by Mary Monroe
“Pffft!” Buddy threw up his hands and batted his ratty eyes. Sweat was all over his homely face. “Girl, where you been? That news is as old as Methuselah. Him and that loose-bootied heifer been involved for months.”
“On top of that, I heard Sister Hayes know all about it. But I suspect she don’t care. After twelve kids, I’m sure she done had enough of that old frog mounting her,” Sadie threw in. She was just as homely and miserable as Buddy. Other than church and work, neither one had much of a life, so gossiping and meddling was like a happy-making potion to them. “And guess what else, Yvonne?”
“What?”
“He just started lusting after his choir director, too. The way he eyeballs that sister would make Jesus weep.”
“Honest to God?” I hollered.
“Yup!” Sadie and Buddy thundered at the same time.
I shook my head and let out one of them sighs of disbelief. “Well, shut my mouth. I don’t understand why his wife put up with his mess. I sure wouldn’t.”
“Me neither. Some men is so trifling. If they ain’t chasing women, they doing every other kind of devilment,” Sadie snarled. Without missing a beat, she asked, “By the way, how is you and Milton these days?”
“Blessed. Things couldn’t be better for us. We went to church with Joyce and Odell yesterday. Reverend Jessup brung the house down with his preaching.”
Buddy and Sadie gazed at each other, then back at me.
“I was there. I would have come up and hugged y’all, but by the time folks stopped hugging me, y’all was gone,” Sadie said.
“I was there, too. But I took off in a hurry so I wouldn’t get hugged by none of them juicy women, with my jealous lady friend so close by.” Buddy shook his head and raised his eyebrows. “By the way, you and Milton and Joyce and Odell done got real chummy, huh?”
“Uh-huh, praise the Lord. We spend a lot of time together.” I stopped and nodded toward the back of the store. “I hate to run, but Odell is expecting me.”
“For what?” Sadie wanted to know.
“Um, I didn’t get nothing but lye soap and witch hazel for myself that day me and Joyce came in with my little cousins. He told me I could come back anytime I was ready and pick out some blouses.”
“How come you didn’t get none when you was here the last time? You was here long enough,” Buddy said with a smirk.
“Odell didn’t have what I wanted in my size,” I explained. “Now I’ll let y’all get back to work. I’m on my lunch break, so I can’t stay long.”
I didn’t wait for them to say nothing else. I whirled around and rushed toward Odell’s office. When I got to the door, I stopped and held my breath. I was nervous and was tempted to change my mind, but I’d come too far. I knew that if I didn’t confront him now, I might not get up the nerve to do it again.
“Odell, you in there?” I asked, knocking at the same time.
“Come on in, Yvonne.”
I opened the door and hurried in. “You told me to come by today to get some blouses,” I reminded.
“Indeed I did!” He grinned. I was glad to see him in a cheerful mood, but I knew that wouldn’t be the case by the time I left. He stood up from his desk, still grinning. “Some sharp tops came in last Thursday. I hope you like ruffles and stripes. Most of all, they all got high necklines, so you ain’t got to worry about exposing your bosom the way you been doing. Now, as you know, we never get more than four or five of the same clothing items in the same sizes at the same time. It’s a good thing you got here before other small-boned women came in and picked out the good stuff. Come on and pick out what you want.” I followed him outside, to the women’s clothing section. “Help yourself,” he said, pointing toward a bunch of blouses on a rack.
“Okay. I really appreciate this, Odell.”
I didn’t care which ones I took, so I grabbed two from the middle. They was loud and so unlike anything else in my wardrobe, but they wasn’t low cut or skimpy enough to offend nobody. I didn’t know when I’d go back to church, but they was the kind of blouses I wouldn’t wear no other place.
“These will do.”
“You made a good choice. Them the same two Joyce liked the most. It’s a shame they don’t come in her size. Now, you hold tight and let me run and get you a bag.” Odell rushed over to Sadie’s counter and grabbed a bag. He was whistling when he trotted back to where I was. “I hope we still on for supper this evening. Joyce couldn’t stop talking about them pig ears last night,” he chuckled as he folded the blouses and slid them into the bag.
