by Kiki Swinson
Pork Chop and his son Jamil asked me a few more questions about the investigation going on at the pier, and I answered them. After that, nothing else was discussed except for the poker game. In the beginning, everything was going my way. I was up by seven grand, but after being there until five o’clock in the morning, I walked away with nothing. I didn’t have one dime when I left Pork Chop’s spot. A wave of disappointment and embarrassment overcame me. I sat in my truck outside of Pork Chop’s spot for nearly an hour trying to figure out what I was going to say to Dawn when I got home. There was no doubt in my mind that she was going to curse me out. But maybe after I explained to her that I felt bad for not getting the rest of the money from Edward and that’s why I did what I did . . . Would she accept that answer? I wasn’t sure. But I would find out sooner than later.
* * *
I finally made it home. It was 5:40 a.m. when I walked through the front door. The sun was coming up and so was my wife. She must’ve heard me unlock the front door because I saw her racing toward me as soon as I crossed the threshold. She was dressed in her nightclothes, but she looked like she was ready for war. She didn’t waste any time questioning me. “Where the hell have you been all night?”
“I went over to one of my homeboy’s house so he could give me some advice on how to handle the situation,” I lied, giving her my most sincere expression.
“So why was your phone off? I called you over a dozen times tonight. Made me think something happened to you, and that’s not fair,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know my phone was turned off.”
“You are a fucking liar!” she spat, as she unfolded her arms and took two more steps toward me. I knew then that any moment she was going to swing on me. So I took a couple steps backwards. “Hold up now. I’m telling you the truth,” I lied once again.
“Reese, we’ve been married a long time. So I know when you’re lying. And you’re lying right now.”
“Why are you coming at me like that?” I raised my hands up in front of me to prevent Dawn from attacking me.
“Whatcha scared for?”
“I’m not scared . . .”
“Well, nigga, you need to be, because I’m about two seconds from fucking you up in this little room.”
“Why you don’t believe me? I can give you his number right now and you can call him.”
“You think I’m stupid, don’t you? I know you already called him and asked him to vouch for you just in case I want to call. That’s the oldest alibi in the book. But it’s all good, I’m not even going to argue with you anymore. I’m done with this,” she said and then she turned around and walked away.
Now, I didn’t know what she meant by that, but for the first time in years I believed her, and that scared me. I guessed she was at her wit’s end with me. And if that was the case, I was fucked.
Instead of following her to our bedroom, I pulled a blanket from the hallway closet and found me a spot on the living room sofa. This wasn’t the first time I had to sleep on the couch. And I know it’s not going to be my last. Hopefully she wouldn’t find out that I took the money back. Because if she found out before she left to go to work this morning, I knew she was going to make the rest of my day a living hell.
34
DAWN
That son of a bitch thought that I was naïve. I knew he wasn’t at his friend’s house because the only friends he had were the guys at NIT. So where the hell was he? From past experiences, when he wanted to stay out all night, he was either at a gambling spot or with another woman. Now, I could have pressed the issue and made him tell me where he really was, but I decided against it. I’d had enough of Reese’s lies. When I heard them they drained me of all my emotional and mental energy. And I couldn’t have that. Not now. Not tomorrow or the day after. I’m putting my foot down today. And that’s final.
I went into the bathroom and took a quick shower. After I picked out what I was going to wear I got dressed, went into the kitchen, and made me a hot cup of tea, and then I grabbed my house and car keys and left the house. On my way out, I noticed that Reese was snoring extremely hard. When this happened, it was a sure sign that he had been up all night. I say whatever goes on in the dark will eventually come to the light. He would be exposed before it was all over.
I dreaded going into the office today. The questions that Mrs. Powell asked me made me feel uneasy. And the possibility that she was going to ask me a lot more questions when she saw me in the office this morning gave me a strong case of anxiety. I wanted to tell her to leave me alone about the investigation, but I knew I wouldn’t do it because it could hurt her feelings. She and I have always had a good relationship and I would like that to continue, but if she continued to press me for more information, I was gonna have to tell her to monitor her business. I knew she wasn’t gonna like it, but she would be okay when it was all said and done.
As soon as I parked my car I noticed that I was the only one there. I was happy because I had a few more minutes to myself before all my coworkers walked into the office and graced me with their presence. Well, that’s what I thought, until a coworker of mine named Kelsey Nelson walked her happy ass into the office. Kelsey was a young white girl with a whole lot of stuff to prove. I didn’t know her correct age, but she looked like she was in her mid to late twenties. She also looked like a Baywatch lifeguard. She had the tan thing going on and always talked about how she loves to hang out at the beach. I think she’s an airhead. All she ever talked about were her tanning appointments, how she and her boyfriend were going hiking. And when they were done hiking they were going to hang out at the beach. Her life was pretty boring to me. While she’s at the beach or hiking, I’ll be at home Netflixing and chilling.
When she walked into the office she greeted me. I said hello and then I pretended to be busy immediately thereafter. Her cubicle was only three over from mine. So after she set her things down she walked out of her cubicle and started walking in my direction. I watched her in my peripheral vision and prayed that she wasn’t coming to my work space to talk. Unfortunately for me, that’s exactly what she did.
