Chapter 11: It's A Man's World

Sissy was crying when she opened the door for her mistress. Matilda looked upset and Opal looked angry. Through the window by his bed, Martin had seen her grand entry when she drove through the closed gates. "Millicent, get in here!" he shouted.

"Oh thank God, oh Martin, you know who I am." Millicent reached her arms out toward her husband and ran across the room.

"Well of course I know who you are, we're engaged. Why shouldn't I know who you are?" He cocked his head and looked at her for a moment. "You look ten years older; have you been ill?"

"Oh Father," Colleen hurried over to his bedside and smiled. "I'm so glad you're feeling better."

"Father?" Martin got an alarmed look on his face. "Millicent, I assure you I never saw this ... this child before in my life! I have been true to you and would never dally with anyone..." His voice trailed off.

Millicent interrupted his tirade. "Martin, You have been shot. You had amnesia and seem to have recovered some of your memories. This is your daughter Colleen and we have been married for over thirteen years." Millicent began to cry.

"Where am I, in a madhouse?" He stared wildly around, "When did they begin to allow coloreds to cohabit with whites? That crazy colored standing over there," Martin gestured one hand at Sissy, "she ripped the telephone she holds in her hands right off the wall when I demanded she bring it to me and that big one over there keeps insisting I should drink a cup of coffee and settle down. What is going on here?"

"Dad, don't you recognize me neither?" Billy asked.

"Martin Summers!" Millicent yelled at him. "You will please shut your mouth and cease this unseemly speech immediately."

"He yelled at me and said for me to get that damned telephone and bring it right to him right now and I got scared and brought it to him. Then he call me a crazy nigger." Sissy began to sob and Millicent hugged her close. She patted the sobbing maid's back until she was calm again.

"Hush now dear. Mister Summers will be sorry he was so insulting to you when he recovers more. Throw that telephone away. We'll get a new one. I never liked that old thing anyway." Millicent shooed Sissy toward the living room.

"Millicent! What is the meaning of your unseemly behavior? Unhand that crazy..."

He started again, "Millicent I shall take measures to prevent such unacceptable behavior on your part. People do not consort with coloreds."

Millicent ignored her husband's tirade. "Billy dear, please run downtown to the telephone company and tell them we need a replacement and two new telephone lines brought into this house. Hurry now." She shooed Billy out the door.

"I never heard of such an extravagance," Martin huffed at his wife." Why would anyone need three telephone lines into one house? Who's going to pay for them?"

In a sugary sweet voice, Millicent answered, "You shall pay for them Martin Summers and I want no more argument from you."

"Somehow you've gotten old and insufferably impertinent. Millicent, I have decided, not too reluctantly, I might add, to call our engagement off. I refuse to marry a domineering female who doesn't know her place in a man's world." He frowned at her.

Millicent's voice turned hard. "We are already married and Colleen is our daughter. After you were shot I took over and have been running the bank and your other affairs. Right now I am the boss in this man's world, Martin Summers." She emphasized "this man's world" to let her husband know what she thought of any "man's world."

"By the Lord Harry we'll see about that," Martin exclaimed and tried to get out of bed.

Millicent became alarmed. "Martin! Stop that. You're injured. Now you lie quiet and stop your tirade. We can discuss things and I'll try to help you recover your memory more. You are an invalid and a very poor patient."

Martin struggled to get up out of bed. Then he then became panic stricken when his body wouldn't respond. "Oh my god, I can't walk! I'm a cripple. What's happened to me? Millicent, help me to understand." He held an arm out to her.

She sat beside him on his bed and held him close. "Hush now, my beloved. Hush, everything will get better. I'll take care of you. I love you so, my husband."

She held his face against her breast and rocked back and forth. "Oh my dearest one we'll see this through together."

Martin was scandalized, "Millicent! You held my face against you in a very unseemly manner. There are people present. You have never..."

"Dearest, you are my husband and I am your wife and I love you. Lie back now and try to get some rest. You have had a very upsetting experience. I'll be here when you awaken."

