Over the Fence
Page 1
Also by Mary Monroe
The Neighbors Series
One House Over
Over the Fence
The Lonely Heart, Deadly Heart Series
Every Woman’s Dream Never Trust a Stranger
The Devil You Know
The God Series
God Don’t Like Ugly
God Still Don’t Like Ugly
God Don’t Play
God Ain’t Blind
God Ain’t Through Yet
God Don’t Make No Mistakes
The Mama Ruby Series
Mama Ruby
The Upper Room
Lost Daughters
Gonna Lay Down My Burdens
Red Light Wives
In Sheep’s Clothing
Deliver Me From Evil
She Had It Coming
The Company We Keep
Family of Lies
Bad Blood
“Nightmare in Paradise” in Borrow Trouble
Published by Kensington Publishing Corp.
OVER THE FENCE
MARY MONROE
KENSINGTON BOOKS
www.kensingtonbooks.com
All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.
Table of Contents
Also by
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgments
THE NEIGHBORS - BOOK 2
CHAPTER 1 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 2 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 3 - MILTON
CHAPTER 4 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 5 - MILTON
CHAPTER 6 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 7 - MILTON
CHAPTER 8 - MILTON
CHAPTER 9 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 10 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 11 - MILTON
CHAPTER 12 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 13 - MILTON
CHAPTER 14 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 15 - MILTON
CHAPTER 16 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 17 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 18 - MILTON
CHAPTER 19 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 20 - MILTON
CHAPTER 21 - MILTON
CHAPTER 22 - MILTON
CHAPTER 23 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 24 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 25 - MILTON
CHAPTER 26 - MILTON
CHAPTER 27 - MILTON
CHAPTER 28 - MILTON
CHAPTER 29 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 30 - MILTON
CHAPTER 31 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 32 - MILTON
CHAPTER 33 - MILTON
CHAPTER 34 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 35 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 36 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 37 - MILTON
CHAPTER 38 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 39 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 40 - MILTON
CHAPTER 41 - MILTON
CHAPTER 42 - MILTON
CHAPTER 43 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 44 - MILTON
CHAPTER 45 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 46 - MILTON
CHAPTER 47 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 48 - MILTON
CHAPTER 49 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 50 - MILTON
CHAPTER 51 - YVONNE
CHAPTER 52 - MILTON
CHAPTER 53 - MILTON
OVER THE FENCE
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Teaser chapter
DAFINA BOOKS are published by
Kensington Publishing Corp.
119 West 40th Street
New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2019 by Mary Monroe
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2018912548
Dafina and the Dafina logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN: 978-1-4967-1614-9
First Kensington Hardcover Edition: April 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1-4967-1616-3 (e-book)
ISBN-10: 1-4967-1616-7 (e-book)
This is for Dr. Maya Angelou
and my “other mother,” J. California Cooper.
I miss you both!
Acknowledgments
I am so blessed to be a member of the Kensington Publishing Corporation family. Selena James is an awesome editor and a great friend. Thank you, Selena!
Thanks to Steven Zacharius, Adam Zacharius, Lauren Vassallo, Karen Auerbach, Vida Engstrand, the wonderful crew in the sales department, and everyone else at Kensington for working so hard for me.
Thanks to Lauretta Pierce for maintaining my website and sharing so many wonderful stories with me.
Thanks to the bookstores, libraries, awesome book clubs, my readers, and the magazine and radio interviewers for supporting me for so many years.
A very special thanks to one of the best literary agents on the planet, Andrew Stuart.
Keep the e-mails coming to me at AuthorAuthor5409@aol. com. Visit my website at MaryMonroe.org, and communicate with me on Facebook.com/MaryMonroe, and Twitter @MaryMonroeBooks.
All the best,
Mary Monroe
THE NEIGHBORS
BOOK 2
Hell is empty and all the devils are here.
The Tempest
William Shakespeare
CHAPTER 1
YVONNE
August 1937
LESTER FULLBRIGHT HAD VISITED ME ONCE EVERY OTHER MONTH in the women’s prison camp where I had been the state of Alabama’s guest for almost two years. He was the man I’d been living with when I got arrested. He’d told me that when they let me out, I could move back in.
But when I arrived at his house that Thursday evening, the day I got released, he looked surprised and a little annoyed when he opened the door. “Yvonne, what the hell you doing here? You ain’t supposed to get out until next week!” He looked over my shoulder in both directions as he waved me in.
I felt sure enough frumpy in my drab release outfit: a mud-colored cotton dress, matching paper-thin slippers, and dingy white bobby socks. My hair was in three limp plaits. I had a brown paper bag that contained a few pieces of underwear, the dress I’d been wearing the day they locked me up, my Bible, a comb, and two baloney sandwiches. I’d had a wallet with four dollars and some change in it when they checked me in, but it had mysteriously disappeared. Stuffed way down in my brassiere was ten dollars gate money and a bus ticket back to the county I’d been arrested in. Them two things, and the baloney sandwiches, was what every inmate got on their way out. The bus ticket hadn’t done me no good, because the closest depot was even farther than my destination. The sandwiches had such a foul smell, I wouldn’t have fed them to a hungry hog.
