Mucho Mojo

31.

Hanson let us go, charge free. Florida took me and Leonard home. When she pulled into the driveway and we got out, she got out too. The smell of burnt lumber from next door was strong in the air. Florida said, “Hap, can we talk a moment?”

“Sure,” I said.

Florida looked at Leonard.

“I’m worn out,” Leonard said. “I’m just going to take a cheerful look of what’s left of next door, then go to sleep.”

We walked around to the bottle tree and stood there looking at the smoky, blackened shell of the house.

“Mucho mojo,” Florida said.

“What?” I said.

“Much bad magic,” she said. “Next door was mucho mojo. Something my grandmother used to say. Mojo is African for magic.”

“I thought it was sex,” I said.

“That’s because you listen to blues records,” she said. “It is sex, or even the sex organs. But that’s bastardized. Meaning sex is like magic. Mojo means magic. My grandmother knew some Spanish, and when things were bad, she’d say ‘mucho mojo.’ Spanish mucho for much, African mojo for magic. But what she meant when she said it was much bad magic. To her, mojo was always bad.”

“Well, they’re a little less bad next door,” Leonard said.

“Yeah,” I said. “And we can feel good looking out our windows, but they’ll just move to some other street. They’re not really gone, they’re merely inconvenienced.”

“I’d rather inconvenience them than just let them go,” Leonard said. “Scum like that get inconvenienced often enough, they might think the career they got isn’t worth it. It’s the good folks of the world that are supposed to be in charge, not the assholes. Though, in my darker moments, I sometimes fear the assholes outnumber us. By the way, Florida, who’s this Otis guy?”

“White guy who owned the house, and a lot of houses here on the East Side,” Florida said. “I’ve heard he openly refers to these as his nigger rent houses. And it’s pretty well known he gets a cut of the drug pie over here.”

“And he’s a friend of the police chief’s,” Leonard said.

“Yes,” Florida said. “And he’ll just build the house back. Cheaply, of course.”

“Well, that’s for another discussion,” Leonard said. “Good night, Florida. Hap, don’t you stay up late, now. I don’t want you fussin’ when I get you out of bed tomorrow.”

Leonard went in the house and Florida and I sat on the porch in the glider. I remembered that the glider was where our romance had begun.

I said, “This is sort of the Dear-John talk, right?”

“I’ve wanted to talk to you, I just haven’t had the guts, because I really don’t know what to say.”

“I guess ‘Bye-bye, Hap, and don’t forget your hat’ would be OK.”

“It’s not like that.”

“How is it?”

“I’m going over to Marve’s tonight.”

“I’d rather you just said, ‘Bye-bye, don’t forget your hat.’”

“He’s a good man, Hap.”

“That’s what pisses me off. It’s hard for me to feel self-righteous. I like the big bastard. But I still don’t like hearing it. Not that I didn’t already know.”

“I wanted you to hear it from me. I just didn’t have the courage to do it right away. I should have said something soon as I knew. Hap, it wasn’t like you and me were a hundred percent anyway. I never said our relationship was forever.”

“Hurts just the same.”

“You’ll get over it.”

“Yeah, but I’d rather it have worked out.”

“Me too. Really. I do care for you. I maybe even love you a little.”

“Please.”

“It just happened, Hap. I don’t know what to tell you. It happened, and it happened fast. It was good between you and me, and you taught me some things about myself, but-”

“Hanson’s black.”

“I suppose, if I’m honest with myself, I’ll admit that makes it easier.”

“You never took me to that movie, Florida. You know, I never even been to your place. I bet Hanson has. Hasn’t he?”

“Yes. But I knew the night I saw him over here he was the one. I don’t know why. I’d seen him before, but that night was the first time I was really close enough to feel the heat.”

“Maybe it was just a hot night.”

She smiled. “No. It wasn’t just a sexual thing. There was that, but it’s not that he’s the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“He’s not the prettiest thing anyone’s ever seen.”

“But I saw him, and somehow I knew. And the other night, when he took me home, we didn’t go to bed or anything like that. I wanted you to know that. We didn’t just jump in the sack. We talked, and talked, and talked. There was a connection between us that goes deeper than the one you and I’ve got. It’s that simple. Maybe being black does give us a kind of history, but what I feel for Marve isn’t merely because he’s black.”

“Of course, you two don’t just talk now.”

“First time we made love was tonight. Charlie called for him at my place when they got the news about the fire and about you and Leonard. After Marve left, you called and told me where you were. But of course, I already knew. I was about to be on my way. I figured you and Leonard could use a lawyer.”

“Did Charlie calling interrupt anything?”

“That’s juvenile, Hap.”

“Sorry.”

“We were lying in bed talking. Talking about you.”

“Comparing dick sizes?”

She got up briskly and started to leave. I caught her wrist and she jerked it away from me. “Let go of me, damnit!”

“Florida,” I said. “I’m sorry. Really. But this isn’t easy for me.”

“It’s not easy for me, Hap. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“But you want us to be friends, right? Isn’t that the thrust of this talk?”

“I know you’re hurt, but I didn’t plan this. It happened, damnit. It just happened.”

I turned my head and looked toward the pile of blackened rubble that had been the crack house. Smoke was drifting up into the starlight. I turned back and looked at Florida.

“There really isn’t anything I can say to that,” I said.

She slowly and carefully sat down beside me. She sat close. I could smell her perfume. It was the same perfume I often smelled on my pillows. She took my hand.

I said, “You really sounded like someone who was more than an ambulance chaser tonight.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

“Hanson knew you got our case in court, personal feelings or not, you’d have given him hell.”

“And I’d have beat him too. Even if you did burn the house down. And on purpose.”

“You’ll do all right,” I said. “Maybe you just needed a little rest. Sounds to me, you got your ambition back.”

“Can we be friends?” she said. “I know it sounds cliche. But I really and truly want to be friends.”

I spent a minute thinking about it. “Give me some time on it. Right now I look at you, I don’t see you that way. I don’t know how I see you.”

She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. “You’re a good find for the right person, Hap. I’m just not the right person.”

“That’s what they all say.”

She stood up and touched my shoulder. “I’ll see you, soon?”

“Soon as I can handle it,” I said.

She drove away. I watched her taillights till they were out of sight. The wind picked up and turned cool and hooted in the bottle tree.