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A few days later, a huge bouquet of flowers arrived for Annie. She read the card and saw the signature.

Yours Truly, E.M.

The card was quickly tucked away in her pocket while she let her family believe Christopher had sent them. Aunt Helen kept a knowing grin on her face anytime someone mentioned the flowers. Annie would be lying if she said she wasn’t impressed by Smoke’s gesture and a little curious to see him again if only to make sure he was doing what she told him. Maybe to see what it looked like when he was able to really smile.

As it was, their paths wouldn’t cross again for another few years after the SmokeStack twins went back up to Chicago to open a few jazz and blues joints, capitalizing on the rising popularity of the new soul music coming out of urban spots across the North. Last Annie had heard, they were getting some pretty big names on their stages and had left the gambling rooms behind. That didn’t keep her from imagining what it would be like to have him close to her like they were in his office and in the shack.

Life was moving quickly for Annie as well. Jeanie had finished her nursing program and married Frank Billings whose folks had a small church in Greenwood, and they both went up north to Chicago so she could get more nursing training than Mississippi offered colored folk. 

Pearline wanted bigger stages than the Delta juke joints offered so she went up to Detroit after hearing about some record label wanting to make a name for themselves with colored music.

Mamie and the doctor were expecting a little one soon and it had Big Mama blooming with joy at a new addition.

Fran refused all suitors and turned up her nose at the question of marriage. “Ain’t got much patience for no man or his babies.” Big Mama wasn’t too happy about it, but she learned not to push her girls too hard.

Well, she was learning. For Annie, she wanted nothing less than the best man. She tolerated Christopher because she knew his daddy was a respectable businessman and he seemed like a good boy. He just didn’t seem like the perfect fit for her Annie. Her cool nature towards Christopher was likely why he still hadn’t asked for Annie’s hand. It seemed Annie had cooled on him too. She hadn’t spoken about him in weeks and seemed content to spend her time making salves and balms in the herb shack with Marcy. For that, her grandma was thankful.

That didn’t stop other men from around town from calling on her and trying to have a word with DeLaurine about taking Annie’s hand. She turned most of them away and let a few leave their information for her to get around to later.

What she didn’t know is that her favorite grandchild’s mind was hundreds miles away thinking about the face of a man she wanted to see smile and the feeling of his hands clutching her as she stood tending his wound. 

It would soon become clear to DeLaurine that she wouldn’t have much choice in the man Annie married after her only son, Howard, Jr. burst in the door sobbing like an injured child.

She ran to him as Helen came from upstairs to see what was going on. “Junior, get up from that floor right now! Why you doin’ all that cryin’? What you done now?” She knew her son too well to know he had gotten himself into some mess and was now crying to her to get him out of it.

“Mama, I had to. I had to, Mama, I’m sorry.” Snot and tears ran down Junior’s face as he reached out for his mother.

Stepping out of his reach, DeLaurine looked at him confused. “What you talkin ‘bout, Junior? What you done now?” 

“Please, I had to, Mama! They was gon’ kill me, Mama.” He hung his head scared to look his mother in the eye.

Helen gasped. “Junior, no!”

DeLaurine looked between her children still not understanding what they were talking about. “What is this about, Helen? Somebody tell me somethin!”

“Where the deed at, Junior?” Helen asked shakily before her mother charged at her brother. 

“What she mean, Junior?” Her fists hit him any place she could reach. “What you do to my granddaddy deed, Junior?” She continued to pound at him before she was pulled back by Helen. “You better hope they kill you, Junior, because I’m gon’ make you suffer if you done give away everything we got!” 

Outside, Finny barked at the commotion alerting Annie who was in the herb shack with Marcy. They both ran into the house to see Junior on the floor and Big Mama trying to break from Helen’s hold on her. 

“What’s this, Junior?” Marcy didn’t doubt for a second that her brother had done something to incur the wrath of their mother. “What you done now?”

“He done gave everything away! He done took what my granddaddy built for us and gave it away!” The pain in Big Mama’s voice shook the walls. 

Marcy yanked Junior up by his shirt and stared at his pitiful face. “What she talkin’ ‘bout? Who got that deed, Junior?”

“The twins. Smoke and Stack,” Junior squeaked out. “They got me out of a bind with a gang in Harlem. The deed was all I had to give ‘em as collateral. I thought I’d have enough to pay ‘em back when the deadline came—”

“What you mean, ‘all you had’ Junior?” Helen screamed in rage still holding on to her mother. “You got daddy’s car and all his watches! Mama send your portion of the money we make every month!”

“I KNOW, HELEN! They already took everything from me. I ain’t have nothin’ left.” He dropped back down to the floor as each woman looked at him in disgust. “But the twins—if I can just get back to Chicago, I can set up somethin’ and get the deed back.”

“Fuck you, Junior. You gon’ give ‘em the clothes off our backs next.” Marcy stepped over him resisting the urge to put her heel in his ribs and went to her mother who had stopped fightin Helen’s hold. “Take mama to the den. Annie, close that door and lock it. We don’t need nobody else in here today.”

Annie did as her mother instructed and stepped over her uncle to follow them into the den. 

Helen led Big Mama to the couch like she was a grieving widow in church. “Annie, grab a fan and come over here.” 

Grabbing a church fan off of the mantle above the fireplace, Annie went to cool her weeping grandma down. Even at the age of twenty-one, Annie felt unprepared for the realities of adulthood. So many questions ran through her mind but she kept quiet as the tension in the room nearly smothered her.

“Somebody gotta go to Chicago,” Marcy said finally. “See if we can just pay the money back.”

“Then we makin’ deals with the devil, jus’ like Junior,” Big Mama scoffed dabbing at her eyes. “Annie, this why this family pray for girl children. Boys get sucked in by all that sin and let it destroy them and everybody around them.”

Junior walked in with his hands in his pockets. “That’s right, Annie. All our problems is because yo Big Mama was too much of a saint to toss me in the river when I was born and she knew she couldn’t put a big bow in my hair and keep me from the rest of the world until she saw fit. Or maybe she coulda tossed me in them woods she don’t like nobody goin’ into.”

“Don’t you talk to her!” Big Mama raised up from the couch. “You go out doin’ God know’s what with all I give ya and you come in here like I’m supposed to feel sorry for yo’ foolishness, Junior.”

“You don’t have to feel sorry for me, Mama, but can you at least feel somethin?” Junior screamed like each word was agony. “Would you have preferred it if I turned up somewhere dead?”

Big Mama looked away from him, her silence being enough to answer his question. 

He stormed out of the den and stomped upstairs. The slamming of a door made the windows downstairs shake.

Marcy guided Big Mama to sit back down. “You and Helen will go up to Chicago, Mama. See what y’all can do. I’ll stay here and make sure Junior stay in the house and word don’t get beyond these walls. What them boys gon’ do with three hundred acres and a farm they don’t know how to run anyway?”

“Sell it, Marcy,” Big Mama said glumly. “They just two thugs always lookin’ for quick money. They won’t think nothin’ ‘bout sellin’ this land.”

Annie bit her lip resisting the urge to speak up on their behalf. Her interaction with Smoke years ago still crossed her mind and made butterflies dance in her stomach. She shook her head knowing now was not the time to be thinking about Smoke Moore.

“Well even more reason to be on the next train outta here. Y’all can leave tonight and get there by mornin. I’ll call Nadine and Jeanie and let them know y’all comin’ up. I’ll jus tell ‘em ya comin’ up to see folks.”

Helen looked at Annie, tilting her head at how silent the usually chatty girl had been. “We takin’ Annie with us. Tell ‘em we bringin her on her first trip to Chicago.”

“No, you ain’t takin’ my baby nowhere.” Marcy pulled Annie back as if she was in imminent danger. 

Annie shrugged her mama off. “Ain’t no baby, mama. I can go with Big Mama and Aunt Helen for this.” Still, her eyes pleaded with Marcy to not disagree.

Marcy relented and nodded her head. “You be careful and don’t leave to go anywhere on your own.”

With her head still reeling from the news of today, Annie went upstairs to pack a suitcase for her first trip up north. She knew it wasn’t a cause to feel excited but she couldn’t help but feel a little giddy at the thought of seeing the city for the first time and seeing Jeanie and the rest of her family.

***************

The ride to Chicago was quicker than Annie expected, even with two stops along the way one in Illinois where Black and white folks sat in the same train cars. Annie tried her best to not seemed surprised by everything.

Nadine met them at the train station with a radiant smile on her face. She dressed like she had stepped out of a magazine. “Lil Annie, come give yo auntie a hug girl!” 

Annie rushed over to wrap her arms around her aunt. “I missed you so much, Aunt Nadine.” She pulled back to smooth Nadine’s hair back into place. “I’m still wearin’ that dress you sent me for my birthday.”

They caught up as they walked to Nadine’s car and loaded their luggage in the trunk. “I been tellin’ Peter that we needed to get y’all up here. I know Mama don’t care too much for it but, Annie, you gone like Chicago. Jeanie at the house almost every week when she get time from work. How long y’all here for?”

“A week,” Helen said at the same time that Big Mama said, “A few days.” They looked at each other.

“A week,” Annie confirmed defusing the tension before it had time to build. She looked out the window at the tall buildings gasping in wonder at their height. She’d never seen anything like this in the Delta. Even Memphis didn’t have skyscrapers like these.

The three women would stay in Nadine’s finished basement that had a bed and a pullout couch. Annie got to meet some of her younger cousins who had never been down South. They had a lot of questions about living on a farm.

“Y’all really kill the pigs and eat ‘em?” Seven-year-old Margaret asked over dinner.

“Baby, you eating pig right now,” Peter laughed at his daughter’s expression when she realized the meat she had been eating was one of her favorite animals.

“Peter, don’t tell her that,” Nadine admonished. “We just got her to understand that broccoli don’t feel pain when you bite into it.”

After the kids and Peter went to bed, the women sat in the living room talking about various things and it came back to why they were in Chicago.

“So why y’all really here, Helen?” Nadine stared intently at her older sister. “I know it ain’t just about bringing Annie up north for the first time. Not with y’all just showin’ up like this.” She eyed Annie suspiciously. “Oh, Annie, you ain’t—”

“No, she is not, Nadine.” Big Mama was offended by the accusation that hung in the air. “My Annie don’t get up to the stuff summa these girls get up to. She grown now and we wanted to show her more than what she used to. Is that all right with you, Nadine?”

