Chapter 43

ON SUNDAY, EJ GOES TO THE LORD’S HOUSE. He puts Cassie in the nursery and sits next to Felicia at the Mt. Zion AME Church. Reverend Jefferson’s talking ’bout the benefits of a giving heart and how we should all be servants like Jesus, but EJ ain’t listening. He’s thinking ’bout his mama. But I believe the good Lord’s talking to him anyway. ’Cause once the service is over with, EJ drives his family on home, and while Felicia puts the baby down for a nap, EJ gets on the telephone and sure ’nough, calls up Retta’s house.

The phone rings when Henrietta’s taking off her earrings. She’s undressing after going to that church in West Ashley, and Eddie’s down in the kitchen making a sandwich.

“Can you get the phone?” she hollers down to him. He’s just a-chomping into some crunchy bacon and all he can hear is the sound inside his head.

After a few rings, Henrietta huffs and runs down the hall to a little table set below a mirror. She picks up the telephone annoyed like, Who in the world’s bothering me on a Sunday afternoon? And when she hears it’s EJ’s voice, she almost falls flat. I’m there with her, looking at the pretty curve of her neck. Her hand trembles holding the telephone and after he tells her he wants to come and talk to her, she hangs it up and puts her head against the wall, feeling the coolness of it. She closes her eyes and squeezes out one single tear. Then she smiles and hurries off to her bedroom to get herself fixed up again.

“Maybe he’ll bring the baby!” says Retta, dancing ’round the living room. “We need to baby-proof this place. Look at all this stuff! There’s danger everywhere. Oh no, we don’t have any outlet thingies. She’ll get electrocuted! Edmund, what if she sticks her finger in a socket!”

Eddie goes in front of her and grabs her shoulders. “Re-lax, Henrietta. Everything will be just fine. And don’t get your hopes up, okay? He might not even bring the baby. Did EJ tell you what he wanted to talk about?”

“Well, no, but I’m sure he wants to work things out. I mean, he could just stay away, right? This is good, Edmund. I just know it is!”

Eddie’s eyebrows are stitched together, hoping EJ’s coming is good news. You can see in his eyes he’s tired, and he don’t want his wife to suffer no more.

“Let’s just have some tea and wait for him, okay? Why don’t you go make some tea?” Retta jumps at the chance to give her hands something to do, and she runs off into the kitchen.

Eddie walks on over to the window and watches the road for EJ. When he sees him, he slips out the front door quiet as he can and meets him when he’s stepping out the car. EJ’s driving a brand-new one now. My old station wagon’s just gathering dust in the lot ’side his house. This here new car’s big enough for a family and got a baby seat tied in the back.

“Son,” Eddie breathes, grabbing EJ and hugging him hard. He pats him on the back twice and then pushes him away, looking over at the windows. “You don’t know how excited your mother is that you’re coming over here.” EJ stares at the windows too. “Why are you here, son? Are you planning on making things right with your mother? Because if you’re not, I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

Well, EJ looks like somebody done shot him in the foot. “I just need to talk to her.”

“About what?”

“Dad, I need to talk to my mother. All right? I promise you, I’m not trying to make things worse.”

Eddie gives him a stern look and then lightens up. “All right then,” he says. “Come on in.”

Eddie puts his arms around EJ and tries to usher him to the door, but EJ stops short. “I sort of need to talk to her alone.” Eddie’s thinking on this, and I’m thinking he’s ’bout to tell him to go on home or go to Hades, but he don’t do neither.

“All right, then. I’ll go.” He grabs EJ’s arm and says, “But I’m trusting you not to break your mother’s heart any more than you already have. She was hoping Cassie was coming over, you know. She’s been fretting for an hour that we don’t have baby-proofed electrical outlets.”

At that, I think I see a hint of a smile come into EJ’s eyes, and he turns toward the door.

“Thanks, Dad,” EJ says when Eddie picks up a walking stick and heads on down the road for a good long stroll ’round the neighborhood.

I hold my breath when Henrietta opens the door. The tension’s so thick, I can see it like a purple cloud hovering over ’em. EJ’s all a-jumbled inside and Henrietta’s scared to death, not knowing whether to reach out to him or not. She looks back behind him to see if Cassie’s there—and then decides to just smile at him and move to the side so he can come on in.

