Malachi Moon, page 11
Malachi stared at him.
“Goddamn it, boy, move!” Bear shouted.
Malachi jumped out of his chair and ran to get the pickax handle. He turned around in time to see Bear sticking the .38 revolver into his waist. He watched as Bear came from around the desk like a madman. His strides were long and purposeful. Malachi opened the door and Bear didn’t break stride as he exited. Malachi followed him.
Malachi had to half run, and full trot to keep up with Bear. He glimpsed at the faces of those he passed. Everyone seemed to be watching them. He gripped the pickax handle as if his life depended on it. He and Bear ascended the stairs two and three at a time until they were standing in front of room 323.
Malachi watched as Bear removed the ring of keys from his belt buckle. He jiggled the keys quietly as he searched for the right on. When he found it, he stuck it in the keyhole.
“Listen, Malachi, when I open this door, we going in there to bust some head,” Bear said. He turned to Malachi. “Just follow my lead, ya hear, boy.”
Malachi swallowed hard. His eyes widen, and he nodded. His right leg began to tremble.
Bear turned back to the door. Malachi watched him as he slowly turned the doorknob. He swallowed hard again, and licked his dry lips. For some reason, he couldn’t find any spit in his mouth.
Bear quickly opened the door and rushed in followed by Malachi.
Stump lay on the bed with his arms behind his head. His bed was facing the door. He smiled when he saw Bear and Malachi.
“Damn, Bear. You could’ve knocked, man,” Stump said. He laughed at the expression on Bear’s face. “You surprised to see me?”
Bear closed the door. He reached for his waist and removed the .38 revolver. “You sneaky bastard. I told myself if I ever see you again, I would put a bullet between your lying, no good eyes,” Bear said. He walked toward the bed.
“Yeah, I thought you’d feel that way,” Stump said. He sat up. “I never meant to hurt you, Bear. I just couldn’t take it anymore.”
Malachi watched Bear and Stump. Stump had an expression of solace, whereas Bear’s expression was filled with anger. He gripped the pickax handle tighter as it lay against his leg, and hoped he didn’t have to use it, but he knew, deep down, that if Bear called on him to weld it, he would split Stump’s skull open without any hesitation. Bear had shown Rose Ann and him nothing but love since they’d agreed to be his friend, and friendship was hard to come by in Blackenfield. He knew that now.
“You couldn’t take what, Stump?” Bear asked, as he took another step closer to the bed. “You couldn’t take the Brown brothers putting pressure on you? You couldn’t take the time to wait until we built something worthwhile? You couldn’t wait for what, huh, Stump?”
Stump reached under the sheet.
Bear pointed the gun at Stump and cocked it.
Malachi gasped.
“Relax, Bear. I didn’t come all the way from Canada to harm you,” Stump said. “I came to bring you something.”
Malachi watched as Stump rose up and tossed Bear a burlap bag. Bear caught it with his free hand. His good eye never left Stump.
“All debts are paid,” Stump said. He lay back down with his arms under his head again.
Bear looked at the burlap bag. He passed the gun to Malachi. Malachi looked at it.
“Take the damn thing, and keep it on him,” Bear said. “He’s as slick as an eel.”
Malachi continued to stare at the gun in Bear’s hand. He’d never held a gun before, and was a little frightened.
“If you don’t take this gun, boy, I will slap it up against your thick ass head!” Bear snapped. “Take it!”
Malachi reluctantly reached for the gun. Its handle felt hot in his hand. The weight of it felt heavy to him as well. He swallowed hard...again.
Bear reached into the burlap bag and pulled out a handful of money.
“One thousand dollars, Bear. I can’t buy back what we had, but I can repay what I stole,” Stump said.
Bear looked up from the bag at Stump. “It was only five hundred. What’s the other five hundred for?” he asked.
“Guilt money,” Stump said.
“Guilt money, huh?”
“Guilt money, Bear, that’s all. Nothing more,” Stump said.
“How long you staying?” Bear asked. He stuffed the burlap bag into the front of his waist. “I mean, it don’t make me no neither mind, but out of...curiosity.”
