“Humph!” I grunted, wagging my finger in his face. “You better not let Yvonne find out about it.”
Milton howled and snapped his fingers. “Horsefeathers! She just as dense as every other woman. As long as she ain’t got nothing to go on, she would never get a notion that I was cheating on her.” He squinted for a few seconds. Then he started talking real slow. “Anyway, when we left Aunt Mattie’s place, Cecil wanted me to drive him somewhere so we could get something to eat. Naturally, I suggested Mosella’s, but he didn’t want to go there. He told me about a out-of-town place he liked, so we gassed up his truck and got on the road. Guess where we went?”
“I don’t know! Shoot!” I hollered.
“That out-of-town restaurant me and Cecil ate at Saturday evening was in Hartville and . . . so was you.”
My head started spinning and a lump formed in my throat within a split second. I was a strong man, but for the first time in my life I felt as weak as a sick kitten. “What in the world—”
“Calm down, lover boy. Oops! I meant to call you Daddy.”
I gulped so hard I was surprised I didn’t swallow my tongue. “What do you know?” I whimpered.
“I know a lot. Me and Cecil was in a booth near the back, but I could still see you sitting at a table in the middle of the floor. By the way, them buttermilk-dipped catfish we ordered was delicious. I noticed that was the same thing you ordered.” Milton paused and goggled at me for a few seconds.
His silence and the suspense was torture. “If you seen what I had on my plate, I guess you seen the woman that was sitting at that table with me, huh?”
“Yup! And I seen them three little boys.” We stayed silent for about five seconds before Milton spoke again. “At first I thought maybe you was with a cousin or some other relative and her kids. I even thought maybe she was just a friend.”
“How do you know she wasn’t just a friend?”
“Hah! Don’t even go there.”
“Don’t jump to no conclusions! Let me explain. It wasn’t what you thought!” I boomed. I blinked and rubbed my chest, which felt like it was about to explode. I was so frantic I didn’t even know what explanation I could come up with that would convince Milton he had misinterpreted what he’d seen.
“Hush up! You think I’m stupid? Odell, that biggest boy could have been your twin!”
“That don’t mean nothing! I done seen strangers that could be my twin!”
“On top of that, I seen you haul off and kiss Miss Thing. And, I heard all three of them little boys call you ‘Daddy.’ Then came the icing on the cake. When Cecil went to use the toilet, I asked our waitress about you, and she told me all kinds of juicy stuff. You got folks over there thinking you a traveling salesman?” Milton laughed and clapped his hands, so I knew he was enjoying watching me squirm like a worm on a fishhook. “Couldn’t you come up with a better story than that? I trotted over to the window just in time to see y’all piling into that nice car Joyce’s daddy sold to you real cheap. I said to myself, ‘That Odell is one lucky son-of-a-gun. He done hooked hisself a piece of prime redbone tail.’ Shit! She look better than Yvonne. What’s her name and how old is she? And don’t lie, I know a youngblood when I see one.”
The inside of my throat felt like somebody had clawed it. It hurt to keep talking. “Her name is Betty Jean and she’ll be twenty-three in September.” My voice was so high-pitched, I sounded like a woman.
“How long you been poking that tender young stuff?” He answered his own question. “Long enough to make three babies, that’s how long.”
“Milton, I don’t want to lose my woman,” I said, sounding like a weak old man this time.
“Which woman is it you don’t want to lose?”
“Joyce. I love her to death. She would leave me in a heartbeat if she knew about Betty Jean and the boys.” I was sweating hard and my hands was shaking. “My life wouldn’t be worth a defective penny.”
Milton smiled. I was in the worst pain I’d ever been in my life and this motherfucker was smiling at me! “Odell, like I done told you more than once before, I really like you. You ain’t got to worry about me blowing the whistle on you.” I didn’t feel no relief, because I had a feeling Milton had something else up his sleeve. I was right. “Now, all you got to do is be nice to me.”
“What do you want?” I was glad to hear my voice sounding stronger now. But I was still sweating, and now I was terrified.
“What you got?”
“How much do you want?”
“You think I want some hush money?”
“Well, what do you want?”
“Some hush money,” he said, grinning. “See, I ain’t lucky like you. A spook like me, I have to work
