CHAPTER 28
In June, Mr. Wilson took me to the highway patrol station to get my driver’s license. I was nervous as an old woman, but passed with no problem. Fancy was at the house when I got home. I showed her my shiny new license. “Come on, let’s go for a ride.” We drove to Apex, stopped at the gas station on Highway 64, and even rode by Fancy’s school so I could see it. The freedom to come and go as I pleased was a breath of air I needed.
By the middle of July, everybody was cleaning out barns, fixing up slides, and getting ready for the start of tobacco priming season. Gardens needed to be picked, and between that and other fieldwork, workdays were long; it was hard, but satisfying to know I was looking after myself.
Fancy and me had spent a long day pinching tobacco worms off leaves in the field, and sat on the porch after a supper of leftovers, hoping for a breeze to cool us. Even after dark, the humid, damp air lay heavy.
Lightning came out to sit with us. “Junebug, you need to take me to Durham.”
“What for?”
“Need to find somebody who can buy that marijuana when it’s ready.”
I leaned my chair back against the wall, lit a cigarette, and watched smoke float toward the wire screen. “How you going to do that?”
“I can stay a night or two with my auntie in Hayti. Don’t expect it’ll take long to locate the right person.”
Fancy put her hand over his. “Don’t you let the police catch you running around up there.”
“So many coloreds in that place, Fancy, nobody’s going to notice one more. Besides, it’ll give me some getaway time.”
Maybe he would get away for good. “When you aiming to go?”
“We can do it tonight if you want to.”
I glanced at Fancy. “You want to ride with us?”
“Yep. Don’t know the last time I went to Durham.”
We hopped in the truck and headed to town. Hayti wasn’t any problem to find, just drive through the center of Durham and turn left across the railroad tracks. It was like entering another world. It felt different; the smell of barbecue and fried fish floated along the street, and there was electricity in the air. Music blasted from open doors of juke joints, and the sidewalks were crowded with colored folks talking and laughing; everybody celebrated the week’s end. We rattled over the rough rails and stopped at a red light. “Let me off right here,” said Lightning. “Pick me up at this same spot Sunday about six.”
Fancy kissed his cheek. “Be careful.”
I eased the truck around the corner, catching a lot of stares, a cracker boy riding with a colored girl. On the way out of town we spotted a Dairy Queen and stopped for ice cream. There were just as many hard looks from the crowd of white folks. I got the cones to go.
The ice cream was melting so fast we stopped on the side of the road to finish it. “You want me to go ahead and drop you off?”
“Trying to get rid of me?”
“Thought since it was getting late, you might need to get home.”
She slid her hand up and down my thigh. “Not going home.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Daddy’s cousin picked them up this afternoon. They’re going to a wake for Aunt Emma down in Kinston, and won’t be back until tomorrow.”
“You mean, you can stay all night?”
“That’s what I mean, white boy.”