Only the bastard never showed up.
By eleven o’clock, Danielle was pitching a bitch and tossing all his shit in a box. By one, the box was on the porch. Somewhere between three and four in the morning, a fire truck pulled up in her front yard to put out the fire.
Danielle whipped around a slow-ass car and veered left at the light. “Wait ’til he gets home,” she mumbled; then, voice rising, she said louder, “I’m gonna kick that mothafucka’s ass!” She pounded her fist on the steering wheel. She had expected Ron to show up some time before she left for work, but to her disappointment he had not, and that pissed her off even more.
“Who the fuck does he think he is, anyway?” She sucked her teeth as she swerved the SUV around the next corner. When one wheel hit the curb, she took a deep breath and told herself to slow down. However, even as she let up on the gas, she couldn’t stop thinking about how used he made her feel. Growing angry, her white leather mule slammed back down on the pedal harder and she sped down the street just in time to make a yellow light.
As she neared the hospital, she glanced down at the clock again and noticed it was ten minutes before shift change. If she could find a metered parking space close to the building, she just might make it in time to hear a report from the night-duty nurse. Then at lunch she could come back down and move her Durango to the employee parking lot before she got a ticket
Her cell phone Vibrated on her hip. Danielle reached down, expecting to see Ron’s number display. Instead, she frowned when she recognized another frequent caller. Fuck!
“Hello,” she said.
“Ms. Brooks?”
“Yeah?”
This is Marcy Carter, the nurse at Hickman High School. Can you come down to the school right away?”
Danielle grumbled under her breath. Dammit! Her daughter was a hypochondriac. The school nurse called her at least twice a month. What could possibly be Portia’s problem today? she wondered before racking her brain and remembering that her daughter was scheduled to serve detention for skipping gym last week. She figured that whatever Portia was up to, it was nothing more than a scheme to get out of being confined in a small, hot classroom on the last week of school.
Tightening her hands on the steering wheel, Danielle finally asked, “Why? What’s wrong now?”
Nurse Carter hesitated. “I prefer not to say over the phone.”
Danielle blew out a long breath. “Well, I’m sorry, but you’re gonna have to say. I’m already running’ late for work. Is it somethin’ life or death?”
The nurse hesitated again, then Danielle heard something that sounded like a door closing before Nurse Carter finally responded in a low voice, “Your daughter was sexually assaulted on campus yesterday.”
“What!” Startled, Danielle swerved to the left and almost ran into the side of another car before she managed to swing out of the way. She pulled away from the flow of traffic onto a side street, a block from the employees’ parking lot, and put her SUV in Park.
“Are you okay?” Nurse Carter asked after a moment of prolonged silence.
Danielle felt as if her heart had momentarily ceased to beat. She took several deep breaths. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she choked out.
“I’m sorry I had to be the bearer of bad news this morning,” she said with what sounded like a sincere apology. “I don’t want to get into the details over the phone but I need to know if you can take Portia to the ER this morning so she can be examined?”
Closing her eyes, Danielle shook her head. Not today. She couldn’t deal with her daughter today. She had enough problems of her own. Yet what type of mother would she be if she refused? “Yeah, I’ll be right there.”
Nurse Carter sounded relieved by her response as if for a moment she had feared Danielle might have said no. “Good. I’ll give you all the information you’ll need when you get here.”
Danielle thanked her and ended the call.
She paused for a few seconds to catch her breath and to think about what the nurse had told her. Portia had been sexually assaulted. Why was she having such a hard time believing her daughter? she wondered. Because your daughter’s a drama queen. She’ll do or say anything for attention.
Just last year when she had scheduled her daughter to see a gynecologist for the first time, afraid that her mother would discover she was sexually active, Portia had concocted a story about being raped by a man who had followed her down an alley. It wasn’t until Danielle told her she was taking her down to the police station to file a complaint that Portia confessed that she had lied because she didn’t want her mother to find out she was having sex with the nappy-headed boy around the comer.
Noting the time on the dash, Danielle cussed. She was now officially five minutes late to work. Quickly, she dialed the hospital where she worked as a licensed practical nurse and gave her boss a lame-ass excuse that she had been throwing up all night and thought she might have a twenty-four-hour virus. Five minutes later, she pulled away from the curb and headed toward the high school. Halfway there, she reached for her phone again and dialed her mother. Victoria answered on the second ring.
“Good morning, Sunshine. How was your evening?”
“About as bad as my morning,” Danielle replied dryly. Then, before her mother had a chance to control the conversation—as she typically did—she continued, “Mom, where’d Portia go yesterday after I dropped her off at your house?”
“Well, let’s see. I took her back to school. She went to some track meet, then said she was going to have pizza afterwards. One of her friends brought her home around ten.”
Danielle groaned. How many times did she have to tell her mother Portia wasn’t allowed to do anything on a school night? With all of the classes she was failing, her daughter was lucky her ass was even permitted to watch television after her homework was done. Feeling the start of a migraine, Danielle rubbed her temple. Trying to get her mother to respect the way she raised her daughter was a big waste of time and would just cause another argument.
