Thrown-away Child

the dreamy type, never says much of anything to anybody but Zeb.”
    “You talk to her?”
    “Sometimes. Like this afternoon when she called me. But dearie, you know I don’t talk to a lot of girls.”
    “You prefer talking to boys.”
    “Stop it, you’re racing my heart.”
    “Why did Connie call you?”
    “It was about Perry. He’s hiding out there at the church. Sister Connie, she want to know if it’s safe with Perry around her.“
    “Is it?”
    “Sure a lot safer than Zeb being around her.“
    “Does Zeb Tilton know where Perry’s hiding'?“
    “Hell no!”
    “Teddy, I need you to do something.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Take me to Perry.”
    “Sure I will. On the way over I’ll tell you about the other call I got today about Perry, the one from your hubby.”
     

FORTY-THREE

     
    I used the shower at Joe Never Smile’s myself, and spent a good long time in the hot water. Which did not actually make me feel much cleaner, not after what I had been through.
    Afterward, I borrowed some more dry things from Claude’s duffel bag and an old pair of shoes from Joe Never Smile’s closet. Everything fit well enough.
    Meanwhile, Claude rang up a friend at a largely black force of cops at the Ninth Ward station house and had him run a check of the license plate number Kenny had provided. I was unsurprised at the resulting identification. Claude asked his pal to run some discreet pass-bys, to make sure the Jeep and its owner were not about to leave town.
    At long last, something. Claude was pleased in a private way and said this several times.
    Joe Never Smile cooked spaghetti for us all. Nobody wanted meatballs. I myself do not know when I will return to eating red meat.
    Around ten o’clock, when I had figured I had to leave to meet Ruby at Tipitina’s, wherever that was, I invited Claude to come along. He put up no resistance.
    Claude drove us back to where I had been earlier in the day, Napoleon Avenue. Tipitina’s turned out to be at the familiar comer of Napoleon and Tchoupitoulas Street—not far from the Blossom Cinema and the dirt lane where Ruby’s family had once lived.
    “You’re going to like this place,” Claude said when we were seated.
    Maybe I would. The bar held a plaster bust of Professor Longhair, the late great zydeco piano man. And somebody at his old watch was pounding out “Stag-O-Lee” on the keyboards. I asked Claude, “The jazz is good?”
    “Oh, man, this here’s a shrine.”
    “Just tell me they don’t play Dixieland junk for the tourists.”
    “Here’s where they blow notes so sweet only colored folks in Heaven can hear them.”

    “I don’t mean you harm.” Ruby took a step toward him, and handed over the journals, then stepped back. “Neither does my husband, neither does Teddy here.” Sister cried softly on the stair step.
    “Little girl’s a Judas telling y’all where I am so it get to the po-lice before I take care of business,” Perry said. “That what she is—Judas!”
    “No,” Teddy said. “She’s only scared. She’s trying to help.”
    “We’re all trying to help,” Ruby said. “And that includes Officer Claude Bougart.”
    “Booger, he in on this?”
    “He sure is. Look now, I’ve read your notes. I know where you’re going.”
    “Do you?”
    “You were trying to figure out who poisoned Daddy.”
    “Well, now I know who.”
    “But it’s more than that, Perry. Now it’s the murder of Cletus Tyler, and fifteen black boys with nowhere to go, and twenty black men over off Paris Avenue.“
    “Where Mama Vi took us that Christmas.” Perry covered his eyes with his hands.
    “It’s all about being thrown away, Perry.”
    “I been trying to forget—all my life I try...”
    “But we can’t afford to forget.” Ruby took Sister’s hand. Teddy took the other one, and they pulled her up. Then all three stepped over to the daybed where Perry sat. Ruby said, “Trust my husband’s plan. Trust me and Teddy and Sister Connie and Claude. We trust him. Things will start moving in the right direction— come Sunday.”
    Teddy said, “You better believe I’m getting ideas for one fabulous show.”
    “Are you with us?” Ruby asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Oh, Perry, please...!” Sister burst into tears, and sobbing spasms, years of anger and guilt vented. “Do it for me! Do it for what that snake lady done to me!“
    “Little girl—!”
    “I been trying to forgive and forget in the Jesus windows. But I can’t. Oh,