Catfish Alley (12 page)

Poor
Roxanne! She looks like she's about to cry. Here she is trying to do the right
thing by the black folks and we are just not cooperating. I almost feel sorry
for her. I reckon right now she wishes she was at home worrying over what kind
of lace to sew on the next dress she's having made for some little white girl
working in the tour. But Mattie's not done with her yet.

"Mrs.
Reeves, come over here and sit down."

She
points with her gnarled old fingers to the bed beside her chair. Roxanne obeys,
just like Adelle did. That's what people do when Mattie Webster speaks. Adelle
and I
pull
some chairs from over by the sink closer to Mattie. This should be good.

Mattie studies Roxanne for what seems like forever
before she finally asks, "Just what kind of information are you planning
to give to the people who take this tour?"

Roxanne looks at us as if we'll answer, but we are as
curious as Mattie is to hear her answer.

"Well, um ... I'm not sure yet, Mrs. Webster. I'm
just trying to learn about places around here myself." Roxanne fidgets and
clears her throat. "I'm planning to have the traditional historical
markers that list the year the structure was built and a short amount of
information about it. Those would be placed near the street where people could
see them from a car...."

Mattie interrupts. "So this is going to be a
driving tour. People just get in their cars and drive around on their
own?"

"No, ma'am, not exclusively. I was thinking we
would do a guided tour. Have someone with a good knowledge of the area conduct
the tours and explain about the locations. Um ... maybe the Queen City could be
a bed-and-breakfast ... or some kind of place for meetings."

I decide to chime in. "Adelle has agreed to let
her house be on the tour. They'll be talking about Dr. Jackson."

Mattie looks from Adelle to me and back.

"Y'all are like sisters to me. We've been through
more together in the years we've known each other than I ever thought a human
being could bear. How can you want to have people tour all of those places
where all of our memories are? How can you stand to have them talking about how
wonderful everything was when we know the truth?" There is a hard edge to
Mattie's voice. "Especially you, Adelle, after what happened to you. And,
Grace, what about what happened to Zero?"

Adelle looks down at her hands and doesn't say a word.
I stand up and go over to the window to study the birds. I don't know what to
say. Mattie's right. Every place I take Roxanne Reeves has some memory of my
own or my people. They aren't all bad. It's just that, with memory, I can't
have one kind without the other. They all come to me together these days. This
woman is just doing her job. She doesn't have any idea what she's opened up.
Oh, Lord, she's talking again.

"Ladies, we don't want to deliberately dredge up
any painful memories for people. We want to showcase the successes of the
black, um, African-American people in this community. I guess we thought it
would help y'all feel more included, um ... not ignored."

Mattie snorts. "Mrs. Reeves, it don't work that
way. You might be able to dress your little white girls up in pretty hoopskirts
and have them sashay around the big house telling people about the fancy
furniture and the big parties and the barbecues on the lawn. But you can't tell
the history of the black people of this community and leave out the pain. They
are one and the same." Mattie's getting her dander up. She pours another
finger of Jim Beam.

I can tell Roxanne doesn't know what to say, so I
decide to try again. I'm still not sure why I'm doing this.

"Mattie, you're right: A lot of things have
happened over the years, good and bad. But can't we —"

"People need to know, Grace. People need to
understand. Is this tour going to help people understand, or is it just another
gimmick white people have come up with to make it sound like things have always
been fine down here? Make it sound like we're just complaining all the time and
not willing to work hard?"

After a moment I reply, "I don't have the answer
to that yet, Mattie. Adelle and I just brought Roxanne here so that you could
tell your part of the story. And we thought this tour might help your Billy get
interested in Clarksville again. Maybe inspire her to figure out something to
do with the old place. Roxanne told me there's money available to fix up places
like the Queen and other historic places that have gotten rundown."

"Billy's not going to come down here and fix up
the Queen. She's got no interest in that old place. She's hardly got the time
to come see her grandmother. It's different where she lives up in Chicago. She
gets some respect up there now. It's not like here."

Adelle, who has been sitting there listening quietly,
speaks up. "We can't live our lives hating, Mattie. It just doesn't do any
good. You remember what my papa always said?"

"Yes, I know, I know. 'Keep moving forward.' But
your daddy was an educated black man. He was a doctor. He didn't have the same
problems as the poor working black folks around here."

"Now you just hold on a minute, Mattie
Webster!" Adelle snaps. It makes everybody jump. "It wasn't always
easy for my papa—"

"Sisters, sisters!" I say, interrupting
Adelle. 'Let's not argue among ourselves. Let's remember the good times. Let's
tell Roxanne about the night Louis Armstrong played at the Queen City."

Adelle and Mattie both nod. I always could distract
them.

"What happened?" asks Roxanne.

"Grace, you tell it," says Adelle.
"You're the best storyteller."

"All right then," I say. "It was so
exciting! Mr. Louis Armstrong was booked for the Clarksville Auditorium, but
Robert Webster talked him into doing a late-night show just for the black
folks. We couldn't go to the show at the auditorium, you know."

"What do you mean you couldn't go to the show at
the Clarksville Auditorium?" Roxanne asks.

I'm beginning to think this woman is a little thick in
the head. When is she going to understand? "They didn't allow colored
people to go there."

"Not even to hear a black musician?"

"No, we weren't allowed in. But it didn't matter
that night because we were going to have our own show! And the best part was
that Mr. Louis Armstrong himself asked Junior to play that night. Adelle and I
had just graduated high school and Zero was working to save money for Alcorn
State —"

Adelle interrupts me. "I was just beside myself
because Zero wasn't there to take me to that show."

