A Hole in the Universe - Mary McGarry Morris [128]
“What’re you, in some big hurry?” she said out of breath as she opened the door.
“I’m sorry, I thought you forgot.”
“I never forget. Ever!” Her malevolent gleam made him squirm. “Here.” Stooping close to see, she counted into his hand. “Thirty, forty, fifty. And you’ll give me the change back, right?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Gordon!” she called as he came down the walk. “Don’t forget now, white eggs. White, not brown.”
Across the street, Marvella Fossum huddled on her top step, shivering and smoking a cigarette. He paused to pull a spurt of weeds from the rose bed, but Marvella’s thick-tongued rant sent him on his way. “Will you give it up? Will you just give it the hell up?” she yelled at Jada, who wobbled down the street on thick-soled shoes, whipping fences, telephone poles, and now the yellow hydrant with the length of clothesline still noosed to an empty collar.
“Jada!” her mother called from the bedroom. Jada didn’t answer. Her mother wanted her to go find Feaster and beg him for a hit. “Jada!”
Jada closed the door softly and slipped onto the porch. She sat on the step, staring down at the car that had just pulled up across the street. A white lady with yellow dreadlocks took a vacuum cleaner from her trunk and hauled it onto the porch. Next she carried up a bucket filled with soap bottles and orange rubber gloves. She wondered if she should go tell her the old bitch had left a while ago in a white van. All dressed up, she had been carrying a small brown canvas bag.
A crash came now from inside the apartment, then her mother’s frantic call. “Jada! Jada!” She had been so happy when her mother said she was pregnant. She had wanted a baby brother or sister for as long as she could remember. But if things were bad before, they were a thousand times worse now. Her mother was constantly sick, and they had no money at all. She couldn’t even ask Feaster. Ever since the cops had chased her that night, he wouldn’t answer their calls or pages. To what her mother owed him, he had added the cost of the crack Jada had thrown away in the park. The cable had been shut off again. Inez had let her watch TV upstairs a couple times. But then she had to go and screw everything up with Inez, just like she’d done with Gordon. On the Thursday night that Inez always baby-sat at her son’s house, Jada really wanted to watch MTV, so she climbed up the fire escape and crawled through Inez’s kitchen window. She had a lot to eat, but in small portions, a little this, a little that, from all the leftover bowls. She was stretched out on the velour couch with the remote when Inez came home earlier than usual with her son. All hell broke loose. Carlos started to call the cops, but Inez stopped him. As the commotion moved into the hallway, Marvella charged up the stairs. She shoved Inez. Now the whole family hated them. Even Inez’s littlest grandchildren yelled and banged on their door when they ran by.
She hadn’t found Leonardo yet, but she knew she would. Somebody had probably picked him up and brought him home. The first chance he got he’d come running back, she was sure of it. In her whole life she had never loved anyone the way she loved that little dog. Not even her own mother.
Right after the pregnancy test, her mother had tried really hard. She’d even gone to a doctor for help, but he’d said it had to be her decision. She still couldn’t make up her mind. Detox or an abortion. Either way would kill her, she told him. She had been clean for days, then last night Tron came by. When he and Marvella got back at two in the morning, they could barely walk they were so high. Jada stormed out of the house, as if her mother cared or even noticed. She headed for Gordon’s garage for another night in the spidery dark, but the key was gone, so she had to go crawling back home.
“I been calling you.” Her mother came onto