“Mom, I just got a call from Portia’s school. She claims someone raped her last night.”
When Danielle heard her mother’s quick intake of breath, she almost felt sorry for telling her the way she had. But her mother needed to understand that she had put rules to govern her daughter in place for a reason.
“Dear Lord! Why didn’t she tell me?”
She paused to ask herself the same question. As close as the two were, she would have expected her daughter to run and cry on her grandmother’s shoulder the way she normally did whenever she didn’t get her way. Unless, as she had considered before, her daughter was up to something.
“I don’t know, Mama, but I’m on my way to the school right now to find out”
“You want me and your father to meet you there?”
Shit, no! The last thing she needed was her mother blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Before answering, Danielle honked her horn at a Pathfinder that had cut in front of her without signaling. “No, let me talk to her first. I’ll call ya back.”
She turned at the next corner, cussing under her breath when she found the street closed for construction. If it ain’t one thing it’s another, she thought as she made a left turn at the corner. Between Ron and Portia, she felt like she was about to lose her damn mind.
Ever since her daughter had turned sixteen, she had been wearing on her nerves. All she cared about was those nappy-headed boys. The phone rang so doggone much one would have thought her house was a call center. Danielle finally had to take her phone privileges away just so she could get Portia to do her homework and chores. Even then she still tried to sneak on the phone when she didn’t think Danielle was looking.
But like she had told her daughter not once but several times before, “I'm smarter than the average bear.” Everything her daughter tried to do she had already done. “You can’t out-slick a slickster,” as her mother used to say. She, too, had been a girl once and knew firsthand every trick in the book.
As a result, Portia rarely got away with shit.
Danielle thought she had the problem pretty much under control, until two months ago when she had discovered Portia chatting online. Walking past her computer, she had caught the words, “sucking dick” before Portia could toggle onto another screen. Danielle tried to knock her daughter’s head off before she unplugged the computer and put it in the trunk of her car. Gary Graves, a good friend and computer analyst, had a look at the hard drive, and informed her that Portia had been chatting and meeting men online for quite some time.
She just didn’t understand it. She had discussed with her daughter the dangers of meeting men over the Internet. Every time there was an article about a girl who had been killed by some pervert she met online, pretending to be a teenage boy, she shared it with her. So why in the hell her daughter would want to meet a total stranger was beyond her. Nevertheless, she wasn’t taking any chances and definitely hadn’t listened to Portia’s promises never to do it again. She added parental control restrictions to every electronic device in the house.
As she moved onto Providence Road, she tried to look at the big picture. Danielle knew part of the problem was the way Portia felt about herself. Her daughter reminded her so much of her older sister Constance. Both were overweight with low self-esteem. She tried working with her daughter and had even taken her to see a therapist once a month for almost a year, but nothing seemed to help shake her daughter’s low opinion of herself. It puzzled Danielle, because it wasn’t as if Portia wasn’t pretty. She had thick, shoulder-length hair, high cheekbones, and a small, upturned nose. Her best assets were her slanted, dark-brown eyes and her compassion for others. Despite Portia’s constant need for attention, she really wasn’t a bad child.
As she pulled into the high-school parking lot, she thought about the boy she saw dropping her daughter off after school the previous week. Danielle happened to be out in the yard planting flowers when she spotted a brown car pulling up at the corner. Something told her to watch and sure enough, shortly after, the passenger’s door opened, and Portia stepped out. Danielle waited for the car to drive past her house, then made eye contact with the driver—a young African who had to be at least eighteen. When Portia made it to the house, she looked surprised to see her mother already home from work. Little did she know, Danielle had taken a day off for herself.
“Why weren’t you on the bus?” she asked as her daughter moved up the driveway.
“Carmen’s mama gave us a ride home.” Carmen was the cute biracial girl who lived around the corner.
Danielle rose from a sitting position on the grass. “Then who the hell just dropped you off at the corner?”
Portia knew she had been caught in a lie because she didn’t respond.
Danielle cupped her ear. “I’m sorry, you’re gonna have to speak up because I can’t hear you.”
“Nobody,” she finally said.
“He was definitely somebody. That’s why you had him drop you off at the corner. What I tell you about lyin’? Let me catch you lettin’ some mothafucka drop you off again and see what happens!” Without a word, Portia stormed into the house.
Returning her mind to the problem at hand, Danielle took a second and lowered her head to the steering wheel and closed her eyes. Her life had to get better. She didn’t know how much more she could take before she reached the breaking point. Maybe it was time for her to take a vacation. She then remembered that she was planning to spend the weekend with her two closest friends. At least she had something to look forward to. Her best friend Renee Moore was flying in from the East Coast. Any time they were together, her life was anything but boring.
She finally climbed out of the SUV feeling like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. As she moved across the parking lot, she thought about her ex-husband.
