by Pace, Pepper
Scotty’s eyes lit up and became piercing.
“I thought I was going to get away from him but I could only move like some kind of turtle. I kept trying but I couldn’t get away. It only made him mad at me. He slapped me and started punching me.”
She touched her eye and this time Scotty blinked and looked away. It took him a moment to look at her again but when he did he had carefully shielded his rage.
“I guess I was screaming but I didn’t think I was. I didn’t think anyone could hear me. He got my pants down a little but not enough to—to do anything. And that’s when you came in.”
Scotty rubbed his thumb over one knuckle. “Vanessa. Did he—did he--?” He couldn’t say the words. Why couldn’t he say the words? God knows he’d used the word before. He’d had to face this very thing before. But he never thought he’d have to face this with his Vanessa.
Scotty very nearly broke then. He very nearly lost his will to keep his emotions in check.
“No baby!” she exclaimed quickly. “He didn’t.” She was shaking her head.
He drew in a shaky breath and kissed her knuckles again before he released her hands and stood. He turned his back and cleared his throat.
“I guess I know the rest,” he said. After a moment he was able to turn to face her.
“Get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day. I’m just going to be out in the living room. Call me if you need me.”
She nodded, feeling suddenly alone. She wanted him to hold her but she could tell that he didn’t want to touch her. Maybe he would never want to touch her again.
She got out of bed careful not to move to quickly, unless she got lightheaded again. She took another shower, hoping to scrub away the feel of Donald’s hands on her, but she couldn’t.
She had no idea what drug she’d been given because she had refused to allow herself to be taken to the hospital last night. Now that she was sober she wasn’t sure why. Now that her head was clear she worried that Donald might have slipped her something that could cause lingering damage—although, she no longer felt the effects of the drug other than slight nausea and fatigue.
Scotty was more concerned with her bruising than he was over the drug. Drugs were something he knew and anything Donald could have slipped her would eventually leave her system. What wouldn’t leave so quickly was Donald’s violation.
They got to the police station the next day well before noon. When the police separated them for questioning Vanessa had felt almost like she was being carted away to lock-up. But the policewoman that was assigned to her was very nice. She encouraged her with kindness and understanding to tell her story and Vanessa opened up, this time giving in to tears of fear and embarrassment.
The officer had comforted her and then had taken her to get pictures of her injuries. The look on her face convinced Vanessa more than anything that her injuries were worse than she wanted to admit. And the officer convinced her that it was important to go to the hospital if for no other reason than to go to the lab for blood work so that it could be determined what drug had been given to her. Vanessa agreed and when they finished questioning Scotty she was relieved when he drove her away from the police station even if he was driving her to the hospital.
The nurse told them that the results of the lab work would take a day or two but they would be called. With relief the couple went home. Vanessa went straight to the bedroom and climbed in under the sheets. Scotty followed her, kicking off his shoes and cuddling her.
She felt a sense of relief that he touched her without disgust. He pulled her into his arms and held her so tightly that it felt like he was trying to share his strength with her or perhaps he was trying to pull some of hers into him. They slept like that, dreaming about the security found in their mutual love for each other.
And then at 4 a.m. the police came and arrested Scotty for the beating death of Donald Miller.
Chapter Eight
Two days after the fight in Findlater Gardens, Donald Jerome Miller was taken off life support. He had never regained consciousness and doctors had advised that even if he did wake up, he’d be little more than a vegetable.
Donald’s parents’ had made the decision to remove him from life support and Scott Brian Tremont was charged with reckless homicide.
Later, Vanessa would wonder if Scotty had expected it. When the knocking on the door woke them, Scotty had simply paused in bed and then he got up, throwing on a t-shirt as he wordlessly headed for the front door. She was in a state of confusion asking questions and scurrying to follow after him.
And then the police were flooding into the apartment and she was crying and trying to explain that he hadn’t done anything wrong. Scotty didn’t say a word as they handcuffed him and read him his rights.
It wasn’t until she began sobbing uncontrollably that he looked at her. He didn’t look afraid and his calm expression began to effect her, calming her as well.
“Call Phonso. I want you to stay at Miss Gloria’s. I don’t want you here alone.”
“But—“
“He’ll know what to do, baby. Do what I say, okay?”
“Okay,” she swallowed back her tears but more flooded from her eyes and trailed down her face.
As the police led him out the door, Vanessa wanted to scream. This could not be happening. Scotty called over his shoulder.
“I’ll call you as soon as I can, Vanessa. I love you, babe!”
“Scotty …” She wanted to beg for him not to go. “I love you too!”
This was too much. She would not survive this. Scotty could not go to jail.
Phonso was not nearly as calm as Scotty had been, but he was a long shot from Vanessa’s hysteria. When she refused to go to Miss Gloria’s because she might miss Scotty’s phone call, Phonso called his sister Beady to come to the apartment to sit with her. Phonso knew nothing about calming hysterical women and besides, he had important business to take care of; he and G would need to pull together the bail money.
Phonso wasted no time leaving Vanessa as soon as Beady showed up.
