“I hear you, but I’d be lying if I told you that I’m not going to do anything either. Well, look, let’s change the subject. Get your butt together and jump on that man you have. He seems to love you a lot. Don’t start shucking and jiving around, then lose him to some of these vipers out in the streets,” Kacie candidly advised her friend.
“Look, I’ll check you later. I’ve got more than an earful from you. I’m going to kick back and see what’s on television.”
“All right. But don’t forget everything I said. Don’t let a good man slip through your fingers. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” The ladies hung up the phone.
Layla flipped the remote while she replayed the earlier night’s events over and over in her head. Dennis loves me. What if he’s telling the truth? Suppose he really does love me? Layla smiled at the thoughts pouring through her mind. For a moment, her thoughts remained on Dennis until she stopped flipping the remote when she saw something that looked like it might be good. She watched the movie until the commercial break.
“Father God, reveal to me the intentions, the true intentions of Dennis. Show me too, Lord, how to love myself. Help me to be more disciplined with my eating and to take better care of me. Then show me how to love someone else the way you love me, Father; the way that Dennis says he loves me – unconditionally.”
Chapter Eighteen
One man's justice is another's injustice; one man's beauty another's ugliness
one man's wisdom another's folly. Ralph W. Emerson
Boom, boom, boom!
Kacie sprung up in the bed at the sound. Her heart felt like it was about to pop out of her chest. The sound roared again. Being awakened out of her sleep made her mind somewhat confused. She shook her head like doing it would help her to gather her thoughts.
“Open this darn door before I kick it in!” Deacon screamed to the top of his lungs like he could wake up the dead.
Kacie hurriedly threw the covers back off of her and quickly peeped at the clock. It was one thirty in the morning. “What the….?” She grabbed her robe off the edge of the closet door and went to the door.
“What do you want?” she asked him without opening the door. She was nobody’s fool. She reasoned that he finally heard about the letter or his wife maybe finally had thrown him out.
“Open this door,” he ranted. One cuss word after another poured from his mouth.
“I am not opening the door with you cussing at me like that. What do you want, Deacon? It’s almost two o’clock in the morning. Whatever you have to say will just have to wait until daylight.” She’d never heard the rage in his voice that she was hearing tonight. She carefully checked the two locks on the door to make sure they were in place. They were. She did not want to find herself in the same position as her dear friend, Layla.
“You lying little witch. How dare you try to destroy my life? Writing all those lies and sending it to my wife. You’ll pay for what you’re doing. You listen to what I’m telling you. You’re going to be sorry, Kacie. Real sorry.” He beat against the door for a while, and then started again with his threats. “You know that brat you’re carrying isn’t mine. You twisted, tip-toed foot, lying heifer. You need to go somewhere else and find your baby’s daddy because it sure isn’t me.”
“Deacon, I’m warning you. If you don’t get away from my door yelling and cussing, I’m calling the police. They’ll lock your butt up, and then I’ll call the church and let them know what kind of trustee represents them.”
If she were afraid of him, it was almost impossible to tell with the venomous words that poured from her mouth back at Deacon. “You did this to yourself. Now get away from my door before you wake up my kids,” she screamed from the inside and hit the door with her balled fist.
So angry, she swiftly turned around and almost lost her footing as her bent legs formed into a scissor shaped and caused her to fall flat on her stomach. She narrowly escaped hitting her face on the linoleum floor. She sat on the cold floor for a few minutes and listened until she heard Deacon’s voice trail off into the dark, misty morning of night. Kacie held her swelled belly. The belly that carried Deacon’s child. Crocodile tears dropped to the floor and fell harder when the baby inside of her started kicking. Kacie remained on the floor for a while until she gathered energy enough to get up and go back to her bedroom, where sleep evaded her.
The phone rang early in the morning just when she had managed to fall asleep. She clumsily searched for it without opening her puffy red eyes. “Hello,” she answered slowly.
“I don’t know why you’re making all of this mess up about my husband. It’s women like you that destroy marriages. You're a home wrecker, that’s what you are. You’ll burn in hell for coming between the marriage of me and my husband,” the woman on the other end shouted into the phone.
