It doesn’t matter what Ardell does, because Jojo hardly ever comes out onto the street. He keeps slipping out through the alley to get whatever he needs. Ardell sits outside and sits outside, but he never sees Jojo.
Well, almost never. Jojo answers the door whenever Shana comes to visit. He scoops the baby out of her arms and swings it up high. Benjamin laughs. Once I hear Jojo call him “my little man.” Shana smiles.
Jojo also comes out at the exact same time every Wednesday morning. On those days, he has his mother with him, and they walk together to the curb to get into a taxi that Jojo must have ordered. They leave. They always return a few hours later. When Jojo’s mother gets out of the taxi again, she always leans heavily on Jojo. She looks really sick. On those days, she never comes out to sit under her umbrella.
“Poor woman,” my mother says one day.
“What’s wrong with her?” I ask.
My mother looks at me.
“She’s sick, isn’t she?” I say.
My mother doesn’t answer.
“What does she have?” I ask.
My mother studies me. Finally she says, “She doesn’t want people to know about it.”
“Know about what?”
“You know how people talk around here,” my mother says.
“I won’t tell,” I say. “Is she dying?”
My mother looks stunned by the question, but she nods. “Probably,” she says. “She has cancer. She’s taking treatment, but Idon’t think there’s anything they can do. It’s spread too much. She’s lucky that Jojo is back.”
That’s the first time I ever heard anyone say that someone is lucky Jojo is back.
“He’s looking after her,” my mother says. “He cooks for her and does all the cleaning. He takes her to her appointments and holds her hand the whole time.”
Now it’s my turn to be surprised.
“I see her at the hospital most times when she comes in,” she says. “I see him with her. Sometimes I talk to her. You know, if most people saw him do what the people at the hospital see him do, they would have a different opinion. I’m not saying what he did was right, because it wasn’t. I’m not even saying that he’s changed since he went away, because I don’t know if that’s true or not. But he’s a good son. He looks after his mother. I don’t think there’s anything he wouldn’t do for her. And lately he talks to her about the baby and about Shana. I know he’s sorry he ever told Shana she shouldn’t have that baby.”
She looks hard at me. “He was a wild boy, there’s no doubt about that. He caused a lot of people a lot of problems and a lot of heartache, including his mother. But he’s making up for it now, without anyone watching him, without anyone knowing.”