One House Over

by Mary Monroe

  “Yeah, but I have to go somewhere in a little while,” I told him as I waved him to the couch. I sat down at the opposite end with my arms folded, tapping my foot impatiently.

  “I won’t stay long. I just wanted to chat for a little bit.”

  “What about?”

  “You really love your babies, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do. I hope to have some more. I just pray that me and Joyce have a few someday. It would mean the world to her, and to me. But, after all this time, I don’t know if she’s able to get pregnant again or not. I’d never say that to her though. The miscarriage she had a few years ago was real rough on her. She bled for almost a whole week. What do you care? I thought all you cared about was money.”

  Milton focused on the wall for a moment, and then he turned to me with the saddest face I’d ever seen. I thought he was about to cry. If one of us had something to cry about it was me! But I refused to let him see me squirm any more than he already had. “I can understand you having a attitude, but things could be a whole lot worse for you. I could have been a sure enough asshole and took your money and told Joyce about you and Betty Jean anyway.”

  “You might still do that!” I seethed. I got up and stood in front of him. “But I’m telling you now, if you do, you’ll curse the day you was born!”

  Milton’s eyes got as big as walnuts and he stood up. “I could take that as a threat!”

  “You can take it for whatever you want.”

  “Humph! Well, I know you don’t mean it as no threat. I don’t know you that well, but I can tell that you too sissified to be the violent type. I picked up on that the first time I met you.” The self-satisfied smirk on his face was off the charts. I couldn’t get no madder if I tried. On top of everything else, this low-down dog was hinting that I was a pantywaist! It was one of the worst things you could call a man—colored or white. I didn’t react to his comment—which was a straight-up lie. I was scared that if I did he’d harp on it until I snapped. And if that happened, all hell would break loose and I wouldn’t settle down until one of us was dead. He sat back down and crossed his legs. I stayed in the same spot. “You know me and you can’t act no different now,” he continued. The smirk was still on his face.

  “Milton, what the hell do you mean by that?”

  “We can’t stop being buddy-buddy and have Joyce, Yvonne, Willie Frank, and everybody else asking a bunch of nosy questions. I want you to keep coming to the house for drinks, and I’ll keep coming here now and then for supper and just to say hello. Since we had to skip that Fourth of July cookout, it would be nice if we could do one before it get too cold,” Milton babbled, holding up his hand. “I heard you know how to cook some mean ribs.” The thought of this monkey taking my money and eating my food made my blood boil. If he didn’t leave in the next couple of minutes, I was not going to be responsible for my actions.

  “Joyce said something about having a barbecue toward the end of next month. Summer school will be out then and she’ll have a couple of weeks of free time on her hands until regular school starts back up.”

  “Good! Just let us know when.” He stood up and stretched. “Your couch is so comfy, I would have stretched out and took me a nap—if you didn’t have to go somewhere. In the meantime, I’d better skedaddle so you can go wherever it is you got to go. When you get there, have fun.” He winked and made a obscene gesture with his fingers.

  “You . . . you won’t let me down, will you?” I asked, walking him to the door.

  “Let you down how?”

  “With the arrangement we made, I ain’t never got to worry about you blabbing my business, right?”

  “Not as long as you keep up your end of the deal. And by the way, if you ever need to use me as a alibi, I’m game.”

  “Why would I need to use you?”

  “Pffft!” Milton dipped his head and crowed like the beast he was. “Brother, your daddy got one foot in the grave and the other one on a banana peel. When he go to meet his maker, where you going to tell Joyce you going when you need to go to Hartville? That day I seen you in that restaurant with your other woman and them kids, Joyce had told us that you was with your daddy. It don’t take no genius to figure out that’s what you got her believing a lot of other times, too. And that fish story you keep using was fishy from the get-go to me.”

  “I do go fishing a lot!”

  “I’m sure you do. But now that the jig is up, I got a feeling you wasn’t fishing all them times you claim you was. After your daddy is gone, you can tell Joyce you going fishing with me and Willie Frank. We go at least twice a month, and some days we stay five or six hours. That’s more than enough time for you to sneak over to Hartville to play house and get a quickie.”

  I gave Milton a doubtful look and shook my head. “I don’t want Willie Frank to know nothing about my business in Hartville.”

  “Well, unless you tell him, or he catches you too, he won’t. What I’m trying to tell you is that I do go fishing. Sometime I go by myself. If you want Joyce to think you with me, just let me know.”

  “You must be the last person in the world I’d expect to want to help me keep the wool over Joyce’s eyes. Why did you even bring it up?”

  “Eight dollars a week is a good enough reason for me. If Joyce was to find out some other way that you been playing her for a fool all these years, you won’t have no reason to keep paying me, and then I’ll be back to having the same financial problems I had before. Now, like I said, anytime you want to use me for a alibi, just let me know.” He opened the door and before he darted out, he had the nerve to give me a playful punch on my shoulder.

  I hadn’t planned to visit Betty Jean again until the weekend, but it had been a couple of weeks since I’d seen her on a weekday. Five minutes after I got rid of Milton, I splashed some cold water on my face to calm my nerves, and then I stumbled out to my car and shot off toward the highway. I was so worked up I needed to see her, especially since she was the cause of the pickle I was in. I wasn’t going to tell her what was going on. But she knew something was wrong the minute I walked in her door and didn’t kiss or grope her the way I usually did.

