Catfish Alley (42 page)

Zero squats down in front of Malcolm
so's he can look him square in the eye. "Malcolm, this is real
important," he says, taking him by the shoulders so he can't squirm away.
"Did you hear what them white men said to Miss Adelle?"

I reckon this must have scared
Malcolm, because he starts stuttering. "I, I, I think one of 'em named P
... P ... Pete, 'cause I hear the other one say, 'H ... H ... Hold her, Pete.'
Then he say something about how they g ... g ... gonna show Zero Clark what
happen when he mess in white folks' b ... b ... business." Malcolm looks
down at the ground.

I feel my heart pounding in my chest
and I'm already seeing where this is going. "What else did you hear,
Malcolm?" Zero asks, breathing fast now.

"I didn't hear them say nothing
else. It got quiet and all I could hear was the trash can bumping up against
the side of the building." Malcolm hangs his head. "I climbed out the
window on the other side of the kitchen and run home. I's scared, Mister
Zero." His voice is not much more than a squeak now. "I swear

I don't know what happened after
that."

Zero lets go of Malcolm and stumbles
toward the trash cans. I shoo Malcolm on home, telling him he done good. I
watch Zero real close, not sure what he's fixing to do next. I think we both
know what happened now and why Adelle made up that bullshit story about being
robbed. She's trying to protect Zero. The one named Pete is Pete Hatfield. He's
been taking orders from that son-of-a-bitch Ray Tanner since they beat Zero up
over a damn nickel when we was ten.

It also explains the pocketknife
Zero said he found last night. Ray Tanner stole that knife off me when we were
kids. My mama saved her butter and egg money for a year to buy me that knife. I
can see that old festering place in Zero opening up like a scab picked off a
sore. The thought of their filthy hands on his Adelle is making him crazy with
rage. He hauls off and kicks the trash can so hard the sound echoes down the
alley, and I take a step toward him to try to talk to him. He don't even seem
to feel any pain in that leg. Before I can say anything he bends over the trash
can and throws up the catfish he had for supper.

I'm scared now, not knowing what
Zero's fixing to do next. He stands there at that trash can for a long time
before he straightens up and looks at me. They's kind of a wild look in his
eyes then.

"What you thinking, Zero?"
I ask.

"I don't know, Clarence ...,"
he says, and turns to walk away.

"Where you going?"

He stops, but he won't look at me.

"Don't you go and do nothing
stupid, now, you hear?" I say. I hear the church clock chiming eight and I
know I got to get to my job over at J.T.'s Bar. I ain't told Zero yet that I'm
working there now. And I sure ain't fixing to tell him tonight. Ray Tanner is a
regular at J.T.'s.

"You go on home,
Clarence," he says. "I'll catch up to you tomorrow. Maybe we'll go
fishing." He walks off, heading in the direction of Adelle's house.

Grace

We
are all listening intently to Clarence. He pauses to drink some of his coffee,
and my mind starts to fly all over the place.
So, Zero knew about Adelle after
all? Did he go after Ray Tanner? Was he so full of rage that he would take a
risk like that? Why has Clarence never told me this? Why has he let me question
all these years what happened? What else does he know?

"I thought he was going to Adelle's house.

I swear I did, Grade," Clarence says, looking at
me with pleading in his eyes, like he's afraid I won't believe him. "Then,
he showed up at J.T.'s later that night."

"Wasn't that the bar where you worked?" asks
Roxanne. I jump when she speaks. I've been so focused on Clarence that I almost
forgot those girls were here. I look at Roxanne across the table and I feel
like I'm staring at her across a deep, wide chasm.... My head starts to ache
and my arms suddenly feel like lead.

"Miss Grace, are you all right?" Rita asks,
as she comes around the table to kneel beside my chair. "Roxanne,"
she orders, "get Grace a glass of water."

Clarence jumps up to help, and Roxanne brings me the
water he hands her. I don't really like being fussed over like this and I shoo
them away.

