didn’t stumble back in surprise, but the hand that held her cane did begin to shake. “Eleven? Lord,” she whispered. She’d never had one that young. “She still a baby,” Mamie said more to herself than to the woman.
“Look, you gonna do it or not?” The woman’s tone was like steel.
“I—” Mamie started to decline again and took a step toward the door; her fingers brushed against the doorknob just as the woman moved toward her.
“I’ll pay you double what you usually charge,” she said, and shoved three crisp fifties in Mamie’s face.
Mamie liked the horses, loved to watch them run. She knew some of the jockeys and had had the opportunity to move her hands across the strong backs of the animals, down their muscular limbs and through their shining manes. In the stands, her body quivered at the sound of their hooves galloping against the soft dirt of the track, making her feel a way no man was ever able to do.
She was a week behind with Otis the protector, who came to collect once a month. He had connections with the police department, and she had to pay him to make sure they would leave her be.
The oil tank had been empty since Memorial Day, but she was careful to keep up with the electric bill, because she did most of her work at night. For now, meals would be cooked on the hot plate, and showers would be taken in cold water. She’d straighten the mess out with the oil company in the fall just before the first frost hit.
So the money that Millie’s mother was dangling in her face could have been used wisely, but the sounds of hooves beating like a hundred hearts were already pounding away in Mamie’s ears.
“Come and get her tomorrow ’round noon,” Mamie said, snatching the money from the woman’s fingers.
The heat that followed Millie’s arrival was stifling and generous, filling up every inch of the house. So intense, the old paint bloomed and puckered in places on the walls, and the doorjambs swelled and buckled.
Even though there were three empty bedrooms in the house, Mamie Ray put Millie in the room with Rita.
“There,” Mamie said, indicating the empty bed next to Rita’s even though there was one on the other side of the room.
In order to better handle the heat, Rita had stripped herself down to her drawers. She stretched out across the bed on her back, her belly and breasts like mountains of flesh.
“That there is Rita,” Mamie said, and walked out of the room.
Millie stood in the doorway, her eyes wide at the sight of Rita.
“You ain’t never seen no naked woman before?” Rita asked as she lifted each heavy breast and wiped at the perspiration that had formed beneath it.
Millie’s hand shot up to her mouth, and her eyes dropped to the floor as she moved to sit down on the bed. Rita’s eyes moved with her.
Rita watched Millie’s head bob and her neck twist and listened to the soft chewing sounds her mouth made as she devoured her cuticles.
When she couldn’t take any more, she rolled onto her side, eased herself up on her elbow, and said, “Ain’t you been fed?”
Millie took a moment to answer. She slowly raised her eyes, and they immediately settled on Rita’s heavy breasts, so she dropped them again. “Yes ma’am,” she whispered.
“Ha!” Rita laughed. “I ain’t nobody’s ma’am, girl!”
Millie said nothing.
Rita cocked her head. “How old you is?”
“Eleven,” Millie squeaked, and her eyes came up again.
“Eleven?” Rita eased her free hand down between her legs and scratched.
“Uh-huh.”
“What’s your name?”
“Millie,” she said, coughed, and then, “Blythe.”
The child was soaked through with sweat. The fine red hairs curled against her forehead and dangled around her ears. She wiped at her face and then the back of her neck.
“Go on and take off your clothes. Ain’t nothing but females in this house,” Rita breathed, and then looked off to another part of the room in order to give the girl some privacy.
Millie looked around the room and then hesitantly started to unbutton the delicate white blouse she wore.
Rita waited until the blouse was off and then the gray pleated skirt. When she turned to look at the girl again, what she saw was a pale thin line of a child with knocked knees and swollen ankles.
“You pregnant?” Rita was perplexed.
Millie’s eyes rolled around in her head and then moved to the tattered window shutters. “Swallowed a watermelon seed.”
“What?” Rita laughed.
“Watermelon seed. Swallowed one.”
“Why you here, then?”
“Mama say Mamie gonna take it out so’s that it won’t grow inside of me.”
Rita bit her bottom lip. “You get your monthly?”
Millie looked down at her hands. “Come January till May, and then I swallowed the watermelon seed and it stopped.”
Rita eased herself up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. “Who gave you the watermelon?”
“Clyde.”
“Who’s that?”
“My mama’s boyfriend.”
“Uh-huh. Sliced it up for you, took it out of the rind and all?”
“Yeah. Most times.”
“Other times?”
“We played a game.”
“I play games too. What kinda game? Maybe I knows it.”
“He pops the watermelon in his mouth and then pass it to me.”
“Pass it how?”
“He press his lips to mine, and push it into my mouth.”
“I don’t know that game.”
“We play it all the time.”
“That’s how you got the watermelon seed?”
“Uh-huh.”
Millie scratched at her nose and then rubbed her eyes before falling back onto the bed.
“He ever put the watermelon seed anyplace else?”
Millie said nothing.
