They looked and sounded so humble, I was impressed. Maybe they weren’t so crude after all.

CHAPTER 20 - MILTON

CHAPTER 20

MILTON

WHEN I GOT BACK TO THE LIVING ROOM, ODELL WAS ALL UP IN Dr. Patterson’s face, grinning like a fool. The way he was kicked back on the couch with his legs crossed, a tall drink in his hand, and his head cocked to the side, he must have been spinning another one of his brags. As soon as he seen me, his face froze up like a sheet of ice. He set his drink on the coffee table, got up off the couch and walked up to me, dragging his feet like they weighed five pounds apiece.

“Hello, my man!” I greeted, gently punching the side of his arm. I added in a low tone, “Today is Wednesday. I hope you got my weekly payment.”

He immediately showed his contempt for me with a frown so severe, it would have scared Satan. “I brung it,” he snarled.

Odell probably despised me with a passion by now. That wasn’t no big deal because a lot of folks hated me. Especially them other colored bootleggers, gamblers I’d cheated, and folks I had stole from. If I didn’t let them roughnecks faze me, I sure was not about to let a sissified, uppity joker like Odell do it. “Why you giving me the stink-face?” I teased.

He didn’t answer my question, but he tried to sound tough. “Look, I don’t want to stay too long. Can we go somewhere to talk?”

I hunched my shoulders. “Yup. Let’s go in the kitchen.” When we got there, he pulled out his wallet and took out a bunch of dollar bills and handed them to me. “Bless your soul, Odell. Thank you.” I bumped his shoulder with my fist. I counted to make sure it was the eight bucks for this week, plus the eight he missed last Wednesday. “Now, how you coming along scraping up that four hundred you owe me?”

“Look, I told you I’d get that money to you by the end of the month. I’m sick and tired of repeating myself. I don’t want you to mention this matter to me no more until then,” he snapped.

I gaped at him with my jaws tightening up so much, they ached when I spoke again. “What is your problem, Odell? People come here to have a good time. You looking and acting like you got a lemon stuck in your mouth. You ain’t got no reason to be getting all hot and bothered with me—especially in my own house.”

Odell gasped so hard he let out a hiccup. “How in the world can you say that after all you putting me through?”

“Well, with all due respect, you ought to be used to my requests by now.”