Black Water by Bobby Norman Page A

dadgum hands.” He shivered at the memory.
    Lootie looked at it, imagining. “My mother?”
    “Yep!” he said, smartassey. Then he chinned to her face. “How’dju git them scars? What was it blinded yer eye?”
    She didn’t understand why he was asking. He knew what it was.
    “Come on…tell me…,” he pushed. “What was it?”
    “I’s lightnin’ struck.”
    “When?” he demanded, thrusting his chin out.
    “I don’t understand why yer sayin’ these things ‘r why yer askin’ me this. You know when.”
    “Yeah,” he said, smartalecky, “I do, but I don’t think you do. When was it?”
    “I don’t know zackly how old I was. I’s a baby.”
    “Ha!” he chirped. “No, you wasn’t! You wasn’t no old! When Pearl cutchur mama’s belly open, you come out lookin’,,” he jabbed a finger at her face with every word, “…jes…like…’at! Th’lightnin’ ‘at gotchur mama ‘n blew ‘er arm off in t’th’road’s th’same one fried yer face.” He put his hands on his hips. “So…therrrre ya go…noooow ya know. You ‘n me ain’t no blood kin a’tall! But, ’spite all th’trouble you been, I been takin’ care o’ ya all these years ‘n Good God Dangit, I oughta get somethin’ for it! I’m a man ‘n I got a man’s needs tooken care of, ‘n YOU ain’t gonna get nobody else.”
    Lootie was struck dumb, both at what he’d said and the venom in the telling. How could he talk to her like that, knowin’ he was in the wrong? He was wrong! He was storyin’ ‘bout another woman. Another mother. He was lyin’! He had to be.
    Didn’t he?
    Then she remembered. Of course he was lyin’! He’d slipped up! Pearl herself said she was the first to hold her. She’d talked about how hard the birthin’d been, but Lootie’d been worth ever painful second of it. She wanted to scream back at him and tell him he was a big ol’ liar again…
    …but was he?
    Nothin’ Roach said went against what Pearl’d told her. She had been the first to hold her. She had suffered through the painful birth, had been a part of it. Pearl hadn’t lied to her, she just hadn’t told her the truth.
    Pearl wasn’t her mama.
    Roach calmed down some and tried another approach. “I know yer actin’ this away ‘cause yer changin’, turnin’ to a woman. Y’all go a little nutty when it happens. It’s natural. I can see it.” He sniffed animatedly and nodded to her crotch. “I can smell it. Yer sproutin’ titties ‘n I know ya’started th’bleedin ‘n with th’bleedin’ comes th’needin’, butcha see, that ain’t nothin’ you oughta feel bad ‘bout ‘cause it’s natural, and ya oughta know that I wantchu ever bit as bad as you want me.”
    Her eyes goggled in astonishment. “Are you crazy? You can’t really believe that. Wantchu? Me? Lord, no, I don’t wantchu. Why would I? You’re old ‘n I ain’t, ‘n you been my papa all my life, ‘n even now, learnin y’ain’t, it don’t make no dif’ernce.”
    Not one to cut a good argument short, Roach jumped back in. “I told you y’ain’t gonna get n’body else. Yer ugly, face full o’ scars, you only got th’one good eye ‘n it’s black! Everbody knows ya come out of a witch.”
    Lootie was shaking in rage and confusion but she couldn’t deny the accusations.
    Roach helt out his hands. “Listen, there ain’t nothin’ left t’argee ‘bout. You think on this. I can’t stand it no more, I’m up agin th’wall! Startin’ t’night…’n I mean you spreadin’ yer legs ‘n satisfyin’ my needs t’night , or t’morrow, when th’sun comes up, you get out. You pack yer clothes ‘n get out ‘n find somers else t’live. Drive somebody else crazy. I’ll tell ya th’truth…if ya do, I’ll pine for ya no end, but I can’t go on this away.
    “I don’t like sayin’ it, but matin’ with you’s all I think about. Don’t let on like you don’t know whatchur doin’ either. Prancin’ ‘round, bendin’ over in ‘at