Read Online God Ain't Through Yet by Mary Monroe - Free Book Online Page B

over.
    â€œI know you didn’t clean up that room that quick,” Pee Wee said, shaking a finger in Charlotte’s direction. “Did you find your mama’s earring?”
    â€œI couldn’t even find the fine-toothed comb that Mama told me to go over my room with!” she hollered with a hopeless look on her face.
    My daughter said and did some cute things. And when she did, Pee Wee and I usually laughed at the same time. But not this time.
    â€œWhat’s a fine-toothed comb anyway? And how is it going to help me find an earring?” Charlotte gave me a wide-eyed look.
    â€œDon’t worry about the earring right now. Just go to your room,” I ordered.
    As soon as Charlotte disappeared, I turned to Pee Wee. “What’s going on? What kind of change are you talking about?”
    He shrugged his shoulders first; then he looked me in the eye. “I’m bored,” was all he said. He shrugged again. But this time the way he did it made it seem like he was in pain. And from the frown on his face, he must have been. There were tears in his eyes, and his forehead had deep lines stretched across it. I had never noticed them before, but they must have been there for a while, and quite permanent, because when the frown left his face, the lines remained.
    I gave him a puzzled look as I sat there waiting for him to give me more information. “And?”
    â€œAnd what?” he replied with his mouth resembling a hole in the ground.
    â€œSo you’re bored. What else?”
    â€œThat’s it. I’m bored.” He shrugged again. His whole face twitched for a few seconds, making him look like a confused rabbit.
    â€œIs that all? Is that why you are sitting here looking like Methuselah’s granddaddy? Is that the reason you got me all nervous and scared? I was sitting here thinking that you wanted a divorce or that you’re sick with something. And all this time your only problem is that you’re bored !” It took all of my strength for me to keep from laughing out loud. But I didn’t laugh, and I wouldn’t laugh until he told me what he was bored with. “You’re bored with…”
    He laughed before I could finish my sentence. “Don’t worry. You ain’t what I’m bored with. It’s just everything else. Runnin’ the shop so many years has become such a routine that I could cut hair in my sleep. The main reason I wanted my own business in the first place was so I wouldn’t have to worry about slavin’ away at a job I didn’t like, or a job that ended up borin’ me to death. Well, I got my own business and it’s so borin’ now that I can hardly stand to go in anymore.”
    â€œThis is making no sense at all. You love being a barber. When we were kids that was all you talked about doing. And if you’re tired of being a barber, what else in the world do you think you can do at your age?”
    â€œI didn’t say I was tired of bein’ a barber,” he mumbled, looking at me with an uncertain look in his eyes. He didn’t sound very convinced, so I didn’t know what to think. “Life is passin’ me by, so maybe I should look into somethin’ else before it’s too late.”
    â€œToo late? As my mother often tells me, you’ve already got one foot and a big toe in the grave,” I scoffed.
    â€œYou don’t have to be so optimistic, Annette,” he snapped. The sarcasm in his voice was so thick I could have cut it with a butcher knife. “The least you can be is a little more sympathetic. Shit, I ain’t dead yet, so it ain’t too late for me to do nothin’.” He shot a piercing look in my direction but I didn’t even feel it.
    I sucked in some air and then finally gave him the sympathetic look he was whining about; but I also delivered some pretty harsh words. “Baby, you are no longer twenty-five. You are not even in the