One House Over

by Mary Monroe

WHEN ODELL GOT TO MY JOB, HE APPEARED TO BE DISTRESSED. His eyes were watery, his lips were dry, and his hands were shaking. I thought he was coming down with something. “Baby, are you all right?” I asked as soon as I slid into the car. I glanced over my shoulder and was pleased to see that the snacks for Yvonne and Milton on the back seat included their favorites: crackers, hog head cheese, baloney, and two huge jars of pickled pigs’ feet. “You don’t look too good. Maybe you’re coming down with something.”

  “Now that you mentioned it, I do feel a little under the weather. I think I’m coming down with a cold.” He eased the car out onto the street and drove slowly toward our neighborhood, keeping his eyes on the road.

  I put my hand on his shoulder and massaged it. Next I touched his chest. His body felt so tense, he was probably sicker than he thought. “A summer cold is nothing to play with. Our principal’s niece caught one last July and died. Do you think it’s a good idea for you to go around your daddy with him already being so sickly?”

  “I hadn’t thought about it. Since you brung it up, maybe I shouldn’t go out there today. If he gets any sicker, he’ll have another reason to badger me to come see him even more often.” Odell’s voice was so high-pitched, he almost sounded like a woman.

  “Then you should stay home and take care of yourself first,” I insisted. “You don’t need to go next door with your germs and infect Yvonne and Milton and their guests. I’ll go over there for a few minutes and drop off the snacks and tell them how sorry we are about their friend’s passing. But before I do that, I’ll fix you some soup and make a pot of ginger tea. I’m sure your daddy, and Yvonne and Milton, will understand if they don’t see you today.”

  When Odell spoke again, he sounded normal, and that made me feel better. “That’s fine, Joyce. You are so good to me.”

  “And you are so good for me.”

  We didn’t talk during the ride home, but all kinds of thoughts were bouncing around in my head. Odell didn’t put his arm around my shoulder or even look at me the way he usually did when we were in the car. You would have thought he was alone. I was concerned about his odd behavior. When we got home, I looked him in the eye and said, “Odell, is there something going on you don’t want me to know about?”

  He suddenly seemed so frightened, I thought he was going to jump out of his skin. “What do you mean?” he asked in a voice I almost didn’t recognize. “Somebody been putting bugs in your ear?”

  “No. I know you like a book, so there is nothing anybody can tell me about you that I don’t already know.”

  “It’s just that today was real busy and I had a run-in with some teenagers that was trying to steal a few items. Them same punks I had to chastise last week.”

  I blew out a sigh of relief and gave Odell an incredulous look. “Is that all? Shoot!”

  “Baby, it could be a problem if I don’t nip it in the bud in time. The last thing I want your folks to think is that I can’t keep things under control.”

  “Some unruly young crooks snatching a few cheap items ain’t worth you getting so bent out of shape over. Come on.” I grabbed Odell’s hand and led him to the couch. With a groan, he dropped down on it like a lead balloon. “Now, you stay here and I’ll make you some soup. After I do that, I’ll take the snacks next door.” I blinked and rubbed my chest, which had been aching from worry a few moments ago. “I wish I had told you to pick up some flowers for me to take over there too.”

  * * *

  I boiled some chicken necks and backs and made a small pan of soup for Odell. After I got him situated, I put all the snacks in a metal dishpan and went next door. “Odell couldn’t make it, so he asked me to bring y’all some goodies,” I told Yvonne when she let me in.

  She gave me a puzzled look before she said anything. “It’s nice to see you again, Joyce. But I didn’t know you was coming over tonight.” She turned around and stared at Milton hovering a few feet behind her.

  “I’d love to stay for a drink, but I’m going to meet up with some friends from work in a little while,” I lied as I glanced around the room. I was surprised and disappointed to see that the only other guest so far was that mealy-mouthed Aunt Mattie. She was kicked back on the couch with ajar of homebrew in her hand. Her beady black eyes were glassy and her makeup was so smeared it looked like she’d put it on with a whisk broom. Though she was even older than my parents, and drank like a big fish, she was still healthy and spry. She didn’t even need a cane to walk with like Daddy did. I didn’t want to hear any more of her sad stories or listen to her make more comments about me and Odell, so I didn’t plan on staying long. “It’s good to see you again, Aunt Mattie.”

