Taking Care of Moses Read Free Page B

paper way down under his socks.
    He kneeled beside his bed and said his prayers. He ended the same way he always did. “And please watch over …”Then he went through his usual list of the people he thought needed to be watched over. (Sometimes Althea was on the list and sometimes she wasn’t.) But this time Randall added a new name. Moses.

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    â€œ I know somethin’ you don’t know,” Althea sang.
    Randall looked at Jaybird.
    â€œDon’t pay her no mind,” Jaybird said. “She’s just trying to get us riled up.”
    â€œI know somethin’ you don’t know,” Althea sang again. She waved a garden hose in a figure eight, sending water plopping down onto the porch above Randall and Jaybird. It was so hot out that they didn’t mind the cool water dripping through the cracks onto their heads.
    â€œHey, Althea,” Jaybird hollered through the crisscrossed wood of the lattice. “Go tell somebody who gives a hoot.”
    Althea brought the hose over to the porch and sprayed water onto the ground, turning the red dirt into goopy red mud.
    â€œOkay,” she said. “I’ll go find somebody who wants
to hear all about how Mrs. Charlotte Jennings and Miss Frieda got into it big time, and Miss Frieda called Mrs. Jennings a nosy do-gooder.”
    Jaybird held a finger to his lips and said “Shhhhh” to Randall.
    â€œAnd I bet I know plenty of people who want me to tell them about how Mrs. Jennings said ‘Shut up’ to Miss Frieda and then she said she was gonna pray for her. Then she had to push Miss Frieda’s foot out of the door so she could slam it.”
    Randall grinned at Jaybird. Jaybird sure was good at tricking Althea into telling stuff.
    Althea swished her feet around in the puddle of dirty water beside the porch.
    â€œAnd I’m gonna make somebody real happy when I tell ’em all about how them two ladies were fighting about Moses,” she went on.
    Randall scurried out from under the porch.
    â€œWhy were they fighting about Moses?” he said.
    â€œI ain’t telling you, you dirty rotten nose picker,” Althea said. She aimed the hose at Randall’s feet, splattering red mud up his legs.
    â€œCome on, Althea,” he said. “How come they were fighting about Moses?”
    Althea flicked the hose, sending water into the air and then splashing down on Randall’s head.
    â€œWho told you that anyway?” Randall said.

    Jaybird crawled out from under the porch and tugged on Randall’s arm. “Let’s go,” he said. “She don’t know nothing.”
    â€œI know Miss Frieda had a hissy fit on Mrs. Jennings’s front porch ’cause I saw her,” Althea said. “Mama give me some baby clothes to take over there, and I seen everything with my own two eyes, and I heard everything with my own two ears.” She kicked water at Jaybird.
    â€œBut why were they fighting about Moses?” Randall asked again.
    â€œâ€™Cause Miss Frieda wants to take him away from Preacher Ron and Mrs. Jennings,” Althea said.
    â€œHow come?”
    Althea shrugged. “Just wants to, I reckon.”
    â€œThat don’t make no sense, Althea,” Jaybird said.
    â€œUh-huh.” Althea twirled the hose around in circles, hopping over the water like it was a jump rope. “Miss Frieda says she’s the foster mama. She gets the babies, not Mrs. Jennings.”
    â€œLet’s go over to Miss Frieda’s,” Randall said to Jaybird. “Maybe T.J. knows what’s going on.”
    They climbed over the chain link fence behind the Gilleys’ house and raced up the alley to Sycamore Road. Miss Frieda lived in a duplex, her on one side and her sister, Earlene, on the other. Jaybird knocked on Miss Frieda’s rickety screen door. Inside, a baby was
crying. Somebody hollered, “Clean that up off the floor right now, you hear me?”
    Two small