God Don't Make No Mistakes (24 page)
Read God Don't Make No Mistakes Online
Authors: Mary Monroe
CHAPTER 46
J
ADE'S PLACE OF “EMPLOYMENT” WAS MORE DISGUSTING THAN I
thought. The so-called dressing room was a sight to behold. The stench in it was worse than the one out on the main floor. In addition to smoke and sweat, I smelled marijuana smoke, cheap perfume, and the unholy stench of stale farts that seemed to be bouncing off the walls. One wall contained a row of gray lockers. Some had padlocks, some had been pried open. Outfits that I would not have worn during my stint as a prostitute, even if I had had a stripper's body, dangled from hooks in the lockers that were standing open. A large pink plastic penis was hanging like a piñata from a gold chain that had been placed in the middle of the ceiling. Scattered about the dressing room counters were dildos, whips, vibrators as long and thick as my arm, thong panties, makeup, wigs, and hairpieces. And as unbelievable as it was, there was a rosary dangling from a mirror right next to a wallet-sized picture of a man licking a naked woman's breast.
ADE'S PLACE OF “EMPLOYMENT” WAS MORE DISGUSTING THAN I
thought. The so-called dressing room was a sight to behold. The stench in it was worse than the one out on the main floor. In addition to smoke and sweat, I smelled marijuana smoke, cheap perfume, and the unholy stench of stale farts that seemed to be bouncing off the walls. One wall contained a row of gray lockers. Some had padlocks, some had been pried open. Outfits that I would not have worn during my stint as a prostitute, even if I had had a stripper's body, dangled from hooks in the lockers that were standing open. A large pink plastic penis was hanging like a piñata from a gold chain that had been placed in the middle of the ceiling. Scattered about the dressing room counters were dildos, whips, vibrators as long and thick as my arm, thong panties, makeup, wigs, and hairpieces. And as unbelievable as it was, there was a rosary dangling from a mirror right next to a wallet-sized picture of a man licking a naked woman's breast.
Jade sat in front of a full-length mirror with a cigarette dangling from her lip and a champagne glass in her hand. Except for a towel draped around her shoulders, she was still naked. She didn't see us right away, so she seemed to be in a frisky mood. “One of my regulars wants me to give him a blow job without a condom, but I told him like I tell them all, I am not sucking on your joystick bareback for less than five hundred bucks.” Jade threw back her head and laughed like a drunken sailor. “I am noâ” She looked in the mirror and froze at the sight of Rhoda and me standing a few feet away from the doorway. Her head whirled around so fast she almost fell off the chair. The cigarette fell from her lips and onto the floor. There was a look of hatred on her face that was so intense it made the hair on the back of my neck rise up from my skin like needles.
“The soup kitchen is next door,” one of the women yelled, looking from me to Rhoda.
“Listen, if y'all are the new cleanin' ladies, that damn shower is full of water bugs and ants,” another one yelled.
“Shet up!” Jade ordered, her hand up in the air. “This is my mama!” The other strippers started buzzing; some even snickered and shook their heads. “What the hell are you doing here?” Jade snarled, rising from her seat with a hand on her hip.
Rhoda swallowed so hard she had to bob her head. “I want to talk to you, baby,” she said in a voice that sounded unnaturally gentle coming from her. “You don't have to do this to yourself. Please let me take you back home so we can talk about what you really want to do with your life.”
“I'm twenty-one. Remember how you reminded me of that time and time again? You wanted me to get out and be on my own. Well, I did.” Jade stopped talking long enough to pick up her cigarette and suck in some more smoke and then blow donut-shaped smoke signals in Rhoda's direction. Rhoda flinched, and for a second I thought she was going to dismember Jade with her bare hands; or at the very least, slap that damn cigarette out of her mouth. And if there was anybody in the world who could get mad enough to do that, it was Rhoda. I was relieved when she didn't. All of the other women present, and there were at least a dozen, remained silent and watched this exchange as if they were spectators at a sporting event.
“Jade, I know better. This is not what you want to do. Come home and let's have a cup of coffee and talk. We can find a school where you can learn a real trade. With your looks, you could even look into a career in TV or the big screen. You are way too good to be involved in crap like this like the rest of these ... these tramps!” Rhoda insisted, looking around the room from one angry face to another. She wrapped her hand around Jade's wrist.
