Life Is Short But Wide (15 page)

In a very short time Herman arranged to be night watchman at the lumberyard, so his dog could rest warm and safe there. Pay was extremely low, but he didn’t care. He had his dog, and his regular jobs that kept him afloat. He just wanted a place to be safe in with Buddy off the streets, and not at Aunt Peachy’s.

And he didn’t quit school like Aunt Peachy wanted. Instead, he paid more attention to his studies than ever. He went to Rose’s school. Now and again he brought Rose and Juliet wildflowers when his eyes were caught by their bright colors against the green foliage. He liked them because they liked, and fed, Buddy.

He watched Leroy and Rose living together in their home. He marveled, yet, at the beauty a family could be. When he learned about Tonya
being Leroy’s girlfriend again, he saw something bad coming out of all of it; but he did not know how much he did not know. He stayed out of everyone’s business.
(That boy had some sense!)

He did everything Rose told him to do; read everything she thought he should. He still did some work at the bookstore, so he was able to get books at reduced prices. Rose and Bertha both fed him when he let them. He liked them to wrap up whatever food they were giving him so he could share it with his Ruddy.

Time passed quickly, as it always seems to in hindsight, and Herman became very accomplished in all his studies. Rose, having fewer students now that she was married and a mother, helped him all she could. She wrote many letters seeking help. Finally, she helped him get a scholarship to a newly established African American junior college in Oklahoma to help him round off what he needed to get registered in a three-year college for a degree.

Herman had saved his money. He had gone without almost everything but the bare essentials, as usual. Rut he persevered; on his way … somewhere.

His Ruddy, though well fed, was old, and had many injuries from kicks and the blows from stones thrown at him through his life. He was now crippled. Who knows what all people do to a defenseless animal. He was in pain most of the time. Ruddy looked at his friend with so much love in his eyes it seemed to flow out of them and cover Herman.

Joseph told Herman he must take Ruddy into the woods and shoot him. “That dog’ll shorly live a painful life full of suff’rin an such, less’n ya put em to sleep fore ya go. Take my gun and go on back up in the woods, and put Ruddy out his mis’ry.”

Herman cried, Rose and Juliet cried. Finally Joseph did it,
Herman couldn’t. Herman was about seventeen, I reckon it to be. I ain’t positive, but I reckon.

After two years, he had a B.A. degree, and his money ran out. He enlisted in the navy (See the World!), seeking a way to complete his education. After three years he came home. Twenty-something years old. He wasn’t sure where “Home” was, but he had saved his money, as usual. He got his own place; a small shotgun house in good repair, in a decent neighborhood where Blacks were allowed. He had been gone about five or six years.

To get his new home ready, he shopped for a few things he wanted in his own place, and filled the tiny refrigerator and shelves with food. Fresh new sheets were on the bed he had bought for himself.

He stood at the window looking out at the street, and the sky filled with fluffy, happy clouds. Herman smiled. He felt good. He had a degree. He was also a certified mechanic. He was home. The only home he knew.

Now he decided to go out to see Rose, Bertha, Juliet, and Joseph; his friends. And he decided to look in on his old jobs; his living. Thinking, “I’ll think about getting back to college, after I rest a bit. Let’s see what is going on since I left this place. Wideland. How wide did it get?” He laughed to himself. “I am home.”

He was welcomed back with opened arms by everyone. Rose looked tired, but smiled with pride at all Herman’s accomplishments. Mostly she was just glad he was home safe. He looked with a little surprise at Myine. He smiled, saying, “You were so small when I left. You are a very beautiful little lady. I’m gonna have to wait for you to grow up and marry me.”

Myine folded her hands behind her back, and answered with a smile. Everyone laughed.

He went to talk with Bertha and Juliet, who just grinned all over herself. Juliet was happy to see him. “Oh, Herman! You have gotten even more handsome!” Rose and the young Myine had followed him to Bertha’s house.

Rose chimed in, “He sure is. You thinking about getting married, Herman? These girls around here will go crazy about you! And you’re going to have a job forever, being a mechanic. Every car in town needs some work done on it.”

They stayed there talking about an hour. Then Joseph came in for his lunch. Herman could see Joseph was really tired. He had worked hard all his life. He showed all the years he carried, and the scuffling he had done for his family to survive. Life hadn’t improved that much for Joseph. His lack of education kept him at a sorry low level. They didn’t even pay him fairly for the work he could, and did, do. Naturally the men talked a little man-talk about war, and making a living now in Wideland.

Joseph told Herman about how Wideland had grown and changed, especially the night life. “They got some real nightclubs here now. A few of em even have live music! Oh, they got some new kinder ways to get ya money now. Womens just be hangin out in them places all the time. You got to be careful, Herman, cause ya just the thing they be lookin for!”

Everyone laughed, but Joseph. Joseph nodded his head, saying, “I mean it! Ya gon have to be careful out here now! All kinds’a people is makin more babies than they is money! They needs help! They’s on the look-out!”

The child Myine, maybe seven or eight years old, laughed lightly at the words because the grown-ups did. Then as Herman
and the others said their good-byes, Juliet just looked at Herman all the way to the gate and beyond. She was wishing she could go down to all those places where everybody was out there looking for a mate.

