by Mary Monroe
“If Mama Ruby was so crazy about her first baby girl, why didn’t she keep her?” Maureen asked in a low, nervous voice. Her head was aching so badly she thought it was going to explode.
“Pfftt! Aunt Ruby Jean’s mama and daddy would have skinned her alive!” Monette snapped, offering a dismissive wave with her thick hand. “Simone told me that every time she got a letter from Othella, she told her how bad Ruby wanted another baby girl to make up for the one she gave up.” Turning to Maureen, Monette added, “I can see she got what she wanted. I bet Aunt Ruby worshipped the ground you walked on, didn’t she? You made up for that first baby girl, didn’t you?”
“Yes, ma’am. I guess I did,” Maureen mumbled, barely moving her lips.
Virgil could no longer hold back his tears. He covered his face with his hands and sobbed.
“Virgil, don’t you cry now. Even though you was born a boy, I know that Aunt Ruby Jean loved you just as much as she loved her two baby girls,” Lee said, glancing from Virgil and then to Maureen, looking her up and down again.
Maureen wrapped her arm around Virgil’s neck and pulled his head down onto her shoulder. She patted him on the back, but he continued to cry like a baby.
Virgil had cried more in the last couple of weeks than he had cried when Mama Ruby died. He wondered just how many more secrets and lies he and Maureen had to deal with. How many more tears he was going to have to shed.
Maureen was glad that she had made this peculiar trip, but she was also anxious to return to Florida. She couldn’t wait to be back home with Loretta and Mel where things were normal.
Maureen decided to call home after she and the rest of her relatives had finished dinner.
“It’s me,” she said to Mel, speaking in a low voice on the telephone on the end table in Monette’s living room.
Mel was a little drunk and disoriented, so at first he didn’t even realize it was Maureen on the other end of the telephone line. Her voice sounded so unfamiliar and detached. “Excuse me?” he hollered.
“This is your wife, you knucklehead,” Maureen said in a louder voice, laughing. “I couldn’t wait to call and hear your voice.”
Mel laughed too. “I was wondering who in the world was calling here this time of night,” he said, sounding tired. And he was.
He was thoroughly exhausted. Loretta had worn him out again. He rubbed a spot on the inside of his thigh where she had bitten him during a clumsy blow job. He made a mental note to keep his shorts on or to undress in the dark when Maureen returned. He also made a mental note to advise Loretta to be more careful with her teeth in the future. That girl sometimes behaved like she was auditioning to be a vampire, he thought, almost laughing again. He even considered buying a dog. That way, if Loretta lost control of herself again, he could blame the bite marks on the dog. He did laugh this time.
“What’s so funny?” Maureen wanted to know. “You sound like a hyena.”
“Oh! I just recalled something I saw on TV a little while ago. Eddie Murphy was cutting up.”
“Anyway, I forgot about the time difference. I meant to call you sooner, but so much has been goin’ on since we got here that I didn’t get to do it until now. Did you remind Lo’retta to take her vitamins before she went to bed?”
“Uh-huh. So, how are things going out there? How is your cousin Lee doing?”
“He’s doing just fine and he’s still country to the bone,” Maureen said. “He looks a whole lot like Virgil.”
Mel snickered. “So he’s got a face that only a plastic surgeon could love, too, huh?”
Maureen laughed along with Mel, even though she didn’t agree with his assessment. “You be nice now,” she scolded. “I have a very attractive family and you know it.”
Like hell, Mel thought to himself. Other than Maureen and the lovely Loretta, he imagined that a family gathering with the rest of Maureen’s family would be like a live version of The Planet of the Apes. He decided to keep that thought to himself, but he had to press his lips together to keep from laughing again. “How was your flight to Bigfoot country, baby?”
“Too long. Honey, I wish you wouldn’t call Louisiana ‘Bigfoot country.’ These folks out here are just as sophisticated as us.” Maureen sighed.
“You’re right, baby. I’m just teasing you. Well, I’m sure you and Virgil will enjoy eating some of that exotic Creole cuisine.”
