them. When I took a pie over to them, her daddy, Mr. Grand Dragon Klansman himself, even thanked me for all the time I’d let the girl hang around over here. He said I’d kept her from gettin’ in trouble like his other kids did. He gave me a bear hug and told me to my face I was a ‘do-right’ gal, meanin’ I was a good nigger.”
“Some Klansman,” I said thoughtfully. “Hugging a Black woman must have been a first for him.”
“Tell me about it. He had the nerve to kiss me on the jaw! Listen—I got to get on over there now and help ’em pick out a dress for her to…you know…be buried in. Uh, I guess I won’t get a chance to talk to you until after you get back to Richland.”
“Yeah. Listen, call me as soon as you can at my mama’s house. I’m sure we’ll all feel a whole lot better by then. You take care of yourself.” On one hand I was truly sorry about April’s death, but on the other, I felt strangely relieved. “Rhoda, I think everything’s going to be all right,” I said gently. “For both of us,” I added.
“It will be now,” she said firmly. For a reason unknown to me, after we hung up I held the phone in my hand and just stared at it for a few moments, going over everything Rhoda had just told me.
CHAPTER 53
After being gone for over ten years, I returned to Richland on Thanksgiving Day, in 1978, with a suitcase in one hand and my purse in the other. In my purse was a cashier’s check for almost two thousand dollars, the rest of the money from Mr. Boatwright’s insurance. I took a cab from the bus station to the house on Reed Street. The neighborhood had not changed much. A few of the houses had been painted, and different cars sat in some of the driveways, but other than that, things looked pretty much the same.
I found Muh’Dear, Pee Wee, Scary Mary, Caleb, and old Judge Lawson sitting in our living room waiting for me. The judge was in a wheelchair. After the usual hugs and kisses, I fell onto the couch next to Muh’Dear, and she drapped her arm around my shoulder. I was surprised that she had not told me she had bought all new furniture. For the first time, everything in our living room matched, and the house smelled good. Not like mean greens and pork and mold, but like the fresh outdoors. There were even large healthy-looking plants all over the place.
Everybody looked the way I had expected them to—older, heavier, wrinkled, and gray-haired. Judge Lawson looked like he belonged in a mummy’s tomb. He was still lucid, but the life was gone from his eyes. He had lost all of his hair, and his whole body shook when he talked. Scary Mary still had on a wild reddish wig and too much makeup, and Caleb was still wearing his plaid shirts and stiff, cheap pants. Pee Wee even had a few strands of gray hair. I did, too, for that matter. There was a time when I didn’t think I would live to see the age of thirty. Now I was closer to it than I cared to admit.
In spite of a cold coming on, I felt good. It was good to be home. An old, ugly coat rack that used to sit by the front door was gone. I removed my jacket and placed it on the back of the chair Pee Wee was sitting in.
It made me a little uneasy being in the same room with Pee Wee after what we had done when he had visited me in Erie. I would never look at sex the same way again as long as I lived. I didn’t know if that was good or bad. I was ashamed to admit to myself that I wouldn’t mind doing it with him again. I still couldn’t get over how handsome he had turned out. With all the man-eating women in Richland, I was truly surprised that somebody else had not snatched him up.
“Where is Rhoda’s white uncle?” I asked. “Is he still in jail?”
“Last we heard he was. What a mess he caused owing Antonosanti money, then refusin’ to pay it back. Brother Nelson’s relationship with Antonosanti done got real shaky on account of Johnny. Smart as that undertaker is, he shoulda knowed better than to