What They Found Read Free Page B

Thursday morning at ten o’clock. He said he had to be in school at that time and I said—”
    “Didn’t
you
have to be in school at that time?”
    “Yes, ma’am, but this was for my homegirl so I made the sacrifice,” Cheryl said. “Anyway, I told him to come over if he really loved her. He said he would be there.
    “He came over and I asked him if he really loved Evelyn and he said yes. Meanwhile, I had on my housedress and I was letting it fly open a little to see where his eyes went. They stayed right on my face and I wondered about that because most brothers, if they alone with a girl, will let their eyes wander all over the place.
    “He asked me what was wrong with Evelyn and I kept stalling and telling him I didn’t know how to tell him. He said he was going to leave and go ask her. I said if he asked and she told him they would probably have to break up. He kind of calmed down. Then I asked him to hold me because I was so upset.”
    “I know you washed your hair just before you came here because I can still smell the soap, but you didn’trinse it enough.” Mama Evans took Cheryl over to the sink. “Did he go for you needing to be held?”
    “No, and that made me wonder even more.”
    “Cheryl, some men are just wonderful and pure and trying their best to do the right thing,” Mama Evans said. “You have to understand that.”
    “He said that he didn’t understand how him holding me was going to help Evelyn,” Cheryl said. “I asked him why he was just relying on his brain and what he was thinking. I told him that Evelyn was my friend a long time before she was his. So he broke down and let me sit on his lap. When I did I let my housecoat just fall open so he could take a good look.”
    “And he knew exactly what you were doing, Cheryl,” Mama Evans said. “He’s not a fool.”
    “I could see that,” Cheryl said. “Which is why I went to plan B.”
    “Which was?”
    “I told him the problem wasn’t with Evelyn, it was with me,” Cheryl said.
    “Cheryl, please don’t tell me you were going after that girl’s man?”
    “No way! How I look trying to steal somebody’s boyfriend? As good-looking as I am I don’t have to be taking no hand-me-downs!” Cheryl turned her head to one side and put her hand on her hip. “I have never been desperate for no man. But I needed to find out if this man wasmessing over my best friend. So I said it was about me and all I needed was to have him one time and I would be satisfied.”
    “I need some aspirins,” Mama Evans said. “Sit under the dryer for a while, baby.” Mama Evans dried her hands, switched on the dryer, and went for the aspirins.
    The phone rang. It was Abeni asking if her boyfriend, Harrison Boyd, had called. Mama Evans said that he hadn’t. As she hung up she looked at the photograph of her husband, Troy, on the wall near the shop’s license. She wondered if he had ever experienced anything like the encounter with Cheryl.
    “Okay, sweetheart, there you are gaming on your best friend’s man.” Mama Evans sat next to Cheryl and turned off the dryer. “Go on.”
    “So I took off my housecoat and my slip and asked him what he was going to do.”
    “What did you have on then?”
    “Mama Evans, I was running out of ideas!”
    “Yes, dear, but what did you have on?”
    “I didn’t have nothing on, and I did realize that it was too late to turn back. He looked me up and down and then he told me to sit down. I sat on the edge of the bed. Then he asked me what I was doing. Only, Mama Evans, he leaned forward and he looked so sincere that I told him everything that had gone on before. I told him about me and Evelyn being in here having our hair done. I toldhim about how Evelyn said she was in love with him and how I was wondering if he was, you know, the kind of man that liked other men.
    “He took my hands in his and said it was a kind thing that I was doing. I told him to sit down because I didn’t like having to look up to