At this point, calling Portia’s father would be a mistake. Alvin Patterson would blow the situation all out of proportion, then blame it all on her. No, she would wait and call him when she had more information, if she bothered to call him at all.
Danielle tightened her grip on her purse strap and stepped into the building. Staring straight ahead, she moved down the hall to the nurse’s office. Stepping into the carpeted waiting room, she found Portia’s best friend Celina sitting on the couch with her daughter’s head across her lap.
Danielle planted a hand to her waist. “What’s going on now?” she barked, completely aware her voice lacked empathy.
Celina waved weakly with an apologetic look. “Ms. Danielle, I’m sorry. I’m the one who told the nurse, but I felt it was something Portia needed to report,” she said in a low, nervous tone.
“Don’t worry. You did the right thing.” Her eyes shifted to her daughter’s golden-brown face, stained with tears, and didn’t feel an ounce of sympathy because as far as she was concerned, her hot ass didn’t have any business being on a college campus. Before she had a chance to question what happened, the nurse stuck her head out the door.
Her light-blue eyes crinkled in the friendliest way. “Ms. Brooks, hi. Come on into my office.”
Forcing a smile and nodding at the redhead, she stepped into a small room. Nurse Carter closed the door and gestured for her to take the chair across from her. Once seated, Danielle met the woman’s sympathetic gaze.
“I am really sorry about this, but as you probably already know, I’m required by law to report this incident,” she said as she adjusted a pair of round, black wire-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose.
Danielle gave her a grim look. If she didn’t know, she definitely knew now. She just wished her daughter had given her a heads-up about what was going on before she had broadcast it to Celina. They both knew good and well that girl didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut. Thank goodness the school year was almost over.
“Did she say anything to you last night?”
Danielle sat back on the hard chair and shook her head. “No, she stayed the night with her grandmother. Did she tell you what happened?”
Nurse Carter nodded. “Apparently her boyfriend Ramsey picked her up after school yesterday, and while he was out of the dorm room taking a final exam, his roommate took advantage of her.”
Her head was spinning. Ramsey was her daughter’s so-called college boyfriend that she had yet to meet. Her gut told her he was the same boy she’d seen dropping her daughter off at home. Danielle took a deep breath, trying to keep her anger in check. She knew that boy was no good. “Was there a track meet yesterday after school?”
The nurse looked surprised by her question, then turned and looked at a small calendar on her desk. She shook her head.
Ain’t that a bitch. She released a frustrated sigh. Her daughter was up to her sneaky tricks again. Danielle sighed. “She told my mother she was going to a track meet”
“I’m sorry.” Before the nurse could say anything further, a knock was heard at the door and an older woman stuck her head in. Nurse Carter rose. “Excuse me, I’ll be right back.”
Danielle rested her purse in her lap and waited.
More and more she regretted not sending her daughter to the small, private high school on the city’s south side. Instead, she had allowed Portia to attend the large inner-city school. Hickman High School was within walking distance of the housing projects. Every week it was one thing after another with Portia: skipping class, not getting on the school bus, and hanging out in Douglas Park.
She shook her head. If the weather was nice, black folks swarmed Douglas Park like roaches. It had always been that way. Danielle knew because when she was a teenager, she broke her neck to get down to the projects to hang with her girls. They would walk to the park in their skimpiest gear, then sit in the bleachers and watch a bunch of fine, no-good brothas play basketball. Only times had changed. Now the park was full of drug dealers and fights that now involved knives and guns. Just last week when she had picked her daughter up after drill team practice, two cops were spotted on foot, chasing a suspect across t
he park. Only this time things were much worse. It was too unreal for words. Maybe I should have called her father. After all, she was tired of dealing with a defiant teenager alone.
“Sorry about that,” the nurse said as she stepped back into the office and shut the door behind her. When she returned to her seat, Danielle sat quietly and listened as the nurse explained the process.
“I’ve already contacted the hospital. All you have to do is take her to the emergency room. They are expecting her.”
Danielle nodded.
“As I said before, I am required to report these incidents. As soon as Celina brought her in here to talk to me, I contacted the rape crisis hotline. A rape crisis advocate will meet you at the hospital. Just ask for Nurse Tolliver when you get to the ER.”
Danielle gave a reluctant nod. The entire process was going to take up the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon. If the circumstances were different, time would be the last thing on her mind, but with her daughter she knew things were never as they seemed. Sitting up straighter on the chair, she asked, “Which hospital?”
“University Hospital.”
Danielle shook her head. “Nope. I work there. You’re gonna have to call over to Boone.”
The nurse looked at her like she had lost her mind. “Ms. Brooks, I think your daughter’s welfare is more—”
She held up a palm, halting the rest of her sentence. “Look, this is embarrassin’ enough as it is. I’m not takin’ her to my job so that everybody and their mama will know my daughter was raped.”
The nurse seemed stunned by her admission before she finally nodded and reached for the phone. Danielle almost felt sorry for giving her more work to do, but as far as she was concerned, Nurse Carter should have asked her first.
Trouble Loves Company Page 3