Jezebel (14 page)

“
This
belong to you?” The cabbie nodded his head at Celeste, who
seemed oddly preoccupied with the wooden buttons on the man’s
pea coat.

“
She’s my
cousin.”

Sighing, Trudy leaned into
the door frame. She was well acquainted with her cousin’s epic
benders. She’d secretly hoped that since the source of her
ailment was now six feet under, she would’ve kicked the habit.

Obviously, old habits die
hard.

“
Where do you want
her?” the cab driver asked as he barreled into the foyer.
Trudy stepped back barely avoiding his work boots.

Trudy pointed toward the
parlor. “Put her on the couch.”

Following orders, the cabbie
hoisted Celeste on his hip and carried her into the next room.
Without any by your leave, he dropped her cousin face down on the
sofa. Celeste bounced once and then settled into the midnight blue
velvet with a muffled sigh.

Was
that drool?
Trudy grabbed a doily from one of the end tables and shoved it under
her cousin’s cheek. She’d paid too much for that couch
for it to be ruined with cheap gin.

“
That’ll be
$1.20, ma’am.”

Trudy’s eyes widened.
“Where did you pick her up New Jersey?”

“
The Bohemian.”

Trudy rolled her eyes. What
the heck was Celeste doing two neighborhoods east of here? Any
farther and she might as well have been in Manhattan!

Trudy
leaned down and pried a beaded clutch from her cousin’s gloved
fingers. Despite her condition, her cousin still held onto her purse.

“
Here’s two
dollars for your trouble,” Trudy said, handing over the fare.

“
Thank
you kindly, ma’am.” The cab driver turned to leave with
Trudy in his wake. As he stepped onto the stoop, he stopped. “I
know it isn’t my place, but your cousin’s too pretty a
gal to be acting like she belongs in some gutter.”

She
should have taken the man to task for his forwardness, but it was
difficult arguing with someone when you agreed with them. Instead,
she closed the door and locked it.

Determined
to
fix
her meal before heading uptown, Trudy headed to the kitchen. She made
it about as far as the entrance of the parlor.

“
What in the world are
you doing on your hands and knees?” Trudy asked from the
doorway. She just about had enough of her cousin’s high jinks.

“
Tryin’
to get up,” she said, with ‘up’ sounding more like
‘hiccup’, “but I slipt and fell. Come over here an’
help me.” Celeste flapped her hand, but Trudy refused to budge.

“
Pretty
pleazzz,” her cousin implored.

A self-proclaimed softy,
Trudy walked into the room and helped her cousin from the floor. The
way was slow going, but they eventually made it to the stairs, which
led to the tiny, row house’s two upstairs bedrooms.

“
Where you goin’?
I need to go datta way,” Celeste said, turning them both toward
the front door.

“
And where do you
think you’re going?”

Celeste lifted her hand and
slid her thumb nail between her teeth, reminding Trudy of a
precocious little girl. “I’s got a date wit Sugah Shane.”

Trudy
turned toward the stairs. “You
did
.”

Celeste
added just enough momentum to keep them turning so they ended up
facing the front door again. “I
do
,”
she affirmed.

“
Lord help me, I think
I’m going to kill her,” Trudy muttered to the ceiling.

Celeste wrapped her arms
around Trudy’s waist. To sweeten the pot, she rested her head
on Trudy’s shoulder. “You won’ have to kill me if
you walk me to the door,” she implored.

Since she wasn’t
getting anywhere, Celeste could be stubborn as a mule, Trudy decided
on a more rational route. “What time’s your date?”

“
Fourish.”

“
And what time is it
now?” Trudy pivoted until they faced the grandfather clock at
the bottom of the stairs.

Celeste leaned forward with
a squint. “Says eight something or other.” She pursed her
lips and leaned forward further still. “Is that on the level?”
she asked.

“
On the dot.”

It didn’t
take long for it to sink in. Nodding her head, as if accepting her
current situation, Celeste pulled away, disentangling herself. To be
on the safe side, Trudy moved between her and the front door.
Thankfully, Celeste shuffled toward the stairs instead. She didn’t
get very far. She only climbed two steps when she started crying.
Shoulders slumped, she plopped down on the stairs.

Trudy
almost
felt sorry for her. Not because she’d missed her date. There
would be plenty more. Celeste attracted men like flies to shit. Not
to say Celeste was a waste. She was a peach…but she had demons
born from the bad hand she’d been dealt the day she was born.

Unlike
other people who turned to religion for strength or solace or kept
their misery bottled up, Celeste turned to the bottle. But no matter
how high the proof, she simply couldn’t turn any of her cards
into a winning hand.

Sure
she’d been close a half a dozen times, but never a streak. In
turn, Celeste had become reliant on a temporary fix that prevented
her from ever having any kind of real happiness.

Still, in
spite of her apparent foibles and due in large part to an emotionally
distant father, Celeste had never been a sloppy drunk nor overly
demonstrative. Concerned by the sudden outburst, Trudy reached out to
steady her as Celeste slowly sank to the stairs.

“
Come on now don’t
have a melt down on me now,” Trudy shushed her, while fishing
in her cousin’s hand for a handkerchief.

“
Sorry,” Celeste
mumbled. She accepted the hanky, Trudy held out for her, but didn’t
use it. Instead, Celeste crumpled the fine linen in her hands and
allowed the tears to flow unchecked.

“
Bad day,” Trudy
ventured.

Celeste nodded. Trudy waited
for her to expound. She had all the time in the world now, since
eating before tonight’s gig flew out the window the minute the
cabbie carted Celeste through the front door.

