Читать книгу Why Beulah Shot Her Pistol Inside the Baptist Church - Clayton Sullivan - Страница 7

Ralph and me slept together Saturday night and on Sunday morning we woke up a little before seven. Ralph rolled out of bed and took a leak in the john. After he’d finished I went to the john too.

Ralph stuck his hand under his red pajamas and rubbed his stomach and said, “I’m hungry as a horse. I’m always hungry in the morning. Where do you want to eat breakfast?”

I thought it was real nice of Ralph to ask me where I wanted to eat breakfast. My daddy sure never would have done that. The evening before when we was driving to the Western Sizzler I’d seen an International House of Pancakes restaurant. I’d always wanted to eat breakfast at one of them restaurants with the tall blue roof. And so I said, “I think I’d like to eat breakfast at the International House of Pancakes. We passed one last night on the way to the steak house.”

Ralph said, “That’s fine with me. That’s where we’ll go and eat breakfast.”

We got dressed. I put on the blue blouse and blue slacks Velma had bought for me at McRae’s Department Store in Hattiesburg. I think I looked real snazzy in ’em. Of course if you’re a primitive Baptist like I was you’d better not look too snazzy. Brother Ledbetter wouldn’t like that and when he don’t like something he’ll let you know about it.

We left the Twinkling Star Motel and drove to the pancake house. When we walked inside the International House of Pancakes it took my breath away. It was too pretty for words. It had a real tall ceiling shaped like an A that went up and up and up. The booths was padded and was covered with what looked to me like blue leather. I thought to myself, “Ain’t this nice. These pretty blue booths match my new blouse and slacks that Velma give me.” The waitresses had on pink uniforms and little white aprons. I felt like I was in Switzerland or in some far away country like that.

Me and Ralph ordered buckwheat pancakes and Virginia ham and coffee which the waitress brought to the table in this cute little coffee pot. While we was eating them buckwheat pancakes Ralph asked me, “Have you ever seen a battleship?”

I said, “Goodness gracious heavens no.”

Ralph went on, “We ain’t too far from Mobile. Over there at Mobile they’ve got the U.S.S. Alabama docked on the Mobile bay. When I was in the navy I was stationed at one time on a battleship. Let’s drive over to Mobile and go through the U.S.S. Alabama.”

I said, “That sounds great to me.”

The waitress who waited on us was named Frances. She was just as nice and sweet as she could be. She come back to the table three or four times to ask if there was anything we needed. She filled up our coffee pot twice. I thought to myself, “You can’t be nicer to a customer than Frances has been.” I was kinda hacked on the inside when Ralph said right before we got up to leave, “I ought to tip that old gal. But I ain’t gonna do it. This is the one and only time I’ll ever be in this cafe and I don’t tip a waitress if I know I’ll never see her again.” That was exactly what Ralph said and I didn’t think it was very nice. But I didn’t say anything because after all we was on our honeymoon and you don’t want to say anything that might rub your husband the wrong way while you’re on your honeymoon. So Ralph paid the cashier what we owed and then we left.

Ralph and me got back in his car and headed east for Mobile. Ralph’s car was a Buick. Its color was maroon. Maroon was Ralph’s favorite color. Every tie he owned was maroon. So was a sweater he wore in the wintertime.

We kept goin’ on Highway 90 until we come to Pascagoula. When we got to Pascagoula Ralph said, “Here at Pascagoula is one of the biggest shipyards in the world. Asshole yankees don’t think southerners from Mississippi and Alabama have sense enough to build ships. But I’m tellin’ you right here in Pascagoula, Mississippi. they build some of the best and biggest ships you’ll see anywhere.”

We kept on goin’ east. We came to the Alabama state line. Beside the highway was a pretty sign which read “Welcome to Alabama.” The sign even told who the governor of Alabama was. I forget his name. When I read that sign I felt real funny on the inside. I really did. Now I was goin’ into Alabama. I never dreamed I’d be so far away from New Jerusalem and Jones County and Laurel. But here I was! Leaving Mississippi and goin’ into the state of Alabama. That was one of the reasons I decided to go ahead and marry Ralph. I figured I’d see more of the world married to him than I’d see if I kept on living with my daddy who said motels was whorehouses.

