night,” Mr. Boatwright informed me. There was a look of total amazement on his face. “If I’d knowed Brother Nelson was such a shylock, I’d have borrowed from that Eye-talian buddy of his’n in the first place like his brother Johnny done.”
“You borrowed five hundred dollars from Mr. Nelson? What for?” I mouthed.
“For the poker game I got dragged into last night at the judge’s house.”
“Why would he lend that kind of money to you when he knows your only income is a monthly disability check?” I was thoroughly stunned.
“’Cause I thought I could borrow against my life insurance policy. Them dawgs down at the insurance company say there’s a thirty-day waitin’ period. Iffen they don’t have my money ready in exactly thirty days, I’m gwine to sue ’em.”
I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing.
“Why don’t you tell Mr. Nelson that? Otherwise, you’re going to have to hide from him for thirty days,” I pointed out. Mr. Boatwright looked frightened. His eyes shifted from left to right like he was trying to come up with a plan.
“Scary Mary gwine to let me borrow it from her tomorrow after she go to the bank.” He sighed with uncertainty. “But I ain’t countin’ on that unpredictable heifer. She full of surprises. Told me she was savin’ up so she could buy her some reliable transportation. The broomstick she probably gwine to buy can’t cost that much.” He laughed, then suddenly gave me a thoughtful look.
“Then Scary Mary will have to wait for your insurance to pay off?”
“Well, I figured I’d pay off the undertaker and wait a few days. Borrow the money back and pay Scary Mary. I’d let it set in her pocket for a day or so, borrow it again, pay back Brother Nelson again and so on…” Mr. Boatwright was still talking, but I had stopped listening. He finally stopped babbling, but I tried to get him started again. Anything to distract him. It wouldn’t be long before Mama got home, and he wouldn’t have time to bother me if I kept him talking long enough.
“All rich people think about is money,” I insisted, nodding for emphasis. I was totally on Mr. Nelson’s side, but Mr. Boatwright didn’t need to know that.
“That’s how they got rich,” Mr. Boatwright snapped. He babbled on about the evils of rich people until Muh’Dear got home, an hour later.
CHAPTER 13
Days would go by and there would be no sexual contact between Mr. Boatwright and me. The older I got, the more schemes I came up with to get out of it, such as leaving for school before he woke up. It meant getting up a lot earlier, rushing around a lot, and missing breakfast, but it was worth it. The only thing I didn’t like was having to sit on a park bench around the corner while waiting for my usual time to pick up Rhoda.
Richland had only one library, and I spent a lot of time there. But when that time doubled, the librarians started giving me suspicious looks. I didn’t care. I had made up my mind that I’d spend as many hours there as it took to avoid Mr. Boatwright.
Then what I expected to happen, did. After about two weeks, Mr. Boatwright complained to Mama that I was spending a lot of time “runnin’ the streets”.
“Annette, Brother Boatwright is concerned you may get in trouble out there in them streets. And you done missed your last five Bible lessons. From now on, you come straight home from school. And don’t you be runnin’ out in the mornin’ without breakfast.”
“I have to go to the library to study—” I attempted to protest.
“How come you can’t study in the house like you been doin’?” Mama asked. I didn’t like arguing with Mama. I didn’t like upsetting her. “You get home and do whatever Brother Boatwright tell you to do. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Ma’am,” I muttered, almost in tears. I always did what Mama told me to do, and Mr. Boatwright knew that.
“Gimme back my dollar!” Mr. Boatwright always made me return his money when I didn’t satisfy him in bed. This was the first time in over a week that he had come into my room before I got up for school. I had argued with him, and I had even tried to push him away. But his threats and strength were against me.
He rolled off me and sat up on the bed and gobbled some pills, then