I didn't much like my brother making decisions for me and I gave him a look, mouth tight from the quick flash of irritation that rushed up inside me. "Don't you tell me my business, Sylv."
"Think I need to since you won't listen." He didn't bother looking my way as he spoke, seemed too wrapped up in watching Dempsey like he needed to be ready for a tussle when it came.
Dempsey was honest. Always had been, even when his face was all bloody and his eye had swollen shut and my Bastie had asked how he'd gotten that way, his answer had come without him taking a breath to invent some lie. "My daddy beat me for helping mend your fence, Mrs. Bastie." Part of me thought he didn't know how to lie so when he looked right at Sylv, all the anger gone from his face, I believed him. I think so did Sylv and maybe that was the problem.
"Sylv, I'd never let anyone come near her. Not my blood … no one."
My brother let out a long, slow breath, like he wanted everything Dempsey said to be true. They'd been friends a long time. Maybe they weren't close like me and Dempsey were, but Sylv liked him fine. That's why I knew it hurt Sylv to tell Dempsey he wanted him gone. Maybe he didn't really want to see the back of Dempsey, but in Sylv's mind it was the only way to keep us all safe.
Our world wouldn't understand. Not now, not a year from now, and with my brother shaking his head, with him giving Dempsey a look that seemed like good riddance, I realized that maybe Sylv was right. There were men on the other side of this alley hell bent on seeing the end of my family, of all families like ours. They'd want Dempsey to keep away and would likely go about making that happen in any way they could. It's what his daddy had been trying to beat into his head for years.
Sylv shook his head, took a second to rub the back of his neck like the argument with Dempsey worked something hard into his body. "That's not a promise you can keep. Is it?" He was right. Though Dempsey wanted me safe, maybe thought he could manage it, being here in New Orleans, being the people we were in New Orleans left no guarantees. Sylv seemed to know just then that Dempsey could make no promises. We all did. "Didn't think so."
I broke in. "Sylv, don't you go stepping on toes." It was a sad try at getting my brother and my Dempsey to calm. But Sylv had the notion in his head that he was right. He was my mama's son. He was my brother. He wouldn't back away until he had Dempsey admitting the truth.
"He can't even keep that no good daddy of from beating on him. You think he'll be able to keep you out of that man's way?"
"I would." Dempsey's try was weak, his voice small but his eyes were bright again, lit with a fire that I thought might shoot out his fingertips.
"You'd want to." Sylv stepped back, finally looking away from Dempsey to glance around the alley, watching, holding his breath like something lurked just beyond the spot where the alley and street met. "Don't mean you could."
"I can protect her," Dempsey tried again, head jerking toward the sound of feet moving on brick behind us.
"That's not your job." Mama's face was drawn, a little sad as she walked toward us, hands moving around in the apron she wore as she dried them.
"Mrs. Lanoix."
"This thing, Dempsey," she interrupted, "it's just gone on too long. Sookie is becoming a woman. Time for her to be thinking about starting a family of her own with a man of her own."
My face flamed and something low and heavy started to build in my gut. Mama had never talked to me much about marrying anyone, but the past few months she'd mention me fixing myself up a little. She even had Bastie sew two new dresses for me and Mama gave me a pair of her small heeled shoes with the gold buckles. I'd reckoned she was gearing up to push me at some business, maybe have me work in some rich folks' home. But this? No. That was something she'd kept quiet about.
"There's plenty of men in the city that like the look of her." She didn't even glance at me when she said that, as though I wasn't even there, like I didn't matter. "Men with jobs and homes. Men that will take care of her."
"I … I can … "
"You can what?" Mama stepped closer, arms folded over her chest as she glared at Dempsey. "You gonna marry my little girl? You and Sookie gonna live up in the tree house where the owls shit and sleep?"
"Mama!" She still didn't bother to look at me, keeping all her attention on Dempsey, striking hard while his face paled and his eyes went narrow. She kept at him, speaking sense that only sounded as such to herself. "I'm sorry, cher, but that's a fairytale and we don't live in the make believe." She paused for a half second and the expression on her face went flat; a long line pulled on her mouth, but she set her jaw as though what she said would have to be taken for the truth. "It's time you keep away from her. For both of your own good."