by Simone Kelly
“Oh, she’s in the bathroom. I walked her in dark.” I noticed my zipper was open. “Uh—I was going to the bathroom. Been holding it all night.”
“Oh, okay.” She raised an eyebrow. “Well, the slumber party is over. It’s been real!” Kylie said.
“Yes, and what a party it has been.” I sighed.
“Yeah, I see.” She smirked as she opened the bathroom door. I knew I was caught. Kylie sensed something, even though I didn’t really do anything—well, not really. I went into the bathroom and splashed water on my face. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I wanted more, but I knew that Dee was someone I should leave alone. Edna my guide made sure of that.
Chapter 20
Kylie
Wow, did I just walk into the middle of something? Dee was in the bathroom adjusting her hair, but if you heard people screaming for joy, wouldn’t you want to run out and see what was going on?
Dee was calmly reapplying lip gloss. “Hey, girl! It’s back on! I can’t wait to get the heck outta here.”
“I know! Well, it was so nice getting to know you, Dee.”
She said, “Oh, I’ll definitely be back after this trip!” She laughed a devilish laugh that strangely reminded me of True’s.
“Ummm-hmmmmm! I bet you will.”
“What does that mean?” Her tone was defensive.
“Well, it’s none of my business, but I saw how open Jacques was when he came out of the bathroom.” I giggled.
“Oh, no no no no no. Nothing happened. He’s such an angel. Trust me, I always used to hit on him and he just turned me down. He just came with me, because it was dark.”
“Um-hmmm. I believe you,” I said with sarcasm.
“Please, trust me. He’s loyal to his woman. Whoever she is, she must have a bomb-ass cootch with diamonds and gold dust sprinkled on it, ’cause she got him on lock.” We laughed.
“Yeah, he is fine.” I agreed. “It’s hard not to drool around him.”
We started to walk back down the hall together. “And you know they say Moroccans have some big dicks?” Dee said.
“Really? Well, I never met anyone from Morocco until him.”
“Well, I’m just letting you know! I heard he has a brother. I’ll take Jacques. You can have the brother.” She laughed.
“Nah, I’m good. I think his brother is an asshole.”
“You met him?”
“No, he writes the It’s Just a Stab blog. Really nasty, but pretty funny. And he’s not as cute as Jacques. He actually looks kind of like a nerdy white dude.”
“Oh,” Dee said. “I just assumed he would be fine and sweet, too.”
“Nope. Definitely not.”
Vince was stuffing a backpack with client folders. “Any of you lovely ladies need a ride?”
Dee gave us a hug. “Nah, we’re out! I’m hungry! So good hanging with you guys. Storm already left my ass.” She pointed down the hall.
“I can hearrrr you!” Storm yelled back, “Come on, Dee! My car better be where I left it.”
We waved to Dee and as I was holding the door open I noticed a help wanted sign posted on it. It read:
LIKE A FLY ON THE WALL
DETECTIVE AGENCY
WE’RE HIRING—INQUIRE INSIDE!
“Hey! Are you guys really hiring?” I couldn’t believe it.
Vince looked thrilled. “Yes, what—you need a job? We need a receptionist!”
“Actually, yes, I’ve been looking!”
Vince put his backpack on one shoulder. “Can you type?”
“Yes, seventy words per minute,” I said proudly.
He looked up at me. “But can you research?” He tried to stand confidently with his small five-three stature.
“Um, research is my middle name! I was a fact-checker for a music news company and I’m an excellent snoop.”
Antonio was sitting on the couch charging his phone and answering texts. He mumbled, “I’ll make a note of that.”
“You got a résumé and some referrals?”
“When do you want them?” I said quickly.
“When can you start?” He smiled.
“Tomorrow?”
“Okay, tomorrow. Bring ’em. I trust you for some reason,” Vince said.
“Never trust a big butt and a smile,” Antonio sang out from his desk.
“Shut up, Antonio!” I yelled playfully. I took it as a compliment, since I didn’t think I had a big butt.
“Hey, hey! You gotta have more respect. She’s gonna be your coworker!” Vince said.