“Goodness, mama! It was only a question. I should’ve known better than to think you’d let her outta your sight long enough for anything like that to happen.” Nadine lit a cigarette and took a puff. “Still, I know Helen and she ain’t jus’ gone jump on a train in the middle of the night to Chicago without thinkin’ on it for a long time. Ain’t that right Helen?”

Shifting her eyes to Annie briefly, Helen sighed. “The girl was losin’ her mind down there. Needed a change real quick, right Annie?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Annie said stiffly. “Everybody got married or moved away so I wanted to come up see you and Jeanie.”

Nadine didn’t buy it but she knew better than to continue to press the issue and changed the subject to lighten the mood.

***********

Smoke Moore sat in his office going over the books for each club he and Stack owned. Smoke thought Stack was crazy when he suggested putting all of their money into three clubs with no gambling rooms where they put on the best up and coming blues and jazz singers. The sound was different than just blues or jazz. There was more of a rocking beat that fused the two together with the soul of gospel.

It was making its way through the urban centers all over the country and Stack wanted them to get in on it early enough to make a killing. Now looking at the profit they brought in from folks packing out their clubs to hear this new sound, Smoke was thankful they went all in.

He rubbed the side of his face, where a faint raised scar trailed down his cheek. It was only visible to people who stood too close and Smoke never let anybody stand too close. As he felt the scar, he thought to the envelope in his desk. He had thought about ways to see Annie Love again when the opportunity came in the form of her pleading uncle who needed help paying his debts to some gang leader in Harlem. He chose the twins because they were from the same hometown. They didn’t deal in loansharking but they were willing to help out a fellow Clarksdale native in this case.

Howard Love promised to pay them back but offered the deed to his family’s land if he couldn’t pay. Smoke never seen a more pathetic sight than a man offering up everything his family built just so he can run around pretending to be a big shot.

He had planned to take the deed back down to Clarksdale and deliver it to DeLaurine personally after the Rising Star competition they had going on ended tomorrow night. Maybe then she’d see that he was an honest man just trying to make a living. He wanted to hope that it would be his chance to see Annie again but he felt foolish thinking that somebody didn’t already take her hand and give her a baby. 

Realizing he was breaking his own heart, Smoke closed the ledgers in front of him, left his office, and went upstairs to observe the performers and the crowd from the second level. He sat in his usual chair that gave him a full view of everything happening below. Some folks from record labels stood along the railing watching the performers. They paid good money to get first pick of the next big names in music.

He lit a cigar giving it a short puff while he waited to be served his whisky neat. He tapped his feet along to the rhythm and scanned the packed crowd for any sign of trouble. Stack was on the other side of town at the other club while the smallest one was being managed by one of their military buddies, Buford ‘Bizzy' Jones.

His whisky was sat down next to him as the next musical act went on. A group of women with big hair and form-fitting dresses performed a fast-paced number that had the audience chanting for more. Smoke noted the men from the record labels talking back and forth obviously disagreeing on who would approach the group of women. 

He looked into the crowd again and saw a face that instantly made him stand up. Her hair had started to gray around the edges but he couldn’t forget the gentle face of the woman who only called him by his first name, like they were family. Helen Love. He looked around her and had to grab the railing in front of him to hold him steady. Annie Love was in his club in Chicago. Resisting the urge to run down into the crowd, he caught a glimpse of DeLaurine’s glowering face and felt his hopes to reconnect with Annie and Helen fade. They weren’t there to enjoy the music. They were there for the deed.

*******

Annie wanted nothing more than to get lost in the music and dance along with the crowd, but she knew they didn’t come here for that. She looked around seeing if she could find one of the twins. It didn’t take long to spot Smoke on the second level frowning at them. She knew he wasn’t one to smile much but the anger on his face didn’t sit right with her. She smiled and waved at him. He simply pointed to a door to the left of the stage where a man stood blocking it.

Grabbing her aunt and grandma, Annie led them through the crowd and to the door. “Mr. Moore is expecting us,” Annie smiled sweetly at the man who looked up at Smoke to confirm before opening the door and allowing them to enter.

Smoke made his way down the stairs like each step was a chore. “Can’t say I’m that surprised to see the Love women this far away from Clarksdale.” He brushed past them in the narrow hall. “My office this way.” He pointed to a door at the end of the hall. Inside he put out his cigar and sat in his chair, gesturing to the women to take the seats in front of the desk.

“Y’all havin’ fun in Chicago?” Smoke wasn’t one for many jokes but he needed somethin’ to lighten the mood. The expressions on the women looked like they were doing a funeral march. His eyes landed on Annie. The roundness of youth still appeared on her face but their time had obviously allowed her to blossom into a beautiful woman. The richness of her dark skin almost had Smoke bouncing in his seat. His calm façade was soon to fail if he stared at her any longer.

No one responded to his question. He cleared his throat and started to speak but was interrupted by DeLaurine’s harsh tone.

“You a evil man. Takin’ what don’t belong to you from somebody too stupid to know up from down,” she spat, her eyes raging.

“Big Mama!” Annie scolded like her grandma was a toddler that needed correcting.

“Hello to you too, Mrs. Love.” Smoke responded dryly. “Annie. Ms. Helen. Can I get y’all anything to drink?” His eyes lingered on Annie who was looking around the office trying not to meet his gaze.

“Don’t you go actin’ like you got manners now, boy, when you done tricked that worthless son of mine into givin’ up my granddaddy land!” She stood and beat her fists on the desks.

There was a time that Smoke would’ve cowered at the sight of DeLaurine’s anger. Now he kind of took pleasure in it. Here he was, doing good for himself despite the vicious things she said about him and his brother. She was at his mercy and she still talked to him like he was gum on her shoe.

“I ain’t trick nobody, Mrs. Love and I ain’t seek nobody out. Yo son came to me and I helped him because—“ He looked at Annie whose worried eyes burned into him. “We from the same place and I didn’t feel nobody needed to lose a child like that. Not even you.” His last words left no doubt of how he felt about DeLaurine Love.

“We can pay you back, Elijah,” Helen spoke up. “Surely Junior’s debt wasn’t as much as that land cost.”

Smoke shrugged. “Maybe without the interest. Yo brother got up to a whole lotta no good in Harlem and ran to Chicago when it got too hot for him.”

Helen’s eyes widened at the notion that her brother could’ve incurred that much debt. “Well what can we do to get the deed back? We can pay in installments.”

“I didn’t loan the money out in installments, Ms. Helen.” An idea rolled over in Smoke’s mind and he almost felt as wicked as DeLaurine thought him to be. “Annie, you like those flowers I sent you?” He took little pleasure in her panic as she looked away from him.

“Yes, Mr. Moore, they were very nice thank you.” Annie looked down at her lap, the tips of her ears burning.

“What flowers? Annie, what he talkin’ about?” DeLaurine looked at her granddaughter confused.

“It was a long time ago, Big Mama.” Annie refused to look her grandma in the eyes.

“You deserved much more than flowers, Annie. Look,” Smoke tilted his head to show her the spot where the cut had been. “Used that salve just like you showed me and almost no scar. Can’t even tell.”

DeLaurine started to connect the dots remembering the time Annie got a big bouquet of flowers three years ago after she had returned from out of town. “Annie! You had him in my house?!” She felt like she was losing control of everything. Her favorite grandchild snuck this thug into her house and hid it from her all these years. 

“Mama, stop all that. It was the herb shack and I was there with ‘em. Annie helped Elijah with a cut and he left. Ain’t much to get worked up over.”

Not knowing what to say, DeLaurine just sat back in her chair feeling betrayed by everyone in the room.

“Mr. Moore, I’m glad the salve worked for you but we still need to get that deed back.” Annie had to steer this conversation away from her before she melted in her seat. “I’m sure there’s somethin’ you’ll take in exchange for it. Seem like things goin’ well for you up here. How you gone run a farm all the way down in Clarksdale?”

“Hmm,” Smoke mused rubbing his chin. “You right about that. Ain’t never been good at tendin’ fields or herdin’ chickens.” He pretended to think on it more. “And I am willin to give the deed back over if we can come to an agreement. Maybe make some sort of arrangement.”

“What you want?” DeLaurine leaned forward prepared to accept whatever terms he set.

“Annie,” Smoke said simply.

“Mr. Moore!” “Elijah!” Annie and Helen said at the same time both looking at Smoke like he’d lost his mind.

“You can’t have my Annie. She ain’t part of this. She soon to be married anyway.”

Looking down at Annie’s hand in case he’d missed a ring, he sighed internally when he saw that her hands were bare. “Don’t look like she is. Is you, Annie?” He met her gaze and stared intently into her big brown eyes.

She hung her head and glanced down into her lap not quite sure how to take the way he was looking at her. “No, Mr. Moore.”

“Fine, just take the land! You won’t get my baby though.” DeLaurine stood up and tried to pull Annie out of her seat.

“Big Mama, stop!” Annie’s voice bounced off the walls. “I can decide this for myself.”

The older woman huffed and pulled her purse on to her shoulder. “Well I ain’t gone stay here for this bullshit. Everybody done lost their damn minds.” She walked out the door slamming it behind her.

“What you want with me, Mr. Moore?” The dread Annie expected to feel was genuine curiosity. What use could Smoke Moore have for her over the three hundred acres of land he now possessed?

“I reckon what any man want when he can’t get a woman off his mind for three years. I want your hand in marriage, Annie.”

Feeling every single emotion she could in that moment, Annie just sighed. “Aunt Helen, can you give us a minute?”

“You sure, baby?” Helen didn’t feel her niece was in any danger but she didn’t want her to feel like she had to do this alone.

“Yes, ma’am.” Annie’s voice was steady and sure. She waited for the door to close before leaning forward. “What you want with me, Smoke? What game you playin’ right now?”

He wasn’t sure how he felt about her calling him Smoke but he couldn’t help but feel something stir in him when she talked to him like that. “I want you, Annie. Don’t act surprised a man wanna make an honest woman of you.”

“I ain’t surprised.” Annie flipped her hair. “You ain’t the first, Mr. Moore.”

“Who else is it?” He clenched his fist. 

