Delicious Foods: A Novel

by James Hannaham

  But every time Darlene gone to the depot, she would make a special visit to that li’l stream with the culvert Sirius had disappeared into, thinking ’bout what happened to him and how he coulda survived what mighta happened, but now she kinda sure he ain’t survived. She gone down to the opening of the culvert sometime and be looking in there and talking to it. That circle of concrete be low enough that it wasn’t no way to enter ’less you hunch your ass over, and it wasn’t no kinda underpass drain. This one turnt into a tunnel that got dark damn quick and ain’t let on where the hell it gone to. She knew Sirius done vanished into there, and she guessing that if he come back and rescue everybody, he gonna come back through that same tube. He had told her ’bout wormholes in space, where you could go through that shit and come out way the hell far away from where you started, and sometime, specially when me and her was hanging out, she be wondering if Sirius had did some crazy physics magic and teleported to New York City through that bitch.

  The culvert turnt into a shrine where Darlene and I had some top-quality meetings and contemplated the meaning of life and all that, but life ain’t mean much of nothing to Darlene outside of me. She want Sirius to come back mainly ’cause she need a ally, not ’cause she think he some kinda savior. Sometime Eddie would come with us, but he getting old and angry and he ain’t want to spend as much time with the two of us. Teens, they get like that. I suppose me and her could close people out a li’l bit too, what with all our inside jokes and braindancing and what have you. I told her that she should stop keeping me and Eddie from getting to know each other, but she refused to budge on that point. I got mad behind that. On a certain level I found that shit offensive. I wanted to know why she got to judge her best friend so harsh that she ain’t want her son to know me? If somebody like me, I’ma like em back twice as much. I get off on the attention. Darlene pitched a bitch when Eddie start smoking cigarettes at fifteen—at least she started to say some shit, but Eddie shut her ass down by looking at her like she a palmetto bug, ’cause she ain’t had no right to tell nobody what not to smoke.

  With the culvert, I told her that when motherfuckers spend they life looking in one direction for a specific thing, some other shit always come from another direction. So one day Darlene and em end up on detail at the citrus grove. It always seem like that citrus-grove detail what they put motherfuckers on when it wasn’t nothing else to do with them, or they too crazy on drugs. They was down in the part with the limes that day. Hannibal, who had worked on big farms before Delicious, thought they maybe planted the wrong kinda lime. He said, See these thorns? Thesyer’s key limes, and key limes don’t bear no fruit too far outside Florida. So maybe we not in Florida? Plus it’s April. I don’t get these folks at all.

  That morning, Darlene thinking that her stash of me be down to the last, so she borrowed some off TT, but then when she stuck her hands in her pockets she found a nice-size rock there and smoked that too. You could say that me and her started up a braindancing tango right then.

  When she got up on her five-step ladder, she ain’t found nothing in them lime trees, not a single hint of a lime, but everybody know that if you got supervisors expecting to see work happening, you best make it look like you working. Me and her decide to dance, so that them branches would shake, maybe shake out a lime, but mostly we wanna prove somebody up in that tree tryna get some produce going. And Darlene could see out over the green of them trees across the grove and down the far distant part of that particular road to where How had parked the minibus. He had stationed hisself in a different grove some distance away. Darlene kept shaking them branches, not finding no limes, getting stuck with thorns. In her head, we start getting down to that jam “In the Bush” from the disco days. Damn we was high—you know you high when you hanging out with Scotty and Scotty high as you is. She start singing, Are you ready? Are you ready for this? Do you like it? Do you like it like this?

