“I got one foot and a big toe in the grave. The rest of me is still kicking,” she told me, wheezing like a sick mule. “I ain’t seen you in public but a few times since you got married. How come Odell ain’t with you? He done run off already?”
Chapter 29
Joyce
“O DELL DIDN’T RUN OFF. HE WOULD NEVER LEAVE ME!” I WAS talking so fast, I almost bit my lip. I couldn’t believe the nerve of this old woman. “Why would he and why are you asking me something like that?”
Aunt Mattie looked at me with contempt—like I was the one who’d insulted her—and hunched her shoulders. “Well, you here and he ain’t. And, he is a man.”
“So? He’s also my husband. He told me he married me for life.”
“Pffft!” Aunt Mattie waved her hairy, gnarled hand, which could have passed for a monkey’s paw. “Gal, let me tell you something, and I hope you believe every word I’m fixing to say. So what if Odell is your husband and claims he’ll be with you for life. Ha! You wouldn’t believe how many times I done heard them famous last words from other women. If that’s what you believe, you got a lot to learn. It’ll take more than him being married to you for him to stay! People do fall out of love and split up. I see it all the time in my business.”
It took a great deal of effort and a silent prayer for me not to get too mad. But I still wanted to slap the smug look off Aunt Mattie’s face. I had never hit another person in my life and wasn’t about to start now. Besides, I had to consider her age because another thing I’d never done was sass an elder. I would give her the benefit of the doubt, because I had heard from a lot of folks that she was just naturally rude. I had also heard that she had a good heart and was always willing to help people in need—as long as you didn’t disrespect her or make her mad. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to holler at you and get you upset,” I apologized.
“Honey child, it’d take more than you hollering to get me upset. I done been through things most people ain’t even had to deal with in their worst nightmares. Getting hollered at don’t even faze me.” Aunt Mattie gave me a thoughtful look and kept talking. “Being nosy and meddlesome is part of being old.”
“Well, I can tell you myself that Odell is crazy about Joyce, and he ain’t going no place. He treats her like a queen,” Yvonne piped in, sitting down on the other side of me. “I wish I could train Milton to be more like Odell.”
“Be careful what you wish for, Yvonne,” Aunt Mattie advised. Then she got a glazed look in her eyes. “Sometimes you better off with what you already have. I got everything I ever wished for and look where I’m at.”
“You got a good business and you still kicking. For somebody that used to be a slave, you lucky,” Yvonne said, crossing her legs. “I bet most of the use-to-be slaves done already died.”
Slavery was another painful subject to me. My parents had experienced it and every time they brought it up, I left the room. I didn’t want to keep hearing about how the white folks had mistreated our people back in the old days. It was hard enough to listen to how they were mistreating us now. As much as it bothered me, I decided to encourage a conversation on this subject so I wouldn’t have to listen to more of Aunt Mattie’s comments about my marriage. “Daddy was eleven and Mama was seven when Lincoln freed the slaves. She can’t remember anything about being a slave, but he remembers it all like it happened yesterday,” I reported in a sad tone. “Aunt Mattie, can you still remember what it was like?” I knew this was an unnecessary question because she was several years older than my daddy and if he could remember slavery, she could.
“I hope I never forget. It was my hell on earth. I was a teenager when it ended,” Aunt Mattie said with her voice cracking. Two women I hadn’t been introduced to yet stood nearby. They stopped talking and moved closer so they could hear what Aunt Mattie had to say. “Um . . . I ain’t talked about what I went through in more than sixty years. But for some reason, I got a few things I’d like to get off my chest and share with somebody tonight.” Aunt Mattie sat up straighter and cleared her throat. There was an extremely sad look on her face. It was hard to believe that a few minutes ago she’d been laughing and whooping and hollering like a wild woman. “When I was eleven, they took me out of the fields and put me to work in the main house. I slept on a pallet in the room Master Buffington shared with his wife. I had to get up two or three times a night and go all the way out to the end of the backyard to
