by Mary Monroe
Muh’Dear didn’t come to the house that evening, but Daddy did. And so did Rhoda and Scary Mary. We had a nice quiet dinner to help me celebrate my birthday. Afterward, Rhoda and I went to the Red Rose for a few drinks.
I wanted us to enjoy our night out, so I decided not to mention Jade or Pee Wee unless Rhoda brought them up. We ordered a bottle of wine and sat in a booth near the bandstand, enjoying a new band that the club owner had brought in from Toledo. We even got up and danced a few times with some of the club regulars. But it was hard to ignore what we obviously wanted to talk about.
“I haven’t seen or heard from Jade since I kicked her out of the house,” Rhoda told me. She didn’t display any emotion at all. But when Pee Wee’s name came up, she got anxious. “Have you seen him lately?”
“He dropped off some roses and a birthday card last night, but he didn’t stay long. He’s been by the house a few other times lately, but we haven’t made love since the day Lizzie called me up and dropped her bombshell in my lap,” I reported.
“Oh. How are you feelin’ about all of that now?” Rhoda asked with a stiff look on her face.
I shrugged. “I guess I feel as good about Pee Wee as you feel about Jade.”
“That’s pretty grim,” Rhoda decided.
From that point on, we talked about everything except those two.
Daddy and Scary Mary had left the house by the time I got home from the Red Rose, but Harrietta had come by. Earlier in the day I had invited her to join us to help celebrate my birthday, but she had declined. She told me that she had planned to do something else with some church members that evening. When that fell through, she came to the house anyway, but I had already left.
Lillimae had taken Daddy home and not returned yet. She had left Charlotte in the house with Harrietta before I returned. Harrietta’s girls were with their father. The whole time that Charlotte had been alone with Harrietta in my house, she stayed in her room.
“I apologize for my daughter’s rudeness,” I told Harrietta. “She should not have left you sitting in the living room by yourself. She knows better.”
“Oh, that’s all right. She’ll get used to me eventually,” she said, helping herself to what was left of my birthday cake.
CHAPTER 34
THE NEXT MORNING, I CALLED RHODA’S HOUSE SEVERAL TIMES every fifteen or twenty minutes. Each time the call went directly to voice mail. When I had not been able to reach her by Monday morning, I drove to her house on my lunch hour, after I’d gulped down half of a Big Mac.
When I arrived, Rhoda seemed surprised but happy to see me.
“I haven’t been takin’ any calls,” she began as she waved me to the wing chair on the side of her living room couch. There were pillows and a blanket on the couch where I assumed she had been sleeping. There was also an empty wine bottle and a wineglass on the coffee table. “Uh, Otis doesn’t know everything. He just thinks that Jade got on a rant and moved out on her own. That’s all he needs to know.”
“I won’t tell him anything,” I promised.
“He’d been after her to get her own place for a long time now anyway. He didn’t want her to get married last year and have us support her and a husband. Then she ups and marries Vernie, and we ended up supportin’ her and a husband any damn way! Well, at least until Otis gave Vernie a job at the mill. But Otis feels—and I agree with him—that it’s high time for Jade to be on her own. I had already removed her name from our credit card accounts. But did I tell you that her daddy took her name off our bank accounts too? She was our primary beneficiary.”
“No, you didn’t tell me about that. That was a smart thing to do.” Smart was an understatement. As far as I was concerned, Jade was the last person in the world who deserved to be on any account as a primary beneficiary.
I gave Rhoda a pitiful look. She looked so sad and weak. I could certainly understand her being sad. But one thing that I could say about Rhoda was that I had never known her to be as weak as she appeared to be now. She had faced a lot even before she had to deal with breast cancer and a stroke. She’d been present when an out-of-control cop shot and killed her beloved brother when she was still a child. Her second-born child had died in her arms, and she’d given birth to a demonic child like Jade. Her list of unpleasant things was just as long as mine, if not longer. I was once weak, but I’d grown stronger over the years. But Rhoda had rarely shown any signs of weakness.
