by Mary Monroe
“We won’t be here but a few days. We can go to a motel. I saw quite a few on the way from the airport,” Virgil said, looking to Maureen for confirmation. She nodded.
“No way,” Lee insisted. “This might be the last time we see one another for a while, and I ain’t goin’ to let y’all out of my sight much while y’all here.”
“Excuse me, cousin. I don’t mean to be antsy, but do you mind if we go in the house and sit down? That plane ride, and havin’ to change planes twice, was so long and uncomfortable,” Virgil said, forcing out a heavy sigh and a yawn.
“Oh! Y’all come on in the house!” Lee hollered, snatching Maureen’s suitcase out of her hand. “I’m so happy to see y’all I forgot my manners.” He gently kicked open his front door and waved Maureen and Virgil into his living room.
Lee set Maureen’s suitcase on the floor and motioned for her to sit down on his plaid couch. As soon as her butt hit the seat, Lee plopped down next to her with his arm around her shoulder. Virgil fell into a wobbly bamboo chair facing them. “Girl, you look like a film star! Diana Ross better watch her back!” Lee boomed, looking at Maureen like he wanted to eat her. “I bet you have to beat the men off with a stick. I bet you got dudes comin’ in the front door and dudes goin’ out the back door at the same time!”
Maureen shook her head. “Not since I got married,” she said, smiling shyly. “I’m a happily married woman,” she added with a proud sniff.
“That don’t mean nothin’ when it comes to romance. I was a happily married man to four different women, but that still didn’t stop other women from chasin’ after me,” Lee boasted. “I’m a rare man. No matter how old or afflicted I get, women can’t leave me alone.”
“You said in your last letter that your wife ran off with a musician a few months ago,” Virgil reminded.
“That heifer sure did! She snuck her funky tail off one day while I was on the lake fishin’. She didn’t even leave me no note and she didn’t even take all of her clothes. I was beside myself. For all I knew, that hussy had been kidnapped—”
“Well, I hope you didn’t take her runnin’ off too hard,” Virgil interrupted.
Maureen shuddered. Kidnapped was the last word she wanted to hear right now. It had become the most frightening word in the English language to her. From the grimace on Virgil’s face, he must have felt the same way about that word too. If he had not cut Lee off, Maureen would have done it herself.
CHAPTER 42
LEE ENJOYED SITTING SO CLOSE TO MAUREEN. IT FELT GOOD TO REST his knobby knee next to hers. Despite the fact that she was a relative, and it had been more than a quarter of a century since he’d exposed himself to her, she still excited him. But the fact that she had made it clear that she was a “happily married woman” was enough for him to restrain himself this time.
Lee crossed his legs and blinked. “I seen Othella’s nephew this mornin’. He told me he got word to his cousin, the one married to my friend, that y’all was comin.” Lee paused and scratched the side of his neck. “What they can’t figure out, and me neither, is why y’all so set on meetin’ some of Othella’s folks. Especially folks y’all ain’t never had no connection with before. From what I heard, Othella and Aunt Ruby had stopped bein’ friends even way before Othella got herself killed. By the way, how did Othella die? All I ever heard was that she died in a freak accident out there in Florida.”
“A freak accident? Uh, yeah, that’s what it was,” Maureen said quickly. “Miss Othella got drunk and fell out a window and broke her neck.” Part of that was true. Othella had died of a broken neck, but she had not fallen out of a window on her own; Mama Ruby had given her some assistance. Even though Othella had stabbed Maureen with a switchblade during an unprovoked, crazed attack, which was why Mama Ruby had killed her, Othella was still the woman who had brought Maureen into the world. She could never forget that.
“What a mess, what a mess,” Lee chanted, shaking his head. “What a mess it was for Othella to die like that.” He removed a dingy white handkerchief from his shirt pocket and wiped sweat off his face. “Well, I hope y’all have a pleasant visit.” He glanced at the cheap watch on his wrist. It had stopped. “Virgil, what time you got? This damn thing I got always go on the blink every time I need to keep track of the time.”
“It’s ten past seven,” Virgil said.
