The Company We Keep (6 page)

B
y herself? As manless as a nun?
Teri was so sick and tired of everybody constantly reminding her that she was still by herself. What in the hell was wrong with a woman being by herself? What did she have to do to convince people that she was doing just fine by herself? The fact that she never complained about being alone should have told them something.

“Grandma, you don’t need to worry about me. I can take care of myself.” Teri occupied a seat next to her grandmother at the table in the TV/dining room. She recalled how she had badgered Nicole the night before and now she knew why Nicole had been so irritated. She felt the same way now.

“Your mama used to say the same thing and look what happened to her. I don’t want you to end up dead. I want you to settle down and get married so me and Grandpa Isaac won’t spend eternity worrying about you, too.”

“Getting married won’t save me. It didn’t save my mother,” Teri reminded. “Let’s change the subject.” Teri leaned to the side and kissed her grandmother’s puffy cheek.

A few minutes later, Grandpa Stewart left his seat in front of the television set. He shuffled over to the table where Teri had just finished eating her black-eyed peas.

“Girl, you need to eat like you got some sense,” he complained.
“Let me dip you out some of these peas. Black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day mean money.”

Teri didn’t protest as her grandfather piled more peas onto her plate. “And don’t you worry none about gas. Sop up some turkey gravy with a piece of that corn bread before you go home. It works better than charcoal pills when it comes to dealing with gas,” he told her, burping like a baby, excusing himself between burps.

“Uh-uh. I take back what I just said about peas meaning money,” Grandpa Stewart said, shaking his head as he reached for his own plate, which he promptly filled with peas. “Corn means money. Peas mean good luck,” he said with a grin. “That and a little gas if you overdo it,” he added with a chuckle. He sniffed and dropped another spoonful of peas onto Teri’s plate. She thought she would scream if she heard another reference to gas.

“I’m not
that
hungry,” Teri said again, rolling her eyes at her grandfather.

“You always did eat like a little bird,” Grandma Stewart gently complained, then chewed on a deep-fried turkey leg.

“It’s her nerves if you ask me,” Grandpa Stewart suggested, both of his cheeks full. He was a good match for his wife. She looked like a chipmunk. He looked like he had the mumps. Juice from the peas glazed his bottom lip like lip gloss. He sat down hard in the chair on the other side of Teri, groaning like a man in pain.

Teri rolled her eyes up to heaven. A few minutes later she followed her grandmother into the living room with Grandpa Stewart close behind, holding onto his plate and grumbling all the way.

“Isaac, Teri’s just trying to hold on to her girlish figure like all the rest of these youngsters,” Grandma Stewart said, giving Teri an affectionate pat on the butt. “Baby, I need to show you something.” Teri gave her grandmother a puzzled look as she followed her out of the room.

“Trying to keep a girlish figure my foot. Her nerves are what keep her from eating right. And prayer is the only thing that can help that,” Grandpa Stewart said in a gentle voice. He had stopped in the middle of the living room floor. As soon as Teri
and her grandmother disappeared, he plopped down into a chair and that was where he planned to stay until his bedtime.

“Amen to that,” said Old Man Carson, who occupied the seat directly across from Grandpa Stewart.

“Well, I’m praying that there’s some corn bread left.” Grandpa Stewart turned to see Teri’s young cousin Rudy running into the living room with an empty plate. Normally, eating in the living room was off limits. And that was a rule that Grandma Stewart enforced with vigor. But today was an exception. There were more than two dozen guests in the house and it was a holiday.

“Girl, did you find a job yet?” Grandpa Stewart asked Cynthia, Teri’s nineteen-year-old cousin, as she eased down onto a hassock near the doorway, crossing her long, freshly waxed legs. She was hoping that somebody would notice how good her legs looked and pay her a compliment. Nobody did.

“I’m still looking,” Cynthia said, rolling her heavily made-up eyes. A job was the furthest thing away from this girl’s mind. She wasn’t a man, and as far as she was concerned, work was for men. A woman’s “job” was to keep her man happy. She was one of the few relatives that Teri had little or no use for. Especially after Teri refused to hook her up with some of the musicians she worked with or to make arrangements for her to shake her shapely ass in somebody’s music video. Instead, Teri—with her jealous old-maid self—had offered her a
receptionist
position as a backup to Nicole. Cynthia had looked at Teri as if she were crazy.

“Well, you better look harder. Don’t you want to be like your cousin Teri?” Grandpa Stewart asked, frowning at the way his granddaughter displayed her naked legs. Had young people become so loose that they had no shame left whatsoever? That had to be the case.

