Somebody's Someone (18 page)

“Get yo’ nappy-headed ass out my house now! You loose-lipped hussy!” I heard Ruby throwing stuff and cussing Lola like nobody’s business. But the difference was Lola wasn’t just standing there like some of the other folks I seen Ruby take on, no siree; Lola was throwing stuff and cussing right back! I couldn’t believe it. I’d figured ever’body was too scared of Ruby, like I was, to stand up to her—I might’ve been right ’bout ever’body, ’cept for Lola. That wasn’t all. I seen pink rollers flying past my face with the hair still hooked on to ’em as Lola and Ruby was beating the daylights outta each other over some jet-black man who wasn’t even round to see it to believe it.

I didn’t wanna get into Ruby’s mess, so I waited back outside with the boys till they was done beating one another. There was a time when this kinda stuff would make me wanna hide and not come out. But by now, I was so used to it, I just waited round to see who came out looking the worst; then I’d know who won. Most usually it was Ruby who came out looking unscratched—that is unless she’d had way too much liquor, in which case she could look more whooped than not. And more than likely it would only take a day or two for Ruby and her friends to get back on speaking terms. They would act like nothing ever happened—black eyes, bald spots, and all. Deep down inside of me, I wondered if my mama’d ever wanna fight somebody like that just to keep me.

I went from picking blueberries in the heat of summer with Miss Ida to picking wigs in the quiet of Ruby’s bedroom, in a walk-in closet that she had turned into her li’l beauty parlor. Inside the parlor was what she called a vanity. It was a dresser you could sit at, and there was a mirror connected to the desk part. It sho’ was the prettiest thang I’d seen yet. I told myself that one day I was gonna have a parlor for beauty too. On the desk was white foam, shaped into doll heads, that had necks that was stands to help ’em from toppling over when the wigs was on ’em. There was also a glass tray that held a lot of good-smelling stuff. Ruby called it perfume. And said that maybe one day I could get a job and buy some nice things for her. I couldn’t wait for the day that I could do something nice like that for my mama. I loved the way she said “perfume.” She made it sound like it smelled, sweet and soft. Her favorite ones was Charlie, White Shoulders, and Chanel No. 9. I liked the White Shoulders, ’cause that’s what she wore the most. That other stuff gave me a headache whenever I got a whiff of it.

Outta all the things I did in Jacksonville, spendin’ time with Ruby was the best. I’d waited a long time to see her. As a matter of fact, it seemed like I’d waited the whole of my life to be with her day and night and not worry on if she was gonna come or not. Now I was here with her, and I was gonna do all I could to make it easy for her, so she could see that I was no trouble a’tall. Before I got to help Ruby for real with her wigs, I’d stand outta the way and just watch her go to work on combing out, setting, and styling ’em. She had what was called falls; they hung from a ponytail that was attached to the top of her head by a snap-shut button sewed to each side of the hair. She reminded me of them dolls where you push the button on her stomach while pulling on her ponytail and watched it grow. Ruby also had a bouffant made outta pin-curl–shaped pieces stacked on top a one another. That’s the one she wore to pick me up in that looked like a small mountain. At first, she wouldn’t let me help her with the wigs. Instead I was in charge of keeping her supplied with her necessaries, as she called ’em.

“Here, child,” she would say after handing me one of her cigarettes, “go to the stove and light this for your mama.”

I loved it when she asked me that way.

“And try hard this time not to explode the end, like you did the last one!”

It was true. I was guilty of making the end of the tobacco stick look like a firecracker had gone off in it. I couldn’t figure out why for the life of me. I had done exactly how Ruby had told me. I let the stove coil heat up to red-hot. Then I took the tip of the cigarette and rolled it on the fire till it caught. Once I seen there was smoke coming out the end, I’d run and give it to her. Secretly, I blew on the cigarette myself just the way I’d seen Ruby do. I figured that’s what made it look so bad. I was always careful not to let her see any wet lip prints—that would give me away. So I rolled my lips back inside my mouth and used the exposed part of my skin to blow with. I loved it if I had to go back and light it a second time; that way I had a chance to put my lips where my mama’s had been. Right where her mouth had left a wet spot. I would place my lips right on it and play like it was a kiss meant just for me. I also loved when she left a small bit of her slobber near the hole of her Coke can. I would take it up in my hands and sip the bit she had left, wantin’ to have a piece of her with me at all times. That way no matter what, I knowed she could never leave me again.