Until now.
“Don’t keep givin’ me those pitiful looks, Annette. I don’t want any pity,” Rhoda advised. “As much as you and I have been through over the years, you should know me well enough by now to know I don’t like people feelin’ sorry for me.”
“Rhoda, I don’t pity you any more than you pity me. I am just concerned. I know you are hurting. And for the record, so am I. It seems like we can’t get away from turmoil, huh?”
“Maybe that’s why we are such good friends.”
We sighed at the same time. Then we looked in each other’s eyes for a long time.
“Do you want to talk about Jade?” I finally asked.
Rhoda gave me a thoughtful look. Then, to my surprise and concern, she laughed and shook her head.
“Well, when you are ready to talk about what happened some more, you know I’ll be ready to listen,” I told her.
“I’d rather talk about you and Pee Wee,” she said with a sniff.
I read Rhoda like a book. I knew that her main concern was her daughter. Despite all of the mean and nasty things that Jade had yelled at Rhoda, I knew enough about young people to know that they usually meant only half of what they said. And at the end of the day, the parents usually forgave the children no matter what they had said or done. I had just finished a true-crime book about a man who had forgiven his son who had conspired with two of his friends to kill his entire family for insurance money. The father was the only survivor of the bloody massacre that occurred in the family’s mansion in an upscale Cleveland neighborhood on Christmas Day last year. The boy had been found guilty and sentenced to life without parole. But the father had been all over the TV news and on the radio professing his love and forgiveness of his son. Rhoda had read the same book. As a matter of fact, she was the one who had passed it on to me.
“There are some people who can forgive a person for just about anything, huh?” I said. “Like that boy in Cleveland who tried to have his whole family killed, and a certain person we both know ...”
“I guess some people deserve to be forgiven. I’m sure Pee Wee is one of those people,” Rhoda mumbled. “But that’s for you to decide. Me, I’d probably forgive him.”
I had meant Jade, but I didn’t correct Rhoda. And since the ball was now in my court, I took it and ran with it. “Rhoda, I don’t think Lizzie’s baby is really Pee Wee’s,” I stated.
“And when and why did you come to that conclusion?” she asked, giving me a curious look.
“Pee Wee finally told me something that he should have told me a long time ago.”
“About him and Lizzie?”
“About him.” I paused and gave Rhoda a pleading look. “Did you know he had a low sperm count? And always has?”
Rhoda held up her hand. “Whoa now! Where is this comin’ from?”
“How many men close to fifty do you know with only one child?”
“Now that you asked, quite a few. I know a few middle-aged men who don’t have any children at all. What’s your point?”
“Pee Wee told me that he’s always had what they call a low sperm count. That prostate thing that he went through a while back, that and the treatment reduced his sperm count even more so. It is very unlikely that he can father any children because of that.”
Rhoda gave me a suspicious look. Then she looked around. When she looked back to me, she spoke in a whisper, “Do you mean to tell me that Charlotte is not his child?”
I shook my head, rolled my eyes, and laughed. “Now, you know better. Sure, she is his daughter, and I am one hundred
percent sure of that. If what he told me is true, back then when I got pregnant, he was still able to father children. Now the possibility is slim to none. More than likely, it’s none.” I had no proof that what Pee Wee had told me was true, but I believed him anyway. I couldn’t see him telling me such a barefaced lie, knowing that I would eventually find out the truth.
“Hmmm. Well, somebody got Lizzie pregnant!”
“Yeah, somebody did, but it probably was not my husband.”
Lately, when I referred to Pee Wee as “my husband,” a mild pain shot through my chest. I had first noticed it the day after Harrietta told me that her children hated her because she’d divorced their father. Even though divorce was a possibility in my future, now I had to step back and consider how it was really going to affect Charlotte if I went through with it. The last thing I wanted was for her to tell people that she hated me. But the other side of the coin was that Rhoda’s husband had always been in Jade’s life, and look how she turned out anyway. I’d heard Jade with my own ears tell Rhoda that she hated her. Life was becoming too complicated for me. But I was determined not to let it destroy me or make me more bitter than I already was.
