How to Knock a Bravebird from Her Perch : The First Novel in the Morrow Girls Series (9780985751616) (18 page)

“Hey! I paid good money for these here pills and they don’t even work! I want...I want my money back.” Nat was getting a little heavy but she refused to be put down so I held her on one side and searched my purse for the little white compact that had ruined my life. “Here! Take them back!”

“Ma’am, I can’t take this back.”

“Well I don’t want them. I want my money. I need my money. You gone gimme my money.”

“Ma’am, you need to leave.” But I wasn’t going anywhere, not without my money. He had little bins of chapstick and floss right by the pharmacy window and I accidentally knocked them over. “MA’AM!”

“Gimme my money. You can’t just take folks’ money and not give them what they’ve paid for! That was my money! You don’t know what I had to do to get it!”

“Here! Fine! Take...money. There!” He crushed a handful of wrinkled ten dollar bills into my palm. “Now if you don’t leave right now I’m calling the cops.”

“Thank you.”

Probably wasn’t a lot to him but forty bucks was a lot to me. The way I figured it, I had eight months to scrape together enough to get far away from Chicago.

“Baby, you gotta get down now. You too big for Mama to be carrying you everywhere.”

“No I not.”

Natalie’s third birthday had snuck up on me. Seemed like I blinked and there it was. She stuck out her chin so I could zip her little pink suit all the way up and out we went. It was snowing pretty good so I meant to take the bus as far as I could so we wouldn’t have to walk. The bank I had picked out was somewhere I knew Ricky’d never go. Nobody I knew even lived in that part of town. Wasn’t nothing but Pollocks and Jews. It was the perfect place to hide money from Ricky. The bus rolled up almost as soon as we got to the bus stop, making me think that my luck might be changing. We sat down near a window and watched as the world flew by in a blizzard. After a while we were the only black folks on the bus so I figured we were getting close.

“Can I help you, ma’am?”

“I wanna open an account,” I said as I unwrapped and unzipped Nat then myself.

“Alright. Have a seat. What kind of account were you thinking of?”

“Um...the kind where I can keep money and can’t nobody but me get to it.”

“Alright. Would you like to earn interest?”

I nodded even though I wasn’t real clear on what interest was. He went through some more questions, filling out a form at the same time. Then he gave me what he called a passbook. Said I should keep track of how much was in the account in it.

“We will send you statements from time to time and you can compare it to what you have in your passbook.”

“Send me statements?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Like to my house?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t need that. No, I just...um...I just wanna put money in it.”

“It’s standard. Every account comes with a monthly statement. I assure you it is very easy to read.”

“Right...sure.”

“So, if you’ll just sign right here...I’ll take your first deposit.”

The blue pen must have been used by everybody that came to his desk because it ain’t wanna write. I shook it and pressed real hard but still couldn’t get nothing outta it. He apologized more than I ever seen anybody apologize before then handed me another one.

“See...um...the thing is, Mister Silverman...” I had to lean in to be sure the other folks weren’t listening to my business. “I don’t want my husband to know about this account. That’s why I came all the way over here. So, if you could not send anything to my house...”

“I see. Well, if you want to write a different address on this line we can send your statements there instead.” I nodded and scribbled Helen’s address on the line he pointed to. “Very good, ma’am. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then let me give you my card.” He pulled one from the little thing sitting on his desk then another from inside his drawer. “And...this is my brother’s card. He has a family law practice. He’s an attorney.”

“Attorney?”

“Yes ma’am. One of the best...I think, but I suppose I’m prejudiced.”

Joseph Silverman, attorney at law. His office wasn’t but a few blocks from the bank so I thought I’d give it a shot. See if there was something he could do for me. But Nat whined the whole way. She wasn’t nothing but sleepy but that ain’t what she said. First she wanted candy then she wanted me to carry her and on and on and on...by the time we got to the door with Silverman spelled out in gold letters I was just plain wore out. The receptionist had a little basket of peppermints on her desk and she pushed it forward a few inches so Nat could get some.

“Say thank you.”

“Thank you.”

“Oh she’s welcome. Mr. Silverman might be a while. He doesn’t usually take walk-ins. But if you want to make an appointment...”

My watch said one twenty-two. The girls were gonna be outta school at three. I had time. And I was afraid to put it off. Afraid of what would happen between now and then. So, I shook my head. Nat fell asleep across my lap and I sat there, thinking about all the things he might ask me. And the one thing I ain’t wanna say.

Joseph Silverman looked just like his name. His head was covered in silver hair but other than that you couldn’t tell his age. He was about my height and looked like he was in a decent shape. I figured his wife was more or less happy.
 

“Mrs. Morrow, please have a seat.”

“Your brother said I should see you.”

“Oh? Which brother would that be?”

“Mr. Silverman...” I couldn’t remember his first name. “He said you’re the best.”

“He’s very generous. What can I do for you today?”

No matter where I put it my right hand just wouldn’t relax. It’d curl up or just start shaking. I finally wrapped it up in my other one and held it flat against my lap. He was looking and smiling at me like he had all day to watch me fiddling with my hand. “I ain’t really sure...I just thought I’d come by.”

