Part 2 (2/2)
”There's a basket of soh,” Alamena said
”But it don't look like it's no bread in it,” theover her shoulder said
”It don't even look like a bread basket,” Ma shadoith her near-sighted gaze ”It looks like one of them wicker baskets they take away dead bodies in”
By then Alamena's sharp vision had becoht But there's ain it”
”A drunk,” Mamie said in a voice of relief ”No doubt that's what Reverend Short saw that gave hi us”
”He don't look drunk toover her shoulder ”He's lying too straight, and drunks always lay crooked”
”My God!” Alaot a knife sticking in hi keen ”Lord, protect us, can you see his face, child? I' so old I can't see a lick Is it chink?”
Alamena put her arm about Mamie's waist and slowly pulled her from the
”No, it ain't chink,” she said ”It looks to me like VaL”
4
Everyone rushed toward the outside door to be the first downstairs But before Maniie and Ala
”Who in the hell could that be at this hour?” Alao ahead, I'll answer it,” Ma Mainie went back into the bedroohtstand beside the bed
”hello”
”Are you Mrs Pullen?” a muffled voice asked It was so blurred she could scarcely distinguish the words
”Yes”
”There's a dead man out in front of your house”
She could have sworn the voice held a note of laughter
”Who are you?” she asked suspiciously
”I ain't nobody”
”It ain't so Goddahly
”I ain't joking If you don't believe o to theand take a look”
”Why the hell didn't you call the police?”
”I reckoned that maybe you wouldn't want them to know”
Suddenly the whole conversation stopped hts, but she was so tired her head buzzed And all thisstabbed to death with Big Joe lying dead there in the coffin, left her feeling as though she had stepped off the edge of sanity
”Why the hell wouldn't I want the police to know?” she asked savagely
”Because he came from your apartment”
”How do you know he caht”
”I did I saw hi about Reverend Short And you sure enough seen hi down on the sidewalk in the A&P bread basket, dead as all hell”
”That ain't Reverend Short He didn't even get hurt He co, so she went on ”It's Val Valentine Haines And he was stabbed to death”
She waited for an answer, but the voice still didn't speak
”hello,” she said ”hello! You still there! You're so Goddam smart how come you didn't see that?”
She heard a very soft click
”The bastard hung up,” she hty strange--”
She stood still for ato think, but hertable and picked up a can of snuff Using a cotton dauber, she dipped a lipful, leaving the dauber in the pocket of her lip with the stick protruding It quieted her growing sense of panic Out of respect for her guests, she hadn't taken a dip all night, and as a rule she lived with a dip in her lip
”Lord, if Big Joe was alive, he'd knohat to do,” she said to herself as she ith slow, dragging steps back into the sitting roolasses and plates containing scraps of food, ashtrays overfloith sar butts The arettes had left holes in the upholstery, burned scars on the tabletops The ashy skeleton of a cigarette lay intact atop the grand piano There was a reseone, and the smell of death and lilies of the valley andin the hot, close rooed herself across the room and looked down into the bronze-painted coffin at the body of her late husband
Big Joe was dressed in a creareen crepe de Chine shi+rt, brown silk tie with hand-painted angels held in place by a dia square dark-brown face was clean shaven, with deep creases encircling the wide ed His eyes were closed His stiff gray kinky hair had been cut short after death and had been painstakingly combed and brushed She had done it herself, and she had dressed hi a dia on his right
She removed all of the jewelry and put it down into the deep front pocket of her long black satin Mother Hubbard dress that swept the floor Then she closed the coffin
”One hell of a wake this turned out to be,” she said