"I'm fine. Y'all sit down," I say. "I
must have forgotten to breathe for a minute."

"I told you ain't nothing good going to come from
talking about all this," Clarence says, sitting back down beside me.

I take a deep breath to steady myself. I muster up my
old teacher's voice to get Clarence's attention. "Clarence Jones, what
happened at that bar?"

Clarence sits up straight, looks at me, and frowns. He
goes on to tell us how Zero showed up at J.T.'s, wanting to see Ray Tanner, and
that J.T. told him to go on home and wait until daylight.

Clarence can barely get out the last words. "He
walked away from there and that was the last time I saw him alive."
Clarence's voice cracks as he says, "All these years I've beat myself up
for not following Zero that night. But I was scared I'd lose my job. I just
kept hoping and praying Zero had gone home."

Clarence turns toward me and leans forward, his elbows
on his knees. "Grade, I swear, until we read that diary, I didn't know Ray
Tanner had lost his job that day. I knew he was in the bar that night, but he
was there every night. I reckon Mr. J.T. must've told Ray that Zero came
looking for him. When I saw Ray and his boys leaving, I just stayed out of
their
way ...
I was such a coward." Clarence is racked with sobs now and my heart is
breaking. I'm not sure if it's for me or for him. "I'm so sorry I couldn't
stop it, Gracie ... I'm so sorry...."

He hangs his head and I can see his tears falling on
the tile floor. All of us have carried the pain of what happened for so long.
All of us have wondered what we could have done differently to stop Zero that
night. At least I now know that Zero didn't go after Ray Tanner. He walked
away. My heart goes out to Clarence.

Through his tears, Clarence finishes the story. "I
got ready to go fishing early that next morning, right after sunup. I kept
thinking Zero would show up at my house and everything would be fine, just like
always. We'd fish and talk like we always did, maybe try to sort out what to
do. Zero always said he did his best thinking while he was fishing."
Clarence looks at me and I nod. I remember Zero saying that very thing.

Clarence pulls out his handkerchief and wipes his eyes.
His voice is so soft now I can barely hear him. "But Zero never showed up.
So I went on by myself. I put my boat in the river and headed over to that deep
hole behind the Riverview plantation where the big catfish go in the
wintertime. It was foggy, and when I first came around the curve in the river,
I couldn't make out what was in the big old oak tree that branched over the
river." Clarence stops and takes a shuddering breath. He has to pause
before he can go on. "Then I realized it was Zero. I tied my boat up and
ran to fetch Dr. Jackson. He told Mrs. Jackson to call Mr. Calhoun, so's he
could tell you. Dr. Jackson and me cut Zero down out of that tree."

No man should ever have to see the sight Clarence saw
that morning. I thank the good Lord that I didn't have to see my brother
hanging from a tree like that. It's bad enough that ever since that December
morning when I jumped out of Mr. Calhoun's car and saw Zero lying on the
ground, those grown men weeping over his body, I've fought the images in my
mind of what Zero's last moments on this earth must have been like.

December 1931

Zero Clark

I'm thinking about what Dr. Jackson
would say right now. That the way for a colored man to deal with a situation
like this is to put his energy into getting the vote, furthering his education,
working on changing the laws. But how is that going to keep people like Ray
Tanner from doing whatever they want?

Ray Tanner's been finding ways to
make my life hell for the past ten years. But now he's gone too far. I imagine
Adelle in her white nurse's uniform, hurrying home to surprise her family. She
looks beautiful in that uniform, the crisp white of it against her skin, the
glow she takes on when she's easing someone's pain or making them more
comfortable. Adelle is a born nurse. I only hope I can be as good a doctor. I
plan to do right by her, to be the kind of man she's proud to marry.

