Kiss of Noir (6 page)

“Nope, can’t, old man, ’cause it’s all mine.” I grinned as I placed my domino on the edge of the angular path, closing the points.

Cleo whistled. Drew smacked the table. “My man!” he exclaimed.

“Say, that is rotten. That sure is rotten,” Johnny said, frowning at the game.

“Game is not over yet,” Cleo said. “Plenty more money on the other end. Let’s go.”

“I sure am getting hungry,” Drew said, licking his lips.

“Dime for Drew. Now, shut your legs, honey, hold on to that,” Cleo said.

The play progressed quietly until Drew knocked. Then Johnny. Then me.

“Hee, hee, hee, it’s down to me, I guess. Domino!” Cleo rasped.

“You sucker!” Johnny whined.

“My man!” Drew smiled.

“Let’s count the points,” I said.

Cleo obliged. “Uh-oh, Johnny, this is really gonna cost your folks.”

“That’s all right, that’s all right. Say, what’s everybody want?” Johnny stood and put on his rain slicker.

“Barbeque,” we three said in unison.

“From Tassie Pie’s,” Cleo said, his eyes resting on the joint directly across the street from the pawn. Too many times to count, hungry customers came in to pawn something small, like a watch or a tool; something that would bring them just enough money to go to Tassie’s and have a feast.

“Just what, ribs, baloney, pork?” Johnny asked.

“Some potato salad,” Drew said.

“And some coleslaw,” I added.

“And chips and pickles and peppers and bread,” Cleo said.

“And cold drinks,” Drew said.

“All right, let me go.” Johnny dashed into the pouring rain to cross the flooded street.

“I’ll say one thing, he’s a good sport,” Cleo said.

“You fixed it, didn’t you?” I asked.

Cleo laughed. “Now why would you think that?”

“Thought so.”

“My man!” Drew boomed.

While Johnny was gone, silence settled back into the room. I resumed rolling cigarettes, Drew stared at the rain, Cleo trimmed his nails with a knife.

“Sure is quiet,” Drew murmured.

“Don’t nobody need money on a stormy day,” Cleo answered.

“There! Look at that!” I held up a perfect cylinder.

“I’ll take that.” Cleo put it in his mouth. “See how she smokes. Now you just got to do it fast.”

“When will Ellis be back?” Drew asked.

I shrugged. “Miss him?”

Drew flushed. “No, just seem like he’s been gone too long.”

“Worried about him?” I asked.

“Shut up.”

I grinned at him. “I’m sorry, you’re old enough to be my daddy. I guess I should show more respect.”

Drew turned to Cleo. “Did I just get an apology and an insult?”

Cleo nodded, smiling. “Little brother is feeling fine today.”

The phone rang, startling all of us.

“Pawn,” I barked into the phone. I grimaced and held the receiver away from my ear. “But…yes, ma’am…I’ll tell him…right away.” I hung up.

“Who was that?” Drew asked.

“Cindy,” Cleo said without looking up from his hands, beneath which was a pile of curly nail parings.

“How did you know?” I asked.

“Who is Cindy?” Drew said.

“Johnny’s girlfriend,” I answered. “Seems like he is in trouble.”

“Oh, she’s always like that,” Cleo said.

“What did she want?” Drew asked.

“For Johnny to come home and explain himself. He moved out again,” Cleo told them.

“What’s that mean? Again?” I said.

“Well, Johnny and Cindy have this on-again off-again thing, you know? And they’re all the time either perfect love birds or he is breaking her heart leaving. Cindy has settled on him, but he ain’t settled on her. And she is one determined white bitch. She means to keep that man if it harelips the South. But see, he comes in here and he is for real. He tells it that he doesn’t love her and she just takes him back, no questions asked, and lets him walk all over her, so of course he goes back whenever he’s bored between affairs. He is in love with his own self and he has no trouble getting cute things to line up and love him for his looks and his easy money that he ain’t earned. But Cindy is convinced that it’s true love and nothing he does will wise her up. So he hooks up with her, does what he wants, breaks up, does what he wants, gets with her again, and so forth.” Cleo finished talking, ground out his butt and brushed his clippings into the trash.

