Bad Boy Brawly Brown (36 page)

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I
SOLDA ANSWERED
her shanty apartment door in nothing but a 24

bathrobe. That was at eleven o’clock in the morning. I wondered 25

how she managed to pay her nickel rent — or her dollar mortgage, 26

for that matter.

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When she smiled at me the questions in my mind dimmed 28

somewhat. Sexual charm will do that to a man.

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“Mr. Rawlins.”

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“Miss Moore.”

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Her kissing lips turned into an inviting smile and I found myself 2

in a chair on her little island of luxury amid the shambles of the 3

room. The smell of lilac was in the air, and a frosty glass of iced tea 4

was soon to find its way into my hand.

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“Have you found Brawly?” she asked.

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“I just don’t understand it,” I said.

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“What?”

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“Why a woman like you — so beautiful and able to create beauty 9

even in a hole like this — why would you need to seduce a fourteen-10

year-old boy?”

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Isolda Moore was no pushover. Her smile diminished slightly.

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Her head tilted a bit to the side.

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“You’re right,” she said. “You don’t understand.” Five words that 14

she meant to be a confession, an explanation, and absolution.

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But I wasn’t having it her way.

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“No, I don’t,” I said. “I don’t get that at all. I got me a teenager 17

up in the house right now and I could tell you this — I wouldn’t 18

stand for no woman north of thirty with her hands in his under-19

pants.”

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“It wasn’t like that,” Isolda said. “It wasn’t like you said.”

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“How else could it be?” I asked angrily. I wasn’t really mad, at 22

least not at what had happened to Brawly all those years before.

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“He called me from a phone booth on Slauson. Called me col-24

lect. I was all the way up in Riverside and he was cryin’ his eyes out 25

and mumbling because of his swollen mouth. I broke every speed 26

limit comin’ down to get him. I found him sittin’ on a park bench 27

with the tears still in his eyes. The first night up at my house he 28

didn’t even want to sleep alone in his own bed. He begged me to 29

sleep with him and when I said no he crawled in next to me when he 30 S

thought I was asleep.”

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“Why didn’t you send him away?” I asked.

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“Send him where? His mother was in the madhouse and his fa-1

ther nearly broke his jaw. If it wasn’t for me, they would’a put him 2

out as a foster child or in the orphanage.” Isolda’s voice was full of 3

passion that she had not shown before. “And after a couple of nights 4

in the bed together I felt his want. I knew it was wrong, but he 5

needed me.”

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“His girlfriend said that you walked around naked, that you se-7

duced him into your bed.”

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“That’s the way he has to remember it,” Isolda said with a nod.

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“Because after it went on for a while I told him that it had to end. I 10

told him that he needed to have a girl his own age. That’s when he 11

took up with BobbiAnne. But, you know, even when he had been 12

with her he’d come back home and wanna climb in the bed with 13

me.” There was pride in her voice. “And when I refused him he got 14

mad and blamed me for the way he felt.”

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It was a solid argument, good enough to have been in a play.

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Sometimes you did things bad because of love and hurt the people 17

you cared for most. Maybe if Isolda was some bucktoothed third-18

grade teacher, I might have believed her. But every part of her life 19

was so perfectly arranged, I couldn’t see her giving in to the whirl-20

pool of someone else’s passion.

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“Is Alva mad at you for sleeping with her husband or her son?” I 22

asked then.

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“Why don’t you ask her?”

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“I’m askin’ you.”

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“I ain’t told her about either one,” Isolda said.

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“Did you know Henry Strong?” I asked.

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“Never heard of him.”

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“Hm.”

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“What?”

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“Nuthin’,” I said. “It’s just that somebody’s been lyin’ to me.”

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“Who?”

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“Maybe Kenneth Chapman.”

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For the first time she stumbled. It was no more than turning her 4

head away from me, looking off for something easy to fall from her 5

tongue. She turned back, but still she wavered.

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“What’d he say?” she asked at last.

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“That you and him and a man named Anton Breland had drinks 8

with Strong and Aldridge.” I was lying to force her to admit some 9

kind of connection between the murdered men.

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“I don’t know what he’s talkin’ about.”

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“But you know Chapman?”

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“Once when I went to pick up Brawly for lunch, he introduced 13

me to him and a stocky man named Mercury. They worked with 14

Brawly. But I ain’t never been out with them. And I don’t know no 15

Henry Strong.”

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“I see. Yeah. Uh-huh.” I was just making noise while Isolda 17

floundered in my suspicions. She was telling me the truth about not 18

going out with Chapman while lying about Strong, I was sure of that.

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But I needed more.

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“What did this Chapman say?” she asked.

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“Just that you had been with them. And when I asked him about 22

Aldridge he told me that Brawly and Aldridge got along just fine, 23

even after that fight you said they had.”

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“They did have that fight,” Isolda protested. “I ain’t lyin’.”

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“Yeah,” I said. “Yeah. I’m sure that it’s Chapman lied to me. Sure 26

of it. You know him and Mercury was burglars a long time ago. I 27

thought they give it up, but you never know with crooks.”

