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

After that we started to see the blue Cadillac around. One day it was parked at Old Man Harlan’s store next to Reverend Pennycall’s police car. Another day it was at the cemetery gate — then up the road from Granny and Granpaw’s — just the Cadillac, no Victor. It was kind of spooky.

Momma got mad about it. “Who does he think he is? And what business does he have at Nealy Harlan’s anyhow?”

“I reckon even Victor got to buy things,” Granny said.

“He don’t need to be coming all the way out here!” Momma nearly yelled. She turned to me then, a sharp wrinkle knifing up between her eyes. “You see that car anywhere about, you stay away!”

Two days later the Cadillac was parked up the road again, a little ways up from Granny and Granpaw’s. This time Victor was with it, leaning against the front-end in his shirtsleeves. He had his sunglasses on, smoking a cigarette. He saw me standing in the yard and waved. When I looked later, he was gone.

Momma let Victor see her again — finally. Two or three times she did. Mostly they argued about Florida, about Armstrong and his men, about Daddy or Fords or the investigation that was still going on. Every now and then, they would forget to argue though. Victor would get all gooey-eyed, and Momma all soft and smiley. I worried the wall was starting to crumble, but then Granny would butt in with some of her two cents and put an end to it. “Ya’ll remember where you at now, you two!” she might holler. “We don’t need none of that kissy stuff! Not around here we don’t. That slobberin’ around on each other spreads germs!” Such would fluster Momma and make Victor’s face turn red. It was all I could do not to laugh.

One other time, again in the living room, Granpaw came out of his spell long enough to tell Victor what he thought of a man that would beat up a woman and take advantage of a little girl. Victor told him to mind his own business. Said Nealy Harlan owned his property and from what he understood, him and Granpaw weren’t on good speaking terms. He warned Granpaw he might lose what little he had if he didn’t watch his mouth.

We all waited for Granpaw to say something back but he had gone all zombie-eyed again. Stood next to the picture of the Lord’s Supper with his arms down to his sides, staring at Victor like he was a wall.

“Get out, Victor!” Momma yelled. “Leave us be!”

“I was just trying to straighten him out a little,” Victor said.

“I’ll straighten you out is what I’ll do, straight out that door!” Momma grabbed up a stove poker and threw it at him.

Victor knocked over a table getting out of the way. “It takes two to do the goddamn tango, Ruby!” He got in his Cadillac and like a mad man gunned it, thundering dust all over the road.

I crawled to a place, not under the kitchen, but to another place I guessed was just under the living room floor.

Willis crawled in after me. “Dey spider web and all kina ole shit unda here. Wha-What you gone do boy?”

“Shh,” I whispered. “They can hear you.”

We sat with our heads almost touching the underside of the plank floor. There were some tobacco sticks in a pile, two cans of rusty nails and a posthole digger. I sat on the handles of the posthole digger. Willis sat on the sticks.

“Can’t see nothin’,” Willis said.

“It’ll get to where you can.” The gap between the house and the ground let in the daylight. Still, it was so dim I could hardly see Willis’s face. “I wish Granny was here.” Granny and Miss Alma had taken Granpaw and Missy to Circle Stump to see the doctor. Not two minutes had gone by before Victor pulled up in his Cadillac. He walked right by me and Willis, not saying a word, went in the house and started up a talk with Momma. That’s when I got scared and crawled under the house to listen.

Little streams of dirt sifted down from the planks. We could hear Victor talking on the other side, his radio announcer’s voice all calm and smooth. “I understand how you feel baby. I do. If I’d known they were going to behave like that, I’d have said something beforehand. I would have said, this is my wife, gentleman. My pride and joy.” Momma said nothing. “I should have said something later on too. I know I should have. I was nervous, Ruby. You know how I get.”

Momma said, “I reckon it was nerves made you do what you did to Missy. I reckon it was nerves put your hand up that woman’s ass — me not two feet away.”

“I was drunk, baby.”

“Your hand wandered up some strange woman’s dress because you was drunk? How come she let you keep it there?” Momma’s words were coming out full of steam. “You think I’m a fool, don’t you? You think I don’t know any better?” There was a loud crash of something across the floor. “Answer me!”

“Goddamn it Ruby!” Victor shouted. “No! I don’t think that! I don’t think that at all!”

“That hillbilly’s so ignorant, she can’t see shit for stepping in it. That’s what you think.”

“Now baby, I never said that.”

“I see a lot more than you imagine. I see what the Pink Flamingo’s about. I see better than you! All that gambling and them men with guns. Guns, Victor!”

“Oh, come on. They were security personnel. Armstrong’s people,” Victor said. “I explained all that. I thought you understood.”

“What’s he need a bunch of men with guns to watch a hotel for?”

“They’re not watching the hotel. They’re watching him,” Victor said. “Armstrong’s an important man. They’re his bodyguards.”

“Bodyguards, playing cards.”

“That’s right. I told you. Security.”

“It ain’t Christian,” Momma said.

“Who said it was? It’s not church we’re talking about here. It’s an organization. They own the hotel. I explained all this.” Victor was trying hard not to loose his temper.

“The Lord’s not pleased with it,” Momma said.

“You’ve got a handle on that do you?”

“I know when something is not right.”

“Maybe you do,” Victor said, his voice going all soft suddenly. “We can talk about it another time, can’t we baby? Maybe you can enlighten me.”

It got quiet a minute, and then Momma said, “I don’t know what to believe. I can’t tell what’s real anymore.”

“The whole thing is real baby. I’m real. I’m standing right here.”

“I see you,” Momma said.

“I feel like a teenager asking a girl out on a date for the first time,” Victor said, all soft and gentle-like.

“Wha-What he say?” Willis whispered.

“He’s being good looking for Momma, Willis. Trying to get her to like him again.”

“You ain’t a teenager,” Momma said.

“Well I feel like one,” Victor said. “In a man’s skin. Afraid you’ll say ‘no’, but here nonetheless. Asking. Asking for another chance to make things right. For you. For the kids.”

“Oh,” Momma breathed.

No sound came for awhile.

“What dey do?” Willis whispered.

“Kissy stuff. He’s doing it again. Making her be like him.”

Don’t do it, Momma! Don’t like him again!

“Victor, no,” Momma said.

Victor was all out of breath. “It’s been so long, baby.”

“Not here. Not now,” Momma said. “Let go.”

“The Lord is in me now,” Victor breathed. “I know he is.”

“I know he is too. I feel him inside you,” Momma said, like it was true, like the Lord really was inside Victor. “What am I going to do with you?”

I could feel the wall against Victor begin to crumble.

“You vulgar bastard!” Momma shouted. “Let go of me!”

There was a stomping sound, a sound of things being dragged across the floor, knocked over, a table maybe or Granpaw’s rocking chair. I could see dirt raining down from a bunch of places under the floor. The sounds dragged back toward Granny and Granpaw’s bedroom. I crawled after them. Willis followed. A door slammed.