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Authors: Mary Monroe

BOOK: God Don't Make No Mistakes
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CHAPTER 26
I
KNEW THAT LILLIMAE AND DADDY WOULD PROBABLY BE OUT FOR
most of the evening. And since Charlotte was at Harrietta's house, I had nothing to hurry home to. Besides, I was afraid to leave Rhoda alone. I didn't know what was going to happen next. With her husband at the plant dealing with one union issue after another that could go on well into the night, and Bully holed up in a hotel room, I felt that it was imperative for me to remain with her at least until Jade had departed.
We looked at each other when we heard the SUV leave, but we didn't speak for a few moments. I ran to the window and peeped out, just to make sure Jade and her friend were both gone.
“They took all of the boxes, so I doubt if they'll come back,” I said, returning to my seat.
Rhoda sniffed and blinked. “Annette, I know you have other things that you need to attend to. I'll be fine, so I don't want you to think that you have to stay here with me,” she told me. We had finished the bottle of Jack Daniels and half a bottle of wine.
“I don't mind staying a little longer,” I said. “I can at least stay here until Otis gets home, in case you want me to be around when you tell him what happened. But if you'd rather be alone now, I understand.”
“Tell Otis what happened? What ... what do you mean?” Rhoda stammered. “Do you think I'm goin' to tell my husband what happened here today?”
“Well, yeah. How are you going to explain to Otis about Bully being in a hotel, and Jade and all of her things gone?”
“Oh, I'll think up somethin',” Rhoda assured me.
I gave her a wan look. “Well, whatever you tell Otis, please call me up right away and tell me, so I'll know what to say in case I run into him. And since we're on the subject, make sure you tell me whatever you tell Pee Wee in case it comes up the next time I see him.” I wanted to talk to Rhoda some more about me seeing Pee Wee's car in Lizzie's driveway. But that was one thing that she didn't need to deal with at the moment. That was another big can of worms that I would eventually open and dump in her lap anyway.
“Let's finish the wine and then you can go. I think I need to turn in early tonight. It's been one hell of a day,” Rhoda decided.
I called home to check my voice mail before I left Rhoda's house. Other than a few ambiguous messages from my mother complaining about one ailment after another, and a call from Roscoe, nobody else had called me. The telephone rang as soon as I got back home. It was a few minutes past eight.
It was Harrietta. “The girls just started putting together a pizza. And after that, they want to play Monopoly. Do you mind if Charlotte stays a little longer? It would be nice if she stayed the night. The girls want to get up early in the morning to make pancakes.”
“If she wants to stay the night, it's fine with me,” I said, knowing that if Charlotte had a choice, she'd come home—but I hoped she'd stay with Harrietta. I enjoyed being alone when I was feeling as tense as I was now. And after everything that I'd been through today, I could barely sit still. “Uh, tell her I said for her to stay the night. I'll bring her sleepwear over in a few minutes.”
“You sound tired. Is everything all right?”
“I'm fine, but I am a little tired.”
“Well, you get some rest, then. And we've got plenty of sleepwear over here, so don't you worry about bringing anything over. I'll send Charlotte home after we eat breakfast in the morning. The girls and I have to be at church for Sunday school by ten anyway.”
“Tell Charlotte I said she'd better behave herself,” I said, anxious to get off the phone.
“Don't worry. I got everything under control,” Harrietta assured me.
Less than a minute after I had ended my conversation with Harrietta, my telephone rang again. It was Charlotte.
“Mama, I don't like this woman! I do not want to spend the night over here,” she whispered.
“Why are you whispering?”
“Harrietta doesn't allow us to use the phone. She's in the bathroom, so I have to talk fast. Unlock the front door. I'll be home in a minute.”
“No, you won't. You're spending the night.”
“NO!”
“Look, you'd better watch your tone of voice, Miss Thing. I'm raising you, you're not raising me.”
“Mama, please ...”
“You are spending the night at Harrietta's house, Charlotte. Now this conversation is over.”
“Mama, I—I gotta go! She's coming!”
I heard some scrambling around on Charlotte's end; then I heard her hang up. I shook my head and chuckled. I was so glad that the “problems” between my child and me were so trivial. But I was determined to streamline my relationship with her even more.
