Little Green (32 page)

Ashton took a step forward, but Angeline held him back with an outstretched arm. I was talking to him but addressing her. She knew that I was a force in our community just as much as she. I had friends like Mouse and the devastating ex–Green Beret, Christmas Black. I even knew police officials that called me mister.

“I’m just tryin’ to protect my blood, Easy,” Angeline said, trying her hand at reasonability.

“I know that. I know it. But she’s more woman than child now. She’s got to go with a man that wants her.”

“You’ve seen her, Easy. She ’bout as plain as a brown paper bag, the kinda girl that men shit on and then walk away.” Angeline was talking about another young girl, not her daughter.

“When Evander looks at her,” I said, “he sees a woman on the same verse as him.”

I think it was the subtle biblical reference that appealed to the lady gangster’s imagination.

“You mean that?” Angeline asked.

“Why would I help a young man if I didn’t believe in him?”

“Is he still in trouble?”

“A little bit, but not nearly the kind of calamity that you and me draw down.”

That little morsel of truth got Angeline to smirk.

“Angeline,” I said, halfway to pleading. “Esther is grown and as stubborn as you. You could hold her back and keep her down, but sooner or later she’s gonna break out. And the later that happens the wilder the ride.”

“I just want to keep her from bein’ hurt,” Angeline said plainly.

“When they were little they fell and lost their loved things,” I preached. “They got bullied or came in last. All that was pain and they came to us and we told them that it was okay to feel bad and okay to cry. That’s the worst you got with Esther and Evander. He’s not a wild child but a young man who thinks the world of your daughter.”

I talked and she seemed to listen, but who knows what she heard me saying? Angeline stared at me. Ashton stood behind her, patiently waiting for the word to beat me down.

I had done my best. I wouldn’t give up those children. It’s always been my opinion that if a man’s going to be a fool he should go all the way.

“You tell that boy that I expect to see him and my girl soon,” Angeline said.

“I will call him tomorrow.”

“All right then,” she said, as if it was she who had won the debate.

I watched the woman and her golem cross the street and drive off in that gold luxury car. I could have walked into the house, but instead I went to the trunk of my automobile and brought out the second to the last bottle of Gator’s Blood. I wasn’t feeling weak
anymore, but the mere presence of Ashton Burnet reminded me of how vulnerable my life was.

I put the bottle in the kitchen and called a number that I knew by heart.

“Mofass Real Estate and Construction,” a young female voice said.

“Hey, Nesta, this is Easy Rawlins.”

“Oh, hi, Mr. Rawlins,” the young receptionist and management trainee said. “Did you want that phone number?”

“I was hoping that you could give me the address where the phone was connected.”

“I don’t know,” Nesta Charles said doubtfully. “Miss MacDonald only told me to give you the phone number.”

“I’ll wait while you call her, if that’s what you need to do.”

“Um … couldn’t you wait till tomorrow morning when she comes in?”

“No, I can’t, so either you call her or I do; I really don’t care which.”

“No, no,” she said, more to herself than to me. “Of course I can give you the address.”

Colby Street wasn’t that far away. I made it there in less than half an hour. It was a broad road with boxy plaster apartment buildings dominating its architecture.

Evander and Esther’s unit was on the third floor of a dull red box that had its stairs and hallways on the outside.

I climbed up to apartment 3F and knocked. It was a lazy afternoon, hot but dry. I could see a white haze of gnats roiling under an avocado tree down below in the backyard of the apartment building next door. The bugs couldn’t take the bright sun and withering heat. I imagined them congregating there, humming a complaint about the light while praying to the tree for its continued shelter.

“Mr. Rawlins?”

The door had come open and Evander stood there in his jeans and a white T-shirt. He looked stunned but more aware than before.

“Hi, Mr. Rawlins,” Esther Corey said, coming up behind her man.

She was wearing a blue cotton dress with nothing underneath. I supposed that they were learning all they could about sex, being free for the first time in a home of their own with no one to distract them.

“Can I come in for a few minutes?” I asked.

