Red Light Wives Read Online Free PDF

over a T-shirt and a pair of baggy flannel pants.
    â€œSince when do you know so much about men?” I teased my best friend about being a lesbian as often as she teased me about being a fool.
    Odessa rolled her eyes and tugged at the limp ponytail hanging off the side of her head. “I know more than you think, Lula. I’ve had more than a few dicks in my life to know they ain’t all they cracked up to be. And, you don’t grow up in a house with six brothers and not learn everything else you need to know about men. Shit.” We both laughed.
    â€œI should have known somethin’ wasn’t right when Larry tried so hard to make me get an abortion,” I said lamely, sipping cold water from a plastic cup. My throat was so dry, it hurt when I swallowed. I felt like I hadn’t eaten in days. The hospital food tasted like paper, but Odessa had smuggled me in some fried chicken. I couldn’t wait to gnaw on it. I was anxious for things to get back to normal, but I knew that was something I wouldn’t experience for a long time.
    â€œWell, was that all you was suspicious of? What about him not lettin’ you know where he lived?” Odessa snapped. With a grunt, she rolled up the sleeves of her plaid shirt and folded her arms.
    I sighed. “I didn’t need to know. I know where he works. I’ve called him there dozens of times. He likes havin’ his space as much as I like havin’ mine. I was the one with an apartment all to myself. He lives way across town somewhere, and he has four roommates—”
    Odessa gave me a stern look, shaking her finger in my face as she talked. “Four roommates that turned out to be a wife and three kids. Don’t you defend that punk because he ain’t worth it.” She had nosed around like Shaft, gathering more incriminating evidence than I needed to get Larry out of my system. “He played you like a piano, girl. Oh, that nigger had him a good thing goin’.”
    â€œI know, I know. You don’t have to rub it in. Anyway, I’m glad this is all over,” I said sadly, rubbing my stomach. “Givin’ birth sure ain’t what it’s cracked up to be. I feel like holy shit between my legs.”
    Odessa lowered her head and leaned closer toward me, looking at me through narrowed eyes. “Uh, you seen his other newborn? The nursery is right around the corner if you want to take a peek.”
    â€œI don’t want to,” I said, sniffing so hard the insides of my nostrils burned.
    â€œWell, I peeped in the nursery. You had the cuter baby. That other one looks like a Peking duck. And bein’ a girl, she goin’ to catch hell the rest of her life.”
    â€œBut that other baby lived, mine didn’t.” A dark shadow slid across my face and my chest started aching. My son who had looked just like Larry had lived only two hours. A congenital heart defect had returned him to God.
    Odessa touched my forehead and said in a soothing voice, “I know, sugar. I know. But the sooner you get over that, the better. If he was goin’ to die anyway, it’s better that it happened now, before you got too attached to him. You still young enough. You got a few more years to have babies. But first, we got to find you a new man. A real man.”
    â€œDon’t you start up that mess about me hookin’ up with one of your recently divorced brothers.” Another man was the last thing on my mind. My life needed a complete makeover. A new location was what I needed. I just didn’t know where to go, and even if I did, I didn’t have the money to go too far.
    Odessa shook her head. “Bo, my brother that’s here from San Francisco, he ain’t never even married.”
    I had never met Odessa’s middle-aged brother, Bo. But she talked about him so often, I felt like I had. He was an independent musician who roamed around the world blowing a saxophone with whatever