Something A Boy Said
Jasper was just a kid really, and an orphan. He didn’t know better than to say what he said about seeing what he saw. And he didn’t know better than to open the door of a man’s room without knocking if that door was closed.
Mae told all her male customers to keep the doors to their rooms closed because she didn’t want to know their business and she wasn’t much interested in knowing what those rooms smelled like in a boarding house full of single men. She didn’t go into any of them unless the men asked her to come in and clean up or unless one of them died.
Mae only had one good rule: no women up in her house. Jasper didn’t know that because nobody told him. Nobody figured he knew what to do with no woman anyway and nobody was trying to tell him. He’d find out soon enough on his own.
Freddie never asked Mae to clean up his room. He mostly kept to himself. The only person he spent any time with was Jasper because Jasper was trying to learn how to play the blues harp and Freddie was an old hand at it so he started teaching the boy what he knew. That’s how Jasper got to spend so much time in Freddie’s room until he started going in there without knocking if he heard Freddie playing the harp.
Freddie wasn’t playing the harp tonight but Jasper went in anyway to tell him Mae had rung the dinner bell. When he opened the door he froze. A pretty, young woman Jasper had never seen before was sitting on the bed next to Freddie. Jasper had also never seen a naked woman before. She looked up at him but said nothing, holding him in huge curious eyes.
The woman had a syringe in her hand. She turned back to what she was doing and stuck it in Freddie’s arm. Jasper watched as it filled with bright red blood. She finally spoke to him. Are you just going to stand there in the door? Freddie looked at him. Close the door, he said. What Freddie meant was get the hell out of here and close the door but Jasper didn’t get that. He stepped into the room and closed the door.
The young woman pushed the blood back into Freddie’s arm and watched him closely as Freddie’s eyes started to roll. What you doing in here? Freddie mumbled. Look at me when I’m talking to you. Jasper was mesmerized by what was happening but also by this woman, who was like no one he had ever seen before. He forced himself to look at Freddie. Miss Mae rung the dinner bell, he said. Freddie snorted. Don’t want none of that woman’s nasty cooking, he said. He gave Jasper a cold look.
If I ever see you doing this I’ll kill you, Freddie said. Then his eyes rolled back in his head and he went quiet. The pretty, young woman looked at Jasper in a way he didn’t understand. She dropped Freddie’s arm and stood up, facing Jasper, long straight hair flowing down her naked body. She started walking towards him with the syringe. He panicked but could not take his eyes off her. He backed into the door and grabbed behind him until he grasped the doorknob.
She was still walking towards him when he flung the door open and stumbled out of the room and down the stairs. Mae was putting food on plates.
You call Freddie? Mae said. Jasper sat down and started stuffing turnip greens in his mouth.
He talking to his girlfriend, Jasper said, swallowing. The men all stopped eating and stared at him. Jasper stopped chewing his food, watching them.
Mae looked at him mean, then dropped the pot of greens and headed up the stairs, taking them two at a time. All the men looked at Jasper in a way that let him know he had done something wrong but nobody said nothing to him. They all waited.
After a few minutes, Mae came back down the stairs. When she got back to the dining room she stared at Jasper again even meaner than before and breathing heavy.
What you tell me that lie for? Mae said. Freddie’s room was locked. I used my key. He was in there by himself.
Jasper dropped his cornbread and started to stutter. All the men were staring at him.
Wasn’t no lie, he sputtered. He was talking to his girlfriend. You can ask him.
Mae gave him the evil eye again.
Well, how the hell I’m ’sposed to do that? she said. The man dead.