The two youths moved apart, allowing me entrée to their motel-like abode. The living room had a long green sofa, two maple chairs, and three round tables set in no particular order. The carpeting was synthetic and thin, the color of dust. The four windows had no drapes or curtains, but the shades were drawn.

“Have a seat, Mr. Rawlins,” Esther said.

I took one of the maple chairs so that the kids could touch each other while sitting on the couch.

“We don’t have anything to drink except lime Kool-Aid and water,” Esther continued as she reached out to take Evander’s hand.

For his part he seemed completely happy. What young man wouldn’t when he was being loved so hard?

“I don’t need anything to drink,” I said. “I just wanted to tell you that your mother came by my place with Ashton today.”

“What … what did they want?”

“Angeline was of the opinion that you were a child who could be dragged home. I disabused her of that notion.”

“Huh?”

“She wants you to call and drop by with Evander. If you clean up and don’t make out on the floor I’m pretty sure that she’ll accept you guys living together. But, Evander, I wouldn’t go to work in the family business if I were you.”

“We’re gonna get jobs and go to LACC,” the young man said.

“Good. I saw Timbale too. She told me to tell you to call her before she goes to work.”

“Okay,” Evander said, and then he looked down at my feet.

“Are you gonna tell him?” Esther asked her man.

He shrugged, not making eye contact with either one of us.

“Tell him, Evy,” Esther demanded. “Tell him.”

Evander Noon looked up at me and said, “I remember what happened.”

“I was … I mean, I went up on the Sunset Strip because this guy Eddie Turkel that I work with was makin’ fun’a me for livin’ at home and he said that I wouldn’t ever do anything different or wild. I told him that I was gonna go up to the Sunset Strip and go to a go-go club. And I did too. I took the bus up there at about eight o’clock and met this white girl named Ruby sellin’ flowers out a plastic bucket on Fairfax.” Evander said all this in a trancelike delivery. “I saw her and she was nice to me and I kissed her.…” He looked guiltily over at Esther, but she just smiled. “I kissed her and … and she had a pill or something in her mouth and I swallowed it. We got food and walked around. We dropped by this big fancy house and then went to this place with prostitutes and stuff. She was doin’ makeup and I sat on a chair waitin’. And this man, Maurice, came up and asked if I was solo. By that time I was seein’ things that weren’t there and feeling stuff really deep inside. I told him that I didn’t understand and he said let’s go and I went. I don’t know why I did but I did.

“He took us to the Flamingo Motel on Hollywood Boulevard. There was this cottage out back that he had rented for the night. He told me to put on these dark clothes that were too big. It was a sweatshirt and a trench coat. Then he drove us to somewhere downtown and told me that we were gonna play a joke on someone there. He said that he’d pay me fifty dollars to do that, and I said okay but really I wasn’t listenin’. I mean, I heard what he said, but at the same time I kept on seein’ things and hearin’ things, and it was like everybody and everything was in this play and I was in it too.

“Me and Maurice went into this empty building and then we went into this closet and closed the door mostly, so we could see out but nobody could see in. These two guys came passin’ by and Maurice jumped out with this gun and told them to stop, and even though I was high on that acid Ruby gave me I could still tell that those men was scared for their lives. One guy was gettin’ ready to hit Maurice but he hit him in the head with his pistol. The men was both carryin’ these burlaplike bags and Maurice told me to take them. I was scared then that I might get shot. I didn’t know that man. I was so scared that he had to yell at me to grab the bags. As soon as I had them Maurice shot the guy standin’ closest to him in the chest. It was really weird, because the guy looked so surprised. The man Maurice shot fell on me and he was bleedin’. Most’a the blood got on the bags, though. And thèn, just like that, in less time than anyone would have to think, the other guy, the one Maurice had hit, pulled out a gun and shot Maurice and Maurice shot him back. I lit outta there with the bags still in my hands. I was holdin’ on to them as hard as I could and I ran down the hallway. There was more shots and I thought I heard Maurice shoutin’ again but I just kept on runnin’. I ran outta that buildin’ and into the street.