We finally got to Mobile. There was tall buidings and traffic everywhere. Out of the clear blue Ralph asked me, “Have you ever drove through a tunnel before?’

I said, “Never have.”

He said, “Well, you’re gonna drive through one now.”

And sure enough straight ahead was a big sign reading “Bay of Mobile Tunnel.” And there was yellow flashing lights tellin’ us to slow down. Which Ralph done.

Around a curve and into the tunnel we went. Ralph said, “This here tunnel goes under a part of the Mobile bay.”

If I told you how long that tunnel was you wouldn’t believe me. That tunnel went on and on and on. It was lighted with I bet ten thousand lights. I couldn’t believe that we was driving under water. But Ralph said that was exactly what we was doin’.

We come out of the tunnel and about as far as you can throw a rock was the Mobile bay. Oh my it was pretty. And floating right there on the bay was the U.S.S. Alabama.

I can’t tell you how big the U.S.S. Alabama is. I didn’t know a ship could be that big. Me and Ralph went all over it. We went from top to bottom. Ralph showed me the deck and the guns and the place where the sailors slept. We went down to the engine room and looked at the big engines. We spent the most time in the kitchen and the place where the sailors ate. Ralph explained to me that he worked in ship kitchens the entire time he was in the navy and that was where he learned the food business. Going all over the battleship was a lot of work. I had to climb ladders and walk up narrow steps and squeeze through small doors. I sure was glad I had on slacks and not a dress.

After we’d gotten done with goin’ through the battleship Ralph and me drove back to Biloxi. The sun was in our eyes. Ralph said, “The bad thing about driving west late in the afternoon is fighting the sun all the way.” On the way back we stopped at the McDonald’s in Ocean Springs and ate a Big Mac along with some fries and a Coca-Cola.

We finally got back to Biloxi and the Twinkling Star Motel. The motel had thirty rooms. I know because I counted ’em. Fifteen was on one side and fifteen was on the other side. Like I’ve said, they was all painted sunflower yellow. Before each door was a yellow clay flower pot. An azalea bush was growing in each one of the pots. They looked sickly. I thought they needed watering and fertilizer. I was wishing again we’d spent our honeymoon night in a motel like the Broadwater Beach.

Ralph parked in front of room eight. There wasn’t but two other cars parked at the motel. Ralph looked around and said, “Their business is slow today. It’s slower than molasses on a cold day in January. Counting our car and them two cars over there they don’t have but three rooms rented. You can’t make any money renting three rooms out of thirty.”

We got our suitcases out of the room and put ’em in the trunk of the car. Ralph said, “I’ve got to stop at the office and pay my bill.” We got in the car and drove to the office at the front of the motel. I could see the old-timer we’d rented the room from the day before. He still had on a brown denim shirt and he was still wearing his straw hat. I could tell he had this rotating fan blowing straight on him.

Ralph got out of the car, took twenty-five dollars out of his wallet, and put it on the shelf in front of the office window. When we’d checked in the day before the old fellow wearing the straw hat had been real friendly. He’d had a big smile on his face. But he wasn’t friendly when we was checking out.

He barked at Ralph, “You owe me fifty dollars.”

Ralph said, “You must be mixed up. Or maybe you’ve forgotten. I squeezed you down from thirty dollars to twenty-five. And that’s what I’ve paid you.”

The old timer barked again. “Look at the clock. What does it say? It says four o’clock. Our checkout time is three o’clock. You’ve stayed an hour past three so you owe me for two nights instead of one.”

Him sayin’ that really ticked Ralph off. He got red in the face. That was the first time I seen Ralph get mad. When he gets mad his face turns red. He said, “Listen, buddy, I can count. You don’t have but three customers today. I’m not about to let you charge me for an extra night on a slow day like this. There’s twenty-five dollars and that’s all you’re gonna get. Take it or leave it. And you can call the police and have me arrested if you want to.”

That’s what Ralph said and with that he got back in the car and we drove off. I’ve got to say I think Ralph was right. It didn’t make sense for the man in the straw hat to stick us with an extra night because we’d stayed an hour past checkout time.

