Betty Jean squatted down, rolled up the legs of my pants and pulled off my shoes. She massaged my feet before I plunged them into the warm soapy water in the foot tub she had set on the floor in front of me. It didn’t take long for me to relax. I was glad the boys had settled down. Now me and their mama could conversate without them interrupting us. “Odell, how was your day, sugar pie?” she asked, scrubbing dead skin off the sides and bottom of my feet with a butter knife.

“Oh, it was the same as usual,” I replied. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. I was enjoying all the attention and pampering. It was moments like these that made me feel so good. There was nothing better than spending quality time with my other woman and our children.

“Did you have any problems with the shoplifters this week? This is the time of year when they really get busy.”

“Tell me about it. A couple of them crooks tried to swipe a few things yesterday and today. But my cashiers caught them in time.”

“That’s good. You done worked too hard to make MacPherson’s the success it is. And with you being such a generous soul, I’m surprised some of your customers don’t try to take advantage of you by asking for credit and handouts. I’d hate to see them mess up things for you so bad that your in-laws put you back to stocking shelves like they had you doing before you married Joyce.”

“Baby, that ain’t never going to happen. I got my in-laws in the bottom of my hip pocket.”

CHAPTER 9 - JOYCE

CHAPTER 9

JOYCE

WHEN ODELL CALLED ME UP AT WORK THIS AFTERNOON TO TELL me that Yvonne and Milton had been let out of jail, I was surprised and relieved. I shared the news with my coworkers, and they felt the same way. Some of them had never visited a bootlegger’s house and wasn’t too thrilled to know that there were colored folks brazen enough to do something so illegal. But colored people in the Deep South had so much going against them, we had to support one another no matter what crime they’d committed—unless it was something serious like murder. I would never support a person if they killed somebody.