Chapter 45
Joyce
AFTER SUPPER, ODELL TOOK A HOT BATH AND GOT BACK IN THE bed. But only because I’d badgered him. He assured me that he was well enough to return to work tomorrow, but he was not in the mood to go next door to have a drink. But I was.
I waited until he was asleep before I scurried out the door. By now even more cars and trucks had arrived. They were parked on both sides of our street, all the way to the end of the block. The music was so loud, I had to pound on the door for about two minutes before somebody opened it. A cute young white man waved me in. There was no room on the couch, and every other seat was occupied. Yvonne was a few feet away, so she grabbed me by the arm and steered me to a corner in the back of the room. “If you want to rest your feet, you’ll have to sit on one of them footstools or lard buckets we keep in the pantry,” she told me.
“Oh, I don’t mind standing. I sit down enough at work and at home. Y’all sure got a nice crowd tonight,” I told her as I peered around. “Who’s that white boy that opened the door for me? He looks kind of young to be in a place like this.”
“Oh, that’s Jody, Willie Frank’s nephew. He skinny as a lizard and got a baby face, but he turned twenty-four last month.” Yvonne leaned closer to me and sniffed. “Either you cooked that catfish or you didn’t wash your coochie too good.” She gave me a knowing look and whispered, “I have the same problem if I don’t use enough soap down there. . . .”
I wondered how many more times she was going to say something unflattering to me. I reminded myself that I had only known Yvonne since last month. I also reminded myself that I was drinking at her house for free, so at least she wasn’t stingy. And, Odell really wanted me to develop a strong relationship with her like he planned to do with Milton. I knew he was still feeling guilty about not giving them a ride home after their coworker’s funeral.
I didn’t have time to respond to Yvonne’s comment. It was just as well, because I didn’t know how to respond to it anyway. Milton shuffled up to me and gave me a bear hug. “Where is my boy? Is he still feeling like shit?” he asked, giving me an amused look.
“No, he’s fine now.”
“He going back to work tomorrow?”
“As far as I know. Next to his Daddy’s house, and a fishing hole, the store is his home away from home,” I replied with a loud, heavy sigh. “It’s been a long time since we spent a whole weekend together. Or more than four or five days in a row.”
Milton gave me a pensive look. “Being by yourself so much don’t bother you?”
“Every now and then it does. If he keeps it up too much longer, I am going to have to put my foot down. As much as I hate to, I’m going to start going fishing with him again, and to his daddy’s house. Sometimes he feels like a part-time husband,” I laughed.
“Girl, you better do something about that before he ain’t no husband at all. I would never let my man spend so much time away from me,” Yvonne declared, jabbing Milton’s side with her elbow.
What she’d just said bothered me more than the crude fish/ coochie comment she’d made. Because of that, I stayed only long enough to have one drink.
Odell was sitting up in bed staring at the wall when I entered the bedroom, unbuttoning my blouse and kicking off my shoes at the same time. “I was hoping you’d still be asleep when I got back,” I said dryly. I snatched the flannel nightgown I had left on the bedpost and put it on.
“Why?”
“I didn’t want you to know I went out tonight.”
“You didn’t stay long,” he noticed, glancing at the clock on the nightstand. “Did Yvonne say something else you didn’t like? Is that why you back home already?”
I exhaled and climbed into bed. “Um, no, she didn’t. I didn’t stay long because I felt guilty about leaving you by yourself. Besides that, they had too many people over there tonight. And, I didn’t like the way some of those men were behaving.”
I slid between the sheets, and Odell put his arm around my shoulder and started patting it. “Baby, did one of them drunk jokers try to take advantage of you?” he asked gently.
“Something like that. Even after I told them I was a married woman and would never fool around on my husband!”
“It’s a good thing for them I wasn’t there. I would have straightened them out.”
“I know you would have, honey.” Only part of what I was telling Odell was true. Two men had asked me to dance, but only after three other women had turned them down. Neither one of them had shown any romantic interest in me. It did a lot for my ego when I made Odell think that other men found me attractive. What I didn’t feel good about was the fact that I had to lie about it. Since we had been married, not a single man had made a pass at me.
“I’m glad to hear that you didn’t come home early because Yvonne said something stupid and hurt your feelings again.” Odell caressed my chin.
“Well, she did say something I didn’t want to hear,” I admitted.
“What did she say about you this time?”
“It was something she said about you.” Odell gulped. He stopped caressing my chin and his body stiffened. “What’s the matter?” I gasped, feeling his forehead.
“What did Yvonne have to say about me?” he asked in a raspy tone.
“Nothing really that serious. She and Milton both made a few petty, stupid comments.