The piercing words woke Kacie up and she quickly sat up and swung her legs on the side of the bed. “Who is this?” she asked, as if she didn’t already know that it was Deacon’s wife.
“You know darn well who this is. Unless you’re trying to destroy more marriages than mine. I wouldn’t be surprised if you were,” the woman snarled.
“Look, I don’t know where you’re coming from with this, but if this is Martha, then it’s your husband you need to be going off on, if anybody. I didn’t initiate anything with him. He’s the one who lied to me. He’s the one who never bothered telling me that he was a married man.”
Kacie’s anger was mounting. She wanted to sympathize with Deacon’s wife, but at the moment, the way Martha was talking to her, Kacie lost all feelings of being sympathetic and understanding. “I’m carrying your husband’s child. As much as I hate that fact, there is nothing I can do to change it. As for your marriage, that’s between you and Deacon. All I want out of this is his total support of his child. He can do it the easy way, or he can make this hard. Either way, it doesn’t matter. When I realized that he probably hadn’t told you about us, then I wrote you the letter. Why it’s taken you two weeks to respond, I don’t know, and I really don’t care. But you need to face the truth, lady.” Kacie yelled into the phone.
“I got the letter; I sure did. I got it a while back, but unlike you, I sat on it. I had to think. I talked to my husband like a wife should rather than chasing you down. But the more I read that letter, the more I realized that you’re one of those sluts who doesn’t understand anything but a good butt-whipping and cussing out. And if it wasn’t for your twisted up legs,” Martha laughed, “you’d feel my size nines up your behind. That’s how you trapped Deacon anyway, playing like you were a weak, helpless little handicapped woman who needed help.”
“For your information, you have it twisted. As for me and my cerebral palsy, it has nothing to do with the fact that your husband still wanted me and chased me down.” Kacie argued back.
“Deacon told me how many baby daddies you have. He told me how you went after him at church. You’re a whoremonger and a hypocrite. Deacon cannot have children, and your face is going to be cracked when that baby you’re carrying turns out not to be my husband’s. But DNA will reveal the truth. I believe in my husband, Mizzz Mayweather. He’s never cheated on me before, and then some Jezebel harlot like you throws yourself on him. Sending me that letter proves that you’re a desperate, heartless woman. You want Deacon at any cost. But it isn’t going to happen, sweetheart. Find yourself another family man to destroy.”
Before Kacie could retaliate with her outpour of words, she heard the dial tone in her ear.
She threw the phone on the floor. Like she did often when she was mad, she got up and started issuing one order after another to her kids. Hollering at one to see about Keshena and yelling at the others to do one chore after another. Her stance was more pronounced, revealing her anger. After she barked at the kids, she retreated into her bathroom, ran some water and took a hot bath. Afterward, she dressed in an outfit appropriate for the changing season. The baby kicked again. This time it was a sharp kick, causing Kaci
e to stop in her tracks and grab hold of her stomach. Eight months pregnant. She couldn’t wait until she popped this baby, because afterward she planned payback. Payback for everything Deacon had done, and things weren’t going to be pretty; not pretty at all for him.
Kacie heard the kids scuffling about, arguing and yelling at one another. As long as they were doing what she’d ordered them to do, they could yell and scream all they wanted. She wasn’t in the mood to break up fights and arguments. Too much about the past night and the morning’s events to deal with. She made sure they’d made Pop Tarts or something quick for their breakfast, and then she rushed them to the car and carried them to school and Keshena to daycare. She had to work the morning shift at the store and dreaded it more than ever.
Kacie went to the back of the stock room and called Envy.
“Miss Wilson’s office, may I help you,” the administrative assistant asked in the receiver.
“Yes, I need to speak to her please.”
“May I tell her who’s calling?”
No, you may not tell her who’s calling. It’s none of your business. “Yes, tell her it’s Kacie,” she spoke dryly to Envy’s assistant.
“Thank you. Hold, please.”
“Hey, girl. What’s up?” Envy said when she picked up the phone seconds later.
“I don’t know. I’m so pissed.”
“About what?”