  “Set down and chew the fat for a while, Mrs. Watson,” she slurred, patting the seat next to her.

  “I wish I could. But like I just told Yvonne, I’m going to go out for drinks in a little while with a couple of ladies from work.” I returned my attention to Yvonne. “Odell told me about your coworker passing, so I wanted to come by here first and offer my condolences and bring y’all a few snacks,” I said, handing her the dishpan. I had no plans to go out with my coworkers, but it was the best ruse I could come up with to explain me not staying more than a few minutes.

  “How come you and your friends can’t come over here and drink?” Aunt Mattie wanted to know, folding her bat-wing-looking arms.

  “Um . . . I don’t think they’d be too comfortable over here.” My reply must have sounded offensive because Aunt Mattie, Yvonne, and Milton gasped at the same time.

  “Humph! I guess your friends think they too good to drink with us?” Aunt Mattie seethed. She glared at me with so much contempt it would take a sling blade to cut through it.

  “N-no, that’s n-not what I meant,” I stammered.

  “Well, maybe you think your friends is too good to drink with us.” Milton caressed his chin as he spoke. I couldn’t tell from his tone if he was trying to be sarcastic or funny.

  “No, that’s not what I meant either. My other friends only drink in real bars or they buy their spirits from the stores. They would never drink homemade liquor. Besides that, they are kind of skittish, so they only like to socialize with a certain type of people. Jook joints and places like bootlegging houses get a little too rowdy for them,” I explained.

  Aunt Mattie and Yvonne looked at each other then back at me. “They’d probably stop socializing with you if they knew you hung out with people like us,” Aunt Mattie growled with one eyebrow raised. “Ain’t that right?”

  “I don’t think so. Um . . . I hate to run, but I’d better get back home. Odell might be coming down with a cold and I need to make sure he’s comfortable before I go out tonight,” I said, stumbling backward toward the door.

  “When we stopped by the store on our way home from the funeral this afternoon, he told us he was going to visit his daddy this evening,” Yvonne said.

  “That was his plan and I was going to go with him. But since he’s not feeling well, I’m making him stay home tonight. Maybe we’ll come over for a drink tomorrow,” I said as I rushed out the door.

  I ran all the way back to my house.

  Odell was pacing back and forth when I got inside. He stopped as soon as he saw me. “You back already?” He didn’t look or sound sick now.

  “You sure recovered fast,” I noticed, easing down on the couch.

  “Yup! I started feeling better right after I ate that soup you made. I guess it wasn’t a cold coming on after all.” He sat down next to me. “You could have stayed next door awhile if you wanted to.”

  “I would have stayed long enough for one drink, but that lady pimp was the only other person there. I don’t care for her, so I didn’t stay.”

  “What you got against Aunt Mattie?”

  “I don’t have anything against that old woman. It’s just that she gets on my nerves asking nosy questions and talking about some of the nasty stuff that goes on in her whorehouse. I’d rather not spend too much time being around her unless there’
s a crowd around. That way, she’d have other people to pick on instead of just me. Um, since we won’t be going out together tonight, I’m going to call up a couple of the ladies I work with and see if they want to go out with me for a little while. Do you mind?”

  “No, I don’t mind. How long will you be gone?”

  “Well, since it’s Friday, there’s no telling. We’ll have a few drinks and then probably go get something to eat.”

  “I do feel so much better. If I’d known you was going to go out, I could have gone to visit my daddy after all.”

  “Baby, I’m sorry. You can still go, but I’ve changed my mind about going with you. I know Lonnie will be happy to see you and I know you’ll be glad to get out of the house for the night. But you need to skedaddle if you want to get there before him and Ellamae go to bed. You know they don’t get back up to answer the door for you or nobody else.”

  “As soon as I empty my bladder, I’ll be on my way.”

  “And you can stay the whole weekend if you want to. I already told Mama and Daddy I’d go to church with them on Sunday and you know how long-winded Reverend Jessup is, so we’ll be there most of the day. After church, they want to have dinner with some of the choir members. I’m not sure I’ll go with them to that. But if I do, that’ll take up the rest of the day for me. And tomorrow, I think I’ll do a few things around the house that I’ve been putting off.”

