Although Q never told anyone about his affiliation with anyone in the book, Mekel knew because of his uncle, Larry, who was the head of the Chambers Brothers, who was now in prison. Q thought back to the acknowledgments in the book:
Shouts out to the Chamber-Brothers, Y.B.I.s, Best Friends Organization, East Side BK’s, White Boy Rick, and the Earl Flynns. To all the Bitch Niggas, Snitch Niggas in these organizations, it is because of your mouths that we didn’t survive.
Eyes were always looking, even from the grave and the cell, and as Q grew into a young man, little did he know, he was always protected.
On the many occasions that Mekel had visited Larry after Mekel’s group, the Best Friends, disbanded, Larry commended him on being a more cautious hustler and encouraged him to go it alone. He had always mentioned Scooney’s nephew, but all they called him was Q, and that was a common name on the streets.
Q dragged himself to his truck to get the book and returned. Mekel took it and said he’d get in touch with him once he finished reading the book.
• • •
Three weeks later, Kera sat in the chair while her stylist put the finishing touches on her simple ponytail.
Kera made the biggest decision of her life, when she completely dedicated her life to the Lord. She got rid of all of her trendy clothing and switched to a more subdued look, one that she claimed the Lord would be proud of—long skirts and blouses that didn’t show much skin. She nixed the makeup and used Vaseline on her lips if needed. The only jewelry she wore was the dainty gold cross that Mekel bought her shortly after she gave birth. Kera was now truly low maintenance.
She spent all of her time either at work, church or home. Kera was determined not to let her family fall apart and prayed that the Lord would keep them together. She repented for her sins and wanted to talk to Mekel about forgiveness. She wanted to do it a while ago but was embarrassed that her foolish actions harmed their child. Mainly, though, she was not ready to face him. She’d said some harsh things that she knew she couldn’t take back and hoped that with time, wounds would heal.
For weeks Kera prayed that God would give her a sign that Mekel wouldn’t turn her away and today was the day. Every time she thought about talking to him, it rained, but today it didn’t.
Kera had gained a lot of popularity because she’d had Mekel’s baby. Not only was he fine, he was a well-known ladies’ man. Although many girls had tried, not many succeeded. Terry was definitely a cock blocker when it came down to Mekel. But Kera happened to luck up. She was at the right place at the right time and ended up carrying Mekel’s seed. But all that glittered wasn’t gold.
Terry had fucked up when she bragged to everyone how well Mekel fucked her, and that curiosity had piqued Kera’s interest. It wasn’t just a coincidence she was in Vegas when he was. She wouldn’t have known that he was in Vegas if Terry hadn’t mentioned it. Kera knew he had other women, but that was before her, she’d surmised. Kera was vexed because Mekel wouldn’t return her phone calls, or her text messages. Rapidly moving her fingers across the keyboard of her phone she typed, I’m sorry. Call home, the baby needs us, but got no response.
Kera was hurt that she hadn’t heard from Mekel since he walked out three weeks ago but she kept constant tabs on him. Thanks to the nurses at the hospital, she learned of Mekel’s comings and goings and made sure to never run into him while she visited their son.
But today, she was hoping she’d run into him because she missed him and what he had to offer. Before she met Mekel, she often did her thing with small-time niggas, but Mekel was the biggest catch yet, and she wasn’t going to go back to what she used to be.
• • •
Mekel marched into the hospital room and took his place with his son. He wondered why the testing was taking so long. Every day he brought children’s books to read to him, and a small radio to play music. The doctor had told him that reading to him and listening to music would stimulate his brain, possibly making his seizures less traumatic, but Mekel had more on his mind than just his son. He was thinking of Terry.
After her first phone call, he’d started visiting her once a week. He looked at his son and wondered what could have been if things were different. His mind drifted back to a conversation he had with Terry during his first visit.
Mekel walked into the visiting area and waited for Terry to emerge. He was shocked when he saw her. The makeup, jewelry and nails were gone. On top of it, she was forced to keep her hair in braids. She couldn’t maintain her weave in prison.
A pregnant pause filled the air as she looked at him, face-to-face, for the first time since the attempted kidnapping. Terry sat down.
“Thanks for coming to see me, Mekel.”
“Honestly, Terry, I don’t know why I’m here.”
Terry began to make small talk to break the tension between them. She spoke of the many women who were doing bids for their men. Many were there because of the drug trade but a handful weren’t. Regardless of their crime, they were all there for the same reason. Their emotions guided them into doing something for a man, who more than likely wouldn’t hold them down while they were sent up the river for them.
“Terry, tell me something,” Mekel said.
“Sure.”
“Tell me about your relationships with your kids’ fathers.”
“What?”
“I want to know what happened between you and them.”
“Mekel . . . I—”
“Terry, I need to make sense out of all of this.” Mekel rubbed his hands across his face.
“I never had luck with men. I guess I had ‘easy’ written all over my face. It was all good when they got the pussy, but when I told them I was pregnant, they burned out.”
“All of ’em?”
“Yup. Then when you came along, you accepted me and my kids. Even after you got it, we were still together. You were different, Mekel.”
