Chapter 18
18
K athy Sweets - Harlem, 1949
“Brenda?” Claudia called out as she flipped the sign to Closed . The last of the staff had already left. They had a party to cater for Bumpy Johnson in the morning, so everyone had headed out early to return early and start on the menu.
“Brenda!” Claudia called again, her voice echoed through the empty bakery.
“I’m right here,” Brenda answered, emerging from the back in her apron, hands to hips. Claudia smiled at her. “Do you want me to count out the receipts? Or start the cleaning?”
“Leave it. Henry will come for the register before we leave. Help me in the kitchen.”
Claudia nodded. Her back ached, and her feet throbbed, but it was a good pain. Working for the family—her family—was different from serving, cleaning, and caring for white folks. This work gave her a sense of pride, a strength she could hold on to. She could never defend Debbie wanting to work for the Italians, and now that school had started, she agreed with the family that Debbie’s summer of independence should come to an end.
“What do you need me to do?” Claudia asked, stepping into the kitchen to find it in pristine condition.
Brenda just stared at her.
Claudia paused, her brow furrowing.
“Brenda?”
Brenda broke. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she choked out, “Help me, Lord.”
Claudia moved quickly, pulling Brenda into her arms. Brenda was one of the strongest women she knew. No woman could take down a man like King Redmond the way Brenda had. But it was her silence, her quiet suffering, that Claudia feared most. She patted Brenda’s back gently. “Did it work?”
Brenda pulled away, shaking her head. “I did what you said. I went back to our bed, let him make love to me. I thought… it felt like he was softening, like we were softening.”
Claudia nodded; her expression steady.
“But he ain’t,” Brenda cried. “Now he’s talking about visiting Kathy instead of bringing her home!” Her voice cracked, and she wept openly.
Claudia reached for her again, pulling her close. “Listen, men are stubborn. I told you. It’ll take time. Stay sweet on him. The sweeter you are, the softer he’ll be.”
“I can’t do it!” Brenda snapped, wrenching herself away. “He’s my husband, Claudia, and I miss him. It’s killing me inside to pull away from him. But what else am I supposed to do? Now he thinks I can live with my baby gone. And I’m telling you, I can’t. He won’t give me more children. She’s all I got. I have to have her back here with me. I have to!”
Claudia nodded, her eyes filled with understanding. “The Freeman boys come from tough stock. You know how Big Mama raised them. Mean as snakes. He loves your baby too. He thinks he’s healing her from that Italian. He thinks he’s healing you, too. You can’t fight him with anger and demands. You’ve got to do it with love, Brenda. I know it’s hard. Being Pete’s wife is hard. He beat my baby girl so bad because of those Italians, I had to mend her for weeks. Trust and believe, I know what it is to hold your tongue and your vengeance. But what else are we gonna do? You gonna force Henry to bring her back?”
Brenda paced the room, her breathing labored. “My sister, Izzie, called me last night. Janey’s headed to Butts.”
Claudia’s eyes widened. “She al’ight?”
“Who knows with Janey. But if she gets next to my baby, ain’t no telling what Janey’s gonna fill her head with. I cain’t let her stay in the Delta. She ain’t got a fighting chance without me.”
“Then there’s one thing you can do. One thing that’ll force Henry to hear you. But if you do it, it could drive a big wedge between you,” Claudia said, her voice low and serious.
“What?” Brenda asked, stopping in her tracks.
“Leave him. Go back to Mississippi and be with her. Leave him here to face Bumpy and these stupid turf wars with the Italians alone. Leave him here for the whores and church ushers to ease into your man’s bed and take your place. Leave him behind and tell him you choose her over him. You prepared to do that? To walk away, Brenda? Possibly for good?”
