by La Jill Hunt
“I don’t have time for this. I’ll call you later.” He stormed out of her house. She looked at Roni and told her to come on.
“Where are we going?” Roni asked as they raced to the car.
“Follow him. I don’t care what you have to do. Run red lights, stop signs, just stay behind him.”
Roni followed the SUV like a pro. She kept a safe distance and trailed Craig until he pulled in front of a row house on one of the side streets all the way across town.
“What up, Craig? You got that for me?” A tall, dark figure wearing a black jacket approached Craig as he got out.
“You paged me, Fred. If I ain’t have it I wouldn’t have come. Now, you got my money? And hurry up. I got other business to attend to,” Craig grumbled as he reached under the back seat and got a small bag out. Kayla watched in disbelief as the transaction took place.
“Here, man. Now where’s my money?” Craig walked toward the shadowy figure.
“Right here, player!” He reached into his jacket, but instead of pulling out money, he pulled out a nine millimeter and shots rang out. Kayla opened her mouth and thought the screams were coming from her mouth, but it was Roni’s voice. The slim man looked around and ran off, stopping only to pick the package up from Craig’s bleeding body.
32
Kayla rocked back and forth, cradling Craig’s head in her arms. She began to pray and let him know he was going to be all right. She tried to look for a sign that he understood, but he never opened his eyes. She could hear the sirens in the distance coming closer, and the flashing lights were soon dancing across Craig’s face, but she still rocked and prayed.
“Ma’am, we need to get to him. Are you okay?” the paramedic asked her. Kayla didn’t answer. She continued to rock.
“Kayla, let them help him. Please.” She heard Roni’s voice in the background. She felt someone gently lift him from her arms and she watched them check for life. It was like she was in a movie.
“Are you okay, ma’am?” again someone asked. “Were you struck anywhere?” Kayla didn’t realize what they were talking about until she looked down and saw that she was covered in blood. She shook her head at the police officer.
“It’s not my blood. It’s his. Is he going to be okay?” She watched as they began performing CPR.
“They’re gonna do everything they can to save him. We need to ask you and your friend a few questions.”
“Can we do it later? She needs to make sure he’s taken care of first, as well as herself.” Roni put her arms around Kayla. The attendants placed Craig on a gurney and lifted him into the back of the ambulance.
“I need to ride with him.” Kayla pulled away from her girlfriend and ran toward the vehicle.
“It’s okay. She can ride,” the officer assured Roni.
“I’ll follow you in my car,” Roni yelled.
It seemed as if the ride to the hospital took an eternity. Kayla listened as they made comments in regards to Craig’s condition. She tried to understand what everything meant, relying on her memory from watching episodes of ER. Most of it was still foreign, but one phrase was clear.
“He’s crashing!”
They scrambled, poking Craig with needles and trying to stop the pouring blood from his chest. Kayla closed her eyes and prayed harder and harder. She could not believe that the father of her child was dying before her eyes. It was too much to take.
They rushed Craig into the operating room and told Kayla to wait. She didn’t know what to do. The nurse came over and asked if she was Craig’s wife. She thought for a moment and shook her head.
“I’ll call his brother,” she said quietly.
“Okay.” The nurse smiled.
Kayla picked up the courtesy phone and dialed Darrell’s house. She could hear the panic in his voice when she told him Craig had been shot and he needed to get there right away. He told her it would be okay and he was on his way. Kayla sat on the hard chair beside the phone and tried to think.
“How is he?” Roni asked her quietly.
“They haven’t said yet. I don’t know.”
“He’ll be okay, Kayla.” Roni tried to comfort her friend and began to pray herself. This was why she didn’t date thugs. She had been there when they told her mother that her father had been shot over a dime bag of weed. She was only seven years old. She decided right then that her mother deserved better and so did she.
A little while passed and Darrell came into the waiting room along with two people who he introduced as his parents.
“Where is he? What did they say?” Craig’s mother asked.
