Playing by the Rules: A Novel (30 page)

Everyone gathered around the fence.

“Lurleen, what in the world is wrong with you?” Nana asked her neighbor.

Ole Miss Johnson kept yelling as if someone had turned on the switch and couldn’t turn it off. Finally she started taking deeper breaths. Once she collected herself, she appeared to be ready to speak.

“He’s crazy,” Ole Miss Johnson said to Nana. Regaining her strength, she backed away from the fence. “As long as I’ve known Medford, I never known him to be crazy. The man should be carted off in a straitjacket,” she added, and everyone looked at the old lady as if she had some nerve judging someone else’s mental state.

“Why you calling him crazy?” asked Sadie.

“He said he thinks I’m his mama,” Ole Miss Johnson replied, folding her arms across her chest as if Medford had accused her of a heinous crime.

Clement looked at his son in disbelief, but Medford didn’t flinch as he stood his ground, and everyone else in attendance was awestruck.

“Why would you say such a thing, son?” Clement asked, trying to understand Medford’s accusations.

“Because she is,” volunteered Sadie, pulling out her dress that was stuck to the back of her legs.

“That’s a helluva way to deliver a birth announcement,” said Granddaddy, cracking up, shaking his head.

Ole Miss Johnson puffed up as big as a blowfish out of water. “Quit lying,” she said to Sadie. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”

“I ain’t on nobody’s side and I ain’t lying. If you look at him
close, you can see he’s got your eyes; look at his cheekbones… his nose, and looky here.” She pointed down to the ground. “He’s got your big feet. See, there they go…your size-eleven foot and his size-fifteen shoe.”

The way Miss Sadie pointed out the resemblances made Louise start to giggle.

“And if I recall,” added Sadie, “there’s a birthmark in the shape of a kidney bean on both your shoulders. If my memory serves me correctly, it’s the right one.”

Medford pulled back his shirt collar so his mother could take a look. When she saw it, Ole Miss Johnson put her hands to her face.

Louise covered her mouth quickly and stopped giggling, knowing there weren’t many people in town who knew about Medford’s kidney bean, and it made her pay more attention to what Miss Sadie had to say.

“What do you know about this?” Nana asked Sadie, fanning herself with her hand even though it was almost fall and there was no heat in the air as the sun finally settled and disappeared from the sky.

“Medford is Lurleen’s son. I’ve know it all his life,” Sadie said to Nana, who almost fainted. It was a good thing her husband was standing close to her just in case her knees gave out.

Louise grabbed Medford to steady him with her arm.

“How could you say such a hurtful thing?” Ole Miss Johnson asked Sadie. “I have no children. You know that. How could you be so cold-hearted and cruel?” Ole Miss Johnson gave Sadie a look, trying to remember through her old friend’s eyes back to that night that she spent forty-four years trying to forget.

“I was there when he was born. You know that,” said Sadie, looking her old friend in the eye.

“Yes…yes,” Ole Miss Johnson stuttered. “But you said the
baby never lived… that it came into the world stillborn.” She was afraid to let the words out of her mouth, unwilling to repeat that journey all over again.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have told you that, but at that time I thought it was for the best.” Sometimes Sadie regretted the decision she’d made that day, but she’d found absolution in the way Clement raised Medford and the way Medford turned out. “I was hoping you’d never catch on that Medford was your baby when he was splashed all over the front pages of the newspapers,” continued Sadie. “By that time, you were all depressed, didn’t want to hear nothing, didn’t want to know nothing, couldn’t get up out the bed, and several months later when you resurfaced, you didn’t want to have anything to do with babies anymore. Then all the news died down, and thankfully you never made the connection.”

Sadie turned to Medford and decided it was time he heard the truth. “Your mama wasn’t married when she found herself pregnant. She concealed it well, and nobody else knew except her and me. She and Clement were messing around and one thing led to another.” Sadie turned to Nana and Granddaddy. “That was a couple of years before Easely came into her life, and at the time, if you recall, I made my living as a nurse.”

