Free The Future Has a Past by J. California Cooper Page B

had picked up his suitcase during the night, out of sight of prying eyes. He washed up in the cafe bathroom and smoothed out his clothes as best he could, put on his freshest shirt and made it on over to Luella’s house, carrying his cardboard suitcase in one hand, a large paper sack in the other hand and two cheap suits, on hangers, over his shoulder. “Hell, if she love me, she gon help me or I’m gonna leave her ass alone, too!”
    You cannot imagine . . . the fear that flew out of his mind and the joy that flew in and took its place when Luella met him at the door, throwing her arms around his neck saying, sweetly, “Silki, my darlin. We can leave and go on way from here. Now! Preacher Watchem gave me my money! Five hundred dollars! We can get married!”
    You already know Silki had never even seen, much less had, five hundred dollars at one time. Nor two hundred, not even one hundred dollars. The most money Silki had held at one time was seventy dollars, which he took to bed with him, clasping it to his chest and thinking all the night about how his future was changing, looking up, getting somewhere. At last! This, until he went out that night and lost it back to his world.
    Now, Silki said, “Five hundred whole dollars?! Baby? Darlin!”
    The plans for the trip rushed right on in.
    First, Silki wanted to go down to the little town section and buy a few things for the trip on the way to pick up the tickets to some place he hadn’t decided on yet. “Baby, I . . . we need to pick up a few things for the trip! This gonna be the best thing you ever done. This place too small for the life I want to give you!”
    Luella blushed to her toes because he had never held her so tight before. It was love! “I know it. Aunt Corrine gonna take this house until we decide where we gonna live. There’s gonna be much better jobs in the new city for us and we got to get married right away so our dreams can start coming true!”
    With the money on his mind, Silki continued, “Baby, we got to take care of first things first. First, let’s go get something to pack so when we get to the city they don’t think we are country folks. We got to look good! I want my baby to be the best she can be; you already beautiful. We . . . you just need some clothes that fit your looks. So, arm in arm, hand in hand, we can get off the bus lookin good!”
    At that moment, Mattie knocked at the door. Luella peeked out of her window, “That’s Mattie!” Silki answered the door because, now, he was the man of the house and he was sure he knew what Mattie was after.
    “Hey, Sister Mattie! How you doin?”
    Taken aback for a few seconds, Mattie answered, “I ain doin no good, Silki. I need to talk to Luella for a minute.” She winked at Silki, but he didn’t wink back.
    Silki stepped back to let her in, but said, “Well, we in a important talk right now. You got to come back some other time.” He had a second thought, “Or you can tell me what you want.”
    Mattie thought that might be encouraging because she had told Silki about Luella in the first place. Mattie asked, “Silki, my kids is hungry and I am sick and I ain got no food from the city for the week and I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I need five or ten dollars . . . just til I get some money from my daughters . . . a day or two.”
    Silki answered, “Oh, Sister Mattie, you have caught us at a bad time. We just sittin here tryin to figure out our own way. We wish we could help you, but we just sure can’t . . . right now. Try again in a few days and things might be better.”
    Mattie got angry, “Well, she just got . . . Preacher Watchem just . . .” but she couldn’t say it for some reason. So she decided to say, “Well, okay. But, you know how it is to be hungry!”
    Silki smiled, “Not for a long time, since I . . . Mattie, we can’t do you no help today. We’ll see you in a few days.”
    Mattie frowned at her former friend, then turned to walk slowly away. She looked