“Don’t worry about that. I marry you and then what? You’ll give back the deed to my grandma? We stayin’ here or you comin’ down to Clarksdale? I gotta sit at home while you tend to ya clubs all night? What you want with me?” Her chest heaved as her breathing grew heavy with each word.

“Annie, if you can tell me that you ain’t thought on me for the past three years, I’ll give you this deed and y’all can go back home and you can marry whatever boy too stupid to let you come to Chicago without him.”

She just folded her arms across her chest, not looking him in the eye. “That don’t mean much, Mr. Moore. I thought on a lot of things these past few years. Don’t mean I wanna marry ‘em.”

“But you ain’t thought about ‘em like you thought about me, huh? And we ain’t gotta marry tonight. Just let me show you I can be good to you.” He moved from behind his desk and sat beside her. Pulling her hand into his, he placed a soft kiss on it.

Annie’s breathing hitched recalling the time when Stack did the same thing. “This your idea of romance, Mr. Moore? No ring, you don’t get down on one knee?”

Smoke chuckled. “I’ll get you a ring.” He started to kiss up her arm but remembered her aunt was just outside the door. “I’ll get down on both knees if you say yes.”

“And you gone give the deed to my grandma, right?” Annie tried to ignore how close he was to her and the way it made her pulse quicken.

“Soon as we jump the broom,” Smoke promised pulling her hand to his chest so she could feel the way his heart beat for her.

Without thinking, Annie ran a finger along the barely visible scar on his cheek. “Then I guess you got a proposal to plan, Mr. Moore.” She walked out of the office without another word leaving Smoke to stare at the closed door, the scar on his face tingling like she had applied the salve again.

*********

Back at Nadine’s, Big Mama refused to say a word to Annie or Helen. Nadine brought it up to Helen who downplayed their mother’s bad mood.

“You know how she get when she been outta the Delta too long and folks don’t wanna do stuff her way.” Helen rolled her eyes. “She’ll be all right.”

Groaning, Nadine put her hand on her temple. “Helen, please stop this. What is going on? Is it Mama? Annie? What is happening?”

Helen just smiled weakly and patted her sister on the shoulder. “You talk to Frannie lately?”

The frustration on Nadine’s face switched to guilt at hearing the name of her firstborn daughter. “You know she ain’t want nothin’ to do with me. How she doin’? Found her a fella yet?” There were so many mistakes that Nadine had made when she had Fran at 15-years-old. She didn’t fight her mother when she insisted that Fran stay in the Delta when Nadine moved to Chicago to start a new life. Calls between them were usually Fran begging to join her mother up north and Nadine finding every excuse why that wasn’t possible.

By the time she was 14, Fran stopped calling altogether and referred to her as Nadine whenever they saw each other during the holidays.

“You sho ain’t talked to her then.” Helen laughed. “She say she don’t care to deal with no man or his babies. She gone help Mamie with her lil one when it come but she ain’t keen on havin’ one of her own.” 

A tear dropped down Nadine’s face at the reminder that she didn’t know her own child very well and she had no claim to her. “I guess that’s on me too, hm?”

“Not that one. That’s all ya mama’s doin’.” Helen couldn’t help but roll her eyes again. “She ain’t never made marriage seem like nothin’ much but a deal and a chore.”

The two sisters continued to talk and exchange stories through the night while Annie laid in bed trying to get her grandma to talk to her. In all of her life, Big Mama never gave her the silent treatment. But right now, with Annie’s future tied to a man she knew her grandma despised, the only thing she wanted to hear was that it would be okay.

“You gone be mad at me forever, Mama? Elijah say he gone give the deed back when we married. Ain’t that what all we work for? To keep the land with us? I ain’t much of a sacrifice if that’s what it come down to.”

Big Mama turned around to face Annie. “I’m gonna kill ya uncle when we get back. This his fault.”

Annie sighed. “Uncle Junior ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed but, Mama, we gone get the deed back. What make me so special that we need to let the twins keep our land?”

Sighing, Big Mama reached over and placed her hand on Annie’s face. “You special because you is, Angelise Lynn Love. Your soul is pure and it always was. I try to keep folk away that won’t do you no good. I know why that Moore boy want you, cuz he see the good in you too and he wanna take it for hisself.”

Placing her hand on her grandma’s, Annie sighed again. “He got good in him too, Big Mama. And my soul ain’t pure like you think.”

“Yes it is, Annie. That’s why you agreein’ to marry him to make sure we don’t lose everything. You know why I keep you close to me? Because I seen men like him destroy stuff they should’ve never been near. It happened with all my girls, even ya mama.” She took a deep breath. “When you was born, you was a small lil thing and you was sick. The midwife told us you probably wouldn’t make it long but I had a dream about you, Annie. You was stronger than anybody. And when I woke up, I knew that’s what you was gon’ be. Me, ya mama, Helen, Nadine, and even Big Margaret was in that shack night and day putting stuff together to help you get better and you did. I don’t know if it was the herbs or the prayer, but somethin’ worked. I knew then I had to keep the world from hurtin’ you. May have gone a little too far at times, but I needed to keep you safe.”

Annie had heard the story of her birth but never heard about the dream Big Mama had. It put more things into perspective but it didn’t change the way she felt in the current moment. It wasn’t like she was head over hills for Smoke Moore, she wanted to protect her family just like they had been doing for her and the best way was to get the deed back. “I think you did a good job of keepin me and the other girls safe, Mama but I think now it’s time for us—me—to see life for what it really is. It might hurt, but it gotta happen. If he good to me, will you be nice to him?” Annie didn’t want to live her life split between her family and her husband like her aunt Margaret, Mamie’s mama, who barely spoke to anyone in the family anymore.

Big Mama tutted. “You think he gon’ be?”

Annie nodded biting her lip, the wetness from her eyes seeping into the pillow. “Say he would. I’ll cut him if he not.” Her laugh echoed in the dark basement. “If I tell you somethin’ you won’t get mad, right?”

“Why, you burn down the house or somethin?” Big Mama giggled at her own joke. “Go ahead and say it.”

“I—please don’t get mad—when he left the shack that day, I felt like I wanted to see him again and I been feelin’ like that for a while now. Felt nice seein’ him tonight. I know you think that he evil or he the devil but that ain’t what it feel like to me.”

Big Mama closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, keeping the words on her heart to herself. “You gon go see him tomorrow?”

“Nope!” Annie smiled widely in the darkness. “If he want me, he’ll find me.”

A cackle erupted from Big Mama. “Always better when a man like you more’n you like him. Then he’d do anything to keep ya. If he hurt you though, I’ll kill him and that brother of his.”

******************************

“What the fuck is you sayin’ right now?” Stack Moore wasn’t sure if he should take his brother to the hospital or throw him in the lake. He poured another glass of bourbon and handed it to Smoke. “The same witch that put a gun to my head for foolin’ around with her granddaughter, just walked out when you said you wanted to marry another one of her granddaughters? No gun, no spells or shit?”

Smoke shrugged. “She ain’t wanna hear what Annie was gone choose. Hell, she was ready to give up the land over Annie.”

“Question is, why is you givin’ the land up over Annie? You don’t even know her.” Stack wasn’t keen on just handing the deed back over when they spent a lot of money bailing out Howard Love.

Lifting the bourbon to his mouth, Smoke shook his head before taking a sip. “You ever meet somebody and have them live in your bones? That’s what Annie’s like for me, Stack. She ain’t scared of me and she don’t think I’m the devil.” He ran his finger along the scar line. “It’s more than that too, but I had to get her fo’ she was somebody else’s.”

“Look like Howard Love bein’ a dumbass might’ve helped you out. Unless you was gonna go back down to Clarksdale for her.”

Smoke didn’t meet his brother’s eyes. “I wasn’t gone hope for her to magically appear, but she did. Got me thinkin’ it’s for a reason.”

“Well, she better be worth three hundred acres.” Stack downed the rest of his drink. 

He didn’t say it, but Smoke knew Annie was worth more than all the land in the world and he’d give it all up just for her.

The next night, Smoke searched and searched the crowd to see if Annie had come again. It took him to the end of the performances when they announced the winner for him to see she wasn’t there. Sucking his teeth, he put out his cigar and ran downstairs to his office. He needed to find her. He knew her sister Jeanie had moved up here and she had an aunt here too so when the club was empty, he made a few calls.

********

Annie had made biscuits for breakfast and was pulling them out of the oven when Nadine’s phone rang. She giggled at her little cousins as they bounced excitedly for hot biscuits and jam. Helen had taken a trip up to Detroit to see her adult children, Marcelle and Marceline and their aunt Nell, while Big Mama was in the bathroom fixing her hair.

“Put some butter on mine, please Annie!” PJ licked his lips at the sight of the perfectly golden biscuits. 

“I just want peach jam, Annie!” Little Margaret exclaimed tugging her cousin’s nightgown. 

“Go on and sit at the table and I’ll bring ‘em to ya,” Annie directed the two towards the dining table while she prepared their biscuits how they requested them. She scooped some of the eggs that Nadine cooked onto their plates and gave each a piece of sausage. “Okay, I got some of the best cookin’ in Chicago on these plates and I ain’t got nobody to give them to.” She held the plates in her hands and pretended to search for the kids.

“We right here!” PJ raised his hand and laughed at his big cousin.

“Where? I don’t see anybody.” Annie continued to look around making the siblings squeal in amusement. “Wait! There y’all go!” She winked at them and put their plates down. “Now, you gotta eat all ya breakfast if you wanna spend sometime playin in the park later on. Okay?”

“Yes, ma’am!” The two agreed before digging into their breakfast.

Annie turned around to fix her own plate but was stopped by the sound of the phone being slammed down on the receiver. She stopped and looked over at Nadine who was eyeing her. “What?”

“That was Jeanie. She on her way over.” Nadine pulled out a cigarette and lit it still keeping a careful eye on Annie.

Ordinarily, news like this would make Annie excited but judging by the look on her aunt’s face, it wasn’t a regular social visit. “That’s good. I can’t wait to see her.” Her eyes stayed focused on the food in front of her.

“Annie, cut this out right now. Why is Smoke Moore calling around trying to find you? What you got yourself into?” Nadine stood close to Annie and lowered her voice so the kids wouldn’t hear.

Annie scoffed at the notion that she was the reason for any of this. “I ain’t got myself into nothin, aunt Nadine. Smoke ain’t no trouble, he just checkin up on me, I’m sure.” She looked down and busied herself with fixing her plate.

