“Yeah, I already did that, but the truck is registered in your name, so you need to notify whoever and get that taken care of.”
“All right, Malcolm,” was all I said. I disconnected the call. Then Anastasia, Chantal, and I left my folks’ house.
On the way back to Anastasia’s house, I received a call from the police that the truck had been found right where I had parked it, but the passenger-side window had been broken. The stereo system and all four tires were gone.
Anastasia looked at me and said, “You should feel real stupid. Now what are you gonna do?”
“Pay to get the window fixed and buy a set of tires and a stereo system.”
I dropped Anastasia and Chantal off, got in my own car, and called Malcolm to tell him what the police had told me.
He wasn’t happy. “Aw, man. Are you serious?”
“It’s okay, Malcolm. The truck is insured, and it’s being towed to a body shop right now.”
“I need to see you. Come to my mother’s house.” Malcolm gave me his address. I keyed it into my navigation system and pulled away from the curb.
When I arrived at his mother’s house, I honked my horn for Malcolm to come out, but he opened the door, stepped onto the porch, and waved for me to come inside. I looked down at the jogging suit I was wearing. I had pictured myself wearing something more appropriate when I met his mother. I got out of the car and walked up the steps.
“Hey.” He greeted me with a peck on the lips. “Come on in. I want you to meet my mother.”
My heart was pounding against my chest. I stepped into the living room and saw a dark-skinned, slightly overweight woman with a salt-and-pepper, short-feathered haircut, and I could tell it was freshly done. She sat in a wheelchair, wearing the white sundress Malcolm had bought for her in Cancún. White house slippers were on her feet.
“Mama, this is Rhapsody. Rhapsody, this is my mother.”
She was smiling at me. “My name is Lucille, sugar.”
I walked over to her and knelt to hug her. “It’s so nice to meet you, ma’am.”
“It’s nice to meet you too,” she said. “Malcolm talks about you all the time. I’m glad you’re a pretty girl.”
I fell in love with her in that moment. I knew she and I would get along just fine. “Thank you.”
Lucille offered me a seat on the living room sofa, and I sat down.
When I sat down, she said, “Malcolm, did you see how Rhapsody sat down when I offered her a seat? Did you notice that she didn’t tell me she already had a sofa at home?”
They both laughed, but I didn’t, because I didn’t know what she was talking about. She filled me in when she saw that I was clueless as to why they were laughing.
“I’m sorry to hear there’s a sister that dense,” I said, referring to Deidra.
“Not only was she dense,” Lucille replied, “but I guess she had been constipated for a while, because the heifer clogged up my toilet before she left here.”
I covered my mouth. “Ooh, no she didn’t.”
“Yes she did, and I told Malcolm that she is never to darken my doorstep again.”
“Okay, can we change the subject?” Malcolm said.
“Yeah, we can change the subject, but while Rhapsody and I change it, go and get us a glass of Kool-Aid.” She looked at me. “Are you thirsty?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Uh, yeah, kind of.”
Lucille reminded me of my own mother. The way Malcolm quickly moved at her command let me know that she didn’t take any crap, and I liked that about her.
“I see you’re wearing the sundress we got in Cancún.”
She nodded her head and looked down at it. “And it’s so comfortable.”
“I bought my mother one just like it. Did you like the pink scarf?”
She frowned a little bit. “Pink scarf?”
“The one Malcolm bought for you in Cancún. I accidentally damaged the pink chiffon scarf you left in his truck. In Cancún he bought you a pink scarf to replace it.”
Lucille shook her head from side to side. “I’ve never owned a pink chiffon scarf.”
At that exact moment my ears got hot. It felt like somebody had lit matches to them. Malcolm came back into the living room and extended a glass of Kool-Aid to me, and it took every ounce of my self-control not to take it and throw it in his face. I was in his mother’s house, so I couldn’t show my behind, but I was ready to go.
“May I use your bathroom?” I asked Lucille.
“Oh, sure.” She pointed toward the rear of the house. “It’s straight through the dining room and the first door on your right.”
I stood up and gave Malcolm a stern look before I left the living room. I went to the bathroom and shut the door. I started pacing the floor. I was pissed beyond words. My head jerked back and forth as I tried with all my might to keep my anger in. “Freakin’ dirt bag!” I tried to stop it. “Dirty toilet tissue breath.”
I needed a reason to leave, because if I didn’t, I would tear that bathroom up. I flushed the toilet and ran the water in the sink for ten seconds. When I got back into the living room, I said that my period had started unexpectedly and I needed to leave.
Malcolm looked at me like I was crazy, but he couldn’t comment or question me, because his mother didn’t know that I was pregnant.
