Ms. Etta's Fast House Page 11

  The Reverend stepped back on his good leg and pulled a white handkerchief from his trouser pocket. “What, grave robbers?” he asked, in the same hushed tone.

  “Not exactly,” Jinx told them. “See, Muh’dear keeps these pooches around and they don’t do too much of nothing but eat and flop on the porch to keep her company. Well, they must’ve thought Halstead was barbeque ’cause they dug him up and ...”

  “Don’t say it, son,” ordered the minister. “That’s blasphemy.”

  “It’s no such thing, Rev,” argued Baltimore. “That’s a buffet. The devil got his due and the dogs got dinner. Now that’s a square deal any which way you count it.” Baltimore nearly laughed out loud but held it in as best he could. “Jinx, ain’t no skulls or nothing cropped up out of the dirt now is it?”

  “Naw, I couldn’t find hide nor hair of that old man nowhere.”

  “Good, ’cause that would mess up the whole proceeding. Were you able to make the spot we put him in fit to be seen?” Baltimore asked, eying the preacher turning greasy.

  “Baltimo’, I did the best I could and raked the dirt over it nice ‘n’ even. You can’t even tell the dogs done ate him.”

  Upon hearing that, the preacher tried to hobble away, but Baltimore grabbed him by his sweaty collar. “Where you going? Get back over here, preacher. I believe we’s ready for you to earn that twenty now. Make it good and proper or else you’ll be sorry.”

  “Yea, zah, I’ll do it justice. You can count on me.”

  “Good, let’s get moving then,” Baltimore said, in a manner befitting the occasion. “Ladies, shall we proceed?”

  Behind the nervous minister, Etta placed her arm in Baltimore’s. Penny followed suit with Jinx. The procession ventured into the back of the house as Jinx directed them to the fake burial site. When the preacher saw the patch of disturbed ground, he headed toward it slowly, watching his step like a man in a mine field. Baltimore noticed his gingerly pace and frowned at him. That shifty country minister had more to fear from the living than he did from the dead, dug up and devoured.

  Penny dragged her feet when they approached the makeshift grave. She tugged at Jinx’s arm, signaling for him to stop. The bouquet of flowers she’d purchased at a roadside cart trembled in her hands. Halstead was a fleeting memory to everyone in attendance but the girl was just as terrified as when he terrorized her continuously. Baltimore shot a stinging glare at the reverend who had stood too long near the plot without commencing. “Get it started and get it right, preacher!” he whispered angrily.

  On cue and frightened, he began with a hardy moan. “Whoaaa, Lawd, we’s here to say goodbye to a man You saw fit to bring Your way.” Baltimore wasn’t the only one thinking how improbable that was, but the preacher had gotten into his patented shtick so he didn’t see any reason to go correcting the man. “It’s not for us to ask why,” he continued, “because we don’t have it in us to understand Your ways. This man,” he said, looking down at the piece of paper Etta provided, “this man, Halstead King, lived a life we can not judge nor bear ill will to. He’s in Your bosom now, Lawd, and we’ll miss him. Oh, Heaven and Glory is his new home.”

  “Stop, preacher!” Penny shouted. “Stop this foolishness right now. Even in death he don’t deserve people to lie about all the wrong he done.” Tears fell from her eyes effortlessly. She didn’t attempt to wipe them from her stained cheeks. “He beat my mama, and he beat me. Hell, he even killed the man whose ground he’s laying in. He couldn’t do right if he tried and I know good and well he didn’t, so let’s stop this sham and say what needs being said. Halstead King, you was nothing but a miserable mess of cow crap. The only thing decent you did was make me, and you did that for yourself. You had a slave but now I’s free. Too bad you had to go get yourself burned alive first. You ain’t never gone get to see me ’come a woman, fall in love with a man or wish you did better by me when I make something of myself. For that, I’m sorry and for that only. I should have shot you when I had the chance but I always hoped you’d change.”

  Etta left her place and joined Penny to console her when she saw what was coming next. “Why couldn’t you be a good man like Baltimore?” she screamed. “Or love me like Jinx’s papa cared for him?” Penny dropped to her knees, clawing at the dirt and wailing uncontrollably, while finally letting all her emotions out. Jinx kneeled down and held her close, and he wept as well. Only his tears were meant for the beloved father he’d lost to Halstead’s greed and spite. Etta dabbed at her eyes with an embroidered scarf, Baltimore cleared his throat several times to choke back unresolved feelings he’d harbored about his own estranged father, and the preacher looked on thinking that the whole charade was the damnedest thing he ever saw.

