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“Ya knows Ruby?” the man said. “How's ya know mah Ruby?”
“We met one day while I was taking a walk,” Maria said, placing the hat back atop her head, working her hair beneath it.
“Not many white womenfolk venture onto this heah property,” he said, leaning closer, studying Maria's facial features as the moon came from beneath a cloud. “Wha’ cha’ wan’ with mah Ruby? Huh?”
“Your . . . Ruby .. . ?” Maria gasped, remembering the role Ruby played in this house of girls.
“Mah wife,” he said, throwing his shoulders back into a proud square. “Ruby's mah wife from ways back. Now ah asks you again. Wha’ cha’ wan’ with mah Ruby?”
Maria cast her eyes downward, not able to disclose the truth to this stranger. He wouldn't understand. No man would understand. “She told me to visit anytime,” she suddenly blurted, watching him again. Her pulsebeat raced. She knew that was a lean explanation. His laughter made her smile awkwardly.
“So's you come visitin’ in the daid of night dressed as a man?” he said, chuckling. He motioned with his gun.
“Come on. Ah'll meet you at the front gate. Ah'll then takes yah in the back door. Goin’ in the front door would cause some commotion. We don’ need no troubles at mah Ruby's house.”
When he began to walk along the inside of the fence, shooing the dog away from him, Maria began to follow alongside him. She breathed more easily now, seeing how gentle and kind this man was. And she was relieved to know that she wouldn't be going into the parlor of this grand house after all. The back door was much better. Now she only hoped that Ruby would remember her. What if she . . . didn't. . . ?
Maria swallowed hard when she drew close to the house. She looked upward at the lights flickering through the upper-story windows. Which room . . . was . . . Michael in? Alberto said that the gambling room and the playing of cards was in one of those up-stairs rooms. Her stomach fluttered as though it had many butterflies inside it.
“Michael, oh, Michael,” she said softly to herself. “If you knew I was so close, would you be as excited? Would you be as eager to get just a glimpse of me?” Then she had to wonder if even a glimpse would be enough for her Once she saw him, could she hold back? Wouldn't she lose her mind and rush to him?
“Here's the gate,” the Negro said, opening it for Maria. “Now you jus’ follow behin’ oP Clarence. Ah'll takes you to mah Ruby.” A chuckle rumbled through him. “Now she jist might laugh a mite when she takes a look at the likes o’ you. But she's a woman of good heart. She won’ mean you no harm by laughin'. She'll jus’ be as me. Ain’ used tah secin’ no womanfolk in breeches.”
Feeling her body being consumed by heartbeats, Maria followed beside him, still eyeing the upper-story windows. She could hear laughter and music surfacing from inside the house and then felt her first moment of apprehension. She had forgotten, in her anxiety to see Michael, just what sort of house she was entering. In the daylight, it had appeared to be a normal house . . . possibly filled with normal people. But now? In the darkness? It appeared a bit foreboding. But she knew that was because she was aware that sharing of lust occurred in the house during the night hours.
She had to divert her attention . . . her thoughts. “Did you say your name is … Clarence . . . ?” she asked softly.
“Sho is,” he said, stepping aside when he reached the back steps that led upward onto a small square of a back porch.
Looking toward the back door, Maria felt more doubts creeping into her mind. Now could she really . . . ?
“Jus’ you go on up to the porch and wait until ah can go and speak tah Ruby,” Clarence said, moving on past Maria, two steps at a time.
“Okay,” Maria said, swallowing hard. She watched him as he moved on into the house, leaving her to stand alone.
She clasped her hands behind her, afraid to move. The sounds surfacing from the house kept her alert and the two dogs now lying at her feet made a tightness, like a band being pulled, form around her forehead. She had never been so bold before.
“Oh, please let Ruby come and see who it is asking for her,” she prayed silently to herself. She continued to look around her, seeing only the total blackness of the night crowding in around her. Doubts truly assailed her now. “I'll leave. Now,” she whispered. “What I'm doing is wrong. I shouldn't be at such a place. Especially after dark. What would Papa think if hecver found out?” She began to inch her way toward the steps but stopped, startled, when the back door swung widely open.
“Who's there?” Ruby said, stepping out next to Maria. “Clarence said a white femalefolk in man's breeches was here to see me. He didn't think to ask your name. That Clarence of mine. He doesn't use his brains at all.”
Maria sighed with relief when she saw the familiar face of Ruby as lights flickered through the back window, then onto her face. She was just as statuesque and beautiful in the semidarkness as she had been in the brightness of day. “Maria. It's mc. Maria Lazzaro,” Maria said, reaching up to pull her hat from her head. She shook her hair to hang freely down her back. “I had to see you. Ruby,” she added quickly, moving toward Ruby, touching her gently on the arm. She eyed Ruby's dress. It was red satin with a plunging neckline, revealing her magnificent bosom.
Ruby laughed softly, tossing her head back. Then she eyed Maria more closely, reaching up to run her fingers through Maria's hair. “Land's sake. It is you. I had thought you had forgotten about Ruby's invitation,” Ruby purred. “But why now? Dressed in such a way? And in the darkness of night? God, girl. Don't you know the dangers?”
“Yes. I know the dangers,” Maria said softly. “That is why I chose to dress as a man. To disguise myself from men's stares.”
“But you haven't revealed to me why you have chosen to come,” Ruby persisted, looking impatiently toward the door, as though she wanted to return inside, where the action was.
“My brother Alberto told me . . . that. . . someone is here that I. .. uh … know,” Maria stammered, feeling a blush rising from the neck upward.
“Your brother was here? Who did he see?”
“A man I met while aboard ship on our way to America from Italy.”
Ruby laughed throatily. “Oh, I sec,” she said “So your brother saw this man. What is this man's name? Maybe I will know him from all the others who are here this night”
Maria thrust her hands inside her front breeches pocket and lowered her eyes. “His name is . . . uh . . . Michael Hopper,” she murmured.
