As I wandered the store, I heard the sound of footsteps over my head. Seconds later, Ebony called down the stairs. “I’ll be down in a second. Did you start the coffee?”
“Rule number one,” I called back.
“Leave those dirty dishes in the sink,” she said.
“Too late.” I headed to the kitchen to fix her a cup, when I heard something dragging across the floor over my head. “What are you doing up there?”
The dragging traveled to the stairs. Ebony appeared at the top of them, dressed in a tank top, long patchwork vest that hung to her knees, and bell-bottoms over platform sandals. Her gold medallion necklace was tucked inside the tank top. She descended the stairs backward. Ivory scampered down the staircase to greet me—or to get out of the way of the giant brown suitcase Ebony bumped down the stairs—I couldn’t tell which. The suitcase, a hard brown plastic with brass trim, slammed against each wooden step. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she leaned back against the wall and dabbed at her hairline with an orange bandanna.
“This sucker is heavy.”
“What’s in there?”
“Everything I could fit. Help me get it to the car, wouldya?”
“Have your coffee first.”
“No time. In fact, pour that into a travel mug for me and I’ll deal with the suitcase.”
She struggled to lift the suitcase and carry it out to her Caddy. I dumped her coffee into a travel mug that said GROOVY! and met her outside.
“Where are you going?”
She opened the trunk of the car and heaved the suitcase inside. “Ebony needs a vacation,” she said, referring to herself in the third person as she did on occasion. “Ivory too. No business happenin’ here since the Blitz thing. Now’s as good a time as any to get out of town.”
“Ebony, you can’t just leave.”
“Baby girl,” she said. She put her hand alongside my face. “I tried to teach you that every situation was an opportunity to learn something about yourself, right? Maybe that’s what I’m supposed to learn from this. That it’s time for me to leave the past behind and move on.”
“No,” I said.
She picked up Ivory and set him inside the car, then turned to me. She gave me a trademark Ebony hug—the kind where she holds so tight the breath is squeezed out of you—and I squeezed back. As soon as we parted, she pulled a pair of sunglasses from her pocket and put them on, rendering her expression unreadable.
“Take care of your old man, now, you hear?” she said. She climbed into the car and started the engine. I stood directly behind the rear bumper. If I didn’t move, she couldn’t leave. It was selfish, I knew, but as I stood there, watching her adjust her rearview mirror, I felt more alone than I had in years. If Ebony pulled out of that parking space, I felt as though I’d never see her again.
She rolled down the window and propped her elbow on the door. “Margo, fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly.” Ivory climbed over her lap and poked his head out the window. Ebony ran her hand over his head and moved him back to the passenger side.
I stepped out of her way. She threw the Caddy into gear. I reached a hand out to her. She touched my fingers and squeezed them, and then pulled out of the parking lot, leaving me alone in a cloud of gravel, dust, and isolation.
The car had disappeared down the long stretch of Main Line Road that led to the highway. When the dust cleared, I spotted a white envelope on the ground next to where her car had been parked. I picked it up and looked inside.
The envelope was filled with a thick stash of hundreds. It looked like roughly the same amount that Blitz Manners had given us to throw him a party. The same money I’d given back when I’d told him we couldn’t take the job. But Ebony hadn’t been paid at the start of the party. So how did she end up with this envelope of Blitz’s cash?
And what was it doing in the parking lot outside of Shindig the day she decided to leave town?
Chapter 12
I RAN TO the corner where Ebony had driven and looked for her car, but I already knew she was long gone. I shoved the envelope of money into the small storage compartment under the seat of the scooter. Ebony was my rock. Ebony was the one who stood up to anybody who got into her path. The fact that she’d left told me more than any words could have said.
Ebony was scared. Of what, I didn’t know. But I wasn’t going to let her face this alone.
*
I left Shindig and drove to Money Changes Everything. Bobbie’s office was at the end of a modest strip mall that included a used paperback bookstore, a pet groomer, and three fast-food restaurants. I parked the scooter in front of the office and headed inside.