“Would you like some tea?” she asks him, showing her pearly whites.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be staying, so I guess not.” EJ leaves Retta’s gaze and walks to the wall of photographs in the living room. He looks at my picture and seems to be working up the gumption to say what he come to say.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Retta asks. EJ stays real quiet. “How’s The Grass Roots Society?”

“It’s fine,” he says. “We’re making good progress.”

“That’s good,” says Retta. “And the baby? How’s Cassie?”

EJ sucks in his breath and thinks about what to say but before he can speak, she says, “I’m just so glad you’re here, EJ. I can’t tell you how much it means.”

“Mom, don’t.” EJ holds up his hand. “Let me just say what I need to, okay?”

“Okay,” she says, lowering into a high-back chair and crossing her legs real proper. Her back’s so straight you could flip a flapjack on it.

“I know this is going to sound crazy,” he begins, “but, I don’t know, you’ll just have to take it for what it is, I guess.” EJ looks a-pained and puts his face in his hands.

“Grandmama,” he says, and his face squinches up. He’s trying to hold back tears. “Grandmama . . . talks to me, Mom.”

Retta’s eyes narrow. “She does?”

He looks at her. “Yes, but that’s not the point, I guess. Listen. I know this is weird, but . . . well, she told me she needs to talk to you. That’s why I’m here. She made me promise.”

“She did, did she?” Henrietta stands up from her chair and goes to look out the window. I reckon she’s looking for Eddie down the road.

“Listen, Mom, I don’t know what she wants. And I know it sounds crazy, but she comes to me. Just like Granddaddy used to come and sit with her. Mom, I swear to you, I was talking to her one day at the cemetery and the next thing I knew, I could see her, and she was talking right back.”

With that, Retta looks alarmed like she’s halfway believing him. She opens her mouth to speak but nothing comes out.

“So what does she say to you?” she asks finally.

“Well, mostly, she tries to get me to bury the hatchet with you.”

Henrietta’s eyes fill with tears, and she walks to my photograph and touches my face.

“She says she sees you all the time, but you can’t see her because you’ve never asked to.”

“What?” Retta’s struggling. Her eyes dart back and forth and she puts her hands on her mouth. Then she says, “EJ, honey, don’t get me wrong, but this is all just a little too much . . .”

“I’m telling you the truth, Mother. Trust me, I did not want to come here, but I promised her I’d tell you what she said.”

“And what’s that?” she says, getting huffy. “That I’m a racist? That I’m unfit to be a grandmother?” Retta turns away from him and holds back a sob.

“No, Mama.” EJ sits down on the sofa and says real quiet, “She said you need to meet somebody.”

Retta gets real still. “Who?”

“I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me. She said you have to ask to see her first.”

Retta smooths her pants out and straightens her face. She looks like she’s ’bout to say something, but then she scurries out the room real quick. EJ just sits there, not moving.

When she comes back a few minutes later, her face is puffy and she’s carrying two tall iced tea glasses. She don’t say a word, but walks right over to EJ and hands him one. He takes it and looks her in the eyes.

Retta sits down across from him and says real formal-like, “So I’m just supposed to ask Mama to come to me and she will? EJ, Mama’s dead. It’s taken me a long time to put her to rest. And now I’m supposed to believe she’s with me all the time?”

“Just . . . ask to see her, Mom. Just do it. Please?”

Retta jerks her head a little and sets her glass down on a coaster.

“All right then,” she says, folding her hands in her lap. “Mother, it’s Henrietta,” she says persnickety-like. “If you’re here, please let me see you.”

Some time goes by with EJ and Retta looking around. Nothing happens.

“I don’t see her, EJ. She didn’t appear.” Retta stands and walks a few steps. “I think I’ve heard just about enough. If you didn’t come here to try and work things out with me, maybe it’s just best that you go now.”

EJ huffs and stands up. That’s when I know I got to do something.

“EJ?”

He turns around, eyes wide.

“EJ, baby, it’s me. Grandmama.”