Before we left for church the following morning, Lucy and I piled the leftovers from our box supper meals into a hamper for Adora and her family. We planned to drop the food off at their house on our way. I was so glad this was to be my last church service. I always found the service lacking compared to what I was used to, and I ended up daydreaming about Vincent before I could stop myself, wondering as I always did how he’d reacted to my letter. He must truly hate me now.
Henry drove us to the Ridgeview neighborhood, which now felt familiar to me, although I would never let him or my in-laws know I’d been there before. What would they think of me taking the bus to “Colored Town,” walking up the dirt road to Reverend Sam’s house, mine the only white face for miles around? I smiled to myself at the thought. Reverend Sam was my sweet secret.
For the first time, Ruth insisted I sit in the Cadillac’s front seat with Henry.
“In your condition,” she’d said, “you really should get the roomier seat.”
Now that my “condition” was being openly discussed in the house, I guessed I was going to be treated with deference.
We’d had a bit of a spat that morning, Henry and I. While I was fixing my hair at the dressing table, I told him about the licensing exam. When I explained that it would be given over three days in Winston-Salem, he simply stared at me in the mirror, his hands frozen on the tie he was knotting at his neck. I was not as apprehensive as I’d expected to be as I waited for his response. There was nothing he could say that would keep me from that exam. I still had a tiny bit of my own money left from my account in Baltimore. It would be enough for the trip, but just barely.
“You can’t do it,” he said, his hands working once again on the knot. “I thought we’d settled that already.”
“It’s so important to me, Henry,” I said, tucking a stray lock of my hair behind my ear. “I’ve worked hard for this.”
“No,” he said simply. “No further discussion needed.”
Yes, I thought to myself. Further discussion is definitely needed. But I knew it would have to wait.
Since it was a Sunday, downtown Ridgeview was quiet. Only the churches seemed alive with people. It was fairly warm for February, and the churchgoers crowded the sidewalks dressed in Sunday finery.
Henry turned onto the long dirt road that probably still bore my footprints from my second visit to Reverend Sam. We passed the tiny crumbling houses on either side of us until we reached the house that had stood out to me the first time I was in Ridgeview—the small yellow house with white trim and new-looking shingles on the roof. The house that looked so well cared for. Henry stopped the car in front of it, and I guessed this was where Adora lived.
“We’ll stay in the car,” he said to me as Ruth and Lucy started to get out.
The front door opened and two children—a little girl about four years old and a boy slightly older—ran onto the porch and down the two steps toward Ruth and Lucy, the screen door slamming behind them. The children were dressed for church, the little boy in a miniature suit and bow tie, the girl in a pink dress that flounced around her legs as she ran.
“Miss Lucy, Miss Lucy!” they both shouted, and I was surprised when Lucy set down the basket and leaned over to hug them. I so rarely saw any warmth from her.
Honor, in a pink dress and matching hat, opened the screen door. She shouted something to the children I couldn’t understand and the boy turned around and headed back toward the house while the girl took Lucy’s hand and walked with her, happily swinging her arm. Honor looked past Lucy and Ruth toward the car, unsmiling. I waved, an automatic gesture of friendliness. She didn’t wave back, but turned her attention to Lucy and Ruth as they walked into the house.
“The children are Honor’s?” I asked.
“Yes,” Henry said.
“They’re so cute. What are their names?”
“Butchie and Jilly.”
“Is Honor’s husband overseas?”
He nodded. “Yes,” he said. “Del. Though they’re not technically married.”
“Even though they have children?” I asked. That seemed appallingly wrong to me. But really, in my odd set of circumstances, who was I to judge?
“It’s not our business,” Henry said.
“He helps out though, I hope.” I thought of how fortunate I was that Henry had stepped up to the plate when I got pregnant.
“Not our business,” he said again.
“Their house is very cute,” I said. “It looks like a brand-new roof.”
Henry didn’t say anything for a moment. “Zeke and I put the roof on,” he said finally. “We look after Adora.”
As if on cue, a heavyset woman stepped from the house onto the porch. She clutched the railing as she slowly descended the two steps to the ground. Wearing a broad smile, she walked toward us. She was dressed in a matching pale blue skirt and jacket trimmed with navy piping. An enormous blue hat laden with faux flowers sat on her head. She waved as she got close to the car.
“Roll down your window,” Henry said, and I did. He leaned past me to smile at the woman as she neared the car. “Happy birthday, Adora,” he said. He was so handsome when he smiled. It made me realize he didn’t smile very often.
“Thank you, Mr. Hank,” she said, but her eyes were on me. “I told Miss Ruth I wanted to meet your new wife.”
“Hi.” I smiled. “I’m Tess.”
“Oh, she’s a pretty thing, Mr. Hank!” Adora said. She wore thick glasses and I could see myself reflected in them. “He taking good care of you, honey?”
“Yes,” I said, “he is.”
“You lucky you done landed with this family,” she said. “Kindest folk there is.”
I managed to hold on to my smile. “Yes,” I said.
“I seen that ham you made,” she said. “Ain’t that somethin’? I never seen nothin’ like it.”
“Get in the house, Adora, before you freeze,” Henry said, even though the day was hardly cold.
“He’s the boss.” Adora gave me a wink. “You take care of him for me, hear? I knowed him since he was nothin’ but a little tadpole. He tell you that?”
“He said you worked for his family for a long time,” I said. I remembered that she’d saved his life somehow, but this didn’t seem like the time to bring that up. I knew it wasn’t Henry’s favorite topic.
Honor opened the front door. “Mama, get in here!” she shouted. “We need to get ready to go.”
“Looks like I got two bosses,” Adora said with a shrug.
“Have a good birthday, Adora,” Henry said.
“Nice meeting you,” I said.
I watched her walk slowly back to the house as I rolled up the window.
“She’s sweet,” I said.
Henry glanced at his watch. He seemed suddenly impatient, his gaze on the porch of the house as we waited for Lucy and Ruth to return to the car.
“You’re going to need new clothes,” he said suddenly, out of the blue. “Given your condition,” he added, nodding toward my stomach, and I wondered if I was showing now more than I thought. I had on my panty girdle today in an attempt to mask my bulging middle for the church crowd, but maybe it wasn’t up to the job.
“Yes,” I said.
“I’ll leave you money tomorrow morning,” he said. “Get whatever you need.”
“All right,” I said. “Thank you.”
We were quiet for a moment. Then suddenly, he spoke again.
“I’m going out tonight,” he said. “Gaston Joyner and his wife are leaving tomorrow. I want to spend some time with him before he goes.”
“That’s good news, right?” I asked. “Good that they’re leaving? Will they go back to Pennsylvania where they got married?”
He shook his head. “They’re driving all the way across the country to the state of Washington, so I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again.”
Washington seemed like another planet to me. So far away. “Why there?” I asked.
“Gaston says they’ll be more accepted in Washington State. Interracial marriage is legal there. I hope he’s right. It’s a dangerous journey for them to make. Loretta will have to hide in the backseat if they’re someplace where they shouldn’t be seen together, which I suppose will be most everyplace.”
“Do you really think it’s okay for a colored person to marry a white person?” I asked. It was hard for me to imagine, and it bothered me that Henry seemed to think it was fine.
“Well, like Gaston says, it’s hard to control who you fall in love with,” he said. “You love somebody that deeply, you’re willing to risk everything to be with them.”
I wondered if he was thinking about us. How neither of us was in love, deeply or otherwise. Did that fact make him as sad as it made me?