Freddie Owens - Then Like the Blind Man - Orbie's Story

So you could steel my Momma away, you sneaky-ass son of a bitch!

“To be with you and Missy and your Momma,” Victor said. “As a family, Orbie. That’s all that matters.” He stood to the side so I could see the shape of his big new Cadillac. It looked like a boat or maybe a whale or a blue shiny rocket ship on white rubber wheels. Beside it Momma’s Ford looked pitiful as some old tractor engine rusting in a field.

“It’s a wonderful place, Florida,” Victor smiled.

“I’m not going to Florida,” I said.

Victor shook his head to say ‘no’ but in slow motion. “I understand how you feel. Really I do. We all need time. We all need to take time. To consider things, I mean.” He put the cigarette back in his mouth, more like Dean Martin now than Clark Kent. He had that glow still — the thing that flashed out at you like a friend. “We’ve got plenty of time. We can take it slow. Can’t we son?”

Only thing I wanted to take was a swipe at his head. Out the corner of my eye I could see Willis wall-eyeing him with a stone face. It was the first time I’d seen anybody meet Victor and not smile. Victor turned and walked back down to Reverend Pennycall and his police car.

“Orbie!” Granny called from her place on the porch. “You boys! Come away from there!”

Right then, Momma came out on the porch with Missy. “Mind what Granny says.”

“We got all our stuff out here,” I said.

“Leave it!” Momma said.

Willis and me went up and sat on the edge of the porch.

“It’s Victor, Momma. He’s back.”

“I know. Be still.”

“I want you just to look,” Granny said.

Victor stood out by the police car, talking to Reverend Pennycall. Reverend Pennycall pushed up his straw hat and smiled at Victor, a pink smile in the middle of a pink face. He passed a fruit jar out the window to Victor. Victor held it to his mouth a second and passed it back.

“I never seen the like,” Granny said. “In broad daylight now.”

Momma said nothing. Missy sucked her thumb.

Victor said something to Reverend Pennycall and they both laughed. Then Reverend Pennycall put the police car in gear and drove away. Victor stood, looking back at the house, figuring what it would take to buy and move someplace else.

Granpaw and Miss Alma came around the corner. Miss Alma had a hold of Granpaw’s arm. “I’m all right. Shit,” Granpaw said but then he caught sight of Victor. “Sumbitch.”

Miss Alma smiled. “Dat the purdiest white man I ever see.”

“He’s purdy all right,” Granpaw said.

Victor came up in the yard and stopped next to the Jesus Tree. The ground was still wet from the rain. The toes of his alligator shoes were splattered with mud. “I got turned around,” he said in a loud voice. “Sheriff was good enough to show me the way.”

He smiled his movie star smile and spread his arms out wide. He stood like that a second, like he was waiting for us all to come down and give him a big hug, welcome him back. “Here I am! Your one and only!”

Momma sat still.

Granny reached down and picked out another sock from her sock basket.

Miss Alma shook her head, smiling, and went back around the house.

“One and only what?” Granpaw said.

“Quiet, Strode,” Granny said.

“What’s the matter with him?” Victor said.

Nobody answered.

“Well?” Victor said.

“Well what?” Momma set Missy down. “Go on inside, honey.” Missy ran over to the screen door, opened it and went inside. She stood behind the screen and stared out at Victor.

Victor looked at Willis and me. “What do you make of all this, you boys?”

“Leave them out of it,” Momma said. “You got something to say, you say it to me.”

“Oh come on, Ruby, baby. You’re not still mad, are you?”

Momma looked daggers at Victor. The side of her face still faintly yellowed. The gash around her eye, a curved scar.

Granpaw hawked up a gob and spit it on the ground.

Victor looked at Granny. Then at Granpaw. Then at Granny again. A worry came in his eyes. Then he looked at Momma. “Of course you’re still mad. I know that. You’re probably thinking I’ve got some nerve. Coming here like this, I mean.”

Momma stayed quiet.

Victor wagged his head side to side, shaking it to say ‘no’ but in slow motion, like before. “I’d be upset too. I mean, if I were you.” Victor looked at Momma straight on. “What I did to you was terrible. I know that, Ruby. I lost my head.”

“You lost more than that.” Momma got up from her chair, stepped to the edge of the porch and crossed her arms. “Look at you, dressed up slick as a car salesman. Expecting me to take you back ‘cause you sorry. It don’t work around that easy Victor!”

“I know,” Victor said. “I know it doesn’t.”

Momma looked out toward the blue Cadillac. “I reckon Armstrong give you that. Like he did the house.”

“It’s just a loaner, baby. Temporary, you know.”

“You look different. Your hair’s different. You’re not wearing your glasses.”

“Armstrong thought I looked better without them.”

“Armstrong did?”

“Yeah.” Victor put the cigarette between his teeth and smiled. “He thinks I look more professional this way.”

“Professional wife beater,” Granpaw said.

Victor went on like he didn’t hear. “He’s sort of taken me under his wing. Armstrong has. He wants me to be happy. He wants you to be happy.”

“He can kiss my hillbilly ass!” Momma said.

Willis covered his mouth.

Granny looked up. “Lord, Ruby!”

“That’s how I feel, Mamaw. That’s the sorriest bunch you’d ever want to see, and I don’t want my kids around it!”

“They won’t have to be,” Victor said. “Armstrong knows. I mean he understands how you feel.”

“I ain’t married to Armstrong!”

“I know. I explained it to him though, and he understands.

That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Armstrong will stay out of the picture from now on, as far as our family life is concerned.” Victor turned toward Granny then. “You don’t know me from Adam, Mrs. Wood, but I’m not a bad man. I can change. I’ve always been able to change.”

“I never heard such a load of bullshit in all my life!” Granpaw growled.

Granny gave Victor a nod, green eyes flashing from a face of red leather. “It ain’t up to me to tell you, you can come back, and it ain’t up to me to tell you, you can’t. Ruby’s a mind of her own.” She looked at Momma, then back at Victor. “I tell you what’s the truth though, if you was a husband of mine and done what you done? Why, I’d tell you to hit the road Mister! I wouldn’t even have to think about it!”

“It’s a long way back to St. Petersburg!” Momma said.

Both her and Granny stared at Victor, Momma leaning against the post with her arms crossed, Granny sitting straight up in her rocking chair, her hand stretched out, touching Granpaw’s arm. They were like a wall against Victor.

I looked at Willis and grinned.

“All right, okay. If that’s how you all feel about it.” Victor put the cigarette back in his mouth. He took out a silver lighter, lit the cigarette and sucked till the end of it glowed. He forced two streams of white smoke from his nostrils. “Think about what I said though. No trouble this time, Ruby. None.”

It wasn’t two days Cecil the mailman brought Momma chocolates from Victor. Then it was roses, red roses. Then a card with a note said how much he loved her. How much he cared about Missy and me. That he wanted us all to be happy together, in a nice house on the beach in Florida. It made me want to throw up. It made me want to use cuss words and spit.