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“I try to tell her that, but Miss Alice still say get this stuff out.”
What had she ever done to anger the old woman? Well, Miss Alice wasn’t that old, but she had thought of her as a second mother, when her own cast her to the side, and now this?
“New singer need the digs upstairs ma’am.” The other guy gave her long, lascivious look of lust. “Your sister look more like Lena Horne than the new one do.”
Well, what could she say to that? Thank you? That was the reason that Wonderland had hired her. She had been talented enough to pull it all off, she supposed, but the show was over now.
“Is she in there?”
“Counting up the week’s receipts.” The other guy pointed in the direction of the club’s interior.
Cat stepped around them to see to Miss Alice, but Beansie pulled her arm. “How’s Andie?”
“She’s fine. I—Mike he works there. I couldn’t believe when I saw him.”
She would never forget the look on his face the longest day she lived.
“Well, Mama kill me for saying it, but we knew.”
“You knew?”
Would her brother stop pulling down the world she knew bit by bit?
“Mama knew he was back in town. Knew he was on that side. You know how Pittsburgh is. You can lead a completely different life on one side of the river from the other.”
“How long, Beansie?”
“How long what?”
“Don’t act goofy. How long you know?”
“’Bout three-four years we knew. Mama don’t want you with him. So, she tell us not to tell you.”
The stench of rotting garbage in the hot August heat threatened to undo her. She swallowed hard. “I’ma deal with this later. I got to talk to Miss Alice first. Don’t go anywhere. And put my couch back!”
Beansie told the guy to pull the couch end inside, but Cat didn’t hear them taking it back upstairs. The power of Miss Alice was too strong. And Beansie needed his job here helping to run the club. All of those years, all of that time that he knew. Her closest relative and connection to Mama Bennett. What had she done to offend him?
Miss Alice sat at a table deep in the back corner of the room, where she had played for years and years. Day in and out except Mondays and Sundays. It all came crashing to an end. Seemed impossible, but what would happen for her now? She was—she gulped—thirty. What was there for her now?
“Miss Alice, may I have a word?”
“There you are, Katie. We was a bit worried about you.”
“So worried you tell my brother to take my couch out to the alley?”
Miss Alice took the edge of her good Cross pen and stuck it in the edge of her pompadour. “I told him to pick a good clear spot and put the couch there. I knew you be coming back soon.”
“Then you couldn’t be so worried.”
“Sit down Katie. You hungry? Got some roast chicken.”
The hunger rumbling in her belly had disappeared completely in these new worries. She nodded and Miss Alice gestured to a young woman who was putting freshly ironed table cloths on the tables. The young woman had smooth cocoa-colored skin and avoided Katie’s eyes as she followed Miss Alice’s order to bring two plates of lunch for them.
“Lookahere Katie. My John, he’s been wanting to go in a new direction for a while. The whole Lena Horne thing been getting a little old. When you didn’t show up last night, it was like a sign from the Lord above. We can go in a new direction and you go on to a new life.”
“You knew I had to get Andie into that home and it would take time.”
“Did it work out?” Miss Alice had the nerve to look concerned.