“Not if I can help it,” Cynthia said with a snort, shaking her head.

“In the meantime, pull your skirt down and cover your shame, girl,” the old man ordered.

Teri and her grandmother talked about trivial things as Grandma Stewart searched for some documents in the dresser
drawers in her bedroom, spilling contents to the floor like a burglar.

Every few minutes, Grandma Stewart brought up the fact that Teri was “still single” and that that wasn’t normal for a woman her age. But each time Teri’s marital status came up, she steered the conversation in another direction.

“Sister Hawthorne is looking mighty healthy these days,” Teri commented.

“Healthy? Baw! She’d better look healthy with her pig-ear-eating, three hundred pound self. Brother Hamilton asked her to marry him last month and she jumped at the chance. Can you imagine that? I don’t know what this world is coming to. But with her being a widow going on two years and him just losing his wife, and them living next door to each other, it was bound to happen sooner or later. Now if she can get a man, even one that looks like a baboon and smells like a nanny goat like Brother Hamilton, a girl like you ought to be able to get somebody like Obama or Denzel.”

Teri looked around the room and sighed. She wondered what her grandparents and Nicole were going to complain about once she did get a man.

“There’s a sale at Kelsye’s furniture store.” Teri pitched her words like a baseball.

“That reminds me. I saw the Kelsye’s older boy the other day. The one that spent twenty years in the military. He’s going to make somebody a good husband. You want his phone number? I’ll ring up his mama before you go home today.”

“Nanny, listen to me. I am happy being alone. How many times do I have to say it? What do I have to do or say to make you and Grandpa stop worrying about me being by myself?”

Grandma Stewart gave Teri a stern look and let out wind from both ends before she spoke, excusing herself first, though. “Get married, I guess,” she said, fanning the fumes she’d just released. The old woman gave Teri a hopeful nod. “Grab the Kelsye’s son before somebody else snatches him up.”

Teri was too exasperated for words, but she knew that if she didn’t continue to defend herself, her grandmother would wear her out.

“I don’t need you or anyone else to help me find a man. I can do that on my own,” she insisted.

“Then why don’t you?”

“Why don’t I what?”

“You work with men every day. What’s wrong with one of them?”

Teri gave her grandmother a thoughtful look. “There is nothing wrong with the men I work with. I used to date one of the guys in our personnel office,” Teri confessed. “But things didn’t work out.”

“And why didn’t things work out? It don’t take much to keep a man happy, if you know how. And I am not talking about all that bedroom foolishness. The first time I was with Isaac in the flesh, you would have thought he was tearing down a house the way he rode me. The whole time I was laying there under him, all I could think about was how I was going to wash all his sweat and jism off my sheets.”

Teri stared at her grandmother in slack-jawed agony. “Do I really need to hear this?” She had to look away to keep from laughing at the thought of her stuffy grandparents having sex.

“Once you put that physical part in the proper perspective, the rest is easy. You feed your man what he wants to eat, make him think he’s some kind of king—and all that means is telling his dumb ass a lot of barefaced lies, and keep his house and kids clean. That’s all it takes. That’s why divorce is a stranger to most of my generation.”

“The guy I dated from work wanted a mama…” Teri admitted with a pensive look on her face. She recalled how heartbroken she had been when Derrick Hardy told her that the only reason he’d asked her out was because she reminded him of his mother. That same day, she had stopped at the mall and purchased a more youthful wardrobe on her way home from work. Derrick no longer worked for Eclectic, and she made sure that every piece of clothing she purchased came from the most youth-oriented boutiques—for women in her age group, of course—that she could find.

T
eri ignored the look of disapproval on her grandmother’s face as she smoothed the sides of her short black skirt.

Like everything else in the Stewart home, the bedroom furniture was old, but well cared for, too. There was the bed that looked more like a wagon that Teri was not looking forward to inheriting.

Watching her grandmother rooting around in her dresser drawers reminded Teri of how she had searched for the document that she needed to complete her media report before the party last night.

“Here they go,” the old woman said with a sigh of relief. She beckoned for Teri to join her on the bed. The old bed’s springs squeaked like a herd of mice when they sat on it. “We haven’t signed these yet.”

“What is all this?” Teri asked, reaching for the beige folder in her grandmother’s gnarled hand.

“Just some paperwork.” Grandma Stewart held the papers out of Teri’s reach. But Teri took them anyway. She frowned as she read. “This is just to renovate the front of the house and replace the front porch,” Grandma Stewart said, stroking the side of Teri’s head. “And look at all that good hair. A man would love to run his fingers through it.”