“My buddy Lukas and his wife, Mo’reen, Othella’s niece, said they’d be here no later than seven-thirty,” Lee announced. “While y’all here we’ll call the other Mo’reen Old Mo’reen and we’ll call you Young Mo’reen to cut down on the confusion,” Lee laughed, winking at Maureen. “It sure is a coincidence you and her havin’ the same name. Now that I’m lookin’ at you, Virgil, you and Old Mo’reen kind of look like one another.”
“Is that right?” Virgil mused. “Well, they say all good-lookin’ people got a double somewhere in the world.”
“You and her got the same high-yella skin and light brown freckles. She got more freckles on her nose than you got, though, and they in the shape of a cat’s paw. Just like her daddy had. By the way, he had a real bad stroke a while back and passed. We buried him on his birthday a few years ago,” Lee revealed. “It was a damn shame too. Old Mo’reen was just gettin’ to know him when it happened. She was raised in some asylum till she got grown and connected with her daddy’s folks. He was named Isaiah just like in the Bible, but we called him Ike. He was Othella’s younger brother and from what I hear, Aunt Ruby’s first love.” An embarrassed look crossed Lee’s face. “I heard he used to pester Aunt Ruby in the cane fields, the cornfields, and even in the bushes behind Grandpa Upshaw’s church!”
Virgil ignored his cousin’s comments about Mama Ruby’s sexual escapades, but just hearing about it made him blush. “I can’t wait to meet Old Mo’reen,” he said. “Why was she in some asylum if Othella had so many brothers and sisters still livin’? Couldn’t they have taken her in?”
“Now, that’s somethin’ you’ll have to ask Old Mo’reen. I don’t know the woman well enough to be askin’ her her business. I just see her in passin’ from time to time, or at a church event every now and then, or when she come over here with Lukas,” Lee answered.
“I can’t wait to meet Old Mo’reen,” Maureen said. “I hope she and I can be friends and keep in touch.”
“Why?” Lee asked.
Maureen chuckled. “I guess because of me and her havin’ the same name,” she replied. She chuckled some more even though she was close to tears. It was a sad time for her. Whether or not Othella’s folks wanted to have a relationship with her, meeting some of her blood relatives meant a lot to her. Now that she knew what she knew, she could not rest and go on with her life until she connected with more of her roots.
Maureen couldn’t believe how many events had occurred in her life in the past few weeks. She predicted there would be more to come. Hopefully they would be pleasant. But the thought still frightened her. What if she found out that some serious physical condition ran in her family? Or some type of mental illness? This was something that was important for her to know in case she decided to have another child. If she could only tell Jay everything! He was the only person who could truly understand what was going through her mind.
The time dragged on. It was now 8:00 p.m. and Old Maureen and her husband still had not arrived. Finally, at a quarter past eight, Lee dialed her number.
“Woman, you and Lukas comin’ to dinner or not?” Lee asked, annoyed that so much time had passed and she had not arrived or even bothered to call. “I got a mighty big possum in the oven. If I eat too late, I’ll be up all night with gas.” If Lee lived to be a hundred, he would never understand why black folks could never be on time. Himself included. He had been late to all four of his weddings and his own mother’s funeral.
“Lukas’s back just went out again. This clumsy old buzzard was tryin’ to swat a fly and fell off the back porch! We won’t be able to make it tonight after all,” Old Maureen said. “I’m
fixin’ to haul him to the hospital. Like always, we’ll be there for a while. You know how slow them quacks in City General is.”
“Well, do you think y’all can make it later tonight for a drink? Or maybe for dinner tomorrow evenin’? Virgil and the other Mo’reen ain’t goin’ to be here but a few days. They got jobs and family to get back home to.”
“I don’t know . . . probably not. Tell Virgil and the other Mo’-reen I’ll have to meet them some other time,” Old Maureen said. “Maybe I can talk my late uncle O’Henry’s wife into havin’ a cookout tomorrow. You remember Della Mae, don’t you? She already said she would like to meet Virgil and Mo’reen from Florida.”
“Is your late uncle O’Henry your aunt Othella’s twin brother that stepped on a land mine in ’Nam and got blown to Kingdom Come?”
“Uh-huh. His wife is still grievin’, so some out-of-town company would do her a world of good,” Old Maureen decided.
Lee sucked on his teeth and groaned. “That poor man dyin’ like that, and then Othella dyin’ in a freak accident. Them two tragedies must have hit your family real hard.”
“Sure enough,” Old Maureen managed.
