Standing at the Scratch Line (97 page)

Serena interrupted smoothly. “You are suggesting I am deficient in one or more of the categories that you have just mentioned?”

Wydenia stopped, speechless, then collected herself. “No! Of course not! Just that there were a few on the committee who had some reservations and there were many other competitive candidates as well.”

“Stop beating around the bush, Wydenia!” protested Rosetta. “The woman wants to know why she wasn’t selected!” Rosetta turned to Serena. “It was your husband! What he did the other night at the USO dance threw a wrench into your appointment and we can’t do anything about it!”

“What do you mean?” Serena asked in as neutral a voice as she could muster, but Serena knew exactly what Rosetta was talking about. Serena had hosted a dance for the colored soldiers who were being demobilized at the Presidio. King had returned unexpectedly from one of his south-of-the-border jaunts and caught the young doctor William Braxton making amorous overtures toward her. As she understood it, he later confronted Braxton in the men’s room and when Braxton attempted to laugh him off, King knocked him out cold, breaking his jaw in the process. Some friends had to carry Braxton to the colored hospital in their car. All that and more was the rumor, but since Braxton hadn’t attempted to press charges against King, no one knew for sure exactly what had happened. “You were saying?” Serena prodded.

“Well, he, uh—” Rosetta looked to Wydenia for help, but none was forthcoming. Finally, she blurted out, “Everybody knows he knocked out Dr. Braxton and broke his jaw.”

Serena leaned forward and asked, “How do you know my husband was the one who hit him? How do you know Dr. Braxton didn’t fall?”

“That’s a laugh!” declared Rosetta. “Everybody knows King saw him with you and everybody knows how street he can be!”

Serena stared at Rosetta for a moment. “Unless you are in possession of specific facts that substantiate your allegation, what you’ve said is slander! And you can be sued!”

Rosetta set down her cup and stood up. “I think it’s time that we be going, Wydenia!”

“Already?” Serena asked with a smile. “I was just getting to know you.”

Wydenia stood up with an apologetic expression. “Perhaps next year—”

“Perhaps,” Serena replied as she stood up to show them out.

Once the two women had stepped out the door, Rosetta turned and declared, “Just as it was in the old days, there’s a difference between house niggers and field niggers. Your husband is a field nigger! And you’re not too far from that yourself! We don’t invite field niggers to our house! It’ll be over my dead body if you ever sit as a judge at our cotillion!”

“That can be arranged right now, you snotty-nosed heifer! For a start I’ll rip that rug right off your head!” Serena had no opportunity to implement her threats because Rosetta ran down the stairs with a look of panic on her face. Serena belligerently turned to face Wydenia to see if she had anything to say.

“I didn’t say it and it’s not my opinion. I was sincere when I said I hope you’re interested in the judgeship next year.”

Serena’s anger prevented her from responding. She nodded her head curtly in acknowledgment of Wydenia’s words, then walked into her house and slammed the front door. She was seething. She had fawned and kissed a lot of behind in order to be selected as a judge for the cotillion, and once again King Tremain had totally disrupted her best-laid plans. But she could not let her anger consume her. She still had to deal with the problem of LaValle.

It took Serena two hours to decide that she needed King’s assistance to deal with LaValle’s predicament. The money was not the problem—she had considerably more in her savings account. The main reason she felt that she needed King was that she wanted LaValle placed under his protection. It was clear that LaValle could not be trusted to make intelligent decisions, and without King’s aegis he would soon be just another statistic found dead on the streets of the Fillmore. She picked up the phone and dialed a number. She knew where King was: he was at the Benjamin Bannaker Hotel planning the christening party for Jack’s son.

After talking with several different hotel employees, Serena finally got through to King. His voice issued from the phone without greeting or warmth. “I hope that this is important ’cause I’m meeting with the caterer right now!”

“I need your help! Some people have kidnapped LaValle!”

There was a pause. Then King replied, “So what’s that to me?”

“This is your son we’re talking about!”

“Don’t even try to play that card with me, ’cause I got it trumped ten ways from Sunday!”

“Aren’t you concerned about your reputation? A member of your family is in danger!”

“Let’s be clear! LaValle may be yo’ son, but he ain’t a member of my family! I don’t care what happens to him! They could kill him as far as I am concerned! So, don’t try to manipulate me with some foolish shit!”