“We can send Malcolm to the store and get you whatever you need, if you want,” Lucille said. “I was just about to cook us something to eat.”
“I ain’t going to a store to buy that crap,” he said.
She snapped at him. “What the heck you mean by ‘crap’? And you’re gonna do what I tell you to do.”
Lucille was trying to become my new best friend. “No, that’s okay,” I said. “I need to change my underwear, so I should go home.” I picked up my purse from the sofa and kissed Lucille’s cheek. “Thank you for the Kool-Aid. And I’ll be back for that meal you promised to cook for me.”
Malcolm didn’t have a clue why I was leaving so abruptly. He looked at me strangely but didn’t question why I was in such a hurry to go.
“Okay, sugar,” Lucille said to me. “You take care and call me sometime.”
“I only have Malcolm’s cell number.”
“Our number is two-three-nine-six-one-seven-four,” she blurted out.
I didn’t look at Malcolm to see his reaction to the fact that his mother had given out their home number. To humor Lucille, I stood in the living room and programmed the number into my cell phone. Then I said good-bye and walked out the front door with Malcolm on my heels.
“What was that all about?” he asked when we had reached my car.
“I asked your mother if she liked the pink scarf you bought for her in Mexico.”
Malcolm hung his head, ’cause there was nothing else he could do.
“That’s right. You’re busted. Now I’ma ask you this question one time and one time only. Who was the scarf for?”
“It’s for my mother. I just ain’t gave it to her yet.”
Malcolm stood in my face and lied so effortlessly. I looked toward the living room window to make sure my new friend wasn’t looking out at us before I balled up my fist and punch him in the center of his chest with all my might. It caught him by surprise when his chest caved in.
“You lying bastard! She told me she never owned a pink scarf.” I got in my car and drove away from the curb.
Chapter 45
When I got home, I found a large white envelope on my doorstep. My name had been written on it in calligraphy type with a gold ink pen. I picked it up and unlocked my front door. I walked into the living room, threw my keys on the cocktail table, sat down on the couch, and tore open the envelope. The first thing I pulled out was a message written on a sheet of white carbon paper in calligraphy with the same ink pen.
Rhapsody Blue,
Here’s a gift for you.
It’s something that’ll make you really tic.
Guess who’s suckin’ your man’s
d . . . ?
So Malcolm had told that stank broad about my illness.
The next thing I pulled out of the envelope was an eight-by-ten color photo of Malcolm lying naked on a bed, smiling at Sharonda as she knelt over his waist and gave him pleasure. I saw that her arm was extended outward, and I could tell that the heifer had taken a selfie. The only item of clothing she wore was a pink scarf around her neck.
Immediately, I started to sweat. I’d warned Malcolm over and over again that I wasn’t to be played with. But since he liked to play with fire, I was gonna set some stuff off and let it burn. I went to my closet, pulled down a white shoe box from the top, and drove back to Malcolm’s house.
Chapter 46
Ivan and Malcolm were sitting on the front porch, talking. “Dang, Malcolm. She just stole on you out here in the street?”
“Yep,” Malcolm said, rubbing his chest, which still burned. “I’m slippin’, Ivan. I should’ve bought two scarves and given one to my mother.”
“I think you just need to go ahead and leave that crazy old broad alone.”
“I can’t. She’s pregnant.”
That was shocking news to Ivan. “What? Y’all wasn’t using nothing?”
“Nah. But when I talk to Rhapsody tonight, I’ma tell her that I ain’t taking no more of her crap.”
“Then what do you think will happen?”
“Then I’ll probably wake up, because you know I’ll only say something like that in my dreams.”
They both laughed out loud.
I turned the corner onto Malcolm’s block and saw him and Ivan sitting on the porch, laughing. They were probably laughing at how Malcolm was getting away with playing me. I slowed my car down as I crept up to his house.
I saw the concerned look on his face when he noticed my car. I was sure he was wondering what I was doing back there. I got to his house and let down my driver-side window. He said something to Ivan, then stood to come my way. When Malcolm got within ten feet of my car, I raised my .22 semiautomatic Beretta and aimed it at his chest. It was a gift my father had bought me for Christmas the year I’d moved out on my own.
Malcolm stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes popped out of his head, and he turned to run from me. I couldn’t let him get away. I pulled the trigger and opened fire. I don’t remember how many bullets pierced Malcolm’s back, but I do remember seeing him fall on his face. Ivan stood and ran to Malcolm. I sped off.
Epilogue
I tried to kill Malcolm, but he was in the hospital for only two weeks. Three bullets had struck him just beneath his left shoulder blade. I should’ve made sure he was dead before I drove off. That way I would feel that being locked up was justified. It’s almost like robbing a bank and getting caught with only twenty dollars in your possession. You have to ask yourself, “Was it worth it?” My answer would be, “Yes.”