Sometimes when Ruby wasn’t combing her own hair she’d hard-press mine for me. Just like Big Mama’d do, she’d have me wash my hair, then pull through the knots and plait it into small sections all over my head—that way it’d be easier to pull through later. After my hair air-dried half the day, Ruby would take the comb with the teeth that got hot, and work them naps right on out my head. When Big Mama used ta do my hair, she was all gentle-like, and let me sit between her legs on pillows while she plaited. Now Ruby, on the other hand, she wasn’t for all that sitting-b’tween-the-legs stuff. No siree. Ruby liked it when I sat on her bed as she stood over me, pullin’ my nappy hair to its freedom. I figured she stood ’cause it was easier for her to get to her cigarettes and drinks. Plus, she prob’ly didn’t want them ashes getting in my hair, with me sittin’ tween her legs. She was kinda rough, but she was still with me, so that was okay.

When I wasn’t exploding Ruby’s cigarettes or fetchin’ her fresh ice-cold bottles of Coca-Cola, I’d sit huddled close by, watching her go to town on whatever it was she’d be doing. Sometimes Ruby was putting on them fake eyelashes, using a stick pin to spread the glue on. All I could do was watch. I was scared to touch the lashes, ’cause I thought they was peeled right offa dead people’s eyes.

At other times she’d be applying Lee Press-on Nails, the ones that was already colored to match her outfit and already-polished toes. And since I never did get the cigarette thing right, I wasn’t let to touch ’em anymore, so Ruby moved me over to combing out wigs. I liked this best, ’cause I could take my time and didn’t have to leave the room that often. That way I got to be with my mama longer. From time to time my mind would wander off and fall on stuff that Big Mama and them had said ’bout Ruby, and I’d look to try and figure out all their dislikes for her, but I just couldn’t see what they saw. Sometimes though, I picked up what the grown folks called a li’l temper problem. It came out specially when stuff didn’t go just the way she saw fit. But all in all, my mama was fine by me. If I secretly had anything bad to say, it would be that Ruby seen no wrong when it came to men; or her boys either, for that matter. And I learned that no matter what, don’t ever try and tell her anything ’bout her mens. The fight b’tween her and Lola shoulda gave me the good sense to know betta’, but it didn’t. I thought that was just the way Ruby was with her friends—I knowed for certain she’d never go flat-out ape shit all over her child. How wrong I was. I found out the hard way.

CHAPTER SEVEN

MR. BENNY

MR. BENNY TOLD RUBY
that he didn’t wanna live on base anymore, and asked if he could come and stay with us till my sister moved in. There was no way this side of hell I wanted that man to come and stay with us. For all the time I’d waited, I barely got to see Ruby as it was, and with him laying round, I knowed I was gonna see her even less. At first Ruby seemed dead-set against it. She hemmed and hawed ’bout the house not being big ’nough for all of us, and the fact that she had girls runnin’ round the place and how it would look having a man she wasn’t married to living with her. But that didn’t last too long, ’cause that ole sly dog Mr. Benny convinced her that his living there would help everybody out, specially her, since she had more bills now that I had arrived. And he made sure that Ruby saw that there’d be only more mouths to feed with Doretha’s coming. By the time he was through reminding her of what trouble we was gonna be to her, Ruby had reached under the sink and pulled out her bottle. Out the corner of my eye, I watched himcome up behind Ruby while she was pouring the drink and wrap his arms round her waist. Then he’d bite her on the ear and tease her and tell her how much he thought of her and how lonely he was being on that base. He even went as far as promising to help with “the kids,” telling her how he thought we was left by ourselves too much.

“I don’t know, Benny,” Ruby told him. “They seem to be doing just fine. Anyway, when I’m not here they’re sleeping, and by the time I get home they all run off to play.”

“Come on now, girl. These kids need a li’l daddyin’. They need somebody here to protect them.”

I didn’t know nothing ’bout no daddy, and sho’ wasn’t gonna be calling Mr. Benny something I couldn’t even let crawl out the back of my throat for my own daddy. I called my own mama by her first name, so if he was countin’ on me calling him daddy—that was outta the question!

Within a week, Mr. Benny had moved himself right into our house. One green army bag after the next came piling up in our living room. And whatever stuff he couldn’t fit into Ruby’s closet, he put in with the boys. Seemed like he didn’t care what or where he moved into as long as he was in. At first, he was on his best behavior. He helped us keep the house clean and made sure we had food to eat. He even helped me learn a new favorite food: Tony’s pepperoni pizza topped with black pepper and Tabasco sauce, cooked to a crisp. And when Ruby went and bought me the canopy bed I had begged her for, he promised to help put it together and paint it white for me, with frosted gold rings wrappin’ themselves round the poles. I’d always wanted a white bed, but we had to order the natural version since it was more affordable. We left that bed in the carport too long, and a mongrel dog came and chewed off one of the knobs that was to keep the canopy from falling off the poles. Mr. Benny knew how to fix that too. We all worked good together for ’bout a month or so—that was, right up to the time my sister came.

