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Authors: Mary Monroe

BOOK: God Don't Make No Mistakes
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CHAPTER 18
I
T TOOK RHODA A FEW MOMENTS TO RESPOND TO MY ODD QUESTION.
When she spoke again, her voice was weak and distant. “Of course Bully is still alive. I ... I packed his shit and sent him to a hotel. The cab just left.”
“Oh? Did ... uh ... you and him have a disagreement or something?” I felt guilty about concealing what I had witnessed; but I was feeling more overwhelmed by everything to be too concerned about feeling guilty.
Since my departure from Rhoda's house, I had added another bone to my plate. On my way home, before I drove through Roscoe's neighborhood, I had driven by the apartment where my ex-husband's lover now lived. I was surprised to see his red Firebird parked in her driveway. I couldn't wait to report this to Rhoda, but I had to hear what she had to tell me first.
“Annette, I've known Bully for most of my life. At least I thought I knew him.”
“What did he do? I've never known Bully to do anything to upset you.”
“I wanted to wait until you got here to tell you. But I think the sooner you know, the better.” I heard Rhoda sniffing and trying to catch her breath. Finally, she told me in a squeaky voice, “Bully tried to take advantage of my daughter. Right here in my own house! It happened just moments after you left! I never dreamed that Bully could be so stupid and brazen! You could have walked into the kitchen and witnessed what he was doin', just like I did!”
I waited until Rhoda let out a few more gut-wrenching sobs.
“You mean ... uh ... you actually saw Bully in the act, trying to mess with Jade?”
Rhoda hiccupped before answering. “Not exactly. I walked in on the tail end. She was hysterical. He had ripped her blouse and everything. Men are such dogs!”
I didn't know how to respond to Rhoda's comment, so I remained silent for a few moments.
“Annette, are you still there? Please hurry up and say somethin',” Rhoda ordered.
It took me a few more moments to respond. “Rhoda, I don't like to change the subject. But that's what I need to do for a few minutes, so you can get a grip. I hope you don't mind.”
“Change the subject? What—what is it you want to change the subject to? I thought you wanted to hear about what Bully did?”
“I do and I will. But I can tell that you are having a hard time talking about it. I just thought that if we talked about something else for a few moments, it would be easier for you to talk about Bully after that.”
“All right. Just what is it that you want to talk about before I tell you the whole story about Bully?”
“Uh, there is something I need to tell you about Pee Wee.”
I heard Rhoda sniff and suck in her breath. “What is it?” she asked in a whisper.
“It's probably nothing serious, but I still want to run it by you,” I croaked.
“What is it?” Rhoda asked again. I was glad that she had stopped crying, but now I was close to crying myself.
“I drove past Lizzie's place on my way home from your house. Pee Wee's car was in her driveway,” I said, silently scolding myself for steering the conversation in another direction. My best friend clearly needed my shoulder to cry on right now, and here I was still bombarding her with my problems.
“Oh, like I just said, men are such dogs! If I had been in your shoes, I would have marched into Lizzie's place and whupped the daylights out of them both.”
“It hurts me to know that he is still communicating with her,” I admitted. “And now that she is pregnant, he's going to have to deal with her on a regular basis. I don't know if I can deal with that. That is, if I continue to work on my relationship with him.”
“Are you afraid that if he sees her regularly again, that they might resume their relationship?”
The thought of that happening made me shiver. “I'm not afraid if they will or not. If they want to, they will do it. Nothing surprises me anymore. I used to think that Pee Wee was one of the ‘good guys,' but look how wrong I was. That man has broken my heart into a million little pieces.”
“Humph! I used to think that Bully was one of the good guys too! Look how wrong I was! Men are all the same after all, I guess. They think with their dick heads!” Rhoda hollered.
“I guess I'll have to wait and see just how involved Pee Wee is going to get with Lizzie now,” I managed. “But a horny man does a lot of stupid shit.”
“Tell me about it. But Bully couldn't have been that damn horny after what I'd done for him a few hours before he tried to jump my daughter! I could kill him!”
I tried not to get too upset about seeing Pee Wee's car in Lizzie's driveway, but I did. What bothered me was the fact that he had already met with her to discuss her condition. And until she gave birth, why else would he need to meet with her again this soon? I just hoped that he had a reasonable explanation to offer me when I spoke to him again.
