“Loose as a goose,” said Simple, “which is the way Zarita likes to live. She won’t let no man tie her down, she says so herself. Plays the field, been playing it, and means to keep on playing it—no intention of being housebroke. Zarita will stick by a man only until the bottle is empty. Then she says, ‘Don’t you think we ought to run down to Paddy’s before closing time and have a little drink?’

“Once back here in Paddy’s, that’s the end. Next thing you know she’s found some other fellow who will take her to an after-hours spot. ‘Bye, baby!’ She’s gone. Zarita likes to stay up and out all night long. She would exhaust a working man. When I first met her, she wore me down. Now I don’t even see the chick more’n once or twice a month and nothing happens. So why does she want to come bringing up that she believes she’ll tell Joyce all? There ain’t no all! It’s done, finished, over with.”

“A man’s past always lasts. In other words, ‘Your sins will find you out.’”

“Truer words were never spoke,” said Simple. “But I sure ain’t gonna let Zarita come between me and Joyce!”

“Perhaps Zarita is just trying to blackmail you.”

“I never will mail her a black cent! She’s not much on money, nohow, just licker. That’s one nice thing about Zarita, she’s not a begging girl. In fact, she’s free-hearted. She’ll spend her money as fast as she will yours. I do not believe anything will shut Zarita’s mouth but to scare her to death.”

“Maybe she’s only teasing you.”

“I can tell when a woman’s got larceny in her heart. When I told her I was getting engaged to Joyce formal this spring, I could see her ears go back like a cat looking cross-eyed at milk.

“Then she said, ‘Oh, you is, is you?’

“Any time anybody says, ‘You is, is you?’ they mean you no good, especially if they’re smiling.”

“Sometimes,” I said, “even if a woman no longer wants you in her arms, she wants you in her heart.”

“Dog-bite her heart! And she’ll never get me in her arms any more. I wish I had never had her in mine.”

“If wishes were horses beggars would ride.”

“Zarita would ride, too,” said Simple, “right out of my life. I would just like not to be worried by her any more.”

“For once, race is not your main complaint. I am glad somebody has taken your mind off the color problem. In the past you have talked me to death on that score. Sometimes I wonder what makes you so race-conscious.”

“Sometimes I wonder what made me so black,” said Simple.

Four Rings

Four Rings