“Do you know Deacon had the nerve to pop up over my house about one thirty this morning, banging on the door like a maniac? I tell you, Envy, I’m so fired up I could go over to his place and burn it down.”
“Hold up. Don’t do anything stupid, Kacie. Where are you?”
“I’m at work, and I don’t want to be at this place. I feel like walking off. And I might just do it too.”
“Did you let him in?” Envy asked, momentarily ignoring Kacie’s remarks about her job.
“No, I didn’t let him in. If you heard all of what he was saying, it was like he wanted to do something bad to me. I only got him to leave after I threatened to call the police. I wasn’t about to be another victim like Layla.
The words coming from Envy’s mouth sounded full of anger too. “No, he didn’t! You should have called the police anyway. He had no right coming to your house acting a fool like that. I know you were scared to death, and what about the kids? Did they hear him? You know they like Deacon. They seem to think he’s such a good man. If they only knew what a fool he is.”
“Thank God, the kids didn’t wake up. If they did, they didn’t get out of their beds or anything. But that’s not all I have to tell you. I have to hurry up too ‘cause my break is just about over. But early this morning, his wife, Martha, called with her empty threats too.”
“His wife?” Envy asked with total surprise in her voice.
“Yes, Martha Riggs, his dumb wife. All she did was follow up with this threats, talking about her husband is honorable and they can’t have children and all of that. She even had the nerve to make fun of my cerebral palsy.” Kacie almost started to cry, but didn’t.
“Kacie, this is getting out of hand. I don’t want you or anyone getting hurt. You’re almost about to drop that baby you’re carrying. Being frustrated and irritable is not good for you or the baby. I tell you what, I’m going to call Deacon and let him know that he needs to chill. When the baby comes, y’all can do a DNA test since that’s what he wants. When it turns out that the baby is his, then make him pay child support, and forget about his monkey butt. Calling himself a trustee of the church like he’s all holy and stuff. Now you see why I don’t deal seriously with these men out here? They’re nothing but trouble, and all they look out for are themselves. I say, use them before they use you. From now on, you better make that your motto. And for heaven’s sake, get your tubes tied this time,” Envy blurted out in a sharp tone.
“I hear you.” Kacie’s tone suddenly shifted to an almost inaudible whisper. Then she released a long sigh. “I’ll talk to you when I get off.”
“Okay, I have a busy day today. Maybe later on this evening, me and Layla will come by and check up on you. Will that be all right with you? I’ll call her before I leave the office.”
“Sure. I guess that’ll be okay. I could use a couple of shoulders to cry on.” Kacie managed a slight chuckle.
“Then we’ll see you this evening. And please, please, Kacie, watch out for yourself. If Deacon happens to come on your job or if you see him lurking around, call the police, and that goes for that lunatic wife of his too,” Envy warned.
“I will. I gotta go,” Kacie whispered. “My manager just came back here.” Kacie closed her flip phone and zoomed past her manager like a speeding bullet.
The work day turned out busier than ever. By the time three o’clock rolled around, Kacie couldn’t wait a minute longer. She punched her time card and swished past everybody in sight without stopping. When she made it to her car, she jumped inside and sped off, disregarding the 35 miles per hour speed limit. She stooped by the daycare to pick up Keshena. The kids arrived home from school shortly thereafter. No time for Kacie to have a moment of solitude.
“Set your backpacks on the table so I can check them, and then go change out of your uniforms,” she ordered. Kacie scanned through each child’s backpack, checking to see what homework they had, if any, or if there was anything inside she needed to read or sign. Keshena was finally walking and gained added support by holding on to Kacie’s leg while Kacie sat down in the chair reviewing the contents of the backpacks. “Kassandra, when you finish changing, come in here and get Keshena so I can cook,” she said loud enough for her orders to reach Kassandra’s ears.
Kacie leafed through Kassandra’s backpack first. All she had for homework was a page of math problems and a list of spelling words to write for memorization. Kassandra marched to the living room and did as she was told, picking up Keshena and placing her on her hip.
“Give her a fruit cup or something to keep her out of my way, and then start on your homework,” Kacie instructed.