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Isolda let her bathrobe fall open so that I could see her left 29

breast. She was thirty-five if she was a day, but gravity hadn’t touched 30 S

her yet. It was the breast of a twenty-year-old. Any male from six 31 R

weeks to ninety years old would have had trouble resisting. If I hadn’t
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had Bonnie in my life, I might have crossed the line — for just a kiss.

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But instead I took out a Chesterfield and sat back, out of range of her 2

charm.

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She acted as if the robe had fallen open by mistake and cov-4

ered up.

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I inhaled deeply, feeling of two minds about the benefits and 6

detriments of smoking. On one hand, tobacco robbed me of my 7

wind, but on the other, it gave me something to do while the devil 8

was tempting me.

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I stood up.

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“Time to go,” I said lamely.

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“Where?” she asked, rising and coming toward me.

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“To talk to Chapman again, I guess.”

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“What about his partner?” Isolda asked. “Mercury.”

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“He left town,” I said. “Probably the smartest one of the bunch.”

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39
/ JACKSON BLUE
was in his bathrobe, too.

I shook my head when he came to the door.

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“What’s wrong with you, Easy?” he asked.

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“Don’t nobody work?” I said. “I mean, am I the only one who 5

thinks he got to get up in the morning and at least put on a pair of 6

pants?”

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Jackson grinned. White teeth against black skin has always had a 8

soothing effect on me. It made me happy.

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Jackson led me down the stairs into his house.

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“I’m workin’,” he said as he went. “Been readin’ about a guy 11

named Isaac Newton. You ever hear about him?”

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“Of course I have,” I said. “Every schoolkid knows about New-13

ton’s apple.”

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“Did you know that he invented calculus?”

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“No,” I said, not particularly interested.

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I took my seat at his table and he took to the one-piece school 1

desk. He stretched out in the chair like a cat or an arrogant adoles-2

cent.

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“Yeah,” he said. “I mean, at the same time this dude name’a 4

Leibniz came up with the same calculations, but Newton invented 5

it, too. Newton was a mothahfuckah.”

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“How long ago did he live?” I asked.

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“Died in 1727,” Jackson said. “A rich man, too.”

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“So he did his work,” I said. “You just sittin’ ’round here in your 9

drawers.”

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“But, Easy,” Jackson said with that grin. “I’m learnin’. I know 11

things. I know things ninety-nine percent’a your white people don’t 12

know.”

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“I know about gravity, Jackson. Maybe I didn’t know about cal-14

culus, but what good is it knowin’ that, anyway?”

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“It’s not just that, Easy. It’s not knowin’ one thing. It’s under-16

standin’ the man. If you understand him, then you got somethin’ to 17

think about in your own world.”

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He had me then. Just like Sam Houston talking about newspaper 19

articles, Jackson made claims that made me want to stop and under-20

stand.

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“Okay, man,” I said, looking at my wristwatch. “Two minutes to 22

hear what you mean.”

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I expected Jackson to smile again, but instead he put on his seri-24

ous face.

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“It’s like this,” he said. “Newton was a religious man, what they 26

called a Arianist. . . .”

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“A what?”

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“It don’t matter, except that it meant that he was a heretic in En-29

gland, but he didn’t let nobody know. He was a alchemist, too. Tryin’

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to turn lead to gold and like that. He lived through the plague years.

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And at the end of his life he was the president of the science club and 2

the head of the national mint.”

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“All that?”

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Jackson nodded almost solemnly. “As the head of the mint he 5

was in charge of executions. And all them things he discovered —

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he kept ’em to himself for years before he let the world know.”

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“So what, Jackson?”

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“So what? This is black history we talkin’ here, Easy.”

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“So now you sayin’ Newton was a black man?”

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“No, brother. I’m sayin’ that all they teach in schools is how a ap-11

ple done falled on Isaac’s head and that’s it. They don’t teach you 12

about how he believed in magic or how he was in his heart against 13

the Church of England. They don’t want you to know that you can 14

sit in your room and discover things all by yourself that nobody else 15

knows. I’m down here collectin’ knowledge while some other Negro 16

is outside someplace swingin’ a hammer. That’s what I’m sayin’.”

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“Swingin’ a hammer is more than you do,” I said out of reflex. I 18

didn’t really believe it. Jackson Blue’s rendition of Isaac Newton re-19

minded me of me, a man living in shadows in almost every part of 20

his life. A man who keeps secrets and harbors passions that could get 21

him killed if he let them out into the world.

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“You a fool if you believe that, Easy.”

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“And you just a fool, Jackson,” I said.

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“How you see that?”

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“This man you talkin’ about kept his secrets — for a while. But 26

then he let the world know — that’s the only reason you know it to-27

day. When are you gonna let the world know?”

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“One day I might surprise ya, Easy. Uh-huh.”

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“Well,” I said, “until that day comes, I need you to do somethin’

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for me.”

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“What’s that?”

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“Before I get into that, why don’t you answer my question?”