The Return of Buddy Bush by Shelia P. Moses Read Free Book Online Page A

night.
    â€œWhat’s wrong with you, girl?” BarJean says while she is laughing at me.
    â€œNothing, I just ain’t use to no running water in the house.”
    â€œAin’t it something, little sister, how we did without so much all our lives?” she says in between a laugh and almost crying.
    She didn’t say nothing after that. We just sitting here looking at each other. Looking at each other like we know something that other folks don’t know. Things that only folks that were born and raised on Rehobeth Road know. Rehobeth Road is a strange place. The houses are old and the white folks are long gone. All except Mr. Bay, who is getting on up there in years.
    The colored folks that live on Rehobeth Road don’t own nothing but the shirts on their backs. Everybody except Grandpa. He owned Jones Property, and now that he done met his maker, my grandma owns Jones Property. When she leaves this earth, it will belong to my ma and her sisters.When they leave here, Jones Property will belong to the grandchildren. That’s the way Grandpa wanted it and that’s the way it is. He said Jones Property ain’t never to be sold. Never!
    â€œAll right, Miss Pattie Mae, I’m leaving for work now.”
    â€œOh, sister, don’t worry. All I am going to do today is sleep. I promise you that.” I have my legs crossed under the table because I’m trying to break the lie. Chick-A-Boo says if you tell a lie for a good reason you should cross your fingers or your legs and the Lord will forgive you. I am definitely lying because as soon as BarJean goes to work, I’m going out the door.
    â€œBye,” BarJean yells as she is walking out the door.
    Just wait till I find Uncle Buddy I’m going to tell him about her talking about don’t say the word
boot
. Well, maybe I will tell him that after I tell him that they caught them mean white folks who tried to hang him. Wait till I tell him that they are going to have a trial for them mean men. The day right before Grandpa’s funeral, they caught theseven men who tried to kill Uncle Buddy. They all going to court for kidnapping in a few weeks. After I tell Uncle Buddy the mean men are going to court, I think he will want to come home. Back down South. Back to Rehobeth Road where he belongs. Somewhere in this grown folks conversation, I will have to tell him about Grandpa done met the man upstairs. Then I will show him the obituary. I’m going to tell him all about Hassie Lee reading it aloud at the funeral. Hassie Lee is the church secretary. She always reads the obituary.
    Ma put poems and stuff the people in town and on Rehobeth Road told her to write in the obituary. In the space where Ma wrote who was singing the solos, she wrote my friend Daniel’s mama, Miss Novella’s, name twice because she did all the singing. Miss Blanche, Chick-A-Boo’s ma, can sing too, but not like Miss Novella. Miss Novella sings, “May the Work I’ve Done” better than Ma can. Now, that was Grandpa’s favorite song, probably because he done heard Ma sing it till her voice ran dry. Miss Novella gotbad knees, but ain’t nothing wrong with her mouth. When she opened her mouth at Grandpa’s funeral, it sound like heaven was right here on earth. She rocks from side to side when she sings. At Grandpa’s funeral she got to rocking and shouting, but she never stop singing. The other women in the choir took their obituaries and went to fanning Miss Novella. She sang louder when they cooled her off. She got children that can sing too. That Pearl can sing all she want to. She lives somewhere up here in Harlem and I heard that she was on the radio a few times. Miss Novella’s baby girl Dorothy sings at school on Jamboree Night. Miss Clark, who moved to Rich Square from Carr, North Carolina, to teach us biology, started Jamboree Night. I don’t know what they do in Carr, but Miss Clark said there was nothing