Chapter 21
“The Savoy it is.”
When she heard the car door slam, the woman next door quickly rushed to the window to watch her new neighbor leave. She wondered how soon she’d move in. She decided to bake the woman a sweet potato pie and welcome her to the neighborhood.
Johnnie looked at the window and saw the woman again. This time she waved to let the woman know she would be a friendly neighbor. The woman smiled and waved back enthusiastically. Both women thought they had made a friend even though they hadn’t spoken to each other.
As they backed out of the driveway, Johnnie looked at the two-car garage and wondered if Earl would buy her a car. She decided to test the water. “Earl, how am I supposed to get to school livin’ way out here?”
“The same way the other children get to school. On the bus.”
Earl thought about what he had just said. Children? He forgot just how young she really was. In all the time he had known her, except for the first few times he slept with her, he never thought about how old she was. She looked like a woman. She acted like a woman. She is a woman. After all, I made her a woman, didn’t I? But still he felt guilty for even being in the situation with her. He just wanted to fuck her a few times and be done with her, but she had grown on him like no other woman had in his life. There was no way he was going to give her up now—not ever.
Besides, everybody knows girls mature two years faster than boys. Her being sixteen is the same as her being eighteen or nineteen. What the hell difference does it make when you love someone? There used to be a time when girls had to be married by the time they were twelve or they were considered old maids. Shit, I did her a favor. I got her out of the ghetto and into a nice neighborhood. She wears nice clothes, shoes, and jewelry. She’s got it made. How many other women would jump at this opportunity? On top of that, the pussy is out of this world.
Johnnie hoped her comment about school would make Earl think she was still attending so she could continue to have the freedom to do as she pleased. That way, during the day, she could sneak Lucas Matthews over, or maybe even Martin Winters. She wanted to work during school hours and invest her money. Plus, she could say she was going to the library to study, just in case she wanted to see them at night without suspicion.
“What hotel do you want to go to?”
“The Bel Glades. Isn’t that where you used to work?”
“Now, you know they don’t allow Negroes in there. But if you play your cards right, maybe one day I’ll sneak you in.”
“If I play my cards right, huh?” she said wryly. “In that case, take me to the Savoy. I shouldn’t have any trouble gettin’ in there, even with you. I hear tell that’s where all the coloreds from the ghetto and the upper class whites go to fornicate.”
“The Savoy it is.”
“Earl, I want you to get those guys to hurry up with the house. I don’t want to stay in the hotel for a month. I’m going to need furniture and everything. Do you mind if I don’t get carpeting? I like the floors as they are. I prefer rugs. Is that okay?”
“Anything you want.”
Entering the Savoy, they were greeted by a short, stocky colored man with a balding head. He opened the glass door for them and smiled a professional smile like he’d done so many times that it was second nature. As they walked to the front desk to register, he shook his head. When he was sure they were far away, he shook his head again and said, “What a waste. Beautiful black girl like that givin’ it up to the white man.” It wasn’t anything he hadn’t seen a thousand times at the hotel, but each time he saw it, he would say the same thing. He turned his attention to the guests now entering the hotel.
The clerk was on the telephone when they reached the desk. He smiled and put his index finger in the air. A moment later, he hung up the phone and said, “May I help you?”
“Yes,” Earl said. “We want the best room this hotel has to offer.”