I watched as she tipped her head back and lifted her little hand to put it to her grandfather’s throat. That was her thing these days. She liked the vibrations she could feel when people talked.
As for me, I liked to feel my daughter’s hand on my throat when I was talking to her.
“That man needs to watch his mouth,” Ella muttered.
I didn’t respond. Five years and the big family Ty and I somehow managed to acquire that was close and stayed close because they’d endured multiple dramas, the aftermath of tragedy and the lingering fear that never really went away of thwarted tragedy. This meant we didn’t stay apart long and paths crossed often, holidays, birthdays, vacations. Everyone knew everyone else very well. And most everyone got along.
But Ella wasn’t a big fan of Julius’s profession or the fact that he had three women. I’d talked to her about this repeatedly and did not change her mind. Julius being Julius, therefore not only likeable but loveable, also did not manage to change her mind. Bess and Honey adored him. So did my daughters. Ella was just going to have to suck it up.
More people, more greetings, these with Julius, Anana and her daughter with Julius, Ilori, who was nearly eight and closing on the beauty of her mother. Anana joined the women in the kitchen. Ilori went with her Dad to join the men. Honey unveiled the Julius family offering. More beer. More wine. A bottle of top shelf vodka. A bunch of flowers.
The doorbell rang again. Ty moved to it again.
I was pouring pumpkin pie stuff in my crust and didn’t hear anything but boots hitting tile then I felt a hand at the small of my back. I stopped, turned my head and looked slightly down.
“Angel,” I whispered.
“Hola, mi querida.”
I smiled. Angel smiled back.
“How is Carnal Hotel?” I asked.
“The pool is heated,” Angel answered.
My smile got bigger. So did his.
“Though, thinkin’ I took a swim last night with a big, black guy who boosts cars,” he added. “You won’t tell my Cap, will you?”
He totally knew he’d taken a swim with a big, black guy who boosts cars considering this wasn’t the first time he’d been around Julius. This, too, had been an uneasy alliance, at first. But Angel’s love for me and subsequent actions for Ty and Julius’s love for Ty and subsequent actions for me meant they moved beyond uneasy because they had common ground. I suspected when they went their separate ways, they didn’t talk about their association with their crews at home. That said, I knew Julius sent Angel a premium bottle of tequila for his birthday this year and I also knew Angel sent Julius a premium bottle of Hennessy for his.
“Your secret is safe with me,” I whispered and that got me a bigger smile.
Then he put slight pressure on my back before his hand fell away.
I looked around him and smiled again at Angel’s very pregnant wife, “Hey there, Rosalia.”
“Hey, Lexie. Hey, y’all.” She dumped bags on the counter. “Anything I can do?”
Ella, the oldest, the grandmother therefore not being in her house but still being the boss, gave out instructions.
Rosalia got busy.
Angel moved toward a couch.
Ty moved behind him.
Vivie caught sight of Angel and dissed Julius to shriek, “Unkul Anhay!” and throw herself bodily from Julius to Angel who was not prepared but fortunately caught her after she launched herself off the arm of a chair before Julius could stop her. Then Angel lifted her up, threw her in the air, caught her then pulled her close and blew a raspberry in her neck all the while my daughter emitted shrieking giggles.
Rosalia emitted a quiet giggle beside me.
My eyes slid to Lella and Irv and I saw their heads bent to their hands. They were playing thumb war, my daughter’s tiny fingers curled around her grandfather’s very not tiny fingers. I watched him let her win. I listened to her soft giggle. My eyes moved to my husband to see he was also watching, his face in profile but I could still see was soft.
Then I went back to pouring pumpkin stuff in the pie shell.
Lots of people, lots of mouths to feed.
I had to get my shit together so I could feed my family.
* * * * *
Just to explain and update a few things…
* * * * *
That day five years ago, Irv knew how to find me because Irv knew that hunting cabin. Every black man and woman in the tri-county are did. And they did because Arnold Fuller was what he was because his Daddy and Granddaddy taught him how to be that way. And, back in the day when they could get away with it, any black man who stepped outside of what the Fullers and their brethren felt was their place, Fuller’s Daddy, Granddaddy and their brethren took them to that cabin and taught them their place.
And Irv explained this to Ty and the police after he explained that a buddy of his who had the pastime of listening to police band radio called to let him know I was taken. He remembered that cabin, he knew Arnold Fuller, he figured he’d hold a nasty grudge and he knew, if Fuller did, he’d act on it.
Going to that cabin was a long shot but he took it and it turned out he was right.
He should have called the police.
He didn’t because he had a son to win and a score to settle.
It was a decision based solely on emotion which made it not wrong but also not right.
What it was, was understandable.
Like father, like son.
And in the end, he saved my life.
* * * * *
Three months after Fuller kidnapped me, my husband disappeared in the night and he didn’t come home until the early hours and when he did, he took a shower before coming to bed.
I didn’t ask.
He didn’t tell.
The next day at the salon, as it does, word spread that someone torched that hunting cabin in the night. Luckily, they doused all around with water so the flames didn’t spread and it was so old, it went up like a light and burned fast.
And then it was gone.
An ugly piece of history, up in smoke and generations to come would never know it existed at all.
It would be a long time later, at his pace, when Ty told me what he did and explained he wasn’t alone. Dewey, Tate, Deke, Wood, Pop, Shambles, Ned, Irv and Jim-Billy went with him.
So did Chace Keaton.
Yes, straight-arrow Chace Keaton.
Then again, Chace was a man in the business of righting wrongs, he’d put his ass out there to do it before so I guess it wasn’t surprising he’d do it again regardless of the methods he needed to use.
I thought the building might be gone but the ghosts probably remained.
I also thought those ghosts probably got a kick out of watching those men burn that shithole to the ground.