Harlem Redux (7 page)

And always protect ... always protect ... always protect your sisters … And always (she suffered) … and always (she suffered) … (and always) She suffered a bad death … a bad death.

With a groan, he turned over and punched the pillow. In the morning, he’d ask Annie to tell him the full story of what had gone on in the house.

3.
      
Annie’s Tale

“For a good part, the story of Miss Lilian is the story of Miss Gem. You never could mention one without the other. Diff’rent as day and night, but just as connected. Looking back, I sometimes wonder whether Miss Gem’s return marked the beginning of Miss Lilian’s end.”

Annie placed cream and sugar on the kitchen table, but David decided not to use them. He needed coffee and he needed it black. His head hurt and his eyes were bleary. He hadn’t been able to touch the grits, biscuits, and sausages she’d made. He’d called himself seven kinds of fool upon waking. Going to Jolene’s had seemed like a good idea last night, but he was sure he’d never do it again. The price in pain was too damn high.

She took a seat opposite him, added a little cream to her coffee, and stirred it with an even rhythm. Her voice, as quiet as a coming storm, slowly filled the room.

“Lotsa folks say the trouble started when Miss Gem went back to Europe. I say it began a lot sooner: the moment she arrived. From the day that girl stepped foot in this house till the day she left, she ain’t meant nothing but trouble. Miss Gem come back for a purpose. I could see that the minute she walked in the door. She had that look in her eye. That look, if you know what I mean. I don’t know what she done all them years in Paris, but whatever it was, it sure left her looking lean and hungry.”

Lean and hungry,
David repeated to himself.
Gem was always hungry.
Somehow, we
all were. Funny about that. Or maybe not so funny when you think about it. That we should be as rich as any colored family needs to be, yet still hungry.

“It was Halloween,” Annie was saying. “Miss Lilian got to the door before me. She didn’t even bother to ask who it was. She was expecting a bunch of kids, some trick-or-treaters, I guess. When she saw who it was, she lost her voice. Couldn’t find nothing to say.

“Miss Gem stood there like a ghost that everybody’s done put out of mind, even if they ain’t quite forgotten about it. The wind was at her back—whipping her hair up, like a black cloud. She’d been gone five years—
five years
—but didn’t look a day older. Maybe she was a bit thinner, but she still had that smooth, creamy skin. And she had this sable coat, thrown over her shoulders. Wore it like a queen, she did. Rich and sophisticated—like a Eur’pean. Miss Gem knew she was sumptin’ to look at.
Knew
it. It was in the way she held herself: just so. And in the way she looked down at Miss Lilian.

“Y’know it’s hard to b’lieve that they started out as iden’ical twins. I ain’t never seen two women given the same material work so hard to do sumptin’ diff’rent with it. ‘Course, Miss Lilian was lovely in her way, too. It’s just that her way weren’t Miss Gem’s way.”

No…it wasn’t,
thought David. Lilian also had the slight but shapely build of a dancer and the paradoxical air of being fragile yet strong. She too had the oval face, fawn-colored complexion, and lustrous chestnut hair typical of her family. But Lilian downplayed her looks. Her full lips were sweet and generous, but she was puritan in outlook. She rarely put on makeup. She wore her long hair in a tight bun. And she treated clothes as a pragmatic matter: Fashion was a secondary indulgence. Her outfits were neat, tailored suits; her perfume, clean and light.

“Well, Miss Gem was a-looking at Miss Lillian like a lion on the hunt. Miss Gem threw her head back and laughed. You know how she likes to flash them pretty teeth. Then she teased Miss Lilian. Said: ‘Cat got your tongue, sister dear?’

“Miss Lilian asked Miss Gem, just as cool as you please, ‘What’re you doing here?’ Miss Gem didn’t like that. She got this funny look on her face and said, ‘It’s wonderful to see you too, dear.’ She took Miss Lilian’s face in her hands and kissed her twice, once on each cheek. Lawd, Lawd! You woulda thought Miss Lilian was being clawed, the way she yanked her face back. She looked down at Miss Gem’s suitcases—two large ones standing on the doorstep—and Miss Gem caught her.