She entered my cubicle. “Hi, Dawn, how are you?” “Great, Kelsey. How are you?” I replied, hoping she wasn’t going to be here for long.
“Shocked to see you here so early this morning.”
“Yeah, I normally don’t come in this early. But I had some accounts that I needed to close, so I decided to come in a little bit earlier just in case my workload gets busy later on today.”
“You leave early yesterday?” she asked. And for a moment there I thought she was being nosy so she could pry into my personal life. But when she mentioned that a lot of guys from the night shift had been called in to be interviewed by port police and US Customs agents, I lightened up a little.
“Have they arrested anyone?”
“Not as of yet. But from what I hear, people will be getting charged before the day is over with.”
“Who told you that?”
“Everybody’s talking about it.”
“Did they say who?”
“No. But we all got a feeling who they will be.”
“Who?”
“Well, one of the people we know is going to get arrested is your husband.”
“My what?”
“Your husband.”
Taken aback by Kelsey’s accusation, I had to turn my chair around and face her head-on. “Are you fucking with me right now?” I hissed. I swear, I wanted to jump on her, pull all of her hair out. How dare this bitch confront me like she’s giving me some information about the investigation and in the same breath tell me that she knows that Reese is involved? Is this bitch that bold?
“No, I’m not fucking with you. But I will say that I’m being real with you, while Mrs. Powell and everyone else around here tiptoes around you like they’re afraid to speak their minds.”
“Are you done?” I asked her. I mean, was this bitch really seriou
s right now? She had some huge balls coming at me with her newfound information about Reese. Did she want a medal for her findings? Or was she trying to insult and embarrass me? Either way, the bitch was out of line.
“Yes, I’m done,” she replied confidently.
“Well, good. Then carry your ass back to your cubicle before I drag you back over there myself,” I snapped as I gritted my teeth. She got the message and left my cubicle at once.
Kelsey didn’t say another to me, nor did she make any eye contact for the rest of the day. I guess her bold ass got the hint. Thirty minutes after the altercation with Kelsey, Mrs. Powell and all the other employees started coming in one after the other. When Mrs. Powell saw me, she smiled and waved. I returned the smile and hand gesture, but I had a sour taste in my mouth from the information Kelsey gave me about everyone in this office.
Not too long after Mrs. Powell and the other employees walked into the office, I noticed everyone in there started looking at me and whispering. This definitely pissed me off. I was so livid that I got up from my desk and walked over to Mrs. Powell’s cubicle. She was busy with a phone call, so I waited there until she was done. She looked at me a few times as if she was wondering why I was standing there. Not to mention, I was invading her space, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t leaving until I got a chance to have a talk with her.
After I’d been standing there for about a minute and a half, she got off her call and turned her chair around so she could face me. “Dawn, is everything all right?” she asked.
I wanted to say, bitch, don’t play with me. You already know what time it is. And you know why everyone is whispering behind my back. “No, everything isn’t all right,” I started off saying. “Kelsey walked over to my cubicle before you came in this morning and told me that everyone in here thinks that my husband had something to do with that investigation that’s going on now. And I’m really pissed off about it.”
“Well, I’m sorry if she did that. And as far as everyone in here thinking your husband had something to do with the human trafficking investigation, that’s not true. But if it is, that’s because they formed their opinion on their own. Trust me, we haven’t been walking around in this office here, smearing your husband’s name or reputation. As a matter of fact, I can’t see where Kelsey got that information from.”
“Let’s find out,” I said and turned my head in the direction of Kelsey’s cubicle. “Hey, Kelsey, can you come over here for a minute?” I yelled. I wasn’t concerned about how loud I was or who looked up. I was only concerned about finding out who was talking about me behind my back. That’s it.
Kelsey stood up and walked over to Mrs. Powell’s cubicle. As soon as she approached us, I said, “Remember you told me that port police were going to make an arrest today and one of those people that were going to be arrested was my husband?”
Kelsey hesitated as she looked at Mrs. Powell’s face.
“Yes or no?” I pressed her.
She looked at me and said, “Yes.”
“Okay, and didn’t you say that everyone in here knew that my husband was involved in that murder investigation?”
She hesitated again.
“Don’t look at Mrs. Powell. Just answer my question. Yes or no?” I hissed. I wanted to expose this bitch and any other bitch in this office for talking about me and my husband behind our backs. I mean, I couldn’t care less if I didn’t fuck with any of these women in here. But these people walked around here like they were my best friends, so I needed to put their asses on front street and let them know that I see them for who they really are.
“Yes, I said it,” she finally said.
“Now tell Mrs. Powell who you heard it from.” I was not going to let this gossip go until I exposed everyone.
Kelsey looked at Mrs. Powell again. “Why do you keep looking at Mrs. Powell?” I asked her. I felt something wasn’t right with these two fake-ass bitches.
“Because she’s the one who said it,” Kelsey finally answered.
“Oh, really?” I said and turned my focus toward Mrs. Powell, who was by this time trying to pick her bottom lip up from the floor.
Mrs. Powell finally opened her mouth to speak. “Wait, I can explain.”