“And you are sure of this? I mean, you believe Pee Wee about this low sperm count thing?” Rhoda questioned.
I nodded. “There’s more.” I pressed my lips together and massaged my scalp with all five fingers on one hand. I could feel another headache brewing. “Lizzie’s baby is not due until March. If that’s the case, she didn’t even get pregnant until after she’d moved in with Peabo.”
“And she’s still claimin’ that Pee Wee got her old fossil ass pregnant?”
“He said that when he told her about his so-called low sperm count, and the fact that the baby was due eleven months after they broke up, she changed her story.”
“What a conniving bitch!”
“She knew it was Peabo’s baby—or somebody else’s—all along. But being the conniving slut that she is, she decided to finger Pee Wee because she’s no fool. She knows that Pee Wee is the kind of man who takes care of his responsibilities. Had he fell for her lie, that baby would have been treated like royalty.”
Rhoda rubbed my shoulder. “Annette, I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry? About what?”
“I’m sorry that you had to go through this mess in the first place. You’ve been through enough. I ran into your mother yesterday mornin’ at the Grab and Go. She held me hostage for twenty minutes talkin’ about how disappointed she was with you about you lettin’ that white woman stay at the house.”
I sighed. “I wish Muh’Dear would stop referring to Lillimae as a white woman. She keeps referring to Lizzie the same way no matter how many times I remind her that both of those women have black fathers. You know Muh’Dear.”
“I do and that’s why I know she’ll eventually come around. She got used to Lillimae when Lillimae was up here that other time.”
“Yeah, I remember. If we’re lucky, she’ll come around this time too.”
“Guess what? Jade sent that Butchie guy over here this mornin’ to get her medicine,” Rhoda said, looking at the wall. “She’s still got that damn urinary tract infection.”
“If she’d slow down and stop drinking margaritas like a fish, that medicine would probably be more effective,” I replied.
“I must have told her that a dozen times, but she didn’t listen to me. Butchie wouldn’t tell me where she’s stayin’.” Rhoda’s eyes narrowed and she gritted her teeth. “With creeps like that Butchie in the mix, she’s probably holed up under a bridge in a cardboard box, or some flop house, and eatin’ her meals in a soup kitchen.”
“I doubt that. Butchie is a thug. Most thugs always have a hustle going. You saw that big SUV he rolled up in.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Jade is the kind of girl who always lands on her feet.” A crooked smile formed on Rhoda’s face. “My husband is so sweet. When I told him that Bully checked into a hotel to give us some privacy, he insisted on havin’ him move back into our guest room.”
“Bully’s moved back into your house?”
“Uh-huh.” Rhoda sighed and gave me a strange look. “I hope you don’t think I’m choosin’ a man over my daughter. That’s not the case here.”
“Rhoda, I’ve told you before, I would never judge you. I know how important Bully is to you, and I know you still love your daughter. But the girl is out of control, Rhoda. Don’t let her destroy your life,” I said.
“Oh, she won’t destroy my life, Annette. Or anybody else’s.” Rhoda snorted and gave me a hopeful look. “You’ll see....”
CHAPTER 35
I HAD NEVER TRIED TO ENCOURAGE OR DISCOURAGE RHODA TO end her relationship with Bully. I had no right to even suggest such a thing. Even though she was married and loved her husband, her lover was just as much “family” as I was. He filled a void in Rhoda’s life that even I, or her husband and kids, could not fill.
Bully had an ex in London where he owned and managed some high-end hotels. The only child he had fathered, that I knew of, was Rhoda’s deceased son, who had died when he was a toddler. I was still the only other person in the world who knew that Bully and Rhoda had had a child together. Bully didn’t even know that he was, or had been, a father.
I knew that Rhoda would probably always have a special attachment to Bully because of their child. And the fact that Bully still found Rhoda attractive enough to fly across the Atlantic several times a year to sleep with her, even after she’d lost her breasts to cancer.
