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Wait till I light up my coal-pot and I'll tell you about this
Zigaboo called Jelly. Well, all right now. He was a sealskin brown and
papa-tree-top-tall. Skinny in the hips and solid built for speed. He was
born with this rough-dried hair, but when he laid on the grease and
pressed it down overnight with his stocking-cap, it looked just like
that righteous moss, and had so many waves you got seasick from looking.
Solid, man, solid!
His mama named him Marvel, but after a month on Lenox Avenue, he
changed all that to Jelly. How come? Well, he put it in the street that
when it came to filling that long-felt need, sugarcuring the ladies'
feelings, he was in a class by himself and nobody knew his name, so he
had to tell 'em. "It must be Jelly, 'cause jam don't shake." Therefore,
his name was Jelly. That was what was on his sign. The stuff was there
and it was mellow. Whenever he was challenged by a hard-head or a frail
eel on the right of his title he would eye-ball the idol-breaker with a
slice of ice and put on his ugly-laugh, made up of scorn and pity, and
say: "Youse just dumb to the fact, baby. If you don't know what you
talking 'bout, you better ask Granny Grunt. I wouldn't mislead you,
baby. I don't need to¾
not with the help I got." Then he would give the Pimp's sign, and
percolate on down the Avenue. You can't go behind a fact like that.
So this day he was airing out on the Avenue. It had to be late
afternoon, or he would not have been out of bed. All you did by rolling
out early was to stir your stomach up. That made you hunt for more
dishes to dirty. The longer you slept, the less you had to eat. But you
can't collar nods all day. No matter how long you stay in bed,
and how quiet you keep, sooner or later that big gut is going to reach
over and grab that little one and start to gnaw. That's confidential
right from the Bible. You got to get out on the beat and collar yourself
a hot.
So Jelly got into his zoot suit with the reet pleats and got out to
skivver around and do himself some good. At 132nd Street, he spied one
of his colleagues on the opposite sidewalk, standing in front of a café.
Jelly figured that if he bull-skated just right, he might confidence
Sweet Back out of a thousand on a plate. Maybe a shot of scrap-iron or a
reefer. Therefore, Jelly took a quick backward look at his shoe soles
to see how his leather was holding out. The way he figured it after the
peep was that he had plenty to get across and maybe do a little more
cruising besides. So he stanched out into the street and made the
crossing.
"Hi there, Sweet Back!" he exploded cheerfully. "Gimme some skin!"
"Lay de skin on me, pal!" Sweet Back grabbed Jelly's outstretched
hand and shook hard. "Ain't seen you since the last time, Jelly. What's
cookin'?"
"Oh, just like de bear
I ain't nowhere. Like de bear's brother, I ain't no further. Like de bear's daughter
ain't got a quarter,"
Right away, he wished he had not been so honest. Sweet Back gave him
a top-superior, cut-eye look. Looked at Jelly just like a showman looks
at an ape. Just as far above Jelly as fried chicken is over branch
water.
"Cold in hand, hunh?" He talked down to Jelly. "A red hot pimp like you say you
is, ain't got no business in the barrel. Last night when I left you,
you was beating up your gums and broadcasting about how hot you was.
Just as hot as July-jam, you told me. What you doing cold in hand?"
"Aw, man, can't you take a joke? I was just beating up my gums when I
said I was broke. How can I be broke when I got de best woman in
Harlem? If I ask her for a dime, she'll give me a ten dollar bill; ask
her for drink of likker, and she'll buy me a whiskey still. If I'm
lying, I'm flying!"
"Gar, don't hang out dat dirty washing in my back yard! Didn't I see
you last night with dat beat chick, scoffing a hot dog? Dat chick you
had was beat to de heels. Boy, you ain't no good for what you live."
"If you ain't lying now, you flying. You ain't got de first thin. You ain't got nickel one."
Jelly threw back the long skirt of his coat and rammed his hand down
into his pants pocket. "Put your money where your mouth is!" he
challenged, as he mock-struggled to haul out a huge roll. "Back your
crap with your money. I bet you five dollars!"
Sweet Back made the same gesture of hauling out nonexistent money.
