Jubilee - Demon Hunter

2: The Fightin' Side Of Me

Jubilee woke up in a strange bed, and it took a moment to remember she was sleeping at her Aunt Martha's house. Lil'Joe walked into the room and asked, "Mama, where did you go last night?"

"Business, baby." She turned to face him, and clasped his small hands in hers. "I made a deal last night so that your daddy won't have to worry about you anymore."

"Did you put a bounty on Daddy?"

"Where did you learn about that?"

"School. My friend Merle said his mama was going to do that to his daddy if he came home drunk again."

She slipped out of bed and knelt down to look in his wide green eyes. She was also thankful she had slipped into bedclothes. "No, I just made a deal. Nothing bad happened to anyone, it was good. Real good."

He gave her an odd look and quickly changed the subject. "Okay, Aunt Martha said breakfast is ready, come and get it."

She let Joe take her by the hand to breakfast. Her head felt fuzzy, and she blindly let Joe lead her to the table. He could have led her off a cliff and she wouldn't have batted an eye.

The dining room was small, and had been completely swallowed up by an ornate dining table, which had seen better days, and several ragged chairs. The wallpaper was pulling away from the walls, and the floorboards in the room creaked at every turn. Aunt Martha was a rotund woman who could only enter the room and serve food. It was a small miracle that she didn't crash through the decrepit decking. Having ample room to sit at the table was as unlikely as a visit from General Lee. Joe sat Jubilee in a chair and sat next to her.

"Good mor-ning!!" came a shrill singsong voice from the next room. She gleefully plopped two bowls of hominy grits in front of her two guests. The smell nearly made Jubilee nauseous. Joe dutifully grabbed a nearby spoon and began eating.

"So, Jubie, where are you and Lil' Joe headed?"

"Texas. Going to see my brother. You remember Orrel?" Martha threw her an expectant look, and she obliged by eating a spoonful of grits. She forced out a "Good."

Martha parroted a "good" of her own, and nodded expectedly.

"I mean, we're leaving tomorrow. If uh, Joe and I could stay here one more night?"

She looked at Joe with a smile which vanished as she turned to Jubilee. "You're lucky I'm your daddy's only sister, and he told me on his deathbed to look out for you. If it were up to me, I'd let the two of you sleep in a boxcar. How are you getting the money to go to Texas, pray tell?"

She pushed her bowl to the center of the table. "I got a fight tonight. If I win, that's twenty-five dollars. I can pay you a little of it, for all our trouble."

Martha nodded her head and collected the two bowls. "I don't understand how a lady is willing to get her head bashed in for a measly twenty-five dollars."

"Pays better than whoring, and even if I get my head bashed in I still have my dignity. So I reckon you'd still like a few dollars?"

She dropped the bowls, sending grits in different directions. Her face became the color of a tomato. "You watch your mouth, especially around that boy. And yes, a few bucks would help. Trying times, you know, especially when my last blood relative has all the grace of a caveman." She left in a huff, barely able to fit through the doorway.

Jubilee banged the table with her fist and stood up.

"Don't go in there, mama. Don't start a fight. Then we won't be able to stay nowhere tonight", implored Lil' Joe.