at our table, friendly words waltzing in the winds.
I said, “If you don’t mind a sister being honest, Rosa Lee—”
She waved her hand. “Go right ahead.”
“—but you don’t look like you have four kids.”
She made a funny face. “Let me guess. You thought my uterus would be hanging out like a slip that’s three sizes too big?”
Rosa Lee was so chatty tonight. That day we’d met at church, homegirl was weird, as distant as the Milky Way. I didn’t understand her new spunky disposition, made me think she was a bit schizo in the membrane. Then, in the middle of my next breath it dawned on me why she was so free. Because Vince’s lies were out in the open. Because they knew I knew.
I told Rosa Lee, “We’re meeting my buddy Gerri and her boyfriend for dinner in Hollywood. Why don’t you come and hang out with us?”
She answered, “Rain check. Have to get the kids from Harmonica. Always have to get back before it’s too late. We haven’t been in a club in eons.”
Womack’s fingers were tapping along with the Coltrane-style jazz, but his big brown eyes were on a fresh batch of chatty sisters who were passing by Melissa’s Bridal and Formal. Young sisters in high and ugly Herman Munster-style tennis shoes, sporting acres of cleavage and butts.
My attention went to Rosa Lee. Her radar was on; she’d noticed. A subtle frown came over her face, then a curt smile.
She said, “Womack? We’re over here, honey.”
Womack’s focus came back, first to his wife, then to the rest of us.
My pager hummed.
Oh, Malaika, what the fuck is going on?
I tried to keep myself in the here and now, told Rosa Lee something I already knew to start a conversation. “You’re a schoolteacher.”
“Yep. Middle school.”
“How you like it?”
“Let me tell you about last week.” She leaned in like she was about to tell a fantastic story. “I have this student, she’s black, twelve years old, almost six feet tall, and her breasts look better than mine ever will.”
Everybody laughed.
“The girl never does any work, and I was going to write a referral and send her to the office, you know, not participating, whatever, because I’d had it up to my eyes with her attitude. But when I got to her desk, she had her makeup case—”
I said, “A makeup case?”
“Yes, she did. I looked inside the makeup case—”
Vince added, “Uh-huh.”
“She had a pack of condoms.”
Womack asked, “What brand?”
“That’s not the point.” Rosa Lee waved him away. “She was twelve, and she had condoms. An open pack, not a new pack, and a couple were missing. That sent a nippy feeling up my back.”
With wide eyes I asked, “What you do?”
“I scowled down at the condoms. Shot daggers at her. She looked at me. I said, ‘You have condoms at school.’ She nodded at me like I was the town idiot, perked up, picked one up, extended it toward me, and had the nerve to say, ‘You need one, Mrs. Womack? Take it. You might get lucky.’ ”
I wailed, “No shit?”
By then everybody at our table was howling.
“All of you, stop laughing,” Rosa Lee said, but she was cracking up too. “That was somebody’s daughter. A twelve-year-old child. Womack, stop laughing and spitting; cover your mouth before I get cooties.”
Vince said, “You said the little freak had body.”
“That’s irrelevant. She was twelve. Her mind was less than that. Yes, with her big boobs and long hair, she could pass for high school, maybe even college. All I could do was look at her and see her in the backseat of somebody’s ride, trying to be a woman before she could spell the word. Acting like she’s grown, getting knocked up, then spending the rest of her life living down a bad decision just like—”
Rosa Lee stopped laughing. So did Womack. Exasperation was in his eyes. Uneasiness came off Vince, I smelled it. He eased back. Rosa Lee shifted, like she was catapulting her mind away from a bad memory.
Boy, oh, boy. The mood had definitely changed.
“No more talk about school or children,” Rosa Lee announced, and ran her fingers through her wild hair.
Vince nudged her playfully. “No problem, schoolteacher. We can talk about the time LAPD beat down people at a poetry reading right here in Leimert Park, causing yet another mini-riot.”
Rosa Lee smiled a bit. “Don’t start with that. Don’t upset me.”
Vince joked on, “Or about our favorite African American congressmen selling out and taking away the free parking.