“Vanessa,” he said as he left the apartment.
She looked at him from where she was seated on the couch holding the cordless phone in her hand so that she could answer it the second he called.
“They almost have to do this, okay? When they bring charges against someone then they get arrested, they make bail, and then they get a court date. And when that happens we will get this straightened out.”
Vanessa watched him hopefully and Beady sat down on the couch next to her and stroked her hair.
“Trust Phonso,” she said. “He knows what to do. My brothers have been arrested enough times to know this inside and out.”
Phonso closed the door and Vanessa turned her hopeful expression to Beady. People said they looked alike but that wasn’t true. They were just two young multi-racial women and to some that meant that they resembled each other.
Beady was light skinned with light colored eyes and golden hair, cut into a short boy cut. Her smaller stature held more voluptuous curves. Vanessa had a chocolate complexion; brown eyes and dark hair that cascaded down her back in exotic waves. She was tall, and her well-proportioned body was neither too thick nor too thin—though she was convinced of the latter.
Both girls were nearly the same age but Beady seemed much older, and if age could be a measure of ones experience than Beady was, in fact, a great deal older than Vanessa.
“He was just defending me,” Vanessa explained. “Why should he be arrested for that?” Her expression of confusion broke Beady’s heart. Vanessa was so gentle. Some women would just curse their men for being arrested, but Vanessa hurt for Scotty.
Beady hadn’t gotten to know Vanessa over the last few months, nor when they were children. But she liked Vanessa for her innocence. Somehow she was right for Scotty. He was far from innocent but he wasn’t bad. Beady couldn’t say that about herself.
“It’ll be alright. If he can get his bail set by the e
nd of the day he’ll be out tonight. If not, he’ll have to spend the weekend in jail but he’ll be out Monday.”
“What?” The weekend?
Beady shrugged. “Its early so lets keep our fingers crossed.”
Hours later, the phone still hadn’t rang and Vanessa was still holding it.
“You should go back to school-“ Vanessa began.
“I’d like to stay, if you don’t mind. I know Scotty will call you first and I’d like to be here when he does.”
Vanessa nodded her consent. She didn’t mind the company and Beady looked enough like Scotty that being close to the pretty girl was helpful.
At noon Beady made them lunch of canned soup.
“Wow, there’s food in here. This must be your doing.” Beady called as she stirred the pot of simmering soup.
“When I first moved in he had ice and salt and pepper. That’s all.”
Beady laughed.
Vanessa pulled bowls from the cabinet and set them on the table, just as she would now be doing for her and Scotty if he was here. She sighed and decided that next time she cried would be with no witnesses. She couldn’t promise that she wouldn’t do it any time soon but she promised herself that no one would see her doing it. Not anymore.
“What was it like having Scotty as a brother?” Vanessa asked as she stirred her tomato soup and then ate a spoonful.
Beady smiled and Vanessa saw sadness in her expression. She remembered that she was not the only one affected by Scotty’s arrest.
“He was … bossy.”
Vanessa threw her head back and laughed. “Oh, really? Even then?”
Beady laughed too. “Scotty’s not that much older than me. So technically since I’m a girl I’m the oldest.”
Vanessa grinned at that.
“Come on Vanessa. For the most part that is true, don’t you agree?”
Vanessa nodded her agreement.
“But with Scotty he’s always been this age. Do you ever notice that he’s not afraid of anything?”
A shadow fell across Vanessa’s face. She’d seen fear on his face twice; once just a day ago when she screamed for him from the bedroom and then again when they were younger, after Tino had touched her.
Vanessa touched her lips. She was Scotty’s Kryptonite. Without her in his life, none of this would be happening to him. He didn’t react the way he normally would when it had to do with her.
Beady touched her hand.
“Are you okay, Vanessa?”
Vanessa forced a smile and then nodded quickly. “Tell me some stories about him.”
The girls laughed and talked about Scotty and Winton Terrace and people they knew and Vanessa decided that she and Beady would be more than just sister-in-laws but very good friends.
She thought fleetingly of Jalissa but that sent an unwanted jolt to her gut so she put thoughts of her cousin out of her mind.
The phone call from Scotty came at nearly 2 pm. Vanessa had finally placed the phone down and she dashed into the living room for it, answering on the second ring.
“Hello?!”
“Hi babe. It’s me.”
“Oh Scotty! Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, babe,” she thought he sounded tired. “How are you?”
“I’m okay. Beady’s here with me and Phonso and G are getting together your bail money.”
There was no response for a moment. “Good that Beady’s there. But I want you to move in with Miss Gloria like we planned-”
“No, not until you’re out on bail. I’m staying in our house, Scotty.” It had his smells and his essence. She wouldn’t move in with Miss Gloria without him.
“Babe, listen to me, okay? I just had a murder bond hearing.”
The word murder almost caused Vanessa to hyperventilate. Murder—not murder because-
“The bond is too high-“
“But we get it back, right?” She interrupted. “That’s how bail works, you just have to pay a percent and then you get it back.”
“Yes,” he replied. “But no one can afford to be out money like that for as long as it might take to go to trial.”