“He must come around when I ain’t here because I don’t know all this. And ain’t that some shit?” Drew said.

“Aw, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Jonathan Fallana is a piece of work.”

“Or maybe a piece of shit,” I said. They all laughed. The rain streaked down the windows in heavy rivulets. A dark form ran for the door and shoved it open. The bells tinkled.

“I’m a drowned rat!” Johnny shouted, holding sodden steaming bags of food. Cleo and Drew and I all exchanged glances and laughed again.

“Give me some help!” Johnny said, dripping a puddle on the floor.

“Sure, man, sure thing.” Drew jumped up and took half of the water-spotted sacks. He held a greasy one up to his nose. “Mmm, this one’s mine.”

“Like hell,” Cleo said. I cleared the card table.

We sorted out the food and each settled into lunch and silence. It was blissfully quiet. When there was nothing but trash and bones, Cleo and I smoked our hand-rolled joints.

“Yeah, nothing like that first taste of smoke to cleanse the palate and settle the belly,” Cleo said.

“Now all I need is a cushy woman to nap on,” I said. Murmurs of assent. “By the way, Cindy wants you to call.”

Johnny shrugged. “Was she crying?”

“No, she was yelling.”

“I’ll wait until she’s crying.” Johnny smiled, his eyes gleaming.

“You are wicked,” Drew said, shaking his head.

“That woman is going to beat your ass one day,” Cleo said.

“That’s a lie. She’s too hung up on me to do anything. I got her right here.” Johnny wiggled his pinkie. “Anybody else call?”

“No. But why don’t you introduce me to Cindy? Sounds like she could use a friend,” I said casually.

Drew and Cleo watched in shock.

“What? You gonna be her friend? Sure.” Johnny leaned back on the speaker, a toothpick perched jauntily between his teeth.

“Cool, when?” I said, smooth as a shark.

“Wait, man, Johnny, don’t you know—” Drew began.

“Nora and Cindy will be friends, ain’t that sweet?” Cleo interrupted.

“Oh, my man. I got you. Sweet, yeah. Just don’t be sweet to my baby’s mama,” Drew said.

“I still can’t believe an old man your age made a baby with a twenty-year-old girl. You’re a fossil like me. Why don’t you marry her already?” Cleo asked Drew, who ignored him, instead focusing on Johnny and me, winking and grinning.

“Huh? What’s up? What you all talking about?” Johnny said.

“Nothing, nothing, just be cool. I’ll just do Cindy a favor, that’s all,” I answered.

“Yeah? Like what?”

“Like wise her up,” I said.

Johnny laughed. “Better women than you have tried that. Look at me.” He stood. “Look at my face. Look at this cleft chin. Look at my profile. Look at my hair.” Johnny ruffled his damp black curls. “Look into my eyes.” Johnny stared at me with his big green soulful eyes. “Look at my hot bod.” Johnny raised his shirt to a chorus of groans from Cleo and Drew. “Feel my muscles.” Johnny flexed his bicep and thrust it in my face and I obligingly pinched it. “Look at this ass.” Johnny turned around and bent over. Cleo and Drew left the table in disgust. “And best of all, look at this.” Johnny fumbled in his pants.

“You’re not goin’ to show me your dick, are you?” I said.

“No, something the ladies like even better.” Johnny removed his wallet and split it wide to reveal a thick wad of green bills.

“You are such a pig!” I said.

Johnny shrugged, his eyes twinkling. “Don’t matter. Don’t you get it? All this buys my laundry done and pressed, my shoes shined, my house cleaned, my food cooked, my regular poon, and all the strange I want. It buys me a play-wife and my freedom all at once. Hell, it will even buy my car washed if I want. Am I right, brothers?”

Drew threw the lunch garbage away, not answering. Cleo sat down, sucking on a toothpick.

“Brothers, am I right?” Johnny said to Cleo, whose eyes sharpened and he removed his toothpick and pointed it at Johnny.

