You Get What You Pray For

by E. N. Joy

  “Eugene?” Lorain interrupted. “Your oldest son’s father. The girls’ . . .”

  Unique nodded, putting her head down in shame. “Yeah, him. I don’t know what happened. I got caught up. As always, he was saying all the right things—”

  “I know what happened,” Lorain said. “It’s a setup.” She looked at Unique. “We’ve been played.”

  Lorain went on to share with Unique all her dealings with Eugene. In the midst of doing so, she also shared with Unique the feelings she’d had toward her with regard to the girls. All of this had played a part in her getting caught up.

  “I feel so awful, Unique,” Lorain cried. “I’m so sorry, baby girl. I blew my second chance with you. I pushed you away . . . and now all the way to Atlanta.”

  “Mom, please don’t think that,” Unique said, hugging Lorain. “I think so much has happened in our lives, past and present, that we’ve only been doing what we grew up learning how to do—survive by any means necessary. But as Christian women, we should have had enough faith in God to know that the battle was not ours. I love you. And I don’t love you any less right now. I know at first, when I found out you were my biological mother, I said some things that made you feel like crap, but that was the hurt, abandoned little girl in me talking.”

  “I know all about that,” Lorain told her.

  “But when the godly woman in me said she forgave you, I meant it. All I care about is our now. And let’s not let life get in the way of our now ever again. Okay?”

  Lorain agreed. “Okay, baby.”

  The two women embraced as Eleanor began to sniffle. With her sniffling seeming to purposely get louder and louder, both Unique and Lorain finally turned their attention to Eleanor and pulled her in for a hug.

  The three generations of women hugged, kissed, apologized, and forgave for the next few minutes.

  Unique was the first to remove herself from the embrace and stand. “Now that that’s all said and done, I need to—”

  “You can’t leave, Unique,” Lorain stood up and declared. “What about me? What about your daughters?” A hush fell over the room. Lorain couldn’t believe it herself that those words had fallen from her mouth.

  Unique took Lorain by the hands. “Heaven and Victoria are your daughters, my sisters, and that’s the way it is always going to be . . . forever.” Unique said it in such a way that it removed all doubt from Lorain’s mind that Unique would ever try to take the girls from her. But then, of course, there was still one other person who possibly could.

  “Eugene,” Lorain said under her breath. Fear filled her eyes.

  That quickly, Unique, too, had forgotten about Eugene’s devious self.

  “I suppose he is a ticking time bomb we need to figure out how to diffuse,” Unique said.

  “Come on!” Lorain said, grabbing her purse. “I know where to find him! But I’m going to have to make a phone call first.” Lorain grabbed her cell phone and began to dial.

  “Who are you calling?” Unique asked.

  “Someone who I should have called in the first place!”

  Chapter 29

  “Oh, I see both you wenches showed up,” Eugene said after opening his hotel room door. He rubbed sleep out of his eyes. It was six o’clock in the morning. The sun was barely lighting the sky. “I figured it was only a matter of time before the left hand told the right hand what was up.” He looked at Unique. “That’s exactly why I stopped foolin’ with yo’ moms and did my own thing.”

  “Eugene Brown, you should be ashamed of yourself,” Unique scolded. “How you gon’ come to my house and share all those things you said to me about our son and then blackmail his grandmama? I’m not gonna believe you are that kind of monster.”

  He shrugged. “You wasn’t trying to fool with me. You dropped me off at my mom’s crib that night like I wasn’t nothing. And you ain’t even tried to holla at ya boy since.” He snickered. “And I had given you my best performance yet. A brotha even cried.” He said it as if he was so proud of himself for having faked his emotions so well.

  “But what about everything you said? Was that all an act?” Unique couldn’t believe it. “The time we spent at our son’s grave site . . .”

  Eugene sucked his teeth. “Girl, please,” he told Unique. “I didn’t mean none of that mess. You know how I do. I say what I need to say to get you right where I want you. I thought I’d be able to sweet-talk my way out of my mama’s house and into yours. The whole thing Miss Korica had lined up looked like it was going to be a bust. I had to look out for self.”