‘“You’d better make up your mind fast,’ she said.’ The neighbors’ll start talking if they see me standing here like this.’

“Well, that did it. You could see Miss Lilian didn’t like it, not one bit, but she stepped aside and made for Miss Gem to come in.

‘“You ain’t changed a bit,’ Miss Gem said. ‘Still a fool for appearances.’

“Then she put her hand on her hip and strutted on by. Miss Lilian asked Miss Gem what time her ship had got in, but I think she really wanted to ask Miss Gem when her ship was
leaving.
Either way, Miss Gem ignored her. Just gave a little wave of her hand. She stood under the light of the vestibule chand’lier. She coulda been an actress standing in the spotlight. Her face glowed; her eyes sparkled. Miss Gem always did have a flair for the dramatic. She just stood there, quiet-like, looking round. Then she whispered sumptin’ about not much having changed. Turned to me, told me it was good to see me. Then she gimme them little pecks on the cheek them Eur’peans pass for kisses. I know they treat the help different over there, but Miss Gem knew she was back in Harlem, where a smart colored woman don’t try to lord it over the help.”

David smiled at that. Gem knew better than to strut in front of Annie. If anybody in the house could yank Gem’s chain it was this old woman. He raised his cup to his lips and took a sip of coffee, enjoying its bitterness. “Did Gem say exactly where she was all those years?”

“Miss Lilian tried to ask her, but Miss Gem just waved her away again. Said she’d tell her all about it later; she just wanted to enjoy being home at first. Said she was dying to look ‘round. Wanted to know if her old room was the same. But she didn’t even wait for Miss Lilian’s answer. Miss Gem went to the foot of the stairs and looked up. She pushed her coat off her shoulders, just let that beautiful coat land in a heap at her feet, then she run on up the stairs, never once looking back. Left me and Miss Lilian standing down here with her luggage on the doorstep, like we was bellhops or sumptin’.

“Miss Lilian turned to me and told me to clean up the downstairs thorough. She grabbed my arm, led me to the parlor, clucking like a worried hen, and pointed out stuff she wanted put away. It didn’t take long to see what she was up to: clearing out all signs of a man in the house. That’s all it was.

“I said to Miss Lilian: ‘You can’t keep Mr. Jameson a secret. When you gonna tell her?’

“Her jaw got tense and that look come on her face—you know the one I mean—sort of pained and worried. ‘Not now,’ she said.

“‘You got to tell her sometime,’ I said.

“She shook her head. ‘Maybe Gem won’t stay that long,’ she said. ‘She might leave before he gets back.’ Then, she gimme a hug and told me she’d take the luggage upstairs herself.

“Miss Lilian put off telling Miss Gem about Mr. Jameson for as long as she could. And that was only about a week. She got away with it that long ‘cause Mr. Jameson was outta town. Miss Lilian was real careful about not letting Miss Gem into her bedroom neither, where she coulda seen signs of him. But by-and-by, Miss Lilian lost hope that Miss Gem was back for a quick visit. I don’t know where she thought Miss Gem might go, seeing as how Miss Gem didn’t know nobody in Harlem no more. She’d been away too long.

“Now cain’t no woman hide the fact that she got a man living with her. ‘Specially when everybody up an’ down the street know about it. I don’t know who that sister of yours thought she was fooling. But even if nobody hadna said nothing, Miss Gem woulda figured it out all by herself. That woman’s got the nose of a cat. She can smell a man hanging round like an alley cat can smell a rat.

“Well, Miss Gem had me and Miss Lilian running ‘round, serving her like she was the Queen of Sheba. One night she come back ‘round four o’clock in the morning, hissy as a snake. She’d been hanging out at Hayne’s Oriental and somebody’d asked her what she thought of her sister’s new husband. Naturally, she ain’t knowed nothing but nothing about what they was talking about. So, they laid it on thick. I ain’t never seen nobody as angry as Miss Gem at that time of morning.

