Rhozier Brown - DC Noir 2 - The Classics

This revived Ringo, and he grabbed Ruby’s arm and asked her to sit down next to him and be nice. Billy brought three more milk crates over, and Tracy and Ruby sat on two of them, and then Billy brought a pack of six cans of beer and an opener. “Ringo, because you such a good friend, we gonna have a little party,” Billy said.

He went to the front door and locked it. He said there wasn’t any point staying open in all this rain anyhow. I drank my tea while the others drank beer, and then, feeling much better, I drank some beer, too. Ruby, holding her can of beer, announced she was going to sing a song. “I ain’t Mahalia Jackson, but I can sing,” she said.

She could, too. She sang a song, mostly humming it, while Ringo accompanied her with a little dance. He closed his eyes and put his hand in the pockets of his jacket and moved his feet very slowly back and forth.

“Where you coming from, John?” Ruby asked, when she had finished singing.

“New York,” I said. “I came down on the train to see my family.”

“Man, you have been travelling some,” Tracy said, “and you still ain’t home.”

“When you with friends, you home. Ain’t that right, John?” Ringo said.

Ruby said she liked to take train trips. “There ain’t nowhere I want to go, but I do like the ride,” she said.

She asked me if I had a good ride down, and I told them the story of my ride, how my overcoat and wallet had been stolen on the train, and how, after that, I had got sick.

“People get you sick every time,” Ruby said thoughtfully.

“Sure,” Billy said. “And then Ringo get you sick in Washington.”

“I ain’t get John sick,” Ringo said. “I been helping John.”

“You been helping John?” Ruby said. “Who else you help lately?”

“John ain’t the only white man I ever help,” Ringo said, smiling.

“Honey,” Ruby said, leaning forward. “What other white man you nearly kill?”

“Few years ago I was working for this man name of Reddy,” Ringo said, biting the corner of his lip. “In this junk yard out northeast.”

“Yeah,” Bill said. “I remember you and that junk .”

“Well, one day,” Ringo said, “Mr. Reddy is standing on the street watching these colored boys working on a trash truck. They up there singing and laughing, and Mr. Reddy, he say, ‘Boys, you happy. You sure is happy. You have all the fun,’ and one of them colored boys, he say, ‘That’s right, boss. We having some fun,’ and they up there tossing them trash cans around and laughing, and Mr. Reddy, he watch them and smile, and then he walk over to me and he say, ‘Ringo, you colored boys sure is happy,’ and I say, ‘Mr. Reddy, I ain’t happy. Them niggers up on that truck may be happy, but I ain’t,’ and he get real angry, and he say, ‘Don’t give me no lip, Ringo,’ and I laugh. ‘Well, I sure ain’t happy,’ I say, ‘with the wages you paying.’ He fire me.”

Billy guffawed and Tracy put his hands over his face and began to shake.

“How you help him, baby?” Ruby said, looking around at everybody.

Ringo spread his arms and turned his palms upward, and then he broke into a wide smile. “Well, I straighten him out! ” he said.

Ruby laughed and slapped her thigh. Tracy, still shaking, kept his hands over his face, while Billy just looked at the floor and smiled.

Ringo started jumping rope with his eyes closed. Tracy leaned forward and touched Ruby’s knee. “Ruby, you ain’t gonna give that old moral?” he said, looking disgusted.

“I got to, baby,” Ruby said. “O.K., Billy, you ask me.”

Billy looked serious and folded his arms across his apron. “What’s the moral of that story?”

“The moral of that story—” Ruby began, looking very serious.

“Aw, Ruby,” Tracy said, shaking his head and looking at his feet. Ringo, with his arms straight out and his eyes closed, was standing completely still.

“The moral of that story,” Ruby went on, holding up a hand for quiet, “is that, Ringo, honey, you sure is one dumb nigger.”

They all began to laugh, moaning and groaning with laughter, leaning on one another, and, except for Ruby, Ringo laughed loudest and hardest. The laughter continued for about five minutes, gradually diminishing, then rising again. Ruby had her arms around Tracy’s head, and Ringo sat on the floor. Billy had walked over to the counter and, leaning on it, his hands palms down on the top, laughed in gasps. I was laughing myself.

“Now, what you laughing at?” Ringo said to me from the floor. “That ain’t nice.”

Ruby looked over at me and said, “Honey, don’t pay us no mind.”

After a while, the laughter fell into silence. There were just the sounds of the wind, and Billy’s shoes on the floor, as he walked around taking cans out of cartons and putting them on shelves. Only Ruby was still smiling. Tracy and Ringo seemed sad. They were looking down at their hands. Ringo, who had a very gentle expression, was biting his lip. Billy moved around looking preoccupied and tired. Ruby looked at me and winked, and I smiled at her. She was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. She nodded in the direction of Tracy and Ringo, and said to me, “They looking kind of blue,” and Tracy looked up from his hands and smiled shyly, but Ringo continued to bite his lip and look down.

“Will you look at him?” Ruby said. “Ain’t he cute?”

“Come on, Ruby. I ain’t in the mood,” Ringo said, looking up. His face was still very gentle.

“Is you sad, baby?” she said, going over and putting her hand on his cheek.

“I all right,” Ringo said.

“I just don’t know what I’m gonna do with you,” Ruby said.

Tracy stood up and stretched and yawned, and then sat down again. He was smiling sleepily. “Boy, that laughing take a lot out of me,” he said.

Billy said he guessed it was time he went home, and we all got up and walked slowly toward the door, with Ruby leading the way. Outside, it was foggy and still raining, though it had let up some. Billy came out and locked the door from the outside, and then we all walked up the street. I said I’d go with them a while and get the bus at the stop farther on.

“Well, we certainly glad you is gonna stay with us a while longer,” Ruby said, smiling. She took my arm and Ringo’s arm.

Tracy walked on ahead with Billy. Billy was wearing a neatly fitting raincoat, and as he walked, very erect and relaxed, he seemed much younger than he did in the grocery store. Tracy walked slouching forward. He was slightly pigeon-toed. “Look at Billy,” Ruby said. “He look like a little boy with a big bear.”

“Maybe we is them bears,” Ringo said to me, looking across Ruby, “and, John, you is Goldilocks.” Then he began to laugh very hard by himself.

“Aw, you ain’t funny, Ringo,” Ruby said, squeezing my arm. “You just ain’t funny.”

As we approached my bus stop, Ruby told me to take care of myself. “I hope you remember us,” she said.

She called to Tracy and Billy to come back and say goodbye to me. They turned around and looked surprised, and then they walked back.

“Look, if you ever sick again,” Ringo said, “you come on back and see us.”

“Aw, shut up, Ringo,” Ruby said. “He don’t have to be sick to come back and see us. Right?” She put her arm around my shoulder as I shook hands with Ringo. “He talk like we is some hospital or something,” she said.

“Aw, Ruby, you take everything I say and twist it,” Ringo said. “Look, John, don’t mind nothing I done.”

I told Ringo he hadn’t done anything.

“You lucky he ain’t had more time,” Billy said. “He can do some things.”