“What’s wrong with you, Odell Watson? You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Mama scolded.
“Milton and Yvonne are really nice people in their own way. I feel kind of sorry for them,” I said, more for Odell’s benefit than mine. I was convinced that it was going to be harder for him to develop a good relationship with Milton than me with Yvonne. Milton was a little more of an ignoramus than she was, so more work had to be done on him to lift him up to our level.
“Well, I don’t feel sorry for them fools, and you can tell them just what I said,” Daddy boomed. “When did this come up?”
“Milton came by the store today,” Odell went on. “Him and Yvonne is having a rough time paying their rent and could use a little more income.”
“Didn’t they think about that before they moved to this neighborhood?” Mama barked.
“I guess they didn’t,” Daddy added. “That ain’t our problem! Don’t even think about putting no bootlegger on our payroll. Shoot!”
Odell looked relieved. I was glad when he laughed and shook his head. “I kind of figured this is what y’all would say and I told him so. But he still wanted me to run it by y’all. I’ll let him know as soon as I see him again.”
“Odell, tell him in a nice way,” I suggested. “Or do you want me to tell him?”
“I don’t care which one of y’all tell him. If I wasn’t superstitious about going up in a bootlegger’s house, I’d go over there right now and tell him myself.” Right after Mama said that, somebody pounded on our door. I was so anxious to see who it was, I literally ran to open it.
It was Milton. There was a smile on his face that was as wide as a crocodile’s.
“Oops! I didn’t know y’all had company. I can come back later,” he said when he saw Mama and Daddy sitting on the couch frowning like pallbearers.
“Naw, you come on in,” Odell invited. “You ain’t met my in-laws yet.”
“Uh, I done spoke to Mr. MacPherson in the store a time or two.” Milton stumbled over his words and was just as clumsy with his feet when he walked into the house. He almost tripped over one of my area rugs. When he got close to the couch, Daddy reached his hand up and shook Milton’s. Milton, with that stupid grin still on his face, nodded at Mama. “I met you before too, Mrs. MacPherson. One day I came in the store to buy some baloney and you gave me a complimentary pig foot. I guess y’all don’t remember me.”
“I remember you. Right after you gobbled up that pig foot, you had the nerve to ask for another one,” Mama sniffed.
“That was because it tasted so good.” Milton put his hands in his pockets. “Um, I ain’t going to stay but a hot minute. Yvonne sent me over here to see if Joyce had some baking powder she can borrow so she can make some hush puppies to go with them collard greens she cooking for supper this evening.”
“I’ll go get it,” Odell said before I could. He leaped up out of his seat and headed toward the kitchen with Milton on his heels.
“Do that Yvonne gal even know how to cook worth a dime?” Mama asked in a low voice as soon as they were out of earshot.
“She must. Didn’t you notice the size of that boy’s belly?” Daddy brought up.
“He could have a tumor for all you know,” Mama pointed out.
“I don’t know about that. But one thing I do know is that wife of his gets around like a spinning top. I seen her in Mosella’s the last time I was there. She was acting like a floozy with some white joker.”
“Daddy, how did you know it was Yvonne? Have you ever met her?” I asked.
“Girl, I ain’t met a lot of the colored folks in this town, but I know who is who.”
“That white guy you saw her with was probably their best friend, Willie Frank; the man they buy their alcohol from,” I explained. “He’s a real nice guy.”
“Humph! I bet he ain’t nice enough to take no colored people around his kinfolks,” Mama said sharply.
“Mama and Daddy, for your information, Willie Frank’s relatives are not racists. I met his nephew and he seems real sweet. And Yvonne and Milton go visit with Willie Frank and his folks at their house all the time.”
It didn’t matter what I said, my parents continued to mean-mouth Yvonne and Milton. Despite the few “mean” thoughts I’d had about them myself, I still defended them some more. “Once you get to know them, they’re not so bad.”
“Maybe they ain’t. But I advise you and Odell not to never let your guard down with them two buggers. You don’t know what they capable of doing. There is a heap of bootleggers in prison,” Daddy said with a firm nod.
“And even more in the cemeteries,” Mama threw in.
I gave them an exasperated look. Knowing how they felt, I knew that I would never tell them that Yvonne and Milton had already done jail time. But the statements they’d just made sounded so ominous, a chill that felt like a bolt of lightning shot up my spine.
A couple of minutes had passed and Odell and Milton were still in the kitchen. I had no idea what was taking them so long. The baking powder was on the counter where it always was.
Chapter 49
Odell
“MILTON, I TRIED TO TELL YOU THAT THEY WOULDN’T GO FOR me giving you a job,” I said in a low voice through clenched teeth. “How many more times do I have to tell you that?”
“You want me to talk to Mac?”
My mouth dropped open. “What good would that do?”
Milton scratched his chin and gave me a disgusted look. Now that I
