Читать книгу The Bernice L. McFadden Collection - Bernice L. McFadden - Страница 15
ОглавлениеHe say his wife gone back home.”
“Gone back home?”
“That’s what he say.”
“And nothing else?”
“Nothing else.”
“He don’t say why she gone back home? Sick relative maybe?”
“You need your ears cleaned out? I say all he say is she gone back home.”
“Hmmmmm.”
“Sound to me like she left him. Did she take the girls with her?”
“The girls? Ha, they ain’t had but one between them.”
“Awww yeah, I forgot about that. But that Doll been with them so long that she started to favor the younger one.”
“Uh-huh, strange how that happens, ain’t it?”
“I’ll tell you what’s strange!”
“What?”
“I took a casserole over to the house, ’cause you know menfolk don’t know nothing about cooking, and—”
“But the girl, she old enough to cook.”
“Well true, but I wasn’t thinking ’bout—”
“What you make for him?”
“Shepherd’s pie, but that ain’t what I’m trying to get at.”
“Sorry, you were saying?”
“I was standing at the screen door, knocking. I knocked a good long time and then I went on in—”
“You just walked on in the reverend’s house?”
“I was knocking for a really long time. Yes, I just walked in and was gonna leave the plate in the kitchen, on the stove, but soon as I got my foot good in the door, there she was.”
“She who?”
“Doll. Like she just dropped from the ceiling—”
“Like a spider?”
“Yep, but I ain’t see no web.”
“You know that child always been peculiar.”
“Peculiar? Her mama claimed she was possessed by Esther.”
“Esther Magnolia?”
“No, girl, Esther the whore.”
“You don’t say?”
“Yep! So anyway, Doll standing there in her slip, hair tussled, cheeks flushed—”
“In her slip? What she say?”
“She don’t say nothing and so then I said, I brought y’all a shepherd’s pie, and then I hear the reverend calling from the back room—”
“What? Wait … she was in her slip?”
“Now you’re with me.”
“Oh my God!”
“Mine and yours! And so I hear the reverend say, Doll, Doll baby—”
“Doll baby?”
“Yeah, Doll baby, what you doing out there, bring that star back on in here.”
“Star? What in the world?”
“After he call to her, she smiled, raised her hand, waved bye-bye, and turned and walked off.”
“In her slip?”
“In her slip!”
“You think the reverend is laying that girl?”
“More like she laying him.”
“But sister, what star he talking about?”
“I only know about the ones up in the sky. Do you know of any others?”
“No, ma’am, I do not.”
He would have married her without the talk, without the eyeballing, without the men of his congregation showing up unannounced to remind him what was proper and what wasn’t.
“Look here,” one man said, “we men, so we understand.”
They did understand because they left their Bibles in their wagons, tucked their religion into the back pockets of their trousers, and placed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s right at the center of the kitchen table.
Doll was in the bedroom, trying hard to contain the excitement the men walked into the house. Her skin was on fire and she began to spin to cool herself. When August came into the bedroom she was in the middle of the floor, whirling like a cyclone.
He caught her by the arm. “Here’s a quarter. Go to the store and buy yourself something.”
The men stood when Doll entered the room. She dusted them with her gaze, giggled, and then hurried out of the house. She was gone, but her scent hung as thick as mist in the air. The men inhaled it and swallowed.
“See, it’s like this August …”
They passed the bottle between them.
“… It just don’t look right, you know, having this young girl living here with you … without another woman in the house.”
“… Yes, we know you raised her and Coraline certainly don’t want her back …”
“… She is a fine-looking girl. Fine!”
“… Any man would be tempted to.”
“—Being that you are a man first and a man of the cloth second.”
“… We don’t want you to be tempted to do what a lesser man would …”
“… And the women clucking like hens about what’s going on here, and you know …”
“… That make them look at us funny, and we got enough problems already and don’t need our women accusing us of messing around, so you either.
“… Put Doll outta your house or divorce your first wife and take Doll as your second!”
August took their advice, and within the month the two were betrothed. It was a scandal, of course, and he lost 20 percent of his congregation. Some of the female neighbors stopped talking to him and would just as soon spit fire on Doll than address her as Mrs. Hilson.
“There’s only one Mrs. Hilson and that is Ann Hilson!”
When word reached Coraline, who had moved down to Sperry, she huffed and said, “I ain’t a bit surprised.” But she was curious and begged a ride from a man who was sweet on her. “Carry me into Tulsa, please, I gotta see about some business.”
“On a Sunday?”
Coraline gave the man a hard look.
“Aw’ight, come on.”
She slipped in the last pew and pulled her hat low over her forehead. On the pulpit August waved the good book until the sleeves of his robe flapped and billowed. He jumped and ballyhooed, stomped and spoke in tongues, and encouraged his congregation to do the same.
Coraline chose to reveal herself just as the collection was being taken up. Head held high, she strolled right up the center aisle, deftly ignoring the whispers and finger-pointing.
“Morning, Reverend.”
“Morning, Sister Coraline. Nice to see you again.”
Coraline turned and looked at Doll. “Doll,” she said.
Doll returned Coraline’s query with a polite and respectful, “Mama.”
Coraline looked at August. “It’s true? You done gone and married the girl?”
August shuffled, tried to smile, but it emerged as a frown. “Yes, ma’am, I did.”
Coraline stripped her teeth. “Okay,” she said with a toss of her head. “I just had to hear it from your mouth.”
“Well, now you’ve heard it.”
“Yes, I have.”
August didn’t know what possessed him, but he raised his Bible into the air and cried, “What God has brought together, let no man pull asunder!”
Coraline cocked her head to one side and said, “What the good book say about what Esther has brought together?”