“Not long. I just wanted to see Blackenfield. It’s been a long—“
“Time! Yeah, I know,” Bear said. “Even longer when my money is stolen.” Bear said as he reached for the gun. He uncocked it, and placed it in the small of his back. “I hope you paid for your room in advance.”
Stump laughed. “I gave your boy five days in advance when I took this room,” he said.
“Good,” Bear said. He gestured for Malachi to head to the door with a toss of his head. “Ain’t nothing on the house, and don’t be tossing my name around the Queen thinking you’re going to get anything free.”
Stump said nothing as he watched Bear and Malachi walk to the door and open it.
“Bear?” Stump called out. “I’ve missed you and the Queen.”
Bear didn’t look behind him. “Go to hell, Stump,” he said, as he slammed the door closed.
Stump laughed. His laughter could be heard down the hallway as Bear and Malachi walked.
“Who was that, Bear?” Malachi asked. He’d placed the pickax handle nonchalantly over his left shoulder as they walked down the hallway.
“He used to be my best friend.”
Malachi glanced at Bear. “The one who took your eye?” he asked.
“Yeah. Best friends can one day become your worse enemy,” Bear said.
Chapter Seven
Later that evening brought another headache to Bear as he paced Sally’s dressing room shaking his fists in the air.
“What the hell do you mean you’re not going on tonight, Sally?” Bear asked. He stopped in front of Sally. “The place is packed. They’re out there begging for you.”
Sally sat at her mirrored dresser sipping from a glass and swinging her crossed leg. She was wearing a thick beige robe with nothing underneath.
Bear slapped his hands on his big thighs. He spun around and began shaking his fists in the air again while pacing the floor.
Malachi was standing by the door watching.
“I don’t give a raccoon’s ass how pack it is. I want to know why you haven’t proposed to me!” Sally shouted. “You and I been doing the wife and husband thing for a minute now, and I want to know when we’re getting married to make it real.”
Malachi had been half listening to them argue since they went through the same scenario twice or three times a week, but this was different. His ears perked up attentively at the mention of marriage.
Bear stopped. When he turned to face Sally, his mouth was hanging open.
“That’s right, you bastard! I said it. Marry. When are we going to get M-A-R-R-Y?” Sally asked.
Malachi smiled. He didn’t know Sally could spell without using a curse word in her sentence.
“Married? Sally, come on, baby, you don’t want to marry me,” Bear said. He walked toward Sally. He dropped to one knee, and placed his hands on her hands. “I’m not the marrying kind. You want someone who’s going to be there for you. I’m not that person. Marriage is for people who will love and give love unconditionally, honey. Me, I’m that kind of person when the marriage gets rough, I got to get away.”
“I understand,” Sally said. She reached for the mug that contained the moonshine, and refilled her large mason jar. “You want the milk, but when it’s time to buy the cow, you don’t want it anymore. Well, goddamn it! You will be buying this cow from this day forward! They’ll be no more nibbling on your sausage for me. No more backdoor shots when my monthly cycle comes around and you’re feeling horny. No more sucking on the man in the boat when you can’t get your nature to rise. No marriage. No goddamn nothing! You cheap, no good, slimy, bastard!”
Malachi was smiling when Bear glanced over at him. Bear shook his head.
“I don’t know why you’re looking at Malachi. He ain’t sleeping with you. I am,” Sally said.
A knock on the door made Malachi turn around and open it.
Rose Ann slipped through. “The crowd outside is getting mighty rowdy,” she said, as Malachi closed the door behind her.
“Fuck them! They can all go to hell!” Sally screamed.
“What’s wrong with the foul mouth woman?” Rose Ann whispered to Malachi.
“Bear won’t marry her,” Malachi said.
“If I were him, I wouldn’t marry her either. Selfish ass hoe!” Rose Ann hissed.
“Little bitch, I heard that,” Sally said. Her words had become slurred. “The problem with you young bitches still smelling yourselves, is that you ain’t lived long enough to endure no real complications from men. Your titties are still high up and hard. Your ass is young and round, and you’re still in the learning stage of a man teaching you what he likes. That being the case, you need to keep your little trap shut. And I mean both holes. The one on your face and the one between your legs.”
