Truths of the Heart (14 page)

“You lose your relevance.”

“What's that mean?”

“I don't know, heard a professor say it.”

“Com. 501 professor, never saw anything like her before, never been numbed
at first sight before.”

“What?”

“I've never been numbed....”

“I heard you.” She looked into his eyes, “You're serious, aren't you?”

“Yes … I can't get her out of my mind. It's insane. I want to be in her
thoughts, look into her eyes, smell her, touch her, do for her … a sharp edge
to it, a biting want that goes back to primitive needs, before fire, raw meat
and blood.”

“Damn man, I'm getting excited.”

“It is scary.”

“As they say in Ethiopia, when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza
pie, you're in amore land.”

“I don't like pizza.”

“I know.”

“How'd Ethiopia get into this?”

“My father's homeland.”

“I thought he was Chinese.”

“That was his mother's side.”

“Who was the Indian?”

“My mother, Sioux, full blooded.”

“So what are you?”

“Dangerous.”

“Oh.”

“What about that slut Laura.”

“Natalia, be nice.”

She looked at the time, “Seven-thirty, I gotta go play one more set,
wanna hear anything special?”

“O Sole Mio.”

“Forget it.”

Jude went to the stage, took up her violin and began playing hauntingly,
the song, “Laura”.

Seth looked at her. She frowned.

To Seth, Jude was elegantly beautiful and glowed with honesty and
virtue and he knew, beyond the outward worldly bluff, she was innocent and he
would die to protect her. As she played, his mind went to Rachelle. He
remembered what he had just said to Jude about Rachelle: a sharp edge, a biting
want that went back to a primitive need, before fire, raw meat and blood,
surviving, warmth, shelter … how can that be?

Jude finished playing her last number for the night, collected her
tips, joined Seth again, threw the money (mostly paper, a few coins) on the bar
and began counting.

In a minute she said, “Fifty-one bucks, Tru. If I keep this up, we
could elope in a year, Tahiti, you could be Paul Gauguin.”

“I never liked Gauguin and I don't think they have a music department
at the University of Tahiti.”

“I don't think there's a University of Tahiti.”

“So forget it.”

“Why don't we go to my place, get a pizza?”

“I hate pizza.”

“I keep forgetting. You know, you may be the only person on the face of
the earth who doesn't like pizza … maybe if they made them square.”

“Keep it up.”

“Okay, how about
Betty’s
?”

“Great, you buy.”

“Hah.”

****

Windows down, warm late August night full of heady autumn smells, driving
to Betty’s, Jude darting in and out of light traffic, Seth said, Would you
please slow down.”

“Touchy touchy.”

In ten minutes Jude pulled in front of an ancient clapboard house on Lansing's
north side. Betty’s, specializing in soul food, was the downstairs of the
house. Betty and Abe Leftwitch lived upstairs. The restaurant, formerly the
living/dining area of the house, had a hardwood floor and an assortment of ten
yellow topped Formica kitchen tables scattered about. Each table had a
complement of covered-in-red-plastic chairs and a bottle of hot sauce. The
kitchen was seen through a waist-high 3x6 rectangular hole cut in one of the
walls. Through the opening, working a gas stove, oven, and grill; Abe, a tall
gray haired African-American, wore a white paper hat. He peered out at Seth for
a good ten seconds, then went back to filling orders. A second black person in
the kitchen, female, gray hair, wife Betty, took orders at the opening's
counter.

One waitress, Abe and Betty's daughter, Sandra—six-foot, shapely, white
Betty’s T-shirt, short black skirt, leather sandals—waited on tables.

Seth and Jude stopped a moment to study the special menu items scrawled
in white chalk on a 3x4 blackboard:

SPECIALS: $5.95

Greens and fried chicken

Lima beans with ham hocks

Hogs Maws and head cheese/saltine crackers with hot sauce

Fried Catfish

VEGETABLES:

Fried corn

Stewed okra and tomatoes

Fried cabbage

(carrot salad, hush puppies, cornbread, grits served with all)

DRINKS:

Iced tea, lemon aid, pop, coffee $1.50 (no refills)

Sweet potato pie/slice $1.50

After a minute, Jude and Seth seated themselves at a corner table and
Seth said, “Why do they call it Soul Food?”

“Look in my eyes.”

“I see.”

“Trust me.”

“Okay. What are you going to have?”

“Catfish.”

“I think I'll have the ham hocks.”

“Good, now, tell me about the apparition.”

The waitress arrived, said, “Hi, I'm Sandra,” smiled at Seth broadly,
and asked for their order.

Seth smiled back.

Jude rolled her eyes and, under the table, kicked Seth in the shins.
“He wants the ham hocks, I'll have the catfish.”

Sandra, with a bigger smile to Seth, said, “Anything to drink?”

Seth ordered lemonade, Jude ordered iced tea, and as Sandra swayed away,
Seth followed her easy swinging hips.

Jude said, “Forget about it. Her daddy, Abe, the black guy back there sweating
over the stove, used to be a prize fighter, hates white boys, he's eyeballing
you even as we speak.”

Seth glanced to glaring Abe, said, “I didn't….”

Jude: “So, tell me about the apparition.”

“You wouldn't believe it.”

“Try me”

“No.”

“Adjunct, associate, full professor, what?”

“I don't know.”

