Part 9 (1/2)
He didn't reply, because aup to his notices bad stopped him with his belly He resembled the balloon that had discovered stratosphere, but hundreds of degrees hotter He wore an old-fashi+oned white silk shi+rt without the collar, fastened about the neck with a diamondstudded collar button, and black alpaca pants; but his legs were so large they seeether, and his pants resembled a funnel-shaped skirt His round brown head, which could have passed for a safety balloon in case his stomach burst, was clean-shaven Not a hair showed above his chest--either on his face, nostrils, ears, eyebrows or eyelashes--giving the impression that his whole head had been scalded and scraped like the carcass of a pork
”How's it going to chafe us, pops?” he asked, sticking out a huge, spongy hand His voice was a wheezing whisper
”nobody knows 'til the deal goes down,” Johnny said ”Everybody's just peeping at their hole cards now”
”The betting comes next” He looked down, but his felt-slippered feet, planted on the sawdust-covered floor, were hidden froo”
”Lost your best custo the consolation
”You know, Big Joe never ate nothing here He just co” Fats paused, then added, ”But he was a man”
”Hurry up, Johnny, for God's sake,” Dulcy called from across the room ”The funeral starts at two, and it's allasses and looked strictly Hollywoodish in her pink silk dress
The rooht square kitchen tables covered hite-and-red checked oilcloth planted in the inch of fresh, slightly da the floor
Dulcy sat at the table in the far corner, flanked by Alao eat,” Fats said ”You ry”
”Ain't I always?”
The sawdust felt good beneath Johnny's rubber-soled shoes, and he thought fleetingly of how good life had been when he was a siia, before he'd killed afrom the kitchen where the orders were filled and called, ”Hiyuh, pops', Johnny waved a hand
Three other tables were occupied by out for the upper-class Harle and prostitution professions, and none others were allowed Everybody knew everybody else, and all the diners greeted Johnny as he passed
”Sad about Big Joe, pops”
”You can't stop the deal when the dealer falls”
nobody mentioned Val He'd been murdered, and nobody kneho did it It was nobody's business but Johnny's, Dulcy's and the cops's; and everybody was letting it strictly alone
When Johnny sat down the waitress calass pitcher of le chunks of ice floating about in it
”I want a Singapore Sling,” Dulcy said
Johnny gave her a look
”Well, brandy and soda then You know good and well that ice-cold drinks give estion”
”I'll have iced tea,” the attorney said
”You get that from the waitress,” Pee Wee said
”Gin and tonic for lasses and napkins, and Alarin as he read the list of dinners:
Today's Special -- Alligator tail & rice Baked Hareens & okra Chicken and drop du's feet a la mode Neck bones and lye hominy
(Choice of hot biscuits or corn bread)
SIDE DISHES
Collard greens -- okra -- black-eyed peas & rice -- corn on the cob -- succotash -- sliced tomatoes and cucumbers
DESSERTS
Homemade ice cream -- deep-dish sweet potatoe pie -- peach cobbler -- watermelon -- blackberry pie
BEVERAGES
Iced tea -- buttermilk -- sassafras-root tea -- coffee
But he looked up and saw the solemn expressions on the faces of the others and broke off
”I haven't had breakfast as yet,” he said, then to the waitress, ”Can I have an order of brains and eggs, with biscuits?”
”Yes, sir”
”I want soot no oysters It ain't the ave Dulcy a sly, sidewise look
”Then I'll take the chicken and dus,” Dulcy said haughtily
”Yes'm”
”Baked ham for me,” Alamena said
”Yes'm” She looked at Johnny with calf-eyed love ”The same as always, Mr Johnny?”
He nodded Johnny's breakfast, which never varied, consisted of a heaping plate of rice, four thick slices of fried salt pork, the fat poured over the rice, and a pitcher of blackstrap sorghuht Southern-style biscuits an inch and a half thick