Pat’s sexual adventures had begun with Jukie, himself. He’d shown up earlier that evening at her room in the Law School Single Women’s Residence, ostensibly to get her advice about what courses to take next semester. He started out innocently enough, plopping himself down on the sofa and flipping open the course catalog.
“Sure, but I’ve only got Michelob. Is that O.K. with you?” Pat replied, as she looked into her little student fridge.
“Fine by me!” Jukie responded. “Anythin’ to get a little buzz on for the evenin’ ahead.”
Soundtrack: Night Time is the Right Time---Ray Charles
While Pat was getting the beers, Jukie had gotten up and wandered over to her little portable record player and put on a Ray Charles record that dripped with sexual innuendo. How utterly predictable of him! Pat knew Jukie well enough to surmise that his song selection and his comment about getting a buzz on for the evening ahead meant that she was going to be in for more than helping him pick out his courses. Oh yeah, she could see that Jukie was thinking about a little hop in the sack for “ole times.” Well, she’d let him know pretty soon that there weren’t going to be any “ole times” like that, not tonight, nor any other night… or day.
“Say,” he continued, as she’d figured he would. “What you doin’ t’nite, sistah? Wanna’ come out with me an’ some of the fellahs? Celebrate the new year?”
Pat smiled. Might as well get this cleared up right now. “Why would I want to do something like that, Jukie Jefferson? Do I look like one of ‘the fellahs' to you? Or maybe you and ‘the fellahs' had some other kind of idea about how to celebrate the new year with your old Patsy?”
Jukie feigned mild outrage, “Whoa, sistah! I never said nothin’ like that! I’m serious. Me an’ Stretch an Utsie gonna’ go get us some eats somewheres and then see if we can catch on with a coupla’ chicks at one of the bars. Maybe, you kin find you a fine gentleman to be with as the clock strikes midnight.”
Pat sighed. Same old jive Jukie. Some things just don’t seem to change. “I don’t think so, Jukie. That’s not my scene... and seems to me that by this time in your life, it shouldn’t be yours either. When are you going to stop tom cattin’ around and find yourself a real woman?”
Jukie laughed, “Oh wow, Patsy. You sound just like my moms! That’s what she's been saying to me all the time! You even say 'tom cattin' just like she do.”
That did it! Pat decided to be completely straight with him about everything she’d been thinking these past few months, as she’d been trying to help him make it at the U. “Jukie! I’m not going to play these games with you anymore, and if you value our friendship, you’re going to stop playing them with me too.”
Jukie was startled, “Wha...?”
“Look here,” Pat began, sternly. “When you got back from the army last spring, we talked about you going to college and I promised to help you get through it. And I feel like I have been helping you, but I’m really sick and tired of all your jive talk. I know you can speak proper English. I’ve heard you do it. So, do it with me. I am not your ‘sistah!’ You understand? I may be your ‘sister,” although we’ll have to see about that. It’s going to depend an awful lot on you making the effort. If you want to make it in this world, you’re going to have to start behaving like...”
“A white man?” Jukie interjected, cuttingly.
Pat was only temporarily nonplussed. “Well... yes, if you want to put it that way. Yes. You’ve got to act like any other person who is making it... white, black or purple... man or woman! Save the jive talk for the ‘fellahs,’ if you must. Otherwise, and that includes when you’re with me, talk like an ordinary American human being, OK?”
Jukie smiled, a big wide grin. “Sure thing," he said, then dropped his voice an octave, and grinned, "Baybee.” He chuckled at the Isaac Hayes imitation he had managed to pull off rather well.
Pat began to laugh too, but then cut herself off abruptly. “And that’s another thing.... I ain’t yo’ baby no moah!” she said, giggling at the irony of her own jive-talking response.
The two old friends joined in a bout of laughing that soon had them gasping for breath. When their laughter had subsided, Jukie looked down at his beer bottle and seeing it was empty, asked Pat if she minded if he finished hers.
“Go ahead. Help yourself,” she said. “I really don’t care much for beer myself. I mostly keep it on hand for guests.”
Jukie lifted the practically full bottle and chugged it. Pat sat down next to him on the couch. She’d been sitting across from him on her desk chair. “So, why don’t we look at your course selections for a half hour or so. Then, I’ve got to get dressed. I’m going to Bill Samuels’ New Years Eve party later.”
Jukie’s face perked up at this, his eyes opening wide. “Oh yeah? That a party I could come to? Or is it just for the ‘in’ crowd?” he added bitterly.
Pat pondered Jukie’s question. Come to think of it, it was actually a good one. Bill’s parties weren’t really closed to anyone... but she wasn’t at all sure that Jukie and the fellahs would be welcome, at least not as a group. Sad to say, but there was still very little racial mixing on campus and, when there was, it was usually one or two special Afro-American students, like Pat, at otherwise all-white events. Three street-wise black ‘cats’ arriving at Bill’s party would probably scare half the kids there to death. And that would embarrass both Bill and Pat.
Still... she had a thought. “Say, Jukie. Why don’t you come to the party with me instead of going out with the fellahs?’
Jukie seemed surprised at Pat’s invitation. He stammered a bit, “Well... I... uh... uh... I... Wow!... I dunno.”
Then he recovered. “Sure! Say that sounds like a boss idea. Really, I’m not even sure what Utsie and Stretch are doing tonight. I mean, that other plan was just sort of like what we do most every weekend night, so naturally I sort of figured we’d do the same tonight, but you know, if I called Utsie and just tole… I mean…told him I was going to a party at the U with you, he’d understand. I’m sure he would.” He smiled a slightly lascivious smile, which Pat picked up on immediately.
She stared at Jukie sternly, “Oh yeah, and what would that be that Utsie would understand?”
Jukie smiled sheepishly. “Oh, you know,” he began, but when Pat’s look turned to a glare, he lowered his eyes and stopped.
“I know what?” Pat demanded.
Jukie looked up and, tried to slip his arm around Pat’s waist, while simultaneously moving his mouth rapidly toward hers. She succeeded in knocking his arm away, but not in keeping his lips from crushing hers or his big tongue from filling her mouth, at least momentarily. For a millisecond, she considered biting his tongue hard, but instead she merely yanked her head back and to the side, dislodging his tongue from her mouth, while at the same time swinging her open palm hard against his cheek.
“Wow!” he cried. “That hurt, Patsy! Why you went and did that?”
By now, Pat was standing up, looking down at Jukie sitting on the couch, holding the burning side of his cheek. “Because, Jukie Jefferson, get this straight now: we don’t have that kind of relationship, not any more, and we’re not going to have that kind of relationship ever again! If you want to be my friend and have me help you through the challenges you’re going to be facing in college, then understand that there’s going to be no sex involved, none whatsoever. In fact, you try something like that again and it’s over... our friendship that is. You got that?”
While Pat spoke, Jukie’s smile faded and he stopped holding his cheek. He listened to her, deadly seriously, but when she was done, a small smile returned to his face and he said, simply, “Yeah. I got it. Deal.”
Link
Isaac Hayes
jive
Afro-American
Ray Charles
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New Year's Eve 1968: Pat, Scene 3 "Praxis"
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New Year's Eve 1968: Pat, Scene 1 "1969 Began with a Kiss"
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New Year's Eve 1968: Jukie, Scene 8 "Black Boy at the U"
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