“Uh, are you going to have Bully arrested or anything?”
“I damn near slapped his face clean off, but I don't see any reason to drag the cops into this. Jade is an adult, and well, she is kind of loose. And everybody in town knows that. I just can't believe that Bully was stupid enough to think that he could do me
and
my daughter, and get away with it!”
“Rhoda, I like Bully and I know you care about him a lot,” I said in a gentle tone of voice. I didn't think that it would do much good for us both to be screaming and hollering like she was doing.
“Yes, I do care about him! His dick is good enough to be served on a platter, but if he thinks he's goin' to serve it to my daughter, he's wrong! I am not proud of the fact that I've been sleepin' with my husband's best friend all these years. But I have to draw the line somewhere. His relationship with me does not extend to my child.”
“Don't shut the man out of your life this way until you know all of the facts about what really happened, Rhoda.”
Rhoda let out a sharp cackle. “Girl, are you listenin' to me? Annette, I walked in on him practically attackin' my daughter! I am not blind!”
“I know you did, but can you tell me exactly what you saw in that kitchen, Rhoda?”
“I saw all I needed to see!”
“You didn't answer my question.”
“What? I just told you. I saw all I needed to see.”
“And
exactly
what was that?”
Rhoda sucked on her teeth and muttered something under her breath.
I had to speak quickly, because I didn't know if she was going to hang up on me or not. “You walked in on something, Rhoda. But you didn't walk in on Bully trying to rape your daughter.”
“Annette, you were not here. You didn't see or hear what I saw and heard.”
“I was,” I mouthed.
“Huh? Was what?”
“I was still there.”
The silence was frightening. “But ... but you didn't see what I saw and heard, did you?”
“No, Rhoda, I didn't see what you saw and heard. And you didn't see or hear what I saw and heard either.”
“You get back over here and tell me what the hell you are talkin' about,” Rhoda ordered.
CHAPTER 19
A
FTER I ENDED MY CONVERSATION WITH RHODA AND WAS
about to leave and return to her house, my front door flew open. I was surprised to see my daughter, Charlotte, stumbling in. Behind her was Harrietta Jameson, one of my neighbors from across the street. Even though I'd been one of the first to welcome her to the neighborhood with a freshly baked plate of cookies the day she moved in a few weeks ago, I had not had a chance to get to know her.
“Your daughter was at my house,” Harrietta told me. “My kids love her to death.”
I gave Harrietta a puzzled look; then I looked at Charlotte. “I thought you were out shopping with your grandmother?” I said, looking from Charlotte to Harrietta with the puzzled look still on my face.
“I was, but I wanted to come home. Grandma walks real slow, and she wouldn't let me go into any fun stores. Besides, being around old people too long makes me feel old,” Charlotte stated, making a face and shrugging her shoulders.
Harrietta and I rolled our eyes at the same time, and I offered her one of my warmest smiles. “Harrietta, I am sorry that I couldn't make it to your Tupperware party last week.”
“Oh, that's all right. I'll be giving plenty more. I like to keep myself busy,” Harrietta replied. There was an anxious look on her face. “I am not too good when it comes to making new friends, but with all these women on this street, I thought some parties would be a good way for me to get better acquainted with some of my new neighbors.”
I nodded. “Well, I hope you like to eat, because I probably host more backyard cookouts than anybody in Richland,” I laughed, forcing myself to push the incident with Jade, and my own problems, toward the back of my mind.
“Girl, just look at me!” Harrietta slapped her thick hip with a hand that looked about as big and wide as a small pie pan. “Can't you see that I have not missed too many meals?”
I liked this woman. I didn't know many women who had such a sharp sense of humor. She had a deep, husky voice, like some of those old-time movie stars. I knew that a lot of men found that attractive. I was curious about her love life, but that was one of the few things about new friends that I didn't touch until they brought it up first.
“Well, I'm glad to hear that. Uh, thanks for letting my daughter come stay at your house 'til I got home. I don't like to leave her alone for too long.”
