Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2009 - (Page 72) threatening as he pushed forward to wait for the last bit of conversation. “I don’t have enough room for the three children. I only have a two-bedroom single-wide trailer. Black looked at the hole in the screen door and began to play with it. “Y’all can come by and visit every now and then,” he whispered and smiled, revealing his straight white teeth. Maymay slowly moved her head in the direction of Tut. She stared at her instead of Black. “Mister let me tell you something. I wouldn’t expect you or Tut to raise ma grandchildren. I couldn’t even trust her with my farm animals yet alone children.” “Tut can barely even raise herself with her simple mind. Some days she cleans my whole house, spotless. Other days she leaves it all disorde for me and Celeste to clean. She got the worse reputation in Louisiana. The Bastille family can’t afford no more jokes and lies. I can’t bear a week, let alone a month, in some bed in Pineville or the hospital again. If she gone with all her rumors, maybe me and ma family can one day lift our heads in public before I die and pass away like poor T-Man.” Maymay was serious about this and she made the sign of the cross when she mentioned her husband. Maymay turned, smiled at Tut, and picked up speed on the rocking chair. Tut had a grin from ear to ear. “You happy now, huh cher? Girl, you hell. That man gon’ take you with four children and a bad reputation — worse one. Thought I’d never see the day. Mais I would be happy too. Wait a minute!” Maymay abruptly stopped rocking as she spotted the suitcase in Tut’s hand. She got up and grabbed the suitcase. “Give me that damn suitcase. That’s our only suitcase in the house. Suitcase too high! We only use them for good occasions in case we have to be around people and conduct decent business. It’s not for you to use. I let you take ma suitcase and I never see it again. Leave ma stuff here. Use them pillowcases off of the line outside.” Maymay stood with the precious suitcase in her hand. She would use the suitcase to go to the hospital or visit her people in New Orleans. The children would use it to go on field trips. It was important to them. T-Red had been standing next to the screen door, long and lean. He had enough. He exploded. Grabbing Tut’s suitcase from Maymay’s old, delicate fingers in a fit of rage, he began to empty its contents. “Get the hell out of my mama’s house.” He then began to kick everything outside in the grass with the chickens and dogs. “Take this country fool with you. You sorry. How in the world you gonna deny your own children for some country Frenchy John in the fields you just meant?” He began collecting all of the clothes from the porch and flung them in handfuls onto the front yard. The children fled outside to watch the fiasco in safety. “Don’t call back here at me or Canoe’s house. When I get my mama a phone, I’m going to block your number. If you want to see your children, blow at the corner. None of them girls gonna go broad yonder. Next ting you know you’ll be letting him mess with your own flesh and blood just so you can have some double-wide trailer and outdo me and Bumblebee.” He was so tall and furious that he was now rocking the small porch with his heavy movement. “Leave, leave, and don’t come back. Maymay is dead, right. Me and ma children will finally be able to lift our eyes and look at people in the face. Get out. Never come back. I mean that.” He stood straight with an emphatic look of boldness after he threw the last of her belongings from the porch, a heavy cigar box filled with pennies that she had stolen from Celeste. It hit Tut on the corner of her forehead. She was too happy to wince at the pain. Getting up clumsily from the grass, her bony legs looked gawky. They were tall and lanky, like ostrich legs when they lifted from the ground. Covering her mouth with her red, chipped, nail-polish-covered hands, she tried to hide her huge smile. While T-Red continued to cuss at Tut from the porch, Tut ran to the Buick with childlike enthusiasm. Maymay was 72 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Spring 2009
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