As we was driving off Ralph said, “In this world you’ve gotta be careful. If you’re not careful people will rip you off. Every person you meet wants to put his hand into your pocketbook as deep as he can.”

After Ralph had calmed down he said, “You know something, Beulah, this is Sunday. And I ain’t been to church. I can’t believe it. I never miss goin’ to church. But since this is my honeymoon I guess it’s okay for me to miss goin’ one time. I bet Brother Ledbetter preached a riproaring sermon this morning. That’s what I like about his sermons. They’re always rip-roaring. If he’s not preaching on the book of Revelations he’s preaching on the blood. If he’s not preaching on the blood he’s preaching against divorce. If he’s not preaching against divorce he’s preaching against women cuttin’ their hair and using makeup. Brother Ledbetter really knows how to lay it on the line.”

Ralph kept on talking about Brother Ledbetter and what a great preacher he was and how he believed Brother Ledbetter had the second blessing which explains why he was such a great preacher. I didn’t understand what Ralph meant by saying that Brother Ledbetter had the second blessing. I started to ask him to explain what it meant but I decided not to. Maybe some day I’d understand what the second blessing was all about.

We turned off of U.S. 90 and got on U.S. 49 and headed north for Hattiesburg and Jones County and New Jerusalem. While we was headin’ north on U.S. 49 Ralph said, “I’m anxious to get on back home. When I ain’t there ‘Ralph’s Place’ falls apart.” “Ralph’s Place” is the name of Ralph’s barbecue cafe and meat market. He went on to say, “And besides that I’m always afraid the help will steal me blind when I’m not there to keep my eye on the cash register.”

We got back to Ralph’s farm about nine o’clock at night. After we’d gone inside the house Ralph said, “I’m hungry. That Big Mac ain’t gonna hold me. I know there’s some wieners in the refrigerator and some buns in the breadbox. Let’s you and me fix us some hotdogs before we go to bed.”

Which is what we did. We boiled the wieners and toasted the buns and fixed hotdogs which we ate along with potato chips and two glasses of milk. We then went to bed. Ralph wore his bright red pajamas again. I could tell he was horny. So we had pussy again. He done it the same way he’d done it at the Twinkling Star Motel. He done it quick and to the point.

Early Monday morning Ralph rolled out of bed. He shaved and took a bath. I could tell he was in a hurry. He said, “I usually eat breakfast before I leave but not this morning. I’ll grab me a bite somewhere. I want to get to the store and see what kind of business we done on Saturday.” He went on to say, “Beulah, make yourself at home. Look around the house and see where everything is. I’ll be home this evening around seven. I want you to be sure and have me a good hot supper when I get here. The hotter the better.”

With that Ralph hustled down the back steps. He got in his pickup truck and headed out for Laurel. He took off like a house on fire.

The first thing I done after Ralph left was to fix me a little breakfast. I ate some Cheerios and wheat toast. I then did what Ralph told me to do. I looked his house over. The first room I looked at was the living room. It had a sofa, a coffee table, and three stuffed chairs along with a rug on the floor that had a lot of blue flowers on it. Drapes were over the windows. There was pictures on the wall that I thought was real nice. One picture had a bubbling stream of water with lots of trees and mountains in the background. A pretty little deer was sipping water out of the stream.

The next room I looked over was the dining room. In the dining room was a big table with eight chairs around it. Next to the wall was a china cabinet with glass doors. There was enough dishes in the china cabinet to feed the Russian army.

I went through all the bedrooms. There was three of them. All of them had double beds along with a dresser in each one. On one dresser was three pictures of a young boy. I could tell they was pictures of Oscar. I recognized Oscar because Ralph was all time bringing him to the New Jerusalem Baptist Church. On another dresser was four pictures of a woman. They were pictures of Ruth Ann. I wished they were not there. I wished Ralph had put them up somewhere before he brought me home to be his wife.

I looked over the two bathrooms. Each one of them had a tub, a lavatory, and a commode. I could tell they was old. They reminded me of the bathroom at the Twinkling Star Motel.

And then there was a kitchen which had a stove and a refrigerator and a table with a lot of pots and pans hanging over it. The kitchen had a pantry with still more pots and pans and with all kinds of groceries on the shelves. I could see everything from black pepper to sugar to cans of sardines. Out on the backporch was two deepfreezers which Ralph kept locked all the time.

