“Said he didn’t deserve to represent this country because he wasn’t a real man.”
“That’s awful.”
“Yeah.” He paused. “My time away wasn’t all bad. There were a lot of good moments. But still, I’m done.”
“And you’re sure you don’t want to reenlist? Seemed like the money was good. You took care of me.” She skimmed her bare foot over his shin, and her touch made him lose his train of thought.
“I’m tired of being so far away from home,” he said finally. “Planning on applying for a civilian job at the shipyard. Look into that G.I. Bill and see about going to college.”
“College, now, really?” She leaned back in her seat with a smile that said she was impressed.
“People have been saying the G.I. Bill will let me go for free.”
“What would you study?”
“Maybe economics or business.” He rolled an ice cube around in his mouth. “Ma said you was working down at some fancy law firm. You big-time now.”
She blushed. “I’m only a switch operator, but I’m learning things about the law in the process.”
Rita told him how she’d landed the job at the Negro law firm asone of ten girls applying for the position. “I work for a lawyer named Sadie Alexander, and she is brilliant. She and her husband, Raymond, are both lawyers.”
“They must be filthy rich.”
“Negro rich for sure. Sadie is the only black female lawyer in the city of Philadelphia.”
“You don’t say.”
“Did you know that there are only fifty-eight Negro women practicing in the whole country? I’ve really got my work cut out for me.” She stood up and pulled the beaded string that turned on the window fan. Cool air blew into the tiny kitchen. “Sadie’s been helping me apply for grants and scholarships to fund law school.”
Ozzie knew that Rita was ambitious and smart, but law school was impressive. “I’m happy for you, baby, you’ve really made something out of yourself.” He stood.
“I’m proud of you too, Corporal Osbourne Philips.” She smiled, and the way she said his name made him think of Jelka.
Rita furrowed her brow. “What? Did I get it wrong? Is that not your title?”
“No, you got it right,” Ozzie replied, shaking the memory of Jelka loose.
Rita pushed back from the table and carried her plate and fork to the sink. While she ran hot water over them, Ozzie put on his garrison cap. “I better get going.” The sun had gone down, and he didn’t want to overstay his welcome.
“It’s good seeing you.” She led him through to the front door, where Ozzie couldn’t resist pecking her on the cheek.
The next day and the day after that, Ozzie was perched on his mother’s front steps when Rita got off the bus. He carried her bags, she fried him pork chops, he brought her flowers. In the evenings that followed, Rita pulled out her backgammon set, and they played best out of three games.
Two weeks after Ozzie had returned home, he pushed back from Rita’s kitchen table at the appropriate time and reached for his hat, but she put her hand on his wrist. “Where you always running off to?”
“Home. I don’t want to be disrespectful.”
“What if I don’t want you to go?” She stood and leaned against him. The heat radiating from her body ignited all of Ozzie’s senses. She craned her neck and pressed her lips against his ear. “I think it might be time for me to welcome you home properly, soldier.”
Ozzie didn’t trust himself to speak, so he pressed his mouth against Rita’s. His lips swelled against hers while his eager hands found the mounds of her breasts straining against her soft cotton T-shirt.
“Come with me,” she whispered, and then led Ozzie through the dining room and down the narrow basement stairs.
On the green sofa, Ozzie licked and sucked every inch of her body, leaving love bruises along the way. Then he fitted her into his lap, and she moaned into his ear, “Glad you found your way back home.”
A month later, Ozzie was bent over the same green sofa, feeling around in the dark for his drawers.
“We getting too old for you to be sneaking out the back door before the sun come up, got me looking like a loose woman.” Rita turned on her elbow. Even in the dark, he could see the silhouette of her curvaceous body, and it made his mouth water.