“Why would he be checkin’ up on you, Miss Annie? How y’all know each other and how he even know you in Chicago?”

“I helped him out a few years ago after he got cut up. Wasn’t nothin’ much but he appreciated it. I dropped by his club the other night and talked to him there.”

Nadine rubbed her temple. “How the hell were you even around when he got into a fight, Annie? What you been doin when Mama ain’t watchin?”

“I ain’t been doin’ nothin’. Mr. Moore was thankful for my help three years ago and he…hewannacourtme.” The last part came out in a rush. She stuffed her mouth full of biscuit so she didn’t have to respond to the wild look on her aunt’s face.

“He wanna do what? This is crazy, Annie. You know this is crazy. Mama ain’t gonna allow that.”

“I ain’t gonna allow what?” Big Mama walked in fully dressed with her hair in curls.

“Smoke Moore been callin around bout Annie. Got Jeanie all unsettled. She about to come over.” Nadine took a long drag from her cigarette. “And Annie talkin about he wanna court her. Tuh!”

DeLaurine looked at her granddaughter and to her daughter without a word. “Annie put me some jam on one of them biscuits.”

“Wait wait wait.” Nadine held her head like it was going to explode. “You know about this, Mama?”

“I know that Annie is grown and she can make her own decisions without my input.”

“Oh,” Nadine said plainly, her face neutral now. “So when you sent Francine out there to shovel pig shit for messin around with one of them Moore twins, she deserved that, huh? And we all know Annie is the favorite around here, so she gets to what? Marry one of ‘em?”

Big Mama pointed a finger at her third child. “Nadine, watch it. However you feel about me don’t keep me up at night but you watch how you talk about my baby.”

“Your baby? So she grown and can make her own decisions and she a baby? Okay. Does your baby know—

“Nadine! Cut it out!”

Annie’s face burned with all she wanted to say and all she had to keep hidden right now. “I know what folks say about his daddy, Aunt Nadine. I think everybody got it wrong about him just like some folks get it wrong about us. Ain’t like I’m walkin down the aisle with him tomorrow.” Her face bloomed with heat. It wouldn’t be tomorrow but it would happen nonetheless.

“Where is lil Annie?” Jeanie’s voice came from the front of the house and got closer. “I know Big Mama gon’ be HOT if she find out.” Jeanie stormed into the kitchen and took in the faces of her grandma, aunt, and baby sister. “So she already know?”

Nadine nodded. “And she don’t care. Annie grown now. Grown enough to handle gangsters courtin’ her.”

“I knew it,” Jeanie walked over to her sister. “I knew that night you came out his office that he was gon’ want you. You too good and trustin’ sometimes.”

“Stop!” Annie held up her hand. “Stop talkin to me like I’m a stupid child that don’t know what the world like. It took him three years to even get to this point. If he wanted to hurt me, he had chances before now. If he’s gonna hurt me, then I guess that’s a lesson I’ll have to learn just like everybody in life got to.” 

“Does Mama know?” Jeanie asked, her arms folded across her chest?

“No, and you ain’t gon’ tell her, Jeanie.” Annie turned back to her breakfast. “If you pick up that phone and dial her, you ain’t gon like what Imma do to you. Let me tell her when I get back home.”

“So how will it work with Smoke bein here and you back in Mississippi?” Jeanie asked.

Annie shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. “He courtin’ me, I’m not courtin him. That’s for him to figure out but I’m goin back home. Go ahead and eat somethin while ya here, Jeanie. Chicago ain’t feedin’ you right.”

“I hope you know what you gettin into, lil Annie.” Jeanie shook her head and picked up a biscuit.

The phone rang for the second time that morning. Nadine got up silently to answer it. After a few moments she called for Annie. She handed her niece the phone without looking her in the eye.

“Hello?” Annie didn’t need to hear his voice to know who was calling.

“I shoulda figured you wasn’t gonna make it easy on me,” Smoke chuckled. “Called all over Chicago tryna find you. How ya doin?”

Annie tried to ignore the way her heart fluttered at the sound of his voice. This was basically a business arrangement not anything for her to get all excited about. “You wouldn’t’ve had to call all over Chicago if you asked the right questions the other night, Mr. Moore. Got my sister and aunt Nadine goin’ crazy.”

“You right. I was just happy you said yes, I guess I forgot to ask where you were stayin.”

“Now, I ain’t said yes to anything yet, Mr. Moore. You gotta ask the right way.”

“And then you’ll say yes?”

“Maybe. Maybe somebody else will get to me before you.”

“They won’t have the chance to, baby, I promise you that.”

Instead of being frightened by the danger in his voice, it sent a pleasant tingle through Annie. “Well, I won’t wait forever so you better get on it.”

“I will, baby, I will. How long you in Chicago for? I wanna take you out.”

“Til Sunday. Where you tryna take me?”

“Hmm, a few places. Ain’t like the Delta up here. Got a lot more to see.”

“Oh, I would’ve never guessed,” Annie said sarcastically rolling her eyes.

“Stop rollin yo eyes at me,” Smoke said firmly with a hint of playfulness in his tone.

She almost dropped the phone. “How you know—”

“That pretty face ain’t changed much since the last time I saw you. You rolled those big brown eyes at me a few times three years ago.”

“Who knew Smoke Moore could be a sweet talker? You say that to all your women or am I special?”

“Ain’t no other women. Just you, baby.”

“Mmhmm, where you trying to take me?” She listened as he described where he wanted to take her.

***Back in Clarksdale***

Marcy was all questions when the three women got in the car. “How’d it go? Did ya get the deed back? Annie, you like Chicago? How was Jeanie? I gotta go up there and see my baby soon. What about Nadine, Peter, and the kids? They doin’ all right?”

“Marcy, just get us to the house,” DeLaurine instructed her eldest child. “I need to put my feet up.”

Once they got home and unpacked the car, Annie attempted to take her luggage upstairs but was stopped by her mama.

“How was your first time in Chicago? Jeanie show you around?”

Annie’s eyes lit up at the memory of her short time spent with Smoke. “It was fun. Jeanie ain’t have much time to show me around but we spent a lil time together. I got to see a lot.”

Marcy nodded. “So did Nadine take you around?”

“Let me go put my things away and I’ll tell you.”

Marcy eyed her daughter curiously definitely catching a weird vibe. “Okay, hurry up so I can hear all about it.” She looked for Helen and found her in the kitchen storing stuff they brought from the North in the cabinets. “How’d it go, Helen? Why Mama and Annie actin’ like that?”

Helen chuckled. “It went fine. Annie had a good time. I saw Marcelle and Marceline. Lil Marcy say she want to come down and visit soon. And Marcelle! Oh, he’s doin’ so good up there. Helping with all the court cases they got goin on about segregation. Aunt Nell did a good job with them two.” She smiled sadly. “She was up and about. Couldn’t get her to sit down for a second.”

Marcy’s heart ached thinking of her niece and nephew sent to live with their aunt up north. “That’s good to hear. Y’all get the deed back?”

Annie walked in. “We will. Mr. Moore ain’t never intend to keep it anyhow, I don’t think.”

“Mr. Moore?” Marcy asked. “And how much will it cost to get it back from him cuz I know it ain’t free.”

“Well it will be when I marry him to get the deed back,” Annie tried to say as casually as possible but her voice cracked slightly at the end.

“When you do what?” Marcy was sure she heard wrong.

Annie took her mama’s hands in her own. “Mr. Moore’s only request was that I marry him and we can get the deed back. It ain’t a big deal at all.”

Marcy’s brain short-circuited for a moment before she moved Annie to the side and walked out of the kitchen. “Where is your Big Mama? Mama! Mama!”

“I know you ain’t callin me like you the one brought me in this world and not the other way around. What you want Marcy?” Big Mama stepped out of the dining room with her hands on her hips.

“What the hell is Annie talkin’ about she marrying Mr. Moore? I let you take her away from here and she come back engaged to him? Why you give her up like that?” Tears sprang to Marcy’s eyes.

Annie joined them. “She didn’t. I reckon both of y’all feel the same way about Elijah, mama. I agreed to his terms myself.”

“Oh so now it’s Elijah?” Marcy looked back at her mama. “Why you ain’t stop it? Offer more money?”

“You think this what I wanted, Marcy? The girl is grown and got a mind of her own. He wouldn’t accept no money anyway. None we had.”

“What you mean by that, Mama? What Junior got himself into?”

“I don’t know! Enough that he went beggin the Moore twins to save his behind and now my Annie got wrapped up in this mess too.”

“You want to marry him, Annie?”

“If he ask nice enough.” Annie shrugged. “I know you got your mind made up about Elijah but I promise, he is really sweet to me. Even if he can be a lil stubborn sometimes.”

“Why you talkin like you already got to know him, Annie?” Marcy’s eyes flashed in anger and disbelief. “You been seein’ him?”

“No! Just the three times. Once in the healing shack three years ago, when we all went to his club the night after we got to Chicago, and when he showed me around. Aunt Helen was there every time.” She left out the time in his office knowing that it would not help to be completely truthful right now.

“Three years ago. Huh.” Instead of trying to make sense of what she was hearing, Marcy dipped her head as tears fell down her face. “And you wanna marry him?”

“I want to get the deed back, Mama, but I think if I marry him, he’ll be good to me.”

Scoffing, Marcy shook her head and turned away from her youngest child. “You don’t know shit, Annie, but I guess you’ll find out.”

The first time Annie ever met Smoke Moore, she was eighteen, and was two weeks done from finishing her schooling. She wanted to celebrate with Pearline, some of her cousins, and Jeanie who was back in town.

After that day spent in Memphis, Big Mama let Annie do more things without her. If Annie wanted to go to town, she had to be dropped off by Marcy, aunt Helen or one of her older cousins and she had to be back at the spot she was dropped at no later than 7pm.

If she went out with her cousins, she had to promise not to leave their sides and she had to be back no later than 9pm. But no matter what time it was, day or night, she always had to carry a switch blade in her garter under her dress. Annie had to make sure a false pocket was in all of her dresses so she could easily access the blade.

Jeanie took her time styling and pinning Annie’s hair wanting to look her best her first night out as an official adult. 