“You can’t sign these papers. We could lose this house!” Teri exclaimed, rising. “We need to get Grandpa in here.”

“We can talk about all this later. After everybody’s gone. I don’t want the whole world to know my business,” Grandma Stewart told Teri. She motioned for Teri to return to her seat, but Teri refused, shaking her head like a defiant child.

“Let’s go,” Teri ordered. With the papers still in her hand, she ushered her grandmother out of the room.

They found Grandpa Stewart back in the dining room standing at the table. Nicole stood next to him with a plate in her hand. Teri was glad to see her. Nicole was always a reliable defensive tool for her to use when she had to deal with her meddle-some grandparents. No matter what her grandparents said, Nicole always took Teri’s side, unless it involved Teri not having a man.

“Hey, girl,” Nicole said in the light and cheerful voice that made her such a joy to be around in situations like this. Sometimes all Teri needed was Nicole’s presence to get her spark back. “How come you didn’t wake me up for church this morning?”

“I thought you were busy,” Teri replied with a smirk then a wink. Teri’s grandparents gave each other a puzzled look.

“Where’s that young’un of yours, Nicole?” Grandpa Stewart asked, clearing his throat as if he were trying to remove a frog.

“He’s with his daddy,” Nicole answered with a sigh of mild disgust that only Teri detected. She already knew that she was going to have to give Nicole a pep talk after Greg came by to drop Chris off later that evening. Teri had never liked Greg and he despised her. However, whenever she ran into him in public, or if he happened to drop by Nicole’s apartment when she was there, she went out of her way to be cordial. But he treated her no better than he did a dog he didn’t like.

“Nicole, did you and your husband get back together yet?” Grandma Stewart asked with a hopeful expression on her face. Teri and Nicole looked at each other and cringed.

“Greg has remarried,” Nicole reminded in a stiff voice. It was obvious to Teri that Greg was the last thing that her girl wanted to discuss with the Stewarts or anybody else. Nicole cleared her
throat, then grabbed a napkin and started to nibble on a turkey wing.

“Now there you go, eating like a bird, too, girl,” Grandpa Stewart complained. “You and Teri are two peas in a pod. No wonder you’re both still single…”

“Can I talk to you two in private?” Teri queried, looking from one grandparent to the other. Then she looked at Nicole. “You can stay if you want. You’re family, I guess.”

Nicole gave Teri a confused look. She didn’t like the serious look on Teri’s face. She decided that whatever Teri wanted to discuss with her grandparents, she didn’t need or want to know. She dealt with the ups and downs of the aged enough in her own family. “I think I’ll join the crowd in the living room, if you don’t mind,” Nicole said. “You and I can chat later.”

“Later,” Teri said, giving her friend a defeated glance. Then she turned to her puzzled grandfather, waving the documents she had taken from her grandmother in his face. “Whose idea was this?”

“What is all that?” Grandpa Stewart wanted to know. He looked at the documents as if he were seeing them for the first time. Then he looked at his wife. They both shrugged. “I thought we settled this.”

“As long as you didn’t sign them, nothing has been settled. Whoever this man is, he’s a straight-up crook. And don’t you dare sign any papers he brings to you,” Teri ordered.

“Isaac, Teri said we could lose the house,” Grandma Stewart said with increasing alarm. “I told you that man didn’t look honest to me. He had enough grease on his hair to fry a chicken gizzard.”

“How do you know so much about this?” Grandpa Stewart asked Teri, giving her a suspicious look. “Do you know this man?”

“I know that people like you are getting scammed out of everything left and right these days. Our accountant’s parents got swindled out of thousands of dollars last month in a similar scheme,” Teri revealed.

“Was it the same outfit? The King Associates?”

“I don’t know if it was the same outfit, but it was the same scam.
Look, I know a lot about these things. Please trust me. It’s been all over the news lately.”

“Why would anybody want to cheat us out of anything, Teri?” Grandpa Stewart asked with the wounded innocence of a child. And this was why it was so important to Teri for her to keep an eye on them.

“Because they can, that’s why. But they won’t if I can help it. You’re the two most important people in my life now. I am not going to let anybody take advantage of you.” Teri ripped the documents in two.

“What do we tell that Mr. Brinkley when he calls next time?” Grandpa Stewart asked.

“You give him my telephone number and have him call me. In the meantime, don’t even let anybody into this house trying to sell you anything unless I know about it. I don’t care if they are trying to sell you a fly swatter, you call me before you let them into this house,” Teri said in a stern voice, shaking her finger in the air.