The other strippers rolled their eyes and snickered. One mumbled a few obscene phrases under her breath.
“Don't you touch me,” Jade warned, slapping Rhoda's hand away. “What the hell do you care what I do anyway? You ... you threw me out of the house I grew up in like I was some bum off the street. And now you come up in here trying to talk shit to me? And by the way, you called me a tramp the day you kicked me out, so I guess I'm in the right place.”
“No, you're not a tramp, and you are not in the right placeâ” Rhoda declared.
Jade held her hand up to Rhoda's face. “I know you want to ease your conscience, but I won't help you. I can do whatever the hell I want to do now!” Jade snapped. “Now take your lap dog and get up out of here! Be nice and go have a drink on me. Tell the bartender to put it on my tab. We got everything you two would likeâoops, everything except Geritol.” Jade didn't crack a smile at her last comment, but the other women guffawed like hyenas.
“I don't want a drink, thank you,” Rhoda said, using that unnaturally gentle voice again. “Can we go somewhere so we can speak privately?”
Instead of answering her mother's request, Jade smashed out her cigarette in a heart-shaped ashtray; then she began to drag a brush through her hair. She went on about her business like Rhoda and I had suddenly become invisible. “Lorna, can I have some of that glitter?” Jade said, addressing the woman in the mirror next to her.
“Jade, please don't do this. For your own sake, you can at least come outside and talk to your mama,” I suggested.
Jade stomped her foot on the floor, grabbed a see-through gown and a pair of clear, open-toed high heels from the counter, and ran out the door. She came back a few seconds later with the same bouncer who had manhandled Rhoda and two more who were just as ferocious looking. “Get these women out of here,” Jade said to the men, snapping her fingers.
“Come on, Heckle and Jeckle! Y'all GIT! GIT UP OUT OF HERE!” yelled the first bouncer who had accosted us in the main room. He grabbed Rhoda by one hand and twirled her toward the door.
The other two bouncers each grabbed one of my arms and escorted me out, leading me by my elbows like I was a lamb on the way to be slaughtered. By the time they got Rhoda and me out of the club, through a back door into a parking lot that was full of men just lurking around, I was overwhelmed beyond belief. My head felt like it was going to spin clean off of my shoulders!
It was a good thing that we had parked two blocks down the street from the club. The brief walk gave us time to breathe in some fresh air and collect our thoughts.
“We could file complaints about those fuckers being so rough with us, you know,” I offered. “We were not doing anything bad enough for them to grab on us like they did.” The two bouncers who had pounced on me had been so rough, both of my arms were throbbing like I had been wrestling with a bear.
Rhoda shook her head. “This is as far as I go. I don't want to involve the cops. I'm through.”
“Honey, you did all you could. Whatever happens next is up to Jade,” I said.
“Is it?” Rhoda croaked, looking straight ahead.
I was glad that it had stopped snowing. By the time I drove Rhoda back to her house, almost in complete silence, she was so upset I offered to spend the night with her, or take her home with me.
“I'm fine, Annette. I'm just a little shaken, that's all. I just can't believe what happened back there. You can go on home.”
“Rhoda, leave the girl alone for a while. When and if she wants to talk to you, she'll do so when she's good and ready. You and Otis can't do any more than you've done already. Let it go. Let her go... .”
“I wish I could, Annette. I ... I just want to talk to her ... hold her one more time.” Rhoda put her head in her hands and cried like I'd never seen her cry before. Not even when her baby boy died.
I walked her to her front door and gave her a big hug. I felt so helpless. But I had done all I could.
I took my time driving home. My feet felt like they weighed ten pounds each as I practically dragged myself up onto my front porch. As soon as I made it inside and removed my coat, the telephone rang. I let the answering machine catch the call. I didn't feel like talking to anybody else tonight unless it was Rhoda.
“Annette, if you in that house, and if Rhoda is with you, pick up this telephone right now!” It was Scary Mary. She was the last person in the world I wanted to speak to at a time like this. I was not in the mood for any of her busybody antics. “Well, when you get this message, you call me back right away. I just left a message on Rhoda's machine. If you know where she's at, you let her know that her daughter is at my house and she wants to come home and talk to her... .”
CHAPTER 47
J
UST AS I WAS ABOUT TO DIAL RHODA'S NUMBER, SHE CALLED ME. “
Annette, I just came out of the bathroom and there was a message from Scary Mary! Jade is ready to talk to me!” The excitement in her voice was incredible. I could just picture the huge grin she must have had on her face.