Annie even put on lipstick that their mama bought her in Memphis a few months ago. Sliding into a royal blue dress that hung off her shoulders, she felt as grown as she looked. 

Big Mama and her cousin Tiny from Cleveland, Mississippi drove to Little Rock to see some of their family and wouldn’t be back until late the next day. Though she found it hard to leave Annie behind and she would never admit it to anybody but God, Big Mama figured Marcy was right. She had to let go, a least a little for right now, and let Annie know the world on her terms. The crushing hug she gave to Annie before they left just showed how difficult it was for her to accept this truth.

Marcy walked in to see Annie twirling in front of the full-length mirror and Jeanie cheering her on. “You gone tire yo’self out fo’ you even get down there good.” She chuckled at her daughter and went to zip up her dress in the back. A pang in her chest stopped her short. “I got two grown babies now.” She brushed away a tear and took a seat on the bed. “Fo’ ya know it, y’all gone be jumpin’ the broom. Ya daddy woulda cried seein that, like he cried when y’all was brought into the world.” 

This caused Annie to turn around. Marcy hardly ever spoke about her late husband. She’d tell Annie and Jeanie a few stories here and there but none where it sounded like she missed him too terribly. “I didn’t know daddy cried when we was born. He cry a lot?” Annie wanted to know more about the man who died when she was only two and Jeanie was three.

Shaking her head, Marcy wiped another tear. “Only when it came to his girls. He was crazy ‘bout y’all.” She swiped her sleeve across her eyes and stood up to walk back over to Annie. “You go have fun tonight. Jeanie, you better keep an eye on her! Don’t you be walkin’ off without her.” Even though she didn’t want to admit it, Marcy had picked up Big Mama’s habits of fussing over Annie. She even moved into the big house, not able to stand the silence of her own without Jeanie there.

“Oh, I won’t leave her side, but I cannot be blamed if one of the fellas just snatches her away.” Jeanie tossed a smile to her little sister.

Their older cousins, Mamie and Fran waited for them downstairs and showered Annie with complements as they turned to walk out the door.

Aunt Helen came charging down from her room. “Wait!” She held up four small bags each with a string around them. “Marcy, I can’t believe you lettin’ them go out without these.” She placed a gris gris in each of her nieces hands. “Keep these on ya tonight, okay? Tie it to ya garter, put it in the top of ya dress, pin it in ya hair, I don’t care just don’t drop these.” 

Of Big Mama’s five daughters, Helen was the one that held on to the root and spirit work the most. Marcy was more focused on the more practical side like the treatments and tinctures she created but she was known to burn sage and tend to her alter from time to time. They taught all the girls in their family some of the hoodoo practices they grew up with, but with some of the family moving up north and the pull of the modern world, only Helen really kept up with it in earnest.

They left the house with the promise that they’d be back no later than midnight. Jeanie drove them to the part of town where the Black folk in Clarksdale would go to lay all their burdens down. It was a row of juke joints, bars, and gambling houses where the blues played every which way.

“Okay, we meetin’ Pearly at Jay’s Juke and we’ll spend some time there before goin’ to Mama  Ree’s and then King’s. If we get split up for more than 5 minutes, start walking back to the car. I mean it Annie. Don’t let none of these niggas charm you into they backseat.”

Annie scoffed. “I ain’t stupid, Jean. Ain’t here for no man. Here to enjoy myself.” The peak of Annie’s frustration was how everyone still treated her like a child.

Mamie leaned up from the backseat, “You ain’t gotta be stupid to fall for one’uh they tricks. Don’t even let ‘em give you a drink, Annie. They think ya owe them somethin.”

“Y’all come on, ya just scarin’ the po’ girl,” Fran interjected ready to get the night over with. Loud music and sweating wasn’t Fran’s idea of a good time but she wanted to see that Annie enjoyed herself.

The women exited the car and made their way to Jays Juke. On the way, they endured jeers and whistles from some of the men standing outside. Jeanie was stone faced as she led Annie to Jays. Annie couldn’t help but want to cover up after hearing a comment about how good her breasts looked.

She tapped Jeanie on the shoulder. “Why they sayin’ that stuff? Ain’t they know that ain’t how you talk to a woman?”

Rolling her eyes at her sister’s naivety, Jeanie continued forward. “This how men is, Annie. You been under Big Mama too much and ain’t been out into the world yet. Don’t pay ‘em no mind and if they get too close, cut they ass.”

They arrived at Jays and met Pearline who was leaning against the side of the building talking to a finely dressed man in a red hat. “Stack, you can tell yo story to anybody that’ll listen but Pearly ain’t singin’ for $5 and a couple glasses of whisky.” She ran her fingers along his shoulder. “I know you good for more’n that. Heard y’all made out like thieves in Chicago.”

Stack held up his hands in surrender. “Okay, Pearly, $10 and all the whisky you want.” He leaned in closer to whisper something in her ear.

She giggled and swatted his shoulder. “Mr. Moore, you playin’ with fire right now. I’ll be down in a bit. Let me prepare a little first.”

A cough from Jeanie caught Pearline’s attention causing her to stand up straight and put distance between her and Stack. “Pearly, we here for Annie tonight, not makin’ deals with the devil.” Jeanie eyed Stack suspiciously.

Mischief glowed in Stack’s eyes as he flashed the gold in his mouth. “Well, Jeanie Love! My word! Ya Big Mama ain’t got you locked up readin Bible verses tonight?” He laughed at his own joke. “Wait, it ain’t Bible verses. She got you learnin’ spells and shit.” 

Annie wasn’t keen on violence but she did not like the way he spoke about her Big Mama. “Yea, she learned us how to keep a nigga in his place if ain’t nothin’ come out his mouth but disrespect.” She stepped close to Stack who looked at her in wonder.

He was taken aback by how she stepped to him but a different kind of fire burned in his eyes, one that Annie hadn’t seen since the last time she danced with Horace Jones, Jr. “You must be Princess Annie!” He took off his hat and took her hand in his. “I do apologize for my language. I didn’t know I was in the presence of royalty.” He made a show of bowing low before kissing her hand. Spotting Mamie, he sent a sly smile her way. “Look like it’s a family affair tonight. I’m surprised DeLaurine Love let this many of her princesses out to be with us peasants.”

Mamie rolled her eyes. “It ain’t the peasants she don’t like, it’s the toads pretendin’ to be princes she ain’t too fond of.” She reached over and pulled Annie’s hand from his. “Put ya lips on my cousin again, and I’ll feed ‘em to our hounds at home.”

Stack held up his hands. “Mamie, you know I’on mean no harm. Man can only be surrounded by so much beauty fo’ he forget hisself.”

This caused all of the Love women to groan in annoyance. “We don’t care to remind ya, Stack.” Fran turned her nose up at him.

The playful look left Stack’s face as he started to move closer to Fran almost like he was being pulled by strings.

Annie was about to reach for her blade when a booming voice shook her to her core.

“Stack! Nigga, what you doin?” A man with Stack’s face stomped over to him. The glare on his face seemed permanent like he’d never attempted to smile in his life. “Yo ass forget we tryna run a business? I ain’t come all the way back down here for you to try to fuck everything in a dress that walk by.”

The tips of Annie’s ears burned from hearing such language but she was grateful Smoke came to save his brother. A chuckle escaped her lips gaining the attention of both Smoke and Stack.

Smoke looked her over, narrowing his eyes at her and then at the other women. “Y’all folks know y’all out here talkin to niggas who don’t know when it’s time to handle business?” Everybody in the Delta knew Big Mama Love was not one to let her girls be out like this.

The girls all laughed while Stack seemed to just let his brother’s comments roll off of him, still eying Fran who had made it her business to look everywhere but at Stack.

Annie, feeling bit more brave shrugged. “If they don’t, you won’t tell ‘em, right?” She winked at Smoke having no clue the effect the small gesture had on him. “They jus wanna show me a good time tonight. That all right with you, Mr. Moore?”

Stunned speechless by the way this nameless woman talked to him, Smoke just nodded. He grabbed Stack who had recovered his infamous smirk and led him back to a building on the far end of the street.

Pearline squealed when they were out of earshot. “Annie! You talked to Smoke Moore like that and he ain’t have nothin’ to say! Yo Big Mama must be teachin’ you some spells!”

The five women went into Jays so Annie could have her first glass of liquor and they could dance a little while the live band played.

Annie had drank wine before, not too much to where she’d get anything but a light humming in her head. The whisky burned as it went down her throat, causing her to go into a coughing fit with Jeanie laughing and patting her on the back.

“You’ll get used to it, lil Annie!” Her big sister encouraged. 

They spent some time in Jays dancing, shooing away any man that got too close to Annie. After a bit, Annie started to feel weightless from the whisky. She felt herself being dragged outside where the air was cooler. 

“Annie, you was a hit, girl!” Mamie wrapped her arms around her cousin also feeling the effects of the whisky. “Let’s go to Mama Ree’s.”

“Wait,” Pearline stopped the group. “I told Stack I’d sing at they spot tonight. It won’t take long, just one song.”

Fran scoffed. “Pearly, I can give ya $20 if we ain’t ever gotta set foot near Stack again.” She looked at Pearline’s fallen expression and tilted her head. “Unless you got another reason fa wantin’ to be in there.”

Not meeting Fran’s eyes, Pearline just shrugged. “You had your reasons few years ago.”

“Pearline!” Jeanie slapped her friend’s arm for revealing something she told her in confidence. “Now why you wanna start stuff up tonight?”

Fran seemed unfazed by Pearline’s comment. “Go on then. Imma take Annie to Mama Ree’s.” She grabbed Annie’s arm to help her down the steps.

Annie resisted and pulled her arm back. “I wanna hear Pearly sing, Frannie. We can jus’ go, listen to her and go to Mama Ree’s after.”

In the end, the group decided to split up with Annie, Jeanie, and Pearline going to the twins’ place and Mamie and Fran going to Mama Ree’s and them all planning to meet up in an hour.

Inside the twins’ place, people were packed from wall to wall dancing, drinking, and sweating. A large man with a guitar strapped to him played riffs that stirred the crowd causing them to stomp and clap in rhythm. 

The energy of the room wrapped around Annie and pulled her in. She stepped forward to join the crowd but was stopped by a hand on her arm. She looked up to see a familiar face. “Christopher!” Throwing her arms around her classmate, she had to stand on her tiptoes to speak directly into his ear. “Yo daddy let you in places like this?”

