The Future Has a Past by J. California Cooper

bus station was surrounded by bright lights and people milling around. Silki was grinning, walking in front of Luella. Luella was between smiles and frowns. She had had a hard time getting her shoes back on her sore feet and she had to trot every once in a while to keep up with Silki.
    Finally, he stopped to ask a black man in a rickety cab where a good hotel was.
    “Can take you to a good rooming house,” the man replied.
    “Take us then. Get in, Luella.”
    Silki and the cabdriver talked and Silki learned where the places were he wanted to go to.
    When they arrived at the rooming house, Silki left Luella to pay the cab while he took his bag and checked into the room. The landlady, Ms. Ready, looked them over and, seeing Luella looked respectable, showed them her nicest vacant room. “Five dollars please, in advance.” The room usually went for two dollars a night.
    Silki turned to Luella, “Give me the money, Luella, I ain’t got no small bills.” Luella opened her purse, glancing at Ms. Ready, who was taking account of everything, and gave him twenty-five dollars.
    Silki shook his head. “Give me all the money, Luella.” She gave him twenty-five more. He gave a disgusted sigh, but handed Ms. Ready five dollars. “We gonna see if we like it here, then we’ll pay the rest of the week.”
    “It be due tomorrow mornin,” said Ms. Ready as she handed him the key and left.
    Silki began to bustle around the room, getting settled. He put on a fresh, new shirt, shined his shoes with a thin towel from the face-towel rack. Said, “Come on now, Luella, we got to go, it’s gettin late! After ten o’clock.”
    Luella wanted to take off her girdle and the red shoes. She was numb around her hips and her feet really hurt, but she felt she couldn’t. Her feet felt as though they had claws gripping them. Half her body was numb and the other half was in pain. But . . . she had to follow her man.
    Ms. Ready recognized Silki’s type when she first laid eyes on him, but she couldn’t get Luella right clear. She thought Luella obviously didn’t belong with Silki. “She dumb, but must have somethin. Prob’ly money.”
    Silki, grinning, took Luella to the Blue Blew Inn, a jazzy bar with a dance floor, naturally. Seemed like a thousand colored lights to Luella, but the place was still dark. She tried to become excited as she tripped over people and tried to wave the smoke away from her face. Through smoke that wouldn’t be waved away, she saw more people in one place than she had seen at any time in her life, except church. But this crowd beat the church crowd. The music was the blues and it was low-down and lower. The people dancing seemed hardly to be moving, just clinging close as they could.
    There was a couple just leaving from a table near the bar. Silki pulled Luella, stumbling, behind him as he headed for that table. He was happy. He was in his element. After they sat down, Luella leaned heavily on the table, trying to ease her tired, hurting body. Silki primped and styled, his feet eager to dance to the good music.
    He waved a hand with money in it at the overworked waitress, who looked at the sharp-looking Silki and took his order with a smile. When the drinks arrived, Silki sipped at his a few minutes as he looked around the room. Then he grabbed Luella’s hand, pulling her up to dance. She followed him, reluctantly, trying to smile. In pain. Her dancing was not quite up to date, but she leaned on him, which she liked and which made the dancing bearable.
    Silki paid Luella very little attention, he was too busy watching himself and all the other people in the club. When the music finally ended, they returned to their seats and he waved more money to catch the waitress’s eye for another drink.
    At that moment a fine-looking, flashy-dressed woman entered the Blue Blew Inn as Silki was waving his money. She saw the money before she saw Silki. The bartender called to her, “Hey She-She! Com’ere girl!” and she