Something has to be done. Ray Tanner
has to be stopped. I can't sit by anymore and allow the man who violated the
woman I love to escape justice. I know where Ray Tanner'll be this time of
night. He's always at J.T.'s Bar, the same bar where his daddy's kept a barstool warm for twenty years. Still does. They might even be there together. I'm
not sure what my plan is. I'm not exactly thinking straight. All I can think
about is my beautiful Adelle in the alley with Ray Tanner pushing her to the
ground.

I stand across the street from the bar
and try to see in, but it's too dark to make out anybody. I cross the street
and go around to the back. Just as I step into the light near the back door,
Clarence Jones comes out, holding a bag of trash in each hand. His eyes get
wide when he sees me.

"Zero? Is that you?"
Clarence peers through the dark. "What you doing here?"

I step closer to Clarence. "I'm
looking for somebody. You work here now?"

"Yeah, just on the weekends.
Trying to make some extra money. Who you looking for?"

"Ray Tanner."

"Are you crazy, man?"
Clarence looks around the alley and dumps his trash before coming close to me.
"You know you don't want to mess with Ray Tanner! He's mean as a yard dog,
Zero, and he's gotten worse. Just go home. Stay away from him. Talk to Dr. Jackson.
He'll help you figure out something to do."

I reach out and grab Clarence's
shoulders. "You and I both know what he did to Adelle, Clarence."

"Yeah, but there ain't nothing
you can do. You got to leave this alone." Clarence turns to look behind
him at the back door of the bar.

Just then the screen door slams and
J.T., the bar owner, walks toward us, his head cocked to one side.

"What you boys doing out here?
Clarence, you working for me or talking to your buddies?"

Clarence ducks his head and says,
"I'm working, Mr. J.T. I just brought the trash out."

J.T. recognizes me. "What you
doing hanging around behind my bar, boy?"

I take a deep breath and look J.T.
in the eye. "I'm looking for Ray Tanner, Mr. J.T. Is he here?"

The big burly white man snorts out a
laugh. "Does a bear shit in the woods? Of course he's here. It's Saturday
night, ain't it? What you want with him?"

"I've got some business I need
to take care of with him. Will you let him know I'm here?"

J.T. eyes me. "What business
you got with a white man this time of night that won't wait until
daylight?"

I ignore the question. "I'd go
in there and fetch him myself, Mr. J.T., but I know you don't allow coloreds in
your bar. So, if you'd please just send him out here, I'd appreciate it."

J.T. stares at me for a while.
Clarence hasn't moved a muscle. Finally, J.T. turns, shaking his head. He looks
up and sees Clarence. "You still standing here? Get on back in there and
get to work." J.T. turns back to me. "And as for you, I don't want no
trouble around my bar. You just get out of here and go home. You take up your
business with Ray Tanner in the daylight, you hear me?" I don't move.
"I'm telling you. Get out of here before I have to call the sheriff."
J.T slams back into the bar with Clarence following him. Clarence looks back at
me and shrugs his shoulders.

I stand there trying to figure out
my next move. Maybe J.T.'s right — maybe I ought to wait for morning. But the
anger boils up in me and I can't find any place to put it. I think maybe if I
walk for a while I'll cool down. As I walk, my mind starts to clear. Maybe I'll
try to see Adelle again. It'll be morning soon and I'll knock on her door,
convince her to talk to me, maybe talk her into going to the sheriff like Grace
said. I can tell her there was a witness — that Malcolm Jones heard what
happened. I can tell her there's evidence — the pocketknife is in my pocket
right now. I'll show it to her. Dr. Jackson will go with us and we'll tell the
sheriff. I imagine Ray Tanner behind bars and I like the thought of that.

I'm walking on Bridge Street, the
last street before the river. There ain't many houses down here. Riverview
still takes up most of the property along the river. I'm fixing to cut through
an alley and head over toward Adelle's house, when I hear a truck coming up
behind me. The truck is coming fast and I try to get over in the bushes beside
the road. The headlights flash on me and the truck screeches to a stop. Four
white men jump out and start coming toward me. I hear them holler, "Hey,
boy. We want to talk to you."