“Well, I guess that’s that. I didn’t think we needed all that mess anyway,” Grandma Stewart said, leaving the room with her husband behind her mumbling under his breath.

Teri didn’t enjoy being in the position she occupied in her grandparents’ lives. But in a way she was glad she was. The fact that she always had to be highly alert to keep them out of trouble kept her on her toes in other areas. She knew that as long as she had her wits about her and could hold her own, growing old alone didn’t seem nearly as ominous as everybody tried to make her think it was.

“Is the coast clear?” Nicole asked, peeping around the doorway, then easing back into the room. Teri stood by a window, looking out at the backyard. Her old swing set and sandbox were still in place next to the brick barbeque grill that she and Nicole had helped Grandpa Stewart build fifteen years ago.

“It’s fine. Come on in. How was your date last night?” Teri asked, frowning at the half-dollar-size purple sucker bite on the side of Nicole’s neck. She promptly replaced her frown with a smile.

“Oooooh, it was nice.” Nicole swooned with a grin and a wink, rubbing her neck. “I can barely walk.”

“Oh, shut the fuck up, you nasty buzzard!” Teri snapped, pinching Nicole’s arm as she joined her by the window. “Happy New Year, girl,” Teri said, giving Nicole a big hug. “But if you don’t show up for work tomorrow, you’re fired. You look like you’ve been mauled.”

“Oh, you mean this?” Nicole said, rubbing her neck.

Teri inspected Nicole’s neck for a full minute, shaking her head the whole time.

“Say what you’ve got to say about it so we can get it over with,” Nicole suggested.

Teri let out a loud breath before she spoke again. “I hope I get one soon,” she said earnestly. Nicole gasped and looked at Teri as if she’d just sprouted another head. Then they both burst out laughing. “Let’s go to my room,” Teri invited. Nicole followed her to one of the two bedrooms upstairs.

Just like the backyard, Teri’s old room looked like she had never left it. And it was the only room in the house that had a youthful touch. There was a brass bed in the center with a blond nightstand on either side. A bright chenille bedspread covered the bed. A few stuffed animals still occupied a high-back chair in front of a vanity table.

“The dreams I used to have in this room.” Teri sighed. “Would you look at us?” She pointed to a framed photo of herself and Nicole on top of the vanity table. “This is the only picture that the folks wouldn’t let me take. We both look like a pair of crazy women trying to imitate Tina Turner with our flyaway wigs and short skirts.”

“We were the original crazy women.” Nicole laughed, looking at the picture as if she were looking at a picture of two sideshow freaks.

“Tell me about it,” Teri responded with a nod. The nostalgia brought tears to her eyes, causing her to blink hard and sniff a couple of times.

“And now look at us.” Nicole paused. “Speaking of crazy, do they know?”

“Know what?”

“That your crazy ass is seeing a shrink?”

“Are you kidding? I’d rather run naked down Sunset Boule
vard before I let them know that. You know what their generation thinks about shrinks. Besides, I don’t think of Carla as a shrink in the traditional sense.”

Before Nicole could respond, Elliot, one of Teri’s other young cousins, came tearing into the bedroom.

“The Lakers won! Dwight Davis hit a three pointer at the buzzer!” the boy reported.

“Boy, get your knotty-headed self out of here,” Teri ordered. Elliot did a jig, crossed his eyes, and stuck out his tongue before he ran back out of the room. “That’s what you have to look forward to in a few years with Chris,” she told Nicole.

By five o’clock, most of the Stewarts’ guests had left. Teri and Nicole volunteered to stay and help clean up. They ended up doing all the cleaning. Grandpa Stewart had returned to his favorite chair in the living room and was now snoozing like a baby. Grandma Stewart kept trying to help, but all she did was get in Teri’s way.

“I appreciate your coming over,” Teri told Nicole just as they were about to finish their chores. “I know you’d rather have spent the day with your son.”

“You’re right about that. But you know how inconsistent Greg is. And Chris absolutely adores that fool. I have to let him see his daddy whenever I can get him to come over. I don’t want my son to grow up resenting me someday because he didn’t get to spend enough time with Greg.”

“Well, you’re raising the boy right and that’s all that really matters. Let’s just hope he turns out to be a better specimen of a man than his daddy,” Teri said. “We could use a few more good men in our race.”

“Oh, we already have a lot more good ones than we know. We just have to find them,” Nicole offered with a laugh. “It might take a lot of searching, though. And I know you don’t want to hear this from me
again,
but if you don’t get busy, you never will get one…”