“Um, yeah. I marinated them pig ears overnight in butter. They’ll be nice and tender when we eat them this evening,” I muttered.
“Good! Now, do you need anything else today?”
I held up my hand to shut him up. “No. But I need to talk to you about something before I leave.”
He gave me a blank stare and then broke into a grin. “If it’s about you paying for the blouses today or putting them on that credit account I opened for y’all, don’t worry. Since I’m the one that suggested you improve your wardrobe, the cost is on me.”
“I’m glad to hear that. But that ain’t what I need to talk to you about. It’s something a lot more important.”
“You got something important to discuss with me? What in the world could that be?”
“Take me somewhere more private,” I advised.
Odell glanced over at Buddy and Sadie before he ushered me into his office. I shut the door behind me, because I wasn’t about to take a chance on Buddy and Sadie eavesdropping. He went behind his desk, sat down, and motioned for me to sit down in the chair facing him, but I didn’t. I wanted to be on my feet in case he got ugly enough for me to run.
“What is this important thing we need to be conversating about behind closed doors?” he asked in a gruff tone. I couldn’t believe the change in his demeanor. He was looking at me like I’d stole his wallet.
“Hold your horses. I’ll get to it.” I didn’t want to be too abrupt. I figured it would be more pleasant for us both if I eased into the situation. If I stayed calm, maybe he would, too.
“I ain’t got time for games, Yvonne.” He blew out some air and narrowed his eyes. “What is it?”
I leaned over his desk and whispered, “I know something about you.”
He squinted so hard, his eyes looked like they was almost closed. “Listen here, if you got something to talk to me about, do it and stop acting like a child!” His sudden mean tone and name-calling made me mad.
“Who you calling a child? I’m thirty-two years old!”
“Then quit acting like a ignorant pickaninny—”
I didn’t give him a chance to insult me more. I realized I was going to have to get tough with him. “I know what you been up to, you nasty buzzard.”
Odell did a double take. “Excuse me? Who in the world you talking to?”
“Do you see anybody else up in here besides me and your happy-dick self?”
He gasped so hard, I was surprised he didn’t swallow his tongue. “Yvonne, you drunk?”
“I ain’t had no alcohol since last night!”
“Then you must have lost your mind! I declare, I ain’t never heard you say nothing so crazy!”
“And I declare, I know all about you and Betty Jean.”
He didn’t move or say nothing for the longest time. He just sat there staring at me, with his mouth hanging open. He didn’t even blink.
“Did you hear me, Odell?”
“I heard you.” His voice was as raspy as that of a sick old man. He fidgeted in his seat and blinked a bunch of times. “I guess Milton told you, huh?”
“Yup. But he didn’t mean to.”
“If he told you something he swore to me he wouldn’t tell, he meant to tell.”
“Now, don’t get mad at Milton. He was drunk, and I pestered him until he broke down and told me.”
“So, you know everything?”
“Everything he know.”
Odell reminded me of a rat I’d backed into a corner one day, before I clobbered him with a whisk broom. And just like that rat, he glanced around like he was looking for someplace he could hide. After a loud, painful-sounding moan, he gazed into my eyes and mumbled in a nervous tone, “I slid down a hole, but it ain’t as deep as you might think it is.”
“Odell, people can say a lot of things about me. One thing they can’t say is that I’m stupid. You got three kids with that woman! And you got people over in Hartville believing you a traveling salesman.”
His lips quivered, and his dark eyes looked like they’d got even darker. “That blabbermouth husband of yours didn’t leave no stone unturned!” he blasted.
“You could say that. But he took me over to Po’ Sister’s Kitchen in Hartville, where he seen y’all. One of the waitresses backed up everything he had already told me.”
Odell’s eyes got so big, you would have thought a ghost had just flew in. “Y’all been talking to people over there about me and Betty Jean?”