"I been raised in the church. I don't bet, but I'll doubt you. Five rocks!"
"I thought so!" Jelly crowed, and hurriedly pulled his empty hand
out of his pocket. "I knowed you'd back up when I drawed my roll on
you."
"You ain't drawed no roll on me, Jelly. You ain't drawed nothing but
your pocket. You better stop dat boogerbooing. Next time I'm liable to
make you do it." There was a splinter of regret in his voice. If Jelly
really had had some money, he might have staked him, Sweet Back, to a
hot. Good Southern cornbread with a piano on a platter. Oh, well! The
right broad would, or might, come along.
"Who boogerbooing?" Jelly snorted. "Jig, I don't have to. Talking about me with
a beat chick scoffing a hot dog! You must of not seen ,me, 'cause last
night I was riding round in a Yellow Cab, with a yellow gal, drinking
yellow likker and spending yellow money. Tell 'em 'bout me, tell 'em!"
"Git out of my face, Jelly! Dat broad I seen you with wasn't no
pe-ola. She was one of them coal-scuttle blondes with hair just as close
to her head as ninety-nine is to a hundred. She look-ted like she had
seventy-five pounds of clear bosom, guts in her feet, and she look-ted
like six months in front and nine months behind. Buy you a whiskey
still! Dat broad couldn't make the down payment on a pair of sox."
"Sweet Back, you fixing to talk out of place." Jelly stiffened.
"If you trying to jump salty, Jelly, that's your mammy."
"Don't play in de family, Sweet Back. I don't play de dozens. I done told you."
"Who playing de dozens? You trying to get your hips up on your
shoulders 'cause I said you was with a beat broad. One of them lam
blacks."
"Who? Me? Long as you been knowing me, Sweet Back, you ain't never
seen me with nothing but pe-olas. I can get any frail eel I want to. How
come I'm up here in New York? You don't know, do you? Since youse dumb
to the fact, I reckon I'll have to make you hep. I had to leave from
down south 'cause Miss Anne used to worry me so bad to go with me. Who,
me? Man, I don't deal in no coal. Know what I tell 'em? If they's white,
they's right! If they's yellow, they's mellow! If they's brown, they
can stick around. But if they come black, they better git way back! Tell
'em bout me!"
"Aw, man, you trying to show your grandma how to milk ducks. Best
you can do is to confidence some kitchen-mechanic out of a dime or two.
Me, I knocks de pad with them cack-broads up on Sugar Hill, and fills
'em full of melody. Man, I'm quick death and easy judgment. Youse just a
home-boy, Jelly. Don't try to follow me."
"Me follow you! Man, I come on like the Gang Busters, and go
off like The March of Time! If dat ain't so, God is gone to Jersey City
and you know He wouldn't be messing 'round a place like that.
Know what my woman done? We hauled off and went to church last Sunday, and when they passed 'round the plate for the penny collection,
I throwed in a dollar. De man looked at me real hard for dat. Dat made
my woman mad, so she called him back and throwed in a twenty dollar
bill! Told him to take dat and go! Dat's what he got for looking at me
'cause I throwed in a dollar."
"Jelly, de wind may blow and de door may slam; dat what you shooting ain't worth a damn!"
Jelly slammed his hand in his bosom as if to draw a gun. Sweet Back did the same.
"If you wants to fight, Sweet Back, the favor is in me."
"I was deep-thinking then, Jelly. It's a good thing I ain't
short-tempered. 'T'aint nothing to you, nohow. You ain't hit me yet."
Both burst into a laugh and changed from fighting to lounging poses.
"Don't get too yaller on me, Jelly. You liable to get hurt some day."
"You over-sports your hand your ownself. Too blamed astorperious. I just don't pay you no mind. Lay de skin on me!"
They broke their handshake hurriedly, because both of them looked up
the Avenue and saw the same thing. It was a girl and they both
remembered that it was Wednesday afternoon. All of the domestics off for
the afternoon with their pay in their pockets. Some of them bound to be
hungry for love. That meant a dinner, a shot of scrap-iron, maybe room
rent and a reefer or two. Both went into the pose and put on the look.
"Big stars falling!" Jelly said out loud when she was in hearing distance. "It must be just before day!"
