CHAPTER FOUR A NEW DEAL
CHAPTER
FOUR
A New Deal
Benny sat in his car beside the charred remains of Green’s Whiskey, waiting.
The roof and the side of the barn were missing, and the burned planks of the lean-to had fallen in on themselves.
From the road by the creek, he heard the rumble of an engine he knew well: his old Plymouth.
He got out of his car as Cora pulled up and parked beside him.
‘Good to see you,’ he said, hugging her.
‘You too,’ she said. ‘Thanks for meeting me.’
‘Of course. Anytime. You know that, right?’
‘Sure,’ she said. Then, with a wink, she added, ‘We’re family, after all.’
It stung. Family shouldn’t have to meet this way.
‘Okay, tell me everything. How are you and Momma doing? Did you find a job?’ He hopped up to sit on the trunk of his car and she hopped up beside him, shaking her head.
‘I sent the note to meet here because I wanted to tell you something in person, because some things,’ she scrunched up her nose, ‘you just shouldn’t tell people in a note.’ She adjusted herself on the trunk, angling her body toward him.
‘Is it Momma?’ he asked.
Momma had been through so much in her life, and there was a limit as to how much a body could take. She’d looked so tired at Aunt Teen’s. He knew he should be doing more for her, after everything she’d done for him. Now when she needed him, he wasn’t there.
‘Not Momma,’ Cora said. ‘Lee’s awake.’
Only then did he notice the brightness in her eyes and the way she couldn’t sit still, shifting and fiddling and seeming to want to spring out of herself.
He jumped off the car and it was like the energy that was bubbling inside her transferred to him.
He swooped her up and spun her around, laughing, then set her down and hugged her.
‘Thank God,’ he said. ‘Thank you, God.’
He felt lighter, and with a grin on his face, he demanded details. ‘When? How? I want to hear all of it. Is he doing okay? When can he come home?’
She gave him the rundown. And there was no talk of sending him home just yet, wherever that might be. With the lean-to caved in behind them, and with Cora squished in with Patsy and Aunt Teen, Lee would probably have to go back to Uncle Drew’s.
Benny thought of his Levittown home, with its two empty bedrooms, and felt his temper rising. His anger, normally aimed squarely at white folks, doubled back and smacked him in the face. What was the point of getting ahead if he couldn’t be there for the people he cared about?
Cora’s excited chatter washed over him, talking about exercises to build Lee’s strength back and foods to get up his appetite, and then she stopped mid-sentence and turned her head. When she did, he heard it too. The rumble of a car engine and the crunch of tires on the stone-studded road.
‘Did you tell someone to meet us here?’ he asked. ‘Patsy maybe?’
She shook her head.
A rusted Buick pickup pulled into the drive and parked twenty yards away from them. The engine idled as the man inside glared at them. Then he cut the engine and got out.
‘What’s your business here?’ he said, aggression lacing his words.
Benny looked at Cora to see if she recognized him, but she shrugged.
‘That’s no concern of yours,’ he said. ‘You should move on, friend.’
‘Friend, hunh?’ The man took a few steps toward them, chest puffed like a pigeon’s. ‘I think you should tell me what you’re doing on my land.’ He nodded at Cora. ‘With your friend.’
Benny’s mouth went dry. He had no legitimate reason to be there, and especially not with a colored woman.
He’d passed in the army for four and a half years and then for two and a half more back home, and the thought of this Mr Nobody coming along and blowing everything made his tongue stick in his throat.
What was it Momma had said? If you keep playing with fire you’re asking to get burned.
‘Mr Mitchell?’ Cora called.
The man squinted at her. ‘Who are you?’
‘I work for Lee Peters. For Green’s Whiskey. I’ve seen your name on the rent checks.’
‘Not lately you haven’t,’ he said. ‘Not since that fire. I haven’t seen a dime for this place since then.’
‘Well, that’s … You know Mr Peters is in the hospital, right?’
‘Still? That boy ain’t dead yet?’
‘No, sir.’
Benny heard the indignation under her polite words.
‘Well, he ain’t renting this property no more, which means you’re trespassing.’ He rounded on Benny. ‘So, what are you doing here?’
‘I’m just … I’m here because …’ he stammered and glanced at Cora.
‘Mr North wanted to see it,’ she said, with conviction. ‘Right?’
She turned to Benny, who glared back at her. She widened her eyes, telling him to play along, and he hoped she knew what she was doing.
‘Yes.’ His palms sweated, but he kept his voice steady. ‘Yes, I did.’
‘And why is that?’
‘Well …’ He drew out the word, stalling for time.
‘He’s in the market to buy some land,’ Cora said.
Benny plastered on a broad salesman’s smile and let her do the talking, nodding as if he knew something about any of this.
‘As I mentioned,’ Cora said pointing, ‘the barn is beyond repair, but you could clear that away and start fresh.’
‘Hmm,’ he said, looking around like he was considering that.
‘Wouldn’t need much clearing,’ the landlord said helpfully, his tone changing. ‘The fire did most of the work for you.’
‘Hmm,’ Benny said again, with a what-now glance to Cora. ‘I suppose it did.’ There was an awkward silence where he just kept nodding, wishing them away from there. ‘Well,’ he finally said into the quiet, ‘thanks for your time. I’ll think about—’
‘What’s the insurance offering?’ Cora interrupted, bold as brass.
Benny looked away to hide his surprise. What was she doing? They needed to go.
‘What insurance?’ Mitchell scoffed. ‘Who the hell insures an old barn?’
‘So, you’d be willing to sell?’ she asked. She had a determined look on her face, layered over excitement she was trying to hide.
‘For the right price,’ he said.
She turned to Benny. ‘The creek can flood, so you can’t build too close, and when you go too far south the land gets swampy – you could get ’gators down that way.
You’d have to put up a fence to keep them out.
And as you saw, Mr North, there’s nothing but a dirt road leading here, so you’d have to do something about that too. ’
‘Hmm.’ Benny nodded, at a loss as to why she was keeping them there talking to this man. ‘Yes.’ Were they still acting, or was she really thinking about buying the place? She was broke, but the excitement strumming in her was unmistakable.
‘There’s work to be done, but the land is good,’ Mitchell said.
‘Mr North?’ she said expectantly, and the expression on her face was as clear as if she’d whispered in his ear. She wanted this land, and somehow, she thought she could actually buy it.
Benny took in the man’s worn overalls, battered shoes and rusted truck, and saw what she saw. He needed to sell. He leaned against his new car, hoping to give the impression of someone who went around buying up land and asked, in as casual a tone as he could manage, ‘How much?’