Want Some, page 14
Tony sank back and stubbed another Winston in the ashtray.
Truth was, he had tried to hit on Trudy himself, but Pearl had caught him and loud-talked him in the middle of the room.
“Baby girl don’t want to mess with no drunk ass like you. She’s my niece. She’s a singer. You hired her to sing. She ain’t one of them boozy sluts you bring up in here. Got to pay most of ’em just to look at yo’ ass. You best sit down and keep drinking that cheap liquor you serve and stay out that chile’s face.” Pearl stood her ground. The whole place got quiet. Trudy was family. Tony was out of line. The bar waited to see what Tony was going to say. But all Tony did was walk out.
“Someday, I’ma hafta hurt that gal,” he said to himself.
Tonight Tony tilted way back in his seat. Charles was sitting at the edge of his. Couldn’t take his eyes off that sweet, scratchy voice and her smooth, luscious curves all dolled up in sheer royal blue.
Homeboy’s gone, Tony laughed to himself. He smacked Charles across the back, got up and went to sit with a well-dressed man at the far end back table.
When Trudy finished the last set she slipped back inside the dressing room.
Trudy sat down and unzipped her blue gown. She was just about to peel it off when she heard rapid knocking at the door.
Bap, bap, bap.
“Who is it?” Trudy yelled out. Damn. Can’t a girl get out her dress good before some hound comes sniffing for crumbs?
“Miss Trudy,” the voice said through the thin wooden door. It was Sonny from the band.
“Miss Trudy, there’s a man out there in the front row gimme ten dollars to hand you this paper. Said it was real important you got it.” Sonny was hoping he could get in the room and have a look around. He hadn’t been inside the dressing room before.
“I’m sorry, Sonny, but I’m not dressed just yet. Could you slide it under the door for me, please?” Trudy said through the crack.
She could hear the fumbling around outside, then saw the white flap of a crumpled sheet appear under the door. She didn’t hear anything for a while and imagined Sonny still there on his hands and knees, breathing through the slim keyhole.
“Is that it, Sonny?” she said.
She heard a rumbling and a mild cough.
“Oh yeah, Miss Trudy, that’s it. Thank you, ma’am. I’ll tell the man you got it all right,” Sonny said.
Trudy could hear his heavy feet sanding the hallway’s floorboards.
Pearl laughed. “Girl, that boy loves your dirty drawers. He is so proud to be doing you a favor, he don’t know what to say. I bet he’d hold your panties back to let yo’ ass pee.”
“Stop it, Pearl,” Trudy said, laughing herself and unfolding the note.
“You know it’s true. You ought to pay that boy some mind. Nothing wrong with getting a man who loves you more than you love him. Man who loves you more is sure to stay at home nights. Nothing wrong with him being a little on the ugly side neither. An ugly man would be so happy to have you. Wouldn’t be pushing you over trying to get in your mirror like these pretty boys do. Ugly’ll treat you right. Treat you like royalty. I’ve had two myself, so I know.” Pearl smeared on more red lipstick.
But Trudy wasn’t paying attention. She was reading the neat handwriting on the tiny note while sipping a glass of red wine.
“What’s it say?” Pearl asked, trying to read over Trudy’s shoulder.
“I’m not telling,” Trudy said coyly. She crumpled the note and dropped it in the trash.
Shirley jerked open the door and hurried through the dressing room door. She’d been listening outside and saw the note on the floor and picked it up and read it out loud. “Dear lady in blue, please join me . . .”
“Don’t be so nosy.” Trudy snatched the note back and ripped it all up.
Shirley had a small cocktail apron over a black, clinging dress. She had already spotted the man in a well-tailored ivory-colored suit. She watched him scribbling a note and handing it to Sonny. She had come back in the dressing room to find out what it said. She had hated Trudy from the first day she’d come on. She felt she did most of the work around the club. Trudy didn’t have to do nothing but stand on the stage and be cute. Besides, all the men wanted to talk to her now. She was squeezing out all Shirley’s action.
Shirley peeked out a small hole drilled through the dressing room wall. You could see the whole club through the tiny peephole. Tony had it done so he could come down and look at who was in the club without them knowing he was there. She saw Sonny making his way back to the table with a man with dark shades and a diamond pinkie ring. The man thanked Sonny and placed a bill in his palm.