Like an obedient child, Martin closed his eyes and went to sleep. Millicent looked down at her husband, as he lay quiet. She had tears in her eyes as she whispered, "Oh Martin, please get well soon. I don't know how much longer I can compete in your man's world. Oh I'm so tired."

Opal shook her head and went to the back yard to round up her brood. She came back inside and told Millicent, "I'll get my young'uns out front and wait for my sister to take us home.

Billy hugged Millicent around the waist. He tried to reassure her, "Don't worry, Mom. Me and the Princess will help you."

"Dad's got to get better 'cause he promised to take me to see the oil wells outside Oklahoma City. He says they are long overdue for an inspection."

Millicent bent over and kissed Billy on the forehead, "He'll take you; we just have to wait for him to get better."

Before Billy could answer, the room was filled with the nasal sounds of Gene Austin as he sang "Whispering." Sissy looked at Millicent, "Miz Summers, Miz Colleen say to bring the radio in from Mist' Billy's room and plug it in so Mist Summers can listen to it. She say maybe then he not be so grumpy."

Colleen added, "Besides, I get to give away something of Billy's and he can't even gripe about it." She gave Billy an un-princess like smirk and stuck her nose in the air.

"Oh, that's all right, Princess. I already gave some of your dresses to Clarence for paint rags." He started to laugh as Colleen started to run from the room.

She stopped and looked at Billy. "You really didn't, did you?" She turned back and rushed to her room to make certain.

Billy laughed and Millicent asked him, "You didn't give Clarence any of your sister's clothing for paint rags, did you?"

"Naw, but it's fun to make her jump now and then when she thinks she's put one over on me. Boy, did you see the look on her face?"

"Oh Billy you are a little bandit." Millicent bent her head down and brushed her cheek against the top of his head.

Colleen came back into the room, "Billy Joe Summers, you lied to me. All of my dresses are still there."

"Oh, I guess that means Clarence hasn't built the flapdoodle onto the horse house."

"Billy, you know there's no such thing as a horse house. And a flapdoodle is nothing more than a nonsensical phrase or statement. You persist in saying such things just to make me angry."

Billy grinned and laughed at the expression on her face. "Well, it works too, doesn't it? You sure do get indignant at me, don't you?"

Colleen got a faint hint of a smile on her face. "You better watch out, Billy Joe Summers." Billy began to back up when the smile grew a little wider. Without warning, Colleen darted forward and kissed Billy hard on the lips.

Millicent saw the look of confusion on Billy's face. His mouth opened in surprise and his hands dropped to his sides. "Oh Billy, your princess has found a new way to bedevil you."

Jimmy's speech regressed. "No ma'am, ain't no devilry there. But she shouldn't go 'round kissin' and stuff just to tease. It ain't right. I'm on the verge too, I guess."

"Billy Joe Summers, I apologize. There shall be no more kisses between us." She kissed him on the cheek. "Well, none on the lips, that is. After all, we are brother and sister."

"Let's go outside and I'll swing you," Billy told her.

Millicent watched Billy lead Colleen by the hand. At the door Billy stopped and said, "You know Mom, we sure are lucky we got the princess." He tugged on Colleen's hand and they left the house to swing.

"We're mighty lucky we have you too, Billy." She went to tend to her husband.

"Millicent, what will I do if I don't ever recover?" Martin was awake again.

"Then I shall do as I have been doing and run our business and do the best I can for all of us. At least now I shall have you to help me make the proper decisions."

Martin looked horrified. "No! Absolutely not. I forbid it. It is not fitting that a refined person such as yourself engage in men's affairs."

Millicent rolled her eyes and gave her husband a pitying look. When you first began to court me, I heard you spout that silly drivel and thought you were joking. You really believe that nonsense, don't you?"

"Millicent, That is not drivel. The Summers have always treated their womenfolk with the highest of respect. That's why I married you. You always acted the part of a lady, at all times."

