I gasped. “I’m sure everybody else that ain’t got no car would love to have one,” I snapped. “Now, you just going to have to be satisfied with what I done gave you already. I thought that was going to be all you wanted. I gave you everything you asked for and then some. That was all I could spare. You telling me now you need even more?”
Milton heaved out a loud breath and gave me a look that was so intense, it made me tremble. I moved a few steps away from him. “Well, like you told me yesterday, I spoke too soon. I do need more. . . .”
My jaw dropped. “And you call yourself my friend?”
His liver-colored lips quivered, and for a second I thought he was going to bust out laughing. “Yeah, I’m your friend. That’s why I’m willing to work with you.”
I waved my hands in the air. “Okay, tell me what else you want. And I want it to be the last thing you ask me for, because I can’t do no more! I’m done!”
His eyes suddenly lit up and he rubbed his hands together. “But I ain’t ‘done’ and we both know that where there is a will, there is a way.”
I slapped the side of my head, which felt so heavy I was surprised I was still able to hold it up. “Why don’t you tell me what that way is? All I know is, you can’t get blood from a turnip.”
“You can milk a cow dry, but once they get motivated again, they will produce more milk. The way your jaw is twitching, I can tell you know exactly what I mean.”
Just when I was about to open my mouth again, Joyce yelled from the living room, “Odell, you can’t find the baking powder?”
“Um, yeah, baby. I got it,” I yelled back. I snatched the can of baking powder off the counter and handed it to Milton. “We better get back out there.”
“We ain’t finished talking yet,” he hissed.
“We is for now!”
“Then you better come over tonight so we can finish. Unless you want me to come by the store again tomorrow.”
“That’s another thing. I don’t want you coming back to the store no time soon. And I don’t want you coming there too often. Buddy and Sadie will start putting bugs in Mac’s ear.”
“Pffft! Why would them old fools do that? They know me and you is friends and neighbors.”
“It is real suspicious for me and you to hole up in my office with the door shut when we ain’t never done it before. We did that two days in a row and it got Buddy and Sadie’s attention. How many more times do you think we can meet like that before their long tongues start wagging?”
“Well, we gots to talk somewhere.”
“I’ll come over tonight. Now will you go on back home?” I ushered Milton out the back door and returned to the living room. I was glad to see that Mac and Millie had left.
“I thought they was staying for supper?” I said. Joyce was sitting on the couch, and I sat down next to her.
“They decided to go to Mosella’s instead.” She gave me a curious look. “What was Milton talking about in there?”
I shrugged. “Nothing important. He was telling me about how Willie Frank almost got busted by the revenuers the other day.”
“I thought he paid them off so they’d leave him alone.”
“Well, they done got greedy and now they want more money.”
Joyce blinked and touched my thigh. “Well, if he asks you for more loans, I don’t mind as long as he pays you back. Did you tell him you couldn’t hire him?”
“Yeah. He was all right with it. I told him I’d come over for a little while this evening. You want to go with me?”
Joyce took her time responding. “I think I’ll stay home tonight. I don’t want to wear out my welcome. Besides, I have a bushel basket of clothes to iron.”
Within minutes after Joyce and I had eaten supper, I eased out of the house and headed next door. Milton let me in and wasted no time getting in my face. “Come on. Let’s go somewhere so we can talk,” he growled. He steered me toward the kitchen, clutching my arm like he thought I was going to try to escape.
There was a small crowd milling about. Yvonne and Willie Frank were huddled in a corner and didn’t notice me. “If you don’t mind, can I have a drink first?” I stopped abruptly and pried Milton’s fingers off my arm.
“You can get all you want after we talk,” he insisted. I followed him into the kitchen, but there was a woman at the sink rinsing out jars. “Let’s go in the bedroom.”
I followed Milton back down the narrow hall and into the bedroom directly across from the bathroom. When we got inside, he clicked on a lamp. Just like the ones in the living room, it didn’t have a shade neither. He closed and locked the door and turned to me with his hands on his hips.
“I got a solution to our problem. It came to me a little while ago.” Milton rubbed his nose and snorted. There was actually a gleam in his eyes. “You told me you’d pay me thirty cent a hour to stock shelves, right?”
“Yeah, and I told you that I can’t hire you now.”
“But you can still pay me thirty cent a hour.”
“Excuse me?”
Milton put his hand on my shoulder. “If you was going to pay me when you thought
