by B. M. Hardin
Polo was a fool!
Why would he even cross that line with me knowing Eddie’s history? And knowing my truth?
“I held my feelings back for years because I knew they were nothing but trouble. And that’s all that we have caused. Trouble.”
This was so much to take in.
I got off of the floor and sat on the couch.
“Once you met Eddie and especially once your first child, you were doing a lot better. But Eddie would catch you talking to Micki often but other than that, you were pretty okay. So we just let you be.”
“But I went to Micki’s wedding. I was there.”
“It was all in your mind Sassi. Sometimes you dream these things and other times you are wide awake and really acting them out as if it is actually happening and as if Micki is actually there with you. You would say that you guys were taking the kids to the park. You would have conversations with us about her or say that she said this. And we would just go along with it. It was better than constantly telling you that something was wrong with you. We’d been telling you that for years. That only seemed to make things worse. So we stopped and just went along. Like now. I’ve been telling you that Micki isn’t real, but you continue insisting that your memories of her actually happened. So we just stopped telling you. As long as you weren’t hurting yourself or anybody else, we just let you live. But then you did hurt somebody Sassi. Patrice was one of them.”
The more I thought about what they were saying to me, the more I started to remember some of the things.
I was overwhelmed. I was scared.
“So now what? I go back to the hospital? Eddie is dead. Now what am I supposed to do?”
I started to cry.
“I’ll take care of you,” Polo spoke up.
Mama and I both looked at him.
“Polo I’m crazy. I’m a murderer. I see imaginary people. I belong in a hospital.”
“No. You belong with me. I’ll take care of you. Until my dying day,” Polo said.
He stood up and came closer.
“You would do that? Why? After this mess I’ve caused. Eddie and Patrice would both still be here if it wasn’t for me.”
“I’ll take care of you. I’ve been watching your back for years. I’ve been helping make sure you were okay for years. I can and I will take care of you.”
Mama was now crying too.
“Okay. Well go. I’ll call the police. I’ll say something and take whatever blame I have to. I’ll say he attacked me or something and I shot him,” Mama said.
“No Mama. I’m going to need you. I can’t lose you too. Not now.”
I looked at Eddie.
I wished things would have been different.
I wished that he’d never met me.
He would have probably been much better off.
“Polo.”
“Yes?”
“Mama can’t go to jail for this. Not like this. Not because of me. Can you take care of this? Like you did with Vanessa? And Patrice?”
Polo nodded.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he said.
~***~
“Hey you,” Polo said.
I smiled at him as I swallowed my pills.
I’d gone to the doctor and for now I was remembering to take them. I was determined to get better.
I was determined to be normal. For real this time.
Polo had somehow pulled off making things look like Eddie was involved in a break-in gone bad and had been shot in the back.
He’d kicked the door open already, so it did kind of look like a forced entry and as Mama drove away with me that night, he was doing what he did best.
Creating a cover up.
“I love you beautiful,” he said.
He vowed to always keep me in the loop and be honest with me about my condition and remind me daily that I had to take my medicine and what I was dealing with so that I wouldn’t try to block out the truth and forget.
“Hey.”
“How are you feeling?”
“Good.”
“You take your medicine?”
“Just did,” I said behind him as he headed to see what the boys were doing.
We were now at his house. There was no way I was going back to the one that Eddie and I shared.
Eddie had been buried, and as far as everyone else knew, his killers were long gone.
Polo came back into the room.
My phone started to vibrate, and I answered the private call.
“Hello?”
“Did you find out who Vanessa was yet?” Micki said.
“Yes Micki I did, and…” before I could finish my sentence, Polo snatched my phone.
“Sassi. Micki isn’t real. Look.”
I looked at the phone and realized that it said Mama instead of Micki.
I exhaled.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got this,” Polo said and told Mama that I would call her back later.
“What if I can’t do this?”
“You will do this. In time the medicine will make it better. Just don’t forget me anytime soon,” Polo joked.
“I could never forget you.”
“Well, the kids are watching a movie. Maybe we should make one?” Polo grinned.
“Pinch me,” I said to him.
He did and I smiled.
“Just making sure that this moment was real. I love you Polo.”
He smiled as he kissed me.
“I love you too.”
My phone started to vibrate and I wondered if it was “Micki” calling back.
Polo keep kissing me.
“It’s not Micki. She isn’t real,” Polo repeated and started to take off my clothes.
What’s a woman to do when she marries the wrong man? When the reality is, all along, she should have married his best friend?
Well, now that the wrong husband was dead…I was about to find out!
****************************
The End
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