UST AS I WAS ABOUT TO DIAL RHODA'S NUMBER, SHE CALLED ME. “
Annette, I just came out of the bathroom and there was a message from Scary Mary! Jade is ready to talk to me!” The excitement in her voice was incredible. I could just picture the huge grin she must have had on her face.
“She left me the same message. Do you want me to come back over?” I asked Rhoda. “I can be there in a few minutes.”
“No, I'll call Scary Mary's place and see what's goin' on and then I'll call you back.”
“Oh shit, somebody's at the door. Rhoda, hold on.” I was surprised to see Pee Wee standing on my front porch. I didn't have time to explain anything to him, and I didn't want to keep Rhoda on hold for too long. I just waved him in. He stood next to me as I resumed my conversation with Rhoda. “Uh, Pee Wee's here. If you want me to come over, maybe I should bring him with me. There is no telling what kind of thugs Jade might have with her, so you might need some men around. Is Otis home?”
“He's already in bed. He's been so distraught because of all this mess, all he wants to do is sleep,” Rhoda told me.
“Well, like I just said, Pee Wee and I could come over there if you want us to.”
“No, I don't think either one of you should come,” Rhoda decided. “And I don't want Otis to know about you and me goin' to that strip joint tonight,” she added. “Tell Pee Wee that right now in case he sees Otis before I tell him what you and I did.”
I held the telephone away from my ear and turned to Pee Wee. I told him as briefly as I could about Rhoda and me going to that strip club, and what we had tried to do. I also told him how rudely we had been treated.
“Y'all ain't had no business goin' over there to that place without me and Otis as backup anyway!” Pee Wee yelled, talking so hard the veins on the side of his neck were poking out like worms.
“Pee Wee, with all due respect, those bouncers are twice as big as you and Otis, and at least twenty years younger. They would have mopped up the floor with you two if you had gone over there with us,” I said. “I'm sure Rhoda feels the same way.” I returned my attention to Rhoda. “You were saying?”
“Scary Mary said that Jade will only talk to me if I come alone. She wants to meet me at that bar across from the nail shop on Willow Street,” Rhoda announced. She suddenly seemed as giddy as a schoolgirl, and I could understand why. It looked like there was some hope for a reconciliation with Jade after all.
“Are you all right to drive your SUV? You can drive it over here and leave it, and I can drive you to the bar,” I offered. “I'll park around the corner from the bar so Jade won't know I came with you.”
“Annette, please let me handle this,” Rhoda whimpered. “Now, I'll call you back as soon as I can.”
As soon as I hung up, Pee Wee told me that somebody at that strip club had already called him up and told him about Rhoda and me being there, and the uproar that we'd caused. “I came over here as fast as I could. I am gettin' real worried about you, Annette.”
“You don't have to worry about me,” I snapped. Then I purposely changed the subject. “I'm out of Pepsi. Could you drive me over to the Grab and Go so I can pick up a few liters?”
We were out the door within five minutes. When we got to the convenience store, Pee Wee decided to go inside too. We went separate ways as soon as we got inside. I grabbed two liters of Pepsi, and when I attempted to join him in the next aisle where the beer was, I bumped into another customer. I didn't recognize her at first because she had on a pair of big round-rimmed eyeglasses, and a woolen cap covered most of her head. It was Lizzie, the same woman who had ruined my marriage.
“Annette,” she mumbled, unable to look me in the eye. “I haven't seen you in a while.”
My eyes immediately rolled down to get a look at her stomach. She had gained about fifty pounds, and most of it was around her middle. I knew that she was supposed to give birth in three months, but from the size of her belly, it looked like she was going to go into labor at any minute. “So,” I said, looking at her from the corner of my eye. She looked whiter than ever. As a matter of fact, she didn't look like she had a trace of black blood in her now. “You look well,” I told her. “Better than I did when I was at the stage you're at now when I was pregnant with Charlotte.”
“Yeah, but I've had a lot of complications. Water retention, gasâyou know, stuff like that. I've moved back home, too, so my mama can take care of me.” She offered me a tight smile, but that was not enough for me to smile back at her. “Things didn't work out between me and Peabo.” Things were probably not going to work out between her and any man that she got involved with, I thought with a smugness that I had to force myself to contain. I could tell she was uncomfortable about running into me after all this time. I hadn't seen her this close up since that day back in March in my kitchen, the day Pee Wee moved out of my house and in with her.
