Book Store Rule

by Jones, Janice

  Neither William nor April talked about April’s earlier revelation, neither in the car on the way to the hospital or while they sat in the waiting room. They actually did not talk much at all. William kept his head down, staring at the floor most of the time. April kept her face shielded by the bloody towel that seemed permanently glued between her hand and her face. Each of them, however, had conversations going on in their head.

  The voice in William’s head kept repeating itself over and over again saying, “Will, man, I know the game of adultery is new for you, man. This is your first time on this playing field, but even the rankest amateur knows the number one rule of the game, and that is to always, always wrap it up. You never roll bareback with the other woman, especially a woman who has admitted to you she is highly experienced in this game.”

  April’s little voice gave a similar speech. “How in the world did you allow yourself to get so caught up in this man, fall in love with this man, and permit this man to violate your number one rule? There is no love without the glove. Now you are sitting here with your lip busted, your heart busted, and your hope of ever legitimately having him to yourself busted.”

  Each of them stayed stuck listening to the seemingly imaginary but hauntingly real people inside of their minds, until the nurse called for April to be seen by the doctor.

  While the emergency room physician and his nurse tended to April’s lip, they both kept staring at William from the corner of their eyes as he sat in the corner of the little room. April had explained to the doctor that he did not need to call the police and report the incident as domestic violence. She thought she had convinced him that her lip was a genuine accident, but by the time she was discharged, she was not so sure. His nurse had even whispered in her ear, in a not so hushed voice, “Girl, I don’t care how fine he is. No man is worth getting my lip busted just to keep him.”

  Both William and April were certain that every staff person they encountered at the hospital believed April was lying about William accidently hitting April in the mouth by the time they left the hospital that afternoon.

  The ride back to April’s apartment was the first time the two revisited April’s startling revelation.

  “William, we have to talk about what I told you today,” April said as she spoke from the side of her mouth.

  William was not sure he was ready to go back into the discussion that landed them in the hospital emergency room in the late evening and her with a busted mouth.

  “You are really in no position to talk right now, April. You need to just keep the ice-pack on your mouth and concentrate on bringing down the swelling. We can talk at another time. I’m just going to drop you off at your apartment and head on back to my hotel room. I think you should take the day off tomorrow, giving your lip time to heal, but I have to go to work.”

  April could feel him pulling away from her. Though they were relatively close in the front seat of his car, there was a chasm building between them the size of an ocean with each word he had just spoken to her. In spite of everything that had transpired in the past several hours, she was not ready to let him go.

  “William, you promised me that we would spend the night together in each other’s arms. Now you are telling me that you are dropping me off. I’m not accepting that. We need to discuss this. We need to work through this and we need to get past this.” When April was done, she realized her mouth ached and she was drooling a bit, but that pain and the embarrassment were miniscule in comparison to what she was feeling in her heart. She wiped her mouth with the towel she still had and waited for William’s response, which was slow in coming.

  The last thing William wanted to do was to spend the night with April. His blood still boiled from her admission about having an STD. How could she sit there and attempt to hold a promise that he made while the skies were all sunny over his head, after the very dark cloud that she had cast? How dare she speak to him about working through this as if they were a married couple whose marriage was in jeopardy?

  William was not silly enough to put all the blame on April for the predicament they were in right now. He begrudgingly recognized that he could have, should have, prevented all of this from the very beginning. He was sure this STD was a consequence of his infidelity to his marriage. But at the end of the day, he was one hundred percent certain that it was April who carried the STD and not the other way around. In his mind, this was more her fault than his.

  April hung up her hopes on the deafening silence coming from William. She knew for certain that he was gone for good. It hurt. It hurt more than anything had ever hurt her before in her life. The tremendous pain was a result of the tremendous love she felt for him. It was that love that made her give him the details of what he needed to know about HPV, whether he wanted to hear them or not. After today, she would probably never see him again, so it was now or never.

  April moved the towel a bit from her mouth and began. “William, I have HPV, human papillomavirus. It is nothing like HIV. This is an STD that cures itself naturally in most people within two years of contracting it in most cases; however, there are more serious cases, such as mine, where cervical cancer can occur. My doctor is not certain that I have it, but she is certain that if I do, it is curable. I go in for a procedure called a colposcopy in a few days. After that, the doctor will do another procedure called cryosurgery, which freezes the area of my cervix. Hopefully and most likely, that will be the extent of my treatment.”

  April took a breath as she watched William’s expression soften just a bit, but when he still did not speak after several seconds, she continued.

  “What this all means for you, William, is probably nothing. Like I said, even if you did contract the disease from me, it has probably cleared itself, which would also mean that if you passed it along to your wife, it has cleared in her as well.”

  April watched as the hardness quickly return to William’s face. She shook her head to clear the fog that began to manifest in her head, telling her to give up this conversation now, and kept talking.

  “But to be on the safe side, I think you should both be checked by your doctors.”