“Yup.”
CHAPTER 39
YVONNE
“WHAT KIND OF MESS YOU TRYING TO STIR UP?” ODELL ASKED, with his voice cracking. “Them suspicious waitresses cut their teeth on scandals!”
“The one I’m talking about didn’t get suspicious. Milton played it off like a pro. He asked most of the questions. Besides, she said she wouldn’t mention to you that we was ever there. So, you ain’t got to worry about her telling Betty Jean or her sister about our visit. I just had to let you know that I know the kind of man you is now.”
“Lord have mercy!” Odell pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and mopped sweat off his face. Then he blew out some air and gave me a hot look. “You being married to a thug like Milton, I had already suspected you was a lowlife. I didn’t think you was below the lowest level.”
The pickaninny insult was still ringing in my ears and had made me mad enough. Being told that I was on a low-life level that didn’t even register on the scale made me doubly mad. I was bent on keeping cool until I finished saying all I had to say. “You got some nerve calling me a ‘lowlife’!”
“If I wasn’t a old-fashioned gentleman, I’d call you a few other names, too.”
My chest tightened, and I waved both my hands in the air. “I can think of a heap of names to call you, too. I won’t, because I’m old-fashioned, too. But I’ll say this much. Shame, shame, shame! You had me and everybody else fooled. And poor Milton. I was always in his face, telling him I wanted him to be more like you!”
“How come he didn’t come with you?” It was hard to believe a man like Odell could speak in such a nasty tone like he was doing now. “He off harassing somebody else?”
“My husband is a real old-fashioned gentleman. He don’t harass nobody, and I know you ain’t trying to say that’s what I’m doing. I been ladylike since I walked in your office.” I had to pause to catch my breath and rub my chest to keep it from getting any tighter. “He think I only came to pick up them blouses you said I could get.”
Odell’s eyebrows lifted. “You didn’t tell him you was coming here to confront me?”
“Goodness gracious, no! I swore to him that I wouldn’t tell nobody your secret.”
“Is that so? Humph! He swore to me that he wouldn’t tell nobody, neither!”
“I ain’t going to tell him about this conversation. And I hope you don’t.”
“Okay. What I need to know is, What do I have to do to keep you quiet?”
“I’m glad you asked that. As you know, me and Milton been having some serious money problems lately.” I rolled my eyes up and shook my head. “He can’t stop gambling.”
“So, you want me to pay you off?”
“You could say that, I guess. And I want you to know up front that I ain’t greedy. Other than some free merchandise as we need it, and you letting us slide when we can’t pay our credit account on time, all I want is a few dollars.”
“You want ‘a few dollars’ today, but what will you want later?”
“Nothing, I hope. Why?”
“You see here, Yvonne. I ain’t going to agree to give you whatever you want today without guidelines for the future. I don’t want to end up in the same mess with you that I’m in with Milton.”
“Huh? You gave him some money already?”
“He didn’t waste no time putting blackmail on the table. I been giving him money every Wednesday since he came to talk to me about this back in July. And I been giving him ‘bonus’ money almost as regularly as I been giving him what I agreed to.”
I couldn’t believe my ears. I gazed at Odell for a few moments with a dumbfounded look on my face. “Milton didn’t tell me that. All he told me was that he let you know he knew what you was up to, and that he gave you a piece of his mind. And I believed him. I thought that with y’all being such good friends, he wouldn’t make a big deal out of it or ask for no hush money.”
Odell stared at me like I was speaking a foreign language. “Why would you think he’d confront me if he didn’t want something? I can see you don’t know your husband at all.”
“Just like I don’t know you at all.”
“Look, you need to get up out of here. I got work to do, and I need to be by myself so I can think about this shit.”
“Before I go, I want to know how much Milton get from you every week.”
“We agreed on eight dollars.”
“That’s a odd number,” I snickered. “How did you come up with that?”
