The Wedding: Dark Romance

by Sienna Mynx

  “You on my property. The law says I can kill you. Do you want die?”

  I let go the neck of the man on the ground. The other two men get up both limping from the blows I put on them. They grab me. They hold me.

  “It’s time we teach this bastard what happens when he messes with a Larue.” Someone says.

  “We should kill him!” The other man spits on me, and the glob of spit runs down my face.

  “He’s a Bondurant. We’ll send them a message they understand.” The tallest of the brothers has a bloody nose. He’s rolling up his sleeves.

  I’m brought to my feet. The youngest of the brothers gets up with a bloody mouth and nose. I spit blood and smile at him, I know this one. She calls him Nathan. He’s the runt of the litter like me. And his brothers are going to make him do all the dirty work, like me. It’s pretty fucked up that we are both stuck on the same side of life and it doesn’t matter. Nathan looks like he wants to kill me. He damn well better try. I’ll never stop coming for her as long as I’m alive. And it goes. The worst beating of my life. I was wrong. Nothing I know about pain and torment compares to it. It’s my death. That’s what this beating is like. A killing.

  “Andrew! Let her go!” My mother is screaming as loud as me. My father drags me as far as the parlor by my hair and drops me. I swear he’s snatched several of my tracks out of my head. When I stagger as I try to stand my mother gets a hold of me. I shove her off. I charge at him and he’s ready. He slaps me. Hard. I’m knocked to the floor and I hit my head even harder. For a brief moment, I black out. I come to awareness again with ringing in my ears and blurred vision. My mother is screaming and attacking my father. He’s got her by both arms and shaking her hard. I can feel blood drip from my nose. I can taste blood in my mouth. In all my life I’ve never seen my father raise a hand to either of us. I’m more stunned than hurt.

  “You’ve gone too far!” My mother wails. She comes to me immediately and protects me from my father. He draws up his sleeve as if he wants to beat on me some more.

  “That’s enough!” I hear my grand-mère say. She’s my father’s mother. And has more power than my own mother over him. My father stops his approach toward us. He looks at me with hate in his eyes. My own father. I can’t cry anymore. I’m afraid for Brick. Afraid of what they might do to him.

  “She embarrassed this entire family. Left her own party to run off with some swamp rat. For what?” My father stoops to the level of me and my mother. My mother is holding me against her chest protectively and crying. I’m not. I’m staring directly into his eyes as he speaks. “You pulled this shit when you were sixteen and I let it go. I should have snapped your neck then!”

  “I said that is enough, Heathcliff! Do you hear me!” My grand-mère shouted as she wheeled her chair over to where I was on the floor wth my mother. “Do you hear me son? Say the words!”

  “Look at what she’s become!”

  “And look at you!” My mother shouted back. “I ought to call the police and have them throw you in jail for hitting her. If you take another step toward us I will! She’s twenty-two Heathcliff. A woman. Not your little girl anymore.”

  “You grown now, Collette? Is that it? You making your own decisions now? Fine. Welcome to the real world baby-girl. You are cut off. From me, from your mother, from this family. Get out of this house! Be grown! Do you hear me!”

  “This is my house!” Grand-mère shouted over him. “Mine! Until you cool off I don’t want to see you in it, Heathcliff. Leave!”

  I want to say something. I need to say something. But I’m so afraid of my father’s wrath in that moment I can’t speak. He glares at me and then turns and marches out. My mother helps me stand. She’s the one crying hysterically. I wish she would stop. I’m the one he hit. She pulls me into her arms and hold me to her chest. The blood from my nose and mouth smears over her white silk blouse. Her tears wet my face as she kisses me.

  She captures my face in her hands and looks into my eyes. “Are you okay? Are you?”

  “Yes, mama,” I say softly.

  “Where were you, Coco? Your father said you were in Lafourche Parish? Is that true?” my grandmother asks.

  I look over to my grand-mère who too has tears in her eyes. I hate to disappoint them. I hate it with everything in me. “I was. I met a guy, and I, I love him.”

