Mississippi Noir by Tom Franklin

Author:Tom Franklin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Akashic Books
Published: 2016-06-10T04:00:00+00:00

GOD’S GONNA TROUBLE THE WATER

by Dominiqua Dickey

Grenada

I

Elnora Harden had just sat down on her back step to sort through a mess of mustard greens when the pounding started on her front door. Everybody in Boone Alley knew she kept the front bolted shut except for emergencies or business. Even then, she rarely answered it. With heavy, dark clouds rolling in, she wanted the greens cleaned, in the pot, and on the stove before the storm hit. This disturbance already had her on edge because it was interference. Dammit, Elnora hated interferences.

“All right, shit,” she muttered under her breath.

She dropped a dishtowel over the sorted pot of greens and put both it and the dirty, unpicked batch on the back porch out of the way of the potential downfall. The noise at her door hadn’t stopped by the time she reached it and her temper was beginning to match the tempo. She wiped her hands clean on her apron and yanked the door open. Curses waited on the tip of her tongue. They had to wait longer still because the front porch was empty.

Elnora stepped outside. The slamming of the screen door echoed, but she paid it no mind. A lone figure walked down the alley toward Lake Street. In the waning sunlight, she made out a womanly shape with long hair pulled back into a single braid. Bits of white flapped at her waist while the rest of her outfit was dark green, similar to what the maids who worked at the big-time hotel on Main Street wore. The smart figure, shapely legs, and long braid—it didn’t take more than a second or two for Elnora to put those pieces together.

“Cissy!” She cupped her hand to her mouth to give the shout extra power. “Cissy Shaw, get back here!”

“Cousin El?” The younger woman spun on her low-heel shoes and hurried up the gravel-covered road to meet Elnora halfway. Tears stained her cheeks. She reached for Elnora’s hands. “I was so scared you weren’t home!”

“You know better than anyone to come to the back.” She would have pulled free, but Cissy’s hold was strong. “Come on. They’re all at the window now. Let’s get inside ’fore it starts to pour and everybody gets wet trying to hear your business.”

The trembling young woman let go once they were inside. Elnora claimed the rocking chair near the wood-burning stove. Cissy perched on the edge of the wrought-iron four-poster bed. The smell of dust and rain blew in through the open windows. Lace hand-me-down curtains fluttered, reminding Elnora that she was overdue for spring cleaning. She sighed. Yet another thing to break up her peace and quiet. Just like the quivering, sniffling mass on her bed.

“All right there, Cissy.” Elnora took an unused handkerchief from her apron pocket and patted it into the other woman’s hands. “Banging on my door like that, you must want something more than to cry like a baby—”

“That’s it!” Cissy cried out suddenly amid hiccups. “The baby! Cousin El, you got to help me.

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