“Yeah, respeckkkk!” I stuck my tongue out at Antonio. He just waved back.
I think he was excited that I would be around now. I was thrilled. I didn’t know how I would get any work done with Antonio in the mix, but I had a job, finally a job. Now, of course I still needed to find out what kind of money they were talking about. It didn’t look like they could pay much, but I would work my way up. I needed something, anything, and it was better than nothing.
“What’s the pay?”
“Fifteen dollars per hour, but we can talk. If you are good and can research we can probably work up to twenty dollars.”
“Okay, cool.” Beggers can’t be choosers. It was definitely not the salary I was used to but it would be better than nothing. I smiled appreciatively.
Antonio got up off the couch and put his phone away. “Wow, just like that, huh?”
Vince led us out of the office and had his keys out to lock up. “Hey, why not, what are the odds we meet a match like Kylie?”
“Why wasn’t it that easy to hire me?” he joked.
“She’s a bit sweeter.”
I blushed. “I love my new job already!”
“Man, Vince, you are a cool dude, dawg. But how am I gonna get any work done with this pretty young thang around?”
“Oh, please, you ain’t never here. I’ll make sure to send you out more on surveillance, too. You’ll be fine, just behave, she’s family now.”
“Oh, don’t worry. I will. I will.” He winked at me.
“So, see you tomorrow, Kylie.” Vince looked at his watch. “We start at nine thirty A.M. You won’t get much sleep.”
“I’ll be here with bells on!”
I couldn’t believe it! I had a job. A job at Like a Fly on the Wall Detective Agency!
It was almost two thirty A.M. when I got home. I fed Phantom, took a shower, and slid into a cozy T-shirt and boxers. True texted me that she was okay and had gone home with one of her coworkers. I told her what had happened but she didn’t respond. Probably too busy on her back with whoever she went home with. I shook my head and played my other messages. Chauncey, Breeze, Olivia, and a few other random people I hadn’t heard from in months had called to see if I was okay.
Then I heard a familiar woman’s voice. “It’s Aunt Daphne! I saw on the news about the blackout. Call me and let me know you guys are safe. Ya hear?”
Wow! She called me all the way from Jamaica? It felt good to know that I did have family now. Family that cared. I didn’t think I’d ever felt that before. The next morning, Phantom jumped on my stomach—all fourteen pounds of her. I was startled and then laughed as she bounced around the room. Bed to floor, floor to bed to window, then back under the bed. She meowed loudly as she played.
“It’s too early for this shit, Phantom.” I looked at the time. It was seven thirty A.M. Today was my first day at the agency, five hours after I’d left it. I pulled out a nice business-casual dress, not too short and sky blue, and some nice blue-and-green earrings to match. For shoes, some sexy three-inch wedges.
True still didn’t come home and didn’t bother to call. I was sure she was fine, but I did want to tell her in person about my job. I didn’t want to get too excited until I knew for sure it was a good fit and Vince wasn’t just pulling my chain. And as good as Antonio looked, I thought I would stick with Chauncey. Better not to mix work and play. I was excited that I’d be able to hang out with Jacques more, too, since he was
down the hall from the agency.
My first day on the job was pretty interesting. I learned the basic procedures on how the office was run, and I pretty much just answered phones. Vince said he would teach me more as time went on. I’d even get to help out with surveillance eventually. How exciting! When I got home, I saw an 876 area code show up on my phone. Jamaica?
“Hello?”
“Kylie, are you okay? Oh good, you mustn’t give mi such a scare. I was worried that we just found each other and I lost you.”
“Wow, the news was that scary?”
“Well, they said some people were hospitalized or died from heat-related incidents.”
“I haven’t had a moment to really watch the news now that it’s over! I was inside an office building with a few folks for those hours. We are fine.”
“Well, you know your mother wouldn’t call, so I know to call you.”
“Well, that was so sweet of you, Aunt Daphne.”
Her Jamaican accent was so comforting. I wished I could talk like that. “We’re family, man,” she said gently. “You’re my only niece.”