  April pressed the towel back to her aching mouth, wishing there was something she could press against her aching heart. She and William rode the rest of the short distance to her apartment complex in silence.

  When they got to her building, William pulled into the first visitor’s spot he saw. He quickly jumped out of the car and opened April’s car door for her. Because of the lateness of the hour, he walked her to her apartment. He waited while she opened the door with her key, and the moment she crossed the threshold of her home, he turned and headed back to his car.

  April did not close her apartment door for several moments. She stood staring into the blackness of the night, recognizing its dark, symbolic meaning. When she finally did shut out the night, she turned and walked to her bedroom and allowed the levee to break on the dam of tears.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Maleeka loved Darrin today as much as she had during the course of their relationship and their subsequent engagement. She really did, but living with him, even for only the past six days, had proved to be more than a notion. The conviction she felt from their first night sharing the same bed was unrelenting. As of result of this constant nagging, her nerves were incessantly frayed, and she knowingly, though unintentionally, was a pestering nuisance to Darrin.

  Now, as she got prepared to go to church, she felt as if everyone there would know all about her new living arrangement. She did not know how she was going to get through Pastor Abraham’s sermon, believing in her heart that he would be staring at her the entire time, condemning her for shacking up with Darrin.

  She considered for the millionth time since getting out of bed this morning not going to church, like Darrin. She was smart enough, however, to know that would only make her feel worse later in the day. She would feel no less guilty after going all day Sunday without her fellowship, worship time, and the aweso
me word she would be sure to miss from Pastor Abraham.

  Darrin, the grown-up chicken, was purposely staying home from church this morning in an effort to dodge his parents. He had not actually spoken with them since the day before he moved in with Maleeka. His mom had called him twice this week. He returned her calls during times when he knew she would be unable to answer the phone, and he left voice mail messages just so she would not worry about him. In the last voice mail she left for him, she said that since she had not heard from him all week, she was looking forward to seeing him in church. He hated disappointing his mother, but he was not yet ready to face Deacon Osborne. The moment his mother looked at him, she would know something was not kosher. When she asked him what was going on, there would be no way he could lie to her and get away with it. Lying in bed away from his mother’s eyes was the best place for him, Darrin rationalized.

  Living with Maleeka for the past six days had been bittersweet for Darrin. He loved coming home from work, finding she had prepared dinner for him, but he hated the way she would nag him about rinsing the dishes before he put them in the dishwasher. He loved cuddling with her at night watching television knowing he did not have to get up and leave when the program went off, but he hated how she would fuss about him leaving his shoes in the living room in the middle of the floor. He loved crawling into bed with her each night, sleeping with her in his arms, but he hated how she would cry after each time they made love, to express her guilt and shame at them continuing to fornicate. The thing he loved the most was that she had not once tried to force his hand at setting a wedding date. The thing that scared him the most was, perhaps after living with him for just a few short days, she had decided she actually did not want to be married to him.

  “Darrin, you know you are wrong for not getting up and going to church with me this morning,” Maleeka whined as she sat on the edge of the bed and slipped on her shoes. “I know you have been slacking in your church attendance these last few weeks, but I thought you would want to go with me this morning. We both need to be at that altar together, praying for forgiveness for living in sin.”

  Darrin hated waking up to the nagging, whining, complaining, and manipulating in the morning.

  “Maleeka, you know I am not ready to face my parents yet about our moving in together. I will tell them in my own way in my own time. I just don’t want to be cornered and admonished by them, especially at church.”

  “Am I engaged to a thirty-three-year-old man or a fourteen-year-old boy?” Maleeka asked sarcastically as she got up from her spot on the bed and stood over Darrin’s prone body that still lay across it.

  Darrin pulled the covers over his head and mumbled from underneath, “Drop it, Mal. I’m not going. You can call me all the names you want. I will deal with my parents when I feel like it.”

  Maleeka started to say something else, but instead decided to do as Darrin asked and drop it. It just was not worth fighting about this morning. Besides, she was already taking enough stress with her to church this morning.

  “Fine, Darrin. I’m leaving. I’ll pray for you while I’m at church, asking God to help you find your maturity.” Maleeka just could not resist.

  “Tell Jesus I said hey.”

  “Don’t worry. I will. I’m sure that will be the only way He will hear from you anytime soon.” Maleeka left the apartment with that departing shot.

  On the drive to church, Maleeka wanted to take her mind off the mess she left at home in her bed. She popped her favorite gospel mix CD in and turned up the volume, hoping to drown out her stress and nervousness about what she would face at church today. As she listened to the music, her own troubles began to drift from her mind. Soon she was grooving to the wonderful up-tempo beats of great praise and worship music.

  As the song “Shake Yourself Loose” by Vickie Winans began to play, she immediately began to think about her friend Aujanae. Maleeka called Aujanae last night to check on her, and she was singing this song as she answered the phone. Aujanae said this was her new theme song, because she was shaking herself loose from William and their marriage.