Knowing the weekly routine, one by one the rest of the children came into the den while Kacie went over their assignments with them. She hardly ever attended any of their school functions, but when it came to school assignments and homework, she stuck to her kids like white on rice.
Y’all know what to do.” She pointed a sharp fingernail at them. “I don’t want to hear any arguing or fighting. Just do your homework while I fix dinner.”
Kacie began dinner by making macaroni and cheese flavored Hamburger Helper. She prepared a pack of frozen green beans, to which Kacie added some Mrs. Dash seasoning and a piece of ham she had left in the freezer to give the beans added flavor. The kids loved dinner rolls, so she placed two packages in the oven and set out a two liter bottle of fruit punch soda.
Afterward, Kacie called Envy. “Y’all coming?” she asked.
“Yeah. I just left work. I called Layla. She’s not coming,” Envy told Kacie.
“Why? What’s up with her?” Kacie’s voice dropped.
“She said she already had plans. She and Dennis are going to a movie. I told her about what happened with Deacon and his wife. She said she was going to try to call you before she left. But I’ll be over there around six.”
“Fine, I’ll see you later. Let me get back to fixing dinner.”
“Whatcha cooking?” Envy asked.
“Hamburger Helper, green beans, and dinner rolls. Nothing fancy. Just quick and tasty.”
“Sounds good. If you have any leftovers, set me a small plate aside.”
“Will do.” Both ladies ended their call, and Kacie finished preparing dinner. When the children gathered at the table, she sat down and ate with them, something she rarely did. The kids seemed to enjoy having their mother eating dinner with them. Afterward, she and the children cleared the table, and they started cleaning the kitchen according to the chore list Kacie had adhered on the refrigerator.
Kacie retired to the den and called Layla. Layl
a answered on the first ring.
“Hi, girl. Did Envy tell you I won’t be able to come over there tonight?” Layla asked right away.
“Yeah, she told me. I’m glad you and Dennis seem to be doing great together. Somebody between the three of us needs to be having some good luck.”
“We’re all blessed. Maybe things don’t go the way we think they ought to all the time, but we are still blessed. Remember that God said He will never leave us or forsake us.”
“Mmm,” Kacie moaned in a sarcastic tone. “I sure feel forsaken. Envy told you about Deacon and his wife?”
“Yeah, but you were wrong for writing that letter. And before you get bent out of shape, I’m not taking sides. But that letter started up a bunch of unnecessary drama. You and I both know that. If you don’t want to admit it to me, then at least admit it to yourself.”
“I can’t admit something that I don’t believe. If I had not sent that letter, then Deacon’s wife probably would still be walking around totally unaware that her dear trustee of a husband has a baby on the outside. As for drama, he’s the one that’s the blame for that because he should have told me in the first place that he was married. But naw, he had to act like he was so crazy about me. He’s nothing but a lying dog, and he deserves everything that happens to him as a result of getting me pregnant.” Kacie started crying. “And you, you of all people should understand how it feels to be misused by a man.”
“I understand. Believe me; I’m not trying to come off like I’m judging you.” Layla’s tone sounded like she was apologetic. “All I’m trying to get through to you, Kacie, is that you are going to have to learn to stop taking things into your own hands. You need to seek God’s forgiveness for yourself instead of being vindictive. No matter what you say, sending that letter was vindictive. I’m sorry if what I’m saying hurts you, but it’s the truth.”
Followed by a moment of silence, Kacie spoke up. There was a slight bitterness resonating in her voice. “Maybe you don’t want to come across like you’re judging me, but that’s exactly how you sound. I bet you didn’t hear me condemning you when you were messing around with Mike. I bet you didn’t hear me condemning you when you were stuffing your face like you were eating your last supper. But now, here you are, just because you finally have a decent man in your life, playing the judgment card with me.” Kacie’s voice sounded like she was choking and gasping for her next breath. “Don’t you know that I’m hurt, or have you gotten so tied up with Dennis that you’ve forgotten what it means to be hurt by a man?” She paused long enough for Layla to respond.
Beautiful Ugly Page 20