"Yeah, man!" Sweet Back agreed. "Must be a recess in Heaven,
pretty angel like that out on the ground."
The girl drew abreast of them, reeling and rocking her hips.
"I'd walk clear to Diddy-Wah-Diddy to get a chance to speak to a pretty lil' ground-angel like that" Jelly went on.
"Aw, man, you ain't willing to go very far. Me, I'd go slap to Ginny-Gall, where they eat cow-rump, skin and all."
The girl smiled, so Jelly set his hat and took the plunge.
"Baby," he crooned, "what's on de rail for de lizard?"
The girl halted and braced her hips with her hands. "A Zigaboo down
in Georgy, where I come from, asked a woman that one time and the judge
told him 'ninety days.'"
"Georgy!" Sweet Back pretended to be elated. "Where 'bouts in Georgy is you from? Delaware?"
"Delaware?" Jelly snorted. "My people! My people! Free schools and
dumb jigs! Man, how you going to put Delaware in Georgy? You ought to
know dat's in Maryland."
"Oh, don't try to make out youse no northerner, you! Youse from right down in 'Bam your ownself!" The girl turned on Jelly.
"Yeah, I'm from there and I aims to stay from there."
"One of them Russians, eh?" the girl retorted. "Rushed up here to get away from a job of work."
That kind of talk was not leading towards the dinner table.
"But baby!" Jelly gasped. "Dat shape you got on you! I bet the Coca Cola Company is paying you good money for the patent!"
The girl smiled with pleasure at this, so Sweet Back jumped in.
"I know youse somebody swell to know. Youse real people. You grins
like a regular fellow." He gave her his most killing look and let it
simmer in. "These dickty jigs round here tries to smile. S'pose you and
me go inside the café here and grab a hot?"
"You got any money?" the girl asked, and stiffened like a ramrod. "Nobody ain't pimping on me. You dig me?"
"Aw, now, baby!"
"I seen you two mullet-heads before. I was uptown when Joe Brown had
you all in the go-long last night. Dat cop sure hates a pimp! All he
needs to see is the pimps' salute, and he'll out with his night-stick
and whip your head to the red. Beat your head just as flat as a dime!"
She went off into a great blow of laughter.
"Oh, let's us don't talk about the law. Let's talk about us," Sweet
Back persisted. "You going inside with me to holler 'let one come
flopping! One come grunting! Snatch one from de rear!'"
"Naw indeed!" the girl laughed harshly. "You skillets is trying to
promote a meal on me. But it'll never happen, brother. You barking up
the wrong tree. I wouldn't give you air if you was stopped up in a jug.
I'm not putting out a thing. I'm just like the cemetery
I'm not putting out, I'm taking in! Dig?"
"I'll tell you like the farmer told the potato
plant you now and dig you later."
The girl made a movement to switch on off. Sweet Back had not
dirtied a plate since the day before. He made a weak but desperate
gesture.
"Trying to snatch my pocketbook, eh?" she blazed. Instead of
running, she grabbed hold of Sweet Back's draping coattail and made a
slashing gesture. "How much split you want back here? If your feets
don't hurry up and take you 'way from here, you'll ride away.
I'll spread my lungs all over New York and call the law. Go ahead,
Bedbug! Touch me! And I'll holler like a pretty white woman!"
The boys were ready to flee, but she turned suddenly and rocked on off with her ear-rings snapping and her heels popping.
"My people! My people!" Sweet Back sighed.
"I know you feel chewed," Jelly said, in an effort to make it appear that he had had no part in the fiasco.
"Oh, let her go," Sweet Back said magnanimously. "When I see people
without the periodical principles they's supposed to have, I just don't
fool with 'em. What I want to steal her old pocketbook with all the
money I got? I could buy a beat chick like her and give her away. I got
money's mammy and Grandma change. One of my women, and not the best one I
got neither, is buying me ten shag suits at one time."
He glanced sidewise at Jelly to see if he was convincing. But
Jelly's thoughts were far away. He was remembering those full, hot meals
he had left back in Alabama to seek wealth and splendor in Harlem
without working. He had even forgotten to look cocky and rich. |
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