“
Why didn’t you
tell me about the Reverend…how he…how he,”
Celeste clamped her mouth shut and a faraway look entered her eyes

Before
she fell over the edge again, Trudy reeled her back in, “What
about the Reverend?” she prodded.

To her
relief, Celeste seemed to snap out of it. Sniffling, she reached
inside her purse and pulled out a piece of paper. She unfolded it,
and then handed it over. Celeste’s finger shook as she pointed
to a line labeled ‘manner of incident’. “Why didn’t
you tell me?”

“
Where did you get
this?”

Celeste
pushed herself from her seat on the stairs. Fists clenched, she paced
or rather weaved back and forth. “Stop trying to sidestep the
question, Trudy! Why didn’t you tell me?”

Trudy’s mouth felt
like someone suddenly stuffed it with cotton balls.

“
I–I didn’t
want to cause you any more grief. Despite how you both parted ways,
it was a shock even to me. Suicide just isn’t natural.”

Done rambling, Trudy
anxiously licked her lips. Hopefully, her cousin would be able to
piece it all together then, come to realize she’d withheld the
facts surrounding her father’s death only to protect her.

Celeste grabbed hold of the
stair post and rested her cheek against the pineapple-shaped newel.
“You know he didn’t do it, right?”

Knocked off kilter by the
question and stymied by her own opinion, Trudy struggled with a
response.

“
He didn’t do
it, Trudy,” Celeste asserted in the face of Trudy’s
silence. “My daddy might have been a lot of things, but he
wasn’t like us.”

The hairs on the back of
Trudy’s neck snapped to attention. “Like us?”

“
Sinners.”

Trudy
couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Celeste had actually
bought into her old man’s shit hook, line and sinker. Not in
the mood for her cousin’s sudden brand of crazy, Trudy stood
up, pulling her cousin with her.

“
Where
are we going?” Celeste asked, yet allowing Trudy to guide them
up the stairs.

“
I’m
putting you to bed. You’re better than this.
I’m
better than this.”

Before they could reach the
top of the stairs, Celeste started to hum.

Recognizing
the chorus to
Bye
Bye Blackbird
,
Trudy joined in. They used to sing the jazz standard whenever things
went southward, which was more often than not.

“
Pack
up all my care and woe
…
here
I go, singing low
…”
Celeste wrapped her arms around Trudy’s waist with a drawn out
sigh, “…I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”

“
Almost, but I stopped
you.” At the top of the landing, Trudy turned down a short
hallway. “Nothing but blue skies from here on out, blackbird.”

“
Here
on out!” Celeste crowed, while Trudy hustled her over to the
bed.

“
No more spoiling
what’s rightfully yours?”

“
Rightfully mine,”
Celeste affirmed, falling back into the mattress.

Trudy yanked off her
cousin’s shoes and placed them on the floor. Her cloche,
fur-lined over coat and her dress followed, leaving her cousin in
nothing but silk stockings and a slip.

“
Know why?”
Trudy tugged the chenille spread from under Celeste’s hips and
then draped it over her. Enveloped in the all-white covering, her
cousin looked more like a little girl than a grown woman of
twenty-six years.

“
Cause’ I’m
naked, drunk and stupid.” Giggling, Celeste kicked her leg,
disturbing Trudy’s handiwork.

Trudy tried to smooth the
covers, but Celeste kept moving around. “You’ve got
someone who loves you and has your back despite what you may think.”

Her words must have hit a
chord because Celeste stopped wiggling and her expression turned
somber. “Do you think I’ll find someone who’ll put
up with me, understand and love me like you do?”

“
Maybe you’ve
already found him. Sugar Shane couldn’t keep his eyes off you
the other night.”

Celeste
closed her eyes and then opened them again, as if fighting sleep,
“
Sugar’s
sweet, so is he
,”
she whispered, barely containing a yawn. “I’m going to
turn over a new leaf.”

“
Sure
you are, sugar,” Trudy entertained. She’d heard this
speech before.

Yawning,
Celeste curled her arms around the bed pillow and her eyelids slipped
to half-mast. “I’m on the level, Tru. First thing in the
morning, I’m paying a visit to my old manager Freddy. Then,
I’m going to see about moving back into the brownstone on
Willoughby. Finally, I’m going to tuck my tail tween’ my
legs and apologize to Shane.”

Flabbergasted by the news,
Trudy’s mouth fell open. “You’re pulling my leg!”

“
Nope,” Celeste
half yawned, “I was wrong for hanging him out to dry.”

If she didn’t love her
cousin, Trudy would’ve strangled her. “I’m not
talking about him, clown! I’m talking about your moving back
into the brownstone.”

A dreamy smile lit Celeste’s
face. “The Reverend willed it to me, along with the store and a
walkup.”

“
The whole kit and
caboodle, well I’ll be damned.”

Celeste finally gave up the
fight and closed her eyes. “Knocked me for a loop too,”
she rasped sleepily, “but its home, I’m home…”

Trudy made sure her cousin
was out for the count before she reached over and switched off the
table lamp. “Good night, black bird.”

CHAPTER Ten

By midweek, Celeste squared
things with her old manager Freddy Colon. She even started the
transition back home by rehiring her father’s housekeeper and
ordering all new furniture for her old bedroom. Since she’d
left home at the age of fifteen, her old twin bed, writing desk and
armoire had been acceptable for an adolescent, but not a grown woman
expecting to entertain company.

Now the only thing she had
left to do was apologize to Shane.

Like so many times in the
past, Celeste would’ve scrapped the unsavory business on her
‘live and learn’ pile and simply walked away.