“I can say the same about yo Big Mama. She must not be in town.” Christopher was a head taller than Annie but his boyish grin made something in her flutter. 

Jeanie tapped her sister on the shoulder, seeing now that she had someone to keep her company. “We gone move closer to the stage so Pearly can go up when it’s her time.” She looked at Christopher. “Don’t you take her outta here, now. Y’all dance and enjoy ya’selves but don’t go sneaking out.”

Heat bloomed in Annie’s face at what her sister was implying. “Gone, Jeanie! We jus talkin!” She shoved her laughing sister away from her and turned back to Christopher who was sporting a goofy smile.

“I’d certainly like to do more than just talk, Annie.” He held out his arm for her to grab. “Let’s do some dancin’.” He pulled her to the dance floor once she accepted his invitation. The pair stood close to each other, allowing their bodies to be taken by the rhythm of the music and letting time fall away.

Annie didn’t know if it was the whisky or the blues that made her feel untamed but she could feel herself growing addicted to it. It was different than when she was younger and sneaking out. Now, something stronger coursed through her veins. Something stronger than want. Desire. Without putting too much thought into it, she grabbed Christophers shirt to pull him down and plant a kiss on his lips regretting it almost instantly. His lips were too dry and too stiff.

It took nothing for Christopher to respond in kind and wrap his arms around Annie to pull her closer like she was his to claim.

She pulled back feeling the heat in the room constrict around her. She wasn’t sure how long they had been dancing—maybe a lifetime or more—but her dress was soaked and sweat dripped down her face and chest. “Imma step outside for a little bit, it’s getting a little stuffy.”

Outside, the two caught their breaths and allowed the soft night breeze cool them down as they leaned against the front of the building.

“Annie, I ain’t know you liked me like that.” Christopher moved in front of her placing his hands on either side of her head staring down into her big brown eyes.

The nerves that Annie expected to come stayed buried under the two glasses of alcohol she drank earlier and she looked everywhere but him trying to find some way to escape but he towered over her. 

Christopher leaned down to say something in her ear but was interrupted by the sound of a man crying and pleading. 

The two looked to the source of the noise and saw a bloodied-faced man on his knees with his hands up. Smoke Moore loomed over the man with blood on his right fist. “Please, Smoke! I was just—” A fist to his temple caused him to slump over into the dirt below.

Smoke waved a finger and a group of men picked the sleeping man up to move him away from the front of the building. He turned without a word to go back into the juke wiping the blood off his face in the process.

Something in Annie made her push Christopher away when she noticed it was Smoke’s own blood on his face. The few street lights made it easier to see that it was coming from a cut that stretched from his ear to his chin. She moved towards him, not even thinking about what she was doing or listening to Christopher trying to call her back. “Mr. Moore!”

Smoke looked up and turned towards a voice he heard earlier that night. Annie Love. He could handle drunk men with blades and bad gambling habits just fine. He couldn’t handle whatever DeLaurine Love would do to him and his brother if word got back that her girls were at their place tonight. He held his face and kept walking, content to ignore the woman walking quickly towards him.

“Mr. Moore!” Annie caught him by the shoulder and turned him around like it was nothing. “Let me look at that.” She had no idea why she felt the need to make sure he was okay after seeing him beat that man.

Pulling away from her, Smoke held his face as more blood poured out. “It ain’t nothin.” He looked behind her for her sister and cousins and only saw a confused Christopher standing a few paces behind her like he was ready to snatch her away at any second. That angered Smoke much more than the cut on his face. “Find ya folks and get outta here.” 

Annie rolled her eyes. “Mr. Moore, I done seen men fightin’ before. Just don’t want that to get infected or nothin’.” She pointed to his face. “Let me see how deep it is.” She pulled his hand from his face and studied the cut, holding his chin and tilting his head for an easier view. “I can clean it up for you now and you can come out to the shack tomorrow mornin for some salve to put on it. Keep it from scarrin up too bad.”

Smoke pulled his head back out of her grasp. “I ain’ worried ‘bout no scarrin’ got plenty mo’ where that came from.” And he wasn’t about to catch heat from her grandma about being on their land. DeLaurine told everybody who was anybody that the SmokeStack twins was rotten just like their daddy. Hard to do honest business when everybody thought you were the devil anyway.

Quirking a brow at him, Annie just shrugged. “With a face like yours, Mr. Moore, maybe you should be. Folks get to thinkin’ they can leave their mark on it.” 

It would’ve been best if he walked away. If he pretended he never met Annie Love but something in her big brown eyes told him to trust her. He gave a short nod and walked towards a side door, hearing her footsteps following closely behind him.

“Annie!” Christopher bounded up to her. “You lost yo mind? Where you think you goin with him?” He grabbed Annie’s arm just in time for Smoke to turn around.

Snatching back from Christopher, Annie rubbed her arm. “I’m going to help him with the cut on his face. I’ll be back out in a minute.”

A rage in Smoke almost bubbled to the surface before he felt Annie’s soft hand on his arm and a look pleading with him to let Christopher be. “She’ll be back in a lil bit but you grab her like that again, I’ll give you a cut to match mine.”

Christopher’s mouth gaped like a fish as Smoke and Annie disappeared through the side door.

There wasn’t much lighting in the back of the building so, Annie stuck close to Smoke as he led her upstairs to a dimly-lit office. “You got any clean rags or bandages in here?”

Smoke went to the wooden cabinet that sat on the far side of the room and opened it. He pulled out a medium-sized white tin that was embossed with a red cross. He handed it to Annie. “It should have everything you need for now.”

“I like when a man has what I need,” Annie said without thinking. Those two glasses of whiskey were still controlling her it seemed. “Shoot! I ain’t mean it like that, Mr. Moore.”

Smoke did his best not to crack a smile and feel the sting of the cut. “I know what you mean, Annie.” He sat in his desk chair and watched as Annie pulled what she needed from the first aid kit.

She tore open a foil packet of iodine soaked cotton swabs. “This gone sting. I don’t want you fussin and cussin at me when I put it on this cut.” She tilted his head so that she had a good look at the damage before she swiped over it with a swab and watched it bubble from

Although he was no stranger to pain, the sting of the iodine caught him off-guard and he grabbed Annie’s waist like it was the last thing he’d ever hold on to. “I’m sorry. Ain’t mean to.” He put his hands by his side.

“Ain’t bother me none,” Annie shrugged. “My aunt Helen say if you feel like you gone float away, sometimes you just grab on to whatever is closest.” She continued to clean the wound. “What that man do to make you beat him so?”

It wasn’t a conversation he cared to have but he definitely didn’t want to have it with Annie Love and make her more scared of him than she probably already was. Then her family would have another reason to hate him. “That ain’t somethin you need to concern yo’self with.” It came out a lot harsher than he intended it to but he wasn’t in the business of being soft for folks.

“Well if it get you a blade to the face, I would certainly like to know, Mr. Moore. What if the same thing happen to me?” She wasn’t phased by his tone. If anything it was nice to have somebody not talk soft to her like she was a little kid.

Not knowing if he should take it as a joke or not, he chuckled. “Girl like you shouldn’t be in no gamblin rooms no how. You ain’t gotta worry about it happenin to you.”

“A girl like me, huh? What kinda girl would that be, Mr. Moore?” She dug around in the first aid kit again and pulled out gauze and tape. “You got any petroleum jelly around here? Don’t want the gauze stickin’ to the cut.”

“Yeah. It’s in that far cabinet over there.” He pointed to another wooden cabinet on an opposite wall.

Annie made her way to it. “You gone answer my question? What kinda girl am I?” She retrieved the container and walked back over to Smoke and leaned against the desk.

“You Love women all the same. Prim and snooty.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Smoke regretted them.

Gasping, Annie slammed the petroleum jelly down on the desk. “Now wait a minute. I ain’t ask you to pass judgement on my family. If you feel that way about me, that’s fine. I guess we all feel someway about people we ain’t never met. I heard you was the devil and I ain’t see much tonight that make that untrue.” She resumed her task despite her frustration at him. She coated her finger with the thick grease and rubbed it on the cut.

“Maybe I am the devil. Still don’t change the way you Loves walk around with ya noses turned up at everybody.” Years of his and his daddy’s anger at the Love women had flowed out and he didn’t know how to stop it.

“Mr. Moore, you obviously know nothin about my family. We help a lot of people in the Delta.”

“No you exploit a lot of people in the Delta. Sellin em fake cures and spells and shit. Pigs on your farm doin em any good other than givin them high blood pressure?”

Stopping her work, Annie looked at him stunned. His face was as angry as she’d ever seen anybody be. “And what ya juke joint doin other than turnin good men into drunks and makin ‘em give away everything they work for?”

“I’m survivin’ just like you, princess. Some of us don’t have our great-great-granddaddy’s money to live off of though.”

The switch blade was out of her garter and at his throat faster than he could blink. “You watch yo’self, Mr. Moore. You got lucky with this one on your face, but I know how to empty a pig quicker than the time it would take for you to run out that door to scream for help.”

Even with her knife at his throat, Smoke felt the furthest thing from fear. In fact, he’d prefer to be scared to what he was actually feeling—a rising passion for Annie Love. He simply nodded and waited for her to lower her knife. “Where you learn how to draw a knife like that?” He hated to think she’d have to use it often but was impressed by her quickness.

With her heart threatening to burst through her chest at the realization that she put a knife to Smoke Moore’s throat, she dressed his cut with gauze and stood back to check that it was secure. “My mama taught me a thing or two. Don’t sleep on this side of your face tonight.” She needed to get out of there. “I’ll make up some salve for you to come pick up in the mornin.” With the extra gauze, she wiped her oily finger. “I’ll be up first thing and my Big Mama won’t be there.”

Smoke nodded not knowing what to say. “Thank you, Miss Annie.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Moore.” With that she practically bolted out of the office and down the hall to the door they entered into. Once out, she was met with angry shouts from Jeanie, Mamie, Pearline, and Christopher.

“What the hell you thinkin, Annie, goin in there with that man?” Jeanie’s disgust was evident on her face as she checked her sister over. “I told you not to run off with no man and it was Smoke Moore you followed?”

Her stomach was still in knots from what happened in Smoke’s office, her mind was barely registering what Jeanie was saying. “I was just helpin him. He didn’t do anything to me.”