“I hope we will too. Especially after the oxtails, turnip greens, fried okra, and hush puppies we had for dinner this evenin’,” Maureen said under her breath. “Listen, sweetheart, I have a lot to tell you when I get back home. I’m sorry I can’t talk longer, but I don’t want to run up my cousin’s phone bill. I just wanted to check in with you and Lo’retta to let y’all know we made it here all right.”
“I’m glad you did call, baby. It’s so nice to hear your sweet voice. I was just lying here thinking about you and what I’m going to do to you when you get back home,” Mel told Maureen. He smacked his lips and made kissing noises. Then he abruptly said, “I’ll talk to you later. Bye!” He hung up.
“Who was that?” Loretta asked, returning to her mother’s bedroom with two bottles of beer. She and Mel were both naked and already slightly tipsy. They had been drinking most of the evening and had only stopped making love long enough to have another drink.
“Nobody,” he told her, reaching for his beer with one hand and her tittie with the other. “Somebody dialed the wrong number.”
CHAPTER 44
AFTER MAUREEN ENDED HER CALL, SHE JOINED VIRGIL ON MONETTE’S cluttered back porch. A broken lawn mower, some auto parts that had begun to rust, and piles of newspapers dominated both sides of the porch floor. There was a glider on one side, but it was practically covered with old magazines, gardening tools, a large boom box, and what appeared to be a cat’s litter box, even though there was no other evidence of a cat. The only place left to sit was on the steps. Virgil occupied the top step. Maureen sat down next to him with a hearty groan.
“Virgil, you all right?” she asked, grabbing his hand and squeezing it. She was surprised at how cold his skin felt on such a warm spring night. “You look terrible.”
“I feel terrible too,” Virgil replied, staring straight ahead toward a rosebush, a well-tended vegetable garden, some more useless pieces of junk scattered all over the backyard, and an assortment of fruit trees. “I’m still kind of shell-shocked, though. How about you? How you doin’? You got more of a load dumped on you than me. First all that stuff I told you, now this thing about my mama havin’ a baby before she had me.”
“I don’t know just how I’m doin’ yet,” Maureen admitted. “I guess I’m shell-shocked too. A few minutes ago I was feelin’ like I was havin’ some kind of out-of-body experience. My body felt all right, but my mind seemed like it was floating all over the place.”
“You want to talk about what Monette said about Mama Ruby’s first baby?”
There was a peaceful look on Maureen’s face, and she felt strangely calm. “I guess we need to talk about it some more,” she answered.
“I’m still tryin’ to let it all sink in. I never expected to hear what we heard this evenin’. All this time, I had a real sister anyway,” Virgil said in a scratchy voice.
“Virgil, you did have a real sister all this time. Me. Now you have two.”
Two hours later, Ruby’s biological daughter, Maureen Clemmons, arrived at Monette’s house. Her footsteps on the front porch floor were loud and moved quickly, like a racehorse galloping toward a finish line. She didn’t even bother to knock or ring the doorbell. She snatched open the door and steamrolled into the living room, huffing and puffing like a wolf.
Virgil held his breath and wobbled up off the couch. He stood in the middle of the floor staring at the newcomer with his eyes burning and his lips trembling. “Oh Lord! You must be our big sister!” he managed. “Old Mo’reen.”
“Well, if I ain’t I’m wearin’ the wrong underwear!” the other Maureen roared. “I’m
here!” She punched her huge, lumpy chest with her fist and guffawed so loud and hard she choked on some air. This sister was a country woman to the bone—coarse, loud, and unapologetic. She also wore a pair of men’s house shoes and a long flowered dress that looked like a tropical bedsheet. Her thick, gray-streaked hair was in a single braid, wrapped around the sides and top of her head like a crown. She had the same husky voice that Mama Ruby had had but mercifully, Virgil was happy to see, not the same girth. This Maureen was fairly tall, but she weighed only about a hundred eighty pounds. Like Virgil, she had light brown skin and attractive features. “Well, now, y’all must be Virgil and Mo’reen. My baby sister and my baby brother!”