“You don’t see many high-class niggas like him up in here,” Shirley said, rapidly popping her gum.
“Let me see.” Pearl looked out the peephole herself. She saw a handsome man in a beautiful woven suit. He sat in one of the red vinyl booths. He was smoking a thin Tiparillo, and his pinkies were all filled with diamonds. The man nodded now and then to people passing his table.
“Well, I’ll be. He’s all grown up, but that sho’ ‘nuff’s him. All this damn time and he still ain’t no good. Look how he’s holding his spoon,” Pearl said, disapproving.
Shirley looked at Pearl like she’d lost her damn mind. “Y’all act too suspicious sometime. Go on and keep yo’ ugly-ass men if you want. I likes mine pretty and I likes mine rich. All I gotta do is swish my big ass. Nigga’d be paying my rent by the end of the week.” Shirley popped her gum three times in Trudy’s face and smiled.
Trudy looked at Shirley and smiled cruelly back. “That big ass of yours ain’t been getting you much.”
Pearl smirked and leaned farther toward the mirror, dousing her bosom with powder.
“You be acting too uppity lately.” Shirley sneered at Trudy and then turned to Pearl. “Why you got to be so hard on the brother who got money? What’d he ever do to you?” Shirley asked Pearl.
“Oh, Cashflo be in here now and then, flashing them nice clothes and pretty-boy smile. Having his whispered conversations, big money changing hands, sending for champagne bottles and junk,” Pearl said.
Trudy peeked out the hole to look too. Ah shit! she said to herself. That sure was him, sitting right there in front. The same one she’d seen in the black SUV. The one with the tan-suit man. What was he doing here?
Trudy dabbed her face and took a quick swig of water.
“What’s wrong with you?” Shirley asked. “You look like you’re sick.”
“I hope you didn’t snack on none of them wings before they got done.” Pearl peeked out the small hole again. “Men like him make me sick too. The only thing a man like him cares about is money, and he ain’t too concerned how he gets it. Your best bet is to stay put. Leave him alone. A man that high-class got to be dealing dirt. Oh, he’ll take you whereever you want to go, as long as it’s on his way.”
“Maybe he got lucky and hit Lotto,” Shirley added.
“Lotto, my ass. It’s crack, if you ask me. He makes money sucking blood from the good folk in our community. I’ve seen many a mama sell her own flesh and bone just for one last hit. Dope man has no soul but the dollar bill, girl. You don’t even want to go there,” Pearl said, disapproving.
“You don’t even know him and now you got him selling dope. Black folks are the most suspicious folks on earth.” Shirley placed her hand on her hip.
“Trudy’d be better off with somebody like Ray Ray,” Pearl said, still dousing her large bosom.
Trudy kept her eyes down toward the floor. Everyone knew Ray Ray had just come from jail.
“I know he looks rough. But that’s a real man, honey. Always respectful. Had yo’ back from day one. He made a mistake but he paid for it, baby. I swear that young man done changed.”
“Ray Ray?” Shirley laughed right in Pearl’s face. “That black jailbird bum? That burned ragamuffin? Who in holy hell would want him? All that boy is a black walking scab.”
“What the hell do you know about picking a good man? All you’ve had was something a gype dog drug in or what an old mangy cat wouldn’t touch if it was drenched in nip. Now hush and just let me finish.”
Shirley popped her gum loudly but sat down and remained quiet.
“We had this girl named Peaches, used to be at the club. Came by to help clean up and cook. She married this fella who drove them old tow trucks. Was always dragging some dead car around.” Pearl laughed to herself and fanned at her bosom. “Black handsome man stood about six-foot-five, with some thick, wavy stuff he brushed down. Peaches would crack us up about that man’s appetite.” Pearl lowered her voice and looked around the room slyly. “And the girl wasn’t talking about food.” Pearl fanned herself again, smiling at the mirror. “Had two pretty babies. Two big fat, juicy boys. As cute as they wanted to be.”
“Who cares,” Shirley said, angrily sawing her nails. She was bored unless the conversation revolved around her. She’d heard enough of Pearl’s backyard gossip.