“Well, how about I tell you what I do here. Hmm? I’m a divorce lawyer for the most part. I help married people who decide they don’t want to be married anymore. Sometimes this means dividing up assets, if there are children, settling custody questions, if there’s a pre-nup involved, we might challenge that...any of this sound interesting to you?”

“Custody. How does that work?”

“It either goes to one parent or both. Usually the mother retains physical custody.”

“But what if...what if I can’t afford to—”

“It’s called child support. Your husband would give you money to help take care of the children every month.”

“So then he can’t come around no more, right? If we divorced?”

“Well...” Mr. Silverman’s chair squeaked a little as he leaned back, tapping his fingers against the arm of it. “If he wanted to go for visitation you would have to prove that he was a danger to your daughter.”

“I can do that.”

“You can?”

“Mmhmm. I mean you could ask them. They’d tell you.” His eyes shot over to Nat who was yawning in the seat next to me. “She the youngest. I got three others. Nikki, she be twelve in January and Mya just made eight and Jackie seven. They good girls, won’t say nothing to just anybody, but if I tell them to, they will. Not that they lie or nothing, not really...I just mean they’d tell the truth when I tell them to.”

“And what is the truth?”

“That Ricky—my husband, he um...he a danger. To um...to anybody really. Anybody that get in his way.”

“Well before I give you official advice, I should tell you that I operate on a fee schedule. I don’t require a retainer or anything but there is an hourly rate of one hundred and fifty dollars.”

“For an hour?”

“Yes ma’am. For every hour that I spend working on your case.”

“How many hours will that take?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Oh.”

“I don’t usually do this but...why don’t we consider this a free consultation?”

“No, I can pay. I’ll pay. Um...today?”

“Mrs. Morrow. Please. I’ve enjoyed meeting you. I hope that I can help you in the future.”

“Yeah...yeah me too.”

“We went to the silver man!” Nat said loud enough that I could hear her in the kitchen.

Was a good thing Ricky wasn’t home. Not that he listened too tough to the things the girls said anyway but I ain’t wanna chance it. He hadn’t said much to me since he got home other than all those looks he gave. Ricky said more with his eyes than anybody I ever knew. I could feel him itching for a fight. Eventually all that family stuff he kept talking about was gonna rub off and he’d go back to his regular self.
 

“So...how you doing, Pecan?”

“Fine.”

Helen sighed and looked me up and down, sipping from my favorite mug. “Yeah? How’s your part-time lover?”

“Why don’t you just shout it out so the whole damn world can hear you?”

“Ooo, somebody’s touchy.”

“How I’m supposed to be?” I dusted another spoonful of sugar on the greens and stirred them up real good. “I’m married. And I ain’t heard from him in a while.”

“So that’s why you and Ricky back together...because things ain’t work out with Mr. Wonderful? Girl, you hop from one man to the other. Don’t you know how to take a time-out?” She threw one leg over the other and laughed out loud like it was the funniest thing in the world. But I knew Helen ain’t mean any harm. She was just saying what other folks would say.

“Yeah...I know.” The greens were smelling good so I moved on to check on the roast. Wasn’t that often we got to have it but since Ricky was back I made sure to get money from him for groceries. “I’m done with men!”

“Girl, don’t even bother lying to me. I can’t get enough my damn self!”

We were two cackling fools up in my kitchen. I even talked Helen into staying for supper. Figured more people to eat up Ricky’s food the more money I could get him to gimme. And the girls loved their Aunt Helen. She said all sorts of things they thought were funny. Just Helen being Helen. But not everybody loved Helen as she was. Ricky sat at the head of the dining table, chewing all loud and glaring at us.
 

“I could put in a word for you with the store manager if you serious about working.”

“Really? What kinda stuff would I do?”

She shrugged and sucked down a few inches from her beer bottle. “Could be in the office, could be on the floor. You know Sears is a big company, girl. What would you wanna do?”

“She don’t wanna do nothing except what she doing.” Ricky sliced through his meat like it did something to him personally. “Pecan, you ain’t tell your friend about our little news.”

“What news?”

“Nothing. He just joking.”

Ricky swallowed real quick and went right back to slicing up another piece. “She busy. She got other things to be thinking about besides some nothing job.”

“I don’t mind—”

“What you wanna work for? I take care of you, don’t I? Huh? Don’t I give you whatever you want?”

“Yeah, Ricky. It’s just an idea...”

I was real grateful when Nikki decided to ask Helen about her latest boyfriend. After a while everybody forgot about my bright idea. Helen went on explaining what he looked like and the way he talked. Had us all laughing with her.
 

“So, I told the man. You want all this? What you got for me? Girls, don’t let none of these knuckleheads sell you half of what you deserve. Just keep on moving. Right, Pecan?”

“Yeah, they know.” I was too busy grinning to see what was coming next.

“Y’all take y’all plates up in the front room.”

“But ain’t no TV daddy.”

“Go on do as I say.” But they stayed put, slow to follow his orders.

“Ricky—”

“I don’t want them listening to all your man bashing! Turn them into man eating dikes.”

Helen giggled and nudged me under the table. “I don’t think dikes do that.”

“Let me put it like this. I don’t want my girls turning out like you. Can’t keep a man to save your life.”