My head was so high up in the clouds, I wasn’t going to let anything faze me. Not even when I saw Aunt Mattie among the crowd with two of her sleazy prostitutes in tow.
Chapter 14
Odell
JOYCE LOOKED LIKE A PRINCESS IN THE OFF-WHITE, FLOOR-LENGTH dress she had bought for the wedding. I wore the same secondhand suit I’d wore on our first date. It was the only one I owned, but now that I’d be making more money, I planned to upgrade my wardrobe. Everybody else was also dressed to the nines. Buddy was decked out in a lime-green pinstripe suit; one of the most popular items MacPherson’s sold. He’d brought his current girlfriend. But he was flirting with a dozen other women, including Miss Kirksey, the attractive teacher Joyce worked with. Daddy had such a bad cold, he refused to get out of bed. Ellamae had to nurse him, so they couldn’t make it to the wedding. Sadie was the only other person I knew who hadn’t been able to make it because she had to attend her older brother’s funeral.
Aunt Mattie showed up in an outlandish gold-trimmed maroon ballroom gown. The only reason I didn’t go up to her and give her a piece of my mind for bringing her sorry ass to my wedding was because the preacher was still in the house. And besides that, this was a special day for Joyce and her parents, and me too for that matter, so I didn’t want to cause a commotion.
I got sure enough disgusted when I noticed how Aunt Mattie and her whores was roaming from one side of the room to the other getting too friendly with some of the men. I didn’t want these men’s wives and girlfriends to act ugly, so I had to say something after all. But I had to wait almost thirty minutes before I was able to talk to Aunt Mattie in private. She went to the bathroom, and when she came out, I was standing by the door. “What you doing here?” I asked. It was the same thing she’d said to me when I’d tried to get her to give me another job last week.
“Pffft!” She waved her hands in the air and snickered. “You kidding? I came for the same reason everybody else came. Nobody wanted to miss this sideshow.”
“You the last person in the world I expected to show up at my wedding.”
“I can say the same thing about you,” she sneered, talking out the side of her mouth. “I figured something was up when you didn’t come back the next day for that job I offered you.”
“Humph! That wasn’t no job, it was a insult! And for your information, Mac and Millie promoted me to a much better job than the one I had. They retired a couple of days ago and now I’m in full charge,” I said proudly.
“Full charge of what?”
“Everything! I’ll be managing the other employees, doing the books, paying the bills and writing out the paychecks, and I’ll oversee all the orders.”
“Well, I do declare. I’m sure enough impressed! You a better trickster than I gave you credit for. Now I’m sorry you didn’t come back to work for me. I could have groomed you to help me make some serious money.”
“The only tricksters up in here is you and your girls,” I said, getting madder by the second.
Aunt Mattie gave me a sympathetic look and shook her head.
“Why you looking at me like that, Miss Pimp?” I asked.
“Because I feel sorry for you and I’m going to pray for you because I think you’ll need it somewhere down the road. You done got on too high of a horse too quick and when you fall off, you going to hit the ground real hard. Even after what you tried to do to Mongo, I still like you, Odell. Your daddy used to be one of my best customers, even before your mama died.” This news almost made me lose my breath. I even stumbled back a few steps. “Don’t act so surprised. Your daddy ain’t no different than no other man.”
“What my daddy done ain’t had nothing to do with me,” I shot back. “And I don’t know why you telling me this shit—especially on my wedding day.”
Aunt Mattie shrugged. “I just thought you might want to know. Some folks ain’t what they appear to be, if you know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t know what you mean and I don’t give a damn. Please don’t bother to tell me nothing else unless it’s something that’ll benefit me in some way.”
“I’m glad you said that. See, I’m a little on the psychic side. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what I’m fixing to tell you.”
“Whatever it is, keep it to yourself.”
“Uh-uh. I want you to know what I know. It’ll benefit you.”
“All right then. Go ahead and spit it out and get it over with,” I growled.
Aunt Mattie pursed her lips and squinted. “Right after the preacher told you to kiss Joyce, I got a real bad feeling about y’all. A cold chill shot through me like a bullet. The same way it did a month before my mama died, and a few months before one of my used-to-be boyfriends got bit by a rattlesnake and died. It was a sign. Things might be hunky-dory for you and Joyce for a while, but don’t count on it lasting. That sign I got was proof. When the shit hit the fan—and it’ll be some real big turds—you come see me. I got a few tricks up my sleeve that’ll straighten things out for y’all. I know you done probably heard about my hoodoo candles and all the folks’ lives they done restored.”
I laughed and waved my hand in