  “Oh sweetheart why didn’t you tell me? Why did you just leave in the middle of the night? Leave me that letter? Scare me like that?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what to do. Xavier found out about me and Brick and he threatened to tell Daddy if I didn’t do what he said. I panicked. I’m so sorry, mama.”

  “Shhhh…”

  My mother continues to hold me. My grand-mère says nothing. She watches us. When my mother is calm we sit on the sofa. Grand-mère puts her hands together and stares at me. The longer she is silent the more her disapproval is felt.

  “Grand… I’m sorry.”

  Her hand goes up to silence me. “I know my way is from another time. I know you young people think you understand the world, and just charge right out into it. But you proved to us that you have not grown up, Colette. All that schooling has done nothing to teach you about life.”

  “Xavier threatened me!” I shout at her.

  “So you turn on your family? You think we would force you to marry a man who threatens you? You think I would?” my grand-mère asks. “And exactly what did he threaten you with? The truth? That you’ve been sleeping around town on him? That you’ve been lying to us all? That you’ve been hanging out in the French Quarter with that loose in the head girlfriend of yours? Is that the threat? Why is he the wrong one, Colette? Why aren’t you? Did you not break your vow to marry him? Did you not embarrass and shame yourself? Or did he force you to do all these things?”

  I can’t answer.

  “It doesn’t matter, Claudette. She’s home now.”

  “It absolutely matters. This family has been ripped apart because Colette thought of no one but herself!”

  “I just, I tried, Mama. Remember? I tried to tell you that I didn’t want to get married. And Daddy. He acts like Xavier is the son he always wanted. He doesn’t even see me. I didn’t know what to do, so I left. I left so you wouldn’t be embarrassed.”

  “And you left us to explain to your guests why the party that was supposed to be a celebration of your accomplishments was over before it began. You left us to hear about your time in the French Quarter with those dirt dwelling Bondurants in a letter!” My grand-mère rolls her chair to me. “You have broken my heart. Your father’s heart. Your mothers heart. You disgraced yourself. Heathcliff had no right to attack you. But you had no right to attack and judge him. Show some respect!”

  I lower my gaze. My mother continues to rub my back. She remains silent. My only defense now is no defense.

  “That’s enough, Claudette,” my mother finally speaks.

  I look over at her. There’s something in her tone that makes my grandmother retreat. It’s the first time in all my life I heard my mother raise her voice to my grand-mère.

  “She’s my daughter. And I say she’s grown now. She made her choice. We don’t have to agree with it, but we won’t punish her for making it. If Heathcliff ever hits her again I will pack everything I have and leave. You know what? I change my mind. I am packing everything I have and leaving. I’m taking her with me. This conversation is over.”

  “Naeleane! You stop this right now!” My grand-mère snapped. “Heathcliff regrets what he’s done. He needs your support. As his wife! As her mother!”

  “Why my support? He only listens to you. My sons only listen to you. This isn’t Coco’s fault. It’s not even his.”

  My grandmother frowns.

  “It’s yours. And the way you push this family. The way you make us cling to your societal prejudices.”

  “Wagging your tongue now?” My grand-mère sneers. “No wonder Coco has no respect.”

  “I h
ave sat back for years and let you bind my tongue. Let you meddle in my children’s lives. Watch my husband groom his sons for violence while uplifting young men that weren’t his own. You were the one that forced me to send her off to boarding school. And look what happened. You were the one that wouldn’t let her live on campus or go away to college of her choice. No wonder she found a way to rebel.”

  “Yes, I’m the monster for protecting and loving my family. For giving you a legacy, when so many blacks have nothing to pass down to their children. I am preserving a way of life that is forgotten!” My grand rolls her chair toward us. “But I am also the one that keeps you in those fancy dresses and going on those expensive trips. My son married you against my wishes. And you proved me right. This is your fault. Not mine.”

  Grand-mère turned her chair and rolled away. My mother rubs my back. She smiles at me. I see such love and tenderness in her eyes. Her tears are all gone now. She rarely has a voice in this family. The first time I saw her use it was when I was kicked out of boarding school. The second time was now.

  “If you love him sweetheart, then I want you to be happy. Okay?” she says.