“I’m all ears,” I assured her.
“Can we talk about this in the supply room?” she asked me.
“Hell no! Don’t be trying to go into hiding. We’re gonna talk about this right here. Now, tell me why you said what you said about my husband.”
“I was only repeating what I was told by another office manager.”
“Oh, so your buddy over at the other building is running her mouth too, huh? Well, let me tell all of you something.” I turned my volume up so everyone in the entire office could hear me. “It’s really messed up how y’all jump to conclusions about stuff you don’t know anything about. Yes, my husband works night shift and he operates a straddle carrier, but he does not operate the machinery that takes containers off the ship. So, as far as I’m concerned, my husband hasn’t done anything wrong. Now if you wanna take what I’m saying and twist it up, then so be it. None of y’all pay our bills or put food on our table, so your opinions of him don’t matter to me. I will ride with my husband on this until I find out otherwise, so until that happens please mind your business.” I went to my cubicle, grabbed my things, and walked back out of the office.
I knew I wasn’t supposed to just walk out of the office without getting permission, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to stay in there another minute. I can’t believe that I work around so many fake people. I thought that at least five out of the eleven people in there were my friends. I guess not. So what am I gonna do now? With everything weighing heavily on my heart, I didn’t know if I could face those people again. It hurts when you think someone has your best interests at heart and then at the last minute you find out that it’s the total opposite. How could I come back from that? And if I couldn’t, would I be able to move to a different office? I swear, Reese had really done it this time. First at home and now at the office. What else could happen?
* * *
The moment I exited the parking lot of the terminal, I decided to go to my parents’ house instead of going home. I didn’t want to see Reese. Not now, anyway. As soon as I pulled up to the parents’ house, I saw Alexia taking mail from the mailbox. She stood at the curb and sifted through the mail like she was looking for something. “Lord, please don’t let me get into an argument with this chick today,” I prayed, and then I stepped out of the car.
“Whatcha doing over here? Aren’t you supposed to be at work?” she asked me.
“I took off,” I told her. “Anything in there for me?”
She sucked her teeth. “Girl, please, you know you ain’t got no mail over here.” She turned around to head back into the house.
I started walking behind her. “Who’s in the house?”
“Mom and Dad are both in there.”
“Mom cooked?” I wanted to know because I was a bit hungry, since I hadn’t eaten anything all morning.
“She made pancakes for Dad, but I don’t know if there’s any left,” Alexia replied as she walked onto the porch and opened the front door. When we entered the house, she ruined my surprise by announcing that I was with her. I wanted to choke her. “Mom, Dad, Dawn is here!” she yelled.
I pushed her a couple of steps forward. “You always gotta mess up something,” I pouted.
“Oh shoot! My bad,” she said as she continued to lead the way down the hallway.
Like always, my mother was in the kitchen, cleaning, while my father read the newspaper at the kitchen table. He laid the paper down when I entered the room. “Goodness, gracious, what brings you here?” he asked me after he cracked a smile.
“I just wanted to stop by since I wasn’t doing anything else,” I replied as I leaned over to my dad and kissed him on his cheek. I walked over to the kitchen sink and kissed my mother on her cheek as well. “I’m hungry. Any more food left?” I inq
uired, looking around in spots of the kitchen were food would be, like the stove, the oven, and the microwave.
“No, baby, it’s all gone. But I can whip you up some eggs and toast,” my mother offered.
I opened up the refrigerator and said, “No, Mommy, I’m good. I’ll just eat this bowl of fruit you got in here.”
“Yes, why don’t you eat that,” she encouraged me.
I grabbed the bowl of chopped strawberries, kiwi, and mangos from the top shelf of the refrigerator, took a fork from the drawer, and then I took me a seat at the kitchen table. “What’s going on, Daddy?” I asked him right after I put a piece of strawberry into my mouth.
“I was about to ask you the same thing. Have you been keeping up with the news?” he answered, while looking at the local news section.
“Why? What happened?” I asked. I was not trying to get caught up giving out any information unless asked. And even then, I probably wouldn’t do it because I have a very judgmental set of relatives. They don’t hold back any punches.
“There was a report that Edward Cuffy was found sitting in the driver seat of his truck, dead.”
Shocked by the sudden information about Ed, all I could do was sit there in awe. How did this happen and why? “When was this? Did they say when and where they found his body?” I wondered aloud.
“Wait a minute, you don’t know anything about this?” my father asked.
“No. I don’t. This is my first time hearing this.”
“Well, they found his truck in the parking lot of Mount Trashmore. A woman doing her morning run noticed that there was something off with him, so she called 911. And when they showed up, that’s when they realized that he was dead. Apparently, he was shot in the chest a few times,” my father explained.
“Oh my God! This is awful. Reese is not gonna believe this,” I said as I looked at my parents. Alexia was standing next to my mother, so I gradually looked at her too.
“The port police is going to think this is really strange, because first they found Asian people hiding in those containers and now one of the guys that they suspect had something to do with their case is dead. This is definitely gonna raise a lot of eyebrows. So you may wanna get Reese on the phone right now and let him know what’s going on, if he doesn’t already,” my father said excitedly.