“I didn’t. One of the things he wanted was a part-time job stacking shelves at the store, and I went along with that. But my in-laws blocked that as soon as I brung it up to them. But because I had jumped the gun and told Milton I’d hire him before I checked with Joyce and her folks, he assumed I could afford to pay him. So, he demanded the same amount he would have earned each week if I’d hired him.”
“Why Wednesday?”
“Why not? It’s as good a day as any.”
My mind was reeling so hard, I almost couldn’t think straight. Now I was beginning to wish Milton hadn’t told me about Odell and Betty Jean. But since he had, I couldn’t turn back now. I had to finish what I’d started. All this time he been walking around with extra money that I didn’t know nothing about. I never would have thought that Milton would hold out on me. Maybe he was not the straight-up, righteous Christian I’d always thought he was. I couldn’t get too upset about that right now. Especially since I’d broke my promise to him not to let Odell know I knew about Betty Jean. And I didn’t feel bad about what I’d done. As far as I was concerned, one crook didn’t deserve no more respect than the crook he or she was in cahoots with.
“I could wring Milton’s neck for not telling me everything!”
“Humph! I won’t tell you what I’d like to do to him.” Odell lowered his voice. “I’ll give you five dollars today. I’m putting out a lot of money already, and it ain’t easy. If Joyce’s daddy was to change his mind and come back to work, I’ll be stocking shelves again. Then I wouldn’t be able to give you and Milton a plugged nickel.”
“What you doing for that woman and them kids? I hope you ain’t letting her folks or the government provide for them.”
“That’s none of your business!” he barked, wagging his finger in my face. “You know too much already. And I don’t want Milton to know what went on here today.”
“You ain’t got to worry about that. I got morals, see. I know how to keep a secret!”
Odell looked at me with his mouth hanging open. “But your morals ain’t stopping you from shaking me down?”
“Huh? Explain what you mean by that.”
“Never mind. From that confused look on your face, I know any explanation I give would go right over your head!” he snapped, dismissing me with a heavy-handed wave.
“Anyway, I’m mad at Milton for not telling me you was paying him, but I’ll let that slide. He got enough problems already. I guess you heard about his most recent gambling w
oes.”
“I hear a lot of things about Milton these days. And most of it is ugly. People been talking about him all over town, especially my customers. A few bootleggers want to run him out of town on a rail. If he don’t watch his step, he’ll have more enemies than friends.”
“Pffft!” I dismissed Odell’s warning with a eyeball roll. “We ain’t worried about nobody messing with us. Them other jealous, crybaby bootleggers been bad-mouthing us ever since we got in the game. And they ain’t chastised us yet. The next time somebody tell you something about Milton, or me, you can tell them I said to go jack off.”
“That’s a real blasé attitude to have about something that could cause you and Milton a heap of grief.”
“I have to get back to work. Can I have my money now?”
As soon as Odell gave me my money—with one of the nastiest looks on his face I ever seen—I bolted. I ignored the nosy expressions on Buddy’s and Sadie’s faces as I walked real fast past them and on out the door. I cringed when I tried to imagine what was on their minds.
CHAPTER 40
MILTON
YVONNE GOT BACK FROM HER LUNCH HOUR FIFTEEN MINUTES LATE.
“It took you long enough. Did Odell have to pull out a sewing machine and stitch up them blouses from scratch?” I asked when she pranced into the kitchen and showed off them tops she went to get.
Flowers and ruffles? Holy moly!
“Nope. He was busy talking to a vendor when I got there, and I had to wait for them to finish,” she claimed, standing at the sink, washing her hands. “Before the first vendor left, another one came in, and I had to wait for him to leave, too. Do you like my new blouses?”
“Them is the most mammy-made pieces I ever laid eyes on,” I teased. “My blind grandma could have picked out something cuter.”
“Stop making a fuss,” she whined. “I’m only going to wear them to church.”
I glanced toward the door and around the kitchen. The other cook working today was busy at the grill, and the dishwasher was scrubbing plates. Before I could say another word, Mr. Cunningham came out of nowhere.