  “You sure you don’t mind spending the whole weekend by yourself?”

  “Uh-uh! If I run out of things to keep me busy tomorrow, I’ll go next door and hang out with Yvonne and Milton. Now, you get going and try to enjoy yourself. And don’t you get too close to anybody and give them your germs.”

  “I won’t.”

  Chapter 35

  Odell

  BETTY JEAN WAS SO HAPPY TO SEE ME, SHE SHOWERED ME WITH hugs and kisses as soon as I walked through her door. “You sweet thing you,” she squealed. “What you doing here? Alline told me you called her at work and said you wasn’t coming today on account of you had to go check up on your daddy.”

  We kissed again. And then I coughed a few times so I could have a few seconds delay before I answered her question. I needed time to line up my lies so I could keep them straight and make them sound believable. “I went by Daddy’s house for a little while this evening, and he is doing so much better. Come to find out, he had made other plans to go out with one of his friends and forgot I was coming. I’m sorry I couldn’t get here no sooner.”

  “Oh well. You here now and that’s all I care about. I hope you didn’t already eat supper. I got some greens and neck bones on the stove.” Betty Jean waved me to the couch and we sat down. Before I could get comfortable, she hauled off and kissed me on my neck and poked my crotch. “You sure do feel good, baby. I can’t wait to get you into our playroom.” She giggled and nodded toward the door to the master bedroom.

  “Same here,” I said with my voice sounding like a bear growl. She had already poked me enough to give me a hard-on, so I pushed her hand away from my pecker. Then I pulled her into my arms and kissed her long and hard. Joyce was a better kisser. I didn’t think about that too much when I was with Betty Jean, though. I wanted to reach up under her skirt and slide her panties off and do my business right on the couch, but I didn’t want no audience. I sat up. “Where my boys at?”

  “When I told them you couldn’t come today, they got real upset. Roy was here when Alline came by and told me you had to cancel, so he offered to take them with him and his kids to Mobile to visit the duck pond and eat at one of them roadside burger places. After they do that, he might visit his brother and spend the night at his house, so they probably won’t be back until tomorrow evening or Sunday.”

  “They took the baby, too?”

  “Yeah.” Betty Jean nodded and started looking impatient. “I’m happy I get to take a little break. I’m with them boys seven days a week and taking care of them is hard work. But that’s something you wouldn’t know about. . . .”

  “Please don’t start up on my case again. It make me feel right shitty,” I whined.

  “Forget what I just said. Anyway, we done spoiled Leon and he is already a handful. Can you imagine the mess I would have had on my hands if they’d made him stay home?”

  “Leon is too little to get close to them ducks, and I don’t like him being around a lot of water yet unless he’s with me or you.”

  “I know and I don’t like that neither and I tried to keep him home. But he cried up a storm, so Roy let him tag along. Roy’s kids is old enough to keep a eye on him so they won’t let him get too close to the water myself, eat a bug, or wander off and get lost.”

  “Is there anyway you can get in touch with Roy? Maybe we can drive over to Mobile and pick up the boys. Or maybe he ain’t left his house yet.”

  “They went straight from here to Mobile.”

  I was disappointed that I wouldn’t get to see my boys tonight. But I was pleased that I would at least have a chance to spend some time alone with Betty Jean. We could start working on that baby girl we both been itching to have.

  “How long can you stay?” she asked. “Me and you can still do something nice. We could take a long drive or go fishing.”

  “I’ll stay the night and maybe we’ll take a drive in the morning.”

  “The boys will be upset when they find out you came by anyway this weekend and they didn’t get to see you.” Even though Betty Jean was slightly upset herself, she was still able to show her love by caressing the side of my face and rubbing my chest.

  “I know. But tell them we’ll do something nice soon. I seen a flyer yesterday advertising a carnival coming through here soon. We can go there and spend a whole day enjoying the rides, playing games, and eating. After that, we can go to a restaurant and have supper.”

  “That sounds good.” Betty Jean stood up and gazed toward the door. “Did you bring anything from the store?”