  “What do you mean, what my mother had lined up?” Unique’s blood was starting to boil. Had her instincts been right all along that evening at her house when Terrance showed up while Eugene was there? Had Korica been behind the whole thing, setting it up for Terrance to catch her with Eugene?

  “Man, I ain’t tryin’a talk about Miss Korica. I’m tryin’a talk Benjamins.”

  Unique grabbed Eugene by his shirt. “You better get to talking right now.”

  “Unique, please, let him go,” Lorain told her. “Come on, Unique.”

  Unique looked over at Lorain. Lorain was able to calm her daughter with her eyes. She released Eugene’s shirt. “Talk,” she insisted.

  Figuring he wasn’t going to get what he wanted unless he gave them what they wanted, he got to talking. “Yo’ moms was supposed to get you to forgive me. You and I were gon’ hook up, get the twins and the money that came along with the twins. For me, it was all about the money. I think your moms had other intentions.” He looked at Lorain. “I love money.... Miss Korica knows that about me. But, see, Miss Korica hated you more than I loved money. She was losing focus. She wanted to live a comfortable life with her happy little family—Unique and the twins. I was trying to get paid, and at first, I thought that was all Miss Korica wanted too. Stuff was about to get too messy. Like I said, I had to look out for self.”

  “So all this started with you wanting me to forgive you?” Unique asked.

  Eugene shrugged. “I mean, I ain’t gon’ lie. That part was true, the whole thing about me wanting you to forgive me. I was being one hunnid. I told you that in all the letters I sent you.”

  “What letters?” Unique questioned.

  Eugene had mentioned the letters before, but Korica had talked over him and Unique had been too angry at the time for his words to register.

  “All those letters I sent to you at your sister’s house. Your mom gave ’em back to me. She said you hated me so much that you didn’t even open them. But she said she would talk to you and get you to soften your heart or some mess like that.”

  “Eugene, I never got any letters from you.”

  Eugene twisted his lips like he didn’t believe her. “Your sister even told me she gave them to your mom to give to you.”

  “When did you talk to my sister?”

  “I called her house a couple times, looking for you,” Eugene answered. “She finally accepted one of my collect calls and told me you wasn’t staying there no more.” Eugene was tired of talking about something that was nothing to him; he was ready to talk about something far more important in his book.

  He went on. “Long story short, your moms was trying to play me stupid, use me as a pawn in whatever game she’s trying to run. I ain’t falling for the okey doke. I couldn’t trust your moms after that incident with her sending ole boy to your house, knowing I was there. I had just talked to her the day before, letting her know I was meeting up with you, so she knew good and well what she was doing. At that point, I didn’t know who was trying to play me and who was on my team. So, as you can see, I went free agent.”

  Unique shook her head in disbelief. She couldn’t breathe. It felt as if her lungs had been punctured or were filling up with fluid. She stood there, speechless.

  “Anyway,” Eugene said to Unique, “you can take that up with Miss Korica.” He looked at Lorain. “All I want to know is if you got the rest of my money. I’m tired of dealing with y
ou hood chicks turned rich chicks, now that y’all think y’all all that.”

  “No, I’m taking it up with you,” Unique said with rage in her eyes.

  “Like I said, it was all Miss Korica’s doing,” Eugene told Unique. “She started all this. She was waiting for me the day I got out of jail. She told me about the twins and about how you got all that money in that settlement against the state for jailing you, making you miss the boys’ funeral, and everything. She said that most of it was sitting in a trust for the girls. Said if we got back together, I’d have access to the money, blah, blah, blah. I ain’t even know how much it was, but, shoot, looking at that house you bought your mom, I could clearly see that you had kept some for yourself. Figured I’d kill two birds with one stone. Hook up with you and get whatever you had, plus whatever was for the girls.”