I could tell a lot of Ralph’s furniture was old. I found out later it’d belonged to his daddy’s mother. But some of it wasn’t old. Ralph told me he’d bought some of his furniture from Hudson’s Bankrupt Store in Hattiesburg.

Out in the back of the house was a garage and a barn. Both of ’em was painted white.

Before Ralph left to go to his cafe I’d told him I was gonna take his car and drive over to Mama and Daddy’s house and load the car up with my stuff. By “stuff” I mean shoes and clothes and underwear. Ralph had said, “That’ll be fine with me.” Which is what I done. I drove over to Mama and Daddy’s house. Daddy wasn’t there. He’d gone to his job at the Masonite plant. But Mama was there. And so was my baby sister Earline. I pulled up in front of the house and got out of the car. Earline came out of the house. I could tell she was upset. She came to where I was and whispered, “Mama is still mad about you marrying Ralph. She hadn’t stopped poutin’. She won’t say nothing to me and she won’t say nothing to Daddy. It’s been like a briar patch around here.” Earline went on and said, “Mama is acting like a donkey.” I said, “I’ve come by to pick up my clothes and shoes so I can take ’em to Ralph’s.” Earline said, “I’ll help you bring ’em out. But don’t say anything to Mama. Just pretend she ain’t here.” Earline and me went inside to my room. Earline and me took my clothes out to the car and put ’em on the back seat. I’d brought two cardboard boxes that was on Ralph’s back porch. Earline and me put my odds and ends in these two boxes. All the time I was moving my stuff out Mama stayed in the kitchen. She wasn’t sayin’ nothing. Like Earline said, she was pouting. The last thing me and Earline needed to get out of my room was my shoes. As I was gettin’ ready to go back in the house and get my shoes you won’t believe what happened. Mama come out on the front porch. She had my shoes in her hands. She took my shoes and threw all of them out in the yard. She threw ’em at me like they was trash. Without sayin’ a word she turned around and walked back in the house. As she walked back in she slammed the door. Her doin’ that made me feel awful. Just awful. If I live to be as old as Methuselah I’ll never forget the hurt I felt on the inside of me when Mama threw my shoes out in the front yard. I had tears in my eyes. Earline said, “I can’t believe Mama did that.” But that’s sure what she did. Some mamas and daddies think that simply because they’re your Mama or your daddy that gives them the right to be just as mean to you as they want to be. They don’t know that you’ve got feelings too.

I took my clothes and shoes back to Ralph’s and put ’em in the bedroom. Ralph had told me that morning he wanted a hot supper ready for him when he got home. So about six o’clock I started fixin’ Ralph’s supper. I wanted it to be a good one. Particularly since it was the first one I’d cooked for him. If there was anything I knew how to do, it was cook. I’d helped Mama out in the kitchen since I was knee-high to a turtle. Before he left Ralph had told me where the key to the deepfreezers was. He’d said, “I keep the deepfreezer keys in the brass teapot over the sink.” Sure enough, that’s where they were. I unlocked one of the deepfreezers and took out some corn and lima beans. I cooked them along with two sweet potatoes. I cooked a pan of Mexican cornbread and fried some porkchops. I made a big pitcher of iced tea. When Ralph got home that evening I had him the best vegetable dinner you’ve ever seen. I was real proud of it. It was the works: corn on the cob, lima beans, sweet potatoes, pork chops, and Mexican cornbread with iced tea. He and I sat down and ate at the kitchen table. Ralph ate like he was Noah the day he come off the ark. When he was through he looked at me and said, “Beulah, I’m here to tell you that you’re one terrific cook.” Him saying that made me feel good. It really did.

When he’d finished eating his supper Ralph looked at me and said, “What are we gonna have for dessert?”

His question caught me flatfooted. I hadn’t fixed no dessert. Fixing a dessert hadn’t crossed my mind. And so I said, “Gosh, Ralph, I forgot to fix one.”

Ralph said, “I’ll let it slide by tonight. But from here on I want you to have me a dessert. Maybe a piece of pie or a piece of cake.”

I said, “What kind do you like?”