Charlotte was so used to having her way that she had a hard time observing other people's rules. I did not have a problem admitting that my child was not perfect. As a matter of fact, she was just as spoiled as the next. But I thanked God that she was not even close to being as spoiled and volatile as Jade. However, she was still spoiled enough for me to keep her on a fairly short leash. I regretted the fact that I was partly responsible for my daughter being slightly bratty, but there was still time for me to turn her around. I was glad that I had a friend like Harrietta now who seemed to know how to approach children with equal amounts of authority and compassion. That was the way my mother had raised me.
When the telephone rang again a few minutes later, I assumed it was Charlotte calling back. But this time it was Pee Wee.
“I need to see you as soon as possible. Tonight,” he said.
“I've had a very long day. Can't whatever it is wait until tomorrow?” I asked. The image of Pee Wee's car parked in Lizzie's driveway flashed through my mind. “Whatever it is, it can't be that important,” I said, wondering if he was going to tell me why he had visited Lizzie today.
“It could wait until tomorrow, but I think the sooner you hear what I have to say the better,” he responded.
He had my attention.
“Can't you tell me what it is over the telephone?” It was bad enough that I had to hear his voice while I was so distressed; I wasn't too wild about seeing his face too.
“I could, but I don't want to,” he declared. “Look, you've been avoidin' my calls since the last time I saw you. You know that we are goin' to have to sit down and talk sooner or later anyway, so why don't you just do it now and get it over with.”
“Is the something that ‘could wait until tomorrow' about that woman?”
“Yes, it's about Lizzie.”
“I will tell you now that I am not in the mood for any more surprises. If this is something that is going to piss me off, I don't want to hear it tonight.”
“I can't say if it's goin' to piss you off or not. But I would like to see you anyway. I miss you... .”
“All right. I'll be up for another hour,” I replied. “If the lights are all out when you get here, you're too late, so don't bother to knock. Once I get in the bed, I don't want to get back up.”
“I'm on my way,” he said quickly.
A few minutes after I had hung up and kicked off my shoes, I heard somebody stomping up on my front porch. Before I could make it off the couch to see who it was, the door flew open. Lillimae waddled in, huffing and puffing. She sat down hard at the other end of the couch, making it squeak and tremble like somebody had dropped a piano on it. Even though she looked tired and somewhat sad, she didn't waste any time telling me about the good time that she'd had with Daddy. They had dinner at an Italian restaurant and visited a nearby jazz club. They went in Daddy's truck, and I was happy to hear that Lillimae did the driving. She dropped Daddy off at home and parked his truck in front of my house.
“Your mama wasn't too happy about me and Daddy goin' out without her,” Lillimae told me. “We invited her, but she said she had to stay home and scrub her kitchen floor. Daddy said she must have forgot to tell me that she'd just scrubbed that same floor the day before... .”
“As long as you had a good time anyway, that's what's important.” I smiled, which seemed to put Lillimae more at ease. For one, she knew I was her strongest ally when it came to my mother. But it was a difficult position for me to be in. On one hand, I was glad that she and Daddy were enjoying each other's company so much. On the other hand, it made me sad to know that it was also hurting my mother, and that there was not a thing that I could do about it.
“How did your visit to Rhoda's house go today? You and that pit-bull daughter of hers didn't lock horns again, I hope,” Lillimae said with a sharp chuckle. I was glad she had changed the subject, but it was another painful one.
“Girl,” I began, shaking my head and rubbing my forehead with the ball of my thumb. “It was no picnic,” I groaned. “Are you sure you want to hear about it?”
CHAPTER 27
“O
H YES, I DO. I WANT TO HEAR ALL OF THE DETAILS
!” Lillimae yelled, giving me an impatient look.
After I had told her everything that had transpired in Rhoda's house, she stared at me in slack-jawed amazement. I had left no stone unturned. I even told her about Rhoda's handprint on Jade's face. However, I didn't see any reason to tell Lillimae about Rhoda and Bully being lovers.
“Some folks get more pissed off at the messenger than they do the perpetrator. Do you think I should have minded my own business and not told Rhoda what I witnessed?” I asked, rubbing the back of my head. “I keep asking myself that so much now, that each time I get light-headed.”