  Unique stood paralyzed. Had the woman she’d felt indebted to since she was a little girl turned on her? All along, had she been no better than those foster parents, who had wanted only the check that was attached to Unique and not Unique herself? And what about Korica’s talk about wanting a relationship with the twins? Was it really all about money? These were all questions Unique allowed to swarm around her head, knowing if she voiced them aloud, neither her baby daddy nor her mom could provide the answers. Then again, no answer would make enough sense to soothe the pain Unique’s heart was suffering right now.

  Lorain wasn’t the least bit shocked by what Eugene had said. Lorain had always surmised that Korica would do about anything to get what she wanted, even if it meant risking her relationship with Unique. After all, Lorain had pretty much done the same. Takes one to know one, she thought. So she didn’t even bother addressing Korica’s actions, knowing she’d be nothing short of the pot calling the kettle black.

  “And what about the girls, Eugene?” Lorain asked. “Would you have even wanted them?”

  He was silent at first. “Unique is a good mother. She would have looked out for them while I did my thang,” he finally said.

  “Oh, so just how it was with Junior,” Unique said. “You would have left me to raise them alone.”

  Eugene steered around that issue. “None of that matters. Why are we even talking about it? Heck, you got paid. I should have gotten paid too. I just want what’s coming to me.”

  “Oh, you’re gonna get what’s coming to you, all right,” Unique said.

  “Yep, the same way you did. I wanna be ballin’ out of control too.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong,” Unique said. “I didn’t keep a dime of that money for myself. If I had, I sure as heck wouldn’t be living in an apartment.”

  “You don’t owe him an explanation,” Lorain told Unique.

  “I know I don’t, but I’m going to give his sorry a . . . his sorry behind one, anyway. I know I shouldn’t care what this lowlife thinks of me, but a part of me does. So I want him to know I’m not cut from the same cloth as my mother. I’ve never been out for myself or wanted to benefit financially from anyone, especially the twins.”

  Unique went on to explain that the criminal defense attorney who had helped free her from jail had referred her to a civil attorney. That attorney had helped Unique file a case against the state of Ohio for sitting on evidence, causing wrongful imprisonment, and making her miss her sons’ funeral. It was a nice amount of money, and it could have easily brought an end to Unique’s days of pushing cosmetics and mini sandwiches. But that money wasn’t for her to live off of. She opted to repay the people who had made her life better in other ways. Korica was first on her list. Unique couldn’t describe how it felt to be able to buy her a house and show her how much she appreciated what she’d done for her over the years.

  Lorain had told Unique about a set of Louis Vuitton luggage she’d seen in one of the shops at a hotel she was staying at in Vegas. Nicholas had already paid so much to send her and Eleanor on the trip that she couldn’t see herself asking him for that obscene amount of money to purchase the luggage, so Unique got it for her.

  Unique didn’t even buy herself a car, despite the fact that at the time she got the money, she hadn’t yet earned her Cadillac. Unique upgraded the boys’ headstones, and the money that was left, she put into a trust fund for the twins. The money could be withdrawn only by the girls’ legal guardian. Not even Unique had access to it after she signed it over. Lorain had even had the decency not to touch the girls’ money.

  “Blah, blah, blah,” Eugene said. “That all sounds nice, but it’s too confusing for me to try to even come close to figuring out. Sounds like either way it goes, there wasn’t nothing really in it for me. I mean, hearing you say all that, I could probably get custody of the girls and come out better financially.” He looked at Unique. “It won’t be hard convincing the judge that you don’t want ’em. I mean, heck, you gave ’em away. But I ain’t got time to be going to court and going through no hearing and stuff. I’m trying to get paid now!”

  He looked at Lorain. “So pay me the other part of the twenty-five Gs, and you won’t have to worry about me coming back, trying to get the girls, get more money or anything. I’m ’bout to hook up with these cats from New York and flip that twenty-five, so that I’ll be sitting sweet.” He rubbed his hands together.