“Uh, well, my stepdaddy is back there in the snack section. I'd better go check on him before he fills up the cart with Fritos and pretzels,” Lizzie said, already backing away.
“Yeah, you'd better do that,” I sneered. I didn't see Pee Wee in the beer aisle. He was at the checkout counter when I got there, and had already paid for his beer.
“What took you so long?” he asked, looking at his watch. “We need to get back to the house so we can be there when Rhoda calls.”
“You know me. I can't walk past a magazine rack without stopping,” I lied as I paid for my Pepsi.
Before Pee Wee pulled out of the parking lot, I saw Lizzie peeping from the store's front window. He didn't see her, so he didn't see the unbearably vacant look on her face. She looked like she didn't have a friend in the world, and after the way she'd betrayed me, she probably didn't. As much pain as that sad sack had caused me, I still felt sorry for her. In her search for love and happiness, she had sacrificed a lot: her friendship with me, then Pee Wee, and only God knew what else. But now she was right back where she was when I had tried to rescue her from her drab life. She was living back at home with her elderly mother and stepfather with no daddy for the baby that she was about to bring into the world. My life was no bowl of cherries, but I wouldn't have traded places with her for any amount of money in the world.
“Why you so quiet?” Pee Wee asked as we neared my street, driving about five miles an hour because it had begun to snow again.
“Oh, nothing. I was thinking about Rhoda and how I hope things work out between her and Jade,” I replied.
Five minutes after we walked into the house, Muh'Dear and Daddy brought Lillimae home. Daddy was hugging a pile of beautifully wrapped Christmas presents. He squatted down and set them under my tree, moaning and groaning because he had such a hard time standing back up. Then, wiping his forehead with the sleeve of his plaid jacket, he looked at me and shook his head. “We heard all about you and Rhoda causin' a ruckus up in that tittie bar,” he told me with a grimace on his face as he removed his coat and draped it across the back of the couch. Lillimae removed her coat and helped Muh'Dear remove hers.
“I don't know what the world is comin' to for women to even want to take off their clothes for a livin',” Lillimae exclaimed, hanging the coats on a wall rack by the front door. “If those strip-club owners came up to me, they couldn't pay me enough to show my shame in such a public way!”
I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing at the thought of 280-pound Lillimae stripping. I gave her a pensive look. It was only then that I realized that my half sister, unfortunately, looked like the human version of Miss Piggy; all the way down to the floppy blond hair, snout-like nose, and pinkish complexion.
“Lillimae, I don't think you have to worry about that,” I said, hoping that it didn't sound like I was trying to be funny. But everybody laughed anyway, especially Lillimae.
“I don't know why you and Rhoda lied about gwine to the revival tonight. You should have been up front about that tittie bar. I would have gone with y'all in case some of them goons up in there got ugly and y'all needed some protection,” Daddy said, still huffing and puffing from squatting down to place the Christmas presents.
“Frank, you can barely walk from one room to the next without walkin' into the wall. You wouldn't have been no good in that tittie bar up against all them young, big ox bouncers,” Muh'Dear said, giving Daddy a pitiful look. Then she gave me the same look. “Annette, I hope you and Rhoda don't never do nothin' that reckless again. If y'all had told me, I would have gone over to that place and talked some sense into Jade.”
We were all sitting in the living room sipping on iced tea when Rhoda steamrolled through the front door without knockingâjust thirty minutes after I'd spoken to her.
“Did you meet with Jade already?” I asked, motioning her into the house. “Did your daughter talk to you?”
Rhoda looked so depressed and defeated. There was just no telling what Jade had said to her. “Yes, my daughter did talk to me. It didn't go well. It didn't go well at all.”
Other books
In the Company of Vampires by Katie MacAlister
Wormwood Dawn (Episode III) by Crae, Edward
Dancing Shoes and Honky-Tonk Blues by MCLANE, LUANN
Valediction by Robert B. Parker
Lugares donde se calma el dolor by Cesar Antonio Molina
The Scratch on the Ming Vase by Caroline Stellings
Texas Mail Order Bride by Linda Broday
Putting on the Dog by Cynthia Baxter
Othello by William Shakespeare
The Gospel in Ten Words by Paul Ellis