  “Odell, what’s the matter?”

  “Where the boys at?”

  “They outside playing with the kids that live down the road. Sit down before you fall down and tell me why you looking like you seen a haint.” We sat down on the couch.

  “Uh, it ain’t nothing for you to worry about.” I swallowed hard and started raking my fingers through her hair.

  “If it’s something for you to worry about, it’s something for me to worry about. Now tell me what it is.”

  “Um . . . I had to hit somebody today and I feel real bad about it.”

  Betty Jean reared back and gave me a skeptical look. “You? You didn’t even want to squash them ants that almost ruined our picnic last Saturday! Who did you hit and why?”

  “A customer was trying to steal some gum and I caught him in the act. We tussled and he swung at me.” My lie was as flimsy as it could be, but it was the best I could come up with. “And I hit him back.”

  “If you was defending yourself, why do you feel bad about it? Did you hurt him?”

  I shook my head. “I just busted his lip. But he wasn’t no more than fifteen or sixteen. I ain’t never hit a kid and that’s why I feel bad about it. I know his mama. She is the frantic type, so she’ll probably come to the store and raise hell.”

  “So let her! Did anybody see what happened?”

  “Yeah, the cashiers and a couple of other customers.”

  Betty Jean laughed. “I thought something real serious had happened. You really had me scared for a minute. The next time you come here in such a funk, I hope it’s because of something we really need to worry about. The way you was looking a few minutes ago, I thought maybe somebody in Branson had found out about me.”

  “Baby, they don’t know and they never will. I got everything under control.”

  “We
ll, I hope you keep it under control. You the only person me and the boys can always count on. If I was to lose you, my life would never be the same again.”

  “I feel the same way, sugar.” I pulled Betty Jean into my arms and gave her the most passionate kiss I ever gave any other woman—including Joyce.

  Eight dollars a week was a lot of money to give Milton. But it was a small price to pay to keep everybody happy. I was prepared to do it until I died, unless he died first....

  TO BE CONTINUED

  READING GROUP GUIDE

  ONE HOUSE OVER

  Mary Monroe

  ABOUT THIS GUIDE

  The suggested questions that follow are included to enhance your group’s reading of this book.

  DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. Joyce was a smart woman, but she was also a desperate woman. She couldn’t wait to get married so her meddlesome parents would stop badgering her to find a husband. By the time she turned thirty she was willing to marry any man—whether she loved him or not—because she wanted children and didn’t want to grow old alone. Do you think it’s a bad idea for anyone to get married for these reasons?

  2. Despite her intelligence, Joyce was naïve enough to believe everything Odell told her because she was hopelessly in love with him. She even got pregnant on purpose so she would at least have part of him in case he ended their relationship. Have you ever been this crazy in love?

  3. If you answered yes to the question above, are you still a fool when it comes to love? If not you, do you have any close acquaintances who are as lovestruck as Joyce? If so, do you ever try to talk some sense into their heads?

  4. Joyce was well-to-do and meek. She was the perfect prey for down-on-his-luck Odell. If you have ever been as easy to exploit as Joyce, did it lead to a bad experience? If so, did you learn from it, or were you gullible enough to make the same mistakes more than one time? With the same mate or new ones?

  5. Odell wanted security and a wife. Joyce was not the physical type of woman he’d always wanted to settle down with, but he loved her anyway. The fact that she was going to inherit a small fortune someday sweetened the pot. Were you surprised when he cheated on her the month after their wedding?

  6. It was love at first sight the moment Betty Jean saw Odell. She used every trick in the book to get him into her bed as fast as she could—which was only a couple of hours after they’d met. Do you think if he had not been in “the wrong place at the wrong time” (the excuse he blamed for his predicament), he would have never cheated on Joyce?

  7. Odell hadn’t planned on having a serious relationship with Betty Jean until he got her pregnant. Do you think that if Joyce hadn’t lost her baby, he might not have gotten so involved with Betty Jean and had two more children with her?

  8. Joyce’s parents were meddlesome, but they meant well. Do you think she would have been a stronger and more realistic woman if she had moved away from home when she was much younger?

  9. Betty Jean was attracted to Odell because he was tall, dark, well-built, very handsome, and he had a great personality. Joyce was attracted to him for the same reasons. Are a person’s looks important to you? If your answer is no, would you consider an out-of-shape partner with plain features if they had a great personality?

  10. Yvonne and Milton had criminal backgrounds and they did whatever they had to do to get what they wanted. They were jealous of Joyce and Odell and started plotting ways to use them. Do you know any people who are “best friends” and “worst enemies” at the same time? Have you ever been in this situation?

  11. To support his mistress and their children, Odell embezzled money from the business he managed for his in-laws. Do you blame Joyce’s parents for being so trusting and nonchalant about money?

  12. Odell had a good thing going until Milton accidentally discovered his relationship with Betty Jean and decided to blackmail him. Would Odell have been better off if he had not agreed to pay Milton, told Joyce about Betty Jean himself, and put some of the blame on Joyce for his affair because she hadn’t been able to give him children?

  13. Odell thought that paying Milton off would be a onetime thing. Milton came back the next day and asked for more money and a job. Blackmail usually ends badly for everyone involved. Do you think Odell dug a deeper hole for himself by agreeing to Milton’s new demands?