  “Where’s Nathan and the rest of them, Mama? What’s happening to Brick?”

  “Don’t worry. Go to your room. Stay there until I come. Let me find Heathcliff and put a stop to this. Okay?”

  “I’m sorry, Mama. So sorry.”

  She touches my cheek. “I love you, Coco, don’t ever feel like you can’t trust me.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  When I open my eyes I’m in the hospital. I can tell by the sterile smell of the air and the pale green walls. My gaze slips over to the left and I see Pops at my bedside. He looks troubled. His face rests between his thumb and pointer finger. When our eyes meet he sits upright immediately. Smoke is standing behind him. What happened?

  “You in there boy?” Pops asks.

  What the fuck? I try to say, but my jaw won’t move. I’m bandaged over my torso. My head is bandaged. I can’t feel my legs. Am I’m strapped to the bed?

  “He don’t know where the fuck he is,” Smoke says with a voice tight with worry.

  Pops sighs. “They put an ass beating on you. Let you drive off. You ran into a light pole. You been in a coma for three days. Doctors say it’ll take time but you’ll recover. With that broke jaw of yours they had to wire shut you won’t be able to play that flute of yours again.”

  My eyes stretch. Smoke shakes his head in disgust. “It’s the fucking Saxophone, Pops. I keep telling you it’s a fucking saxophone!”

  “I don’t give a baboon’s ass what the fuck it is. Look at my boy Smoke. I want them Larue boys to pay for this. I want them all bought to the swamp and swinging from trees. Ya hear me!”

  I grunt to try to tell my father not to retaliate. But it doesn’t come across that way. Pops stands and comes to my bed. “I ain’t been able to find them Larue’s yet. But three of them work out there on them rigs in the gulf. I hear they coming home soon. We’ll be waiting.”

  I bat my eyes because I can’t shake my head. Smoke and Pops ignore me. Smoke is telling Pops it’s too much trouble in the streets with his war against the Vietnamese. Pops is raging about his boy being hurt, and wanting justice. I can remember nothing. Yes, I remember the beating, and seeing Coco dragged into the house, but it’s all blank after that. I don’t know where she is. I don’t know how she is. And I can’t even open my mouth to warn her and her family of what’s to come. I don’t give a shit about her brothers. I care about my girl. If my father does to them what he has done to anyone that hurts a Bondurant she’ll never be my girl again. I’ll be the man who got her brothers murdered.

  “Thank you for letting me stay with you, Georgie,” I say.

  “Girl, will you stop thanking me. I told you I got your back. Always.”

  “Look!” I grab her hand. She looks at me curiously. Then her eyes turn in the direction where I’m staring. From the front of the hospital parking lot we see the men waiting by the pickup trucks getting inside. Pops walks out with Smoke. The door is opened for him to climb into a black Cadillac Escalade with deep tinted windows. Smoke gets in to the backseat. They all drive away.

  “They gone. You think there still some of them left inside?” Georgie asks. There’s fear in her voice. In mine too.

  Marcel said Pops is looking to send my father a message, and he wants to do it in my brother’s blood. He also says that if Pops finds me he might do the same to me. So being here is dangerous on many levels.

  “Maybe,” I say softly. “Will Marcel help us?”

  “He told me we should wait here. So, we wait. Brick is out of the coma but he’s in a bad way. Those brothers of yours nearly crushed his skull.”

  Once again I burst into tears. There is no magic in the world. Just pain and heartache. I was a fool, and all of this was my fault.

  “Hey, stop crying. He’s going to live. Marcel said he will recover. Let’s just wait on his call and we can go inside the hospital and see him. Okay?”

  I nod and wipe my tears. Georgie digs into her purse and pulls out tissues. She gives me several. This has been the worst week of my life. My mother and father had a terrible fight. I don’t know if their marriage will recover. She begged me to come back to Shreveport with her but I couldn’t go. I heard from Georgie soon after the disastrous run-in between me and my family that Brick was in the hospital and in critical condition. Everything spiraled out of control after that. I left English Turn and moved in with my best friend. My mother gave me what money she could but my father and grand-mère both have an iron grip on our lives.