  Lorain and Unique looked at each other. Unique was done with this clown. She didn’t want to hear anything else he had to say. She nodded at Lorain, her signal to proceed.

  Hesitantly, Lorain pulled a manila envelope out of her purse. She handed it to Eugene.

  He opened the envelope and looked through it. “You better not have played me this time.”

  “Eugene,” Unique said, “you played yourself.”

  Just then two detectives walked up behind Unique.

  “Mr. Eugene Brown,” one of the detectives said, “you are under arrest for extortion.”

  The other detective pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

  Lorain and Unique backed out of the way right on time, as two squad cars pulled up. Several police officers swarmed the hotel, while the detectives took Eugene down and handcuffed him.

  “You dirty witches,” he shouted at Unique and Lorain, who stood off to the side and embraced.

  “We did it,” Unique said in a relieved and heartfelt tone as she hugged Lorain.

  “It’s over,” Lorain said, and so much was over, indeed. All the lies, betrayal, and deceit, and, of course, her dealings with Eugene.

  The women helped one another remove the wiretaps that had been planted on them by the police. The police read Eugene his rights.

  “You okay?” Lorain said as she watched Unique look at Eugene as he was being arrested.

  “Yeah. I’m glad all of this is over with.”

  “What about Korica?”

  “You know, I can’t even talk about her right now, let alone to her.”

  “But you need to. Trust me, Unique, everybody has a reason for why they do the things they do. We all have a story. We all have pain and fears that drive us to do things we ordinarily wouldn’t do if we truly trusted in the Lord to do what He is supposed to do. But no, we always get impatient, getting in God’s way and our own. So go talk to her. Sometimes we have to get out of our own emotions and hear people out.”

  Unique snapped her head back and looked at Lorain, her eyes bulging. “Wow. I can’t believe it. Sounds like you’re on her side.”

  “Honey, I’m on God’s side.”

  Unique smiled. “You’re right. If I’ve learned anything at all from all I’ve been through, it’s that life is too short.”

  “Amen to that!” Lorain agreed. “So are you going to talk to her?”

  “I’ll think about it. I don’t know if I can stand to see her right now. I might lose my Christianity,” Unique joked. “I wanted to say good-bye to her, but I might have to give her a call from Atlanta.”

  Lorain’s face dropped. “What? You’re still going to Atlanta?”

  “I missed my flight, but I’ll catch another one. I have to go and get a
way from Ohio, period. There is so much I need to do.” She looked around. “And there’s not enough space here for me to do it.”

  Now that their relationship was mended, Lorain wanted nothing more than to connect with Unique. How would that be possible if Unique was all the way in Atlanta? “But—”

  “Please don’t try to talk me out of it,” Unique said, cutting Lorain off before she tried to talk her into staying. “I really feel in my spirit this is what I need. When I was away in West Virginia, it felt good. I was able to clear my mind, and I was really able to reflect on some things. Then I got into a relationship with Terrance and . . . I don’t know.” Unique shrugged. “I want to go back to that place where it’s just me, my thoughts, and, of course, God.”

  Lorain opened her mouth to continue with her plea, anyway. On second thought, though, she decided to relent and honor her daughter’s wishes. “I’m going to miss you,” Lorain said. She tried to hold in her tears, but she couldn’t, and she cried a river. “The girls are going to miss you too.” Lorain added, sniffing. “Speaking of the girls, that day you put the girls on the bus, you made them excited about the lunch I’d packed them. What did you say to them?”

  “It’s simple,” Unique said. “I told them to simply pretend that it was something that it wasn’t. I told them that when they bit into the cheese sandwich, to pretend that it was a fat, juicy burger dripping with ketchup and mustard. I told them that when they ate the Wheat Thins and cucumbers, to pretend like they were their favorite animal at the zoo and that was their favorite treat to be fed.”

  “Pretend, huh?” Lorain said. “That was easy enough.”

  “Of course. After all, I’m sure that when it comes to pretending, they get it, honest.”