him. He’s really not that bad. Not since Daddy made him get baptized. Boy did that get his goat.”
“I don’t want to get to know him. I don’t like boys,” I said real fast. “I just like girls—and animals.”
“Oh I love animals, too. Especially cats. But I’m allergic to them, and that’s why I don’t have any,” Rhoda informed me.
“Rhoda…uh…what about girls?”
“What about them?”
“Do you like them?” I asked shyly.
“I guess.” She shrugged. “I’m a girl. You’re a girl. My mom. My aunt Lola, they used to be girls.”
“I meant…” My crush on her had intensified.
“You meant what?”
“Nothing,” I muttered. I cleared my throat before continuing. “How did your daddy get to be friends with Mr. Antonosanti?” I wanted to know. We stopped in the same wide hallway where I had met Uncle Johnny.
“Oh, they go way back. Daddy saved Uncle Carmine’s life when they were in the war in Germany a long time ago and Daddy told us Uncle Carmine promised he would make it up to him one day before he died.” Rhoda paused and let out a long sigh, smoothing her hair back out of her face. “After they got out of the army, Daddy returned to Alabama and Uncle Carmine returned to Ohio and he and Daddy kept in close touch. Uncle Carmine’s family has old money. Tons and tons of it,” Rhoda said.
“From bootlegging and hiding money from the IRS?”
“Who in the world told you that?” Rhoda laughed.
“Mr. Boatwright and Caleb. They talk about Mr. Antonosanti and your daddy all the time,” I told her.
Rhoda gasped and looked at me thoughtfully. She was no longer laughing. The information I had just shared with her made her angry. “You tell Mr. Boatwright and Caleb to stop sittin’ around talkin’ trash about everybody! My daddy and Mr. Antonosanti don’t sit around gossipin’ like women in a beauty parlor like they do! My daddy and Uncle Carmine discuss politics and business, like men are expected to!” Rhoda paused and sucked in her breath. “Anyway, to make a long story short, my play Italian uncle put up the money for Daddy’s mortician trainin’ and everythin’. Everythin’ Daddy needed to get him started came from Uncle Carmine. We moved here from Alabama, and they are still the best of friends. It pays to have powerful friends,” Rhoda told me, and winked.
“I know,” I agreed, giving her a pensive look. “Uh…you ever seen or touched any of your daddy’s dead bodies, Rhoda?”
She nodded first, then told me, “My other brother, David, was the first dead body I ever touched. He…died in my arms.” Her voice cracked.
“Oh.” I had been warned by Pee Wee that Rhoda’s dead brother was something to avoid discussing in front of her. I urged her to take me to her room.
Rhoda’s bedroom was just what I expected. All pink and white. The only thing missing was a canopied bed. But she had her own TV and record player, and her closet was full of beautiful and expensive clothes. She motioned with her hand for me to sit on her bed while she stood in front of a wall mirror to check her hair. The bed felt like a soft cloud.
Suddenly, a slim, brown-skinned, brown-eyed woman, with small, delicate features entered the bedroom. This was Rhoda’s beautiful mother, Michelle Jacquelyn Nelson. Mr. Boatwright said she dyed her reddish brown hair to cover the gray. Scary Mary said Mrs. Nelson had to have had her face lifted because there was not a wrinkle in sight. Scary Mary also said that Mrs. Nelson spent most of her spare time in Miss Rachel’s, the most exclusive Black beauty parlor in town, or shopping for clothes she didn’t need. Pee Wee said she was probably having affairs behind the undertaker’s back. I liked the lady immediately and didn’t believe a word of all that gossip. She gave me a big smile.
“You’re that sweet little girl from across the street!” the pretty woman squealed. Her Southern accent was more pronounced than Rhoda’s. She tickled my chins and put her arm around my shoulder. I was so moved I had to fight to hold back my tears. This was the nicest any grown person, other than my mama, had ever been to me. “Gimme some sugar!” I almost fainted when Rhoda’s beautiful mother leaned over and kissed my cheeks with hungry little kisses. Rhoda and her mother had given me the validation I needed to feel whole and important. This validation, this attention and