hard, my tailbone ached.
I had no love for the woman who had ruined my life, but I wanted to know more about her. Muh’Dear had always advised me, Know thine enemy, because knowledge is power. I had to know for myself what it was about the woman who had managed to weaken my daddy and lure him away from his responsibilities.
Lillimae let out a deep sigh and pressed her thin lips together so tight it looked like they had disappeared. Then she started talking in a low, controlled voice. “Oh, she took off when I was ten. I heard that she lived in Key West for a few years. Mama’s family didn’t want nothin’ to do with me and Sondra and Amos, so we couldn’t keep up with Mama’s life. I just found out three years ago that she’s back in Miami with a new husband. I have two other half-sisters that I’ve never even seen or talked to.” Lillimae blinked and smiled sadly. “That’s why it was so important for me to meet you.”
“Oh.” The kitchen window was open and smoke from one of the houses next door streamed in, making my eyes burn and itch. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. “It’s too bad you don’t get to spend time with her,” I managed. Nobody knew as well as I did how painful it was not to have much of a family. My mother and my Aunt Berniece had been the only relatives I had when I was growing up.
Lillimae continued talking as she started washing dishes. “Mama’s baby brother Lester married a woman I went to school with. Roxanne McFinney. How a cracker like him ended up with such a nice lady is beyond me. I talk to Roxanne every now and then. We go to the same dollar-a-load washhouse. She tells me that my Uncle Lester is so racist, he won’t even wear black underwear. Lester would bite Roxanne’s head off if he knew she associated with a mutt like me in public. But Roxanne still sneaks by here every now and then anyway.”
I didn’t know where Lillimae’s bathroom was, but I could hear Daddy still moaning and cussing. He flushed the toilet about every other minute.
“Poor Daddy. I been tryin’ to get him to go to the doctor to get somethin’ for his stomach. But you know how stubborn some of our Black men are when it comes to their health. And they act like they know everything. Daddy had a runnin’ buddy who wouldn’t listen to nobody when he got these growths on the back of his neck. Even when one started oozin’ pus. Well, bein’ so stubborn got Brother Hamilton nowhere but in a hole at the Oak Grove Cemetery over in Alabama.” Lillimae paused and motioned me back to the living room.
I sat down on the dangerously weak couch. She sat down across from me on a wobbly bamboo chair.
“How long can you stay down here?” Lillimae asked, fanning her face with the tail of her bathrobe, revealing puckered fat on her thighs that reminded me of blisters. It was a struggle, but somehow she managed to cross her massive legs. I didn’t even try to do that, because it was too much trouble.
I looked at my watch before answering. “Just a few days. I need to save some vacation days for my honeymoon cruise.”
A broad smile appeared on Lillimae’s face and she shook her head and clicked her teeth. She rubbed the side of her neck and looked at me, blinking hard. “Girl, would you believe I spent my weddin’ night in the emergency ward gettin’ my jaw wired up? My man beat the livin’ daylights out of me for slow dancin’ with his best man.” She chuckled and let out a deep sigh. “My thirtieth birthday at that. Me and Freddie Lee had already been together for ten years and had two babies.”
“You must have had some wedding reception. Are you still married?” I didn’t laugh. There was nothing funny about a man hitting a female. I still had nightmares about the beatings that Mr. Boatwright had showered me with the few times I tried to keep him out of my bed.
Lillimae shook her head and shrugged. “That thing I married took off before the ink dried on our marriage license. Freddie Lee—that’s my husband’s name—was so jealous, he didn’t even allow me to go to male doctors. Every time I left the house and came back, he made me take off my panties so he could sniff ’em to see if he could smell another man’s juice. I broke his black ass up from that real quick, though. One time I went out and ate the biggest bowl of pinto beans and cabbage greens I could find. Then I washed it all down with some home-brewed beer. My panties was nice and ripe by the time I got home for him to sniff ’em. I didn’t have to worry about none of his foolishness after that.” Lillimae paused and laughed so hard, a huge tear rolled down the side of her face like a marble.
“Where is this Freddie Lee now?” I asked.
Lillimae gave me a serious look and groaned. “He’s in Lauderdale, livin’ with his mama. She manages one of them bait shops and he works with her.” Lillimae paused and grimaced. “Freddie Lee can be such a worm hisself sometimes. No wonder he loves sellin’ worms now.” Lillimae sniffed and then a thoughtful look appeared on her face. “But he is a good daddy to our two precious little boys. That’s why I didn’t mind lettin’ him have them for the summer. When I call to talk to the boys, me and Freddie Lee talk, too. We still love each other. I know we’ll eventually work things out and hook back up. If not for us, for our boys. A child needs both parents to feel whole.” Lillimae gave me a mournful look and quickly glanced over her shoulder in the direction where Daddy was. “I’m sure you know what I mean by that.”
“I do,” I said flatly.
“Besides, I can’t stand bein’ lonely, so I’m just about ready to put up with anything if he decides to come back. Even that panty thing he used to do. Daddy is seventy-two years old now. He won’t be around to keep me company too much longer. I’ve been so blessed to have him with me all these years.”
“I wish I could say that,” I muttered grimly.
Lillimae gasped and frowned. “Excuse me?”
“Oh, I didn’t mean anything by that,” I said levelly, listening as Daddy flushed the toilet again.
CHAPTER 6
It was another twenty minutes before Daddy returned from the bathroom, mopping his face with a wet towel and straightening his bathrobe.
“Lord, I wish I hadn’t et them peppers. Lillimae, can you run out to the drugstore and get me some more Maalox?” he grunted, a severe grimace on his face. “Carry Annette with you so she can sight-see.”
I waited with Daddy in the living room while Lillimae went to put on some clothes and shoes.
Sitting next to me on the couch, Daddy placed his hand over mine and squeezed, smiling so hard his eyes watered. “Annette, I can’t get over how fine you turned out. But then, good-lookin’ females run in my family.”
I listened with interest.
“Daddy, do you have other family? Aunt Berniece said something about you having a brother somewhere. I’d like to get in touch with your other relatives, if you don’t mind.” I thought that at this stage of my life, it was important for me to know as much as I could about my background. I wanted to have some answers for the questions I expected from the children I planned to have with Jerome.
Daddy sighed and shook his head and then an unbearably sad smile crossed his face. “St. Louis was my only brother. He passed last year. He would have been eighty last week. He had a bunch of kids but I don’t know where none of ’em at. Both of my sisters, twins named Collette and Corinna, passed before you was born.” Daddy paused and giggled. “Big-foot gals, both of ’em.” He sniffed and got serious again, massaging his chest. “A car wreck is how they died. They come into this mean old world together and they left it together. Comin’ home from a revival one night, a possum jumped in front of the car and they ran off the Yammagoochee Bridge over in Alabama. Both of ’em died in my arms after me and some boys from the church pulled ’em out of that car. There was a hospital less than five minutes away, but we couldn’t carry them there on account of it was still segregated at the time. Right after Kennedy got in the White House and him and the rest of the decent white folks made new laws, they closed that hospital down to keep from havin’ to doctor on Black folks.” Daddy’s lips quivered and his jaw twitched, almost as much as mine. He sniffed and continued. “Corinna