The younger Maureen rose from her seat and stood next to Virgil. Lee remained in the wing seat by the couch. Monette, with her hands on her hips, stood in the middle of the doorway leading to the kitchen.
“I been itchin’ to meet y’all for years,” Old Maureen squealed. “But let’s get one thing straight now. I ain’t that old, so I don’t want to be called Old Mo’reen. Since I’m the biggest, y’all call me Big Mo’reen.” She paused and looked at Maureen. “We’ll call you Little Mo’reen from now on.” Big Maureen wrapped one arm around Virgil’s waist and her other arm around Maureen’s waist at the same time. “It’s a cryin’ shame that it took this long for us to meet.” She sniffled and released a few tears of joy.
“Sister, we didn’t know about you until now,” Virgil said. “You bein’ our sister and all.”
“Aunt Othella didn’t tell me everything when I met her. She told me that my mama had a baby boy after they moved to Florida. I didn’t know nothin’ about her havin’ another baby girl too,” Big Maureen crowed, smiling around the room. “Who would have thought that I had a baby sister that looks like a movie star. You can’t beat this with a hammer!”
“Shoot! This ain’t no real big deal if you ask me. I got quite a few half sisters and half brothers that I ain’t never met. My daddy got around,” Monette revealed.
“Me too, I believe,” Lee said. “The rumor went around for years that my mama had a baby boy that she gave up when she was a young girl.” He paused and mopped sweat off his face with the back of his hand. “Most everybody in the world got kinfolks they don’t know nothin’ about. Just like Little Mo’reen and Virgil.”
Oddly enough, Lee’s last comment made Maureen feel a little more at ease. She was glad to finally see a smile on Virgil’s tortured face.
“Who would have thought that Aunt Ruby had two baby girls both named Mo’reen,” Monette said.
Everybody in the room laughed.
“I . . . my grandma Simone told me that my mama didn’t want no babies at the time and that’s why she gave me up. When I was a kid, I prayed every day that she would want to meet me someday.” Big Maureen had to stop talking and sit down on the couch. After she’d honked into a handkerchief and wiped the tears from her eyes and the snot off her nose, she continued. “When I heard about the God-fearin’ woman my mama was, I figured she didn’t want me in her life to scandalize her good name. I made up my mind a long time ago that I wouldn’t try to find her, unless she put out the word that she wanted to be found. When I heard she died, I squalled like a panda. I wanted to go to her funeral, but I didn’t want to bring no shame on my mama, not even in death. Her daddy was a man of the cloth that didn’t tolerate worldly behavior. All I heard from that side of the family was what a sanctified woman my real mama was.”
“I wish you could have met Mama Ruby,” Maureen said, easing down on the couch next to Big Maureen. “She was one of a kind.”
“That’s an understatement if ever there was one,” Virgil chimed in.
“Now, exactly what do you mean by that, Virgil?” Lee asked, looking puzzled.
“Um, there wasn’t nobody else like her,” Virgil offered.
“There never will be another woman like Mama Ruby. She was the best mama in the world to me and Virgil,” Maureen added.
Around midnight, Virgil called home to tell Corrine that he had just met the sister he didn’t know he had.
After boo-hooing for a few moments, Corrine told Virgil, “Now you got two sisters.”
CHAPTER 45
BIG MAUREEN LEFT AROUND 2:00 A.M., BUT SHE PROMISED TO RETURN the next day after she had visited her husband in the hospital. Virgil and Maureen accompanied Lee back to his house.
Lee curled up on a pallet on his back bedroom floor and fell asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow.
Maureen was glad to have some time alone with Virgil in the living room. “You doin’ all right now?” she asked Virgil. She eased down into a huge gray easy chair facing him on the couch.
“Somewhat. I’m just feelin’ real strange . . . and sad,” Virgil said mournfully, kicking off his shoes. “Everything ain’t really sunk in yet.” He paused and gave Maureen a pensive look. “I know you said I ain’t got nothin’ to be sorry about, but I want to tell you again that I am so sorry about everything.”
“Do you wish Mama Ruby hadn’t kidnapped me now?”