Mekel’s mind played with him.
“I loved you, Mekel. I still do. Truth be told, I could have gotten over you fucking Kera if you were honest about it. But what hurt me the most”—she pointed to her heart—“was the fact that I couldn’t give you a child. I was your woman and I couldn’t do that for you.”
“You underestimate the ability of a man to overlook the obvious.”
“What do you mean by that?” Terry asked.
“What I’m saying is that you are being too hard on yourself. I’m far from perfect, and I didn’t have to do what I did.”
Terry was silent as she listened.
“And just because you didn’t carry my flesh and blood doesn’t mean your kids couldn’t have been like my own in time.”
Mekel looked at Terry and saw the woman he once loved. He knew he couldn’t be with her, but he could be there for her.
“Now, you tell me something, Mekel, since we’re being open with each other.”
“What’s that?”
“You’ve seen me at my best and now you’ve seen me at my worst. They made me take off my nails and my weave, Mekel. Can you believe that shit?” They both laughed.
“But seriously though, I’ve accepted you from day one. I know what we had is over, but can you accept me as I am, right now?”
Mekel looked at Terry in her eyes. “Yes. We have a lot of history and friendships can be forever.” He didn’t think they could get back to what they were before; however, he would help Terry get back on her feet. “And Terry, for the record, I would have loved to have had a child with you.”
After that initial meeting, knowing that a jury would decide Terry’s fate was hard for Mekel to fathom. He realized her reaction to his actions landed her where she was, so he was partially to blame.
Terry’s attorney fought to get the kidnapping charges dropped and won because Terry didn’t actually take the baby out of the hospital. Still, there was the looming charge of aggravated assault. Mekel was due to meet with the attorney later on in the day. He took the chance of contacting her once he learned
that his son’s condition was not due to Terry’s actions.
Mekel also took the necessary steps through the Department of Children and Family Services to protect his child and was now his son’s primary caregiver.
He hoped that the courts would let Terry go and grant her some sort of probation. He also asked that her children be returned to her. She was a good mother, and should be given the chance to show the courts that she deserved to be with her children. Terry’s attorney seemed to think it would work if he stayed by her side.
Mekel was ready to move on with Terry, his son and her children. He now understood the old adage “You never miss what you have until it’s gone.” He was also bored with Kera, sexually. In their last few encounters, he had to think about Terry in order to get his nut off. Kera had gotten into what the church said about premarital sex and started being stingy with the pussy. She had done a complete 180 degrees from the Kera he used to know. Mekel already felt he’d been suckered into being a father, but there was no way he was going to be suckered into being a husband, no matter what the Bible said. Turning his attention back to his son, he began to read to him.
• • •
Kera left the shop, en route to the hospital. She put in disc two of The Essential Yolanda Adams, and turned to track number 2. Kera sang along to “You Changed My Life.” Thoughts of Mekel weighed heavily on her mind. She called his cell phone again, and again, but he didn’t answer. Before she could flip her phone closed, it rang.
“Hello?” she said, anxiously.
“Hey, girl. It’s me.”
“Oh, hey, Sasha.”
“Well, damn, don’t sound so happy to hear from me.” They were never really friends, just cordial on account of Red. But, both being burned by her strengthened their bond.
“I’m sorry, girl. I just got a lot of things on my mind. What’s up?”
“We’re on our way back to town.”
“Oh, good!”
“Maybe we can go shopping or something when I get there. Blue got some business to take care of and I don’t wanna be stuck in some hotel the whole time I’m there.”
“I understand. We can go to dinner or something and if you’re still here on Sunday, we can go to church.”
“O-kay . . . How’s the baby?” Sasha changed the subject.
“He’s doing well,” Kera lied. Everyone didn’t need to know her business.
“Have you heard from Red?” Sasha really didn’t care but she needed to be on guard just in case she ran into her while she was in town. She knew she would eventually, but she was hoping for later rather than sooner.
“I haven’t seen her since she came into the bank with a bogus check,” Kera told her.
“Bogus check?”
“Yeah, she came in, dressed to the nines, trying to cash a one-point-six-million-dollar check.”
“Get out!”
“Girl, whoever she got that check from put a stop payment on it. You should have seen her face. It was priceless,” Kera admitted with a smug grin on her face, emphasizing the word priceless. She pulled up to the hospital. “God don’t like ugly.” The two giggled like longtime friends. “Hey, I’ll talk to you a lil’ later. I got a run to make.”
“Okay, cool. I’ll call you when we get to town.”
Dreading what she had to face, Kera trod slowly through the hospital and ended up at her son’s room. Outside the door she heard children’s music coming from inside. When she walked in, she felt like her prayers had been answered. Thank you, Jesus, she said to herself. Mekel was there with their son in his arms.
She smiled at the sight before her eyes. “Hi, Mekel.”
He turned toward the voice, then turned back and continued to look out of the window, with lil’ Mekel in his arms. “Man, one day we’re going to travel. You’re going to have the best of everything, just me and you.”
Kera’s heart dropped. He’s actually thinking about moving on without me. Lord, please don’t take my baby and my man.