Vanessa didn’t speak. She was in too much shock. She felt Beady take the phone.
“Scotty, you need to bring your ass home and stop playing super man. I understand that! We can get a bail bondsman-“ Beady was quiet as she listened to her brother. She handed the phone back to Vanessa without saying another word.
“Scotty, it’s me,” she said quietly. “What about the bail bondsman?”
“He’ll take ten percent. That’s ten thousand dollars. That’s almost all the money I got and that’s tied up already.”
“But why is it so high? It’s not m-murder. You were defending me. Isn’t that involuntary manslaughter or something?”
“Shhh, calm down. Don’t cry-“
“Don’t tell me not to cry, damnit! I want you home and you’re telling me you’re not accepting bail-“
“They pulled my records.”
Her breath froze in her chest.
“What?”
“My records were unsealed because of the nature of the crime. That’s why. Babe, I have to go. Vanessa I love you. And I’m sorry. I’m so sorry baby.”
“Wait, Scotty I love you. I’m sorry. I should have never went to the party-“
The phone went dead.
She was shaking and holding the phone in her lap. Beady took it and hung it up.
“He’s so freaking hard headed,” Beady growled. “Phonso can get ten grand for the bond-“
Vanessa met Beady’s eyes with her own dry ones. She had kept her promise to herself not to cry.
“I can get five thousand from my grandmother.”
Chapter Nine
She couldn’t call her grandmother over the phone for this. She would have to talk to her face to face. Her grandma had offered her five thousand for her birthday and Vanessa had not wanted anything to do with it. The five thousand dollars was supposed to appease her, to buy her grandmother some forgiveness for the lies and disappointment.
If not for Scotty she wouldn’t accept it, but she had to bail him out of jail.
Vanessa carefully applied makeup to cover the bruising beneath her eye. She still wore sunglasses and then she drove Scotty’s car to her grandma’s house.
This time when she knocked she didn’t automatically let herself in as she always had in the past.
Berth Mae answered the door and looked at Vanessa in surprise before allowing her into the house.
“Hi Grandma.”
“Hello Vanessa. Come in.”
They walked into the kitchen without thought. That had always been the place for discussions and that had not changed.
Vanessa took her usual seat at the neat dining room table. She was oddly comforted by the fact that the lace tablecloth was still in its rightful place along with a bowl of fruit and the day’s mail.
The familiar smells of her grandmother’s kitchen brought back a yearning for simplicity. But she wasn’t a little girl anymore and simplicity was a thing of the past.
“Do you want something to drink?” Her grandmother asked while going to the refrigerator.
“Yes, ma’am.” Her grandmother returned with two glasses of iced tea. As Vanessa drank she thought it was the best iced tea ever made.
“Grandma. I want to apologize for how we left things.” There, Vanessa thought. She wasn’t apologizing for their terrible argument because she didn’t feel as if she had done anything wrong. But her grandmother would want an apology.
Bertha Mae looked at the engagement ring on her grand daughter’s finger.
“Is it true that you’re engaged to that man?”
Well at least she hadn’t said, ‘that white man’.
“Yes. His name is Scotty Tremont. He used to be something like my boyfriend back when I lived in Winton Terrace. “ The innocence of those words brought a half smile to Vanessa’s lips. They had been so sweet then, too afraid to actually say t
hat they were boyfriend and girlfriend, yet hanging out with each other at every available second. She’d never even kissed him until she’d come back to the projects for the summer. Things had moved fast but in the scope of their love, not fast enough.
“How long have you been seeing this boy?”
“I told you. Since we were kids.”
Her grandmother narrowed her eyes. “How long have you been seeing him Vanessa?”
“Oh. We didn’t see each other again until this summer.”
“And now you’re engaged?”
Vanessa didn’t flinch from her grandmother’s scrutiny. “I love Scotty. I don’t have a doubt in the world about that.
“Love and politics; two things you can never debate. So I won’t.” Her grandmother stated. She surprised Vanessa when she reached forward and gently removed Vanessa’s sunglasses.
Vanessa hoped that her makeup was good enough but saw that it wasn’t when her grandmother’s eyes grew sad.
Vanessa shook her head rapidly. “Scotty didn’t do that-“
“I know.”
“What?” Vanessa stopped and stared at her grandmother in confusion.
“I know he didn’t. He’s the man that’s been in the news. He beat a man to death with his fists—after the man had tried to rape his fiancée.”
Vanessa sucked in a deep breath. They had been in the news?
“Oh Vanessa, what have you been into, baby girl? They said it happened at a drug house.”
She frowned at her grandmother. The news knew of that? Then that meant that they had busted Phonso and G’s operation. Oh no. She hadn’t asked Phonso about that.
Vanessa rubbed her hands through her hair. “Grandma, I know it sounds bad but there is a reasonable explanation.”
“You can tell yourself that Vanessa. But this is just like love and politics—you won’t change my mind. You are in to things that you don’t need to be involved with. You need to move back home.”
Vanessa closed her eyes. “I’d like to get the birthday money you said you’d give me.”