Granddaddy and Nana nodded their heads, remembering all the fun they had together when they were all in their early twenties.

“Hold up now. Just wait a minute,” Clement stammered, looking at Sadie. “What are you trying to say?”

“You heard me. Don’t act like you dumb. You’re Medford’s real father.”

Clement fell back in his chair and Louise rushed to get him a glass of water. Then Medford plopped down, nearly missing his seat, and Louise decided she’d better get two. Everyone was dumbstruck as Sadie continued her story.

Sadie addressed Medford again. “Anyway, your daddy was a drunk.” Sadie looked at Clement with disgust as details of the past came into focus. “And he needed reformation and some responsibility, something to make him sober up and straighten out his life,” she continued to Medford as if she were scolding Clement at the same time. “So I wrapped you in a blanket, placed you in a sawgrass basket inside a tomato crate, and left you on his doorstep. Lurleen had passed out cold during delivery and didn’t know nothing about it. So being her friend, of course I wanted to protect her so there wouldn’t be any scandal in her life. At the same time, you would have a home and still grow up close to your mama—but better yet, live with your daddy.”

Medford couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Not only was it confirmed that Ole Miss Johnson was his birth mother, but Clement was actually his birth father too. He looked at Clement long enough for them both to start grinning at each other, and then they moved forward to embrace. After that, Clement and Ole Miss Johnson just stared at each other confused, not knowing whether to kiss or kill, so neither one of them made a move.

Then Granddaddy got tickled, remembering what Clement had said while they were playing chess at the Annual County Fair about liking
mean women
, comparing them to whiskey, and he leaned into his friend and whispered, “You got the first part of your wish. She’s
mean
alright, but this is one shot of whiskey that would be too tough to swallow.”

Clement gave Granddaddy a shove.

Then Ole Miss Johnson looked at her son and as she threw her arms around him, Medford felt her warm tears seeping through his shirt onto his shoulder. Ruby Rose threw her arms around Medford and his mother as far as they would go. Louise wrapped her arms around the three of them as well. Then, one by one, everyone came forward in one big, long embrace with Medford
and Ole Miss Johnson in the middle. Everyone except Theola, who wondered if this meant she had to give up her pursuit of Clement because he might want to be reunited with the mother of his child, and Nana, who was sick at the thought that Louise marrying Medford would mean having Lurleen as her granddaughter’s mother-in-law. Not only that, but Nana finally understood that her pregnant dream wasn’t about Elvira after all; it was about her neighbor: how the baby got away from its mother and turned into a man before her very eyes.

Sadie lifted her head from the pile of bittersweet emotion, saying it was time to take Ruby Rose to the recital. But before she had a chance to turn her back and creep away from the huddle, she heard trouble stirring behind her.

“Wait a doggoned minute, Sadie Washington,” snapped Ole Miss Johnson. “How dare you keep all this to yourself for over forty years.”

“I did what I thought was best,” defended Sadie. “That’s the truth, whether you like it or not.”

“I know youse slow and all that, but woman, this beats a rat’s ass dipped in whip cream and served on a platter. You woulda’ gone to your grave with this here secret if it weren’t for Medford being curious, ‘cause nobody wouldn’t a thought nothing about it.”

“That’s the way it was supposed to be.” Sadie shifted her body, ready to defend the integrity of her decision-making process.

“Miss Sadie, you prevented me from growing up with my mother,” Medford said, halfway between anger and disbelief.

“You grew up with her,” Sadie said, raising her voice. “She was in your life; so was Nana, so was I, so was Theola and Vernelle.” She extended her arm, pointing her finger at Medford. “You look like you did okay without being with her specifically. We all took care of you, and you turned out fine.”

“You know that’s not the same,” Clement responded.

