Jazz: Vol 3 of the Still Waters Series

Chapter 27

Claire was sitting on the sofa trying to hold the baby and read a letter at the same time when I walked out into the front room. Remmey was in the kitchen heating up a bottle. I sat down next to Claire and reached out for the baby. Claire handed her to me, and the baby's eyes opened wide as she smiled right up at me. I smiled back at her, and then looked at Claire. She was completely focused on whatever she was reading. Remmey came out with the bottle and the baby started talking loud until he finally picked her up out of my arms and patted her back.

Claire watched them with a blank stare and went back to the letter.

"We gone sit on the porch, Claire." Claire looked up at Remmey and nodded, then watched them walk out the door. As soon as they were gone, she went back to the letter again.

"Sammy really loves him," I whispered. The door was still open. Only the screen was closed.

Claire nodded absentmindedly. "He used to talk to me a lot when I was pregnant. I guess the baby heard him and know his voice." I nodded. She put the letter down and looked at me. "You wit' Remmey now?" I shook my head no. She grinned. "Yes you are. I heard you." She stared at me a long time. "He love you, Jazz."

I shook my head no, she nodded her head yes.

"He say I fuck who I want to fuck." Claire's mouth dropped open. I shrugged. "That's what he say." Claire didn't speak. Her mouth was still hanging open. I never cursed like that. "He can't just mean that for me, Claire." I looked at her. "He wit' who he want to be wit', too. We not together." She nodded and looked back at the letter. I had a feeling who it was from. "Christian not like that," I assured her. She nodded again and looked back toward the screen door.

"I hope the baby recognize Christian's voice when she see him. He wasn't around much." I nodded sympathetically and she handed me the letter. I looked down at it. "It's from Christian," she said sadly. "He say he still love me and still want me." I searched her eyes, trying to read why that hadn't brought a smile to her face. "He want to see us soon..." her voice trailed off. "Before they call his number."

Her face was pinched and stressed.

I looked back at the letter.

He was worried about being drafted before he got to see the baby.

I put the letter down.

"Claire..." I took her hand in mine. "He don't know he gone get called. He just scared. Like all the boys." I looked toward the door. All the boys but Remmey. For some reason, he didn't have any kind of paper trail on his life.

From the very beginning.

All he had was houses.

He said he owned all those houses, but they couldn't have been in his real name. He didn't even have a social security number as far as Wally B told me. That's why he was such an important part of the Organization. If Remmey left Baton Rouge for good...

It just wouldn't work without him.

"Wally B goin' to college," Claire whispered, like she was reading my mind.

I focused back in on her. "What?"

"Remmey told me. Wally B gone go to college after he get out of that farm school. They can't draft him if he...go to college..." She took the letter back and looked down at it. "I wish Christian could go. So he wouldn't get drafted, either. But...he never went back to school. Not after his Granny sent him back to Houston. So...I don't think he can until he finish high school." She sighed deeply. "I don't know..."

Claire looked thoughtfully down at the paper, and then over at me when she heard me sniff back a tear. I impatiently wiped at my eyes.

"Jazz...what's wrong?"

I shook my head. "I just...I just didn't know Wally B wasn't comin' back."

He was truly my only friend.

"Jazz..." Claire put her hand over mine, but she couldn't think of anything else to say. "Remmey...he didn't tell you because he knew it would hurt you."

I nodded and then wiped at my face again.

Remmey came back through the door and stopped when he saw me crying. He gazed at me curiously for a minute, and then turned his attention to Claire.

"It too hot for the baby. And she don't want the bottle, she want you."

He handed the baby and the bottle to Claire, and then looked back at me.

"I told her. About Wally B." Remmey watched Claire say the words like he was assessing what to do, and then he looked back at me. Claire looked over at me, too. Baby Sammy started whining and buried her face in Claire's shirt. Claire's attention was immediately drawn back to the baby. "I'll be back."

She stood up and carried the baby to her room, shutting the door behind her.

Remmey watched me for a minute more and then, I guess, deciding that there was nothing he could do about it, ran his thumb down my cheek, kissed me on the forehead and left back out of the house.

I knew he wouldn't be back until late that night or the next morning.