Lillimae gave me a guarded look. “I really don't know how to answer that.”
I glanced at the floor, then back to Lillimae. “Rhoda didn't get mad at me for getting in her business, but Jade sure as hell did. But no matter what, I probably did do the right thing. Rhoda feels the same way. If she didn't, she would not have confronted Jade the way she did.”
“Well, I'm glad to hear that Rhoda reacted the way she did. I would hate for you to lose her friendship over somethin' that crazy-ass daughter of hers did. But from now on, before you get involved in other folks' business, think about it long and hard first. Rhoda and her daughter may never be close again because of what you told Rhoda.”
“That's good advice, but I don't know how I will react if I'm ever in another situation like this one.” Now it was my turn to look tortured.
“What's the matter, sugar?” Lillimae asked, looking alarmed. “All of a sudden you look like you want to cry.”
I did want to cry, but I managed to hold back my tears. I had done enough crying lately. “A lot of people knew about Pee Wee and Lizzie way before I did. Nobody cared enough about my feelings to tell me,” I whined.
Lillimae gave me a surprised look. “Would it have been better to hear it from a third party or from Pee Wee and Lizzie the way you did?”
“I guess it was better that I heard it from them,” I admitted.
“If one of your friends had told you first, I guarantee you that Pee Wee would have denied it.”
“No matter what, I think I did the right thing by Rhoda,” I insisted. “And Bully too. He was the real victim in this mess.”
Lillimae slapped the side of her head. “What I can't figure out is, why would a young girl like Jade want a man like Bully? He's handsome, sexy, and well-built. But when I met him that other time I was up here, his personality seemed kind of dull to me,” Lillimae said as she began to cornrow braid her shoulder-length blond hair.
“Who knows why Jade went after Bully. You know how crazy young folks are these days,” I replied.
“Well, from what you've told me, it sounds like the girl is on drugs. Why else would she go off on her own mother like that over a man? Especially a man who has been a friend of the family for so long. Rhoda told me one time that Bully used to change Jade's diapers!”
“Uh-huh, that's true,” I said with a nod.
Lillimae shook her head. “But for Rhoda to throw Jade out on the streets, even after what the girl did, that sounds a little extreme to me.”
I was taken aback by Lillimae's comment. “What would you have done if your child had talked to you the way Jade did to Rhoda, and then got violent too? I think a lot of mothers would have done the same thing that Rhoda did. Lord knows I hope I am never put in the position to find out... .”
“I don't know how I would react if one of my kids went off on me like Jade did Rhoda. And I hope I never have to find out,” Lillimae said with a heavy sigh and a yawn. “On that note, I'm goin' to bed.”
Pee Wee arrived thirty minutes after my telephone conversation with him. I let him in and waved him to the living room couch. “You want a plate? Lillimae cooked enough for an army,” I said dryly.
“No, I'm not hungry. I went by that rib shack on Noble Street and had a combo a couple of hours ago.” Pee Wee let out a loud, heavy sigh as he sat down and crossed his legs, tapping his knee with his finger. “I heard about Jade,” he told me with a disgusted look on his face. “Rhoda called me up a little while ago. I am glad you happened to be there when that ruckus took place.”
Pee Wee and Rhoda communicated on a regular basis. They had been close friends for so long that sometimes I wondered why they had not become lovers.
“It was ugly.” Just thinking about that nasty scene made me cringe. “But I told Rhoda to give Jade some time and she'll come around. I'm going to get myself a beer. You want one?” I asked, already moving toward the kitchen.
“Don't mind if I do,” Pee Wee said.
I handed him a can of Bud Light. As soon as I popped open a can for myself, he started. “Annette, I went to talk to Lizzie today.” He took a long drink and let out a mighty belch. Without excusing himself like he usually did, he continued talking, “Me and Lizzie had a real long talk.”
“I know you were over there. I saw your car in her driveway on my way to Rhoda's house this afternoon,” I said with a sneer. I eased down on the love seat. One thing I was glad of was that I was not nervous. If anything, I was defiant—ready to do more battle with him if I had to. But I knew that he knew better. It was to his advantage not to provoke me.
“She is pregnant, but not by me.” He put a lot of emphasis on the last part of his sentence, and that piqued my interest. If there was something he knew that I didn't know, I wanted to hear what that something was immediately.
