“Why’d you and Carla break up? I thought you were crazy about her.”
“I was wondering when we’d get to that. You’ve gotten better, at least. It only took you a year to ask.”
“David, answer the question.”
“You need her to answer that. She’s the one wanted the divorce.”
“Did you cheat on her with some skank? Don’t think I don’t remember Rhonda. Oh, I’m sorry, she’s Mrs. Boukie Crawford now.”
“Ailey, how you gone keep talking about that? That was almost twenty years ago. I was seventeen and stupid.”
“I should have beat Rhonda down when I had the chance. Heifer.”
“You still can. She and Boukie live right on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. I can drop you off after supper.”
He touched the knob of the radio, turned the volume up, and Luther Vandross’s voice filled the car. The inside vibrated, the rear window beating out its own tune.
I turned the volume back down.
“David, did you cheat on Carla?”
“No, I did not. How could you even ask me that?”
“Then what happened with y’all?”
“None of your damned business. Carla and I might not be together anymore, but she is still the mother of my child. And I’m not going to talk about what happened between us. Some things are private, Ailey. So stop asking me.” He looked out his window as Luther crooned about how he couldn’t wait, now that he was in love.
At Miss Rose’s, we sat in the kitchen while she moved around slowly, placing platters of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, corn bread, sliced and salted tomatoes, and greens on the table.
“Baybay, you got time to carry Ailey back into town after supper?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He squirmed in his seat. He had the munchies, but neither one of us could start the meal until Miss Rose placed the last dish on the table and blessed the food.
She took a hand in each of hers. “Father God, we thank Thee for Thy gracious bounty and for this loving fellowship and we ask that You don’t make it so long between our grandbaby’s visits. But we so grateful to see this child here in the meantime. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Father God. Amen.”
She sat down with a small groan, paused a moment, then lightly hit the table and looked at me.
“Ailey! Go on in that icebox and get them sweet potato pies. They covered in foil. Be careful, now. You know you clumsy.”
“Aw, you didn’t have to bake me any pies,” David said. “I was glad to pick her up at the airport.”
“Them pies not just for you, Baybay,” she said. “One’s for us, one’s for Root and Belle, and one’s for your mama. Tell Cloletha, I don’t know if they as good as they should be. This batch of yams was kinda stringy. And I better not hear you ate up all them pies on the way back to town ’cause I know you been smoking them reefers.”
He started coughing. I turned away from the refrigerator to hit him on the back.
“Ailey Pearl, don’t you be trying to hide from me. You been smoking them reefers, too? Tell the truth and shame the Devil.”
I stood by the refrigerator and put my hand up to my mouth, gnawing on my pinky nail. “No, ma’am, I was not! David was blowing smoke on me. That’s why I smell like this.”
He recovered his breath and laughed. I waited for him to betray me.
“She’s right,” David said. “You know she not like that.”
“Lord, today, y’all chirren! Y’all ain’t too big for me to strip a switch! Baybay, you ain’t mines, but even if you was, you can’t hold all the whippings you need.”
He took her hand and kissed it. “I love you so much, Miss Rose.”
“You pretty rascal!” She pulled her hand from his and speared a breast on the platter. “Ailey, eat this. You too skinny. You done fell way off.”
“She supposed to have some meat on her, ain’t she?” David asked. “She got that kind of frame.”
“Shole do, and don’t nobody want a bone but a dog.”
I told them, they better stop teasing me, but give me that breast. I didn’t mind getting the big piece of chicken.
*
The next morning, the bench dedication was long, with prayers and songs and stories. My mother and David James were on the first row of pews, in the old bourgie section. I sat on the chapel stage, beside Uncle Root. Dr. Oludara wore garb commensurate with her promotion to president of the college, a flowing purple-and-red dress. Around her head, brightly colored satin cloth, the regalia of her heritage.