My heart was skipping beats and my eyes was burning as I glared at him. My head felt like it was about to crack open. “This whole business with you and Yvonne is driving me crazy.” I was surprised I was able to sound so calm.

He hunched his shoulders and told me, “It be’s that way sometime, brother.”

I heaved out a mighty sigh. “All right. Let’s get this over with. How much do you want from me?”

“Four hundred dollars.”

CHAPTER 5 - MILTON

CHAPTER 5

MILTON

ODELL STARED AT ME SO HARD AND LONG, I THOUGHT HE WAS trying to look clean through me. And it was giving me the jitters. When he spoke again, his voice came out sounding so threatening, I feared for my safety. “Four hundred dollars? Hell no. What’s the matter with you?” He had started sweating a few moments ago. Hearing the amount of money I wanted must have really shook him up because now there was so much sweat on his face, it was shining like a new penny. I hoped I would never find out, but I had a feeling that if he ever got mad enough to get violent, he’d break every bone in my body.

“Odell, why you getting all hot and bothered? I’m the one trying to get my life back together,” I whined.

“Milton Hamilton, you can’t be serious. I can’t come up with that kind of money by the end of this month.”

“Dagnabbit! I ain’t playing with you, Odell! I need that money!” I gave him the stink eye and wagged my finger at him. “And you better give it to me!”

He moaned like somebody dying. His whole body shuddered, and his eyes rolled up in his head. I said a silent prayer that he wasn’t having a stroke or something else that would put him out of commission. That was my worst nightmare. Odell wouldn’t be no good to me and Yvonne if he was disabled. He let out a loud breath and composed hisself real quick. I was so relieved I wanted to jump up and dance a jig. I stayed cool and calm because I wanted him to know how serious I was. “Where do you think I’m going to get it from?” he whimpered.

“Borrow it. You got all them highfalutin white friends and in-laws with deep pockets. Besides that, you can always swipe from the cash register.”

“I ain’t never borrowed nothing from my white friends or Joyce’s parents. And I only swipe a few dollars at a time from the cash registers. What I do take, I use it to support Betty Jean and my boys.”

“If you can’t get but ‘a few dollars at a time’ out of them cash registers, then you ain’t got no choice but to borrow the rest.”