Free God Ain't Through Yet by Mary Monroe Page A

I stopped almost immediately because that only made him moan even louder. “Why don’t you take a few weeks or a month off, baby?” I said gently. My hands were massaging his shoulders again. “Go down to the Bahamas and kick back on the beach and watch the sunrise. Go to that little bar Rhoda and Otis took us to that time, and drink so much rum that you’ll be able to fly back to Ohio without the plane. Just enjoy yourself until you feel better. I know Muh’Dear can arrange it with the Jacobs for you to stay at their beach house for free. Think of all the fishing and all of the kicking back doing nothing that you can do. Unfortunately, as much fun as that sounds, it’ll only be a temporary solution to your frustration. You’d eventually get bored with that, too. I can assure you that you will be glad to get back to Richland and your boring life as a barber. I’ll call Muh’Dear and tell her to call somebody in the Jacobs family right away and see if their beach house is available. It’s a good thing I made you renew your passport last month.”
    â€œWill you come with me?” he asked, turning to face me. “It wouldn’t be no fun if I went to a paradise like the Bahamas by myself.”
    I let out a loud breath and returned to my seat. “I wish I could. But things are so busy at work now, I don’t think Mr. Mizelle would let me take off even a few days right now.” I lifted Pee Wee’s hand. It felt like a piece of dead meat. A cold piece of dead meat at that. It made my fingers tingle. I shivered and released his hand with my fingers still tingling. “Pee Wee, there is something you’re not telling me. Now if we want to work as a team to resolve any issues that will affect us both, I need to know everything. I find it hard to believe that the only thing wrong with you right now is that you are just bored being a barber after all these years. If there is something else going on, I want to know and I want to know now. If we can discuss things like…uh…what happened last year, we can discuss anything.”
    â€œWhat happened last year? You mean that cancer thing?” he asked.
    â€œUh, yeah…” I replied. For some reason the thing that happened last year that danced around in my brain the most was that awful affair I’d slid into. But I was glad to know that that was not the case with him. “Cancer. If we got through that in one piece, we can get through a little bitty thing like you being bored, Pee Wee.”
    He let out a great sigh and cocked his head to the side. I looked at the one side of his head, noticing how much more gray hair he had since the last time I paid attention to his appearance. Normally, I would have mentioned it and offered to trot over to the Grab and Go to get him some of that Grecian Formula hair dye for men, but his gray hair was the least of my worries at the moment.
    He shifted in his seat and released another moan, but this one sounded more like a rumbling growl. I didn’t know if I was gaining or losing ground, because he didn’t seem to be feeling, acting, or looking any better. If anything, he looked even more depressed than he did before we started this unpleasant conversation.
    He shifted some more and cleared his throat, honking into a napkin. “There is more to it than me just bein’ bored. I’m feelin’ the sting of competition. I’ve never had to deal with it on this level before, Annette.” He balled the nasty napkin and flipped it across the room, where it landed in the trash can by the sink.
    I gasped. “What competition? You own the most successful black barbershop in town! That’s always been the case.”
    Pee Wee blinked and gave me a pitiful look. “Annette, you women don’t always know what’s goin’ on with us men. I am not just bored, I’m pissed off, too, see.”
    I gave him a curious look. He was in