“Yeah. I mean no! Oh shit, I don’t know what I mean no more. What my mama done was wrong. I can’t say that enough. But havin’ you in our lives was a double blessin’ to her and to me.”
Maureen gave Virgil a weak smile. “It’s a shame that Mama Ruby couldn’t keep her own baby girl, but if she had, things would have turned out a whole lot different than they did for all of us.”
“You mean Mama Ruby wouldn’t have stole you?”
Maureen nodded. “She wouldn’t have had no reason to. You said she took me on account of she wanted a baby girl so bad.”
“Yeah. That’s what she told me. I think in her mind that made it all right. That and the fact that she truly thought God was in control that night. Makin’ it look like you was born dead, then makin’ you come back to life after she got you to our house.”
Maureen looked at Virgil with a stiff look on her face. “God don’t direct none of His flock to kidnap somebody’s child. If He really wanted Mama Ruby to have another baby girl of her own, He would have sent her another husband and blessed them with a new baby that they made.”
Virgil shrugged. “That’s right. I guess I’m just tryin’ to keep Mama Ruby from lookin’ too bad.”
“Virgil, we both know that Mama Ruby’s heart was always in the right place. There ain’t nothin’ you can say about her that would make her look bad to me.”
“One thing I didn’t tell you . . .”
“Uh-oh,” Maureen said, holding her breath, wondering if she had made her last statement too soon.
“If you hadn’t started cryin’ when you did that night, it would have been too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“We had the shoebox ready to bury you in. I was just about to go in the backyard and dig a hole by the pigsty.”
“Oh. So I could have been buried alive, huh?” The thought made Maureen’s head spin.
“Uh-huh,” Virgil agreed. The same thought almost made him pass out.
Maureen’s flesh felt like it was trying to crawl off her bones. She rubbed one arm and then the other. “No matter what, I . . . I don’t think we should ever tell Big Mo’reen about me and how Mama Ruby took me and killed my real mama. Not even on our deathbeds.” Maureen narrowed her eyes and looked at Virgil long and hard. “It wouldn’t do no good for Big Mo’reen to find out that her mama was a criminal, huh?”
“I’m glad you feel like that and I hope you never change your mind,” Virgil said. “I guarantee you, I won’t be confessin’ nothin’ on my deathbed.”
Maureen rose with the sun the next morning and called home again. She was surprised that neither Loretta nor Mel answered the telephone. They hadn’t mentioned having any jobs before she left, and it was only 7:00 a.m. in Florida. She couldn’t imagine where the two of them could be this early. There was a concerned look on her face as she proceeded to leave a message on the answering machine. “I just wanted to check in and l
et y’all know that everything is still goin’ really well. We met some cousins and a half sister we didn’t even know we had. Believe it or not, her name is Mo’reen too. Mama Ruby had her when she was a teenager and couldn’t keep her, so she was raised by somebody else. She’s been with her daddy’s family for some time now. I’ll explain more about that when I get home.”
When Maureen called, Loretta and Mel were in the shower together, giving each other a tongue bath. They didn’t even bother to check the answering machine that day or the next. When Maureen returned home the following Monday evening, one of the first things she asked was, “Ain’t that somethin’ about me and Virgil havin’ a half sister?”
“What half sister?” Mel and Loretta asked at the same time.
Mel was on the couch with his bare feet crossed at the ankles on top of the coffee table. Loretta was facing him in the wing chair with one leg hanging over the side of the chair arm, like she was clinging to a lifeboat. Maureen didn’t approve of Loretta’s position at all. It was a vulgar and suggestive way for a female to be sitting in front of a man. Especially when all Loretta wore was a bathrobe.
“Lo’retta, I hope you don’t sit that unladylike in front of none of the people you model for. That’s how porn stars sit,” Maureen jabbed, shaking her head. “Get your lazy leg off the arm of that chair, girl!”
Loretta immediately pulled her legs together and sat up straight. “I was just tryin’ to get comfortable, Mama. I got the cramps,” she pouted. “I didn’t even hear you come in.”