Just hearing Lee mention Othella’s name made Virgil’s chest tighten and Maureen gasp. They wondered what Old Maureen was saying on the other end of the line. Maureen didn’t look at Virgil, but if she had, she would have seen the look of despair on his face. The last thing either one of them wanted to hear was more about Othella’s “freak accident.”
“I think I’ll take them over to my sister Monette’s house if I can catch up with her. She’s like a fart in a windstorm,” Lee said. “I’ll talk to you another time. If it ain’t too late, swing by Monette’s house after you leave the hospital.” Lee hung up and let out a loud breath. “Well, y’all, it don’t look like y’all will get to meet Old Maureen this time around,” he said, glancing from Virgil to Maureen. “That slew-footed ox she married took a bad fall and injured his back. Every time I look up, he done injured somethin’. Last year he was laid up with a broken knee.”
“He must be real clumsy,” Virgil commented.
“My buddy is that and more. But his wife was the one that broke his knee when she caught him with another woman on his lap. She laid into him with a tire iron.” Lee slapped his knee and guffawed. “All I can say is, there is some real ferocious women from this state. As I’m sure y’all both know, Aunt Ruby was one of the most ferocious. I heard that even when she was a young girl, folks used to say that if they had seen her fightin’ a bear, they would have helped the bear.”
Virgil and Maureen nodded in agreement, but they didn’t comment. Violence was another thing about Mama Ruby that they didn’t like to be reminded of, or discuss.
Virgil turned to Maureen. “Well, since we might not get to meet this other Mo’reen this time, it would be nice if we could meet Othella’s twin brother’s wife if we have time, huh?” Virgil said to Lee, “Or any other of Othella’s relatives that’s still around, if you could round some of ’em up.”
“I still can’t figure out why y’all want to meet Othella’s folks so bad when we got a few y’all ain’t never met,” Lee said, scratching his chin. “Well, Old Mo’reen just might show up here tonight, and I know my sister Monette would like to meet y’all tonight. Now, Monette’s had a few mild strokes, so she might sound a little senile. She and Old Mo’reen, they been friends for a real long time, and they still pretty close. They even live next door to one another. I have to warn y’all, though, I hear that Old Mo’reen is kinda dangerous. Monette might tell y’all some stuff about her that y’all won’t like. Then you’ll be glad you didn’t meet her after all. Y’all want to meet Monette tonight? I can see how hungry y’all look, and Monette always got a pot on the stove.”
Maureen smiled at Virgil and shrugged. “It’s all right with me, if it’s all right with you,” she told Virgil.
Lee had burned the possum he had planned to serve for dinner, so inviting his older sister to join them for dinner was out of the question. When he called up Monette, she was glad to hear that Lee wanted to bring the cousins to her house for a late dinner.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have come out here,” Maureen whispered to Virgil while Lee was looking for his shoes. “Maybe we should have left well enough alone. Especially since Lee thinks that Old Mo’reen is a dangerous kind of woman.”
“I hear you. Like me and you agreed, Othella’s people might be the kind of folks we don’t need in our life. But since we came this far, let’s eat dinner with Cousin Monette. If we don’t meet none of Othella’s folks this time, maybe we’ll have better luck the next time—that is, if you still want to meet your blood relatives.”
Maureen shook her head. “There won’t be no next time. Like you just said, my real mama’s folks might be the kind of folks we don’t need. If we don’t get to meet them, it’s probably all for the better. I keep thinkin’ they might make me feel worse than Jay’s folks made him feel.”
CHAPTER 43
LEE’S OLDER SISTER, MONETTE ULMER, OPENED HER FRONT DOOR wearing a long black duster like the ones Mama Ruby used to wear. She had on a pair of well-worn backless men’s house shoes and she smelled like Bengay. She resembled Lee, except she had a lot more hair on her head, and she was much larger. She was one of the few women that Maureen or Virgil had ever seen who was almost as obese as Mama Ruby. Her neck alone must have weighed five pounds.
“Goodness gracious! Y’all come on in!” Monette greeted, ushering everybody into her neat living room. Monette was a widow and her seven children and eighteen grandchildren lived in various cities and states. She had a live-in “boyfriend,” a seventy-five-year-old retired truck driver who was currently in Atlanta helping his remaining relatives look after his ninety-four-year-old mother. Monette was a lonely woman, so she was glad to have company. “Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Y’all in for a real treat! I been cookin’ up a storm all day and I hope y’all like oxtails, turnip greens, and hush puppies!”