“Why don’t you and True get along? You guys haven’t spoken since I was, like, what . . . five?”
She sighed. “Oh, Kylie, I couldn’t really say much in front of your cousins when you were here. It’s not that we didn’t get on . . . she resented me. I told you before, I was raised in a different environment than her. I also had a father who would get me things from abroad . . . the States. I was treated much better, while she was at home with our evil aunt. There were some times Paulette would visit and she’d steal the new clothes from my closet. It caused a lot of arguments.”
“Wow, steal?” I repeated.
“Yes, I’d see her with a blouse or a skirt that was mine,” she said sternly. “But this you cannot repeat!”
“No, no, I won’t say anything.”
“She was pretty fast growing up. It’s like she lived to embarrass the Collins name by her behavior.”
“What behavior?” I was so happy to finally be getting a glimpse of the truth, but I could still feel the resentment steaming out of Aunt Daphne.
“She was a little toooo fast. She doesn’t want to acknowledge her mistakes. She blames us for her being so distant, when it’s her own guilt that keeps her away.”
Part of me knew True is a wild spirit and Aunt Daphne was being judgmental, but my gut told me there was more. I also knew that you don’t just start off promiscuous. I wondered what caused her to be so “wild,” as they say. It doesn’t happen overnight. With my new assistant detective skills, I planned to investigate more. I wanted to learn how to ask the right questions.
“She was shamed, that’s why she left.”
“Shamed for what, having me?”
“Well, Kylie . . .” She paused. “There’s a bit more. Rumor has it that your father was a married man. He was the one who had the connections to send her away. When she was pregnant with you, I asked her about the rumor. She denied it, and that was one of the reasons she doesn’t speak very fondly of me, because I knew the truth.”
“But who did you hear that rumor from? It could have been a lie.”
“I wish it was, but I heard it right from the horse’s mouth!”
“What? So you know who my father is, Aunt Daphne? You know him?” I was more than thrilled that she was finally coming clean.
“It’s . . . it’s really not my place. It’s not my place.” She took a long pause and sighed. “God forgive me, but you have the right to know. You’re a grown woman now. You know this is not easy.”
“Please!” I cried. “Please tell me!”
“Wait nuh man? Soooo, long story short . . . One day, I went over to Uncle Danny’s to drop off some curry chicken from Mummy. Uncle’s wife was abroad in Chicago working for a family as a nanny for a few months.”
“My mom told me about her auntie and said that she was evil like a witch.”
“Yes, she was. Just a miza-rebel woman. She’s still alive, ya know? She’s in a nursing home and has dementia. You see how God takes care of you when you evil?”
“Yeah, that’s sad. Wow . . . So, you dropped off the food . . .” I brought her back to the story.
“Well, I went to drop off the food and I went in through the back gate and saw the door was open. I heard the shower going and then I saw Uncle in the bathroom with the door open with no shirt on. The strangest thing, ya know? Your mother was in the shower. Paulette was whimpering, like she was crying. This was unheard of. A girl-child in the shower and a man standing there shirtless!” She sucked her teeth. “You know, Kylie, I haven’t spoken about this since I was a teenager.”
“Well? What happened?” I urged her on.
“Well, Paulette was crying and I heard Uncle carrying on and saying mean things. Like ‘Faisty gal. I heard you went down the road. You don’t think word will travel? You try to kill my baby with that Obeah shit. My only baby, you think I don’t know about that root tea. I know. You lucky I don’t ring your durty neck.’”
“What’s root tea?”
“Some tea with special herbs to make you lose a baby. It’s what they used for abortion in the old days.”
I was silent.
She continued. “When he was yelling at her, I gasped and Uncle heard me.” She raised her voice to imitate him. “ ‘What de bloodclot you doing in mi ’ouse?’ Without even thinking about it, he took off his belt and whipped me so bad. I had welts on my legs and arms and I still have a scar on my shoulder to this day from that beating. Broke my skin. Was bleeding and everyting. There was screaming and Paulette jumped out di bathroom in her robe soaking wet, trying to pull him off of me. She scream, she scream, and screamed for him to stop. Then she took a lickin’, too. Not as bad as me. The neighbors came over to stop him. He lost control like a madman!
