Chapter 51
“I’m pretty sure he never stopped loving our mother.”
“Hi, Benny. Hi, Brenda!” Johnnie said, excited to see her brother and sister-in-law. “Where’s little Jericho?”
“Hi, sis,” Benny said and stood to his feet.
Johnnie ran over to him, hugging him with all her might.
“Let me look at you, girl,” Benny said, taking a step back, his hand on her shoulders. “You sure filled out since I saw you last. How long has it been?”
“About five years,” Johnnie said. “I was eleven then.”
“Five years,” Benny said, shaking his head. “Has it been that long?”
“Uh-huh. Five years,” Johnnie repeated. “Y’all must be tired. Y’all ready to go?”
“Naw, what we ready for is an explanation for what happened to Marguerite,” Brenda said firmly. “What that good for nothin’ sheriff got to say?”
“Yeah,” Benny said, “I know it was Richard Goode. Mama told me she was seeing him. Said she had a plan to get some money outta him. She told me that right after she told me about the house Earl bought you out there in Ashland Estates.”
“Apparently Mama told you a lot of things, Benny,” Johnnie said, lowering her head.
“Look, Johnnie, I know it ain’t yo’ fault you got involved with that child molester,” Benny said, hugging her. “But you don’t have to stay here. You can come out to the coast with us. Start all over. You’re a good-looking girl. You can find a decent man out in San Francisco to take care of you.”
“What if I don’t want to be taken care of, Benny?”
“What?”
“You heard me. What if I don’t want to be taken care of? What if I want to take care of myself? What if I want to be on my own? I have a house in my name. I’m getting a job and I have some stocks, plus I have the insurance money Mama left me. I can take care of myself.”
“What about school, Johnnie?” Brenda asked.
“What about it?”
“Don’t you wanna better yourself?”
“I have, Brenda. And it didn’t have nothin’ to do with formal schoolin’.”
“You think this is what your daddy would’ve wanted for you, Johnnie?” Benny asked.
“Who cares what he thinks? Any man that would leave his wife and daughter, promising to send for them, and never comes back, doesn’t even matter to me.”
“Is that what Mama told you?” Benny asked. “She told you that he left to find a job and didn’t come back?”
“Yes, she told me the whole thing. About her and Louis Armstrong, the fight between him and my daddy over her—everything. She even told me about his running around on her then getting mad because she did the same thing.”
Dumbfounded, Benny shook his head. He looked at Brenda, wondering if he should tell Johnnie the whole truth.
“You might as well tell her, Benny,” Brenda suggested. “She needs to find out sooner or later.”
“Sit down, Johnnie,” Benny demanded.
“What’s going on?” Johnnie asked, uneasy with what was happening.
“These are the wrong circumstances to hear this, but Mama lied to you about your daddy and my stepfather. Johnny Wise was a good man. He was good to me and he was good to our mother. I even took his last name when I left New Orleans. What happened between our mother and Johnny was her fault. She told you he was running around on her. Well, the truth is she was running around on him.”
“That’s not true,” Johnnie firmly disagreed.
“Yes it is, Johnnie. I saw her with a lot of different men. She just couldn’t stop prostituting herself. For all I know, she ran my father off too.”
“Well, what really happened?” Johnnie asked.
“Mama had Sheriff Tate run him outta town. That’s what happened.”
“What?”
“That’s right. Sheriff Tate and our mother had been seein’ each other for years. Tate wanted to keep seeing her, and Johnny was in the way. So, he trumped up some phony charges against him. He told him if he didn’t leave town, he would see to it that he went to Angola Prison for a long time.”
“How do you know this?”
“I heard Tate say it. I was right upstairs in the bedroom.”
“So, my daddy didn’t abandon us?”
“No, Johnnie, he didn’t,” Benny said. “She wanted to keep whorin’, and he wouldn’t stand for it. That’s why he beat her. Frankly, I don’t know many men that would put up with that kinda shit.”
“Where is he now, Benny?”
“He lives in East St. Louis. He’s got a wife and four kids. He’s happy now,” Benny said and laughed a little. “I guess the sheriff will let him come back for the funeral now that she’s dead.”
“You talked to him?”
“Yeah, we’ve kept in touch the whole time. He’s bringing his family in. They should be here in a couple of days. You wanna know what’s strange?”
“What?”
“I’m pretty sure he never stopped loving our mother.”