The Bible says that to everything there is a season.
Marie came to work several more times with black eyes and swollen cheeks that were soon to turn black and blue and then yellow over her brown skin. On those days she slinked in and ran downstairs to change quietly. Then she showed up on the kitchen floor with dark glasses.
Bill and Henry Lee had several discussions about possible courses of action, but they decided to keep to themselves and not start anything which might lead to unpredictable consequences. They both felt her husband needed to get his ass kicked and they were willing to do it. But to what end? That’s what they couldn’t see. So they withdrew from Marie somewhat, waited for her to initiate whatever it was she wanted. Mostly with Bill it was talk, a camaraderie of sorts. But sometimes talk turned to more, the more shifting further and further toward the unusual.
Then came the fateful night when Alfreda decided she’d had enough. That was the night when the random factor entered in and things took their own turn. That was the night when about eight or so in the evening, right there in the kitchen, right there on Marie’s station in the midst of the dinner service, Alfreda helped herself to a chef’s knife from the knife sheath and walked through the kitchen over to Marie.
Strike one.
Sometimes, when you can’t see what to do, doing nothing is the best course of action. Other times it ends up that doing nothing is tantamount to doing something. This was not one of those cases. This was a case where Alfreda was the random factor and Alfreda did it all in one fell swoop.
She came in through the back door. Bill thought nothing of it since she came for the meat pickups sometimes and for other business as it happened. Sometimes she came just to say hello and to surprise her husband.
She said “Hi.” Bill said “Hi” back and kept on with working the steaks he had on the Garland. Alfreda said her “hi” like there was nothing wrong or unusual going on and maybe if Bill had taken the time to look into her eyes he would have seen that that was far from the reality. Maybe, if he’d looked he’d have seen her sidle up to that knife sheath and lean against it casually, as if she was gonna stand there and flirt with him like she did sometimes. But he paid her no mind, thought nothing of her being there.
Quietly, she took a chef’s knife from the sheath, went around the front of the line straight to Marie’s station where Marie stood fixing salads. Marie didn’t see her until it was too late. No one did. Alfreda was on a mission. Marie was the mission.
“You skanky bitch.” Alfreda was already behind the counter, ready to pounce. She pushed Marie backward against the wall where she pinned her and grabbed her hair. Marie didn’t scream. She didn’t even resist. She was in shock, caught wholly unaware. She was totally unprepared for the onslaught.
“Mess with my man? Here? Where I work? In my world? I don’t think so.” Piece by piece, Alfreda started cutting locks of Marie’s hair from her head and tossing them to the floor. “I’ll fix it so he never looks at you again.”
Marie stood still. The whole kitchen stopped. The dishwashers froze. Two waitresses were there. They froze. Jimmy and Bill looked up at the sound of Alfreda’s voice. Then they looked at each other. Bill started down the line toward where they were. As he passed Jimmy, he told him to go downstairs and get Henry Lee.
