The next morning all Etta could talk about was how sweet a man Mouse was and how lucky I was to have him for a friend.
There I was facing a jealous fiancé when Etta had glazed over me like so much meat.
Mouse was smiling and I believe that he knew what I was thinking. I gave up trying to roll the cigarette; all I could do was stare at him and try not to look concerned.
Somebody might wonder why a big man like me would be scared of a small man, half his size. But size doesn’t count for much in this world. I once saw Mouse put a knife in a big man’s gut. I was drunk and that man, Junior Fornay was his name, was after me because he thought the girl I was with was his. He ripped off his shirt and came after me bare-fisted and bare-chested. They cleared the barroom and we went at it. But I was drunk and Junior was one of those field hands that you would swear was born from stone. He pounded me until I hit the floor and then he started kicking. I balled up to try and save myself but you know I could hear my dead mother that night: She was calling my name.
That’s when Mouse strolled up.
Junior waved a piece of furniture at him but Mouse just put his hand in the air. I swear he couldn’t reach as high as Junior’s forehead but he said, ‘He got his lesson, man, you gotta let him live so he can learn.’
You better git...’ was all Junior could say before Mouse had his stiletto buried, maybe just half an inch, in the field hand’s gut. I was lying between them, looking up. I could see Mouse smiling and I could see Junior’s face grow pale. Mouse quick-grabbed Junior’s neck with his free hand and said, ‘You better drop that stick or I’ma stir the soup, boy.’
I think I would rather have the beating than to see that, and smell it too.
So I was listening to Mouse with great respect.
‘... but you know, Easy, all that is past. I ain’t the type’a man to bear no grudge. Po’ men cain’t afford no grudge. Shit! It’s hard enough for a po’ man t’get through the day.’
He slapped my knee and leaned back in the chair. When he threw his leg over the armrest I knew I was safe.
‘S-so what ‘bout yo’ stepdaddy?’ I asked.
‘Yeah.’ Mouse stared at the ceiling with a smile. ‘You got that cigarette yet?’
I started rolling again.
‘Yeah, my stepdaddy got a big pile’a money out on that farm somewhere. Big pile.’
‘He wanna give you some’a that?’
‘Well, we ain’t on the best terms me an’ daddyReese. You know he’s a farm boy down t’his nuts an’ he see everything like a farmer see his world. So when I come along he figgers I was the runt’a the litter and I should be put in a burlap sack and dumped in the river.’
Mouse was smiling but he wasn’t happy.
‘Shoo, man! Even a farmer love his chirren.’
‘I ain’t none’a his. My momma had me when she was still footloose an’ feelin’ good. DaddyReese come nosin’ around later.’
‘So how’s that gonna help you and Etta?’
Mouse pulled up his pant leg, leaned forward, and slapped my knee again. He said, ‘That’s just what I been thinkin’, Easy. How one rich ole hick gonna help me when he cain’t stand my face? I been thinkin’ ‘bout that fo’ days. I go t’sleep thinkin’ ‘bout it an’ then I wake up in the same frame’a mind.
‘You know I went down to Galveston ‘cause Etta wanted me t’see if I could get sumpin’ down on the docks. Could you see me in that filthy water? Shit! But I went down there because you gotta respect yo’ woman.’
That was Mouse to a word. Children loved him and their mothers did too.
‘I was down on the docks eatin’ a sandwich and watchin’ the boys down there. They had this game they played. You see, in the hot day them ship rats crawl up on the top’a the pilin’s to git some sun. They just lay out in the sun an’ bake with they long nekked tails hangjn’ down an’ wavin’ ‘round the logs. Uh! It’s disgustin’. But anyway, them boys sneak up to where the rats is an’ they wait real quiet right next to the tail.’
Mouse sat up straight and clapped his hands like a gunshot.
‘Then they grab the tail an’ swing that rat through the air till it smash on the pier! Oh, man, that was sumpin’! I watched ‘em do that fo’ a long time. Shoot, they musta killed twenty’a them things... Then I caught a ride on a vegetable truck comin’ back t’Houston. I was still thinkin’ bout them boys, when it hit me. You know I kept thinkin’ that those boys couldn’t hesitate a minute ‘cause that rat is ready t’bite the first thing you touch’im, an’ you know the on’y thing worse than a rat bite is a man bite.’
Mouse sat back, showing his teeth.
I handed him the cigarette and he lit it up. He laid back and took a deep draw.
It looked like he was through talking, so I asked, ‘So what, man? What you gonna do ‘bout the money?’
‘I’ma go up to Pariah an’ get it, that’s what.’
‘How you gonna do that?’
‘I don’t know, Easy. All I can tell ya is that I ain’t gonna hesitate one minute.’
Mouse wanted something from me, and he wanted me to ask him what that something was. But I was too stubborn to give in to that.
So he puffed on his cigarette and I fumbled around with my glass. When he’d look at me I’d just look back. Mouse had light gray eyes.
Finally he said, ‘So, Easy, what you workin’ at now?’
‘Gardenin’ for the Lewis fam’ly. They man is sick.’
‘You know how t’drive a car, right?’
‘Yeah.’
‘I tell you what. I give ya fifteen dollars t’drive me to Pariah fo’a couple’ a days.’
‘Shit!’
‘Yeah, man, I ain’t lyin’.’
‘Let’s see it.’
Mouse got that wary dog look again and said in a quiet voice, ‘I ain’t never asked you t’prove nuthin’, Easy.’
I knew right then that he wanted to trade; that he’d forget about me and Etta if I’d drive him to Pariah for a fifteen-dollar IOU. That’s how Mouse was, he didn’t care about me and his woman; the only thing that ever got Mouse mad was if you played with his money or caught him in a lie. This was just business, plain and simple.
‘What kinda car you got?’
‘Thirty-six Ford. Drive so smooth you think you was in a boat.’
‘Now where you gonna get a car like that an’ you don’t even drive?’
‘Otum Chenier want me t’take care of it while he gone down Lake Charles.’ Mouse grinned and rubbed his chin. ‘Seem like one’a his folks is sick.’
‘And when you wanna go?’ I asked.
‘Maybe half hour ‘fore dawn.’
‘Tomorrah?’
‘Com’on, Ease. It’s late. I got business down south an’ I’ma pay you fo’it too. I ain’t got no time t’waste.’
‘I got a job, man.’
‘Easy, you work fo’them three weeks an’ you be lucky t’get fifteen dollars. Soon as they man is back you know they gonna put yo’ butt out. An’ I got food, an’ whiskey, an’ gas money. I know ev’ry pretty girl in Pariah. An’, man, Etta deserve a good weddin’, ‘cause you know she sumpin’ else.’ He winked at that.
I wanted to go. I knew it from the minute he yelled in my door. I was a young man then, barely nineteen years old, and alone in the world. Mouse was my only real friend, and even though he was crazy and wild I knew he cared for me - in his way. He made me mad sometimes but that’s what good friends and family do.
I wasn’t mad because Mouse had won Etta. I was mad because when they got married I was going to lose my friend to his wife and family. This was going to be the last time we would go running in the streets together. I’d’ve gone with him without the threats and the IOU.
‘I want my fifteen dollars, man,’ I said, ‘You know I ain’t doin’ this fo’my health.’
‘Don’t you worry ‘bout a thing, Easy. We both git sumpin’ outta this.’ Mouse was curled up in my second-hand upholstered chair like a little boy. The room was all kinds of gray from light that leaked in through the torn shades and the cracks in the door. He fell asleep as soon as the light went out, but I woke up then. I laid there in the dark thinking about the time Mouse had saved my life.