Soon, Herman checked on his old job at the automobile repair shop. It was still small, but he said his hellos to everyone, and went by the new garage Joseph had mentioned to him. Larger, brightly lighted, and busy, it was named Pink’s Automobile Shop. He spoke with the manager, who had frowned when Herman first mentioned employment; well, Herman was a Black man, and everyone knew they were just manual laborers.

Herman explained most of the things he could do, and where he had learned. At the end of his speech the manager was nodding. “Yes, we can sure use somebody like ya. And ya can fix boats, too, huh? Well sure, ya got a place here then.” Herman left, saying, “I’ll let you know for sure, after I get a few days of rest.” The manager’s eyes followed Herman as he left the building. He was a little stunned that the Black man had those skills, but they really did need someone with Herman’s skills.

He proceeded to find the nightclub Joseph had spoken of. The Lark’s Club. His eyes had to get used to the darkness inside. The club was really crowded, and it was early afternoon! And it was full of the ladies Joseph had spoken of. Some of them were attractive, most were not. Herman smiled to himself, thinking, “I’m not looking for a wife anyway. That’s a looong way off from now.”

He took a stool at the bar, and while sipping on a beer he just looked around, gauging the place, listening to the jukebox; it was too early for the musicians to play. He listened to, and
laughed with, the women who came up to talk to him. Finally, he bought a drink for one of them, named Wanda.

He refused the gambler who proposed a “little game.” He had smiled at him, saying, “Don’t know how, partner. Don’t know how. Never do anything if I don’t know how.” The gambler had walked away with his crooked dice, but he couldn’t argue with that smile.

Herman was just passing time, looking at Wideland. When he left a few hours later, he had decided he would return one day. It was something to do, some place to go to talk to people.

The days passed slow and relaxed. Comfortable. No rushing done by anyone Herman met. He went back to see Rose a few times. He could tell she was not happy, but she didn’t seem to want to talk about it. He left her a couple hundred dollars. “That’s not much, I know. But it’s just for now. So you can help some kid like you helped me.”

He took a few gifts to Juliet. Pretty gifts. Girl gifts. Makeup, hair curlers, flowers, bangles, and beads. Even perfume. Bertha said, “You spoilin her, Herman!” Herman replied, “She will never be spoiled. She has too much sense for that. And she is pretty, and deserves little things like these.”

Juliet repeated those words to herself over and over, for many weeks; even months. She remembered the words when Dreaming Cloud, now called simply “Cloud,” came to bring her tree bark, wildflowers, and various things of beauty for her baskets from the reservation.

Cloud was a strong-looking Indian brave, but he was not strong. He coughed, lightly, but often. He didn’t seem sick; his eyes were bright, his cheeks rosy and smooth. But the cough was always with him.

Cloud was a very gentle man. He was usually shy, and embarrassed around strangers, even after he knew them awhile. But he had liked Juliet a long time by now. Juliet was still sharing with him reading, drawing, and dreaming. She even read fairy tales with him sometimes. Even though they both knew there were no things like these, they both liked the idea of golden apples and beautiful horses that could fly.

Bertha always smiled big when someone was paying her lonely daughter some attention. She still worried about her daughter, and a man. It frightened her. Still, she always served them a nice lunch she called “tea-time lunch.” Theirs was a nice, comfortable relationship. They enjoyed each other. Bertha had to remember Juliet was old enough to be someone’s wife. She didn’t trust anyone.
(She needn’t have worried. Juliet might be crippled in her body, but I think her mind was pretty smart.)

After a few weeks Herman became bored with doing nothing. So he registered for a class in political science at a junior college in a nearby town, two evenings a week. He also started working regularly at Pink’s Automobile Shop.

Herman had also been going by the Lark’s Club once or twice a week. At first it was out of boredom, now it was for company. Soon school would relieve the boredom and he thought, “I will not have time to go to the Lark’s Club.”

He had seen the woman, Wanda, at the club a couple of times. He had bought her drinks and talked for long times. Wanda was an attractive woman, lots of makeup, but well built. She had a full head of jet-black hair, and almost all her teeth. She had two children at home. A home that was often full of neighbors and kids.

About the third time she met him at the bar, she asked, “How much home cookin you had since you been home?”

“Not too much; not enough at any rate.”

She tilted her head to the side, saying, “You always so nice to me; why don’t ya let me fix ya a nice dinner one night? I’ll clean the house out so we can eat in peace, and I’ll fix somethin ya will really, really like.”

“What?”

“Well, Herman, I won’t know til ya tell me! But I’m a good cook and I can fix it no matter what it is! Or I will do like ya told me you do; I’ll get a book and learn how to fix it! On your day off. When is your off-day? How ya like that?”

“I like that, but you decide. Fix me what you really like to eat. That way I know it should be good. I work all week and some Saturdays, if I feel like it.”

Wanda was impressed. “Welllll, a man who can choose his own days off!”

“I didn’t say that,” he laughed, “but I don’t have to work every Saturday.”

“Okay, Herman, let’s make it next Saturday.” Then she moaned, “Oh, no, the house be all full of kids on Saturdays! That’s ya only day off? Ya sure ya ain’t got some woman out there lookin for ya to be at her house, or ya’ll’s house?”

“It would have to be dinner, then, because I work all other days. And no, there is no woman looking for me to be at her house.”

Wanda smiled a great huge smile, said, “Well, alright then. This Saturday. I’ll figure somethin out so we will have us some peace. Just be two of us, alone together.”