  One by one, they sauntered away from the plot of land where nothing was buried but their goodbyes. Penny stayed behind to reconcile her own peace. When she was done, she had just what she needed. The ties that bind were tighter than she imagined. The daughter, the slave, the captive, and the woman had to let go in their own way. It might have seemed strange to some, that it was humanly possible to love a man like Halstead with all of his terrible ways, but Penny proved how it could be more than possible for the love of a child to conquer all.

  After the funeral, the preacher tore out of the driveway without looking back or passing any parting salutations to speak of. Baltimore didn’t blame him for making tracks, considering how he’d forced the poor man to facilitate a farce. Etta knew there was something up but didn’t press it. Penny had the opportunity to purge her emotions and put her feelings to rest, and that was worth enduring the ceremony. Now she wouldn’t have to be concerned with Penny blurting out something she’d be sorry for later. A forged death certificate from the county examiner’s office made it all legal, or close enough to it that no one would be the wiser.

  Etta reached inside her handbag and pulled out a small silver-plated case. Baltimore held a lit match to the skinny Chesterfield cigarette and then blew it out. “I wasn’t going to bring it up, but have you heard about that big mess went down in the square this morning?” Etta asked, frowning at the thin layer of dust on her black high heels.

  Baltimore leaned against the front fender of his car. His eyes dimmed at the thought of what caused the brawl in the center of downtown. “Yeah, I heard. Lots of innocent people got hurt over it too.”

  After taking an abbreviated drag from the cigarette, Etta lowered her head. “That’s why me and Penny was running late. We stopped over at the hospital ... to see about Henry.” Baltimore’s eyes filled with alarm. Etta took note and calmed his fears. “Naw, they said Henry wasn’t no part of that. Willie B. Bernard was the only one of the boys ignorant enough to mix in. You know he’s hotheaded, got that head thumped good too. Say he might lose his job before getting to work a single day on it.”

  “If you ask me, they’s a sack ’a fools for thinking white men are gonna let anything change just because they write it in the daily paper. Putting it down on the front page don’t make it so. Too many rednecks around to let it,” Baltimore added to prove his point. Suddenly he laid his head to the side and chuckled. Etta looked at him like he had lost his mind. “You know, I went to the hospital myself before driving out here. I didn’t see Henry and figured he was too smart to mess up his chances of passing the test to get any of that scuffle on him and louse it up.”

  “Well, here’s something you might not have heard. It’s official,” Etta said in a subdued tone. “Henry made the score.” When he didn’t fly off the handle, she wasn’t sure he’d been listening. “Baltimore?”

  “Yeah, Etta, I was just thinking how much fun we used to have, us three, you know, you, me and Henry. It’s a shame it can’t be that way no more. Now, it’s you, me and Penny, I guess. And by the looks of it, maybe Jinx too.”

  Penny had caught her breath and didn’t mince words when asking Jinx if he wouldn’t mind coming back into town for supper. “I owe you so much, Jinx. Let me do something nice for you, treat you t
o a big ole steak at Mabel’s or something. Anything you want,” she said, with her eyes sparkling brightly. “Whaddaya say?”

  Jinx blushed due to her forward offer, but he declined. “I’m sorry, Penny, but I done already promised to take Chozelle to the picture show this evening.”

  “Chozelle? I didn’t know you’s sweet on her, Jinxy.”

  “Yeah, we’s been going steady near a year now,” he answered softly.

  “I hope she know what she got ’cause I sho’ do,” she told him, remembering how Chozelle was cozying up to another man just before they had it out in the store. “If you find out different, you know where I’ll be. ’Bye, Jinxy.”

  Baltimore and Etta witnessed Penny take another broad step toward adulthood and independence. They shared a warm smile over the occasion and felt proud to be a part of it. What Penny inspired in Jinx was something altogether different.

  13

  HERE WE GO AGAIN

  The following evening, Ms. Etta’s Fast House was half empty, mostly due to an article written on the front page of the Comet newspaper. It warned the Negro citizens to stay off the streets until tempers calmed on both sides of the color lines. Etta knew it was the smart thing to do although it hit her where it hurt, in the cash register. “Looks like it’ll be another slow one tonight,” she told Penny, as they took the opportunity to inventory her stock of bourbon, whiskey and rum behind the bar.

