walked into the restaurant, taking long, slow strides and holding her arms outstretched, palms toward the ceiling.
Little Earl left his stool and met her at the cash register. He sighed and said, “Miss Minnie, please, we talked about this. I just can’t have you doing your readings on Sundays. The Pentecostals’ll have my ass.”
Minnie said, “You and your precious Pentecostals will be happy to know that you won’t have to worry about me or my gift much longer.” She wiggled her head from side to side as she spoke, making her bell ring repeatedly. She lowered the range of her normally high-pitched voice to a deep rumble and said, loud enough for nearly everyone in the place to hear, “Charlemagne says I’ll be dead within a year.”
Most people in the restaurant, having heard Minnie announce grave prophecies that failed to come to pass many times, paid her no mind. Clarice, Barbara Jean, and I stuck around and waited to hear what else she had to say.
Little Earl said, “Why don’t I make you some tea, get you calmed down?”
“There’s no calmin’ me down; I’m facin’ the end. And don’t pretend you’re sad to see it. You’ve wanted me out of the way ever since I married Earl.” She pointed at Erma Mae and added, “You, too. I dare you to deny it.”
Erma Mae was never one for lying. Instead of responding to Minnie, she yelled toward the kitchen, “Belinda, bring some hot tea for Grandma Minnie!”
Little Earl led Minnie behind the register and guided her onto his stool. In a soft, soothing tone of voice he said, “Yeah, that’s right. Have a cup of tea, and then I’ll walk you back across the street. You, me, and Daddy can talk this whole thing out.”
She made a kind of a squawking noise and dismissed him with a wave of her hand. “There’s nothin’ to talk out. A year from now, I’ll be dead.”
Clarice was tired of listening to Minnie’s ramblings. She whispered in my ear, “My food is getting cold. Are we about done listening to this old fake?”
Minnie screamed, “I heard that!” She was old; but you had to hand it to her, the woman still had excellent hearing. She leapt from the stool and lunged at Clarice, ready to dig her purple polished nails into Clarice’s face.
Little Earl held her back and got her onto the stool again. She immediately burst into tears, sending black trails of mascara down her copper cheeks. Maybe she’d been faking it for so long that she’d started to believe herself. Or maybe she really had talked to Charlemagne. Fake or not, we all could clearly see that this was a woman who believed what she was saying. Even Clarice felt bad watching Minnie break down like that. She said, “Minnie, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
But Minnie wasn’t ready to hear apologies or be consoled.
“I knew this was gonna happen. Nobody cares what happens to me. As soon as Charlemagne told me that I’d be dead within a year of Earl, I knew I’d get no sympathy.”
Little Earl, who had been patting his stepmother on the back while she wailed, took a step away from her and said, “What?”
“Charlemagne came to me early this morning and said that I would follow Earl to the grave within a year. Those were his exact words.”
Now the restaurant grew quiet as people began to catch the drift of what she was saying.
“Are you saying that Daddy is dead?”
“Yeah, he died last night while he was sayin’ his prayers. Between that and my bad news from Charlemagne this morning, I’ve had a terrible, terrible Sunday, let me tell you.”
Little Earl grabbed Minnie’s shoulders and spun her on the stool so she faced him directly. “Daddy died last night … and you didn’t call me?”
“I was gonna call you, but then I thought, If I call ’em, they’ll feel like they’ve got to come over. Then there’ll be the preacher and the undertaker and maybe the grandkids. With everybody makin’ such a fuss, I’ll never get a lick of sleep. So I thought it out and figured your daddy would be just as dead if I got a good night’s rest as he’d be if I called you and didn’t get my sleep. So I just let it be.”
James, Richmond, and Lester came over from the window table then and joined us. No one said anything, and Minnie sensed that it wasn’t an approving silence. She looked