Esserine was a married woman with two kids. But more, she was a Bible-thumper, a Bible-quoting woman who attended church every week and listened to Robert and his choir sing. Except she really listened and she really followed what the preacher and her Bible said. She was a God-fearing woman of character and morality, a woman who never stepped outside of her marriage and never would, a woman who would give the man robbing her everything she had along with a blessing from God, all the while telling him he didn’t have to rob her, that she’d happily give it all to him if he needed it.
Robert knew her and her family from the church. Alvin, despite his funkiness, knew of her in the sense that he knew she was a pantry woman at one of the local places at which he went to drink. Robert came to find out that she had been a pantry woman, that the place she worked in had gone under and she was unemployed. He approached her one Sunday, still in his choir robe, and that, as they say, was that.
So it came to be, nice and easy.
Esserine was gentle and quiet-mannered, a much lighter-skinned black than Mary or Alfreda or even Bea who was coffee and cream. She called Tommy Mr. Stevens and Lillian Miss Lillian. Whenever Bill flirted with any of the waitresses she was quick to rebuke him and remind him that God would have His way in the end, that Bill would have to pay for his indiscretions. If Bill went to play with her, she’d blush and tell him she wasn’t about to meet him in hell.
Tommy was so happy he could have cried. Gone was Marie who was corrupting everything. Well, not really. She was just actively participating in and exacerbating the corruption. Or, she was actively indulging herself with two of the key participants of the corruption.
For all her nastiness, and for all her feigned hurt, Alfreda was no better. She was just more quiet about her activities. She liked Bill from the start but had held off until she’d known he was available in the sense that he was messing around. Even sitting there in the church pews, Mary and Bea had told her about him. So, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Or, what’s good to you, as Robert always said, is good for you. Huh glory! And the meat wagon, the van they used to transport the meat from the east to the west, would never be the same.
After Marie was gone, they had some quiet times up on the kitchen floor, at least once Mary and Bea went home. Bill could not flirt with Mary if Esserine was there. It was like they were both shy, as if they felt they were being watched over and judged, which was the truth. If Bill touched Mary, Lord have Mercy. If he kissed her and felt her, Esserine would remind them there were two places in the afterlife and God was always judging.
Bill was fighting with Bea more and more. The more jealous she was of Mary, the more covetous she was of her position, the more Bill took control of the kitchen and was able to handle his position and all the others as well, the more Bea got on his case for any little thing. She yelled at him sometimes. She embarrassed him if she could. Then too, she increased her sexual demands almost becoming like a hussy. At any given time, for any ridiculous reason, she would summon Bill downstairs and make him… Well, at least, from his point of view, she reciprocated every time.