Harrietta nodded. “Tell me about it. I never leave my three alone for more than ten or fifteen minutes at a time. It's bad enough that the world is so full of devils these days looking for kids to corrupt, but most kids can find something destructive to get involved in on their own, if we don't keep an eye on them. I hope you don't mind, but when your mama came home to drop off your daughter and your sister was on her way out, I insisted that Charlotte come to my house to wait on you,” Harrietta told me, talking so fast I couldn't interrupt her and excuse myself. I decided that if she didn't shut up soon, I was going to have to interrupt her anyway. I didn't want to keep Rhoda waiting too long. “I know I should have checked with you first. I got your cell phone number from your mama, and I tried to call you but you didn't answer. Your sister said you probably wouldn't mind. By the way, I introduced myself to Lillimae last week when I ran into her at the Grab and Go. We've chatted a few times these past few days at the corner supermarket, and we exchanged telephone numbers. She sure seems like a real nice lady.”
“I'm glad you've already met my sister. I've been too busy to introduce her around the neighborhood. I'm glad she's here to spend some time with me, and help look after Daddy. He's becoming a real serious piece of work,” I groaned. “Anyway, I appreciate you looking after my daughter. I hope she behaved herself and wasn't too much trouble,” I said. “I just wish I could have checked with you first to see if it was all right for her to come over.”
“Oh pshaw!” Harrietta chuckled, waving her hand. “I was glad to have Charlotte's company. She and my daughter Vivian are in the same class.”
“I know. Thank you again.” I squeezed Charlotte's shoulder.
“I wasn't no trouble, Mama. I could have stayed in this house by myself until you or Aunt Lillimae got back home. I am not a baby!” Charlotte snarled, padding across the floor toward the kitchen.
I shook my head and smiled at Harrietta. “Don't mind her. She's at that age,” I apologized.
“It's nothing! It comes with the territory. I go through the same thing with my three,” Harrietta laughed, rolling her small, beady black eyes again.
Before I could excuse myself, Harrietta made herself comfortable on my couch. She immediately crossed her legs and kicked back like she was the host and I was the visitor! She seemed like a nice enough woman, but she also seemed kind of dense and presumptuous. I would never enter the house of somebody who I didn't know that well and make myself as comfortable as Harrietta had just done. I didn't even do that at Rhoda's house
or
my mother's house! I was standing in front of her with my car keys and my purse in plain view, and I kept glancing at my watch. Harrietta still couldn't see that she had caught me on my way out.
Other than what she'd just shared with me, I didn't know much about her background. She'd been a couple of grades behind me in high school and had lived on the opposite side of town. She had also been one of the “cool” kids back then, so she and I wouldn't have traveled in the same circles anyway. She had married a detective a month after she graduated from high school in such a lavish church ceremony people had talked about it for months. Like me, she was somewhat stout and ordinary looking. Unlike a lot of the plus-sized women I knew, who had the nerve to wear clothes that they had no business wearing, she wore a loose-fitting denim skirt and a loose-fitting white silk blouse that camouflaged the thickness of her body. She seemed to really have her life together. But according to the gossip making the rounds in Claudette's beauty shop, Harrietta's life was just as complicated as some of the other women I knew. Her husband had left her with three young kids and run off with another woman a few months ago.
“I guess you know about my husband leaving me,” Harrietta continued, speaking in a voice so cold I was surprised that I didn't see fog coming out of her mouth. “And I set fire to everything he didn't take with him!” Her jaw started to twitch and her eyes suddenly looked empty, almost lifeless. Even though I didn't know this woman that well yet, something told me that she was the kind of sister who maintained a shit/hit list that you didn't want your name to land on. I could just picture her burning up her man's belongings, or even throwing some acid into the faces of other victims on her shit/hit list. But just as suddenly as her demeanor had turned sinister, she softened again and offered me a smile that stretched from one side of her face to the other. “The Bates woman next door to me, she told me about how you chastised Pee Wee and Lizzie in your driveway the day he moved out. You and I have a lot in common. We don't take nobody's mess.” I had to smile and nod in agreement. Because it dawned on me that I had become the kind of woman who had a shit/hit list that nobody wanted to be on. I was now a lot like the females who had terrorized me throughout my school years. Age sure had a way of equalizing things.
I plopped down on the love seat facing Harrietta. “I heard something about you and your husband breaking up the last time I was at the beauty shop,” I admitted. “I'm sorry to hear that.”
“Well, don't be sorry for me. Him and his whore deserve each other.” Harrietta smiled and blinked a few times, but I could still see the red-hot anger in her eyes. “I don't miss him at all, or any other man for that matter. My man was no prize like your ex. He couldn't screw worth a damn.”

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