We picked Doretha up from the same bus depot I had arrived at. When she arrived, I ran up and put my arms round her. I had never done that before. I wasn’t so used to touching folks like that, but it was the first time she and I was away from each another that I could recall. Her and Ruby, well, they sort of grabbed each other’s shoulders and leaned forward, creating something that looked like the roof of a house. The whole time we was all standing there in that station, looking awkward and stiff, Doretha never took her eyes off me. Seemed like she was more concerned with seeing me than she was to see Ruby. I could tell she was playacting, ’cause as long as I’d lived she ain’t never been that sweet on me.

“Hey there, Gina girl, how’re you doing?” she asked as she pretended to punch me in my arm. She said hi to the boys by waving her hand from the middle of her waist, makin’ it look like she didn’t wanna be bothered. I wondered if she r’membered ’em like I did. I knowed that sometimes when bad things happen to me, my mind will tell me it ain’t so. That it ain’t as bad as it seems. That way, I can keep on hoping that what is bad really ain’t true. It’s like my mind would play tricks on me, letting me get on with my business. I hoped that was true for the boys and Doretha.

When we all finished sayin’ our hellos, there we all was, all together. Just like my next-door neighbor, Nichelle, and her family. It would’ve been just right except for Benny being there. I wanted to know how long us being together was gonna last. I knowed one thing for sho’, the thing that made us different from Nichelle and her folks was that all Ruby’s kids except her boys had different daddies. It was clear to all that could see that Mr. Benny was no one’s daddy, ’cause he didn’t look a thing like nary a one of us. He had two daughters of his own, but they didn’t live with us. Anyway, I ’magined him not being any kin to Doretha was gonna be a problem. I r’membered from Big Lawrence how Doretha could act—if the man don’t like her, she wasn’t gonna play to like him either. My sister was almost seventeen and had lived most her life with Big Mama, the only mama she had ever knowed, so I figured that she was gonna have a hard time with Ruby, specially since she didn’t even believe that Ruby was her real mama. And the only daddy she had was Daddy Lent. From where she stood, they was all that mattered, even if they wasn’t “real kin.” Deep down I could feel a storm a-brewing.

When we lived out at south Austin, nobody really bothered Doretha like they did me. She was always the one that was smart and never made no trouble for no one. If the grown folks asked her to do somethin’, she’d do it with no back talk, so that way everybody’d think she was “a real nice girl”—unlike me who was too boy-ster-ous—whatever that meant. Not even Lula Mae messed with Sister too much that I could see. There was only once that I can recall Lula and Sister getting into it. I believe it had to do with Sister starting somethin’ called a period. I was outside stirring up mud pies in a ole black kettle that sat b’tween two oak trees in our backyard, and I heard ’em start.

“What’s that smell? Who forgot to take the garbage that had them fish guts in it, outside?” I could hear Lula’s big mouth all the way outside. I didn’t hear nobody answer, so I tried to keep on with what I was doing. I didn’t like emptying no garbage cans on account that I hated looking at them maggots that crawled round the bottoms of the cans. And I knowed that Lula Mae was gonna start getting me involved if she learned that I was listenin’—so I ignored her.

“How come every time I pass your room, Doretha Ann, I smell somethin’ dead?” Then I heard two people going back and forward ’bout who should be able to tell who what to do. I started hummin’ to drown them out.

“You have gots to be the nastiest thang I ever seen in my life!” was the next thing I heard. Then Big Mama, Sister, and Lula Mae was all in a tizzy. Sister was cryin’ and yellin’ ’bout how she didn’t know, and Lula was telling her how a girl on her period should know better than to hide ’em under the mattress for months. I didn’t know what they was going on ’bout, and I didn’t wanna know. I did hear my sister yellin’ at Big Mama and Lula, asking them why didn’t they tell her if she was doing it the wrong way. She threw a fit that I think scared everybody. After that folks went round saying, “Y’all should be careful wit’ them quiet ones; they’ll sneak up on you and cut ya’ throat from behind.” My sister had it in her to go crazy if she had to, and I wagered either Mr. Benny or Ruby was gonna be the ones to set her off.