  Then Darlene thought she seen a white car she ain’t recognize going down a dirt road she ain’t known about. She thinking she could run down there without nobody seeing her and get there just in time to flag it down that car. Mostly she thinking that she bored and that she want contact with outside folks, not that she herself want to go nowhere with em. And after, she could tell Eddie that she done tried to bolt but that it ain’t worked out and maybe that would shut his ass up. Or if the driver be a good person and not a serial killer or a Fusilier, she could put Eddie in the car and he could drive away with em and leave Delicious like he want to so bad now that he think he a grown man. She wave her hands, tryna flag down the sedan, and then she come down that ladder. Darlene ain’t really wanna leave Delicious, she just wanna be able to leave, and that notion plus the idea that she could report to Eddie ’bout it had the power to get her running.

  When Darlene got to the side of the road, she still seen that car coming. Wasn’t no mirage. She tried not to make no noise ’cause she knew that How gon hear and come to get her, but quiet as she could, she raise her arms in the air back and forth and kinda bounce on her knees. For a second she thinking ’bout leaping out into the road to make sure the car ain’t pass by, but then she seen it slowing down. She hopped over to it through some short dry grass by the side the road, thinking ’bout how she gonna explain to the white folks inside what she want from em.

  The car pulled off onto the same grass where she standing and the window roll down on the driver side, and that remind her of turning a trick. She looked for the car type on the car and broke into a smile when she seen a bunch of li’l stars and the word Subaru. She remembered the star Sirius done talked about, the star that was a diamond. She’s like, Maybe it really does exist.

  When she get up to that car window, she seen a white dude with a couple days’ beard and thick black glasses sitting in the driver seat, and a heavyset guy with a electronic box and a microphone in his lap in the passenger seat.

  Dude one stick his hand out the window for Darlene to shake and goes, My name’s Jarvis Arrow and we’re with the Chronicle—like the Chronicle be something famous we musta heard of before, like if somebody said, I’m with Sandwiches, or I’m with Money. He go, Are you one of the farmworkers for Delicious Foods? We’re wondering if you would speak to us on the record for a piece I’m doing. He pointed to the other guy. This is Frankie, he’s recording sound. Frankie wave with his fingers. Jarvis got a handheld video camera in his lap; Darlene took a cautious li’l peek at it and Jarvis went, That’s in case I decide to make a documentary.

  Darlene shook Jarvis’s hand, then her eyes gone to the backseat ’cause she thinking ’bout hopping in and just going. But out of all the damn cars on the road, this one would have to be a two-door and not a four-door so she couldn’t make the decision herself real fast and force em into it. And then what Eddie gonna do?

  The song lyrics we sung was still in her head and we was still braindancing, and kinda letting it spill out her mouth, she went, I want to do the things you want to do, so baby, let’s get to it, do it. And she laughed.

  It’s okay, then? Jarvis asked. He frown, looking confused, and turnt off the car. Frankie got out with that sound equipment, and after checking behind him for traffic, he gone around the back of the car and put the gear on top the trunk. Darlene looked over her shoulder down them rows of non-limes and ain’t seen nothing, but she knew that ain’t mean wasn’t nothing coming for her. She still thinking she might have to perform sexually if she wanna convince em to take folks outta there.

  Jarvis slide out the car and ask her name and vitals, then Frankie hand him the mic and kept fiddling with the knobs. Darlene ain’t had the best information on her vitals, so she just said some bullshit. She moved her hips into Jarvis personal space, but he sidestepped to a comfortable distance without making no comments on her.

  He goes, So can you just give me a general picture of what the working conditions are like at Delicious Foods?

  It’s good, she said, forcing a smile. That’s when we realized that these motherfuc
kers probably worked for the Fusiliers in real life, like they had set all this shit up, so she said, I mean it’s great! I guess it’s great. And if it’s not, I brought that on myself, you know. Like the song goes, only got myself to blame. I signed the contract, so—She shrugged. My son and I work here…it’s a family business…religious folks…so that’s good. I need to pay my whole debt back, which they told me is up there, and plus the book said you have to think positive to get positive things. I admit I haven’t always thought things of a positive nature, so that might take a while. She struggling to stay focused on what she saying.