  “Yes, ma’am, I expect it’ll be this way until the fellas get good and settled into that police training,” Penny replied, after giving it much thought. “City folk sho’ can be mean as rattlesnakes when things go changing on them.”

  “That’s the problem. Change has a way of scaring them something awful. Things staying the same, now that frightens the hell out of me.”

  Penny wasn’t sure exactly what that meant so she went right back to counting bottles and tallying the stock, until Henry came strolling through the door behind M.K. and Delbert. Henry’s dark colored Stetson hat was tilted down so far that Penny barely saw his eyes. “Ms. Etta,” she said softly. “Someone’s here to see you.” Etta raised her head from the clipboard she’d been writing on, then cast a subtle glance at Penny, suggesting that she find somewhere else to be. “Yes, ma’am,” the girl replied before stepping away from the bar area. “I’ll wait a while and bring in another case or two.”

  Without acknowledging Penny’s comment, Etta primped her hair with a flat palm and straightened her royal blue evening gown. Despite the low customer turnout, she had a reputation to maintain as one of the classiest dressers in town. Etta blushed right off and tried to hide the surprise her eyes couldn’t conceal. “Hey, Henry. I imagined you’d be home preparing for your first day of training tomorrow.”

  “Jo Etta,” he said somberly, with both hands inside the pockets of his brown suit slacks. “I didn’t mean to bother your bookkeeping none.”

  Etta’s heart fluttered beneath the fancy undergarments she’d ordered all the way from New York City. “Oh, it’s all right,” she replied. The way she batted her eyes made Henry uncomfortable.

  “Mind if we go in the office a spell?”

  “Sure, I’ll just get Gussy to come up and tend the bar. Not that there’s been much call for it lately.”

  “That’s what I want to talk with you about,” Henry said, in an anxious manner. He was married, after all, and publicly flapping his gums with the only other woman he’d had real feelings for.

  Once they were both behind closed doors, Henry took off his hat and laid it on her office desk. He paced back and forth slowly with his gaze locked on the hardwood floor beneath him. Etta knew his heart was heavy for a number of reasons. One of which, stemmed from the lack of courage it took for him to tell her that he was getting married. Now, it appeared he was having the same issue again. Only this time it was more important than skipping out on a love affair to run off with someone else. This time, it was a life and death situation. “I was on my way home from getting the police chief to change his mind about sending Willie B. packing,” he said eventually. “I told him that this lawyer got all of the white people off by citing it a matter of self-defense, so the same should apply to colored folk. Still can’t believe he bought it.”

  While Etta digested the good news about one of Henry’s former teammates, she shrugged. “But that’s not why you came by here, is it?”

  “You always did know when my shirttail was hanging out.”

  “Uh-huh, and tucked it in a time or two if I do recall.” She was still so much in love with him but the thought of what Henry did to her made her put on a straight face and fly right. “Though now, you got somebody else to do that for you, so what is it you want from me?”

  Henry kicked at the floor with the tip of his pointed-toe shoes like there was a pebble he’d decided to roll around under it. “Hell, I may as well come out with it since it’s killing me. Etta, look, you got to find a way to talk Baltimo’ into leaving town. I’ve been around those boys in blue and they’d just as likely toss his black ass all the way to China if they knew what he was up to.”

  “Do you know what he’s up to? ‘Cause I sure don’t,” she answered curtly. “He’s a grown man and if I do recollect, him and you done some pretty bad things together not so long ago.”

  After choking back on what he wanted to say, Henry heaved out with a thick measure of anxiety, “Ain’t neither him nor you’s gone let me forget that, huh? I can forgive him but you ought to know better.”

  “Me?” she yelled hysterically. “Well, ain’t that a kick in the pants? I know you didn’t bring your tired, broke ass into my establishment tryna tell me about forgiveness! You ought’n to know better. Henry, that man you all bent on forgetting so fast done saved your miserable life more times than once and I was thankful that he never ran out on you. I was a fool to be wasting my worries over at the hospital thinking some cracker done split your head wide open. Now, I’m sorry one of them didn’t. You could use somebody smacking some sense into you.”

  “I’m aiming to save Baltimo’, Etta. That’s why I came here,” he fussed.

