Part 9 (2/2)
He ate noisily without talk Dulcy had drunk three brandy-and-sodas and said she wasn't hungry
Johnny stopped eating long enough to say, ”Eat anyway”
She picked at her food, watching the faces of the other diners, trying to catch snatches of their conversation
Two people got up from a far table The waitress went over to clear their places chink walked in with Doll Baby
She had changed into a fresh pink linen backless dress, and wore huge black-tinted sun glasses with pink frames
Dulcy stared at her with liquid venolasses of ice-cold lemonade
The room filled with silence
Dulcy stood up suddenly
”Where you going?” Johnny asked
”I want to play a record,” she said defiantly ”Do you have any objections?”
”Sit down,” he said tonelessly ”And don't be socute”
She sat down and bit off another fingernail Alaered her throat and looked down at her plate
”Tell the waitress,” she said ”She'll play it”
”I was going to play that platter of Jelly Roll Morton's, _I Want A Little Girl To Call My Own_”
Johnny raised his face and looked at her Rage started leaping in his eyes
She picked up her drink to hide her face, but her hand trembled so she spilled some on her dress
Across the room Doll Baby said in a loud voice, ”After all, Val wasbitch!” she yelled back
Johnny gave her a dangerous look
”And if the truth be known, he was just knifed to keephim,” Dolly Baby said
”He'd already had a bellyful of you,” Dulcy said
Johnny slapped her out of her seat She spun into the corner of the wall and cruh
Johnny spun his chair about on its hind legs
”Keep the bitch quiet,” he said
Fats waddled over and put his bloated hand on Johnny's shoulder
Pee Wee came from behind the bar and stood in the entrance
Silently, Dulcy got back into her chair
”Keep her quiet your God-damned self,” chink said
Johnny stood up Chairs scraped as everybody moved away from chink's table Doll Baby jumped up and ran into the kitchen Pee Wee moved toward Johnny
”Easy, pops,” Pee Wee said
Fats waddled quickly over to chink's table and said, ”Get her out And don't you never coe of me like that”
chink stood up, his yellow face flushed and swollen Doll Baby cah-shouldered and stiff-kneed, he said to Johnny, ”I'll see you, big shot”
”Seeafter him
The scar on his forehead had swollen and coer ain't worth killing, pops”
Fats gave chink a push in the back
”Punk, you're lucky, lucky, lucky,” he wheezed ”Git going before your luck runs out”
Johnny looked at his watch, giving chink no o, the funeral's already started,” he said
”We all is coo on ahead 'cause you is the number twoblack shi+ny Cadillac hearse parked before the door to the store-front church of the Holy Rollers at the corner of Eighth Avenue and 143rd Street A skinny little black boy with big white shi+ning eyes touched the red hot fender and snatched back his hand
The black painted s of what had been a super market before the Holly Rollers took it over reflected distorted i flashy cars strung out behind the big cocky hearse like a line of laying hens
People of arb of all descriptions, their burr heads covered with straw hats of every shape, crowded about for a gli Joe Pullen's funeral Black ladies carried bright-colored parasols and wore green eyeshades to protect them from the sun