“Well, she woke Miss Lilian. Me, too, for that matter. I was in my room, but I could hear them. I reckon the neighbors heard them too, the way they was carrying on. Miss Gem told Miss Lilian she was a fool.

“‘Don’t you realize he married you for your money?’ she said.

“Miss Lilian said she didn’t care.

‘“Well, you’d better start,’ Miss Gem said. ‘Everybody’s laughing at you. Everybody knows he ain’t no good.’

“Miss Lilian asked Miss Gem, since when did she care what everybody says. ‘You never cared before,’ Miss Lilian said. ‘And for once I don’t care neither. Everybody thinks they know he doesn’t love me. I know for certain he does.’

“Then they sorta got quiet. Dropped their voices like. And I’m glad they did, ‘cause I didn’t wanna get involved no way. I don’t have no trouble staying outta other people’s business. Not that anybody ever asked my opinion. But I’ll tell you sumptin’: Laying in the dark that night, I got a sense of foreboding, the likes of which I ain’t never had b’fore. It sat like a rock, here in my chest.”

She wedged her fist tight up under her bosom. “It was fright’ning to lay in bed and listen to them voices. Voices that sounded like the folk they b’longed to was dead. Voices that made you think of ghosts. Ghosts that kept on fighting into the grave.”

David shifted uncomfortably. He was a lawyer and lawyers like facts. He didn’t like superstition and any reference to it unsettled him. But what unsettled him more, if he were honest, was the way her words echoed inside him. He was frightened all of a sudden, and he wasn’t quite sure why.

“What happened next was written on the wall,” she said. “Anybody with eyes to see woulda known what was coming.”

She picked up her cup and ran a finger over the nicks on its rim.

“Mr. Jameson come home the next day. Miss Lilian was out running errands. Miss Gem come downstairs looking for Miss Lilian and found Miss Lilian’s husband instead. He was in the parlor, sorting his mail. Miss Gem stopped short in the parlor doorway. She was wearing a frock, red like cherries. I seen her. We’d just got some new flowers for the vestibule and I was standing there fixing them. I must say she looked very pretty that day, very pretty standing there. She was watching Mr. Jameson, waiting for him to see her.

“He was sitting at your daddy’s old writing desk. He didn’t notice her at first ‘cause he was concentrating on a letter. Had his pipe in his mouth. That man smokes a nice pipe. Uses fine tobacco. Actu’ly, Mr. Jameson’s pretty fine hisself. I got to give the devil his due. He’s the kinda man every Mama warns her girlchild about.

“Well, I could see Miss Gem just licking her lips. She cleared her throat— real delicate-like but loud ‘nough for him to hear. Mr. Jameson looked up, said hello, and went back to his mail. Then he swung his head back ‘round again. His eyes liked to pop right outta his head.

“‘Lilian, what have you done to yourself?’ he said.

“Miss Gem gave him time to take in every pretty detail. Then she sort of floated on in and gave him her hand. Introduced herself, real lady-like. Said it was ‘so nice’ to meet him, just as sweet as she could be.

“Now, I must say, Mr. Jameson’s got the manners of a gentleman. He stood up quick as lightning. And Miss Gem, she broke into a smile as wide as the Mississippi.

“‘I
like
tall men,’ she said, real soft-like. ‘You remind me of Daddy.’

‘“Do I, now?’

“‘Yes, you do.’

“They shook hands for just a li’l too long, if you know what I mean. Then the front door slammed and they jumped apart. Miss Lilian come in. Fresh as a June breeze. Cheeks all rosy. She was a-glowing. Didn’t have no idea of what was coming at her. But when she saw them two together, she got right pale. Her face got all pinched. She tried to act like it was all right, made a big show of hugging and kissing him. Miss Gem stood by, patient-like, her arms folded cross her chest. She kept her face all pleasant and polite. Miss Lilian wrapped her arms ‘round Mr. Jameson’s waist. She said she was happy he and Miss Gem had fin’ly met. But she didn’t sound happy. And she told Miss Gem it was nice of her to keep Mr. Jameson comp’ny while she was out. Miss Gem said it was no trouble, no trouble at all.”