She picked up a cocktail napkin and tried to wipe his shirt. “I’m so sorry.”
He grabbed her hand. “It’s okay, Miss Ibby. Don’t worry about it.”
The warmth of his hand made Ibby look up.
“You look right pretty this evening, Miss Ibby. Right pretty.”
Across the way, Fannie was giving Ibby a disapproving look.
“Miss Ibby, you all right?” T-Bone asked.
Ibby smiled at her grandmother, then reached over and gave T-Bone a big kiss on the cheek.
Fannie came charging over. “Ibby darling, why don’t you go mingle with some of the other guests?”
“I’m fine right here.”
Fannie grabbed her arm and pulled her away, whispering in her ear, “Don’t embarrass me in front of my friends, young lady, or there will be consequences.”
Ibby yanked her arm away and stormed into the kitchen, fuming. She undid her corsage and hurled it across the room. It landed beside the open back door.
Queenie came in carrying a tray. “What you doing hiding in the kitchen? That don’t look like no party face. Something wrong?”
Ibby shook her head.
“We gone run out of food soon if those people keep eating like they is. You’d think they hadn’t eaten in a week. You seen Birdelia? Where that girl gone off to?” Queenie muttered as she carried the tray into the dining room.
Ibby was about to go back into the party when she heard a rustling in the backyard. At first she thought it was just the low grunts of the bullfrogs. Then she heard it again. It sounded like somebody whispering. She turned off the kitchen light, not wanting to be seen, and looked out the window.
A single light attached to the garage cast a thin yellow line across the yard. Someone was standing in the shadows, smoking a cigarette. When he stepped forward, Ibby saw that it was T-Bone. Then someone else giggled, and an arm that was so white it glowed in the dark reached over and took the cigarette from his mouth. Ibby could just make out Annabelle’s profile as she put her elbow on T-Bone’s shoulder and took a drag from his cigarette.
Ibby was about to march out and give Annabelle a piece of her mind when she heard another voice.
“Why don’t you go back on inside, Miss Annabelle?” Birdelia tugged on Annabelle’s arm, trying to pull her away from T-Bone.
Annabelle yanked her arm away. “Don’t touch me.”
Somewhere in the dark, a deep voice emerged. “Hey, brother, I been looking for you.”
The man was dressed in black trousers and a black T-shirt. His bushy Afro caught the light from the garage as he strode up the driveway.
“Purnell, what the fuck you doing here, man?” T-Bone said.
Purnell came over and slapped T-Bone on the back. “Ain’t you glad to see me? Who’s the white bitch hanging all over you?”
“Shut your mouth, Purnell,” Birdelia said.
Purnell grabbed Birdelia by the shoulder and gave her a hug. “That any way to talk to your uncle, little bird? Last time I saw you, you came up to my shoulders. Now look at you, all growed up.”
“That’s on account you ain’t been around, Uncle. You’d rather hang out with them troublemakers.”
“That’s not true,” Purnell said. “Can’t get a job, that’s all.”
Ibby jerked around when the kitchen door opened. There was a bump, then a crash as a metal tray dropped to the floor.
“For God’s sake, Miss Ibby, what you doing standing there in the dark?” Doll flipped on the light switch.
The voices in the backyard caught Doll’s attention. She went over to the window and stood next to Ibby.
“I’m in a tight spot. I ain’t leaving until I get me some cash,” Purnell said to T-Bone.
“I ain’t got any on me,” T-Bone said.
“Oh, Lawd,” Doll said. “That’s my brother Purnell. I got to get rid of him before Queenie finds out he’s here.”
She opened the screened door and let it bang shut behind her.
“Miss Annabelle, you get on back inside now, you hear me?” Doll pointed toward the house.
“Why should I?”
Doll looked as if she was going to grab Annabelle by the neck and drag her inside herself. “You want me to go fetch your mama?”
“I’m going.” Annabelle dropped the cigarette and started toward the house.
“No, unh-unh, Miss Annabelle. You go on up the driveway and go in the front door.”
After Annabelle left, Doll turned to Purnell. “You know better than to come around here when we at work.”
“I’m in trouble. Understand what I’m saying?” Purnell said.
“This ain’t the place.”
“I ain’t got no choice, sister.”
Doll shoved him. “I got nothing for you. Now, go on. Get out a here.”
Purnell leaned in defiantly. “Want me to march in there, tell all them white folks about you?”
“What you talking about?”
“You know. Think I never figured it out?”
Doll glared at Purnell. “You don’t know nothing. Now here, take this.” She took a few bills from her bra and counted them out. “Now go, before Mama sees you.”
“It ain’t enough,” Purnell said, holding out his hand.