Gold Hill (28 page)

Something was going
on.

Delphie was never wrong.
Never.

Delphie smiled to
acknowledge Yvonne’s thought. Her keeper’s phone rang again. Yvonne
watched his bored face shift to irritation and then worry. His eyes
glanced at her.

“
No matter what happens,”
Delphie said to her in a low voice. “Just go with the flow. Don’t
argue or fight it. Promise me.”

“
Go with the flow,” Yvonne
replied in the same tone. “Do I get to see Tanni?”

“
Better,” Delphie’s filled
with moisture. “Don’t get yourself killed.”

“
Killed?” Yvonne’s hand
went to her throat in panic.

“
Just go along,” Delphie
said. “Promise me. Repeat it because you won’t be able to write it
down.”

“
Go along,” Yvonne
repeated what she heard. “Don’t argue or fight it and I get
something better than seeing my Tanni for a couple hours. I don’t
get killed. I go along.”

“
Good girl,” Delphie
said.

Yvonne gave Delphie a
sincere nod. Delphie hugged her tight.

“
Love you, Yvonne,”
Delphie said.

“
You too, Delphie,” Yvonne
said.

Delphie gave her the
tulips. She walked close to Yvonne’s keeper. He opened his mouth to
ask his question but she interrupted.

“
They’ll find you in
Florida,” Delphie told him. “No one knows about that property you
inherited from your grandmother. The lot and house in Georgia? Take
your car. Get to Saint Louis by morning. That’s soon enough. You’ll
be in Georgia by end of day. Start a new life. There’s a better one
waiting for you there.”

He bent forward as if he’d
been punched in the stomach. She pushed him upright and patted his
chest.

“
You’ll be fine,” Delphie
said. She raised a hand to wave good-bye to Yvonne and wandered off
inside the store.

“
What was that?” he
asked.

Yvonne shrugged and walked
over to the check out.

“
You got lots of calls,”
Yvonne said. “You remember I don’t work today. Today, I get to have
lunch with Tanni.”

“
I know,” he
said.

“
Then what about the phone
calls?”

“
There’s something going
on,” he said. “I’m not quite sure what. We got to get
back.”

“
Ok,” Yvonne
said.

She gave the tulips to the
clerk to check out. Because the flowers were from the back, they
didn’t have a code and no one seemed to know the price. Yvonne and
her keeper waited more than fifteen minutes by Yvonne’s watch
before they found the clerk and got the price on her flowers.
Yvonne paid and then realized she didn’t get a card for
Tanesha.

“
I need to get a card,”
she said.

“
You need to come with
me,” he said. In her ear, he added, “Mr. Aaron’s called three
times. He’s freaked out and wants us back.”

“
Okay, Yvonne
smiled.

He took her elbow for
support and they made a slow journey out of the store. After
walking so far, and standing so long, the journey back was slower
and more painful for her keeper. Yvonne didn’t care because she
still had time to make a card before Heather came to take her to
see Tanni.

They were under the trees,
not quite to the sidewalk across the street from the four-plex,
when Yvonne noticed something strange.

“
Isn’t that Shawnie?
What’s she doing?”

Yvonne pointed to a figure
laying half in and half out of the apartment next to Yvonne’s. She
could see the woman wasn’t wearing her wig. Shawnie never opened
her door without her wig on.

She was wearing what looked
like a red T-shirt. But Shawnie never wore red. Shawnie said red
made her look like an angry black whore.

Yvonne stopped walking.
Instinctively, she shifted deeper into the shade of the trees. Her
keeper leaned forward to look.

“
The doors were kicked
in,” Yvonne said. “Every one but mine.”

Her keeper grabbed her
elbow, turned her around, and started marching back toward the
store. They walked at a steady clip across the sidewalk in front of
the store. He didn’t say a word until they were past the store and
in a small parking lot on the other side of the
supermarket.

“
We’re in big shit, big
shit,” he said in her ear.

“
Where’s your car?” Yvonne
asked.

“
It’s down the street,” he
pointed to the side street behind the store. “You know I never park
near the apartment in case the cops come.”

“
Can we take your car?”
she asked.

“
They’re probably waiting
for us at the car,” he said. He looked like a terrified little boy.
For the first time in all these years of knowing him, Yvonne felt
sorry for him.

“
Delphie told you to take
your car,” Yvonne said. “I didn’t write it down but it’s been less
than an hour. I can remember for an hour and a half.”

Her keeper gave her a long
look. He grabbed her elbow and they took off at a trot. He had just
started the car when they heard a muffled explosion. They ducked
below the dashboard. When nothing happened, he started down the
street.

Driving past the four-plex,
she saw angry orange flames shooting out of her apartment. She’d
spent more than fifteen years in that apartment. She had a lot of
things in that apartment. Right at this moment, she couldn’t
remember what, but she knew that a lot of her personal things were
getting burned up. Sitting at the stoplight on Fourteenth Avenue
and Krameria Street, she turned around to look. The fire was
consuming the entire building. A siren sounded in the
distance.

“
I have a full tank,” he
said. “How ‘bout if we just drive for a while?”

She was about to say that
she had lunch with Tanni and Heather was coming at noon and she was
going to get her hair done and she didn’t want to miss it, when she
remembered what Delphie had made her repeat.

Go with the
flow.

“
That sounds nice,” Yvonne
said. She rolled down the window and gave the tulips a little toss
so they rolled next to the curb.

“
Good,” he said. They
continued up Fourteenth Avenue.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday morning — 8:45
a.m.

“
You don’t have to tell me
in depth,” Jeraine said.

Bumpy was startled. He
hadn’t realized Jeraine was awake.