“I’m glad to hear that Bully’s back in the house. With Otis working all those long hours and even some weekends, you don’t need to be alone. And I know how much you care about Bully. He’s a good man,” I told her. “Uh, I hope that little stunt Jade pulled on him didn’t upset him too much.”
“Bully’s fine. He doesn’t even want to talk about it anymore. He’s even forgiven her.”
“Hmm. I guess he really is a good man.”
“Speakin’ of good men, what’s goin’ on with you and Roscoe and Ronald? You haven’t mentioned either one of them much lately.”
“Roscoe is fine. I had dinner with him at his house the other night.”
“Was that all? Was food the only thing he ate? He’s got a mighty long tongue... .”
I gave Rhoda a wan look. “You know it was, you nasty thing, you.” I laughed. “I tried to help him out a little, you know, warm him up with my hands, if you know what I mean.”
“Unfortunately, I do,” Rhoda snickered. “That’s about all I get to do with my husband these days.”
“Anyway, after a few clumsy minutes, I stopped and offered to fix us some drinks. He told me to make sure I washed my hands... .” I chuckled as Rhoda gasped; then she chuckled too. “That was the end of that. That’s the one thing about having a husband living in the house that I miss: sex whenever you want it.”
“Humph! Like hell! Havin’ a husband livin’ in the house is no guarantee that you’re goin’ to get some lovin’. I can’t tell you the last time Otis made love to me—not even some hand or tongue action.”
“Thank God you’ve still got Bully to fall back on.”
“And you still have Ronald as a backup, right?”
“Yeah, but I haven’t seen or heard from Ronald since our little get-together at the hot tubs.” I suddenly felt like my old self again, whatever that was. As hard as it was for me to believe or accept, I was getting used to life without Pee Wee. I was not as angry or confused as I’d been when I got that devastating call from Lizzie. I felt fully alive again. I felt like celebrating by getting into some kind of mischief. “Uh, I think I’ll give Ronald another call as soon as I get home.”
I didn’t even wait to get home to call Ronald. As soon as I got to my car, I dialed his number from my cellular phone. He answered after the fourth ring.
“Hey, baby boy,” I cooed. After that fiasco with Louis Baines, a man young enough to be my son, I had decided that I would never get in
volved with a younger man again. I called Ronald “baby boy” sometimes because he looked young, even though he was going to be forty-nine soon.
“Um ... hello,” he said with caution. “Who’s calling?” His hesitation and the fact that he didn’t recognize my voice alarmed me.
“This is Annette,” I said firmly, putting a lot of emphasis on my name.
“Oh! Yeah, yeah. How have you been doing, sugar! I have been meaning to call you, but I’ve been so damn busy.”
“Uh-huh. Well, I’ve been busy, too, so that’s why I haven’t called you until now.” I didn’t want to know about Ronald’s social life, so I never stuck my nose into his personal business. I knew all I wanted to know about him.
“Uh, I’m still thinking about that night we spent at the hot tubs. I hope you are too,” I teased with a giggle. “I didn’t mean to put all those scratch marks on your back.”
This time he hesitated so long it scared me. “Oh! Annette, that was you?” he asked.
If somebody had bounced a brick off my head, I could not have felt more stunned. It had been less than a week since I had hooked up with Ronald at the hot tubs and he had forgotten me already! “Um ... I was just calling to see if you still wanted to get together next week? The last time I saw you, you said you couldn’t wait to see me again.”
“Uh, yeah, but I’m going to have to take a rain check. I’ve got company coming from Detroit in a few days. My cousin Nola and her kids. They’ll be staying with me for a while ... personal family reasons that I don’t want to get into right now ...”
“Oh, I didn’t know you had family in Detroit.”
“I thought I told you.”
“No, you didn’t. Well, my sister from Florida is visiting me anyway, so maybe now is not such a good time anyway.”
“I would like to see you soon, though,” Ronald admitted.
“Uh-huh. How soon do you mean?”