Pee Wee drank some more beer and gave me a look that I could not interpret.
“You don't think that baby is yours? And how did you come to that conclusion?” I asked.
“I don't think, I
know
that baby is not mine,” he insisted.
“You screwed her, didn't you?”
He raised his hand and twirled his index finger around a few times. “Look, let's try and have a nice, calm conversation. You don't have to be usin' no crude language like that. I know you might not believe me, but this is just as painful for me as it is for you. I'm just as nervous as you are.” He didn't hear me snicker, because I covered my mouth with my hand. He cleared his throat and tapped his knee with his finger some more. “Do you think I'd want to be raisin' another child at my age? I'm old enough to be a grandfather.”
“I did give that some thought,” I admitted. “Technically, we were old enough to be grandparents when Charlotte was born.”
Pee Wee shrugged and nodded. “That's true. But let's keep this conversation on track.” He paused and sucked in some air and maybe some more courage because his voice got hard and direct. “See, this is the thing; I looked over that doctor's report some more this mornin'. And from what I could see, Lizzie is due to give birth in March.”
“So?”
“You do the math. A woman carries a baby for nine months or less. Lizzie left me in May. If she was pregnant then, she'd be havin' her baby no later than January or as late as February, not March.”
“Maybe she miscalculated,” I said.
“She sure did. She and I had not been, uh,
close
since the end of May, so there is no way that baby is mine.”
I stared at Pee Wee with my lips pressed together for a few moments. “How long did you visit her today?” I asked.
“Just long enough to say what I had to say to her. Look, if you think that there is still somethin' between Lizzie and me, you are wrong. I hope you believe that, and I hope you believe what I just told you.”
“I still say that maybe she miscalculated. Maybe her due date is before what she told you and what the doctor's report says. Charlotte came a week later than the doctor said she'd come, or did you forget about that?”
Pee Wee shook his head. “A baby comin' a week late is one thing. A baby comin' two whole months late is a horse of a different color. And a real dark horse at that. This baby mess with Lizzie gets stranger and stranger.”
“How come you are so sure about that baby not being yours? How do I know you didn't sneak around with her after she left you for Peabo Boykin?”
“Because I didn't sneak around with her after she left me for Peabo. Once it was over with her, it was over; and not soon enough if you really want to know. Leavin' you for her was the dumbest thing I ever did in my life!” Pee Wee leaped up off the couch and rushed into the kitchen. He returned a few moments later with another can of beer. “I don't know what else I have to do or say for you to believe that I regret leavin' you and causin' you all these headaches.” He drank and then released another belch. “I don't know what was wrong with me.” He snorted and wiped his lips with the back of his hand. “But I hope I don't have to pay for my foolishness for the rest of my life.”
I considered Pee Wee's words carefully and took my time responding. I finished my beer first and then set the can on the coffee table. Then I gave him one of my harshest looks. “You seem to be so certain that this baby is not yours. There must be
something
you can say to me that will convince me that it's not.” I folded my arms and waited. “And it's got to be something that's solid. So unless you can tell me that you didn't have sex with Lizzie at all while you were involved with her, I can't imagine what other foolproof thing there is.”
His body stiffened and a scowl appeared on his face. Something was up... .
“Can you hurry this up, please,” I rasped, holding my breath and praying that I wouldn't snap. I was already at a point where I felt I could no longer be responsible for my actions.
“Annette, I really don't know how to tell you what I have to tell you next. I don't know how you're goin' to react to it.”
“There's only one way to find out, and I'd like to hear what it is,” I said, cocking my head to the side.
“It's somethin' I had been hopin' that I would never have to tell you,” he muttered, with his eyes searching the floor like he was looking for something he'd lost. I was glad that he had stopped tapping his knee with his fingers. But I knew that he was still nervous by the way he kept blinking his eyes and clearing his throat. He sniffed and looked at me with puppy-dog eyes and quivering lips.
“Something like what? Were you impotent during all that time you were involved with her? That's about the only way I can see you being one hundred percent sure that you didn't get her pregnant.”
“It's worse than that,” he managed, hardly moving his lips. “Annette, I can't make no babies.
I shoot blanks
.”

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