“Did you escape?”
“Do you think I’d be stupid enough to bust out of jail with only a week to go? They turned me loose early for good behavior.” I took a deep breath and set my bag on the floor.
“Whew! Praise God I ain’t got to worry about them laws coming after me for harboring a fugitive.”
“The same day they told me they was letting me out, I sent you a letter. I told you to find somebody with a truck or a car and come pick me up today.”
“Well, I don’t know where that letter went, but it sure didn’t come to me. You know how bad mail delivery service is in colored neighborhoods. The only things that always make it to me on time is my bills. How did you get here?”
“I walked.”
Lester’s mouth dropped open so wide, I could see all his back teeth. “Say what? You walked ten miles by yourself through dangerous Ku Klux Klan territory?”
“I didn’t have no choice. You wouldn’t believe how many snakes and lizards I had to dodge. I got so thirsty and hungry, it’s a wonder I didn’t p
ass out. If I hadn’t come across a spring and a blackberry bush by the side of the road, there ain’t no telling what might have happened to me in that hot sun. Anyway, after I’d covered about five miles, a farmer came along on his mule wagon. He gave me a ride the rest of the way.”
“Oh. The important thing is you made it home.” Lester gave me the once-over and frowned. “You look like a scarecrow in that dowdy frock, but you still a sight for sore eyes,” he declared with a great big smile. “Give me some sugar.” He puckered up, wrapped me in a bear hug, and gave me a rough kiss on my chapped lips. “We should stop wasting time and get loose so we can celebrate your homecoming. Don’t you think so?”
“Yeah, I guess,” I muttered. After the wretched day I’d had, the last thing I wanted to do was get loose in bed with a man. But I wasn’t in no position to say no. I glanced around the living room. As gloomy as it was, it was paradise compared to where I’d just come from. On top of dirty clothes scattered all over his floor, coal-oil lamps sat on his dusty coffee table and both end tables. There was more clothes and other odds and ends on the saggy couch. “It’s good to be free again. We can celebrate, but I need to wash and lotion up first.” I slid my tongue across my lips and couldn’t believe how dry they felt, even after Lester’s sloppy kiss.
“You know where everything is at. Make sure you put some calamine lotion on them ashy lips. And hurry up, so I can show you how much I missed you.”
After I took a quick bath and scarfed down two peanut butter sandwiches and a glass of buttermilk, Lester grabbed my elbow and steered me to his bed. We stayed there for the next hour.
Once he was satisfied, he sat up with his back against a stack of pillows, gazing at me with his eyes narrowed. He started laying out the rules in a gruff tone, which was odd for a man that had squealed with pleasure the whole time he was humping me a few minutes ago. “We better get a few things straight right now. You had it easy the last time you stayed with me. You was lazy, spoiled, and came and went as you pleased.” I sat up, but I kept my mouth shut, because he was telling the truth. “I ain’t going to put up with all that foolishness this time. If you want to stay under my roof, you going to get a job and pay half of the rent. You’ll cook all the meals, keep the house clean, wash the clothes, and everything else I tell you to do.”
“Is that all?” I sneered.
“Naw! You’ll pay half for the utilities, food, and every other household expense. We straight?”
“We straight,” I mumbled. I would have agreed to anything because I was too tired to argue. All I wanted to do was relax, organize my thoughts, and figure out what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
“And another thing,” Lester continued, wagging his finger in my face. “If I find out you fooling around with other men, you will suffer.”
“I ain’t going to fool around on you,” I assured him, shaking my head. “I ain’t never cheated on none of my men.”
Lester wasn’t the best boyfriend in the world, but the best I could do at the time. He was a little on the bossy side, unpredictable, and self-centered. I’d always overlooked his faults because I liked his light brown skin; cute baby face; hard, trim body; and good hair. He always had a decent job, and he had never beat me. Besides all that, he had been hinting for years that he might make me his wife someday. Since Lester had more of the things I liked than any other man I’d been with, I assumed he’d make a good husband. He was thirty-six now, and I was thirty, so I prayed that he’d be ready to marry me soon.
I could have moved back in with Aunt Nadine and Uncle Sherman. They had raised me after my mama and daddy died in a tractor accident when I was six. My aunt and uncle had moved to Mobile last month, and I wanted to stay on in Branson. It was just another typical segregated small town in Alabama, but I never wanted to relocate because it was the only home I’d ever knowed. And it kept the memory of my parents alive. Most of the residents in our part of town lived on dirt or gravel roads, in ramshackle houses. Lester’s place was one of the few on our block that had an inside toilet. The folks that didn’t have one had to use the numerous common-area outhouses. Every house had a potbellied stove in the living room, and almost everybody had a garden, a bunch of chickens, and unruly kids running around in their yards. Some folks had backyard pigsties. Unless it was hog-butchering time, they’d let their pigs roam around in the yards, too. Lester was a simple man. He didn’t want no livestock or kids, because he believed they would be too much trouble. I didn’t agree with him, but I always went along with whatever he wanted to do, anyway.