  “Not this time. Some of our vendors is running late with their deliveries, so our inventory is kind of low right now. I have to cut back for a while.”

  “Well, I hope it ain’t too long of a while. The boys keep growing so fast, most of the clothes you already brung them don’t even fit no more. And they need socks and underwear real bad.” Betty Jean reared back and gave me a dry look. “On top of all that, I’m almost out of flour, meal, and lye soap, too.”

  “Don’t worry about nothing. I’ll bring all of that and more next time I come.”

  Our inventory was low, but not because of our vendors running late. In the last few weeks, I had taken huge amounts of merchandise from the store to Betty Jean, especially things for the boys. That was the reason our inventory was low. And somebody had noticed it. Last Monday, that goddamn meddlesome-ass Buddy said something that made me nervous. “We can’t seem to keep clothes in stock as long as we used to. I helped load them racks myself just three days ago and they almost empty already,” he’d said. “Especially the boy clothes and the women’s doodads.”

  “I noticed that too,” I’d mumbled. “And another thing, we can’t keep canned goods and a few other items in stock as long as we used to neither. I guess them shoplifters is working overtime.”

  “That’s the same thing I thought. But they so slick, they only do their dirty work when the store is real crowded and me and Sadie too busy to keep our eyes on their thieving tails! If we don’t do something to stop them dogs from making us run out of stuff too soon, our customers will start shopping in the white folks’ stores and we’ll be shining shoes or frying fish, and standing in the bread lines and eating at the soup kitchens.”

  “Buddy, don’t you worry about a thing. I’m going to hire somebody just to walk up and down the aisles on our busy days. That ought to solve the problem.”

  I was going to hire somebody to help us deal with the shoplifters. But that meant I’d have to come up with a new strategy so I could still take merchandise to Betty Jean. As much as I gave her and the boys, it w
as never enough. She pestered me for all kinds of beauty products, food, and cute frocks. And every time I turned around, the boys wanted toys and new clothes. One reason I had this problem was because I had spoiled them. Betty Jean had several blouses with the price tags still attached. I would continue to take merchandise, but not enough for somebody to notice. I’d already planned to tell Betty Jean that the MacPhersons had decided to stop carrying certain items, mainly the same things she always requested. That way she wouldn’t be expecting all the goodies she’d gotten used to.

  I hoped that that would solve the problem, because I needed to lighten up my stress level. If it didn’t, I’d just have to come up with a new plan.

  Chapter 36

  Joyce

  BECAUSE I HAD LIED TO YVONNE ABOUT HAVING PLANS TO DO something with my coworkers this evening, I had to make it look like I went out. After Odell left, I turned off all the lights except the lamp on the nightstand in my bedroom. I was restless and bored. Now I was sorry that I hadn’t gone with Odell after all. The house was so quiet inside it was frightening. Outside was too. Suddenly, one of our other neighbor’s hound dogs started howling and that frightened me even more. I wasn’t superstitious like some folks who believed a howling dog was a sign that somebody was going to die. But it was the last thing I wanted to listen to while I was by myself.

  I was tempted to go back and tell Yvonne that the friends I was supposed to go out with had canceled. But just thinking about Aunt Mattie grilling me again about my marriage was enough to squash that temptation. I knew that I couldn’t avoid that old crow forever, but the less time I spent in her company, the better.

  I got into my nightgown and climbed into bed with the newspaper. Everything on every page was either boring or depressing, but I kept reading. I fell asleep with the newspaper still in my hand. I had a disturbing dream, which was unusual because I rarely had any at all. But Odell had nightmares once or twice a month and he could never remember the details, so we didn’t give it much thought. In my dream, a beautiful, light-skinned woman I had never seen before approached me on the street and said she had something to tell me. When I asked her what, I woke up, covered in sweat and confused. I couldn’t imagine why a strange woman would be coming to me in my sleep. I dozed back off and had the same dream again, and it ended the same way. I had had other dreams that didn’t make much sense. But I’d never had one that included a woman I didn’t know. I wasn’t going to mention it to Odell or anybody else. Because if it scared me, I knew it would scare them, too. I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I finished reading the newspaper.