God Still Don't Like Ugly Read Online Free Page A

McFinney. How a cracker like him ended up with such a nice lady is beyond me. I talk to Roxanne every now and then. We go to the same dollar-a-load washhouse. She tells me that my Uncle Lester is so racist, he won’t even wear black underwear. Lester would bite Roxanne’s head off if he knew she associated with a mutt like me in public. But Roxanne still sneaks by here every now and then anyway.”
    I didn’t know where Lillimae’s bathroom was, but I could hear Daddy still moaning and cussing. He flushed the toilet about every other minute.
    “Poor Daddy. I been tryin’ to get him to go to the doctor to get somethin’ for his stomach. But you know how stubborn some of our Black men are when it comes to their health. And they act like they know everything. Daddy had a runnin’ buddy who wouldn’t listen to nobody when he got these growths on the back of his neck. Even when one started oozin’ pus. Well, bein’ so stubborn got Brother Hamilton nowhere but in a hole at the Oak Grove Cemetery over in Alabama.” Lillimae paused and motioned me back to the living room.
    I sat down on the dangerously weak couch. She sat down across from me on a wobbly bamboo chair.
    “How long can you stay down here?” Lillimae asked, fanning her face with the tail of her bathrobe, revealing puckered fat on her thighs that reminded me of blisters. It was a struggle, but somehow she managed to cross her massive legs. I didn’t even try to do that, because it was too much trouble.
    I looked at my watch before answering. “Just a few days. I need to save some vacation days for my honeymoon cruise.”
    A broad smile appeared on Lillimae’s face and she shook her head and clicked her teeth. She rubbed the side of her neck and looked at 18
    Mar y Monroe
    me, blinking hard. “Girl, would you believe I spent my weddin’ night in the emergency ward gettin’ my jaw wired up? My man beat the livin’ daylights out of me for slow dancin’ with his best man.” She chuckled and let out a deep sigh. “My thirtieth birthday at that. Me and Freddie Lee had already been together for ten years and had two babies.”
    “You must have had some wedding reception. Are you still married?” I didn’t laugh. There was nothing funny about a man hitting a female. I still had nightmares about the beatings that Mr. Boatwright had showered me with the few times I tried to keep him out of my bed.
    Lillimae shook her head and shrugged. “That thing I married took off before the ink dried on our marriage license. Freddie Lee—that’s my husband’s name—was so jealous, he didn’t even allow me to go to male doctors. Every time I left the house and came back, he made me take off my panties so he could sniff ’em to see if he could smell another man’s juice. I broke his black ass up from that real quick, though. One time I went out and ate the biggest bowl of pinto beans and cabbage greens I could find. Then I washed it all down with some home-brewed beer. My panties was nice and ripe by the time I got home for him to sniff ’em. I didn’t have to worry about none of his foolishness after that.” Lillimae paused and laughed so hard, a huge tear rolled down the side of her face like a marble.
    “Where is this Freddie Lee now?” I asked.
    Lillimae gave me a serious look and groaned. “He’s in Lauderdale, livin’ with his mama. She manages one of them bait shops and he works with her.” Lillimae paused and grimaced. “Freddie Lee can be such a worm hisself sometimes. No wonder he loves sellin’ worms now.” Lillimae sniffed and then a thoughtful look appeared on her face. “But he is a good daddy to our two precious little boys. That’s why I didn’t mind lettin’ him have them for the summer. When I call to talk to the boys, me and Freddie Lee talk, too. We still love each other. I know we’ll eventually work things out and hook back up. If not for us, for our boys. A child needs both parents to feel whole.”
    Lillimae gave me a