“I can’t believe this! You mean you’ll stand by while they hurt him? They may even kill him! You really don’t care? Or is this really about us? Are you using him to get back at me?”

“There you go,” King said with a chuckle, “into outer space. You can’t provoke me. This is about LaValle. If you don’t see that he’s a stupid, useless, cowardly fool, then it’s ’cause you his mother. ’Course you coddled him and helped him be what he is today. The proud hen, worried about her chick. Good-bye, Serena.”

“Wait! Don’t hang up! I’m asking you for a favor!” There was a pleading sound in Serena’s voice.

There were several moments of silence before King started to speak. “Now, this take some gall! Ain’t you the woman who read me up and down on Sunday ’cause I done knocked out her rooty-poot lover-boy! Tellin’ me that I done destroyed her social standin’! Callin’ me a low-life thug! Sayin’ she don’t ever want to speak to me, or have nothin’ to do with me no more! You that woman? You that same woman?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes! And you did cost me the judge appointment at the cotillion!”

“Like that means somethin’! Anythin’ you buy and kiss ass for ain’t worth shit! In all these years you don’t seem to have learned nothin’ about bein’ human and the ways humans act.”

“You’re one to talk! You still talk like a field hand!”

“But I’m one damned rich, field hand–talkin’ man, ain’t I? And I don’t kowtow to no white man neither! Good-bye, Serena.”

“Please, King! I’m begging you! Please!”

“You beggin’ me? This is somethin’ I have to see in person!”

“You’d make me beg for this?”

“You said it and it was the only thing that kept me on the line. ’Cause if I decide to help you, I want you to know the cost of it personally! And it gon’ cost you big time! And beggin’ gon’ be part of it!”

“You hate me that much? You want to humiliate me?”

“I don’t hate you. I hardly think about you. But let me be clear about this! You gon’ have to beg befo’ I do anythin’ for LaValle!”

“Alright, come over here and I’ll beg.” She had the pained voice of surrender.

“No, you come over here! I ain’t interruptin’ my organizin’ for this. If you want this, come here! I got a suite on the second floor.”

“In a public place? Why?”

“I ain’t negotiatin’, woman! If you want help for LaValle, you come here and beg!”

It was nearly five o’clock before Serena knocked on the door to King’s suite at the Benjamin Bannaker Hotel. He opened the door and stepped out of the way so that she could pass inside. She walked into his spacious suite of rooms, her high heels sinking into the thick carpet. She took off her overcoat and threw it on a couch, then turned to face him as he came toward her. “How do you want it?” she asked.

“Why don’t you show me what you got,” King said with a nod at the floor.

Serena gave him a long look, then pulled up her calf-length wool skirt and got down on her knees. “This what you want?” she asked with a facetious tone.

“That’s the position!” King confirmed with a smile. “But there got to be some words with it!”

“On my knees I beg you to bring LaValle safely back home and make his enemies afraid to take him ever again! I also ask that you give him the full protection of your name!”

“What’s gon’ be involved in this first request, bringin’ him back home? Am I gon’ have to kill somebody, or is it just payin’ his debts?”

“I don’t care what you do. Just bring him home safe!”

“Even if I have to kill to do it?”

“I told you I don’t care what you have to do to bring him home safe!” Serena declared as she started to get to her feet.

“Stay down there!” King ordered. “I want to hear you say, ‘Even if you have to kill to do it!’ ”

Serena complied and repeated mechanically, “Even if you have to kill to do it!”

“I just want to get on record what you beggin’ for.”

“Will you do it?” A trace of impatience entered her voice.

“On four conditions,” King answered, lighting up a cheroot. “You got to accept all four conditions or it’s no deal. You got that?”

“What are the conditions?”

“First, you gon’ be the hostess of the christenin’!”

“What?” protested Serena. “I hadn’t even planned to attend!”

“That just shows how the years have twisted you, Serena! You won’t go to yo’ own grandson’s christening, ’cause you hate his mother ’cause she dark skinned!”

“She’s not dark skinned! She’s black! And I wouldn’t hate her if she had married someone else to try to better herself!”

