“You and Odell ain’t crazy enough to be bootlegging or doing nothing else to get arrested!” Daddy yelled. This time he wagged both of his canes at me. “My Lord. Them going to jail for letting a bunch of fools rape a white girl in their house should have spooked you enough to keep you home.”

“That whole rape thing was a lie. That’s why they got out of jail,” I pointed out.

“Humph. They might not be so lucky the next time,” Daddy said. “Do they have any idea who called the law on them?”

“No. But I’m sure that whoever it is, they won’t be coming around again. So there is nothing to worry about,” I predicted.

“How do you know that? You ain’t no prophet!” Mama barked.

“Odell thinks the same thing. And he’s always right,” I defended.

“Oh well. You a grown woman and we can’t keep telling you how to live your life,” Daddy admitted.

“Then I wish y’all would stop trying to do that,” I grumbled.

Mama gave me a dismissive wave and snickered. “Girl, quit whining and go get us that buttermilk. And turn on some heat before we all catch pneumonia.”

When my parents ran out of things to fuss about, which took almost an hour, they left. I immediately went to bed. There was so much on my mind, I couldn’t go right to sleep. I kept claiming I wasn’t lonesome when Odell was gone, but I was. Not enough to accompany him to his daddy’s house more often, though. I preferred Yvonne and Milton’s company.

If it hadn’t been so late, I would have got up and gone back over there.

CHAPTER 13 - YVONNE

CHAPTER 13

YVONNE

OUR HOUSE WAS JUMPING. I HAD JUST BRUNG OUT THE FOURTH serving of hush puppies and deep-fried pork skins. Several folks had a drink in each hand. It tickled me to death to see them get sloppy drunk on our booze, which was probably only half as potent as it was when Willie Frank delivered it. The reason for that was, every night we poured leftover drinks back into the jug they came out of. Throwing away booze was the same as throwing away money and we wasn’t that stupid. We sold some of the same recycled stuff two or three times and nobody never knew the difference.

A man who used to perform a tap-dance routine at a popular speakeasy in Birmingham, had recently moved to Branson. He had everybody clapping and egging him on when he put on a show for us.