You’ll pay it back working, Jackie said.
The others in the minibus had understood the situation lickety-split without getting snotty and had gone and got into they space, and right behind that, Darlene found her sorry ass at the foot of the least wanted, most disintegrated mattress. She done a li’l circle around the bunk real quick, looking for some other clean bed that maybe nobody else seen. The last bits of her pride was breaking up into nothingness when she laid her pocketbook down and parked on the most bedlike part of the bed. Her heart start beating crazy like a freaked-out little moth under a juice glass.
For me it was a big reunion, a party. I could give two shits ’bout how many stars. I was like, Stars schmars.
So Jackie goes, I don’t know about you, Darlene, but I’m exhausted. She stretching her mouth out to yawn, then shuffling back to the master bedroom. Once her new superior had disappeared into her space, Darlene start staring like a cat at the jerky light moving around behind Jackie wall. Then the light blinked out and a blackness thick as oil be pouring into her eyes and filling em up. She could make out maybe a couple of them folks on the beds. She put her hand in front her face and couldn’t see nothing but the pinks of her nails if she squinted. Outside it started getting light, but in there, couldn’t nobody see nothing. Sirius had took the bottom bed next to hers, which ain’t seemed as filthy to her. Darlene stared at his back, hoping he gonna suddenly sit upright and switch with her out the protection he shown to her before, but no, he grabbed his knees and made some wheezy gurgle noises and that meant that he had fell asleep.
They ain’t let her get in touch with Eddie yet, and even though it’s late, she know she ought to tell him where she gone and that she safe. Since she think the company done cut off the phone, she figure she gonna call a neighbor who could check on him. She ain’t know how Jackie gonna react, but knowing the bitch already gone to bed, Darlene start thinking ’bout if she ought to remind her now or wait until morning. But then she got all up in her motherhood, start groping her way past the sleeping folks squirming on the cots until she found the special wall, and whispered.
Jackie.
She ain’t heard nothing back.
Jackie?
Yeah, honey? You need a hit?
I really need to call my son. Where can I call my son from?
Oh, Darlene, sweetie, I am so sorry. I forgot. It’s too late now, it’s almost morning, I can’t take you out there at this hour.
Darlene start wondering ’bout what she gonna say next and the silence ate up her thoughts until Jackie open her mouth again.
How old your son? He not gon be up this late, is he? Even though Jackie folded that question into a sweet tone, it sound like she daring Darlene to admit that she not a good mother.
No, of course not. She figured he coulda stayed up waiting for her to get back—sometimes he did—but Jackie had this logical tone that bulldozed right the hell over Darlene feeling that she gotta do it right then, and all of a sudden asking for a phone seem ridiculous. Still, she kept on thinking ’bout Eddie Eddie Eddie, so I started to ignore her ass—I had a lot of other friends in the room, I ain’t need her—and of course I knew that was gon make her cranky. Then I said, Darlene, look how much positivity you brought to yourself, chile. Stop worrying about that stupid kid and come party with me.
Jackie said, Good night, but Darlene’s ass stayed right there, didn’t know what gonna happen if she snuck on out to find that phone. She kept listening to Jackie clothing rustle while she tryna find a comfortable position to sleep in. She figured Jackie couldn’t see her loitering, on account a she couldn’t see Jackie neither, with both of em black and invisible in that damn dark room, and she hung out there, leaning ’gainst the wall, digging her nails in that rough concrete.
It’s four miles away, Jackie’s voice said, all breathy and not listening. Six miles, I mean. We’ll go in the morning, she added with a little more feeling.
Darlene felt like Jackie had listened in on her thoughts and decided to give a warning not to make no trouble, and whether that was a coincidence or a dead-on guess, it still gave her a jolt. She stood straight up, peeled herself off that wall, and stumbled back to her bed. Had to figure out how to pass what be left of sleepytime on that stained, lumpy box spring that look like it might poke out her damn eyeball if she turnt over in her sleep, not to mention all them strangers around.
Then she thought about using her pocketbook as a pillow to keep it safe from anybody fingers reaching in there and walking off with her stuff. She thought she left it on the mattress. No? Maybe she put it under the bed? Could she left it in the minibus? She touched the places on the mattress where she might had put the bag, but that method, though popular, don’t never make nothing reappear. She got on her knees to hunt underneath the cot but she couldn’t see nothing in the shadows down there, so she probing that hard cement with her fingers. When she pulled away, her hands was covered in dust and hair; she had little feathers, twigs, mouse pellets, and chicken feed sticking to her palms. A sneeze danced up her nose but she held it in and her face spasmed, like gnaufg! She brushed the crap off her hands onto her thighs and said, Shit shit shit, real quiet a bunch of times, like that be the name of every moment. I went to hang out with TT and we tried not to laugh at her. Rule Number One is keep your hands on your bags.