“They haven’t come out and said anything yet,” Kayla told her. “He was shot three times, and one of those was in his chest.”
“My God. Where did this happen? And who did it?” She cried, looking to Kayla for answers.
“We were on Brighton Street. We followed him. He didn’t know we were there,” Kayla tried to explain. “It was a guy . . .”
“Brighton Street. Why was he over there?” she interrupted.
“He was dropping something off to the guy and the guy pulled a gun.”
“Jesus, I knew he had started selling again.” Craig’s father sat down and sighed.
“You don’t know that, Eddie. He might have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.” She shook her head at her husband. She didn’t want to think that Craig had gone back to dealing in the streets. He had stopped that a long time ago.
“Mister and Mrs. Coleman? I’m Doctor Win.” The young Korean doctor came into the room, his scrubs covered in blood.
“Yes. How’s my boy?” Craig’s father jumped up and asked.
“He’s stable. The bullet barely missed his heart. We’ve stopped the bleeding, but these next twenty-four hours are critical,” he informed everyone.
“Can we see him?” Diane asked.
“You can, for a few moments. We are transporting him to intensive care. But you do need to know that he is in a coma.”
“No! How long will that last?” Eddie looked solemn.
“We can’t tell you. He may regain consciousness tomorrow, he may never wake up. As I stated earlier, the next twenty-four hours are critical. I’ll tell the nurse to come and get you when he’s moved.” Dr. Win went back through the doors, leaving everyone to digest what he had just told them.
“He’s gonna be fine,” Kayla said. “I prayed and asked the Lord to heal him. Now we just gotta have faith.”
“That’s right.”
“Oh God! Oh God! Where is he? Craig, Craig!” Kayla heard someone yelling from the corridor.
“Ma’am, ma’am. You are going to have to wait in there with the rest of the family. The doctor will inform you of his condition,” the nurse said loudly over the wailing voice. The door opened and Avis nearly fell through the door, crying as if Craig were already dead.
“Oh God! Diane, did they say how he was? Oh, Craig, please be okay,” she gushed and fell into Diane’s arms.
“Avis! Get yourself together,” Eddie grabbed her by the arm and told her. Avis turned to him and wept even louder.
“Ma’am, you are going to have to calm yourself. There are other families in nearby waiting rooms and you are causing a disturbance,” the nurse warned.
“What the hell is she doing here? Did she shoot him?” Avis rolled her eyes at Kayla. “I thought this was a family waiting room. She ain’t family! I am his wife! She is his whore!”
“Avis! That’s enough. Now is not the time nor the place,” Eddie warned. Kayla stood up and looked at Roni.
“I think it’s time for me to go.”
“You damn right. You shoulda been gone a long time ago, heifer! You know this bitch called and got me fired today, Diane? Now that I’m in her face, she wanna run off. Naw, be a real woman. Face me, you skank.”
“Get out, Avis! My son is clinging to his life and you want to come in here and embarrass him and his family by acting a loudmouth fool. I don’t need that, and neither does my
son. I am telling you to leave right now or I will have you escorted out.” Diane stood and looked Avis in the eye.
“So now you gon’ defend her? I think you forgot who your daughter-in-law was. Better yet, the mother of your grandson,” Avis said in a threatening manner. For some reason, Diane seemed slightly intimidated. Whatever was about to go down, Kayla wanted no part of it.
“We’re leaving. I’ll call later to check on Craig,” She said to Eddie as she and Roni headed toward the door.
“I’ll walk you all down,” Darrell said.
“So now you wanna leave? Before you even get to see him? Typical.” Avis spat the words at Kayla and it took all of her remaining restraint not to swing on the fat cow.
Kayla quickly walked out into the hallway and into the parking lot. Suddenly, she felt someone rushing toward her and she turned just in time to see Avis charging at her. She felt the punch Avis threw as it landed on her cheek. The pain jolted her but she recovered in time to dodge the next punch she threw. All of the anger that had been pent up came gushing out and she proceeded to whip her ass like she had been wanting to all day. Although the woman was bigger than Kayla by about eighty pounds, she was slower, too. After receiving a few blows of her own, Kayla sucker punched her and knocked her to the ground, then dove on top of her fat body, aiming strictly for her face. She showed no mercy.