“Younger?”

“Older.”

“Some.”

“Some as in one or some as in fifty?”

“Some.”

“Married?”

“Somebody made a wise crack in class about some football player … but I
don't know?”

“Don't you think you should know?”

“Why?”

“Why?”

Jude held up her left ring finger, “If she is, there's usually a gold
band associated with, depending on one's station in life, in this society, a
diamond chip or, in some cases, a load of diamond on this finger.”

“I didn't notice.”
Or had I and didn't want to see
, he thought.

“You didn't notice?”

“No, I didn't notice.”

“Built?”

“Let's talk about something else.”

“Blonde?”

“Kind of.”

“Kind of?”

“Honey colored.”

“White?”

He looked at her.

“White … what's her name?”

Sandra arrived with the food and drinks, Seth said, “That was fast,
looks good.”

Sandra plopped Jude's food down and cooed at Seth as she placed his
main course and drink in front of him. “Anything else?” she said to him warmly.

“I....”

“You have a customer over there, honey,” Jude nodded toward the front
of the room.

Sandra touched Seth's shoulder, “Just smile if you need anything,” and
left.

“Amazing,” Jude ate a bit of catfish and said, “What's this
apparition's name?”

“Rachelle, Zannes, Bostich, Doctor.”

“In what order?”

“Doctor Rachelle Zannes Bostich.”

“Two last names, she's married.”

“Could be her father's name?”

“Let's drop it.”

“How old did you say she was?”

“Eighty-five.”

“Cane?”

“Walker.”

“Is she less then fifty?”

“How would I know?”

“Guess.”

“How do you guess age?”

“You count the number of days you think she's been living on the earth;
in my case how few days, have so many good years left to give, sire children,
good stock.”

“Ha ha ha.”

“So how old do you think she is?”

“Twenty-one.”

“Let's see, Masters two years, PhD three years, associate prof five years
… you know if she's a full professor?”

He shrugged.

“Tenured?”

“Now how would I know that?”

“Probably is … let's see, gotta be at least sixty.”

“Could be.”

“How old are you?”

“Hundred and one.”

“Twenty-six, you're wasting your time, forget it.”

Seth said, “How old are you?”

“Twenty-six.”

“You are not.”

“Twenty-five.”

“You're twenty-one.”

“Chronologically, but emotionally, physically, mentally, I'm twenty-six”

“How's the catfish?”

Eating, “Good, what do you think you're going to do, get her in the
sack and cop an A?”

“It's not like that.”

“Right.”

“It isn't.”

Chewing, Jude said, “I'm thinking of going gay.”

“That's good.”

“Why don't you like me?”

“I love you.”

“What are we waiting for?”

“Not in that way.”

“What is 'not in that way?'”

“Sister.”

“You can't love me like a sister.”

“Why?”

“You're white.”

Finished eating, Sandra cleaning the table, a smile an inch from Seth’s
face, asked if he would like some sweet potato pie.

Seth said, “I....”

Jude: “Just coffee, honey, one, we'll share. Bring an extra cup.”

“I can't do that.”

“Okay, bring one cup and two straws.”

Coffee and straws served, Jude and Seth alternately sipped coffee from the
same cup.

Seeing he was a thousand miles away, Jude said, “That bad huh?”

“It's insane.”

“You still seeing that Laura slut?”

He turned to the side and crossed his legs.

“That's what I thought. She's a pig.”

“Could we drop it, please?”

“You should.”

Sandra returned and said, “Anything else before I go,” she touched
Seth's shoulder, “I get off work in ten minutes.”

Jude: “You know, honey, if you keep molesting my husband like that I'm going
to call the cops.”

Standing tall and stiff, Sandra frowned.

“Bring the check,” Jude said.

Sandra slapped the check on the table and Jude trumped it with an American
Express card.

On the fifteen minute drive to Seth's apartment Jude lectured on the
need to be careful about today's women. She ended by reasserting his need to
dump Laura. “She's a slut, I've heard about her, she goes through men like fat
through a duck, the minute she owns you, she'll dump on you big time.”

“She doesn't own me.”

“Not what I heard?”

“What did you heard?”

“She's got you eating out of her hand.”

“That's absurd.”

“You're sleeping with her, aren't you?”

“That is none of your business.”

“I'm making it my business.”

“How do you know all this?”

“I know everything.”

“Oh.”

“People come in Pudd'nheads, talk. Anyway, I wish you'd drop her and forget
about the egghead professor, we could just go ahead and get married tonight.”

“Drive and please slow down.”

At the corner of Michigan Avenue and Allen Street, they arrived at
Seth's place. His apartment was the second floor of a red brick two story
building that had seen its better days. The ground level housed Tony's Deli, an
Italian food and wine shop. The owner of the building, Tony Leeoda, ran the
deli and collected the rent. A narrow stairway led up to Seth's second floor apartment.

Jude pulled to the Allen Street curb and shut off the engine.

Seth said, “What are you doing?”

“I'm coming up for a night cap.”

Jude in the lead, they went up the stairwell, down a short hallway, to Seth's
apartment. He opened the door and they entered a small kitchen. The faint odor
of turpentine and linseed oil hung in the air. Jude flipped a switch that illuminated
an old wooden kitchen table, two burner gas stove, a white sink, and a motel
style refrigerator.