He said, “My favorite pie is pecan pie and my favorite cake is angel food cake with ice cream.”

I said, “I’ll have you an angel food cake tomorrow night.”

He said, “That’ll be just fine.”

Ralph then pushed his chair back from the table and ripped off this big belch. From the way it sounded you’d of thought somebody had fired off a shotgun. Ralph never belched when he was eating out in public. He only belched when he was eating at the house. I listened to Ralph belch for six years. Him belching got on my nerves. But I never said anything to him about his belching. I spent the first sixteen years of my life listening to my daddy fart and the next six years of my life listening to Ralph belch.

After belching the next thing Ralph did was to light up one of his little Swisher Sweet cigars. Ralph’s cigars smelled different from my daddy’s cigars. Daddy always smoked King Edward cigars. Ralph always smoked a Swisher Sweet. After he’d blown two or three smoke rings in the air he looked at me and said, “Beulah, I’ve been doin’ a lot of thinking today about you and me. I think it would be a good thing if you understood right up front what I’ll be expecting you to do now that you’re my wife.”

Smoking his Swisher Sweet wasn’t the only thing Ralph was doing. He had a toothpick in his right hand and he started cleaning between his teeth. I learned that’s another thing Ralph did all the time. He picked his teeth as much as he belched.

He went on, “I need to let you know what I’ll be expectin’ out of you. You know what the Bible says. It says, ‘Wives, obey your husbands.’”

Ralph was all the time quoting the Bible to me. Particularly when he had some point he was tryin’ to put over. He could pick out a verse here and he could pick out a verse there. Earline said Ralph fired Bible bullets. Maybe she was right. Whenever he wanted to put a point over he would fire a Bible bullet at you. The way he started quoting the Bible to me about wives obeyin’ their husbands made me feel uptight. All my life I’d been bossed around by my mama and my daddy. Now Ralph—in so many words—was tellin’ me he had a right to boss me around since he was my husband. Which is why the very first week I was married to Ralph I began to wonder if maybe I’d jumped out of the fryin’ pan into the fire. Jumpin’ from the fryin’ pan into the fire don’t make things easier. Or better.

Ralph started spellin’ out to me what he wanted me to do now that I was his wife. He explained, “I need to leave the house every morning around a quarter to seven. I can do a better job runnin’ my cafe and meat market if I’ve eaten a good breakfast before I leave the house. So I want you to get up every morning when I get up and I want you to fix me a man’s breakfast. When I say a man’s breakfast I mean a big breakfast. I want scrambled eggs, bacon, home-made biscuits, molasses, and hot coffee. When I say hot coffee I mean hot coffee. As far as I’m concerned there ain’t nothing worse than a cup of luke-warm coffee. And from time to time I’d like for you to change it up and have hot cakes for breakfast. When I come home every evening I want you to have me a good home-cooked supper like the one you fixed tonight. Only don’t forget the dessert. Supper ain’t supper if you don’t wind it up with a dessert like pecan pie or angel food cake. I get home every night around seven o’clock give or take a quarter hour. So when I get here I want you to have my supper ready to eat. And—like my coffee—I want it to be pipin’ hot.”

All the time Ralph was tellin’ me what he wanted for breakfast and what he wanted for supper he was smokin’ his Swisher Sweet and picking his teeth with a toothpick. Every evening he spent a lot of time picking around his gold tooth. I’ve told you Ralph had buck teeth. One of his front teeth that stuck out was covered with gold. I don’t know what you’d call it. Maybe you call it a filling or maybe you call it a crown. I’m not sure what the right word is. All I know is that one of his front teeth was covered with gold. One time he told me he was fixed up with that gold tooth by a navy dentist in Charleston, South Carolina. Ralph was really proud of his gold tooth. He’d take a toothpick and clean around it time and time again.

I sat across the table from Ralph and listened to what he was saying. I listened with both ears. I’ll be honest with you. I didn’t like the way he was giving me these marching orders about breakfast and supper. And I sure enough didn’t like it when he started talking about his first wife Ruth Ann.

