After a long while I found myself pressing down hard on her and yelling something, but I can’t remember what it was. I felt pain in my head and realized that she was pulling my hair. She was yelling too, ‘You done, Easy! It’s over...’
‘No,’ I cried.
‘Shhhh, baby, it’s okay. You too excited to know you come.’
When I came to myself and realised what I’d done I turned away from her.
‘That’s okay,’ she whispered, rubbing my butt with her palm. ‘You already loved me enough, baby. Sleep now.’ She was quivering against my back as I fell asleep.
Mouse and I were standing in the swamp and mosquitoes were all over me. My crotch was the worst bit, and I scratched until it was raw. Mouse told me that I was going to scratch it right off, then he started laughing.
‘If you stop scratchin’,’ he said, ‘they stop bitin’ you, fool!’
The wind was blowing in a loud rush all around. I turned to see Momma Jo making the wind with her breathing. She came up to me like a big cloud, and made like to kiss me but instead she breathed down my throat. It was a powerful smell but I couldn’t pull away from her — she was too strong.
I was pushed to the ground. She was so heavy that I could hear my bones snap, one at a time. At every crack Ernestine moaned.
Momma came up with my butcher’s knife. I knew she was going to cut off my head to make her young again. I wanted to yell for Mouse to come save me but I couldn’t catch my wind without her breath in me.
We were all at the dinner table. Daddy and my mother and two little girls that I had never seen. A big gray stallion was heaped on the table.
It had been roasted with potatoes and carrots, and it smelled like Momma Jo’s pussy. My mother (who was a big woman) stood up and came toward me. All I could see was yards and yards of her gray plaid dress coming at me like a freighter coming into the Gulf.
‘Easy! Easy!’ Mouse was whispering in my ear. ‘Wake up, man! We gotta go! Com’on!’
I was sick in my heart. I moaned out loud, and Mouse said, ‘Shut up. You gonna wake’er.’
Mouse pulled me by the arm but I was too weak to move. I could see that he was wearing a long gray coat.
‘Lemme ‘lone,’ I said.
‘Easy, this ain’t no time t’play.’
‘Raymond?’ Her voice came from somewhere in the dark room. ‘Raymond, that you?’
‘Yeah, Jo. I come t’collect Easy.’
‘What time is it?’
‘It’s still dark.’
‘When you be back?’
‘I dunno. In a few days, or less.’
‘What you need Easy for?’ She said it like a challenge.
‘He my friend, Jo, like I tole you.’
‘Well. You go on out an’ I sen’im in a minute.’
Mouse leaned dose to me and smiled his golden smile. He winked, then he was gone out the door.
A match struck and Momma Jo was there lighting an oil lantern. Shadows jumped around the room and I wondered if it was really night outside. She was just as tall but she looked different when she was naked. Her breasts made her look more human, they didn’t stick straight out anymore but they didn’t sag very much either. The hard nipples curved upward like blunted black barbs on thornbush.
‘Mo’nin’, Easy,’ she said gently. ‘How you?’ There was a moan and the rustling of blankets and I could see Ernestine laying on the pillows from where Momma Jo came; Clifton was nowhere to be seen.
Momma tossed a blanket over the girl and wrapped another one around her own shoulders. She asked me to sit down there on the floor, but I shook my head and picked up my pants.
She stood close to me while I dressed, letting her shoulders sag down so she was dose to my height. ‘You gonna come back wit’ Raymond, baby?’
‘No, I don’t think so.’
‘Why not?’
‘Well, I gotta job you know, an’ we jes’ gonna say hi to his fam’ly, then we gone.’
‘Raymond say he comin’ back.’
‘I ain’t got the time.’ I looked her in the face for a second. Her eyes were full of sympathy or pity; I didn’t know what for.
‘You had some time las’ night.’
There was nothing to say to that so I concentrated on the buttons of my shirt.
‘Why’ont you come back t’say bye?’
‘Okay,’ I lied to keep her quiet, but she looked down at Ernestine and then back at me.
‘You shouldn’t be mad ‘bout us girls gettin’ together, Easy. She just excited an’ you an’ Clifton was out. Girls need t’talk ‘bout they men.’ She smiled and looked coy.
I wanted to tear off my skin.
‘I don’t care bout them. I gotta go an’ I’ll come say bye fo’ we get back down.’
I moved to go to the door, but she touched my arm.
‘Come back, Easy,’ she said, and I felt something.
‘I cain’t, Jo. This ain’t right, an’, an’ you don’t even know me.’
She looked at me for long time. While she did she seemed to get older and older; her eyes were tired and there were folds in her face. It was like she was aging to death and I was killing her. The lantern was fluttering, maybe it had been the whole time, but right then I thought that if the light went out she’d die.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘But just to say bye.’
When she kissed me I felt sick but excited too; I wanted to scream.
When I got to the door she said, ‘You watch out fo’Ray-mond, honey.’
‘Mouse don’t need me t’help him.’
‘I mean you make sure you don’t get hurt. Raymond hate this place an’ he don’t have no good reason t’ be down here.’
‘I be okay, Jo.’
She put her hand on my throat like she was going to choke me, but softly. Then I left.
Chapter Five
The sky was black and crowded with stars. The land was like a heaven too; everywhere there were dusters of fireflies, glowing white with glints of green and yellow and blue. They covered the ground in a shimmering net of light. In the middle of that light was the dark form of a man holding a yellow lantern.
‘Hey, Easy! She let you go, huh?’
‘Where’d you go?’ I asked Mouse. ‘How come you left me there?’
‘I had t’go see my friend, Easy. I figgered you could take care’a yo’self.’ Mouse snickered. ‘Who gonna figger you for runnin’ after witch pussy?’
I took two steps toward him with my fists clenched.
‘Hole’it, man.’ He was laughing and holding the lantern out as a play shield. ‘If Momma go after somebody, then what can they do? We just people, Easy, and she is more’n that.’
‘What you go’n leave me for?’
‘I had t’see somebody. I din’t know what’s on that crazy woman’s mind.’
‘Shit!’
Mouse was laughing so hard that he had trouble holding the lantern steady; his whole body shook.
‘Easy, you shoulda been born rich,’ he said, letting out a long sigh of pleasure. ‘I mean up on the hill with servants and tea.’
‘What you talkin’ ‘bout?’
‘Look at you. Here you go wantin’ t’pick’n choose like you too good fo’Jo. But you don’t un’erstan’ that’s Momma Jo in there. If she like you then you halfway got it made. She feed you and fix you up if you get cut. Shit! An’ I bet she fuck you bettah than all them chippies you be chasin’ in Houston. I tell ya. You got a woman wanna take you home you better not be turnin’ up yo’ nose...’
‘Shut up, shut up!’
‘All right.’ He hunched his shoulders. ‘All I gotta say is...’
‘Just shut up, all right?’
And he did. He turned and walked away without another word. I followed him, my head about to come open with all that had happened.
With those stars and lightning bugs I barely made out the path we walked on from the heavens. It was like walking in the black skies of night; my whole sense of up and down was gone. The only thing that kept me from getting dizzy was keeping my eye on Mouse’s black silhouette, rushing on up ahead. We walked for quite a while until we came into a stand of cypress trees.