Midnight Without a Moon(57)

Monty’s rendition of the trial in a southern accent obviously calmed Aunt Belle’s nerves a bit. She sat up and wiped her face with a handkerchief instead of her hand. “Well, their Anglo-Saxon ancestors are about to do a lot of turning now, because Negroes are not about to let this thing rest. Those two might have gotten away with murder, but things are about to change in Mississippi.”

“Not just Mississippi,” said Monty, “but the South.”

“Something’s about to happen,” I whispered.

“What?” Aunt Belle asked.

“Something’s about to happen,” I said, louder. “That’s what Miss Addie kept saying.”

“Miss Addie, the old midwife?” asked Aunt Belle.

I nodded. “She said something was about to shake up Mississippi.”

“Humph,” Aunt Belle said, her expression questioning. “Maybe that old woman really does have a sixth sense after all.”

“Well, whether the old lady is a soothsayer or not,” said Monty, “something’s gotta change.”

“You ain’t even from here,” Ma Pearl blurted out as she stormed into the parlor, wiping her hands on a dishrag. “Why you care so much about what Mississippi do?”

Monty nodded at Ma Pearl. “And a good afternoon to you too, Mrs. Carter.”

Ma Pearl snorted. “Northern and uppity is what you is, boy. Folks like you is the reason them peckerwoods is walking free rat now.”

Monty pointed at his chest and said, “It’s because of folks like me that there was ever a trial in the first place.”

“You dirn right,” Ma Pearl said, undaunted. “If that lil’ uppity Chicago boy hadn’t been up in that sto’ running his mouth, he would be with his mama ’stead of in a grave.”

“Lord Jesus, have mercy!” Aunt Belle said. She threw up her hands. “Let me get out of this crazy woman’s house before I start to hate her.”

Ma Pearl, her face like flint, her hands in fists, leaned toward Aunt Belle. “If you cain’t take the truth, go on back up there where you run off to in the first place. I ain’t never ast you to come back to my house. You the one keep running back this way.”

Both Monty and Aunt Belle seemed to spring from the sofa at the same time. But Aunt Belle faced down Ma Pearl. “We’ll be more than happy to get out of this hellhole,” she said. “I don’t know why I’ve wasted so much time here in the first place. Mississippi will never change because of Negroes like you, Mama. You’re the same kind of Negro that helped those two men kidnap and kill Emmett Till. Won’t even register and exercise your right to vote. So in love with that white woman that she ain’t even got to wipe her own behind. Before her stuff even hits the toilet, you there waiting with a wad of tissue in your hand to take care of it for her.”

WHAP! With every ounce of strength in her huge body, Ma Pearl swung her fist into Aunt Belle’s jaw and knocked her across the room. Aunt Belle crashed in the corner, scattering dust and Sears and Roebuck catalogs across the floor.

“Belle!” Monty screamed.


Sprawled on the floor, Aunt Belle moaned and rubbed her jaw. Monty rushed to her and lifted her upper body off the floor. He smoothed Aunt Belle’s hair from her face. “Baby, you all right?”

Still rubbing her jaw, Aunt Belle, with closed eyes, could only moan.

Monty stared up at Ma Pearl. “Woman, have you lost your mind?”

“Talk to yo’ girlfriend. She done lost her mind talking to me like that in my own house.”

Monty cradled Aunt Belle’s head. “I can’t believe you hit your own daughter,” he said, staring at Ma Pearl as if he wanted to do the same to her.

“Hit you, too, if you talk to me like that in my own house.”

I rushed over to Monty when I saw him struggling to get Aunt Belle to the sofa. We lifted Aunt Belle, who was still moaning, onto the sofa. “I’ll put some cold water on a towel for her face,” I said.

Ma Pearl pointed at me. “Don’t you take not one chip of ice from my icebox either. You better make do with pump water.”

At that moment Papa entered the parlor. He had washed up and changed his clothes as he prepared to eat supper. “Pearl,” he said, his brows raised, “what’s going on in here?”

“Paul, you wouldn’t believe what that gal just said to me.” Ma Pearl pointed at Aunt Belle and said, “She done called me everything but a child of God.”

“Mr. Carter,” Monty said, “I assure you that Belle was only responding to Mrs. Carter’s antagonistic ways. Under normal circumstances, there is no way she would use such fresh language in the presence of her elders.”

“Hold on a minute, son,” Papa said, his palms raised. “I’m a country boy. Speak to me with plain words.”

“Ma Pearl started it,” I said. My hands shot up to my mouth, knowing they were already too late to stop the words.

Ma Pearl stormed toward me.

But rather than Papa, Monty stopped her. “If you even think about putting your hands on this child, woman, I will deal with you myself.”

A lump rose in my throat.

Papa grabbed Ma Pearl by the shoulders. “Pearl, it’s time for you to head back to the kitchen. Rose, go get that wet towel for Baby Susta’s jaw,” he said to me.