AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What is your problem?” I snapped.
She w
as washing collard greens in the kitchen sink. It seemed like she had been waiting for my question. “What was you doin’ sendin’ computer mail to some man who didn’t want to take you out? Huh? Where did you learn how to act like that? You sure as hell didn’t get it from me.”
“I was just lonely, Mama. That is still no reason to tiptoe around here acting like I’m a serial killer.”
She wiped her hands on her apron and turned the water off. “Serial killers are sick people. You supposed to have good sense.”
“And you’re supposed to stand by me, no matter what,” I cried.
Mama went ballistic. Stomped her foot and beat the kitchen counter with her fist. “What I been doin’ these last six months? I ain’t been standin’ by you?”
She didn’t wait for an answer.
“I been walkin’ the floor at nights, duckin’ questions from everybody on this block, includin’ Elvira, and watchin’ all your dirty laundry get spread out all on the TV. Married men and all! It’s almost August and I still don’t know whether you goin’ to jail or not. And you know what else?”
I didn’t want to hear any more so I said nothing.
“There’s a whole lot more goin’ on that you ain’t tole me. I can smell it an’ it don’t smell good at all.”
The stench in her nose was blackmail, the secret book that Elaine was managing, which Keith didn’t even know about, and the way I had coaxed Pam Silberstein and Alyssa Kraft into my web of deceit.
“Mama, I don’t know what to say.”
“Don’t say nothin’ ’cuz it’ll prob’ly be a lie.”
That stung.
“What was I supposed to do, Mama? If I played fair, you’d be making trips to an upstate prison for the next twenty-five years.”
She gazed at me like I was trash. “That’s where you’re wrong. I ain’t visitin’ nobody in no prison at no time.”
Mama was just upset. I didn’t believe her for a minute.
“What would you have done in my place, Mama?”
“I woulda told Annabelle to stick that Moms Mabley book where the sun don’t shine, that’s what. You’re in this mess ’cuz you was goin’ along with a plan that you knew was wrong an’ you did it just to get a promotion.”
“That’s not true,” I protested wearily.
“Yes, it is. You told me yourself that if you knew the promotion had already gone to that white girl, you woulda stuck to your guns that day at Annabelle’s house. That means if Annabelle woulda gave you the new job, her an’ her husband could have sent Moms Mabley’s soul to hell an’ you wouldn’t have said nary a word. When you read that first writin’ that man did on that book, you coulda walked away an’ worked at the supermarket if you had to. Then you wouldn’t been in that house to pick up no appointment book when Annabelle got killed. Greed is why you in this mess. Plain old greed.”
She went back to cleaning the collards, but this time her tears were mixed in with the running water. “Me an’ you never had much in the way of money,” she sobbed, “but we did have our good name an’ the neighbors respected us. Now all that’s gone.”
I took a long walk around Hell’s Kitchen, but the familiar streets and buildings only mocked me. Did you really think you could get away from us? they seemed to ask.
38
THE SHOWMAN, PART II
Victor looked like he hadn’t slept all weekend. He paused as he mounted the steps to the witness box and looked back over his shoulder at me. His lips moved and it looked like he was mouthing the words, I’m sorry.
Keith whispered in my ear. “The brother’s ready to crack. This is going to be a cakewalk.”
After Victor was resworn in, Keith took his place.
“How are you feeling today, Victor?”