“No, man, we ain’t brothers. We ain’t nothing alike. I am a
man
and you are a foolish
boy
. I respected my mama and when I found someone, I respected that woman enough to marry her and treat her right and stay married ’til the day she died. I didn’t play around and she didn’t either. That ain’t cool, what you doing, Johnny. When you mess with the female and treat her like trash, you make bad voodoo for yourself. Just don’t be near us when it all comes down.” Cleo replaced the toothpick. Johnny sighed and shrugged, stunned by Cleo’s words but trying to act unfazed. I cleared my throat, feeling uncomfortable about my own female messes that might rain hell down on me.

“Well, I got a good situation and I like it just as it is. Cindy ain’t going nowhere because she’s on the payroll.” Johnny cupped his crotch. “Know what I’m saying?”

I sat forward. “No, fuck all that, pretty boy. What I would do is,” I dropped my voice to a whisper, “wise her up.” Then I licked my lips.

Johnny jumped away from me, sneering. “Oh, you nasty bulldyke! You crazy! You’d get nowhere, believe me. Cindy don’t play that way.”

“They never do until they meet me,” I said.

“Sure. Well, you can try if you’ve got your panties in a twist, but it’s a dead end.
I know.
”

“I can seduce
anyone
,” I said, feeling my fangs. “And she is a woman in need.”

“Hold up, hold up,” Drew said. “Johnny, man, you don’t
care
if Nora makes a move on Cindy?”

“That’s cold, Johnny,” Cleo said.

“What the fuck, we ain’t
married
,” Johnny said.

“But she’s living in your house, sleeping in your bed, washing your skidmarked drawers, and cooking your supper,” Drew said.

“She’s free and I’m free,” Johnny said, his voice stern. “I don’t ask her to do none of those things. She do them because she thinks it will keep me. Well, look, it don’t.”

“You’re a pure-D bastard,” I said.

“Like I said, it don’t matter. I still get all the bj’s I want.”

“Johnny, you talk too damn much, but that Q was good,” Cleo said, closing the subject.

“Yeah, man, that was some fine shit,” Drew added.

“It was okay. I’ve had better,” I said, thinking of Tulsa.

Johnny snorted. “Sure.”

“Let’s play bones,” Cleo said.

“All right, I’m in,” Johnny said.

“When is Ellis getting back?” Drew asked. I rolled my eyes.

The rain poured down, flooding into torrents at the curbs. Trash was swept toward the drain gutters, washing the town clean.

“Mrs. Clyde, may I present Nora Delaney, my cousin and apprentice? Nora, this is Mrs. Clyde, a well-established long-term client and dear friend. Nora, behave,” Ellis said.

“Oh, Ellis honey, how many times have I
implored
you to call me Julia?” she said, batting her eyes and raising her hand to my chin. I cupped the hand with a caress and kissed the air above her skin. I held the hand a few seconds too long, appraising the woman and assessing the possibilities. From the ground up: expensive and edgy. Older woman, mid forties, but very sexy. Muscular, meaty legs with a fine, round, fiery fanny perched on top. Luscious belly pouch, sweet, curvy waist, breasts like the prow of a great ship draped with a vulgar excess of jewelry like a dime store Christmas tree. Succulent pale neck and a pouty, sulky face. All blond in the head. Her eyes were huge, navy blue, and slightly crossed like a Siamese cat’s.

“Me yow,” I drawled.

“I beg your pardon?” Julia asked, withdrawing her hand and staring at Ellis.

“Nora, what did I tell you? I’m sorry, Julia, my cousin doesn’t have any raising. Please excuse her. Nora, apologize to Mrs. Clyde. She is a lady—”

“That she is.” I grinned.

“Nora, go get my briefcase out of the car.
Now
.” Ellis pushed the keys into my hand and shoved me toward the door. “I am truly sorry, Julia,” Ellis repeated as I slouched to the exit. “I had hoped for Nora to assist me with your account, but now that is out of the question. Please accept my apology.”

“Accepted, Ellis. We go back too far for anything to come between us. But do keep that horrible person out of my affairs,” Julia said.

“You have my word,” Ellis said. “Now, shall it be the same terms for these items?”

I looked back at the two of them before I left. Julia turned her head and met my glance. Pure hatred glittered in the woman’s crossed cat eyes. I blew her a kiss and closed the door behind me.