“You know, when I first met you, I was a little scared of you, but that’s because I’d never met anyone as disgusting as you before,” Rose Ann said, as she walked closer to Sally. “It was only after I’d gotten to know your hot, foul mouth, and all the things you say out of it, that I became less frightened of your ignorant ass. So what he won’t marry you. Is it because you ain’t marrying material? Maybe. And if that is the case, you need to change your ways if you want him to marry you. So, before you start putting me down as the girl who doesn’t know anything, you ought to look at yourself first. You see, when this is all over with, you still gonna have to look in the mirror and see that ugly puss of yours. ”
“Rose Ann!” Malachi snapped.
Rose Ann continued walking until she was standing in front of Sally.
“The problem is that you keep your legs open too wide and you don’t know when to close them. Your mouth is as big as that thang between your legs. If you keep them both shut for awhile, you might get what you want,” Rose Ann said. “Men don’t want no woman who can cuss as good as them, or no woman who thinks she’s God’s gift to every man when she’s lying on her back with her legs up in the air. I don’t know much, but I know that...bitch!”
Rose Ann spun around on her heels and walked back toward Malachi.
Sally looked at Rose Ann. “So, the quiet, bashful, little girl has grown up,” she said.
Rose Ann looked at Bear. “You don’t need her to sing. Malachi can sing better than she can anyway, Bear,” she said.
“Malachi?” Bear and Sally said in unison.
“Yep. Malachi can sing,” Rose Ann said with pride as she lifted her chin.
Malachi wanted to will himself through the door and disappear as all eyes turned toward him.
“I didn’t know you could sing, Malachi,” Bear said.
“Hah! Malachi can sing my ass!” Sally snapped, as she brought the mason jar of moonshine to her lips. “Who the hell is going to pay to hear him sing?”
Rose Ann put an arm around Malachi’s shoulder. “My brother can sing,” she said.
“The Queen belongs to me when I’m on that stage,” Sally said. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She gave Rose Ann a threatening stare as she stood up. When she did, her robe fell opened to reveal her breasts. “No one can hold that stage floor like I can. It belongs to me.”
“Malachi can hold it, and take it away from you,” Rose Ann said, as she turned her head away from Sally’s nakedness. “You only hold it because you never had any competition.”
Bear walked over to Malachi. “You can sing the blues?” he asked.
“Huh? Uh...a little,” Malachi said.
“He can sing more than a little, Bear. He can sing real, real good,” Rose Ann said as she smiled at Sally.
Bear stared at Malachi.
“I’m the marquee player on that stage, Bear. Without me, they’ll be no Queen,” Sally said.
“Go get what you need. Tonight, you gonna go on stage,” Bear said.
“What? Bear, have you lost your damn mind?” Sally asked, as she turned to Bear. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Bear ignored her.
Rose Ann opened the door. “Let’s go to the stage,” she said, as she bent in the waist while giving a sweeping hand downward toward the door. “Your audience is waiting for you, sir.”
The three of them walked out of Sally’s room.
When Bear closed the door behind him, they all heard the sound of glass shattering against it.
“I guess I won’t be getting married this year,” Bear said. “Unless you can’t sing, Malachi. And, if that’s true, then boy, you got an ass whipping coming, because that woman is not going to let me hear the last of this shit.”
Ten minutes later, Malachi, wearing a bow tie and white shirt with black pants, stood in front of thirty rowdy, drunk, and obnoxious men and women. He pulled a high stool that was several feet away toward him and sat down.
“What the hell are you doing on stage, boy?” a man wearing a dirty brown hat said. “You don’t look like fat ass Sally to me.”
“Yeah,” shouted another man on the opposite side of the room. “I didn’t spend all my money on this rotgut moonshine to listen to you. Where’s Sally? I come here to be entertained.”
“Let his fine ass sing!” Screamed a woman dressed in all red who was sitting in the middle of the room between two burly looking men wearing suits. “I’ll pay my money just to see him take off his shirt.”
