The courtship of Calvin and Esther is among the greatest love stories ever told of the Bottoms. The two were inseparable and some say that Esther’s influence tempered Calvin’s more aggressive impulses. Others say that Calvin enhanced the aggressive aspects of Esther, who had been known as a very genial girl, but who became an aggressive woman toward other females, especially those who she thought looked too long or longingly at Calvin.
By the time they were married and bought a house on N— street, Calvin was notorious for his dog fighting ring that always stayed one step ahead of law enforcement because Calvin had a cousin who worked in law enforcement, and just like their legendary grandfather who became Captain of the police force that oversaw the Bottoms in the 70s and 80s, he was amenable to bribes as long as his looking the way didn’t result in murders that would cause bad press. The treatment of animals was of no concern to the man and Calvin was able to organize dog fighting tournaments that were attended by people from at least three neighboring states with a cash prize in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Not to be out done, Esther Mae spent considerable time playing cards with her cousin Damon after she mostly healed from her wounds and decided against returning to college as her relationship with Calvin became more serious. Her cousin became a close friend and she mostly went with him to the M— street bootlegger who made wine from the small plums that grew on trees native to the area and a more potent liquor made from potatoes. The bootlegger’s house tripled as the neighborhood casino, where one could find a poker or dice game, and also the whore house. The women, and few men, who worked for the M— St bootlegger as prostitutes lived in the back rooms of the home and never made their way to the front that was reserved for gambling. The kitchen served as the dance floor for the make-shift bar and also the mingle floor, where a man could find a woman that was worth the money he would pay for her.
It didn’t take much convincing for Esther to take part in the high stakes poker games on M— street and she quickly became the best five-card player in the city. When she became pregnant with twins, Farah and Farashad, Calvin used his connections to organize a new poker game in their home so Esther didn’t have to leave the house. Though Calvin was the muscle for the same drug dealers who had admired the strength of his first dog when he was a young kid wandering around the bottoms, the bootlegger had dangerous muscle of his own and threatened Calvin for organizing the game and eating into his profit.
Esther became aware of this tension one evening after her oldest children were born and being cared for by grandparents for the weekend. The house was full with a party that spilled out into the backyard. It was Labor Day and everyone was eager to celebrate the wind down of summer. Damon was good on the grill and he cooked anything the partygoers brought to share with everyone else, and everyone who was interested in food were well fed that day.
The house was large, it had two stories and a sizable yard on N— street. The exterior was light blue siding that reflected brightly under the sun. The house sat close to the sidewalk, but there was ample yard space along the side and in the back, and Esther had helped Calvin set up a large white tent in the corner of the backyard that was large enough for three poker tables and seating and standing room for spectators. The tent could get stuffy and hot in the summer, but Esther found a machine that cooled and circulated the air to make the hours players spent in the tent comfortable. No children or weapons were allowed inside the tent, a rule that Esther was brutal in enforcing.
“Who dealing, come on,” the young man said impatiently. He annoyed Esther, but he was dumb enough to come by regularly to lose the little bit of money he earned mowing lawns in the neighborhood, so she tried very hard to hide it. “Y’all trying to throw off my streak, I see how y’all do. Slow it down so my hot hand cool off, but I got something for y’all.”
It was Terror’s deal and he gave the young man the stink eye as he picked up the cards. Terror made Esther nervous, he was related to the M— street bootlegger and liveda life of crime that far outpaced the illegal poker games Esther had taken so easily to. The young man cleared his throat and fell silent, Esther was grateful that Terror’s intimidation had managed to shut him up.
Terror had been relatively quiet the entire game and he seemed a decent enough player not to loose all of his money immediately, but Esther noticed that he seemed to be casing the tent. At one point, she was sure that he was counting the winnings of a player from another table and she wondered why he was grasping so hard for details.
He dealt the hand and two players folded immediately, leaving Esther, the young man, Terror and another player still in the game. Esther noticed a grin on Terror’s face and looked out at everyone, waiting for betting to commence. When it came around to him, he upped the ante, and a player folded.
“I don’t think you bluffing,” the young man said to Terror, “but I think I can beat you.”
“That’s why you stopped coming by the bootlegger spot?” Terror asked. “‘Cause it’s easier to win out here? Don’t seem like they be betting shit, can’t hardly win nothing.”
As he said it, he took out his wallet and tossed more money to the center of the table, six hundred dollars bills, that elicited a gasp from some of the players.
“I ain’t even got that much,” the young man complained as he folded, having already put in two hundred dollars.
Terror eyed Esther and though there was menace in his eyes, his mouth was curled into a friendly smile that spoke words soaked in distain.
“What about you, Calvin’s wife? Your tables handle more than change? The bootlegger got thousand dollar tables out there.”
“Maybe that’s why they here,” Esther said, “them tables for high rollers. Us hobby players need a safe space to win some money for the light bill without somebody threatening to break our legs.”
She watched Terror’s eyes as she removed her wallet that was the old, beat up leather wallet that Calvin received as a gift from his father when he was a teenager. He’d kept it as a momento when he received wallets as gifts later in life, and Esther had found it and used it specifically to hold excess cash for poker games like the old men did. As she removed the wallet from her pocket, she noticed that Terror’s eyes moved to note where she kept it and she realized that Terror meant to rob her. The man wasn’t desperate for money, he earned enough working for the M— street bootlegger, so Esther figured that he must be doing the bidding of the bootlegger, sent to intimate her. She knew that her poker games were popular, but she didn’t think that she was taking players away from him because as Terror had pointed out, the games at the bootlegger’s house were much more highstakes.
As she tossed the bills into the center of the table, she put her cards down and pulled a hand gun on Terror.
“The fuck?!” Terror exclaimed as every game inside the tent stopped and all eyes fell on Esther.
“It ain’t supposed to be no weapons in here, so if you want to see my cards, throw your guns over here behind me. Try me, and I swear I’ll shoot you in front of all these people. They know me, they know I do what I do to protect myself, so know that I ain’t afraid to end your life right here, right now.”
She said it like she meant it, but Esther was only doing the bit that she did with her husband. She would sometimes tease him and talk hard like he did around his friends, and it made him laugh and kiss her gently on the neck. But she’d been doing it for so long that the impression tumbled out of her when a threat presented itself, and she’d delivered the words convincingly enough that Terror threw two large guns to the ground at Esther’s feet.
He showed his cards, and Esther showed hers. She gathered her money with the gun still on Terror as Calvin wandered into the tent that had fallen completely silent when someone turned off the music that played inside.
“What’s going on in here?” he asked as he stood behind Terror.
“Your wife cleaning me out,” Terror said.
Calvin led him out of the tent and away from the house. No one ever saw terror again and many believe that Calvin’s most vicious dogs ate the body, bones and all, so as not to leave any trace of evidence.
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