The Supremes at Earl's All-You-Can-Eat

Chapter 23





Despite Clarice’s pleas, her parents maintained their insistence that Odette chaperone all of their daughter’s dates throughout

her senior year of high school. Barbara Jean was as disinterested in dating boys as boys were eager to date her, or so it appeared

at the time. So she often came along to keep Odette company. From Clarice’s standpoint, the situation was tolerable when it was

just the Supremes and Richmond out for the evening. Richmond, the lone male among a group of females, enjoyed the appearance that

he was keeping a harem. And Odette and Barbara Jean were good about giving her some time alone with Richmond. The arrangement was

upended when Barbara Jean began to decline Clarice’s invitations in order to spend more time with Chick. Claiming she had taken

on extra hours at the salon, Barbara Jean withdrew from the foursome.

So Richmond dragged James Henry along again. Late nights out came to an end and conversations about topsoil resumed. Even on the

rare occasions when Clarice was granted an extended curfew, usually as a reward for a well-reviewed piano performance or as a way

to end her relentless begging, the presence of sleepy James was guaranteed to cut the evening short. Finally, after one too many

nights of getting back home before ten o’clock, Clarice put her foot down and demanded that Richmond find someone for Odette who

kept grown-up hours. That was when Richmond began bringing Ramsey Abrams along to serve as Odette’s date.

Ramsey was a night owl, but he was also an idiot. Odette spent the evenings she was paired up with him cruelly mocking the stream

of inane blather that poured out of him. And if Ramsey noticed her sharpening her claws on him, he was content to ignore it for

the opportunity to spend a few hours ogling Odette’s breasts.

Odette didn’t appear to be bothered by James’s absence from date nights. She only asked Richmond once what had become of James,

and that single inquiry was phrased as a question about the health of James’s mother. After Richmond told her that Mrs. Henry was

no better or worse as far as he knew, Odette didn’t ask about James again.

Switching out James for Ramsey worked fine as far as Clarice was concerned. She and Richmond saw more of each other than they’d

been able to for a long time. They stayed out later, usually meeting at Earl’s and then going for a ride or to a party or

somewhere in Louisville when they had time. Ramsey had just enough sense not to make the potentially fatal mistake of copping a

feel off Odette, and she seemed amused to have Ramsey around to insult. Everybody won.

After several late nights with Ramsey, Odette and Clarice showed up at the All-You-Can-Eat one Friday night in March assuming that

Ramsey and Richmond would be waiting for them at the window table. Instead, James Henry sat in the chair to Richmond’s left.

Clarice walked over to the table and said hello. Then she took Richmond aside to express her disapproval. She said, “What is he

doing here?”

Richmond said, “It’ll be all right, I swear.” In response to her raised eyebrow, he added, “The thing is, James really likes

her. He found out I’d been bringing Ramsey along for Odette and he got so mad I was scared he was gonna take a swing at me.”

He was exaggerating just a bit. Richmond hadn’t really worried that he’d be attacked when James barged into Richmond’s dorm

room the night before. Either of Richmond’s biceps was nearly as big around as James’s waist, so even if James had violence on

his mind, Richmond knew any danger posed by him was minimal. Still, Richmond had been amazed to see James that agitated. It wasn’

t James’s way.

James had worked like a grown man to help support himself and his mother since he was thirteen years old. In high school, when

Richmond and the other guys were playing sports or sharing a bottle of rotgut whiskey in the woods, James was likely to be at home

cooking and cleaning. And James never showed any sign of being justifiably pissed off about any of it or even seemed to notice

that he was being cheated, not that Richmond saw, at least. But there James had been, jabbing his bony finger into Richmond’s

chest and yelling about Odette Jackson, of all things. Richmond had wanted to laugh, but instead he promised James he would help

him.

Richmond put his big hands on Clarice’s arms and slowly slid them from her shoulders to her elbows and back again, trying to

massage away her anger.

He said, “It’ll be good, really. I told James exactly what to say to her. I gave him some great lines to use. And I filled him

up with coffee before we got here. It’s going to work. Trust me.”

When they got back to the table, James was saying, “So tell your mother she should put herbs in her perennial border to keep

pests down.” Then James sat back and began silently studying Odette the way he always did after he had run out of gardening talk,

as if he were a scientist and she was something rare he’d spotted growing in a petri dish. Odette stared back at James, her mouth

set in a scowl. If he had tried any of those good lines Richmond claimed to have given him, Clarice assumed that they must not

have worked.

As they sipped pop and ate chicken wings, Richmond and Clarice tried to keep some sort of conversation going. But neither Odette

nor James talked. James just watched Odette with a mixture of affection and curiosity while she squinted back at him with an

expression that approached fury.

Richmond talked about maybe driving down to Louisville and checking out a dance club he had heard about. Clarice suggested that

they stop by a secluded place by the river on the way back.

The plans for the evening were just about finalized when Odette blew up. “What the hell is wrong with you, James Henry?” She

leaned toward him until their noses were just inches apart and said, “I’m so sick of you staring at me like I’m gonna sprout

another head all of a sudden. This is how I look, James. If you don’t like it, you can just go stare at somebody else.” She sat

back in her chair then. “Now, you got something to say? Or do you just wanna stare some more?”

James looked surprised and then embarrassed. He broke eye contact with Odette and watched the tabletop for a few seconds. Then

James said, “I love you. And I’ve been thinkin’ that if you ever get married, it should be to me.”

Odette, Richmond, and Clarice all said, “What?”

He said it again, “I love you, Odette, and I’ve been thinkin’ that if you ever get married it should be to me.”

Richmond threw both of his hands in the air in disgust. He said, “I swear to God, Clarice, that is not one of the things I told

him to say.”

Odette narrowed her eyes at James. Clarice could tell that Odette thought he was making fun of her.

But James just sat there, still watching her. Only now he sported a grin on his face, as if he were proud of himself for finally

having his say.

Right then, at their table at the All-You-Can-Eat, Clarice saw Odette rendered speechless for the first and last time of their

long friendship. Clarice watched as Odette scrutinized James for a good long while. That was when she saw it for the first time,

that softness in Odette’s face. The lines on Odette’s forehead disappeared, her jaw relaxed, and the corners of her mouth tilted

up just the tiniest bit. Clarice understood then that she had witnessed more than one unusual sight that evening. She had also

seen something Odette was afraid of. All this time, her tough friend had been frightened that this scarred boy might not love her

the way she loved him.

Odette had seen enough movies and heard Clarice rhapsodize over Richmond often enough to know that there were things a young woman

was supposed to say at a time like this. She tried her hardest to think of one of those things, but nothing came to her. Her mouth

dry and her pulse racing, she sensed the onset of what she guessed was panic. But when Odette looked at James’s satisfied smile,

she was comforted by the certainty that he wasn’t a man who would ever need long-winded reassurances or grand pronouncements of

affection. And that made her want to wrap her arms around him and hold on till he begged her to let him go.

Odette covered James’s hand with hers and nodded her head a couple of times. She said, “Okay then, James, just so’s we

understand each other.”