TEN
RICH
After Faye left Senior,the best days were always the ones where I ran into her around the neighborhood. Sometimes I’d see her at Heritage Bank when I went to deposit Senior’s payouts, or when I met LaTanya at the Whataburger on Bayou Bend to share a patty melt, or at Lucky’s getting gas. The random run-ins didn’t happen as often after she started her cleaning business and they built a Valero over by Chantilly, but when they did happen, I figured that God she was always talking about was real.
Nowadays, I get to run into her at least once a week at Beatrice’s or when she fills up here at Lucky’s, and even at my big ass age, my heart still skips a beat when I hear her raspy voice screaming, “Rich!” over the R&B thumping from the speakers outside the store.
I push out of my truck and power walk toward pump two where she’s standing outside her car. As soon as I get close enough, she stands on her toes, raking her fingers across my scalp. Her touch feels better than the distracted voice messages she sends me between cleaning jobs during the week.
She drops her hand. “You got a haircut.”
“Jamie just cut it.”
“What about your daddy’s hair?”
“I told her to stop by B’s and take care of all the guys there.”
“How mu?—”
“C’mon, you know better than that. I took care of it.”
“I’m just making sure.”
“You don’t gotta do that.”
“I know, it’s just…” She eyes the stained parking lot, crossing her arms.
It’s been almost twenty years since I’ve seen her as often as I’ve been seeing her these past two months, so I try to hold on to these little moments just in case she decides all of this shit with me is too much. If she did, I wouldn’t blame her.
“Ain’t nobody holding nothing against you. You know that, right?” I ask.
She looks up with her brown cheek lifted. “How you been this week?”
It’s a simple question, but I never know how to answer it, so I shrug.
She swipes the stray hairs from my shoulder that Jamie missed with her neck brush, eyeing me up and down. “Well, you’re still here. You still got all your teeth, all your fingers and…”
She narrows her eyes at my face. “You’re still handsome as ever—even with that black eye. Your jaw looks better too. I guess you doing pretty good this week, huh?”
The last punch I took to the head on Sunday flashes behind my eyes.
I blink hard. “As long as I still got a lil’ breath left in my body, I’m good.”
“One of these days I’m gonna teach you the proper way to answer that question. It’s more out there for you. You know that, right?”
“Like what?”
“A beautiful world that God made for you to explore. He ain’t holding it in his hands for you to scoff at and wave off.”
“I told you I don’t know nothing about all that.”
“But you will one of these days. I don’t subscribe to all of that mess your daddy preaches. We’re all meant to live—even Lovelace men.”
“And we’re all meant to die too. Remember that preacher you used to make us listen to said that.”
“I can’t hear this right now—not after I told you we were gonna get through this stuff.”
Even the way she talks about the situation with Melo makes it seem survivable. She has that same air of naivety around her that Arnez keeps trying to run from.