It wasn’t their son’s health problems that had driven a wedge between him and Kera; it was the knowledge that she’d neglected to take care of herself in her first trimester, whether or not he was in her life. After researching fetal development on the Internet in the family resource center of the hospital, he became even more angered because he learned the first trimester is crucial in the development of vital organs and systems.
Mekel had made his bed and now he had to lie in it. He realized that the comfort he felt living with Kera for almost three months was only temporary. She was new to him, and it felt right because she didn’t hound him like Terry and his other jump-offs, but he realized that he truly didn’t know her. He now knew Terry had been with him, unconditionally, regardless of what he put her through. Kera, on the other hand, became a different person after they began living together. The spontaneous woman who Mekel felt was his equal, on all levels, turned into a churchgoing hypocrite. The expensive art that once graced his walls was now replaced by biblical depictions. Kera had vials of holy water and holy oil in each room of the apartment and she forbid him to play his rap CDs on Sundays. Sunday is the Lord’s day, she would tell him. Since you don’t go to church, you could at least give Him some respect and glory.
“I’m glad to see you,” Kera said as she walked to stand next to him. She reached out and stroked his arm. Mekel looked at her and twisted his lips. He walked over to the crib, placed his son in it and began to walk out of the door. “Wait, Mekel. Can I talk to you for a minute?”
He stopped and turned around. “You already said enough.”
Kera sighed. “Look, just hear me out. I was wrong for blaming you for all of this. We can’t let Terry’s actions come between us.”
Mekel looked at her and shook his head in disgust. “It goes back to Terry, huh?”
“Well, yeah.”
“You’re blaming Terry, but what about you?”
“What about me?” Kera raised her voice.
“The first three months of your pregnancy. Is there something you need to tell me?”
Kera opened her mouth but no words came out.
Mekel knew by her reaction she was busted. “This didn’t have to be, Kera, but you elected not to take care of yourself. Is this payback because I wasn’t by your side during the pregnancy?”
Kera said nothing as tears welled up in her eyes. She put her hand over her heart as if it were too full for her to even talk about it without breaking down.
“No matter how you felt about me and my actions, your first priority as a mother should have been protecting the baby growing inside of you.”
Mekel realized he had to get out of the room before he said or did something he would regret. He began walking toward the door.
“Mekel!” Kera ran up on him and grabbed him by the shoulder. “Baby, forgive me! Please, forgive me,” she cried. Kera reached inside of her oversize bag, pulled out her NIV Bible and began thumbing through pages. “First John, chapter one, verse nine says, ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.’ Baby, let’s pray on this. Let’s pray that the Lord will deliver and release us from the grasp of the Devil.” Kera quickly reached in her purse and pulled out a vial. She opened it, and began sprinkling the oil around the room, saying, “Father God, please bless this safe haven and everyone in it, for the strength to pull through this crisis.” She walked over to the crib and put her finger on the vial and moistened lil’ Mekel’s forehead. “Bless this child, Father God. He is Your disciple. He’s here to serve You.”
Mekel couldn’t take it any longer. He couldn’t stand to be near Kera once he learned of her prenatal neglect. “You really need to stop with your holier-than-thou attitude. If you were so holy you wouldn’t have abused your body, oh, I’m sorry, you wouldn’t have abused the temple that the Lord gave you.” Kera’s eyes widened at his condescending tone. “You talking all that stuff about forgiveness. Yeah, I forgave.”
&nbs
p; Kera’s eyes shone with a glimmer of hope.
“I forgave Terry and she’s coming home.” Before Kera’s bottom lip could drop any further than it had, Mekel continued, “Don’t worry, I’m a take care of what’s mine, but you need to go on with your life and get outta my house.” Just as he opened the door to leave, Mekel took one last look at Kera. “Don’t think I don’t know that you’ve been coming here when I’m gone. Stay away from my son, Kera,” he threatened. “Otherwise, I’ll be forced to get a restraining order against you. You can get monitored court-ordered visits when he gets out the hospital.”
With that, Mekel sprinted out into the hallway and waited for an elevator. He had to get away from Kera. He didn’t know what he might do to her if he had to stay in the room with her a minute longer. He didn’t want to leave his son, but he felt it was for the best; plus, he could come back later on. He was also hoping that he didn’t speak too soon and somehow jeopardize Terry’s impending release.
CHAPTER 22
After meeting with Terry, Chass knocked at the door of the judge’s chambers.
“Come in,” the judge called.
“Your Honor, I’d like to discuss the case against Terry Washington.” The judge motioned to the seat in front of her desk. Chass presented various forms of paperwork.
“Your Honor, the primary caregiver of the child, the father, Mekel Chambers, has dropped the charges against my client.”
“Is there a specific reason?” the judge asked, surprised at this new development. “This was a brutal act against not only a child, but a newborn baby.”
“Your Honor, it’s a long story.” Chass told the judge the story in hopes that she would suggest a lighter sentence. “The father of the child wrote a statement.” She handed the judge his letter. “The baby does have medical issues; however, they were not caused by the hands of my client.” Chass handed her the statement of the physician who diagnosed the baby.
The Dirty Red Series Page 35