  My brothers did this. And none but Nathan even bothered to tell me the reason why. They have all found me guilty and each one of them now treats me like a pariah. They even sided with daddy against mama. Bobby yelled at mama until she was in tears and told her to get in line and go back to daddy. It was so cruel. I defended her, but it didn’t matter.

  My mother loves all her children. To have her sons hating her broke her heart. They could have killed Brick. How could my own family be guilty of such cruelty?

  Georgie’s phone rings. She answers quickly. She looks over at me and smiles.

  “Okay, yes, yes, we will meet you there,” she says and ends the call.

  “That was him. His name is Arlana.”

  “He?”

  “Girl don’t ask.”

  “Arlana is going to meet us in the hospital cafeteria and then take us up to Brick. He says the family is gone.”

  “Thank you so much, Georgie. Thank Marcel for me.” I say.

  She hugs me in the car. “Don’t worry, baby doll. We got you. And we’ll get Brick well. All of this is going to work out. We going to Paris. The four of us!”

  I give her a smile of bravery and we get out of the car. The hospital cafeteria wasn’t hard to find. We went in and Georgie spotted Marcel’s cousin immediately.

  “Hi, Arlana, this is Coco. She’s the one Marcel told you about.”

  “Put this on, and this,” Arlana hands me scrubs and a badge. He looks like a man with a shaven head, except the full face of make up and blue contacts he’s wearing.

  “Seriously? She has to wear it?” Georgie asks.

  “That white boy’s still in the intensive care unit. Too much attention will be drawn to her if she goes up there in that sundress and flip flips. Go change and meet me by the emergency exit. We’ll have to take the stairs.”

  “But the cameras. They will see me,” I say.

  “Don’t worry. My boys are on shift. They know what we are doing. But we must go before some other nosey ass busy body’s shows up.”

  “And what about me?” Georgie asks.

  “I can only take her. Go! Go! Shoo-shoo, butterfly!” he waves me away with his hands.

  “C’mon,” Georgie grabs my hand. We go into the bathroom and we squeeze into a stall together. I change my clothes with her help.

  “Come back here. I’ll wait in the bathroom stall fo
r you,” Georgie says.

  “You sure?”

  “Girl yes, as long as no one comes in here and stinks it up. I can talk to Marcel.” Georgie grins. I roll my eyes. All things always lead back to Marcel for her.

  “Thank you!” I kiss her cheek and hurry out in my scrubs. I put on the badge that Arlana gave me and head to the emergency exit. I don’t see him. I push open the door and go inside. Arlana is waiting on the steps.

  “Your man’s on the sixth floor. C’mon,” he tells me.

  We go up the stairs in silence. Arlana doesn’t ask me questions and I’m grateful. Not sure what I would say anyway. I’m panting, until we reach the sixth floor. Arlana stops me. “You on your own from here. His room number is 623. Go straight to his room and don’t stop to make any small talk. Someone ask who you are, or if a nurse questions you, tell her you are from the lab and was looking for Dr. Milton. Do you understand? Milton.”

  I nod. I’m confused by the explanation but I trust the instructions.

  “My suggestion is you don’t stay no longer than thirty minutes. And if someone arrives when you are there just walk out. Don’t linger. Come back out through the stairs not the elevators. Kemp is working the cameras on the elevators so stay away from them. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Arlana smiles and holds out his hand.

  I frown.

  He frowns.

  “Where is it honey?”

  “Where is what?”

  “My tip!” Arlana snaps.

  “Oh, ah, Georgie has my purse. Arlana rolls his eyes and sashays back down the stairs cursing under his breath. I swallow my nerves and do as he said. The Intensive Care Unit is very quiet. I see no one at first in the halls or at the nurses station. So I keep my head low and my eyes on the room numbers. I find his pretty quickly with no drama, no alarms. It’s when I go inside that my heart stops and breaks all over again. Brick, or what used to be him is in the worst state possible. He looks like a mummy with the wraps to his head and chest and left arm. And there’s a contraption on his head to his face that connects to his jaw. Something is wrong with his jaw.