Shooting Malcolm is definitely worth the years I’m facing ahead of me, because I’ve proven my point to him. I am not to be played with. My trial doesn’t start until after my baby is born, which will be in three months. Malcolm threatened to sue and have me declared an unfit mother. He wants the state to award him full custody of the baby. The word on the street is that Malcolm and Sharonda got married and are waiting on the birth of my baby, whom they plan to raise as their own.
I get to talk to my parents for three minutes every day, and all my mother does is cry for the whole three minutes. My father won’t say it, but I know he’s ashamed of me. He had such high hopes and dreams for his baby girl.
Walter and Daniel came to see me the day I got here. Both of them cried. But that was the first and last that I saw of them.
My attorney said that the maximum I’ll get is seventeen years for attempted murder. With good behavior, it’ll probably get reduced to twelve and a half years. She’s also using my mental illness as a defense. Dr. Buckles has already agreed to testify on my behalf. She’s convinced that Tourette’s syndrome played a huge part in my actions. My attorney feels strongly that I will probably get off by reason of insanity. While I’m locked up, I’m required to see Dr. Buckles once a week. She’s even upped my medication. I also attend an anger management class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I hear that women’s prisons are much worse than men’s prisons. So I guess I’ll be doing the whole seventeen, ’cause I already know that I’m gonna have to fight for my life in here. There’s a broad in the cell next to mine who keeps looking at me like I’m a pan of peach cobbler. But she’ll have just one time to grab my boobs or pat my butt. And when that happens, I’ll just prove to her what I had to prove to Malcolm.
So, God willing, nobody in here will have to see the ugly side of me.
Book Club Discussion Questions
1. Malcolm was thirteen years younger than Rhapsody. Do you believe that he was too young for her?
2. Why didn’t Malcolm tell Rhapsody the truth about why he couldn’t stay the entire night with her?
3. Do you believe that Tourette’s syndrome was to blame for Rhapsody’s actions?
4. Was Rhapsody justified when she confronted Malcolm at the club, in front of his friends?
5. Why was Rhapsody’s relationship with her brothers, Walter and Daniel, so strained?
6. Do you believe that Anastasia was a true best friend to Rhapsody? Why or why not?
7. On vacation in Mexico, Malcolm told Rhapsody that he loved her. Do you think that was true?
8. Rhapsody bought Malcolm a brand-new Lincoln Navigator. Why do you think she went to great lengths to keep him in her life?
9. What was Rhapsody’s breaking point? Why did she shoot to kill Malcolm?
10. What do you think the future holds for Rhapsody, Malcolm, and their child?
UC HIS GLORY BOOK CLUB!
www.uchisglorybookclub.net
UC His Glory Book Club is the spirit-inspired brainchild of Joylynn Ross, Author and Acquisitions Editor of Urban Christian, and Kendra Norman-Bellamy, Author for Urban Christian. This is an online book club that hosts authors of Urban Christian. We welcome as members all men and women who have a passion for reading Christian-based fiction.
UC His Glory Book Club pledges our commitment to provide support, positive feedback, encouragement, and a forum whereby members can openly discuss and review the literary works of Urban Christian authors.
There is no membership fee associated with UC His Glory Book Club; however, we do ask that you support the authors through purchasing, encouraging, providing book reviews, and of course, your prayers. We also ask that you respect our beliefs and follow the guidelines of the book club. We hope to receive your valuable input, opinions, and reviews that build up, rather than tear down our authors.
What We Believe:
—We believe that Jesus is the Christ, Son of the Living God.
—We believe the Bible is the true, living Word of God.
—We believe all Urban Christian authors should use their God-given writing abilities to honor God and share the message of the written word God has given to each of them uniquely.
—We believe in supporting Urban Christian authors in their literary endeavors by reading, purchasing, and sharing their titles with our online community.
—We believe that in everything we do in our literary arena should be done in a manner that will lead to God being glorified and honored.
We look forward to the online fellowship with you.
Please visit us often at:
www.uchisglorybookclub.net.
Many Blessings to You!
Shelia E. Lipsey,
President, UC His Glory Book Club
Urban Books, LLC
97 N18th Street
Wyandanch, NY 11798
The Ugly Side of Me
Copyright © 2015 Nikita Lynnette Nichols
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
ISBN: 978-1-6228-6821-6
This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
Distributed by Kensington Publishing Corp.
Submit Orders to:
Customer Service
400 Hahn Road
Westminster, MD 21157-4627
Phone: 1-800-733-3000
Fax: 1-800-659-2436
The Ugly Side of Me Page 27