Ralph said, “Beulah, I hope you can be a good wife to me and for me like Ruth Ann was. Bless her heart, she got up every morning and fixed me a big breakfast and every night she had a hot supper waiting for me when I come in. I’ll never forget the way she could fry green tomatoes. She knew how to bread ’em and fry ’em just right. But that ain’t all Ruth Ann did. Every morning after she’d cleaned up the house she’d get in the car and drive up to my cafe and help us get through the noon rush. The main thing she did during the noon rush was take orders and handle the cash register. I could always trust Ruth Ann to make the right change and to be nice to my customers. She’d make ’em all feel at home. That’s one of the secrets of running a cafe like ‘Ralph’s Place.’ You’ve got to be nice to your customers so they’ll keep comin’ back time and again. It’s that repeat business that keeps you in the black. Without repeat business you’d go broke before sundown. Ruth Ann would always stay at the cafe until around four or five o’clock and then she’d come home and fix me my supper.”

He added, “So to make a long story short, Beulah, I’m hoping you’ll be a good wife for me like Ruth Ann was. She was a jewel. I want you to do like she done: fix my breakfast, help out in the cafe, and then fix me a hot supper.”

All this Ruth Ann bullshit was news to me. Before we got married Ralph hadn’t said nothing to me about working every day in his barbecue cafe. And before we got married he hadn’t sung the praises of Ruth Ann all the way to the blue sky above. I began to feel like a Ruth Ann double. Or like I was supposed to be her shadow.

What Ralph didn’t know was: I was wishin’ he’d be tender and lovey to me. I was hopin’—since we’d gotten married—that he’d come home in the evening and hug me tight. And give me kisses. Lots of kisses. And tell me how pretty I was like he done the time he leaned against the church piano and told me how pretty I was and how he’d been thinkin’ about me and how he wanted to marry me. But some husbands don’t act that way. After they get married they ain’t sweet and tender to you no more. They don’t feel like they have to be. After all, they’ve married you. They’ve got you like them lightning bugs me and Velma used to catch and put in a fruit jar. And when it comes to sex they might as well still be masturbating. Instead of using their fist they use your crack and masturbate in it. They jack off in your cherry.

If I’d had any sense I’d of sized up the situation up front for what it was and I’d of said, “Ralph, I can tell this here marriage between you and me ain’t gonna work out. You don’t want a wife. What you want is a Ruth Ann substitute. And what you want is a wife who’ll be an unpaid employee. But that ain’t what I want to do with my life. So I’m packin’ my suitcase and I’m goin’ home to Mama and Daddy. I won’t have to give you back no wedding ring because you didn’t give me one.”

By the way, that’s one of the things that disappointed me about my wedding. I kept thinking Ralph would mention getting me a wedding ring. You can get real nice wedding rings that don’t cost too much at Wal-Mart or Service Merchandise. But Ralph never mentioned buying me a ring. So I didn’t buy him one. Velma had told me she’d give me the money to buy Ralph a ring if we had a double-ring ceremony. But that never come up. So I let it slide by.

But me thinkin’ about sayin’ I was goin’ home to Mama and Daddy wasn’t nothing but hot air. And I knew it. Mama was mad at me. She’d thrown my shoes out in the front yard. If I’d gone home she’d of really rubbed it in about me marryin’ Ralph. She’d say, “I told you and your daddy that he ain’t no good.” And she’d say, “I told both of you that out on the front porch the night Ralph come by here to talk about him marryin’ Beulah. But you two had your minds made up.”

So what was I gonna do? Nobody wants you when you’re sixteen years old and don’t have no money and no education. Some parents have enough money so they can fix their daughters up as far as money is concerned. I’ve heard Velma talk about this. She said Dr. Roland Hodges and his wife fixed their daughter up in such a way that every month she gets a check for four thousand dollars. Dr. Hodges is a urologist in Laurel. Daddy calls him a peter plumber. Can you believe that? Gettin’ a check every month for four thousand dollars! And not even having to work for it. That’s what every girl needs—a check rollin’ in every month for four thousand dollars. If you had that you wouldn’t have to kiss any man’s butt. You could tell ’em all to go to hell. Of course I don’t go around tellin’ folks to go to hell. I’m just thinkin’ about what you could do if you for sure had four thousand dollars a month comin’ in.