“Shit! You sound white, like you can take credit for the color of yo’ skin! That ain’t nothin’ you earned and it don’t mean a damn thing! Skin color is the white man’s problem! It’s some jive okey-doke to make you shamed of what you is and to confuse yo’ loyalty! You ain’t even talked to Jack’s wife! You don’t know what kind of girl she is!”

“She’s a burlesque dancer, trying to cover herself by calling it modern dance!”

“That ain’t true, but so what if it was? At least she wasn’t no party girl! LaValle’s wife was layin’ down for all the boys in her set before that fool LaValle came along and married her. You accepted Lisette with open arms and she’s about as useful as a blind mule with a horsefly up its ass!

“This really shows how messed up you is! You gon’ humiliate yo’self and get down on yo’ knees and beg me to help LaValle! But you don’t love Jack enough to give his wife a chance! Gon’ spurn the christenin’ of yo’ own grandson ’cause the color of his mother’s skin is too dark! White blood mean that much to you? Is this what yo’ social standin’ is all about? Is that why you love LaValle more than Jack, ’cause LaValle’s half white?”

Tears suddenly appeared at the corners of Serena’s eyes. “That’s not true! LaValle just needs more help than Jack!”

“Well you made sure of that, didn’t you? ’Cause you never let him risk fallin’. I guess you didn’t love him enough to trust that he had the strength to get up from a fall and keep on movin’. Like you shouldn’t have bought him a deferment. You should have let him go into the army like Jack did. It probably would have been the best thing for him! But no, you couldn’t let him go! You had to protect him!”

“I gave all that I knew to give!”

“It’s too bad you only had enough for one person, huh?” King commented with bitterness. “And it was too much for him. He got smothered under it!”

Serena screamed, “I did the best I knew how! What do you want from me?”

“I’ll tell you what I want! You gon’ be the hostess at the christenin’ and you gon’ do it with cheerfulness and a smile! I expect you to organize the caterers, the servers, the layout, and the decorations! Now, I’m just gon’ list out these other conditions and I don’t want to hear no argument! If you don’t want to agree, just get up and go on out the door! When you get up off yo’ knees, the deal’s off!”

King stared at Serena, awaiting her response. She nodded curtly. He continued, “Two: from now on, you’ll treat Jack’s wife, Eartha, with the respect she deserves. You’ll speak to her and you’ll answer polite-like when she talks to you! Three: you gon’ set a place for Jack and his family at Sunday dinner from now on, ’cause they gon’ come! Might as well hire another cook. Every Sunday dinner from now on, the whole family is gon’ be gettin’ together! Me included! I’ll take over my basement pool room and office while I’s in the house! Four. This here condition is the most important of all! I want you make sure that my grandson, Jackson Saint Clare Tremain, is always well provided for and if, God forbid, he should ever get orphaned, you personally will assume the responsibility for raising him. He will always be welcomed in your house and if necessary, be welcomed to live with you. You will take his interests to heart and be generous with him in all things!”

There was no immediate answer. Serena was staring at the floor. King relit his cheroot and paced back and forth, waiting for Serena’ answer. He turned to face her and saw her crying. “The conditions too tough for you?” he prodded. Serena wiped her eyes and when she looked at him, King could see grit in her look and determination in the set of her jaw.

“If I agree, LaValle will forever be under the protection of your name?”

“As long as I have the strength to provide it!”

“Then I accept all the conditions!” She got to her feet. “May I get up now?” she asked after the fact.

“Only one thing bothers me,” King mused. “How do I know you’ll keep your word? I wouldn’t like another one of my line raised in an orphanage because of you!”

“No grandchild of mine will ever be raised in an orphanage, but if you don’t believe me, what do you want me to do to prove I’ll keep my word?” Serena asked with a shrug. “Shall I sign it in blood?”

“I’m glad you said that!” King replied. “Blood is exactly what I want! I want you to sign it in blood!

“Are you serious?”

“Dead serious! Why should I believe you? Yo’ past record ain’t too good. Signin’ in yo’ own blood is a good way to remember an oath.”

“What do you want to do, cut me?” Serena held out her hand.

“No. I want you to cut yo’self! Deep enough to get enough blood to sign two copies of these contracts.” King handed her his bowie and waved some papers in his other hand.

Serena stared at him for a moment, then asked, “You have documents drawn up?”