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“Did they take my paper files, too?”
“Yes, there wasn’t a slip of paper in that apartment.” Keith sat down beside me. “Have you eaten today?”
“Just some cheese and crackers.”
“There are some nice restaurants a few blocks from here.”
“I’m not really hungry, but maybe Paul and I will go out somewhere when he gets back.”
He stood up. “Paul is in your corner, Jackie.”
“I know.”
He ruffled my hair and smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
Paul brought several cartons of Chinese food with him—fried rice, moo goo gai pan, orange chicken, lo mein, egg rolls, plus bottled water and cans of soda—it all arrived just in time for the six o’clock news. Since the only television was in the upstairs bedroom, we carried everything up there and made small talk while I laid everything out, using the dresser as a serving table. We piled our plates high and sat on separate sides of the bed to eat. The food was fresh and tasty, but it started going down like lumps of clay after Paul found the remote and switched on the TV set.
The story of my arrest and upcoming trial was the lead on all the newscasts. I couldn’t believe it. Surely there was something far more newsworthy to report on—weren’t there people at war or starving somewhere on the globe?
My mug shot peered back at us from the screen. The media-created biography—Hell’s Kitchen girl escapes her background and becomes a publishing executive only to fall back into the gutter from whence she’d come—was repeated with such regularity that I knew if I didn’t stop watching, I’d begin to accept it as truth.
I was about to turn it off when Mama and Elvira appeared on the screen.
They looked good. Mama was wearing a square-necked, long-sleeved black dress which she saved for special occasions. A string of pearls that I had given her last Christmas was around her neck and the matching earrings in her ears. She was too vain to appear in public in her natural gray hair so she wore a black wig. Elvira’s beige suit hung on her thin frame. She wasn’t wearing any jewelry but her short gray hair was brushed to the side. Mama had shared my makeup with her. They both looked very dignified.
The evolution of Jacqueline Naomi Blue unfolded. Mama talked about what a wonderful child I had been—“she never gave me a lick of trouble”—how we didn’t have much money but she made sure I always looked nice—“when I didn’t have money for new shoes, I slicked up her old ones with Vaseline and made ’em shine”—the way I studied hard and made good grades—“her teachers loved her.” The reporter cut to still photos of me as a baby, toddler, girl, and young woman the whole time Mama was talking.
Finally, the conversation turned to Annabelle’s death.
“Why do you think your daughter has been charged with murder?”
“She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Do you think that race plays a part in all this?”
Mama paused. “Probably does, but money got somethin’ to do with all this, too. They wouldn’t have rushed Jackie int
o jail so fast if she was rich.”
“But your daughter has the best criminal defense attorney that money can buy.”
Elvira jumped in, with a look of righteous indignation on her face. “Keith Williams is working for free. If he wasn’t in this case, that poor girl would be so far under a jailhouse right now, nobody would ever get her out. What y’all need to do is leave her alone and find out who the real killer is.”
Mama had the last word. She held up my second grade school picture (the one with my two front teeth missing) and spoke directly into the camera. “Jackie is not a criminal. If anybody out there knows anything that can help her, please call Keith Williams right now.” It was over and as I clicked off the TV, it occurred to me that Mama and Elvira looked younger and had a lot more energy than I’d ever thought to see in them again. My troubles had given them some excitement and a reason to live.
Paul rubbed his forehead. “This is all so unbelievable.”
I had lost my appetite a long time ago. Now I sprawled flat on my back across the bed. “I don’t know how much more of it I can stand.”
“I’m sorry all this is happening to you, Jackie. Unfortunately, it’s going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better.”
“I know.”
He lay down beside me and took my hand. “Don’t worry, I’m here for you.”
I put my head on his chest. “Paul, you’re such a good friend. I still can’t believe you’ve risked your home to set me free.”
He took a deep breath. “Jackie, I didn’t put my house up because we’re friends. I did it because I’m in love with you.”
