“What didn’t you like, then?”
“You know.”
“Being grabbed?”
“Yes. When I was in high school-I was only a freshman, so it was my first year-I used to love to dance. But this, it wasn’t dancing at all. The men couldn’t dance. Or, more likely, they wouldn’t dance. All they wanted to do was paw. Some were nicer about it than others, but… one man, he just reached down and grabbed my bottom! Right out on the floor.”
“That’s when you slugged him?”
“I wish I had! But I was too… shocked to do anything but pull away from him. I went right over and told Gloria we were leaving. And she didn’t argue.”
“I’ll bet she didn’t,” Dett said, admiringly.
1959 October 06 Tuesday 01:40
“I figure, whatever that man wants to know, might be something we want to know,” Silk said.
“You figured right, brother,” Rufus said.
“So-what do we know?” Kendall asked, a shade softer than hostile.
“My woman, Lola, she told me everything. But, the way they do it, there ain’t a single clue about the man who comes by for that kind of taste.”
“You came all the way over here, tell us that?”
“Ice up, K-man,” Darryl said, quietly. “Let the man say what he come to say.”
Silk nodded gratefully at Darryl, then said, “But here’s what we do know. The woman who brings the girls to that ‘blue room,’ she’s the one who sets the whole thing up. Puts the girls in that leather thing to hold them, tells them how to get ready, how to act… all that. Now, any madam might do that for her girls, especially for a high-paying regular. But somebody got to know when the trick is coming, ’cause it take time to get everything ready for him. Somebody got to let him in. So somebody got to know his car, see his face, hear his voice…”
“The madam,” Rufus said.
“That’s the one, Brother Omar,” Silk confirmed. “This Ruth girl, she knows. She knows all of it.”
1959 October 06 Tuesday 01:44
“I wish you could come in,” Tussy said, as Dett’s rented Buick turned off the main road. “For coffee, I mean,” she added, quickly.
“But it’s so late…”
“It’s not that,” she said. “I’m wide awake. I usually don’t even get home from work until past midnight.”
“Your neighbors-”
“Oh, they’re probably asleep. Who stays up this late if they’re not working? It’s just…”
“The car, right? Standing in front of your house.”
“How did you know?”
“People,” Dett said, shrugging.
“I don’t see where what I do has to be so much their business,” Tussy said, defiantly. “It would just be for-”
“I can drop you off,” Dett said. “Walk you to your door, and drive off. And then come back.”
“But what difference would that make? You’d still-”
“Nobody would see me coming,” Dett said, so softly Tussy had to lean toward him to be certain she heard. “The back of your house, there’s nothing there except a big ditch and some empty land.”
“That’s where they stopped working,” she said. “The builders, I mean. They cleared all the land behind us after the war. It was supposed to be the next Levittown. But it was a stupid idea.”
“Levittown?”
“No, silly. That was a great idea. I read where it sold out in just a few weeks. But that was because they built it where there was work. Maybe not right there in Levittown, but close enough to where people could commute.
“What was there like that around here? It was all factory work back then. Plants and mills. The men who worked in them already lived here. So, when everything dried up after the war, so did the big ‘development.’ I don’t know who owns that land now, but it can’t be worth anything.”
“You know a lot about land, huh?”
“Well, not like you. I mean, not like a real-estate person. But I love reading about houses. Little ones, not big mansions. I like looking at pictures of houses in faraway places, and thinking about the people who live in them.”
“Like Levittown?”
“Yes. But, you know, those little houses, they’re not like mine.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, they’re all alike. They look different from the outside-I think they have five or six different fronts-but inside, they’re all the exact same. It would be like living in one of those housing projects, only all on the first floor.”
“No, it wouldn’t,” Dett said, steering onto Tussy’s block.
“Why do you say that?” she asked.
“I’ve never been to Levittown. But it’s all individual homes, isn’t it? They may be all the same, but each little house, somebody owns it. It’s yours. You don’t have people on top of you, or below you. You have some… privacy.”
“I’ve never seen a project, except in magazines. They look like awful places to live.”
“They are.”
“Oh,” she said, as Dett pulled the car to the curb in front of her house.
He shut off the ignition, climbed out, walked around behind the car, and opened Tussy’s door. She held out her hand. He gently took her elbow as she exited, then dropped his grip when she stood up. They walked to her front door, shoulders touching, hands at their sides.
“It was a lovely evening,” Tussy said, facing him. “I’ll never forget it.”
“Neither will I.”
“I…” Tussy looked around furtively, then whispered, “Could you really do it? Come back so nobody would see you?”
“I promise,” Dett said. “But it’ll be at least an hour, maybe more.”
“I’m not sleepy,” she said. “There’s a back door. But it’s pitch-black dark out behind the houses. Are you sure you can-?”
“I’m sure, Tussy. I promise I am.”
1959 October 06 Tuesday 02:00
“Lights,” the spotter called from behind his binoculars.
His partner waited, notebook in hand.
“On-off… two, three, four. Brights. Off.”
“That’s him, then.”
“Yeah.”
“What should we do?”
“Nothing,” the rifleman said. “He knows how to find us. He only signaled so we wouldn’t mistake him for a hostile.”
“He’s off the screen. Now where did he-?”
“He’s inside,” the rifleman said, gesturing for silence as he swung his weapon around to cover the doorway.
Thirty seconds later, the man in the alpaca suit stepped onto the top floor of the warehouse. He held a small flashlight, the beam aimed at his face, as if holding out his passport to border guards.
1959 October 06 Tuesday 02:46
When Tussy heard the tap at her back door, she opened it instantly.
“You shouldn’t do that, not without looking first,” Dett said, gently. “How could you be sure it was me?”
“Well, who else would be knocking at my door in the middle of the night?”
“I don’t know. But still…”
“Oh, come on in,” Tussy said, pointing at the kitchen table. She had changed into a pair of jeans, rolled up to mid-calf, and a man’s flannel shirt, the sleeves pushed back to her elbows. She was barefoot, and her face had been scrubbed free of makeup. “How do you take it?” she asked, as Dett sat down.
“Take…?”
“Coffee. My goodness.”
“Oh. Black, please.”
“Why are you… staring like that.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, dropping his gaze. “It’s just… Remember, before, when I was off by so much? When I was guessing how old you are? Well, now you look like you’re not even that old.”
“That’s very sweet of you to say,” she said, laughing. “But if I had to spend another minute in that girdle, I’d get blood clots, I swear.”
Dett ducked his head, not saying anything.