Little Girl Lost 6: The Return of Johnnie Wise (13 page)

“I’m not sure how long you plan to stay, but when I open the pool, unfortunately, I can’t let you swim in it—at least not when I have guests, but that’s usually in the evening. They generally stay the night and checkout in the morning. I don’t have a problem with you swimming, but my guests might have a problem with it, and I make money off my guests, so I try to keep them happy. As long as they don’t get unruly, they can stay, and so can you. If anyone asks you if you’re a guest, tell them you’re the maid and you live in the apartment on the second floor. Otherwise, I might be forced to kick you out. It wouldn’t be personal, Johnnie. It would be a business decision. You’re only one guest. I’ve got over a hundred rooms. At an average rate of two dollars a night, that comes to two hundred a night at full capacity. That’s nearly six thousand dollars a month—more than that check you deposited. You understand?”

“I do. And thank you, Gloria.”

“Great. Now . . . let’s get these bags up to your new home.”

Chapter 25

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It’ll cost you four thousand dollars do find out.”

J
ohnnie and Gloria climbed the stairs and walked along the L-shaped hotel on the grayish cement and entered her home for the next three weeks. She was very impressed with her spacious accommodations. The room had a couch, a dining table, a colored television, a small kitchenette, a dresser, a bathroom, and a queen-sized bed in the adjacent room. The walls were sky blue. Emerald carpeting covered the floor everywhere except the bathroom and the cooking area. It wasn’t nearly as nice as the Bel Glades Hotel in New Orleans, but it was better than what she expected. They hustled back down to the lobby and brought up the rest of her things.

Gloria smiled and said, “You gotta be quicker than that, Johnnie. I’d much rather you ask my age than try to extrapolate based on an educated guess minus the date of the crash.”

“I had two stockbrokers . . . a woman and a man. Both of them were white, Gloria, if that means anything.” Johnnie placed her hand on the Gideon Bible sitting on the dresser, put her hand over her heart, and said, “With God as my witness.”

“Yeah, it’s a long story. Perhaps I’ll tell you about it someday. I still remember what stocks I had, but I’ll have to start all over because the cost of the stock has increased exponentially since I originally bought them. But . . . I bet several of them haven’t ripened yet, and I can still get them pretty cheap.”

“Actually, it was the woman who stole my money. She stole over a million, I think. Of that amount, two hundred and fifty thousand was mine.”

“I was planning to charge you the standard rate, but since we’re bartering for stock futures, I think I’ll have to charge the regular rate.”

Smiling, Gloria said, “So let me get this straight. You want to pay absolutely nothing for the room, and I pay you for your advice?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Gloria doubled over as laughter spilled out of her mouth. She stood erect again and said, “Why that’s highway robbery. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am, but some folks might say three dollars for this hotel room is highway robbery. I guess it depends on one’s point of view and the value of the services rendered.”

Gloria stared at Johnnie for a few seconds, trying to determine if she should take the word of the woman in front of her. She thought about the amount of money Johnnie said she had made and thought it sounded too good to be true. “How long are you planning to stay in Jackson?”

“I am. It’ll be my retainer. We can go over to the bank some time this week and set up an account that will disburse my fee the first of every month.”

“What if I pay you in cash? If we setup an account together, it wouldn’t look good for a white woman to be doing stockbroker business with a Negro. Please don’t be offended. That’s just the way things are right now. Perhaps in the future blacks and whites won’t have to hide their relationships, business or otherwise, if you follow what I’m saying.”

“Gloria . . . I understand, believe me. Any way you want to do it is fine with me. I have no problem with cash. In fact, I prefer it.”

“How about we try it for a couple of months, perhaps three? What would you charge me then?”

“I’ll do it for four hundred plus a percentage and the cost of my rent. But after that, I’ll have to charge you more, based on how your stocks are doing.”

“Talk about highway robbery.”

“Think of it this way . . . for two nights of revenue, you’re going to make a fortune. Besides, I’m down on my luck right now. I need to make as much money as I can to rebuild what I lost in the fire.”

“I started with four hundred and maybe six months later, I received a dividend check worth four thousand dollars, I think, and then I reinvested it in the company.”

“I like you, Johnnie. I really do. But listen, I have to get back downstairs. I may have guests. By the way, what are you doing for dinner?

“I’m not sure. I need to sleep.”

“Okay, when you wake up, if you’re hungry, there’s a restaurant up the road from here called the Flamingo Den, but be careful. The food is excellent, but the place attracts riffraff. To be safe, just knock on my door, and I’ll get you something to eat. Besides, they may not serve you there.”

After Gloria left, Johnnie picked up the phone and told the operator to connect her to the Wall Street Journal in Manhattan. A woman answered.

“My name is Johnnie Wise and I have a subscription with you. I’ve moved from New Orleans to Jackson, Mississippi, and I’d like you to send my paper to my new address.”

Chapter 26

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It automatically locks after you open it.”

A
fter contacting the Wall Street Journal, Johnnie sat on her bed and looked around the room, taking it all in, saying within,
This is a temporary situation. I’ll only be here for a few weeks
. It wasn’t home, but it would be home for the foreseeable future, and she told herself she would make the best of the situation she found herself in. She then thought about the possibility of being a stockbroker for the first time. She didn’t have the experience of Martin Winters or Sharon Trudeau, but she didn’t think she needed it. She thought she had acquired the skill and knowledge she needed from both of them. After looking at a display of televisions in a department store, she had concluded that it would be a smart play to invest in broadcasting companies, not Martin Winters. She then remembered that it was her idea to invest in Sears after being accosted by the store detective who had tried to feel her up. She realized she had good instincts and that she needed to spread her wings a little and fly on her own.

It occurred to her that if she could land Gloria Schumacher, a woman who had plenty of money to invest, if she made the right investments, she just might be able to get her fortune back much sooner than she thought. The trick though was not to mention investing to Gloria again. Once her Wall Street Journals arrived, sooner or later, Gloria would ask about investing. And when she did, she would try to tell her it was too risky to invest. She thought Gloria would then ask her if she was still investing, to which she would answer in the affirmative. She believed that if she played it right, Gloria would then think that it couldn’t be too risky if she was investing and beg her to get in on her investments. It was all set, she thought. It was just a matter of time before she collected a hefty retainer from her very first client.

Lying on her back, smiling, she thought of the brightness of her future. Before she knew it, she had drifted into a deep satisfying sleep, having a vivid dream about the love of her life, Lucas Matthews. She was at the University of San Francisco, about to register for classes when she literally bumped into Lucas, who was coming out of the Men’s room. He was wearing his Army uniform, which was covered with medals and ribbons. Gold clusters were on his shoulder straps. They were both incredibly surprised to see each other. They embraced and held on tight, lost in the moment as memories flooded their minds. As they held each other, for whatever reason, wedding bells started chiming.

Her eyes shot open. She quickly turned her head to the left and looked at the phone. It was ringing. She looked around the room and knew that it wasn’t all a dream. She was at the Clementine Hotel in Jackson, which meant she had really lost a quarter of a million dollars. Still in the haze of sleep, she picked up the phone, and with a scratchy throat said, “Hello.”