“Well, look at it this way.” Sadie took the same finger she’d used to point at Medford and swung it around to aim at Ole Miss Johnson. “If you had grow’d up with this woman, look at how mean you’d be.” Sadie stretched her arm out as far as she could for emphasis. “Look at her.” She raised her voice to a shout. “Would you want to turn out like that?”

For a split second, Ole Miss Johnson appeared to be raving mad—her hair out of place, the vein in her temple throbbing, and her birthmark shoulder beginning to twitch. “Sadie, you get away from me. You and me were friends. We used to be best friends. How could you do this?”

“It was the toughest decision I ever had to make. It might not have been the right one. But Lurleen, me and you was both young.” Sadie began to soften, feeling guilty about the situation, but still holding on to her conviction as if it were the last one she had. “You didn’t need no baby… but Clement, here… boozing it up every chance he got…he needed something that would change his life. Besides, the baby was half his, and he needed the infant more than you.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” asked Clement.

“‘Cause if I told you, you’d probably pass it right back on to Lurleen and never know nothing about responsibility.”

Nana had held her tongue long enough. “Sadie, you should be ‘shamed. Who else’s baby you take away?”

“No one’s.” Sadie shoved her hands onto her hips. “I ain’t making no habit out of baby snatching.”

“Ain’t that something for a nurse to be taking up as a line of business.” Granddaddy smirked.

“Medford, aren’t you happy you weren’t adopted?” Ruby Rose tugged at Medford’s shirt. “And that you know your real mother?”

“Yeah. I should be. I mean, I am. But it’s shocking to know
that your own mother has been right in your own backyard, so to speak, practically in front of your face your whole life and you didn’t have a clue.”

“Let’s go to the recital now,” Ruby Rose offered Medford, her face filled with understanding. “Everything worked out. You got what you were looking for. Whatever’s bothering you, you’ll get over it.”

“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about,” said Sadie, glad that Ruby Rose was helping to get her off the hook. “I doubt much is gonna change. Lurleen will still be cranky and Medford will still be Clement’s son. Forgive and forget. Let’s go celebrate the truth over some music. Now that Medford’s found his mama, that adds something else for all of us to be happy about.”

Medford looked at Louise and they smiled, knowing that the biggest part of the puzzle had been found to make it complete.

Medford asked his mother if she wanted to go to the recital, and she flatly said no. Being a new mother at sixty-two without a doubt must be stressful, he thought, but he also didn’t expect Ole Miss Johnson to change overnight.

The Dunlaps and their guests left for the recital, and when it was Ruby Rose’s time to play “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” Sadie was so overcome with the joy of having the burden of concealing forty-four years of truth lifted off her shoulders that she started to sing. Ruby Rose was surprised that she was making an effort to sing the song the way it was played on the radio. And because Sadie kept the howling quality of her voice to a minimum, Ruby Rose was able to concentrate on the piece and not make a single mistake.

The next day it rained, with thunder that clapped so loudly that it sounded to Jeremiah that the sky would crack and split itself in two. He didn’t know how his sister could sleep through all this racket, but he figured she was tired from her perfect performance the night before and needed to reward herself with rest, so he let her sleep. Besides, he wasn’t in a hurry to deliver the news that she would wake up to. Telling Ruby Rose they would be leaving Lemon City as soon as possible, as early as this week, wouldn’t be easy. To pass away the time, Jeremiah sifted through the clothes in his closet, separating the ones he would pack and take with him from the ones he would donate to the church, which he stacked in a pile on the floor.

When Ruby Rose emerged from her room, she was hungry. She made herself a sandwich and after she ate, Jeremiah asked her to remain seated because he had something to say. He pulled his chair up to the table.

“Ruby Rose, it’s time.” He looked at his sister and made sure his eyes didn’t blink.

“Time for what?” Ruby Rose turned her head toward the clock.

“You know how we said we were just going to pass through Lemon City?” Jeremiah was hoping his sister would read between the lines so he wouldn’t have to spell it out.