn’t be into, we’ll find out soon enough.”
“Not this time,” Harrietta told me, shaking her head. She let out a mild snort. She continued talking with her face contorted like she had just sat on a tack. “Last month I let them visit with those Johnson kids around the corner. It hurts me to talk about what happened. Lucy, with her clumsy self, knocked over Mrs. Johnson’s expensive vase that she brought back with her from Spain. I don’t have to tell you, but it cost me a real pretty penny to replace that damn thing—ugly as it was. Besides, my girls tell lies when they are not around me.”
“All kids lie.” I chuckled. “I know my daughter tells a fib when it suits her.” I cleared my throat and became more serious. “Listen, uh, there is something I need to discuss with you, and the sooner I do it, the better,” I stated.
Harrietta’s eyes got big, her face froze. “Uh, what is it?”
“My daughter gets along with just about everybody I know. She, uh, likes everybody we know ... except for you. She gets hopping mad when I send her to your house. I don’t know exactly what it is about you that she doesn’t like because she doesn’t tell me anything specific.”
“Annette, you are making me nervous. I wouldn’t do anything in the world to harm your child, or anybody else’s child,” Harrietta told me, her voice cracking.
“I hope not. But sometimes kids are too scared to reveal too much information when somebody is abusing them in some way.”
“Abusing them? Annette, I am not abusing any child! Why—”
I held up my hand. “I didn’t say you were. But there has to be a reason why Charlotte doesn’t like you. I know my girl is spoiled, but she’s always been spoiled. However, she has never felt the way she feels about you with anybody else. You seem like a good person to me. But Mr. Boatwright, the man I told you about the other day who abused me when I was a child, he had most people believing he was a saint.”
“Well, he was a man and we females know how those devils can be. Look, if you don’t want your child associating with me, that’s fine with me. I know I have a strong personality and that rubs some people the wrong way. But I would still like to be friends with you. We have a lot in common and I enjoy your company.” Harrietta managed a weak smile, but there was a sad look in her eyes.
“I didn’t mean to upset you, but I figured that the sooner I addressed this issue, the better. And just so you won’t think I am not being fair to you, I know my daughter acts a fool when she has to do something she doesn’t like. So, it could just be that you are a little more rigid than she is used to. And the way kids are these days, it could also be that she gets a kick out of saying things to hurt people she doesn’t like—whether they are mistreating her or not.”
Harrietta shook her head again and let out a heavy sigh. That sad look was still in her eyes. “If one of my kids ever tells me they don’t like a particular person, I will say something to that person about it, so I do understand you bringing this up. We can’t afford to be naïve when it comes to our babies like some mothers are.”
“I am not going to be as naïve as my mother was,” I vowed. “She never wanted to hear anything bad about my abuser, so he was able to rape me on a regular basis right up under her nose. Had she confronted that man and really tried to find out why I didn’t like him, it would have given me more courage. I might have exposed him before he died so that something could have been done about what he did to me. Do you understand where I’m coming from? Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to abuse my child and get away with it. If my daughter even hints that somebody is abusing her, they will regret the day they were born,” I warned. I noticed how Harrietta’s body stiffened.
“And I don’t blame you one bit, Annette. That’s why I would only trust my girls with a woman like you. I know you have some men friends since Pee Wee took off; I’ve seen you around town with a couple. But I know you would never put my girls in a position where one of your men could take advantage of them—like your mama did with you ...” Harrietta dropped her head and stared at the floor. “I swear to God, I would never do anything to hurt your child.” She snorted and started to fan her face with her hand. The room was not that hot, so I could not figure out why there was so much sweat on her face. But the things I had just said had me feeling kind of warm, too, and the next thing I knew, I was fanning my face too. “Maybe I should leave ...”
“You don’t have to leave,” I said, holding up my hand. “I personally don’t have a problem with you, so I still want us to be friends. If Charlotte doesn’t change her opinion of you in the next couple of weeks, I will send her to one of the other neighbors like I used to do. I don’t want her to get too much more worked up over this, and I don’t want her to cause any friction between you and me.”
“Charlotte will get used to me—if she gives me a chance. All of the other kids I take care of did, and there were a coupl
e that hated my guts!” Harrietta said. “They both came around, and now they love me to death... .” Harrietta blinked and gave me a dry smile. “And I’m glad you let me know what was on your mind,” she added with a dismissive wave of her hand.
I breathed a sigh of relief. I was glad that everything was out in the open. “Uh, now that you and I are on the same page, I hope this is something we won’t have to talk about again.”
“I hope we won’t have to either,” Harrietta said firmly. “But if you feel the need to do so again, don’t hesitate. You can talk to me about anything.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” I sniffed. “I don’t want the girls, especially Charlotte, to know what we just talked about. For the time being, I think this is something we should keep between us.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t say anything to Charlotte about our little discussion. But now that I know how she feels about me, I will try to be a little less rigid with her.” Harrietta gave me a broad smile. “Okay?”
“Okay,” I said with a nod. From the way she turned away from me, I assumed she didn’t want to continue the conversation. I knew I didn’t.
I excused myself to check on the food still on the stove. When I rejoined Harrietta, she was standing in the middle of the living room floor with her arms folded like a drill sergeant, glaring at her children. Vivian, Lucy, and Diane were twelve, ten, and nine, respectively. They were attractive kids, but unusually quiet. They were not just “quiet”; those girls were like mutes. Dressed in the typical attire for girls in their age group—ripped jeans and loose-fitting T-shirts—they sat side by side on my couch looking like they were conjoined.
During dinner, I tried to draw the girls into the conversation several times, but it was like pulling a dragon’s teeth. Not a one of them spoke without first looking at her mother. Each time, she would give them a grim look and a sharp nod; then they would speak with so much control it was disturbing. It was the first time that I allowed myself to think that maybe Harrietta was a little too rigid. Her kids were like the robot-like women in The Stepford Wives, like Lillimae had suggested.