God Don't Play. Mary Monroe

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СКАЧАТЬ We shared some secrets that were so complicated you needed a pie chart to explain them. And so serious they could have put us both in prison for a very long time. But I’ll get to that later.

      Other than the police, the ambulance, and the fire department, Rhoda’s number was the only other one I had on speed dial. My mother would have made a huge fuss about that if I’d been stupid enough to tell her. Not that I cared more about Rhoda than I did my own blood, but, well, there was no way I could explain what Rhoda meant to me. Not to my mother, my husband, or anybody I knew. When I thought about how important Rhoda was to me, I recalled some lyrics from an old Curtis Mayfield tune called “Pusherman”: I’m your mama, I’m your daddy, I’m that nigger in the alley… That old song, which the local R&B radio station still played on their oldies-but-goodies hours, was referring to a drug dealer. Right now Rhoda was the fix that I needed. I pressed the buttons for her number so hard on the telephone in my living room that the ball of my index finger throbbed.

      “Woman, please be home,” I chanted. “Please be home. I need to talk to you.”

      I had never meant to hurt anybody before in my life, but apparently I had done something that had pissed off at least one person. The innocent-looking envelope that had entered my life so calmly had struck me like a torpedo. I whipped my head around and looked toward the front door, wondering where the sender was at the moment, hoping that he or she did not occupy a residence too close to mine.

      All of a sudden it occurred to me that the note had to have been sent as a joke. That had to be it! What else could it be? Like the black plastic snake in a gift-wrapped box addressed to me, which somebody had left on my desk at work a few days ago. I had laughed about that, and so had my co-workers. I still didn’t know who had sent that to me. Now I had to wonder if the blacksnake and the nasty note were related.

      “Hello,” Rhoda answered on the third ring.

      I was having trouble responding. I opened my mouth and my lips and tongue moved, but nothing came out but a few drops of dribble, sliding down my chin like poison.

      “I said, hello!” Rhoda snapped. “Is anybody there?”

      “Hi, it’s me. Can I come over? I have something to show you,” I muttered in a voice that sounded like it belonged to a timid child.

      There was a moment of silence before Rhoda replied. “I was on my way out the door,” she said softly. “You don’t sound too good, girl. Is somethin’ wrong?”

      “Uh-huh,” I replied, still sounding like a timid child. My heart had not thumped half as hard and loud during my phone sex session with Pee Wee as it did now. And there was no telling when I’d make it to the nail shop now. But the claws on my hands were the least of my worries.

      “Well, why don’t I just come over there instead?” Rhoda asked, her slight southern accent sounding more prominent.

      “Okay, but hurry up,” I said, breathing hard and loud. I didn’t realize I was sweating, too, until a few drops fell off my face onto my ashy hand.

      There was a long pause before Rhoda spoke again. “You sound serious. Don’t you want to tell me what this is about?”

      “Well, it’s probably nothing, but I think I’ve pissed somebody off,” I said in a flat voice, making a mental note to put some lotion on my hands.

      “Well, you are pissin’ me off by bein’ so mysterious. Exactly what are we talkin’ about here?”

      “I just received something in the mail,” I stated, sucking in my breath. I had to clear my throat before continuing. “And it’s not very nice. As a matter of fact, it’s downright mean. Maybe you can convince me that it’s nothing to worry about.”

      CHAPTER 5

      “Well, if it’s not a dead chicken, I could probably convince you that it’s nothin’ serious,” Rhoda chuckled. “Or one of those fierce-looking dolls with pins sticking out of it. There is a lot of shit bein’ sent through the mail these days. I’m glad that a lot of that useless junk doesn’t come to my address,” Rhoda said, releasing one of those proud snorts that smug people were known for. “I’m so glad that I don’t have to worry about openin’ my mailbox and findin’ none of that shit.”

      Like your teenage daughter’s sex toys, I thought to myself. I wondered what Rhoda would say if I revealed that information to her. I didn’t really want to know, so I put that thought out of my mind right away.

      Rhoda was, without a doubt, one of the most intelligent people I knew. But there were times when it seemed like she was a little dense, or slow, when it came to recognizing a serious situation. I didn’t like her initial response to the peculiar information that I’d just shared with her.

      “This is not a joke, Rhoda. Well, it could be a joke, but I don’t know who would find something like this funny.”

      “Annette, what the hell are you talkin’ about?”

      When Rhoda was impatient, she didn’t even try to hide it. I could even hear her drumming her fingers on a hard surface.

      “This morning I received one of the meanest notes I ever received in my life. As a matter of fact, it is the meanest note I ever received in my life. A few kids used to pass me nasty notes in school but this is not kid stuff.”

      “What do you mean by ‘received’? Who sent it to you?” Rhoda demanded.

      “I have no idea who sent it to me. They didn’t sign it with a real name. And they didn’t include a name or return address on the envelope. It came in the mail this morning in a cute little pink envelope, smelling like a rose.” I don’t know how or why, but I let out a sharp laugh. “It was typed and it looks so…professional. Like somebody really gave this a lot of thought.” I bit my bottom lip and looked around my living room, paying close attention to the corners and other hiding places where a bogeyman might lurk.

      “Auntie, did you tell Mama about the blacksnake yet?” It was the voice of Jade.

      She had the annoying habit of eavesdropping on some of my telephone conversations with Rhoda. I had a problem with that because there were many things I felt that Jade didn’t need to know yet. Even though she was a very mature seventeen-year-old. Complaints and even punishment didn’t faze Jade. This girl thought that the world revolved around her, and that she could do whatever she wanted to do. It was no surprise that she did do whatever she wanted to do, and with little or no consequences.

      “Girl, get your ass off that phone!” Rhoda yelled.

      “Yes, ma’am. Anything you say,” Jade said with an irritating whine. Then she let out a loud sigh before she slammed the extension down. She had her own telephone in her bedroom with a separate line. But she was such a busy little body that she liked to be all up in her mother’s business, too.

      “You’d better enjoy Charlotte as much as you can now. Another Jade is what you have to look forward to,” Rhoda told me with a heavy sigh. “I swear to God, sometimes that girl makes me itch all over! I just wish that she was more like her big brother,” Rhoda added.

      I never took Rhoda seriously when she “complained” about Jade. Because Rhoda bowed down to Jade like she was royalty. She didn’t even convince me that she was serious. Rhoda’s only other child, a handsome young man named Julian, lived in Mobile, Alabama, where he owned and operated СКАЧАТЬ