Mama Ruby Read Free Page A

caught Ruby completely off guard. Her eyes got big and her heart skipped a few beats. “Huh? Me?”
    Othella nodded. “Yeah. My brother likes you. . . .”
    “DAMN!” Of all the boys that Ruby knew, not a single one was as cute as Isaiah “Ike” Cartier. “He’s just about the best lookin’ boy in town!” Ruby didn’t realize she was licking her lips like a hungry dog until Othella snickered. Embarrassed, Ruby blinked and pressed her lips together for a few moments. “Uh . . . he’s got all of them cute freckles on his face. And you say he likes me?”
    “I know he’s cute, he knows he’s cute, and so do all of the other girls around here. But he’s particular when it comes to girls. He’s always goin’ on and on about your titties.”
    Ruby laughed and stuck out her chest.
    “What’s so funny?” Othella wanted to know.
    “Every female has titties,” Ruby chuckled.
    “Yeah, that’s true. But unless she’s a big cow, every female ain’t got no big healthy rack like you got. One of these days, I am goin’ to scrape up enough money and buy me a pair of them fake foam titties that I see all the time in them magazine ads.”
    There was a smug look on Ruby’s face, and that was why what she said next caught Othella by surprise. “Well, if I could give you half of mine, I would.”
    “And you would end up regrettin’ that. Men like big titties. One day you’ll be glad for what God gave you.”
    “I wish I looked more like you,” Ruby admitted, gazing at Othella like she was looking at a fancy new bicycle. “You are the kind of girl that colored men really go for. Teeny-weeny body, light skin.” Ruby paused and looked Othella up and down. “And all of that long pretty black hair. You look just like one of them white film stars with a tan.”
    “And lookin’ the way I do usually causes me a lot of problems. I swear to God, boys and men sniff after me like dogs in heat,” Othella complained, and then she gave Ruby a misty-eyed look and a tight smile. To Ruby, this was an indication that Othella enjoyed all of the male attention she attracted, but she kept that thought to herself. She knew how stuck on themselves pretty girls generally were. “Even my mama’s men friends and all of my brothers’ friends try to mess with me. If that ain’t bad enough, they try to pester all of my girlfriends, too. And a bunch of ’em been askin’ me about you, too.”
    Othella could be as vain and as stuck on herself as she wanted to be as far as Ruby was concerned. It didn’t matter. The fact that she was trying to help Ruby jump-start her love life made a huge impression on Ruby. That made up for the few things about Othella that Ruby didn’t like.
    “Oh? Is that so? Them other boys and your brother Ike? They been askin’ about me?”
    “Uh-huh. Especially my brother Ike. I ain’t never seen him grin the way he does when your name comes up. Ruby, you need to hurry up and get loose.”
    “Sure enough!” Ruby agreed, unable to stop grinning. She was ready to “get loose” and she knew that once she did, she’d be loose for a long time to come. “What time did you say your party was startin’ tomorrow night?”

CHAPTER 3
    R UBY WAS AWESTRUCK THE FIRST TIME SHE ENTERED THE house that Othella lived in with her mother and six siblings. She had seen the outside on several occasions, but she’d never been inside until now. It was like walking into a carnival fun house. The furniture in the congested living room was loud and mismatched. There was a shabby plaid couch backed against the wall with one brick on top of another in the place of a missing leg. A lumpy yellow and black settee faced it. The settee had no legs at all. A bloodred upright piano sat against the wall by the door.
    “Y’all got a piano, too?” Ruby squealed. “Other than my uppity cousin Hattie in Baton Rouge, ain’t nobody in my family got a piano in the house.”
    “What about the church where your daddy preaches at? I hear