  So what are the living conditions like here? We’ve heard reports. A guy named Melvin Jenkins told us some things that shocked us. Do you know him?

  No, I don’t know anybody named Melvin…The two of them locked eyes; look like he expecting her to say some more. So baby, let’s get to it, she said.

  Jarvis turnt his head for a second and then goes, Are the working and living conditions fair here? Are you fed well? Are you paid well?

  Darlene ain’t wanna answer none of them questions on account of the shame it brung her, a certain kinda shame she wouldna even noticed ’less he asked her to tell the realities to the world. Quickest way out would be to seduce him and they could get into the car. I ain’t really care that much, I mostly wanted to stay, but I knew Miss Darlene wasn’t going nowhere without me no more. I thought maybe if she done a li’l dance and he heard her sing it might get past that straitlaced news-guy mask he be wearing, so she start singing the song. How ’bout if we could go push push in the bush?

  Jarvis shared a frightened look with Frankie. He stepped out of Darlene’s way. Ma’am, I’m trying to conduct an interview here. Are you okay?

  Darlene tickled Jarvis’s stubble with her fingers and kept dancing. You know you want to go push push in the bush. Get down get down do it do it. Me and Darlene let out a giant laugh.

  At that moment feet start coming down them rows of citrus trees right toward em, on through the dry grass and leaves. Darlene grabbed the car door handle but it’s locked and she stumbled backward. When she got done stumbling, her shoulders fell onto a stiff tough thing that coulda been a tree stump but turnt out as How shiny cowboy boots. His cold andouille-sausage fingers lifted her up by her armpits and pushed her behind his bigness. He stomped over to get up in Jarvis and Frankie face.

  Hello, sir, Jarvis said, raising his microphone and putting out his handshake. I’m interviewing the workers at Delicious Foods.

  No, you’re not.

  Uh, yes. I am. I’m with the Chronicle. The, um, Houston Chronicle.

  What is that, a newspaper?

  Jarvis goes, Yes, it is. It’s got a circulation of—

  I don’t read. And I’m sorry, we’re not currently talking to the press.

  Currently? You mean, at this time? Well, when—

  No, I mean ever. He took the mic out Jarvis hand and ripped apart the connection and threw that sucker into the road and it made a little cloud when it hit the dirt. Then somewhere outta him he unleashed the harsh bellowing of a demon. Now get the fuck off our private property! He reached behind his back and Jarvis and Frankie must have got the idea. Maybe they seen that he had a weapon on him and he ’bout to turn em into a human watering can.

  Frankie rushed into the road tryna save that mic; he chucked it into the backseat with the tape recorder, and then got in the passenger side. Jarvis ducked as he leapt into the driver seat, and the two of them motherfuckers was a mile down the road, tires left a couple of divots right there by the grass.

  With some kinda kung fu move, How switch his hand from Darlene waist to her wrist, curled her arm behind her back like a barbecue chicken wing, then frog-marched her into a part of the groves where wouldn’t nobody see.

  The fuck is wrong with you, he said. He kept smacking the base of her skull with his palm to move her forward. You want the world to know you’re a crackhead hooker? You want your picture in the paper as a whore?

  I am not a—Darlene said, before How shoved her into the trunk of a tree.

  A branch done scratched her arm and face and drawn some dotted lines of blood and she knocked her head upside the tree. How pull her up again by the back of her elbows. When she get standing again, he reach behind him and pull his Magnum out his pants. He put his fingers like he gonna grab the barrel and smash the butt of the gun against the side of Darlene face but when he twisted his torso tryna get some momentum going, Darlene covered her mouth to keep in a laugh. The eye contact that happened made me and Darlene bust out into total hysteria, and I bet that’s why How kept at it, shoving her and bashing her in the head and face, talking shit ’bout how he gonna give her something to laugh about.