“That ain’t the point, Annie!” Mamie wagged her finger. “What if the man he beat came back with a gun and you was caught between ‘em, huh? It’s more ways for a man to hurt you than with his own hands. And a man like that don’t mind other folk gettin hurt on his behalf.”

Laughter bubbled in Annie’s throat. “Y’all makin too much of it now. That man ain’t no wild animal don’t know how to restrain hisself.”

Pearline crossed her arms, her hair half down and her skin clammy. “And since when did lil Annie come to know so much about Smoke Moore?”

“Well, he ain’t do nothin’ to me.” Annie held her arms out and did a slow circle so they could all see she was unharmed. “He don’t bite.”

Jeanie gripped her arm and led her away from Club Juke. “You bet not let Big Mama hear you got that close to him. She’ll never let you out again, no matter how old you get.”

They continued to berate her choice to help Smoke but their words went in one ear and out the other. Annie just couldn’t get the look in Smoke’s eyes out of her head. Her blade to his throat didn’t scare him. He didn’t even flinch. There was something else she saw but she couldn’t name it. Or maybe she didn’t want to. 

Her heart was still racing and with folks yelling in her ear and Smoke Moore’s eyes unnerving her, she was at her wits end. “Okay! I heard y’all the first time!” She wanted to pull her hair out. “I only went to help him and I’m here now. You ain’t gotta fuss about it! Now it’s still some time left in the night and I wanna dance some more.” She also needed another drink. Ignoring the calls for her to stop, Annie walked toward Mama Ree’s.

“That girl done lost her damn mind tonight.” Jeanie was ready to snatch her sister up and just go back home and she told her cousins such.

“No, Jeanie. That’s the problem now,” Fran finally spoke up. “Annie been under Big Mama all her life. She ain’t get to sneak out all the time like we did. She ain’t get to make the mistakes we did. If she did, maybe she wouldn’t have disappeared on us like that. She grown now though and we gotta treat her like she is.”

“Thank you, Frannie.” Annie hugged her cousin. 

“Girl, you owe me a dollar for those two drinks since you so grown now.” Fran rolled her eyes and patted Annie on the back.

***********

The next morning, Annie woke to a pounding in her head on the floor of the den covered in a quilt. Her tongue felt like sandpaper against the roof of her mouth and her bladder felt like it was about to explode. She rolled over to the couch were Fran was sprawled out and pulled herself up. She looked around and noticed everybody was still sleep in their clothes with Mamie loudly snoring from her spot next to where Annie laid previously. Jeanie had taken up residence on the love seat with it fitting her height perfectly and Pearline was draped over the armchair.

Making her way to the bathroom, using the wall to keep her upright, Annie groaned at the sunlight that filtered through the windows as she recalled the events from last night. The relief she felt after emptying her bladder almost made her cry. She sat on the commode for a moment thinking back to the drinks she had and the dancing she did and Christopher. The slight flutter in her stomach had returned. 

She had her eye on Christopher for a while but she knew Big Mama would find a way to control the situation. So, Annie kept her feelings to herself hoping to make her feelings known after they finished school and Big Mama could accept that she was an adult. 

It was pure luck that she was able to see him last night because his daddy was like her Big Mama—against all the sin and shame that happened at those blues clubs. He ran a respectable business, a clothing and shoe store for colored folks in Clarksdale, and he wasn’t about to have his kin shaming his name gambling, drinking, and gyrating over everything that moved.

The ache in Annie’s head persisted as she thought about when she’d meet Christopher again. She cleaned up before leaving the bathroom and trudged upstairs to her room to get out of her dress that smelled of cigarette smoke and shame. Smoke. She forgot she told him to come by this morning after seeing that cut on his cheek. What was going through her mind, she’d invite a man like that out to their family home? 

If Big Mama found out, she sure would never see Christopher again because Annie would be locked in her room for the rest of her life. She moved as fast as she could with her body stiff from dancing and sleeping on the hard floor to change and creep back downstairs. 

The morning air assaulted her senses as she closed the front door soft enough where no one could hear. A ball of fur ran up to her sniffing at her legs and whining. Annie looked down at Finny, her hunting beagle she got a few weeks before she graduated high school.

His big ears flopped over his head as he jumped up waiting for Annie to pet him. Annie just scooped him up to silence his whining and took him with her to the herb shack.

“Finny we gone get in a lot of trouble if that man show up here and folk find out so you gotta be quiet and I’ll give you all my breakfast ham for a week.” She looked at the dog in her arms whose tongue lolled out of his mouth at the sound of the word ham. 

They made it to the shack and Annie started pulling ingredients from the shelves that lined the walls to place them on the counter in the middle. She hoped Smoke Moore didn’t show up but she could get rid of him quicker if the balm was already made.

As if the world was against her this morning, she heard the sound of a car pull up in front of the house. She looked up to see a crimson Ford Custom with an unmistakable figure at the wheel. Running to the door of the shack, she waved to get his attention hoping no one in the house heard the car. 

*************************

Smoke cursed to himself the whole way to the Love herb shack. He just knew this would end with a bullet in his ass but, for some reason he couldn’t explain, he got in his car this morning to see Annie Love so she could give him something for the cut on his face. That’s what he told himself at least, but the closer he got to the Love family farm, the stronger the pull he felt. Like something bigger than him was leading him right to her. 

The cut wasn’t too deep, but it was enough to leave a mark and as Annie said, he didn’t want folks thinking they could start marking up his face. Her voice played in his head through the night as he tried to sleep. She barely said much to him, but it was enough to put him in his place each time.

He pulled up to the front of the big house and took in its looming presence. He knew it had been built from decades of the family working the land it stood on and it not only housed the souls in it, but it sheltered them from the cruel lives of folks like him.

Movement from his periphery caught Smoke’s attention. Annie stood in the door of a small shack waving him over. He turned the wheel and drove his car the short distance to the shack before getting out. He flexed his hands to stop them from shaking as he walked up to greet Annie. “Mornin’, Miss Annie.” He took off his hat and joined her inside before his shoes were assaulted by a small dog with gold and black spotting his white fur.

“Go ahead and have a seat right there.” Annie pointed to a wooden stool that sat next to the counter in the middle. “Don’t mind Finny, he ain’t used to company this early but he don’t bite none.” She pointed to an empty corner and ordered Finny over. “I ain’t had much time to fix this up yet. Jus’ woke up.” She placed her palm to her head for a moment before continuing to add things to a small glass bowl.

Her voice was heavy with sleep and less playful than it was last night. “S’alright. You get home okay?” Smoke didn’t know much of what to say to her. It was apparent by the tired look in her eyes and her wild hair that she was still feeling the effects of whatever she got up to after she left their place.

“I’m here, ain’t I?” Annie snapped, vigorously stirring up the mixture. She held her head again and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Mr. Moore. I ain’t feelin’ too good this mornin.” It didn’t help that their conversation from the previous night was still ringing in her head.

Smirking at her apparent hangover, Smoke just shrugged. “Seem like you learnin a lesson, same as me.” He pointed to the gauze he taped on his face. “Gotta know when to stop.”

Annie scoffed at the idea that she was anything like Smoke Moore. “I ain’t no drunk, Mr. Moore, jus got a lil carried away.” She stopped mixing and walked over to him to inspect the bandage. “You sleep on this any last night?

Angling his head up so Annie could get a better look, Smoke shrugged and flexed his hands. “I ain’t mean to if I did.” 

“You get cut a lot?” The words left Annie’s mouth before she could stop them. The pounding in her head got worse as she realized what she said. “I ain’t—that ain’t none of my business.”

Instead of taking offense, Smoke smirked easily at the comment. “Mostly in the military during training. Ain’t too many cuts come from other folk’s blades.” He meant to say it casually but it came out like a warning.

Annie’s breathing hitched and she turned away from him, not liking the glint in his eyes or the warning in his tone. “Ever think of doin’ somethin’ other than fightin’ all the time?” Taking out a bottle of iodine and a few cotton balls, she moved closer to him to remove the gauze. 

“Oh, it ain’t all the time. Just when it’s necessary.” He hissed at the gauze being pulled back feeling the sting of the cut.

Annie tried to be gentle as possible as she removed the tape but Smoke’s hiss stopped her. Finny sat up and whined a little. She examined the gauze and saw it was stuck to the cut. “Finny, stop actin’ like you the one hurt over there. Mr. Moore gon be alright.” To Smoke she said, “I gotta wet this so it come off clean.”

Smoke nodded before she went to grab a bottle of clear liquid from one of the shelves. His pulse raced as she moved back in front of him, her sweet scent invading his nostrils. Suddenly he felt water dripping from his face catching him off-guard and causing him to flinch.

“It’s just water, Mr. Moore. Gotta soak this so it ain’t pullin’ at ya skin.” She proceed to peel back the gauze easily. “See? Wasn’t so bad. Sorry, I got ya clothes wet.” She didn’t sound sorry at all. She slid on a pair of latex gloves she had laid out before opening the bottle of iodine solution. Tipping the bottle of iodine on to the cotton ball with one hand, she held Smoke’s arm with the other. “This gone burn and I don’t want you yankin’ away from me.”

The wet cotton against the cut caused a sting that intensified causing Smoke to grab on to the thing closest to him: Annie’s hips. He went to pull back put was stopped by a squeeze on his arm. Finny ran over with a whimper and sat by his leg.

“S’alright,” Annie said calmly as she continued to work wondering if the lightness in her head was from last night’s whiskey or his hands on her. “I’m almost done with this part.” She finished cleaning the cut and dropped the used cotton ball on to the counter top. She blew on the cut to cool the burning sensation she knew Smoke was feeling.

Feeling his head grow light from the burning of the iodine and Annie’s cool breath providing some relief, Smoke held on to her a little tighter to keep himself upright.

“This gone keep it from scarrin up too bad.” Annie held up the glass bowl with whatever mixture she prepared. “It’s a salve with some petroleum jelly and herbs.” She scooped some onto her finger and ran it over the cut. “You wanna put some of this on twice a day before you wrap it.”

The salve tingled but the coolness of it all but erased the pain from the iodine and from the cut itself. Smoke’s shoulders relaxed. “You musta put some of that magic in there. That feel good.”