  Maleeka had convinced Aujanae to come to church with her today during their conversation. She just hoped Aujanae was still planning on coming. She told her she needed to be running to the House of the Lord during her trials, where she would hopefully find some peace and some joy, and some wisdom from Pastor Abraham’s message to help her get through what she was going through with her trifling husband.

  Perhaps she, Aujanae, and Katrina could go out to grab a bite to eat together after church. That, too, would help Aujanae take her mind off her troubles for a little while. It would also give Maleeka an excuse not to rush back home after church, because Lord knows she was in no hurry to get back there.

  Aujanae was also listening to gospel music as she headed to church this morning. She had her radio set to Gospel 860 AM, the only gospel music station in Phoenix. She tried to concentrate on the lyrics of the songs as they came through the speakers, but as with any other action she tried to become involved in, her mind kept drifting to the charred ruin that was now her marriage. Since William’s last visit, she did not even trust herself to care for her child properly; however, instead of simply sending her son to her mother’s, she too went there and allowed her mom to take care of them both for a little while.

  This past Tuesday, the last day she saw William, turned out to be the worst day of her life thus far. He had come by to pick up B.J. to spend some time with him. While he was there, he had decided to share some news he deemed as important.

  “Hey, Aujanae. You look great. But you have always been beautiful to me,” William had said as Aujanae opened the door to let him in the house. He no longer had a key since she had all the locks changed.

  Aujanae uttered a barely audible thank you as she walked back to the great room to retrieve their son from his playpen, leaving William to follow behind her, gawking at one of her best assets.

  Aujanae had taken extra care to be sure she looked fabulous when William came by to pick up B.J. She wanted to throw in his face just what he had given up to be with his trampy mistress. Aujanae had to admit that April was quite a stunning woman, but in her opinion, April paled in comparison to her simply by virtue of the fact she was classless enough to stoop so low as to steal another woman’s husband. In Aujanae’s estimation, April’s inner whore caused her outer beauty to be diminished to that of the warthog, like Pumba from the movie The Lion King.

  When they reached the great room, B.J. was sleeping. “You can wake him while I get his bag. He’s been down for a little while now, so it’s time for him to get up from his nap,” Aujanae told William.

  “We can let him sleep for a bit longer. I really need to talk to you about something important.”

  Aujanae stopped and turned to find William shuffling his feet anxiously. The look on his face said he would rather be anywhere other than in this room about to have the conversation he just mentioned. This in turn made her nervous. She rationalized that what William needed to talk about had to be bad news. If he simply wanted to talk about the two of them getting back together, he would appear, at least, to be much more confident.

  Aujanae sank slowly to the sofa closest to her, not uttering another word. She just waited for William to spit out what he had to say.

  “Can we please go into the bedroom? I would rather not disturb the baby.”

  Aujanae looked at William as if her eyes were going to pop out of her head and roll under her son’s playpen. What in the world was this all about? she wondered wordlessly.

  William headed upstairs to the bedroom they used to share together without saying another word either, leaving Aujanae to follow him this time, staring at the back of his bowed head. It was a view not as nice as the one he had when he followed her.

  William moved aside as they approached the bedroom door, allowing Aujanae to enter first. She went to the night stand by the bed to make sure the baby monitor was on in case B.J. awakened. Wi
lliam began talking before she had a chance to sit down.

  “Aujanae, yesterday April told me she was in the process of having some test done to determine whether or not she has cervical cancer.”

  Aujanae still had the monitoring device in her hand when William completed his sentence. It took every ounce of will power she possessed to not hurl it across the room, aiming right for the center of his forehead. She knew good and darn well this fool did not come to her all stressed out, stressing her out in turn, to tell her about his mistress’s health challenges. Aujanae initially cradled the monitoring device in the palm of her hand. She then began bouncing it up and down in her hand.

  “William, there had better be more to this conversation than the fate of your whore’s cervix,” she said menacingly.

  William watched the movement of his wife’s hand. Never before in the entire time he had he known this woman had he ever felt the least bit frightened or threatened by her. Even in their very recent past since she found out about the affair and attempted to pummel him that day, had he ever thought she really wanted to physically hurt him. Now, however, he feared for his safety, and he had yet to tell her the worst of the news.

  “Aujanae, please sit down, baby.” William attempted to take a few steps in her direction, but when she stopped bouncing the monitor and instead held on to it with a death grip, he halted in his tracks.

  “I’m fine standing. I’m sure this conversation won’t take too long, because I am sick of it already, so you need to hurry and finish what you have to say,” Aujanae said impatiently.

  William gulped at air and attempted to swallow the fear in his throat. He seriously considering just grabbing his son and leaving, letting the rest of his confession go unstated. But he knew he owed Aujanae the truth—full disclosure.

  “The cervical cancer, if she has it, is the result of a sexually transmitted disease called HPV. I’m sure you’ve probably heard of it, or have maybe been warned about it by your gynecologist.” William paused, allowing Aujanae an opportunity to grasp his statement.