Brenda stood frozen, the weight of Claudia’s words were heavy on her heart. The choice should have been simple. She was a mother. It was her sole purpose in life to be a good mother and wife. But Henry was as much a part of her soul as Kathy was. She couldn’t walk away from either of them. He’d saved her life that night. Saved her sister Janey and risked a lynching for it. He’d busted his ass for those white men down at the ports, taken beatings and cheating in stride. He’d gotten them a house, made her respectable—something she could never have been as an Elliot bastard in Butts.
“I can’t leave him,” Brenda whispered. “I can never leave him. It ain’t in me. Only death can make us part.”
Claudia smiled softly. She walked over to her sister-in-law, her sister in Christ, and threw her arms around her. They embraced tightly, a shared connection as wives to the Freeman men. No one knew their joy or their suffering more than each other.
Claudia cupped Brenda’s face in her hands. “You listen here. You’re a good woman, and Henry worships you. Use that. You know how. You’re your mama’s daughter.”
Brenda nodded, a small smile breaking through her tears. “I’m my mama’s daughter.”
Butts, Mississippi – 1949
“Hey, hey there, Ely! Whatcha?—?”
Doogie paused mid-sentence; his sharp eyes focused as he peered into the truck. For a second, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him. But no—when he blinked, she was still there.
“Janey?” His voice pitched high with disbelief.
Janey didn’t bother removing her sunglasses. She merely tilted her head, her lips parted in mild disinterest.
“You know it is,” she said flatly.
Doogie let out a low whistle, shaking his head as he looked over at Ely.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he muttered. “What you bringin’ them here for, boy?”
Ely kept his hands firm on the wheel and his voice steady. “The cabin still here?”
Doogie’s smirk faded. His gaze volleyed toward the overgrown path ahead, where the remains of the old cabin sat hidden behind a thicket of wild grass and creeping vines.
“Yeah,” he said after a beat. “Docker boys won’t tear it down for some strange reason. Scared to , if you ask me.” He scratched the back of his neck. “They say it’s cursed.”
At that, Kathy saw her aunt’s head turn sharply, despite the veil of her sunglasses.
Ely ignored the comment. “She wants to see it. Can you get me permission?”
Doogie chuckled. “Ain’t nobody gonna stop her ,” he said, nodding toward Janey. “Ain’t nobody goes out there, neither. You just come back this way when y’all done, so I can get you outta here.”
His eyes flicked toward Janey one last time.
“Nice seein’ you again, Janey,” he added.
Janey didn’t acknowledge him; her gaze returned to the road ahead.
Doogie tapped the truck, and Ely pressed forward. The road grew rougher as they drove deeper in. Tall grass swallowed the tires, the truck’s engine straining as Ely forced it through the overgrowth. Cicadas screamed in the humid air, their shrill cries adding an eerie edge to the journey.
Kathy watched her aunt carefully.
Though Janey remained still, Kathy noticed the way her fingers trembled against her lap. Behind those dark lenses, tears dripped silently down her cheeks.
Kathy reached over and took her hand, squeezing it gently.
Janey squeezed back.
“Did your Mama ever tell you what happened to our mother here?” Janey mumbled.
Kathy hesitated. “Yes, ma’am. She told me the whole story.”
Janey stared ahead, skepticism twisting her lips.
“I doubt she did,” she muttered bitterly.
“She told me about the cherries,” Kathy said. “How cherries work the best.”
Janey’s head snapped around so fast she nearly knocked her sunglasses off.
Kathy held her gaze. “Mama isn’t what you think she is,” she said softly. “She’s human too, Aunt Janey. And she remembers everything , just like you.”
Janey didn’t speak.
She simply wiped her tears, adjusting her sunglasses like she needed a shield between herself and the past.
Kathy studied her in silence. Janey was beautiful and desirable, a woman who could command any room she walked into. But beneath all that poise, Kathy saw something deeper—someone who had her soul broken .
Her mother had found her salvation in religion.
Kathy wondered how Janey had found hers.
Or if she even had.