“
Just the Cliff Notes,”
Jeraine said. “I’ll just listen. I know you think I don’t know how
to do it, but I’ve had to practice for couple’s therapy. And it’s a
lot easier when I’m not doing cocaine. I’m actually pretty good at
it now.”

Bumpy glanced at him. He
thought for a moment, then nodded.

“
I grew up on a farm out
in eastern Colorado, near where your Grannie Louise lives. I
couldn’t read, couldn’t write, but my
mom . . . ” Overcome with emotion, Bumpy
cleared his throat. “She dreamt that an angel told her I was smart.
She argued with my dad for . . . months. Finally, in
the middle of the night, she put us on a bus and we moved to town
so I . . . could have a . . . life. I
was twelve. They didn’t have the testing they have now and I was a
big kid. They placed me at East High; that’s where I met
Seth.”

“
Seth was just back from
New York, very cool, and very open to . . .
everything, even big, dumb me. He knew right away that I couldn’t
read – even bought me my first pair of glasses. Kind of like
Charlie, you know Sandy’s brother. I couldn’t read because I
couldn’t see the words. That’s why when Seth calls, I always come.
I owe the man everything.”

Listening intently, Jeraine
nodded.

“
They called me Lennie
Small,” Bumpy said.

“
From
Of Mice and Men
?” Jeraine
asked.

Bumpy nodded.

“
Ouch.”

“
Do you know my birth
name?” Bumpy asked.

“
No.”

“
Leroy,” Bumpy said. “My
mom said it like Lee-roy.”

“
Close to Lennie,” Jeraine
said.

“
Close enough,” Bumpy
said. “Seth named me Bumpy. Mitch was a jock,
popular . . . I mean, everyone loved Mitch. Kind of
like you. Mitch made sure everyone only called me
Bumpy.”

“
Where are we going
today?” Jeraine asked.

“
I thought you were going
to just listen?” Bumpy asked.

Jeraine scowled at him.
Bumpy’s eyes were on the road, but he could feel Jeraine staring at
the side of his face.

“
We’re going to
Dearfield.”

“
Dearfield?” Jeraine
asked.

“
It was an all black
farming community from around 1910 to about 1940,” Bumpy said.
“Your great-grandparents came from Texas to farm there.”

“
When?”

“
1911,” Bumpy said.
“Dangerous time because Denver was a hot bed of KKK activity. They
used to think any day they’d be wiped out by some band of nuts. But
your great-great grandfather was born a slave. He was the force
behind the move. His masters called him Jermaine. He changed it to
Jeraine so he would have a free name. He changed the family name to
Wilson after Woodrow Wilson who was the President when they lived
in Dearfield.”

“
Free surname,” Jeraine
said.

“
That’s exactly right,”
Bumpy said. “That’s why you have the free name of Jeraine
Wilson.”

Jeraine watched his
father’s face.

“
My dad was born in
Dearfield. Most people left Dearfield during the Great Depression,”
Bumpy said. “You remember the three Ds? Your Grannie Louise drilled
it into you and LaTonya when you were a kid.”

“
Economic depression,
drought, dustbowl,” Jeraine said. “Kinda like now.”

“
Yes, son. That’s why she
wanted you to know it,” Bumpy said. “When we get home, I can show
you pictures of our family if you’d like.”

“
I’d like that,” Jeraine
said. “Why are we going to Dearfield?”

“
We still own land there,”
Bumpy said. “It’s our heritage as a family, as a
people.”

“
What decisions do we have
to make?” Jeraine asked.

“
What to do with that
heritage,” Bumpy said. “For our family. For our people.”

Jeraine waited to see if
Bumpy had anything else to say. He didn’t.

“
Thanks for telling me,
Dad,” Jeraine said.

Bumpy nodded.

Chapter Two Hundred and
Five
Lies

Wednesday — 10:35
a.m.

“
Hey hon,” Blane said when
Heather answered the phone. “Are you watching TV?”

“
No,” Heather said. “I was
getting Mack ready for school. He was a little fussy this morning
so I let him sleep after you left. He’s just getting
around.”

“
Is he all right? Is he
sick?” The worry in Blane’s voice made Heather smile.

“
I think it’s another
tooth,” Heather said.

“
No fever?”

“
No,” Mack reached up for
the phone and Heather smiled. “He’s okay. Plus, we’re just going to
lunch and hanging out with Sandy. I can always stop by and pick him
up if he’s fussy.”

“
Oh right, lunch,” Blane
said. “That’s why I called. Turn on the TV.”

“
Okay.” With Mack on her
hip, Heather went into their bedroom and looked for the remote
control. “Any idea where the remote is?”

“
Next to the window,”
Blane said.

“
You could just tell me
what . . . ” Heather clicked on the television.
The screen lit up with pictures of an intense fire burning through
a building. “Oh.”

“
That’s Tanesha’s mom’s
house right?” Blane asked. “We have a crew out in that area
vacuuming sewers. They said they heard a gas explosion. The police
have cordoned off the entire area.”

Heather took in scene. The
picture switched to a live report in front of the blackened
four-plex. She could make out four body sized shapes covered with
white sheets. Water continued to stream into the charred remains of
the building from fire trucks lining Fourteenth Avenue.

“
They found bodies,” Blane
said. “The guys said no one could have survived the fire. You
think . . . ?”

“
She’s always there in the
morning,” Heather said. “Always. Especially today when she knows
I’m coming to get her.”

As she watched, a black
limousine pulled up and State Attorney General Aaron Alvin stepped
out.

“
Who’s that?” Heather
asked.

“
State Attorney
General . . . um . . .
Alvin.”

“
Ava’s dad?”

“
The radio says he owns
the building,” Blane said. “Westword is running an article tomorrow
saying that he ran prostitutes out of the four-plex for
decades.”