"That"s sweet. You a playah, huh, Mr. Grey?"
"What"s that in your hands?" he asked.
"It come out from under the sink an" in the bathtub. It"s a mess. How do you go to the bathroom at all in there? The toilet don"t even flush."
"For number one I use a coffee can and I . . ." He hesitated. "I pour it down the sink."
"An" what about numbah two?" Robyn asked, neither ashamed nor disgusted as far as the old man could tell.
"I usually wait for Reggie to come by. He usually take me to Frank"s Coffee Shop for breakfast or lunch an" aftah I get my coffee I go."
"So you ain"t been to a toilet since you was at the wake?" she asked.
"I guess not."
The girl was staring at the old man while he inspected the floor.
"You really let this place fall apart," Robyn said.
"I"m sorry "bout that. It was just that when Sensie pa.s.sed I stopped doin" things, movin" things around, makin" "em bettah."
"Do the sink work in the kitchen?" Robyn asked.
"Uh-huh. There"s stuff all around it, but it works."
He was having trouble leaving Coydog"s lectures behind him so that he could give the girl and her lovely strong legs the proper attention. He wanted to get up on his feet but there wasn"t enough strength in his arms to lift him.
While Ptolemy thought about standing up, Robyn went into the kitchen. He began listening to the singing again but there came a loud crash and the old man found the strength to push himself up and grab on to the ledge at the top of his console radio.
He went through the kitchen door and found the girl throwing piles of pots down from the sink onto the floor. Hundreds of roaches of all sizes and breeds were scuttling madly from the wild woman"s attacks. The black gunk from her hands was coming off on the pots and pans and and even the dishes that she was putting on the floor.
"Stop," Ptolemy said, but Robyn didn"t even slow down.
"I can"t, Mr. Grey. I gotta wash my hands and clean this house and get rid"a all these roaches an" s.h.i.t."
"But you the one messin" it all up."
"It"s already a mess, Mr. Grey. It"s already messed up," Robyn said. "Look at all the junk just piled up and moldin". Look at all these bugs."
"They only out "cause you th"owin" everything around," the old man argued.
By this time the sink was clear enough that Robyn could turn on the water and wash her hands.
"Oh no," Ptolemy said, feeling as if maybe the walls would fall down or a fire would erupt from the stove. "This is bad."
Turning to him, smiling, her hands dripping because there was no dry towel, Robyn said, "We have to clean up this place, Mr. Grey. You can"t live like this with a house full"a garbage and bugs."
"But it"s too much. Too much stuff. We should just leave it and go to the store. I don"t have to cook."
Robyn whipped her hands back and forth through the air to get off the excess water and then came to Ptolemy and put her arms around him. She hugged him to her chest and put her cold hand on the top of his bald head.
"Shhh," she whispered.
He realized then that he was crying.
"It"s all right, baby," Robyn said. "I can clean up all"a this mess in a week or two. I could have your whole house set up for you. Don"t you want your house clean and neat? Don"t you want a nice bathroom and a bed to sleep in?"
"No."
Robyn moved back a few inches, still holding on with her face there close to his.
"Why not?"
"My things," he whined.
"But most of this stuff is just old junk an" trash."
Ptolemy lifted up his hands, resting them on the girl"s chest beseechingly.
"In between the garbage and the trash is all the things I have. Keys and lockets, pictures and money . . . treasure. One time Reggie tried to clean up but he just took a armful"a stuff an" th"owed in the thrash. There coulda been anything in the middle"a that."
"I won"t do that," Robyn said with the solemnity of a much older woman. "We will go through every newspaper and rag, lookin" for all your li"l trinkets. Okay? I won"t th"ow away nuthin" before we go through it."
Ptolemy realized where his hands were and pulled them back to his own chest.
"I"m sorry," he said.
"Don"t worry, Mr. Grey. I know you don"t mean no harm."
"Really?"
"Of course I do," she said. "You a sweet old man. There used to be a man like you lived next do" to me and my mama before my mama died. He used to give me peaches in the season. He said that I was a smart little girl and I needed peaches to make me smarter. It didn"t mean nuthin" but it was nice.
"You still got that money Hilly got you, Mr. Grey?"
He nodded and smiled, feeling grat.i.tude for no reason he could have explained.
"Well then, get your wallet and show me where the sto" is. We gonna get you some soap and steel wool and a mop an" broom. We gonna get a big box of trash bags an" shake out ev"ry newspaper, rag, and old shirt until we done emptied out the whole bathroom."
On the walk to the market Ptolemy swiveled his head from side to side again and again.
"What"s wrong, Mr. Grey?" Robyn asked him. "You lookin" for somebody?"
"Melinda Hogarth."
"Who"s that? Your girlfriend?"
"She the one gonna rob me if she sees me."
"Rob you? You mean you think she gonna try an" take yo" money?"
Ptolemy nodded, feeling disgraced by what felt like a lifetime of weakness and fear.
"Don"t you worry, Mr. Grey," Robyn said. "I got me a six-inch knife in my purse and I know to use it. My mama told me that I always had to have a li"l sumpin" extra "cause I"m short and a girl. You know I stick a mothahf.u.c.kah in a minute they try and mess with either one"a us."
It was her grimness that gave Ptolemy confidence. He glanced up at the sky, thinking, This is everybody"s ceiling. This blue roof belongs to me just as much as anyone else. This is everybody"s ceiling. This blue roof belongs to me just as much as anyone else. They were words he"d heard along the way somewhere. He remembered them, and they held him like an anchor, like that young girl, that Robyn, held his hand. They were words he"d heard along the way somewhere. He remembered them, and they held him like an anchor, like that young girl, that Robyn, held his hand.
