They passed the spot where Maxine was crushed by a city bus on her way to the corner store only a few years before. Jean remembered Maxine insisting on going to the store alone that day, she was, "a big girl now, she'd be five soon". She was one of those kids the elders called an "old soul". The kind that seems to know more about life than they should. Sitting around grown folks engaged in the conversation and no one seemed to mind. Most times the kids were told, "this is grown folks business, go play outside". Maxine was allowed to stay and sit with them while they gossiped. She would sometimes offer advice to the women sitting around complaining about their cheating men. She asked her mother once, "why do all the women in this family marry bad men?" Mattie, her mother, thought the question was cute so she engaged, "because we don't know they are bad until we marry them".
Maxine turned her little head to look at all the women at the table and responded, "then why do you stay with them when you know they, bad men?" The women laughed knowingly. She didn't see what was so funny and she sat silently looking puzzled. Mattie dismissed her questions as childish nonsense but she knew Maxine was right about the men in their lives and it was just the way things were. She would not be able to explain it to a four-year-old, she didn't understand it herself.
Maxine stood all of three feet with long braids down her back. Always two braids, hair split down the middle and tightly bound to keep everything in place. Her little ruffled dress ironed and starched until it stood up by itself. When Mattie, didn't iron it the way she liked, Maxine screamed until it was perfect. She was her grandmother's little princess and Mattie had to treat her as such or there would be hell to pay. Truth be told, Mattie was a little afraid of Maxine. She was too smart and Mattie was afraid that one day Maxine would have no use for her. Probably why she called her Mattie instead of Mama. Mattie never finished school and dropped out her first year to get a job. She knew Maxine would be smart enough to finish school.
Maxine was bored with the conversation, she thought these women were silly.
"Mattie", she said, "I want some candy from the store", and put her hand out for Mattie to give her some money. She called her mother by her first name and everyone thought it was cute they all laughed each time she said it. Mattie knew not to upset Maxine by insisting she call her, "Mom", "Mother", "Madear", "Big Mama" or any such variations that befit her position of authority.
Mattie was annoyed and slapped her hand away, "I will take you to the store later".
"No you won't, you will be drunk later, just like always", Maxine pouted and put her hand out again. Mattie knew she was right, she was more than half drunk now and the last thing she wanted to do was go to the store. Maxine took this opportunity to say, "I'm old enough to go by myself. I'll bring you back something". smiling her sweet smile.
Mattie knew she was right, she drank too much and Maxine didn't like it when she got drunk. She said, "you go right to the store and come right back, you hear? Bring me back a coke". She gave her a dollar and patted her bottom as she turned to leave. Turned back to the women at the table and said, "she's too grown for her own good" All the women laughed as Maxine walked out the door.
Someone from the neighborhood came running around to announce a kid had been hit by a bus near the corner store and the police were asking around for the mother. The ladies at the table heard the commotion and that is when the lady from upstairs came to the door and said, "Mattie girl, your baby been hit by a bus.
Mattie rushed out the door, pinned the lady between the screen door and the outside wall, and ran to the corner, got there just as the ambulance was putting her little body into the back. A small lump under a sheet covered with blood. Mattie fell to the ground screaming, "No, No, Not my baby". She fell where she stood, in her baby's blood. She looked in the direction of the corner store hoping Maxine would come bouncing out, soda in hand. But Mattie recognized the shoe in the blood. She'd bought them a week ago: a red pair of Mary Jane's, the ones with the two buckles. Maxine insisted on the red ones with the two buckles and no one said "no" to Maxine.
Mattie, lay in the street spread out face down in her child's blood, holding the shoe as the ambulance drove off with her baby.
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