“I had them bags and there was monkeys jumpin’ all around and the street signs said bad words and my name. I was so scared that Maurice would get mad if I lost his bags, but the blood on ’em was like it was a neon light or somethin’, so I took off the trench coat and tied the arms together and the flaps at the back and made another bag for the other two. You could still see a little blood but not that much.

“After that it gets a little confused. I waited at a bus stop, and when the bus came I told the driver that I wanted to go to the Flamingo Motel on Hollywood Boulevard.

“He must’a told me somethin’, because I remember gettin’ on another bus and another one. People talked to me but I couldn’t answer them. When I got to the Flamingo I snuck around to the cottage out back and climbed in through the window.

“After that you know what happened.”

I let the story breathe a moment, wondering how much of it was true. I didn’t doubt that Evander believed the tale, but he was on an acid trip.

“When did you remember all this?” I asked.

“It’s like … it’s like I always remembered it, but it was in a part of my head that couldn’t get to my mouth. I mean, when I woke up I saw the money and the blood and I was just scared. But … but in the back of my mind I knew what happened. I knew it but couldn’t tell anybody. That’s why I went lookin’ for Ruby. I wanted her to tell me so that I could remember.”

“And when were you able to speak it?” I asked.

“When Esther took my hands and told me to calm down this morning. I woke up sweatin’ and she wanted to know about the nightmare.”

“And that was what you just told me?”

He nodded and looked away, ashamed about something.

“You two have to keep this story a secret,” I said. “Don’t tell your mother, Esther.”

“I won’t.”

“And you, Evander, don’t you breathe a word about this. Not a word to anyone—ever.”

He nodded again.

“I put the money with a man who will know how to handle it,” I said. “I’ll ask him to make sure your mother gets a certain sum each month for the next ten years or so. That’ll help with you and your sisters.”

“What happened to Maurice?” he asked.

“He’s dead.”

“And the other two?”

“One’s dead and the other one is soon to be arrested. I wouldn’t worry about them.”

I didn’t mention Keith Handel. Why bring up problems that might never arise?

“Thank you, Mr. Rawlins,” Evander said. “You saved my life.”

He held out a hand and I grabbed it, saying, “And you saved mine.”

“I want to thank you too,” Esther said.

Their gratitude was in its own way payment. It was like in the old days when I traded my skills for favors and friendship.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you all this stuff before, Mr. Rawlins.”

“That’s okay, Evander. It wouldn’t have helped anyway.”

“Hello?” Bonnie Shay said, answering her phone on the first ring.

“Hey.” I was sitting on my TV room couch feeling almost like an ordinary citizen.

Upon hearing my voice she went silent, appreciating the normalcy of us talking on the phone. I did not interrupt that quiet with useless words.

“How are you, Easy?” the island woman asked maybe a minute later.

“Better than ever,” I said. “Good.”

“Your business with Raymond finished?”

“Just about. Almost done. I went through the whole thing without even getting bruised up or arrested. You know I must be doin’ somethin’ right.”

“It’s very nice hearing your voice.”

“It’s nice hearing my voice talking to you.”

That earned us another spate of blissful calm.

“Feather’s here,” Bonnie said at last. “She wants to talk to you.”

“Hi, Daddy,” my big girl said a moment later.

“Hey, baby.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Really good.”

“Frenchie likes you now, huh?” she said.

“A kind of miracle.”

“Daddy?”

“Yeah, babe?”

“You can talk to me about my mother when you feel like it, okay?”

“Just as soon as we’re settled and a family again.”

“I love you, Daddy.”

At that moment I fully realized what I had almost lost. An ache filled my chest and I stood up from the sofa.

“Everything’s going to be all right, Feather. I promise you that.”

Soon after I got off the phone with my almost-again family, it rang.

“Hello?”

“How was your talk with Giles Lehman?” Melvin Suggs asked.

“He wasn’t home.”

“No?”

“Come on, Melvin,” I said. “What kind of trick are you tryin’ to play?”

“Whenever somebody asks me about someone and then that someone turns up dead, my mind starts playing tricks.”

“Giles is dead?”

“Yes, he is, very much so.”

“At his house?”

“In an abandoned building down on skid row. It’s a place where people meet to do business off the books.”

“When?”