They didn"t see Melinda Hogarth that day. Robyn spent seventy-three dollars of Ptolemy"s retirement check on cleaning supplies. They stopped by a McDonald"s hamburger place and had french fries and chicken salads. After two cups of black coffee Ptolemy spent half an hour in the restaurant"s men"s room.
All afternoon Robyn cleared out, scrubbed, and rinsed off Ptolemy"s bathroom. She brought out every rag, box, towel, and doodad, showing it to her guardian"s great-uncle before throwing it almost all away in big black garbage bags. There were stains on her little black dress, and her hair was getting wild. But she laughed a lot and seemed to enjoy reporting to Ptolemy.
"Do you want this old toothbrush, sir?" she asked with a knowing smile.
He had to study everything she brought to him. At first he didn"t know what it was he was looking at, and then, when he identified the object, he"d get lost trying to remember where it came from.
"That bresh was Sensie"s, I"m pretty sure," he said. "She got it at the Woolworth"s . . . No. Maybe not. I don"t know where she got it at."
"But do you want to keep it?" Robyn asked again.
"I guess not. No. You can th"ow it away . . . I guess."
Hours and hours Robyn cleaned, taking breaks now and then to discuss bits of detritus found in Ptolemy"s bathroom. She filled five thirty-nine-gallon lawn bags with the debris from just that one room. She scrubbed and swept and mopped, and then scrubbed and swept and mopped again.
Once she found an old sepia photograph way down under the sink. It was the picture of a huge brown woman holding the hand of a skinny, frowning little boy.
"Who is this, Mr. Grey?" she asked, coming out to see him.
Ptolemy had set his folding stool right at the door so that he could see everything the teenager was doing.
"Oh, don"t throw that away. No, no."
He took the crumbling photograph in his hand. It had once been five inches by eight but now the corners and sides had been eaten away by damp rot. The woman"s face was water-stained, as was the bottom half of the boy"s body. He held the picture gently, as if holding a wounded creature.
"That"s my mother," he whispered, "and her son . . . me."
"Let me put that away someplace safe so we can take it to the drug sto" copycat to see if they can make a good print of it," she said, taking the fragile memory from the man"s thick black fingers.
After a while Ptolemy stopped watching Robyn"s every move. He could see that she knew what was important and that she looked into every corner and fold.
"Come on in, Mr. Grey," Robyn called in the early evening.
The bathroom was sparkling, neat and clean. The blue tile floor was eroded in places, and there were stains and dings on the blue porcelain sink, but the bathtub was glistening white and the walls were a lovely if faded aqua.
"There"s water damage on the ceiling," she said, "and I can"t wear no dress the next time I come. And look ..."
Robyn pushed the white ceramic handle on the toilet and the stained commode flushed for the first time in many years.
"You fixed the toilet?" he asked. "You must be like a plumber too."
"No, I just cleaned it out and turned on the water, that"s all. It worked once it was clean."
This made sense to Ptolemy. He went to sit on the edge of the tub and ran his fingers over the smooth white porcelain.
"There"s some leaks and stuff, but we can get somebody to fix all that."
"Landlord won"t fix nuthin"," Ptolemy said, peering closely enough at the porcelain to see the barest reflection of his dark face in the deep whiteness.
"I gotta go, Mr. Grey. It"s gettin" late."
"I never seen nuthin" like this," he said. "I don"t even remembah half of what it looked like in here. How did you know?"
"I jes" cleaned. But I gotta go. Now you can go to the bathroom in your own house. I"ll come back day after tomorrow and we"ll start on your bedroom."
"Oh no," Ptolemy said. There was a big black moth fluttering in the center of his heart. "No. Best to leave well enough alone."
"You need a bed, baby. A place where you can sleep up off the flo"."
"No."
"Uh-huh," she sang. "Day aftah tomorrah I"m"a come back and we gonna tackle the bedroom together. Don"t worry, I won"t th"ow out nuthin" you don"t want me to."
"But this is enough, don"t you think?" Ptolemy asked, still running a hand over the cool ceramic rim.
"I got to go, Mr. Grey. Okay?"
"Okay."
At the open door of the apartment Robyn and Ptolemy stood face-to-face. They both seemed a little confused. Finally she put her arms around him and kissed his cheek, after which he put his hands on either side of her face and curled his fingers like clawless paws.
Ptolemy couldn"t speak because he had more than one thing to say. The first was that he didn"t want her to go into the bedroom. He didn"t need a bed. He didn"t want to be in that room, not ever. But he also wanted Robyn to come back and be there with him. Maybe she could clean the bathroom again.
She kissed him a second time and then walked away down the hall. When she got to the front door of the building she turned and waved before going out the door. He stood there for long minutes with the news and medieval recorder music behind him. He watched that closed door with many people on his mind: Robyn, and Coydog, and Reggie, who had been coming to his house for more than five years.
Then Reggie the man was standing next him in the hall but next to them was Reggie the corpse in the whitewashed pine coffin. The children were on the floor. Ptolemy wanted to call to them but couldn"t remember their names.
"Children shouldn"t be in the room wit" dead peoples, Reggie," he said into the empty corridor but also, in his mind, he was in the small bedroom of Niecie"s house where the dead man lay.