“Now hold up, wait a minute. I’m fixin’ to tell it.” Pearl held up one of her hands. “Peaches showed up one day and Jimmy was there. That’s his name, Jimmy. I recognized his slick gait a mile away. Pimp-walking, soul-stealing wannabe chump. His mother didn’t want him down in San Diego no more. Dropped him down here every summer. He was five-and-dime then, a little street sucker who sold nickel bags and scratchers. So one day he starts flirting with Peaches at work. They were about the same age, and he’d wait for her on the sidewalk, talking while she swept outside. Next thing we know, she does a no-show the next morning. Nobody knew where she was. Her husband called up about ninety-eight times. Came on down here, holding a kid in each hand. Never did see her. Got turned out is what they say.”
“You mean she never came back? You didn’t see her again? You guys didn’t file a police report or nothing?” Trudy asked.
“Yeah, she came back. Three and a half months later but I swear it wasn’t the same girl. Face all broke out. Big gashes and scars. She used to have the smoothest complexion back then. Came back with her hair matted, wearing some worn, torn-up spandex, turned-over shoes and no socks. Yeah, she came back all right, long enough to get her poor husband’s VCR and TV. Haven’t seen hide nor hair of her since.”
Trudy finished her makeup and looked back at Pearl.
“Well, what happened to that fine-ass husband of hers?” Shirley asked, interested now.
“Jail,” Pearl said. She studied her lap. “I sure miss cooking for that overgrown boy. Man could sit up and eat hisself twenty-eight pancakes. But after what happened to Peaches, he was never the same. Losing poor Peaches shook the man to the bone. Poor thing was never the same. Spent most of his time in that truck hunting for Jimmy. But he’d never gotten a good look at Jimmy’s face. He was going by build. Judging by type. Every fast-talking, game-runnin’ punk made him sick. Lotta folks got whipped down that summer. But Jimmy didn’t feel like duckin’ and dodging no more. So he made a friend call saying he needed a tow, told the friend to use his name. Peaches’s husband don’t say nothing. Pulls up to the curb slow. Shot that boy point-blank in the face.”
“But that wasn’t him! Didn’t somebody tell? Obviously he shot the wrong man.”
“Hell, yeah, they told, but so what? It’s too late. And then Jimmy, who hadn’t shown his punk ass in months, strolls into Dee’s Parlor that very same day, sits there and orders a steak.”
“Well, damn, Pearl,” Shirley said, “it was clearly a mistake.” Shirley licked her finger and held it to her thigh. She made a sizzling sound through her teeth with her tongue. “And when he gets out I got something for him.” She smiled.
Pearl shook her finger in Shirley’s dumb face. “That boy’s serving hard time for murder, you fool. Your hot little ass gonna have to sit there and rot ’cause he ain’t getting out again, honey.”
Shirley spun in the stool like it was a ride. “Oh, like every man y’all had was a nice slice of pie. Pearl, you ain’t exactly no Catholic schoolteacher.” Shirley smiled at the other two women. “Shoot, I seen a lotta y’alls men. Y’all pickin’ off fleas just like everyone else.”
Trudy stood up and got in Shirley’s smirking face. “If I was as silly as you, I swear I’d bite my own tongue.”
Pearl rolled her eyes. She patted her stomach. “Don’t worry ’bout Shirley. She don’t bother me none. Y’all know I didn’t get this old being dumb.”
Pearl turned back to Shirley and adjusted her breasts. “Don’t envy my mornings if you don’t know my midnights. You ain’t never once danced in my pumps. Hell, yeah, I had my share of ragamuffins and whatnot, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. I seen that shit buried down deep inside mean folks’ eyes. Now maybe yours ain’t used to spotting shit yet, but after working in nightclubs for over twenty-odd years, I’d say I was a better judge than yo’ skinny tight ass. See, I watch eyes, baby. Eyes’ll tell you everything you want to know. Teeth might be smiling, hands counting out money, but them eyes. Humph. Lord, chile, them eyes, they don’t lie. Just as evil and mean as you please. See, the wave always goes back into the water and the devil’s ready to sucker punch you again. I done already carried my own share of sorrow. Had two husbands I already done put in the ground. My first one, Lord, girl, we fought every night. Tearing up shit like wild cats and dogs. Rolling on the rug, him pulling my hair and me trying to scratch out his eyes. But I thought my sweet would rub off on him. Shoot, all I ended up with was rug burns. Girl, that man gave me hell, from Monday to Sunday, I’m talkin’ H-E-L-L, hell! Man put the ‘me’ in mean ’cause that’s all he was, mean to me. Finally gave me some peace when he keeled over and died.”
