Mr Brach’s Caramels

Mr. Brachs Caramels

By DHMcCarty

Auntie Betta used to give me a caramel when I would be frettin’. Soft, sweet, warm, and chewy, all at the same time.

I fold up the wrappers and store them in my pocket. That way they don’t wrinkle.

I got 6 of them in there.

Auntie B say. “Thank the good lord for something as comforting as caramels.”

I say, if you want to thank someone, maybe you should thank Mr. Brach.

Auntie Betta give me those caramels to keep me quiet.

“Violet, you don’t wanna call attention to yourself. When things ain’t going right for the men’s, they start in drinkin’. Whiskey brings out the Devil. An’ that Devil go lookin’ for little girls.”

Messie stays in the barn. She don’t never come out except in the morning when she know Mr. Roy off to work. She knows because Slider comes crawling up that ladder.

Slider, he’s smart. He don’t go near the barn when Mr. Roy is around. He can hear that old truck coming from a mile away.

I was hanging out on the end of the porch, sitting under the window and snapping a bowl of beans for Auntie Betta. I heard that old truck drive away. I lean forward on the porch and take a peek under. Sure enough, that old dog pop his head out and trots off toward the barn.

I took them beans in and set em’ on the table.

Auntie Betta turn around with her sad face and wipe her hands on her apron.

Auntie Betta always got a sad face

“Here baby. You take these caramels out to the barn. , Make sure you share with Messie.”

I found Messie up in the loft surrounded by hay bales. She hide out in there with her kittens. She was crouched down in the corner, holding her crooked shoulder.

That bone never did heal right.

I unwrapped one of the caramels and put the other three in my pocket with the wrappers. I split it in two with my snappin’ nail. Beans or caramels, all work the same.

Messie looked at me with those sad eyes. She don’t say a word. All she do is purr to them kittens. Auntie Betta say Messie ain’t talked in 7 years.

Ever since her shoulder got broke.

Slider lay in the corner licking one of her kittens.

Suddenly that old dog leapt from the loft onto Mr. Roy’s old flatbed, his ears straight up and scooting for under the porch.

I snuck down from the loft and peered out that barn window. Mr. Roy’s old pickup skidded to a stop against the fence. He stumbled out the front seat with an empty bottle in his hand. He raised it to his lips then looked down at it and threw it against the house where it smashed into a hundred pieces.

When he went inside, I snuck out the barn and hid on the side of the house. Anybody see me, I could slip under the porch with Slider.

I heard banging and screaming coming from the kitchen. Mr. Roy hollerin’ at the top of his lungs.

“You call that girl. She don’t do nuthin’ round here. She got to earn her keep. Where is she?”

The screen door slammed open. Mr. Roy come out on the porch and leaned against the post. He had his hand to his forehead, shading his eyes, looking across the yard and into the fields.

When he looked to the edge of the porch, I slipped back farther into the shadows. I couldn’t scurry under the porch, he was too close.

I stepped on that broken bottle and let out a yelp. My foot was oozing blood.

I look up to see Mr. Roy looking down at me. He was looking at me from my head to my feet and the back up.

“When your mama gonna come get you? We don’t need no orphans around here. Specially ones that don’t earn their keep.”

I was froze for a minute. Couldn’t move, couldn’t answer.

“Betty, what’s this child’s name. She mute like the other one?”

“LEAVE her alone!”

When Auntie Betta, scream out, I took off running for the barn.

I shouldn’t of but I was scared to death and I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted someplace safe.

Just as I got to the top of the ladder to the loft, the barn door slammed open and Mr. Roy was standing in the doorway with fire in his eyes.

Last thing I remember was Mr. Roy grabbing my ankle and yanking, as he headed up that ladder.

When I came to, I found Messie lying on the bed of Mr. Roy’s flatbed, all twisted up. She was crying but no sound coming out. I was so frightened.

I ran straight for the tall weeds behind the coop. That’s where the snakes and Black Widows lived but I was more scared of Mr. Roy than any copperhead.

Next morning Slider was nosing me under my chin and licking my face. I should have gone and checked on Messie but I was too scared of what I might find. I headed for the house and Auntie Betta.

Auntie Betta thrust a cloth bag into my hand and pushed me toward the door. She was bleeding from above her eye.

“You got to go. Now! There’s two sandwiches in there and some clothes. You can’t stay. Yoh’ mama in Biloxi. She dance at a club there. You go find her. You stay, you gonna end up like Messie. I got to shoot that man before he kill my chile. He’ll come after you next.

Take my shoes. You got to go.You follow 15 south till you get to Biloxi. Can’t be too many dance clubs. Find your mama. Now go.”