  Darlene kept tryna say she ain’t told the guy nothing, that she told him how great she had it at Delicious, but that ain’t done no good and she stopped talking. Obviously, the content of what she said ain’t matter as much to How as the fact that Darlene had went down there and start talking with folks from outside. He screaming ’bout that she knew it’s ’gainst the rules to be walking away from them limes in the first place and then you couldn’t talk to no random people who drive up in a car ’cause what if they offer you work somewheres else, or what if they take you to one of them other farms where they treat you badly. He asked her how long she had worked at Delicious, as if they ain’t both known how long.

  Just like with TT, people start coming down out the trees to see the goings-on, ’cause they heard somebody screeching and getting beat up. Darlene heard it too, and for a second she wondered where all the screams coming from. She said to herself, Somebody oughta shut that screamer up, but then she figured out that the screams be coming out her own mouth.

  While the punching and kicking happening from How, and the bruises that’s forming on her back and breasts and legs, and her eyes swelling shut and her mouth bleeding, Darlene made sure to think positive. She thinking ’bout what a blessing it was that she already got a few missing teeth and hadn’t got no new ones yet. I feel blessed, she told herself. Her luck made her giggle more, even though that put a bunch of dirt on her tongue and she had to cough and spit it out with her blood. So blessed.

  The reason she had started giggling was ’cause she remembered that she do know a Melvin. Melvin Jenkins. That Sirius real name—and that meant the sonofabitch done made it out. That plus me kept the beating she getting from How from feeling as bad as he want it to; for all them injuries he putting on her right then, she now had it confirmed that Sirius done escaped out of Delicious and got back to the real world. He could send folks who could figure out how to save anybody who ain’t belong, with a chance to do something different to they life, like Eddie. But why he ain’t came yet?

  I figure Jarvis caught Darlene voice on tape that day, and that even though he ain’t get nothing in terms of a story, he gone home and played the tape for Sirius like that night. Not so he could hear Darlene, but so he could hear How. But Sirius woulda flipped the fuck out when he heard Darlene ’cause he had took for granted that after six motherfucking years Darlene and em woulda figured out how to quit Delicious.

  But he ain’t hear just that she still picking nothing in the citrus grove for no pay and high prices, it sound like her son had joined her there too and that he doing the same never-ending chain of working and spending everything and debt climbing. And Sirius knowed that if you got sick, like the dude they used to talk about who got bit by a alligator, you ain’t gone to no hospital, you just had to figure out the fastest way to get back to work with a big chunk missing out your leg, or they brung you out somewheres and told everybody else you gone to the hospital, but didn’t nobody know for sure. Could be they just dumped you somewheres and you dehydrated to death, or the alligator came back for the rest of you. Delicious woulda shot the alligator and sold it to a handbag company. They’da sold your leathery skin too, if the alligator done left enough on the bone.

  20.

  Doing Nothing


  Eddie sat inside at Summerton, contemplating the strange workings of the place as he concentrated on repairing the operating system on Sextus’s PC. Or perhaps just plugging it back in. After that he was supposed to fix the door to the microwave and install some shelves he had built and stained that would soon go into his own workspace.

  He had just unscrewed the back of Sextus’s PC and placed the screws into a bottle cap on the desk, then edged out the interior components about halfway, blowing dust off the circuitry with a can of compressed air, when word came that How had an important mission for him. Eddie hardly needed to wonder anymore why How couldn’t ask somebody else; everyone knew that he stockpiled the worst jobs and set them aside in order to spring them randomly on Eddie whenever he got the chance.

  Apparently How needed to see him in the barn he insisted on calling called the workshop, not your workshop. He stood outside the barn when Eddie arrived, arms folded across his smudgy tee as if Eddie had taken two hours rather than fifteen minutes to get there. Even though he didn’t have a watch, he poked his wrist when Eddie walked up, signaling his annoyance that the kid hadn’t arrived quickly enough for his taste. He had a lit cigarette wedged between his fingers.

  Eddie said, Sorry, unconvincingly.