“Think about what?” he asked with his eyebrows raised.
“What is it you trying to say now?” I couldn’t get any angrier with this jackass if I tried. “If you go near my woman I will—”
Milton wasted no time cutting me off. “Hold still, brother man. Get your mind out the gutter. I wouldn’t never go after the woman of my best friend.”
“Then where the hell is this conversation going?”
“I admire you for picking a woman that’s as easy on the eye as Betty Jean is. All I want to know now is if she got a sister or some friend girls that’s as pretty as she is.”
“She got a sister and she got several friend girls. But they all married.”
“So what? Being married don’t mean nothing! That ain’t never stopped nobody from creeping,” he laughed. “And don’t nobody know that better than you, huh?”
“Milton, I have to get back to work.” I didn’t give him a chance to say anything else. I literally ran to the door and held it open for him. After he left, I read my Bible some more.
Chapter 48
Joyce
WHEN I GOT HOME FROM WORK, YVONNE WAS SWEEPING OFF HER front porch. We waved to each other and five minutes after I got in the house, she was at my front door.
“It’s a shame me and Milton ain’t got no phone so I can call you up sometime instead of having to come over,” she complained.
“Well, phones do come in handy. I don’t know what we’d do without ours. You want to come in?” I was just being nice. I didn’t feel like entertaining her. I still liked her and she was a lot of fun, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that she was also a source of pain for me. It was no fun standing in a pretty woman’s shadow. It wasn’t so bad when there were other average-looking women around; like the times I was at her house when there was a crowd. That way I didn’t feel so singled out.
“That’s all right. I can’t stay. I just wanted to see if you’d like to go to the shoe store with me on Saturday. One of the waitresses I work with is getting married in a couple of weeks and the only pair of dress shoes I got is so shabby I wouldn’t wear them to a dogfight, let alone a wedding.”
I hadn’t been out in public with Yvonne since that day all those men tried to hit on her. I was still a little irritated about the one that had mistaken me for her mother. And I wasn’t ready to get my feelings hurt again so soon by strange men. “Thanks, but I promised Mama I’d help her finish that quilt she started last month.”
“Oh. Well, if you change your mind, let me know.”
“I’ll do that.”
When I heard Odell’s car pull up a few minutes after six p.m., I ran from the kitchen to the living room window. There was a smile on my face until I spotted Mama and Daddy strutting toward him. Daddy clapped Odell on the back and Mama gave him a hug. I was not in the mood to deal with my parents this evening and I prayed they wouldn’t stay long. And because they’d ambushed Odell, I couldn’t pretend like I was not in the house. I sighed and went back into the kitchen to check on the supper I had almost finished cooking.
About a minute later, I heard the living room door open. “Whatever it is you cooking in there, I hope you ain’t using too much salt!” Mama yelled.
“Pig tails, I bet,” Daddy added.
When I returned to the living room a few moments later, Mama and Daddy were on the couch, and Odell had flopped down in the easy chair facing them. My parents looked as bored as they usually did. Odell had already kicked off his shoes and unbuttoned his shirt, but he looked worried. And that worried me.
“Baby, have a seat,” he told me, with his voice sounding weak and tired.
“What’s the matter?” I was afraid to hear his answer. I remained standing in the middle of the floor with my hands on my hips.
Odell blew out some air and rubbed the back of his neck. “Nothing is the matter. I, uh, got something to run by all of y’all and I’m glad everybody is here so I won’t have to say it but one time.”
“Odell, what’s going on?” I demanded, folding my arms and shifting my weight from one foot to the other.
“Y’all know I need to hire another boy to help stock the shelves.” He stopped and gave me a hopeful look. Mama and Daddy had curious expressions on their faces, and the rest of their bodies looked as stiff as statues.
“What’s going on here, boy?” Daddy peered at Odell from the corner of his eye. “Get to the point,” he ordered.
“I’m getting to it,” Odell said, looking at me with both his eyebrows raised. “Joyce, you know how we been trying to be better friends with our new neighbors.”
“So? What do they have to do with you needing to hire another stock boy?” I wanted to know.
“Milton said he would like to take the job.”
“That bootlegger next door?” Mama and Daddy said at the same time. Mama looked horrified. Daddy looked amused. Odell still looked worried. I didn’t know how to react.
“Did he lose his job at that grill?” I asked.
“No, he said he can keep that and still work for us part-time,” Odell replied.
“Pffft! Naw, naw! That scalawag ain’t working in our store part-time, or no other time. He’d give the place such a bad name, the customers that done kept us in business all these years would run us out of town on a rail,”