“Kayla! Kayla!” She heard Roni screaming. The funny thing was that neither she nor Darrell tried to stop her initially. They let her get her hit on for a few minutes until someone yelled that security was on the way. At that point, Darrell lifted Kayla off Avis and carried her to Roni’s car. They sped off before he could say a word.
33
“Kayla, Terrell’s here to see you.” Roni knocked and stuck her head in the door of Kayla’s bedroom. “It’s cool. He can come on back.” Kayla sat up in the bed and clicked her television off.
“Hey. You okay?” Terrell looked at her sympathetically. She couldn’t do anything but nod. It had been six days since Craig had been shot. He was still in a coma. Kayla hadn’t had the strength mentally or physically to go and see him. She just lay in her bed, occasionally watching television. Her parents had come and taken Day back with them for a few days, and Roni had been staying at her house and looking after her. Although she had tried, Kayla still could not get herself together.
“How’s he doing? I mean, have you heard anything?”
“He’s still in ICU. He’s stable, but he still hasn’t woken up,” she told him. “How are you doing? You look terrible.”
“Man, I just been having issues of my own. You know what I mean?” He sat on the side of Kayla’s bed.
“Terrell Sims with issues? I don’t believe it. This I gotta hear. What’s going on?” she asked him curiously.
“I was told I’m about to be a father.”
“What? Nicole’s pregnant! Congratulations. What’s the problem?”
“She’s not the only one.” He looked down at the comforter and shook his head sadly.
“What do you mean? I don’t understand.” Kayla was confused.
“I have two children on the way by two different women, one of whom is not my girlfriend.”
“And who is the other?” Kayla knew Terrell was serious about Nicole. He’d assured her of that when she asked him Christmas Day. He even admitted to being in love with her.
“Darla.”
“STD Darla? I know you’re playing.” Kayla remembered seeing her hugged up with Toby the night Craig was shot, and what Toby had explained to Ms. Ernestine about the situation.
“I wish I was. And she ain’t trying to get rid of it, either. I don’t know what I’m gonna do. I love Nicole. I want her to have my baby. Hell, I love her and want to marry her.” He looked at Kayla.
“No you don’t. Don’t even sit there and lie. If you loved her you wouldn’t have been fucking Darla.” Kayla was pissed at what Terrell was saying.
“It’s not like that, Kayla. I do love Nicole.”
“So you accidentally fell into Darla’s twat? Is that what happened?”
“No. I mean, with her it was an ego thing. You see, before Christmas Nicole didn’t have time for a brother like I needed. That ‘me-time’ that I gotta have. With Darla, I could go out to the club and then swing by her crib and she would have a sandwich and some chips ready on the table for me. She’d be waiting for a nigga to hit the door and she would slob me down from the jump. I had my own special Kool-Aid in her fridge, sweetened to my liking. She knew how to treat a brother like a man. Nicole never did stuff like that.”
“What does Darla do again?”
“She does hair I think. Oh, and she work somewhere else, too. I forget where.”
“So you went to her because Nicole was working full-time at the hospital, going to school part-time, and didn’t allow you to disrespect her by staying out all night and coming to her crib to eat and sleep whenever you felt like it. Is that what you’re saying?”
“No, not like that. I just—I don’t—man, my life is so messed up right now.”
“You damn right. You blew a perfectly good relationship with an educated, hard-working, respectable woman so you could have ‘me-time’ with a part-time hairdresser that your brother used to screw. Not only is that pathetic, Terrell, it’s nasty. And now she’s about to have your baby. And you think my life is drama-filled?” Kayla was disappointed in her friend. He was supposed to be smarter than that. “And if you know you ain’t care about that girl, why didn’t you wrap it up?”