I think of Zero's beautiful, smiling face, looking at
me across Grandma's kitchen table that afternoon. I was irritated with him
because he was going to be late, if he made it to the show at all. He kept
saying he had business to attend to. "Don't you fret, Grace," he
said. "I'll try to get there, but this is something I need to do."
Everything changed after that night. But Roxanne doesn't need to hear that part
of the story.

August 1931

Grace

Adelle and I are upstairs in her
bedroom primping. Adelle's taking longer to get ready than me, even though
Zero's not here to take her to the show.

"Ain't you girls ready
yet?" Junior calls up the staircase. I step down to the landing and peer
over the rail so I can see him in the foyer, pacing back and forth.

"You just hold your horses,
Junior. We'll be down in a minute," I call down to him. I can see him
looking in the mirror, fixing his tie. Mrs. Jackson walks through on her way to
the kitchen.

"Don't you let me hear you say
'ain't' again," she scolds, and then smiles up at him. She brushes a piece
of lint from his jacket. I can see from the landing that she's got tears in her
eyes.

"You look so much like your
father," she says
as
she stands on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.

"Are you sure you and Papa
can't come tonight, Mama? This is my big chance to break in. Just think, Mama,
Louis Armstrong! I'm going to play piano with Louis Armstrong. Do you have any
idea how famous he is?" Junior is lit up like a Christmas tree with
excitement.

"Now, Junior, you know your
papa has patients he has to visit. But we'll be thinking about you. I know
you're going to make us proud. Besides, you know this kind of music isn't exactly
what your papa likes."

"I know, Mama, but if he would
just come hear it one time. It gets in your blood, you know." Junior
starts tapping his foot, then moves his shoulders to a rhythm in his head.
"And then before you know it, you just got to move!" He grabs his
mama and swings her around the foyer, scat singing the rhythm of the music.

Mrs. Jackson laughs and throws her
head back. I stand at the stair rail watching the two of them. Lord have mercy,
I love to see Junior Jackson move! He will never be as serious as his daddy. I
think his mama secretly loves that Junior wants to play jazz music for a
living. Now that Zero's talking seriously about college, maybe Junior's daddy
will ease up on him just a little bit. After all, Zero's like another
son to Dr. Jackson. Zero has
worshipped Dr. Jackson since the day Junior and the boys brought him here after
he took that beating from Ray Tanner and his gang.

Finally Adelle is ready and we walk
slowly own the stairs to show off our finery. Mrs. Jackson and Junior look up
to watch us, and we giggle as Junior lets out a low whistle.

"Whew, Lordy, don't y'all look
fine!" I can't help but notice Junior never takes his eyes off me. I get
that same little quiver inside that I always do when I'm around him.

My new dress is white with a blue
ribbon around the waist and I've got my hair done up in that new curled style.
I'm even wearing lipstick, which is rare. I hope it'll make Junior want to kiss
me.

"Oh, Mama," Adelle whines,
"I feel like such a third wheel. I hardly get to see Zero anymore and he's
never here for the important things."

Mrs. Jackson puts her arm around
Adelle. "Now, sugar, you know Thomas is working as hard as he can to save
money for college. He'd be here if he could; you know that."

"I know, I know," Adelle
says. "I just miss him, that's all. There won't be anyone there for me to
dance with tonight."

"I'll dance with you,
sis," Junior offers. "That is" — he puts his arm around me —
"if my beautiful date doesn't mind."

I smile and push him away.
"Don't be silly, Junior Jackson. Of course I don't mind. Besides, once you
get up on that stage, you're probably not going to even know Adelle and I are
there for the rest of the evening. We'll be lucky to get a ride home, won't we,
Adelle?"

We laugh and make our way out to the
porch. As we're getting into Junior's old Model T, Dr. Jackson drives up. He
waves at us, and Junior calls from the car window, "Sure wish you would
come to the show, Papa. It's going to be great."

Dr. Jackson smiles stiffly and nods
his head, as if he can't quite hear what Junior is saying.

"Let's go, Junior," Adelle
says. "I don't want to be late!"

The Queen City Hotel is already
crowded when we arrive. Colored people from all over Mississippi, Louisiana,
and Alabama have driven in to see the show. There are old cars, new cars,
trucks, wagons, and even a few mules tied in the shade of the big magnolia
trees out back. Robert Webster himself is standing out on the front porch of
the hotel, wearing a fine suit and shaking hands with everyone coming in.

Adelle and I look around for our
friend Mat-tie Johnson. Mattie will be dateless tonight, too, since her beau,
Robert Webster, Jr., will be helping his daddy keep everything running.

Adelle spots her first. "There
she is, over here by the door. Oh, my, look at her dress!"

Mattie Johnson is wearing a red,
close-fitting dress that flares out at the bottom and a matching cloche hat.
She outshines us, as usual, with those perfectly placed curls and stylish
clothes.

"Isn't it exciting?"
Mattie asks as we rush over to greet her. "It's like Mr. Webster threw a
graduation party just for us before we all split up."

"Let's not talk about anybody
leaving tonight," I say. "Let's just have fun."

In a few days I'll start a job at
the garment plant to save money for Tougaloo College. I'm still determined to
be a college-educated teacher. I'm scared, excited, and worried all at the same
time. I'm not worried about Mattie, though — she'll be fine. She and Robert,
Jr., are already talking about getting married. The worry part is mostly about
Adelle and Junior. Adelle is going away to Tuskegee, Alabama, for nursing
school. I'm going to miss her so bad, I can't stand to think about it.