I didn’t wake up again until somebody pounded on my front door the next morning. I groaned and rolled over so I could see the clock on the nightstand. It was only eight a.m. I was not expecting anybody, so I decided to ignore whoever it was. The pounding stopped suddenly and it got so quiet, I thought for a moment I’d gone deaf. Then somebody started banging on my bedroom window! “Joyce, you all right in there?” It was Mama.
“Coming, Mama!” I hollered as I scrambled out of bed. I stumbled to the window and opened it just high enough to stick my head out. “Mama, do you know what time it is?” I said in a harsh tone, giving her an exasperated look. She had on a brown corduroy duster and a pair of Daddy’s shabby house shoes. A thick black hairnet covered the dozens of paper curlers in her hair.
“Do you know what time it is?” she barked. “You told me you was coming to the house this morning to help me clean them chitlins I told you and Odell I’d cook for y’all to eat next week on the Fourth of July.”
“I forgot. Mama, don’t worry about cooking anything for us. Um . . . we invited our new neighbors over for a cookout on the Fourth and they don’t eat chitlins.” I was getting pretty good at lying. I hadn’t even asked Yvonne and Milton to join us for the holiday, but I was going to go over and ask them as soon as I got rid of Mama.
“Well, what am I supposed to do with them chitlins, girl? I ain’t got enough room in my icebox to keep them.”
“Why don’t you cook them for supper this evening for you and Daddy,” I suggested.
“Didn’t I tell you me and Mac was going to spend a few days in Mobile at Reverend Jessup’s retreat? We’ll be leaving tonight.”
“No, you didn’t tell me that. That’s nice,” I said with a sigh of relief. I was thrilled to hear that my meddlesome parents were going to be out of town for the holiday. Now I wouldn’t have to worry about them showing up and embarrassing me and Odell in front of Yvonne and Milton. We had not introduced them yet and I was not looking forward to when we did. Last week Buddy told me that when he told Daddy and Mama during one of their rare visits to the store that Milton had come in a couple times smoking a homemade cigarette that had stunk up the whole store, Mama gasped so hard her eyes crossed. Daddy shuddered and said, “Get behind me, Satan!” as he sprayed room freshener in every nook and cranny. That ominous comment and their reaction told me that my parents had already made up their minds about not liking our new neighbors. But it was no surprise. As far as they were concerned, decent, God-fearing people didn’t become bootleggers. I cringed when I thought about what they’d say when they heard that their best friend, Willie Frank, was a moonshine-making hillbilly and an ex-convict.
“Well, you can cook them chitlins for supper today yourself. You can still come help me clean them. Unless you got something else planned for today,” Mama whined.
“You can give the chitlins to Buddy or Sadie. I told Yvonne I’d go downtown with her today to help her pick out some shorts she wants to wear to our cookout. After we do that, we’re going to go to lunch.”
“Humph! Y’all done got thick as thieves already, huh?”
“Yvonne’s a nice woman, Mama. You’ll see that when you meet her and get to know her.”
“Well, I ain’t in no hurry to meet nobody that sells illegal alcohol. I hope you and Odell don’t let them drag y’all into no scandal and—”
I cut her off with my hand in the air. “Odell and I are not that stupid and naïve, Mama. Now, you go on back home and get ready for your trip. I have to get up and get dressed so I’ll be ready when Yvonne gets here.”
Half an hour after Mama had left in a huff, I knocked on Yvonne’s door.
“Joyce, ain’t it kind of early for you to be coming over for a drink?” She was still in her nightgown.
“Um, I didn’t come to drink. I was wondering if you wanted to go shopping with me? I’m going to pick up a few things for the holiday. And, if you and Milton don’t already have plans for the Fourth, I hope y’all can come to our cookout.”
Yvonne yawned. “Who else is coming? Them coworkers you went out with last night?”
“Oh, no. It’ll be just the four of us. But if you want to bring a couple of friends, that’ll be fine. Just let me know how many so I can make sure we have enough food.”
“We didn’t have no plans, but I know we’ll get a good crowd later in the day after everybody done barbecued and whatnot.” Yvonne narrowed her eyes. “Why do you want me to go shopping with you today? I figured that’s something you do only with people like them ones you went out with last night. . . .”
“Well, not this time.”
“Did y’all have fun last night?” I ignored the mild smirk on Yvonne’s face.
“Uh-huh.”
“Where all did y’all go?”
“Oh, we had supper at that fish shack on Liberty Street, and then we went to visit one of the teachers that just had a baby.”
“You must have stayed out late because your lights was still out when I went to bed.”
“I did stay out pretty late.” I heard footsteps, so I glanced over Yvonne’s shoulder. Milton staggered into the room yawning, stretching, and rubbing the side of his head.