“Me too,” said another woman standing several feet to the right of Malachi wearing a small cream colored blouse and matching skirt that fell to the top of her knees. “Go ahead, baby. Let Grace hear you sing, and when you finish I can take you to my room and let you hear me sing while I wrap these big, black thighs around that pretty face of yours.”
Her comment made the crowd erupt in laughter.
“Play with the guitar or play with yourself, boy, but don’t stand up there looking cute,” the man in the dirty brown hat said. “I came here to hear some blues.”
“If you don’t want to play that guitar, I’ll let you play with these,” the woman in the red dress said, as she pulled down the front of her dress to expose her ample breasts. “They’ll make a better sound than that guitar if you hit them with the right note.”
Malachi watched the woman stuff her breasts back inside her dress, as the crowd grew louder and rowdier.
“Malachi? Malachi?” Bear shouted over the noise from the side of the stage to the right of him. “Boy, I got faith in you. Take your time,” he said. “You can do it.”
Malachi sat down. He placed the guitar on his lap. He looked out into the crowd. He could see drunken faces, curious faces, and nonchalant faces all staring back at him. He knew if he’d been a shade lighter, he’d be sitting up there pale as a redneck backside. He licked his lips, and then he began to string the guitar with his pick.
“I’m a loneeeelllyyyly rider, riding on a donkey with no sense. A ornery thing that’s kept my hide raw and sooooorrrreeeere. It pays me no miiimmnnndddd when I call its name. That’s a painful shame... I ride this donkey strong. The donkey ignores me, and kicks me in my head when I’m wrroonnnonggg... I done rode that donkey until I can’t ride no more, but if I get off, the damn donkey is going to go sleep on the floor.”
Malachi played the guitar as if he’d been playing it for years. Every cord he strung appeared to come alive. His voice filled the room with a soothing blues comfort. He saw heads nodding along with the song, and feet tapping rhythmically with cords of the song. A resounding hush fell on the room. When Malachi looked out into the crowd, he was amazed at the stares that greeted him.
“I worked them fields... like a man... with no sense. My hands bleeding, and the sweat running off my faaacceeeace. I scream at that donkey...Movvvvve, girl... cause a storms brewing. I got to get this job done... Run home to my woman and have me some fun... I ain’t got no time to play... no time to stay. I got me a real woman home, donkey, and she needs her man on this hot and horny daaaayyyy.”
Malachi hit three more cords on the guitar. Stringing them beautifully. When he finished, he smiled, for he’d made it through the song with a crowd that had never heard him sing before. To him, if they didn’t like the song, he didn’t care. In his heart, he gave it all he had.
No one in the crowd said a word.
The woman wearing the red dress walked up to the stage.
Malachi stared at her. He knew to expect the worse. He got off the stool and took a step back.
The woman wearing the red dress ripped off her top, and tried to climb onto the stage. “Take me, boy, I’m yours!” she shouted.
From that moment on, pandemonium erupted in the Queen. Men were slamming their glasses on the tables while striking the floor with their feet. The women began dancing around tables and grabbing any man or woman who would dance with them.
Bear rushed onto the stage, and grabbed Malachi in a strong bear hug while lifting him off the floor. “Goddamn it, boy! I’ve been in a lot of hole-in-the-wall joints during my days, but I ain’t never heard nobody sing the blues the way you did,” he said.
“Sing something else, boy!” shouted the man in the dirty brown hat. “Hell, you got these women in her creaming for you, son. When you got them wet, you got to keep throwing that juice on them. Sing another song!”
Bear put Malachi down. “Do you think you got another one in you, Malachi?” he asked. He stared hard into Malachi’s eyes. “Do you, boy?”
“Malachi hesitated. “I think so,” he said.
“No, Malachi. Do you have another real good one in you?” Bear asked. There was desperation in his voice. “Can you do it?”
“Yeah...I can do it.”
Rose Ann, who was standing toward the back, glanced over to see Sally still wearing her robe to the right of her.
“I told you he could sing,” Rose Ann said.