After a lot of hugging and kissing, Maureen, Lee, and Virgil sat down on the same black leather couch facing Monette on a black velvet love seat that had duct tape holding one leg in place.
“Two Mo’reens in the family! A double blessin’! God sure is good. Virgil and Mo’reen, y’all don’t know how bad the other Mo’reen is itchin’ to meet her baby sister and her baby brother. What a blessed event this is!” Monette squealed.
Virgil whirled around and looked at Maureen, and they both shrugged. One was as puzzled as the other by the part of Monette’s statement about a “baby sister and a baby brother.” As far as they knew, this other Maureen was Othella’s niece. They both assumed that Monette was more senile than Lee said she was.
“See what I mean,” Lee whispered just loud enough for Virgil and Maureen to hear. “Monette ain’t in her right mind no more.” Lee paused long enough to clear his throat. Then he plastered a condescending smile on his face and looked at his sister. “No, sissy. You got it all ass-backwards. These ain’t the other Mo’reen’s kinfolks. Their mama, our aunt Ruby, was real close friends with the other Mo’reen’s aunt Othella. They just wanted to meet some of ’em while they was visitin’ me,” Lee explained. He looked from Virgil to Maureen, shaking his head and sighing with exasperation.
Monette let out a loud breath and rolled her eyes at her brother. “I know all about Aunt Ruby and the other Mo’reen’s daddy. Before Othella’s mama died, she told me how her son Ike got Aunt Ruby pregnant and how Aunt Ruby didn’t want to raise no baby. Her bein’ a teenager and so caught up in the church and whatnot, she didn’t want to bring shame on her family. She gave up her baby.”
“Wait a minute! Y’all slow down some,” Virgil ordered, rising off the couch with his hand in the air. “Y’all confusin’ me.” He looked at Maureen. He could tell from her raised eyebrows that she was just as confused as he was. Was another skeleton about to fly out of the family closet? they both wondered.
“I’m in the dark he
re. Now what baby is this y’all talkin’ about?” Virgil said, returning to his seat.
“Aunt Ruby Jean had another baby way before she had y’all two,” Monette revealed with a vigorous nod.
“Do you mean to tell me that my mama was this other Mo’reen’s real mama?” Virgil asked. There was an incredulous look on his face. With his mouth hanging open, he looked from Maureen to Monette and back to Maureen.
“Yeah,” Monette said, puzzled and confused herself now. Her eyes got wide. “Don’t tell me y’all didn’t know—”
“I didn’t know nothin’,” Virgil rasped, wondering how he was still able to be in his right mind. The last thing he expected to hear was this bombshell that Monette had just dropped. “I thought that me and Mo’reen . . .” He paused and nodded toward Maureen. “I thought that me and this Mo’reen was the only kids that Mama Ruby had.”
“Aunt Ruby had another baby? I declare, it’s news to me!” Lee yelled. “Sissy, you must have got the story mixed up, like you do with everything else. These two youngin’s here from Florida. They the only kids that Aunt Ruby had—that I know about.”
“Well, Aunt Ruby had another baby when she was a youngin’. When she was just fourteen or fifteen, if I remember right. Our folks didn’t like to talk about it much. See, Aunt Ruby had birthed her baby in Othella’s mama’s house and nobody even knew at the time that she was in the family way. And guess what? Even Othella’s brother Ike didn’t know Aunt Ruby had had his baby. Everybody found out about it years later when Simone, Ike and Othella’s mama, went back to the asylum where Aunt Ruby had made her take the baby the night she had her. Them nuns at the asylum had named the baby Mo’reen, after the nun that looked after her the most and weaned her. What a coincidence it was that years later, Aunt Ruby gave her second baby girl the same name! By then Aunt Ruby’s first daughter was all grown up and married.” Monette stopped talking and tilted her head to the side and lowered her voice. “The first Mo’reen’s first husband died in a car wreck some years later, but she got married again right away. Poor thing. She married another fool, of course. Anyway, the one thing that Simone couldn’t stop talkin’ about every time I ran into her was how crazy Aunt Ruby was about that baby girl she had dumped off in that asylum.”