The Beauty of Staying Together

"Come on. I'll go with you to get yo' things." He took Calvina by the arm and headed for the door. Calvina resisted, pulling back as Bonnie and Roberta came to her aid. "Are you crazy!" Bonnie screamed at Edgar. "Calvina is that man's wife. He'll kill you!" Bonnie and Edgar exchanged looks as though some dark secret lurked between them. Ms Lewis in apartment four had said to Roberta one day, "Now I ain't one to gossip, and you didn't get this from me, but I hear that Edgar is a fugitive from justice in Chicago." Roberta hadn't shared with Calvina what Ms Lewis had said. But as the siblings exchanged glances, she wondered if the rumor were true. There wasn't time to be concerned about it now. Calvina had to get out of her desperate situation.

"If I stick to it that I was visitin' Bonnie, Duane will be suspicious ‘cause I never mentioned her before," Calvina reasoned aloud, switching the drop from one hip to the other.

"You can't change from what I already told him!" Roberta shouted. "He'll think I lied!" And then it hit her. "I know!" Roberta said excitedly. "Tell him that you came over here to borrow sugar for me. Tell him I couldn't come ‘cause the baby was sleepin' and I didn't want to leave him alone."