“That has nothing to do with—” Shirley tried to interrupt again.
“Then I met Mr. Jefferson, my second husband.” Pearl smiled up at the ceiling. “Sweet as potato pie. Happy all the time. Didn’t have much money, you understand, but he always helped out. Kept our place spic and span, painting and planting those fruit trees we got. And I didn’t find him at no church Easter Sunday.”
No one knew where Pearl had met her last husband. There was a big patch of time missing out of his past. He’d done some time upstate but she’d never told anyone that. He was good now and that’s all that mattered. And there were some things with Pearl you just didn’t ask, and she didn’t plan on telling them now. “See, some men’s don’t have much but a whole lot of heart. That’s what I’m about. I don’t tangle with mean, honey. Uh-uh, nosirree. Don’t got nothing to do with cruel. You better keep them eyes peeled and watch your back, honey. Them slick ones might grin and they wallets be bulging, but their hearts, girl, are blacker than tar.”
Trudy looked out the peephole again. Two big, burly men sat, flanking each side of Jimmy. She’d have to be careful. Watch each step she made. Pearl might act real country sometimes, but she wasn’t one to be lying. But with fear easing in, Trudy was still determined. She wouldn’t change her plan out of fear of one man. She’d handle him, was all. Like she handled the others. Flirt a bit but stay noncommittal. There was no way she’d turn into somebody’s dumb junkie. All she wanted was money. A chance to get out. She wasn’t taking much. She wouldn’t be greedy. Trudy studied the man’s coal-black eyes a long time.
He was a hurdle. No bones about that. But he’d definitely be her last.
17
Trudy and Jimmy
When Trudy finished her set she pulled through the bar. It was like trying to get off an overstuffed bus.
“Let me buy you a drink, precious.”
“Can I ask you a quick question?”
“Come’ere, gal, and sit on Big Papa’s lap.”
Trudy mildly smiled as she wiggled through tables. Finally she found Vernita’s table. Vernita was sitting between two older men. She’d been in the bar for less than ten minutes and had them both eating out of her hand. One bought her a drink and the other hooked his arm around her chair while she stroked the fine hair on the back of his neck.
“I told you, go bald,” Vernita whispered inside Trudy’s ear. Vernita’s hair was less than a quarter-inch long. “Girl, you pull in a whole different man.”
“Watch,” Vernita said, standing up. “I’ma fool around and dance with ’em both.” Vernita got up, and both men stood too. They looked like they’d follow her right into the ocean. “He-ey,” Vernita said and batted her eyes. “If I gotta go play a white girl on Friday, I might as well be ghetto tonight!”
Trudy laughed watching Vernita dance on the floor sandwiched between two happy men. She’d never seen nothing so raunchy.
Vernita was one who could ignite any party. She was a flare on a dull, dusty road.
All Trudy needed now was to square things with Charles. Her eyes skimmed around the dark edges of the room.
A tall man in black sunglasses approached her chair.
“Excuse me, miss. My friend over there wants to know if you’ll join him.” Trudy glanced over at Jimmy. He smiled and lifted his glass. Tony was sitting beside him.
“Well, why can’t your friend come and ask me himself?”
The man seemed annoyed at Trudy’s response and walked quickly back toward his table. He whispered in Jimmy’s ear. Jimmy looked up and nodded. He stood up, gliding toward where Trudy sat, shaking hands and giving pounds along the way.
“Look at that,” Pearl whispered to Shirley. “What’d I say? Everybody knows the dope man’s name.”
“So what?” Shirley sneered. “All I see is money.”
“Hello,” Jimmy said to Trudy. “May I join you for a moment?” His two boys sat at a table nearby and he moved his chair close to her shoulder.
Pearl walked by and looked down at him hard.
“Evening,” Jimmy said.
Pearl just ignored him and disappeared backstage.
Jimmy waved for Shirley to bring a bottle of champagne.
Shirley sat the bottle down a little too rough. She scratched her giant hair and left.
A burly man sat down at the table a moment. He whispered something to Jimmy and then got up and left too.
