Daddy Was a Number Runner by Louise Meriwether Read Free Book Online Page A

Fifth Avenue with Elizabeth before they got dispossessed and had to move in with her mother, he would holler at us kids something awful just ’cause we touched his old shiny chrome.
    â€œY’all keep your greasy hands off my car,” he would command, and pay one of the boys a nickel to see that we didn’t touch it. He was evil all right, but good looking, with broad shoulders and thick arms and legs.
    I went into the front room. Vallie, dressed in a polka-dot dress, was poking about the sofa, looking under the cushions. With his round baby face he looked almost like a girl except for the greasy stocking cap on his head.
    â€œHello, Vallie.”
    â€œHi, Francie. Hey, Maude,” he called. “You know where Ma hid my pants?”
    â€œThe last place you’d be expected to look for them,” Maude said from the fire escape. “In the clothes closet.”
    Vallie went into the bedroom and came back with his pants. He slipped them under the dress which he then whipped off over his head. His mother came into the room. I loved Mrs. Caldwell, she was that jolly and nice and fat and warm with her West Indian accent.
    â€œSo, my son, you’ve found your pants, huh?”
    â€œYes, Ma.”
    â€œYou going to come back upstairs tonight at a decent hour?”
    â€œYes, Ma.”
    Mrs. Caldwell sighed. “I don’t know why your father upped and died like he did leaving me with all these problems.”
    â€œYou making more problems, Ma, than you have to,” Vallie said. “What you tryin’ to do, make a sissy out of me or something, making me wear Rebecca’s clothes?”
    â€œBetter a live sissy than a dead little boy,” she said, going to Vallie and straightening his shirt collar. “Ain’t that right, Francie?”
    â€œI guess so, Mrs. Caldwell.”
    Vallie stayed out in the street so much that when he did come home his mother hid his pants and made him wear his sister’s clothes knowing he wouldn’t sneak downstairs dressed like a girl.
    â€œWhen you come back upstairs,” Mrs. Caldwell told Vallie, “bring me two penny licorice sticks.”
    â€œOkay,” Vallie said, holding out his hand. His mother dropped two cents into it. She dearly loved licorice sticks.
    â€œFrancie’s here,” Mrs. Caldwell told Maude. “Come off of that fire escape and talk to her.”
    Maude grumbled something but didn’t make a move, so when Sonny hollered down from the roof for Vallie to hurry on up there, I followed him. Sukie was there, too.
    â€œHey, man,” Sonny said to Vallie. “What took you so long? I called you three times.”
    â€œI had to find my pants.”
    â€œFrancie,” Sonny said, looking at me from under his sleepy eyes, “you sure are getting tall for a girl and skin-nay! ”
    â€œHello, Sonny.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say, as usual, so I turned to Sukie. “Hi. Where you been all day?”
    â€œPlaying jacks with you up till ten minutes ago. What’s the matter, you losin’ your mind or something?”
    I could have killed her. She always did that, showed me up in front of the boys.
    â€œCome on,” Sonny said, running toward the back of the roof. “Let’s jump over the alley.” He stopped short at the end of the roof and bowed. “Ladies first.”
    I trailed behind them, deciding that no matter how bad they teased me I wasn’t gonna jump. Everybody almost had jumped over that old alley at some time or another except me. Anytime I saw a crowd in the street looking down at something near the alley, I thought that James Junior or Sterling had finally missed and fell while jumping over it, and no amount of teasing could make me do it.
    Vallie always teased the most. Now he was saying: “A long-legged gal like you ought to be able to stretch from one side of that alley to the other.”
    â€œAin’t it the