Katy Harris, my best friend girl since I was ten and she was eleven, lived next door to Lester. She had offered to let me move in with her when I got out, but that would have been an insult to Lester. Besides, cuddling in bed with him was a lot more comfortable and fun than sleeping on a pallet on her hardwood floor.
There was a lot of crime in the neighborhood. Folks that didn’t have much to begin with got robbed by folks that had even less. There was armed robberies and assaults on the streets every now and then. But house break-ins happened on a regular basis. Most of the locks was so flimsy, all a burglar needed to pick them was a bobby pin or a butter knife.
* * *
Five days after I’d moved back in with Lester, I returned to my old job at one of the biggest sugarcane fields in the county. I’d been doing farm labor from the time I started walking, so I was used to it. Lester worked for a farmer that raised hogs, chickens, and cows, so between the two of us, we made enough money to get by. We worked within walking distance from Lester’s house, so we didn’t have to depend on the overseers that transported workers on mule wagons and trucks owned by the farmers.
Lester claimed he had a toothache that Friday morning, so he didn’t go to work. When I got home at 6:00 p.m., he was gone. I didn’t know where he was or when he’d be back. I flipped through magazines, looked out the window every few minutes, and paced the floor for two hours, before I decided to go out and have a drink. I hadn’t had one since the day I got arrested, so I was ready for a good buzz. I left a note on the coffee table to let Lester know that I’d be out until around midnight. There was three bootleggers operating less than a mile away. The only reason I went to Delroy Crutchfield’s place was that he was the closest.
I spent the first ten minutes in Delroy’s crowded living room standing in front of his potbellied stove, watching everybody else get loose. I was counting on some man to buy me a drink so I wouldn’t have to spend my money. Somebody suddenly tapped me on the shoulder.
“I been watching you ever since you came through that door,” a deep voice told me. I whirled around and seen a grinning man behind me, holding a drink. I had noticed him earlier because he was the only man wearing a white linen suit, and he had had several frisky women all over him at the poker table.
“Who me?” I asked dumbly.
“Yeah, you. I hope you like moonshine.” He handed me the drink.
“I do. Thank you.” I took a sip and smiled. “What’s your name?”
“Milton Hamilton.”
“Thanks for the drink.” Lester had spies, so I didn’t want to do nothing that would draw the kind of attention to myself that made people talk. I attempted to walk away, but Milton grabbed my arm. “Ain’t you kind of bold?” I asked, giving him a mild frown.
“Yup,” he snickered. “What’s your name? I sure would like to get to know you.”
“Yvonne Maynard, and I already got a man. We’ll be getting married soon. And I noticed you already got a lot of meat on your plate.”
Milton waved his hand and scanned the room with his eyes narrowed. The women that had been paying so much attention to him was pestering another man now. “Shoot! Them heifers ain’t even clean. I wouldn’t touch nary one with a stick. I ain’t got no woman right now. I been searching for a long time. I got a feeling my search could end tonight . . .”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, like I just told you, I got a man.”
He looked arou
nd the room again. “Where is he tonight?”
“Um . . . I don’t know. He was gone when I got home from the cane field this evening and—”
Milton didn’t waste no time cutting me off. “Why is a pretty little piece like you working in a cane field?”
“Because I can’t eat and live nowhere for free,” I chuckled.
“A classy woman like you should be able to do a lot better than a cane field. I took you for a rich white family’s mammy in one of them big houses on the north side.”
“I hope to have a first-rate job like that someday, God willing.” I took another sip of my drink. I had to cover my mouth with my hand to hold back the belch threatening to embarrass me. “I been working on farms most of my life.”
From the look of pity on Milton’s face, I could tell that he felt sorry for me. But a split second later, he eyeballed me like I was something good to eat. It made me feel special and nervous at the same time. “What do you do when the crops is off-season and there ain’t no farmwork?”
“I clean houses, take in washing and ironing, and whatever else I can get.”
Milton closed his eyes and shook his head. When he returned his attention to me, he looked like he felt even sorrier for me. “I declare, that’s a damn shame. Do you live in this neighborhood?”
“All my life.”
“Hmmm. That’s strange. I been living just down the road a piece from here for almost two years, and I ain’t never seen you before tonight.”
I didn’t care what this man thought about me. But I was reluctant to tell people I barely knew that I was an ex-convict. It was a painful subject that I avoided as much as I could. I finished my drink and set the glass on the coffee table. “I’m a homebody, and so is my man. Other than work, we don’t go too many places.”