  “Shut up!” she spat, slapping his face with her open hand. “You don’t deserve to say his name. Get out and don’t set foot back in here again, Henry Taylor. You ain’t welcome no more.”

  Henry grabbed his hat and snatched at the door knob. He did what he thought was right, and it probably was the sensible thing to do, but he’d had that slap coming ever since he sneaked up and became someone else’s husband on the sly. That notion shot through his mind as he opened the door but it quickly faded when Gussy blocked it with his immense frame. “Jo Etta, you’d want to tell this man to step aside before I have to make him.”

  “It’s okay, Gus,” she answered. “He was just leaving.” As the weighty bartender backed off, Henry marched past him with lengthy strides.

  Penny had also heard the yells that emanated from inside the small office. She knew how Etta felt about Henry in the past, but now she didn’t know what to think. To make matters worse, Baltimore was coming in as Henry exited. The two men ran smack into each other at the front entrance.

  “Watch out where you’s going, slave catcher!” Baltimore grunted viciously.

  “You need to let that old stuff go, Baltimore,” Henry fired back. “I ain’t gone crease, not now, not ever.” When he stood his ground, most of the few patrons scattered to safe distances, fearing that a fight was certain to catch fire.

  “Ah-ha, you talk big now that you got both of your feet steady on the floor. It was a different story when I pulled you off that hangman’s wagon when those Mississippi boys was about to run you up a pole. Or how about the time those Kansas City bluecoats was aiming to hand you over for murder?” As soon as Baltimore unfastened his jacket, Etta lodged herself between the two brooding men. “Clear as I can tell, you don’t do nothing but crease.”

  “That’s enough!” Etta shouted.

  “I’m sick and tired of living that way too,” Henry argued, with s
aliva mounting in the corners of his mouth. “I’m through going up against the law and I’m through being a shiftless niggah. I done had my fill of that!”

  “Beat it, Henry, and don’t come back,” shouted Etta. “Don’t you come back here, never!”

  Penny was so scared that her hands trembled over her mouth, especially when Baltimore followed Henry outside onto the sidewalk. “Go on and git, slave catcher!” he howled. “They ain’t gone let you wrestle in no white boys, just colored criminals and runaway dogs. They should’ve had you take the dog catcher test!” Before walking back inside the night spot, he swallowed hard, tasting what had occurred and dreading what was to come. “Damn,” he said under his breath, glad he didn’t pull his gun and pop Henry like the cocky stranger he’d become. Damn.

  M.K. and Delbert had both observed the verbal altercation between old friends. When Baltimore re-entered the Fast House, the fellows waved him over to join them. “Here, Baltimore, drink this,” M.K. offered, shoving Delbert’s glass of ice water in his face. “You need to cool off.”

  “I need something a mite stronger than that,” Baltimore declared, seeing Delbert and Ollie seated at the same table. “Gussy, get me a bottle of that stuff I had the other night.”

  “Since when did you start trying your luck at handling liquor?” M. K. queried, not believing his eyes or ears.

  “Since the other night, about the same time hell started to freeze,” he answered, with sorrow glazing his pupils.

  Etta nodded reluctantly to Gussy that it was okay, despite remembering how badly it turned out for Baltimore the last time he settled down with a bottle to contemplate life. “Yes, ma’am, if you say so,” Gussy replied, with a mouthful of pessimism. “Here we go again.”

  Penny hadn’t been off the farm any time to speak of and she’d already found herself learning more about human nature than she had in all of her years following behind her papa. It just so happened that Baltimore’s hotel bedroom backed up to the Fast House. One night, Penny overheard two people getting after it from an open upstairs window. Since it was dark inside the hotel room he’d rented, she couldn’t see a thing, but the sounds of a woman getting everything she needed from a man filled the night air like a heated jam session. Penny listened intently until she fell asleep with her face pressed against a box of bar napkins. The next morning, she saw Dinah sitting on Baltimore’s windowsill smoking something that smelled funny, something she’d rolled herself. Penny thought Dinah’s wailing and carrying on sounded about as much like pain as it did joy, but seeing as how she’d been back twice afterwards, it appeared joy kept winning out. Subsequently, as Penny caught another view of Baltimore, she was able to see his passions run wild in the other direction. She wasn’t willing to bet on it, but if she had to guess she’d say he’d killed men for less than the way Henry hurt him, much less.