“This incident brought the whole family in an uproar. My father came to the house to fight him after he saw what he did to me and since Uncle Danny was a policeman, my father got arrested for assaulting an officer. Eventually he dropped the charges. But my father spent a whole month in jail and our family was never the same again. I only told my mother what the real reason was for the beating and she and Uncle Danny fell out for good after that. Paulette blames me, I’m sure, for her life. She hated me for telling, but I didn’t have a choice. Word got out, especially after he had the huge fight with my dad. I never understood after that how she could stay there. How could she live with him?”
I felt horrible for True. “But wasn’t it abuse? When you are that young and feel you have nowhere else to go . . . maybe she was scared to leave. He was a cop! I can only imagine how he threatened her. He probably raped her. I’m sure he did.” I was so disgusted. My stomach turned. I was the product of a rape.
“No, no, I never believed that, because of how he treated her so good, especially after his wife was gone for long periods of time.”
Aunt Daphne was so naive. I just couldn’t believe True was willfully having an affair with her uncle. Gross! “Come on, Aunt Daphne, she was like sixteen. You really think she was that conniving then?” Then I remembered how old I was when I seduced Breeze.
She paused. “By that age, you know how to get what you want. She wore perfume, dressed seductively; she would serve him not like a niece, but like a wife. It was quite disturbing. One time she even got kicked out of church for how she was dressed. Her whole bosom out and all the men in the church drooling.”
“Wow! That sounds like True.” I chuckled.
“You gotta realize, he was a new man when his wife left. It was such a change for Paulette, since his wife treated her so cruel. You know his wife was barren, too? Since she couldn’t bear children for him, she despised us children for even being around. This is why he wanted you to be born so bad. They were probably going to pretend that Wendell was the father, the man you thought was your father. He was a neighbor that was always hanging around Paulette.”
“Oh my God, this story is s
oooo crazy. I can’t believe it!”
“I’m so sorry, Kylie. It’s best you know the truth now.”
“No, no, it’s all good. I feel happy, and, well . . .”
I forced a laugh and tried to make her laugh. Silence.
“Well, if I were you,” she said, “I’d come back again and meet the rest of your family. You have plenty more to meet. We’re so happy to have you back.”
“Ah, me too . . . glad to know I have family! What was Uncle’s, well, my father’s, full name?”
“Daniel Kenneth. He died ten years ago from a stroke.” I typed it into my phone’s notepad.
It’s so crazy that I’d never heard about him being a cop. True talked more about the evil aunt. “Do you have any pictures of him?”
“I think I can look for something. I’m sure I have at least two, one in his uniform and one when he got older.” I got goose bumps as I remembered that Jacques said in my reading he saw him in a uniform. We thought it was military, but he was very close. Damn, he was good.
I was waiting for True to come home. Chauncey and I were texting back and forth about our next date. Breeze was also letting me know he was going to be in town in a few days. Just then, True came floating in smelling like weed.
I didn’t wait for her to get settled. “True, how come you never told me about Uncle Danny?”
She froze in her steps and a deep breath whooshed from her lungs.
In typical True defensive mode she raised her voice. “What? What’s there to tell?” She put her pocketbook down and took off her shawl.
I kept a stern face. “Come on, True. I know!”
She moved in close and raised an eyebrow. “You know what?” She was fishing.
“Ummmm, I don’t know, maybe that he’s my father!” Her confident face turned into a devastated frown. I knew I would get her. “What happened, how could that happen?”
“Kylie! I don’t know who the hell you’ve been talking to, but that man is not your dad. Are you out of your mind?”
I held my hand up to her to calm her down. My eyes started to water. “True, I’m sick of the lies already. Once and for all, can you speak your truth and live up to your friggin’ name? Tell me, is your uncle Danny my father? I know already, but I need to hear you say it. I need to know where I came from, Mom!”