show on her, I allowed her to eat what she wanted, as long as she didn’t overdo it. I did enough of that for my whole family.
“Rhoda, if something happens to me or Pee Wee, will you promise me you’ll take care of Charlotte?” I wasn’t sure what prompted me to say that.
“Sure. I’d love to raise another child. But what about your mama and your sister in Miami?” Rhoda asked with an anxious look on her face.
“Muh’Dear is too old. So is Daddy. And Lillimae, well, I think she’s enjoying her solitude too much to try to raise another child. She kicked her own kids out of the house as soon as they turned eighteen.” I paused and let out a quick laugh, but Rhoda remained dead serious.
“What brought that on? You’re not sick or anything, are you?”
“Not that I know of. But you know, anything can happen to any one of us.”
Rhoda gave me a sad look. “Tell me about it. Every day I wake up, able to move on my own, I wonder how long it’ll be before the damage that stroke did to my body gets the best of me.” Rhoda smiled. “I’ll make a deal with you. If somethin’ happens to you, I’ll take Charlotte into my home. If somethin’ happens to me, you take Jade into your home.”
I gasped. “I’d be glad to take Jade into my home,” I promised. But something in the back of my mind made me wish I had never started this conversation.
CHAPTER 13
I was feeling real good now. I had almost forgotten about the note and the blacksnake that I had received, and the mean telephone call. No matter how negative all that was, the list of positive things in my life was a lot longer.
I had even gotten over the fact that Pee Wee had gone to the Red Rose before the cookout to have a drink. Even though it was one of the nights that Betty Jean tended the bar.
While Rhoda and I were in the kitchen, gathering napkins and paper plates, Pee Wee staggered in. Dust and dried leaves decorated his face, arms, and hair. He looked like a scarecrow. Between sips from a bottle of beer, Pee Wee told Rhoda that she was glowing like a woman in love.
“Oh, I am. I am a woman in love,” she swooned, giving Pee Wee and me a mysterious look. Otis walked into the kitchen just in time to hear Rhoda’s response to Pee Wee’s comment.
“Of course she loves me. How can she not?” Otis slurred, giving Rhoda a sloppy kiss. They acted lovey-dovey until we left the kitchen and returned to the yard.
Just as I was about to pop open another beer, I heard the telephone ring in the kitchen. Jade was in the kitchen so I didn’t make a move to go answer it. She stuck her head out the kitchen window and told me that I had an urgent phone call. There was a frantic look on her face.
Urgent or not urgent, I took my time walking to the kitchen. The last time I had tried to run after drinking a few beers, I ended up flat on my face on the ground with a bloody nose, and scrapes and bruises from my chin to my forehead. As soon as I entered the kitchen, Jade held up her hand, motioning me to stop.
“What did you say? Fuck you, you bitch! That’s my auntie you’re talking about!” Jade screamed into the telephone receiver. My mouth dropped open and I started moving toward Jade, reaching for the telephone. But before I could reach Jade, she slammed the telephone back into the cradle.
“Who in the hell was that you were cussing at, girl?” I shouted, gripping Jade by her trembling arm.
“Auntie, it was that bitch,” Jade sobbed. She rotated her neck and took a deep breath. “Oh, this is real messed up! That…That lady was so mean to me and she doesn’t even know me! I don’t know why she cussed at me. All I did was answer the telephone and I was real nice to her!” Jade fell into my arms, howling like a panda.
“What? Who?” I asked, a hot flash assaulting my face like a flame.
“The bitch who sent you that shit. The same bitch that called you up last night.” Jade let out such a strong, deep breath that I felt a breeze on my face. “I told her that if I ever find out who she is, I will beat the shit out of her with my own hands!” Jade flung her arms around me and cried on my shoulder.
I decided I had no choice but to tell Pee Wee what was going on. And Rhoda felt the same way when I summoned her to the kitchen and told her about the disturbing telephone call that Jade had just taken.
“Annette, you have to tell Pee Wee. And you have to tell him now. You don’t know what kind of person you are dealin’ with,” Rhoda said, shaking her finger in my face as we stood in the kitchen by the window.
I ignored Rhoda and moved to the sink where Jade stood dabbing her eyes with a wet paper towel. “What else did she say, Jade?”
“She, she called you a black, black cow and a…a…b…b…black heifer,” Jade stuttered, almost choking on her words.
“Ha! At least we know she’s not too bright. Everybody knows that a cow and a heifer are the same thing,” Rhoda snarled. “What else, baby?” Rhoda asked, her lips snapping over each word. “Did you hear any background noises? Cars, music, dogs, trains, kids? Anything that might help us figure out at least where this bitch called from?”
“And what good would that do if we don’t even know who she is?” I asked.
“Annette, you really need to sit down and think back over the last few days. Or even the last few weeks. Who have you talked with that you might have said something they took the wrong way? At least we know it’s a woman, so you can eliminate every man we know.”
“I don’t know,” I mumbled. Shaking my head, I moved to the refrigerator where I snatched out a bottle of beer and removed the cap with my teeth. I slammed the refrigerator shut so hard that a pan on the stove twirled all the way around like a spinning top. “There are a few women at work who are mean enough to do something like this. But not to me. I haven’t done anything to anybody at work that would make them want to get back at me,” I said thoughtfully. “At least not that I know of.”
“Auntie, remember when I told you I heard those cows talking about you when I was in the ladies’ room that time?” Jade asked, surprisingly composed now. One thing I could say about Jade was that she was the most resilient human being I knew.
I looked from Jade to Rhoda, shaking my head. “I can think of at least two or three who didn’t like me getting the promotion,” I said. I suddenly felt even more frightened. It was one thing for me to receive ugly mail and phone calls at home. I felt somewhat protected in my house, as long as Pee Wee was with me. But I was wide open at work. Anybody could walk up to me and start shooting!
“Shit!” Rhoda mouthed, casting me a hard look.
“What if it is one of my co-workers?” I asked in a frightened, hoarse whisper.
“Well, when you find out who the bitch is, you file a complaint,” Rhoda said. “There are laws against this kind of shit when it happens at work. You used to work for the phone company. So you got some damn leverage. They liked you so much they didn’t want you to leave. It ought to be easy enough for you to pull some strings and get them to tap your phone, here and at work. If you find out where the calls are comin’ from, you’ll find out who is makin’ them.”
“I’ve already thought about getting my phone tapped and adding caller ID to my service. But I don’t think either one would do any good. I am sure that whoever is doing this to me has already thought about those things too,” I said with a heavy sigh.
“Well, I am dyin’ to find out who this bitch is,” Rhoda hissed.
“I might not live long enough to find out. Especially as crazy as people have gotten in this world. If I’m dealing with a real psycho bitch, filing a complaint wouldn’t even cover as much as a Band-Aid.” I gasped and leaned against the wall.
For a moment, my mind flashed on every recent work-related act of violence that I knew of.