I was standing on Hwy. 15 holding the bag in my hand when an old car with faded paint pulled over beside me. An old woman rolled down the window and just looked at me. She looked as sad as Auntie Betta.

She drive me all the way to Biloxi. When the car stopped, that old woman reached in her purse and gave me two wrinkled up dollar bills. There was a tear in her eye.

“I hope you find your mama child. There ain’t but four dance clubs in Biloxi and two of them are for the colored folk. You might want to check Pass Rd. Theres a place there called The Pink Pony. It ain’t fancy like the one down near the Gulf. Something tell me that if your mama is dancing at a club, that’s where you find her.

Now you be careful. Don’t trust no one, specially no men’s. I wish I could give you more money, but that’s all I got. If you don’t find your mama, you go find the police. They put a roof over your head.”

I walked for miles looking for that club. I finally saw a faded sign with a picture of a pink pony wearing cowboy boots and a swim suit. The sign read 300 yards and a big red arrow pointing down the road. My foot was hurting so bad I could hardly walk.

Auntie Betta’s shoes flopping on my feet, but it was better then being barefoot.

I waited behind a car until there was no one in that parking lot and then I snuck up to the doorway. There was a big man covered in tattoos sitting on a stool just inside the doorway. He was talking to a policeman that was smoking a cigarette. The two of them was laughing and drinking beer.

They looked as scary as Mr. Roy.

I snuck around to the back and hid out by a dumpster. After a while an old colored man came out the back door and leaned against the rail smoking a cigarette.

I came out from behind that dumpster and stood holding my bag. I reached down into my pocket to check those three caramels were still there.

“What you doing chile? This ain’t no place for children. You got to move on.”

His voice was soft. He looked me right in the eye, not up and down like Mr. Roy.

“I’m looking for my mama. I think she dance here.”

He looked at me for a moment.

“She got yellow hair like you? Yellow with curls?”

“Yes sir.”

“You wait right there chile. Might take a minute.”

I sat down with my back against that dumpster and reached into my pocket and pulled out one of them caramels. I unwrapped it and then folded that wrapper two times until it was a neat little square.

I split the caramel with my snap nail.

My foot was hurting so bad. The blood had turned Auntie Betta’s shoe an ugly brown color.

The door opened.

Mama was standing against the rail wearing scuffed up high heel shoes. a swimsuit, and stockings with holes in them. Her eyes was all sunken and grey. She was smoking a cigarette and chewing on her lip.

“Violet, that you? What you doing here? This ain’t no place for a child. What happened to your foot?”

I told her all bout what happened. With Messie, with Auntie Betta, with Mr. Roy and that broken bottle. About Auntie Betta sending me away. Mama was chewing her lip so bad it was bleeding.

“Baby, I live with Tommy, in his trailer, just up the road. I don’t have no place of my own. I don’t know what he gonna say.”

The door opened and that big man that was sitting on the stool came out. He had a big mustache that drooped down his chin. He tilt his head back and spat a wad of chew over my head. He was looking me up and down just like Mr. Roy did.

“Tommy, this my daughter Violet. She’s in town for awhile. I was wondering if she could stay with us?”

“Can she dance? If I gotta feed her, she gotta make keep.

You up at the end of this song. Get your ass inside.”

Mama was crying and the makeup was running in black streaks down her face.

“You can’t stay. It ain’t safe. You can sleep in that old white car over in the corner of the parking lot. Back door is open and there a blanket inside. Keep the door locked. Tomorrow you’ll have to go.”

It wasn’t quite light out when mama pulled up in a pickup truck. She come and knocked on the window, crawled inside and wrapped her arms around me. We were rocking and rocking and the tears were just streaming down her face. I didn’t have no tears. I wanted to but I think they all dried up.

“Come on, I got to get back before he wakes up.”

Mama drove me in that pickup truck into town. She pulled into a gas station and turned off the truck. Her lip was bleeding again. She just sit there looking at me and holding my hand. She reached in her jeans pocket and pulled out some money. It was a $10 bill.

“There’s a Taco Bell just up this road. That money will last a couple of days, if you don’t waste it. You look for a police lady or an old colored lady. They’ll help you. Don’t go with no police man. I know the police men in this town. Don’t get in their car. Remember, watch for a police lady. Don’t tell them about me. Just say you couldn’t find me.”

Three days later I was sitting on a bench down by the water watching children laughing and splashing in the waves. They seemed so far away.

I reached into my pocket for a caramel but they was all gone. Just 12 wrappers folded twice into neat little squares, just as smooth as could be.