Ely brought the truck to a slow stop. The cabin was barely standing. Time and nature had claimed it, vines curled around the rotting wood like they were trying to pull it back into the earth. There was a hole in the roof, and a young tree had forced its way through, its branches stretching toward the sky. The windows shattered, and the front door barely hung from rusted hinges. The grass grew so high it nearly swallowed the cabin whole.
It looked like a place where ghosts lived.
Ely exhaled, rubbing the back of his neck with his hanky. “Let me check it out first,” he offered.
But before he could even move, Janey threw open the door and jumped out. She marched straight into the tall grass, like a woman possessed.
“Stay in the truck,” Ely told Kathy. “I’ll take care of her.”
“No.” Kathy shook her head. “I want to see it, too.”
Ely groaned. “You women are so damn stubborn.”
Still, he sighed and walked around the truck, helping her down like she was made of glass.
She smiled at his protectiveness, squeezing his hand. He was like a big brother to her. Of course, she told Carmelo about their friendship and how much it helped. He had made a few comments that seem to be a bit jealous. Kathy thought it cute, and didn’t really mind it. Ely was her family. That would never change.
Together, they followed Janey toward the house.
Janey pushed open the door, and it collapsed inward, sending up a cloud of dust and decay.
She pulled a handkerchief to her nose, stepping carefully over the rotted floorboards. Ely instinctively pushed Kathy behind him, his body tense, protective.
She wanted to tell him she wasn’t afraid, but she wasn’t sure if that was true.
“Careful, Janey,” Ely warned. “It ain’t safe.”
Janey didn’t look back at him. “It was never a safe place,” she murmured.
Kathy stepped inside and looked around. The ghosts of the past still lingered there. Old pots and pans sat where they had been left, rusted and forgotten. A chair stood in the corner, broken but present. The remnants of a small bed lay in one corner, the mattress long gone.
Janey walked forward slowly, her fingers grazing a shelf—then she stopped abruptly.
Something caught her eye. She knelt and reached for a single, abandoned shoe.
It was small. Worn. Janey dusted it off gently, then held it to her chest like a precious jewel.
Kathy swallowed hard, unable to look away. Janey’s back was to her, but she saw her shoulders shaking. Kathy wanted to speak. What could she say?
A moment passed.
Then, from the corner of her eye, Kathy spotted a small book tucked under debris near the stove. She reached for it, brushing off the dust. A journal?
Before she could look inside?—
“Mama!”
Janey’s scream shattered the silence. Kathy’s heart stopped. Ely rushed forward, and Kathy was right behind him. They found Janey on her knees. She was clutching something—a dress, old and tattered, as if it had once belonged to a ghost. She rocked back and forth, hugging it, crying.
Ely hovered nearby, his face tight with concern, unsure if he should touch her.
Kathy didn’t hesitate. She knelt beside her aunt, wrapping her arms around her, holding her close to her heart. Janey groaned and sobbed; her body racked with grief.
They stayed that way for a long time. Then, suddenly—Janey inhaled sharply, sat up straight, and sighed. She stood. Her face returned to its usual mask of beauty and poise, her tears wiped away as if they had never fallen.
“Y’all ready to go?” she asked lightly.
Kathy blinked up at her, stunned by the change.
Ely helped Kathy up, exchanging a look with her, but neither spoke.
Janey tossed the shoe and dress aside like trash and walked out the door, back to the truck, as sassy and untouchable as ever. Kathy stared after her, then quietly picked up both the dress and the shoe. She also grabbed a small change purse sitting on a shelf.
Ely took them from her. “I’ll put ‘em in the truck,” he said. “Janey won’t see.”
Kathy smiled at him. “Thank you, Ely.”
They walked back together.
“Hurry up!” Janey called from the truck, her sunglasses back on. “I wanna rest and change. Goin’ to the Juke Joint tonight. ”
Kathy slid in beside her. “What’s a Juke Joint?”
Ely and Janey burst with laughter.
Kathy just smiled, not knowing what was funny.