So there I was. No education. No money. And a husband who wanted me to be Ruth Ann’s shadow. The way I saw it I had two choices. One choice was to throw in the towel and give up. But giving up doesn’t solve anything. The other choice was to make the best of it and keep on goin’. I wasn’t about to give up. No way was I gonna do that. I’m a Buchanan and Buchanans don’t give up. I remember Granddaddy sayin’ “Don’t ever give up because you don’t ever know what might turn up.” I think that’s a pretty good rule to live by. So instead of givin’ up, I made the best of it. I gave it all I had. I want you to know that for the last six years I’ve busted my fanny bein’ Ralph Rainey’s wife. I’ve got up every morning and I’ve fixed him a big breakfast. I’ve come home every evening and I’ve fixed him a pipin’ hot supper with everything from meat loaf to pecan pie. Six days a week I’ve drove up to Laurel to work in his barbecue cafe. I’ve took orders from customers and I’ve cleaned dirty dishes off of dirty tables. I’ve washed dishes and scrubbed greasy pots and pans. I’ve handled the cash register. I’ve been nice to the customers. I’ve smiled at them even when I didn’t feel like smiling. I’ve said to ’em, “We sure do appreciate your business. I hope everything was okay. Please come back to see us.” From time to time I’ve even helped out in the butcher shop. Ralph’s cafe and butcher shop are under the same roof. All that separates them is a swinging louvered door. And besides doin’ all of this I’ve helped out in the summer with Ralph’s garden. I haven’t told you about Ralph’s garden. Every year I was married to Ralph he planted a garden that was the mother of all gardens. I can hear him saying, “Granddaddy Rainey had a garden. My daddy has a garden. So I’m gonna have a garden too. Only mine is gonna be bigger and better.” So every spring and summer Ralph had him a garden. During the summer the days in Jones County are long. And they’re hot. There ain’t nothing hotter than the sun in Mississippi during the summer. Particularly in the middle of the day when there ain’t no breeze or shade. When the days was the hottest and the longest is when I’d stay home and work in the garden. Ralph believing so strong about having a big garden is why he kept a mule on the place. Ralph’s mule was named “JR.” He said “JR” was short for the Jordan River. I don’t know how many times I heard Ralph say, “Since I live at New Jerusalem I think I oughta have a mule named for the Jordan River.” Every time he said this he’d laugh. I didn’t think the name was funny and I didn’t get the connection between New Jerusalem and the mule being named after the Jordan River. JR was as old as the hills. Ralph and Sumrall used JR mainly to plow the garden. I think I told you about Sumrall. Sumrall is the albino who lives on Ralph’s place. Sumrall don’t have no family. The reason everybody calls him “Sumrall” is because he was born and raised in Sumrall, Mississippi. That’s a town not too far from Hattiesburg.

I hope you can see what I’m getting at. Being Ralph Rainey’s wife has been work piled on top of work. I worked hard at Ralph’s barbecue cafe and on Friday everybody who worked there got a paycheck but me. I didn’t get paid nothing. And by nothing I mean nothing. The only thing we done other than work was to go to church on Sunday to the New Jerusalem Primitive Baptist Church. Believe you me, Ralph believed in goin’ to church. He never missed a Sunday. Not one. The way he put it, “I want to go to church so I can let my light shine for Jesus.” The reason he said this is because of the Jesus board at the church. Five years ago Brother Ledbetter had a Jesus board built and put at the front of the church right between the pulpit and the piano. It’s wired with electricity. This electric Jesus board is something. You oughta see it. I’m guessing it’s about eight feet tall and four feet wide. Across the top in big red letters it says “Let Your Light Shine for Jesus.” The way the Jesus board works is like this. The name of every person who belongs to the church is painted on it. Beside each name is a lightbulb and a switch. When you get to church on Sunday morning the first thing you’re supposed to do is go to the Jesus board and turn on the lightbulb beside your name. Brother Ledbetter says that by turning on your lightbulb you’re lettin’ your light shine for Jesus. Every Sunday when he got to church the first thing Ralph done was to go and turn on the bulb beside his name. He always got a kick out of doin’ it. I thought Brother Ledbetter’s Jesus board was silly. But him and Ralph thought it was the greatest thing since somebody invented the wheel or figured out how to write and spell.