"Of all the..." Millicent began, stopped and stared at Martin, hope in her eyes. "You remembered that we are married. You do, don't you?"

Martin became indignant as he answered, "Well of course I remember. We have been married for..." He stopped, remembered more and exclaimed, "Oh no I've been shot. The doctor said ... You've been taking care of the bank and..."

A lump formed in Millicent's throat. "Oh Martin my love, you remember. Oh thank god." She kissed him on the lips and rubbed her soft cheek against his unshaven one.

"Welcome home," she whispered.

"Mom!" Billy shouted as he ran into the house, "There's three men outside, comin' up the walk. Princess has gone to warn Matilda and Clarence. I'll go get your purse with the gun in it." He ran for the living room.

"What's going on?" Martin started to ask.

Three men shoved their way inside the front door. The lead man was dressed in a brown pinstripe suit and brogans. He adjusted the driver's cap on his head and cocked it over his right eye. Martin took one look and recognized the type, a bullyboy bodyguard.

The second man to enter wore a solid black suit, well-tied cravat at his neck. He removed his snap-brim fedora and handed it to Sissy. "Here girl, take care of this and be careful."

"Yassa," Sissy whispered. Her eyes darted from the well-dressed stranger to Millicent and back again. She stood frozen.

"Girl, put that hat away until I tell you to get it." Sissy ran from the room.

The third man to enter was a bare headed tough. He was the type who was hired to protect and intimidate. He said nothing, as he stood quiet by the front door. Martin's face showed great anger.

Sissy came running back into the room. She screamed, "Billy peed in that man's hat! Billy peed all over it!"

Colleen came into the living room through the door from the dining room. "Mother, I had Father's revolver from under the seat of the Stutz. Clarence told me it was too large for me to carry." She had a little smile on her face as if she knew a secret.

The owner yelled, "Nigger, get my hat and bring it here, now!"

"Oh no suh I ain't goin' to pick up no peed on hat. That Billy did a good job of soakin' it" She giggled and ran back toward the kitchen. The hat's owner ran after her.

Billy walked into the room and smiled. "Mom, here's your purse. Do you need anything else?"

"No dear, that will be all." Almost in a daze, she accepted her purse and reached inside. She watched Billy walk into the dining room.

They all heard a man's voice shout, "Hey!" This was followed by a loud crash and a gunshot. Millicent withdrew the small revolver from her purse and aimed at the man by the front door. She pulled the trigger and nothing happened.

"Permit me, Mother." Colleen took the gun from her mother and took it off safety. She turned and aimed at the other tough who stood and stared.

When Colleen squeezed the trigger there was a sharp report and the man grabbed his right bicep with his left hand. "I been shot!" the man yelled.

"Here, Mother, it works fine now." Colleen handed the pistol to Millicent.

"What?" Martin tried to ask and was interrupted.

Matilda shoved the bleeding owner of the "peed on hat" out ahead of her. "She was armed with her heavy cast iron skillet. "Billy, you scallywag, I don't want you to use my good knives on this kind of trash ever again. You use one of my old knives."

Billy grinned at her mock scolding. "Well you just wash it extra good before you cut any food with it. Besides, I'm going to keep this gun for myself if Mom says so. She keeps taking them away from me."

Clarence came into the house, preceded by two more strangers. "Does I shoots them of does I lets them go?" he asked in a thick farm hand gumbo accent.

Matilda yelled at Clarence, "Clarence, you stop talking like a down south nigger field hand. This is a refined house and you talk refined when you're anywhere around the Martins. They is fine folk."

"Aw Matilda, you just lay off Clarence. He's been listening to Amos 'N Andy too much. Now you treat him nice because he's the only other person here that knows how to build a horse house."

Millicent looked at the grinning Clarence. "Please don't shoot them in the house. Tell them to sit on the floor in the corner. Will someone please call the police?"

"By all that's holy, just what in the name of the devil is going on here?" Martin looked back and forth at the people he could see. "Three absolute strangers have just forced their ways in here and you all act as if this is an everyday occurrence."