Take My Hand(92)

Montgomery

1973


Mama baked a cake for the Williamses to celebrate the verdict and Erica’s safe return. Like most things creative, she was a magician when it came to piping frosting. And she sang while she was doing it. I remember because I hadn’t heard her sing in a long time. Mama had not been to her studio since she’d returned from Memphis. Daddy and I made faces at each other as we tried to wrap our heads around this change. Every day, Mama and Aunt Ros sat down on the floor, held hands, and did some kind of meditation chant. They made tea and listened to Tantric music. Ros told us not to worry, that Mama was still a Christian. That made Daddy laugh.

Aunt Ros decided to stay through Thanksgiving. Daddy wanted to entertain, and we all agreed. He got Mr. Singh to cook the entire meal, even though Mabel Turner insisted on bringing crackling corn bread, one of India’s favorites. Aunt Ros and I decorated the house with fake pinecones and paper turkeys. Every now and then she would go out back and smoke a cigarette. While I waited, I noticed how quiet it was just for those few minutes. Aunt Ros’s presence lit up the house, and I knew when she left it would change the air.

On Thanksgiving night, Lou showed up with his wife, Jenna, and she was not at all what I expected. Given his habit of nonstop work, I thought she might be soft-spoken. I was wrong. By the way she shook my hand, I could tell she was no wallflower, and I liked her instantly. Her eyes were intensely intelligent, and I had a feeling she knew as much about the case as I did.

She was also pregnant. Very pregnant. She placed a hand on the back of one of the barstools in the den.

“You need to sit down?” I asked her.

“No, I’m fine,” she said.

“Lou, I ain’t believing this,” I said to him. “When is the baby due?”

“You know Civil was my co-counsel,” he said to his wife.

“That’s what I hear,” said Jenna.

“Baby’s due next month,” he said.

“And y’all don’t live in the same city?” Mama asked, also visibly reacting to Jenna’s belly.

“Girl, young people do it different nowadays.” Aunt Ros dropped her cigarette pack in her purse and walked behind the bar. “I can dig it.”

“She’s been driving back and forth, but now she’s about to settle here until the baby’s born,” Lou said.

“Driving back and forth to Selma? In that condition?” Mama said.

Aunt Ros placed two stem glasses on the counter. “Anybody want some wine?”

I pulled Lou aside and whispered. “Lou, you already knew your wife was pregnant when you took the case, didn’t you?”

He nodded.

“And it bothered you to hear of the girls being sterilized, what with you becoming a new daddy.”

“Civil, you know me better than that by now. You know I would have taken this case regardless.”

“I guess I’m just piecing it together is all.”

“Once you do, make sure to enlighten me,” he said.

The Ralseys showed up next and brought Alicia with them. I hugged Alicia when I saw her, and she held on to me for a long time. Mrs. Ralsey asked Ty to bring in the pot of greens they’d forgotten in the car. She went straight to Mama, and I could hear her apologizing for being too busy to check up on her. Mama waved her apologies off and asked about the Tuskegee case. That launched a whole new conversation.

In the kitchen, Alicia helped me arrange the food on the table so everyone could serve themselves. “Can you believe Lou didn’t tell us his wife was pregnant? All that time he spent in the office?”

“I thought the same thing,” I said. “You know she works at a law firm in Selma.”

Alicia shook her head. “It’s a different world now, isn’t it?”

I unwrapped the bowl of macaroni and set it down next to the corn bread. “She told me she followed the case closely. I want to ask what she thinks about the family’s chance to win a civil suit.”

“The Williamses are here.” Ty poked his head in the doorway, then disappeared.

I wiped the table though I had just wiped it minutes before. It was the first time Mace had been to my house, and I knew my daddy still suspected there was something between us. There wasn’t and never would be. Ever since Erica had gone missing, he had pulled away from me. And I had done the same. A kiss on a living room couch did not mean anything.

Alicia touched me on the arm. “Civil, he’s in love with you, you know.”

“Who is?”

Before she could answer, Erica and her sister came into the kitchen. India grabbed me by my waist. I pushed a strand of hair behind her ears and used the edge of my fingernail to smooth her eyebrow. Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Erica over India’s shoulder. Daddy had examined her after her return and found nothing amiss. Mostly, he said, she was exhausted and needed rest. But she still seemed wary, distant.

“I got a couple of new records,” I said, hoping that might interest her. I had bought them after she went missing, promising myself that if she returned I would bring her over to listen. I had to do everything in my power to resist just giving her my record player. She would have enjoyed it more than I did. But I couldn’t do that any longer. I could not try to buy their salvation. “Come on.”

The two of them followed me back to my room. Daddy had started playing some music, so I told them if they closed the bedroom door they could hear better. As I left I heard Erica explaining to India how to start a record without scratching it.