Annie couldn’t help but giggle at the look of ease on Smoke’s face. “Ain’t got too much magic, Mr. Moore. You’ll have to ask my aunt Helen for some of that.”

“Ask me for what?” Helen’s voice came from the door. She took in the sight of her niece standing close to the notorious Elijah Moore and tending to his wound while he had a grip on her hips.

The pair jumped apart like they had been caught doing something indecent. Annie held her hand to her chest to calm the heart that was threatening to beat out of her chest. “Goodness, Aunt Helen!”

“Goodness to you too, Annie. Elijah.” She looked at his startled face and winked.

Smoke stood up causing Finny to stand with him. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Miss Annie offered to give me somethin’ for this cut. Ain’t lookin to cause no trouble for her.” Or me. He knew this was a bad idea from the jump. He picked up his hat so he could leave but was pushed back down by the force of Annie’s hand.

“You ain’t goin’ out like this, Mr. Moore.” Annie dipped her finger into the salve again. “Only trouble you gone cause is Aunt Helen chasin’ you down to make sure this done right.”

Helen made her way around the counter to the other side of the shack allowing her niece to continue. “Better listen to the girl, Elijah, or you’ll have me to deal with.”

Smoke’s wariness turned into confusion. The Love women hated the Moore men. At least they hated him, his brother, and their daddy. Growing up, Big Eli would always cuss and complain about the “Love witches” and how they had put a curse on him. Smoke knew for a fact that DeLaurine had no warmth in her heart for them especially after the way she held a gun to Stack’s head when he made the mistake of fooling around with Francine Love a few years back. So why did Annie and Helen act like his presence in their home was no big deal?

Annie saw the confusion in his eyes. “Aunt Helen like to help folk that need it, she ain’t one to judge.” She paused and noticed the grin on her aunt’s face. “Well, she ain’t one to judge too much. Unlike the rest of us, she ain’t got her ‘nose stuck up in the air.’” She nudged Smoke playfully.

“I appreciate it,” Smoke breathed in relief but realizing just how out of line he was last night when he judged the Love family. “Know I ain’t really welcome ‘round here.”

It wasn’t something Annie could disagree with. It was best Helen was the one to find them and not Marcy or any of the other women in the house. “You along with a few others, Mr. Moore, but my butt on the line too so you ain’t gotta worry ‘bout it gettin back to my Big Mama.”

Smoke tried to crack a smile but thought better of it when he felt the burn of the cut.

“I know this gone be hard for you, but try not to smile too much in the next few days,” Annie joked feeling more at ease with Aunt Helen present. “Don’t wanna open the cut again.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Smoke said seriously. He couldn’t recall a time when someone took care of him like this without being required to. He knew his reputation preceded him and his face was fixed in a permanent glower that made folks steer clear which he was fine with for the most part. But he had to admit, being fussed over and cared about felt good.

Annie cut the gauze to length and placed it gently on Smoke’s face before putting the roll of tape in his hand. “Pull the tape until I say stop.” He followed her order so she was able to cut off the correct amount of tape to hold the gauze in place. She took the tape back and rolled out the rest of what she needed to cut and place around the rest of the gauze. “There you go, Mr. Moore.” She stood back to examine her work and beckoned Aunt Helen over to take a look.

“Did good, Annie,” Helen approved. “Elijah, you don’t wanna be sleepin’ on this or gettin’ it wet. You gone put some of the salve on—” She was interrupted by Annie’s pleading eyes. “I’ll let Annie tell ya since she made it an’ all.” Helen went back to the corner where she resumed crushing herbs while her niece finished up with Elijah Moore.

Taking a small wooden spoon and an empty palm-sized tin, Annie scooped the rest of the salve into it and placed a lid on top to fit snuggly. “You gone use it twice a day, once in the morning and once before you go to bed but don’t lay on it. If you roll over in ya sleep, put a pillow behind ya so it’ll wake ya up. After a week, you can stop using the gauze and just put the salve on it. If it get sweaty and dirty, you can clean it with iodine.” She placed the bottle she used on top of the tin. “Now I ain’t mind doin’ this for you, Mr. Moore, but don’t make a habit of get ya’self all cut up, ya hear?”

Smoke had to resist another smile but his eyes showed it all the same. “Yes, ma’am, Miss Annie.” He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a stack of bills.

With wide eyes, Annie grabbed his hand with all the money in it. “You put that away, we don’t work for money in here.” She looked around the shack like the presence of money would cause it to collapse. 

The look of fear in Annie’s eyes had Smoke quickly putting the money away. “I can’t just give you nothin for patchin’ me up.” He stood and grabbed his hat, noticing how Finny stood closer to him.

“You gave me a chance to do my work.” Annie busied herself clearing off the counter. “Just don’t go out there doin’ it again. I know them hands is good for somethin other than fightin. Can’t promise you I’ll be able to help next time anyhow.” If it wasn’t for the glasses of whiskey, maybe she wouldn’t have offered to help him last night. Maybe. But the flutter in her stomach was telling her something different.

“Well, thank ya, Miss Annie.” He turned to Helen who had stopped what she was doing. “Thank you too. Ms. Helen. Y’all won’t see me in here again but I appreciate ya.”

A knowing look crossed Helen’s face. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that, Elijah, but you better get going fo’ the rest of the ladies in the house come out to ask about the car in the yard.”

He took one last look around the shack before stepping out into the Mississippi morning. Finny tried to follow him but was held back by Annie promising him extra ham. As he drove away, an ache made its home in his chest and wouldn’t leave until the next time he saw Annie Love.

———————-

it was her friend's graduation outing and she didn't want to be the only one to not show up when it mattered most. no matter how much she wanted to crawl back in bed and watch reruns of law and order suv.

aneika decided on a black bandage dress and black heels with the gold ysl holding them up. if she was going to go out she might as well put on her good shit. annie just hoped she wouldn't regret this at the end of the night.

⊹₊ ˚‧︵‿₊୨୧₊‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹

annie's mood was looking up but that was to be expected when your friends are as lit as her's were right now. the feeling that she had prior was melting away by the minute due to the atmosphere her group created. drinks were flowing, the dj was playing hit after hit, and all her girls looked good.

partition by Beyonce was the next song to come on. aneika lost all home training as she and her friends raced to the dance floor. she grinded her hips against her friend, drunk giggles escaping freely. she sighed deeply as she thought about how she always sung this to smoke. but she wouldn't be one of those " i miss my man" bitches, at least not right now. maybe later though..

she continued to dance until she felt her homegirl, asia, stumble into her back. before she could even turn around to ask what was wrong, she heard words that ensured the night was about to take a turn for the worst.

"damn bitches can't say excuse me" asia yelled out to another group of girls pushing their way through the sea of people.

"ian gotta say nothing if ion want to ho" that feeling was back in annie's chest. she knew something was about to pop off.

"girl shut the fuck up" another one of annie's friends said back.

next thing you know a drink flew and a heel came next. annie thought for a few quick seconds. thought about what would happen after the fight. what would happen if smoke found out.

but that was a later annie problem.

she swung on the girl across from her. fists punching harder and harder with each swing. each hit connecting more than the last. in her mind she knew this was crazy but she would always have her friend's back no matter what. she would think of the consequences later.

the girl got one good punch in before what aneika assumed was security snatched her up. legs kicking and body turning trying to make an escape.

the night time air smacked annie in the face as she was sat down on the curb.

"sit down and chill the fuck out" the security guard said as her friends were sat down next to her.

annie bounced her leg fast, adrenaline spreading through her body like a virus. she could not wait to tell her man about this shit. she picked up her phone and hit the only contact pinned in her phone.

elijah saved under the name "jah jah 💋" since he hated when she called him that name.

jah jah 💋

why tf i just get into a

group fight at the club😭

aneika 😐

i'm otw

annie put her phone down and continued to rethink her life decisions. she knew smoke was going to pissed ALL the way off when he came to get her but a part of her didn't really care at the moment. aneika would cross that bridge when she came to it.

"so you hoes think it's okay to put y'all hands on people now" this random man approached the group of women.

annie picked up her phone and began to scroll through instagram because there was no way in hell he thought he was talking to her like that.

" yea you too bitch" the man spat stepping directly in front of annie.

"who tf you talking to???" anieka looked up irritation seeping back into her blood just as quickly as it had left.

"you was the one swinging on my girl so wassup. keep that energy with me!"

"nigga fuck you! grown ass man arguing with women. find you something safe to do for real!!" annie said back to him, accent coming out stronger now that he had took her there.

while they were arguing, smoke turned the corner to the club on one wheel. base booming as he parked on the curb beside the building entrance. he hopped out swiftly when he caught sight of some nigga standing in his girl's face.

the man didn't get a chance to respond as smoke shoulder checked people to move through the crowd forming quickly around them.

"ima tell you one time to back up out her face." he said voice level despite how mad he was.

aneika knew this was the wrong time but seeing her man handle shit does something to her.

"or what" the man said with a fake air of confidence. smoke could see straight past the bravado he was trying to display. elijah was never one to do too much talking.

next thing annie knew, smoke's fist crashed into the dude's jaw. he didn't stop when he heard the cracking noise. eli kept punching even when the dude hit the ground. aneika's man was just like her for real.

"smoke stop and come on. before they call the police on yo crazy ass!!" she said trying to pull smoke off the man who was starting to lose consciousness. he ignored her at first. the man thought it was cool to talk to women any kind of way. especially elijah's. smoke didn't think he had learned his lesson just yet.

the man lay slumped on the concrete. blood staining his cheap white tee when eli let go finally, kicking the man one last time. he just wanted to be a lil extra. he turned around gripping annie's face in his hands.

"you good mama?" his eyes searched her face top to bottom looking for anything out of place.

she giggled still kind of adrenaline high and tipsy from all the lemon drops.

"yea i'm good. this been one crazy night man. " she laughed again.

"what you laughing for? you know damn well you not supposed to be out here fighting and shit" smoke scowled at her. he wasn't really angry at her, more so at the danger that could have took place if he hadn't showed up.

"babyyyyy. they were messing with asia and you know i was not letting that shit slide. that's my bitch. " aneika shrugged her shoulders, she didn't see anything wrong with her actions.

"if asia went to jail were you going too?" he raised an eyebrow at her.

"you don't remember freshman year of college babe? been there done that." annie looked up at him goofily.