“I did. At least I thought I did. I don’t know, Kayla.”
“So you don’t even know if it’s your baby.”
“She says it is.”
She looked at Terrell and remembered how he had been there for her over the past few months with all she had been going through. She could not believe she was treating him the same way she didn’t want to be treated when she found herself pregnant. She had no right to judge him.
“I don’t know what to tell you. I do know that if Nicole forgives you, she’s a good one and you better spend the rest of your life making it up to her.”
“If she forgives me, you’d better believe I’m gonna marry her.”
“You’ll be okay, Terrell. I’m here for you. You’re my dawg!” She took his hand.
“Thanks, Kayla.” He smiled at her.
The phone rang and Roni answered it before Kayla could read the caller ID. She was still trying to help Terrell make heads or tails of his predicament when Roni came into the room.
“Kayla, it’s Darrell. Craig has regained consciousness.”
Kayla was quiet the entire ride to the hospital. After the last time she was there, she didn’t know what to expect. Darrell did call her, so she hoped that was a key indicator that Avis would not be there. She held her breath as she entered Craig’s room. His parents and Darrell were all standing over him as she walked in. He was still hooked up to tubes and machines, but his eyes were open.
“He . . . hey, b . . . be . . . beautiful,” he stuttered. Kayla smiled at him.
“Hey yourself. You scared the hell out of me.”
“I know. I scared the hell out of myself,” he said and closed his eyes. Kayla wanted to confront him about the entire incident, but she knew this was not the time. The nurse came in and told them that he needed his rest.
“Kiss my beautiful Day for me,” he managed to say.
“I will.” Kayla squeezed his hand. They left him and met with Dr. Win in the hallway.
“Well, he’s out of the woods. He has a lot of healing to do, but that will happen in time. There was no permanent damage done,” the doctor assured them. “He will remain in here another ten days, but we’ll move him to another room. He’s a lucky young man.”
“Thank you, Dr. Win. Thank you for all you’ve done,” Diane said.
“We really do,” Darrell added.
“You all take care and I’ll check on him later.” The doctor left them standing in the hall.
“How you holding up, Kayla?” Eddie asked her.
“I’m fine. I guess I can go back to work next week,” she told them.
“I am sorry for all that has happened, including my ignorant daughter-in-law.” He rubbed her shoulders.
“It’s not your fault nor your place to apologize. I know how to handle trolls like her.”
“I second that. Lord knows you handled her in the parking lot last week.” Darrell laughed. “You tore her fat ass up!”
They all told Kayla about the damage she had done to Avis. She ripped her weave job out and broke her nose. Diane said she still had a black eye.
“I’m sorry. But you do know that she tried to jump me. I don’t fight unless I am pushed.”
“Don’t worry about it. Darrell told us what happened. She just got what she been deserving for a while now. I just hope you watch your back. That Avis is a snake and this won’t be the end.”
“I will. I’ll be back tomorrow to check on Craig.” Kayla hugged all of them.
“Thank you, Kayla.” Diane nodded. “I know this entire situation has not been a very good one, but you have handled it like a lady and that says a lot about you and your character. One more thing.”
“Yes, ma’am?”
“When do we get to meet our granddaughter?” she asked Kayla. Kayla didn’t know what to say. “We know.”
“I, who . . .” Kayla began.
“It doesn’t matter. When do we get to see her? We hear she’s beautiful.”
“Whenever you want,” Kayla told them. She felt the weight she had been carrying around for days lifted off her shoulders. Maybe things are gonna be okay after all, she thought.
34
Kayla was getting dressed for her first day back at work when the phone rang. She checked the caller ID and it was an unavailable number. She knew that when Ms. Diane or Darrell called from the hospital that was how the number came up, so she answered it.
“Hello,” she said, but there was no answer. She held the receiver a few moments longer but still heard nothing. She hung up the phone. The same thing happened three additional times and Kayla was getting pissed. When the phone rang once more, she snatched it up and yelled.