Chapter 5
On the elevator going up to their condo, Bridgette looked at her wristwatch again.
“Amaryllis, it’s almost twenty to four. Will you please hurry up and change? You know Progressive is always packed, and I don’t wanna have to stand throughout the entire service.”
“All I gotta do is slip on a pair of slacks and a blouse.”
“Why do you always have to change outfits between services, anyway?”
“Because it’s a sin to wear the same thing to two separate services, Bridge.”
Bridgette frowned at Amaryllis’s logic. “Says who?”
“Says Saint Amaryllis.”
“Well, all I know is if I have to sit in the balcony, Saint Amaryllis is gonna suffer.”
The elevator doors opened, and they stepped into the hallway. Tyrone was sitting on the floor with his back against the door to their unit. His legs were propped up, and he hung his head between them. Amaryllis stood in front of him and called his name. He made an attempt to lift his head but couldn’t do it. She knew he was intoxicated and got angry. “Uh, Bridgette, you go ahead to church.”
By the tone of Amaryllis’s voice, Bridgette knew Tyrone was in deep trouble. “What are you gonna do to him, Amaryllis?”
“I warned this fool about coming over here drunk, but he doesn’t think boo-boo stank. I’m gonna make sure that this is the last time Ty comes over here like this.”
“Amaryllis, don’t do anything crazy,” Bridgette warned her friend.
Amaryllis looked at Bridgette. “You think I’m crazy?”
“Heck, yeah. With a capitol K.”
Amaryllis gave Bridgette a mischievous grin.
“Am I gonna have to bail you out of jail tonight, Amaryllis?”
Amaryllis ignored her question and took the cheesecake and chocolate sauce from her hands. “I’ll put these in the refrigerator for you. You’re hollering about being late for church, so you better go ahead.”
Bridgette asked Amaryllis the same question again. “Am I gonna have to bail you out of jail?”
“No, I got a get-out-of-jail-free card.”
Bridgette turned to get on the elevator, and Amaryllis waited for the doors to close before opening the door to their unit. She placed Bridgette’s food in the refrigerator, then pulled Tyrone inside by dragging him by his arms. She left him lying unconscious on the living room floor and went into her bedroom to change into a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and gym shoes. After changing clothes, she left the condo. She rode the elevator down, got into her car, and drove two miles to Home Depot. It was time for Tyrone Caridine to learn whom he was really dealing with.
About half an hour later, Amaryllis held a squirt bottle ten inches from Tyrone’s face and sprayed water five times. He woke up coughing and gasping for air. He was lethargic and bewildered as he looked all around. His vision was obscured. He blinked four or five times and saw three Amaryllises. She sprayed water in his face again. This time, he coughed and almost choked. He tried to move but realized he couldn’t. He lay in the middle of Amaryllis’s bed wearing only his briefs. His arms were extended over his head. His wrists were tied tightly to the brass rails with white polyester rope. His legs were spread twenty inches apart, and his ankles were tied to the railings at the end of her bed. Although incoherent, Tyrone knew he was on lockdown. He blinked his eyes a few more times and finally, the three Amaryllises became one.
“Wha-what’s going on?” he stammered.
Amaryllis stood next to the bed with a roll of duct tape in her hands. “Haven’t I told you repeatedly to never come to my house drunk or without calling?”
Tyrone raised his head and saw that he was almost naked. “Huh?”
Amaryllis mocked him. “Huh?”
He saw the duct tape in her hand. “Wha-what you gettin’ ready to do with that?”
Amaryllis was angry. Angry that she was trying to live right but was constantly made to do wrong. It seemed like since she’d gotten saved, she was consistently walking into a crossroad. She was angry that this was another episode she was forced into that she’d have to repent for. What angered Amaryllis more than anything was that she was missing church. She was constantly on her knees asking God to deliver her from her wicked ways.
Looking at Tyrone lying in her bed completely helpless brought back memories of when she had attempted to steal her sister’s fiancé. She recalled sneaking into James’s apartment with a set of keys that she had made after stealing the original set from Michelle’s purse. It was her plan to drug James by putting a large dose of Vicoden into a pitcher of Kool-Aid, wait until it made him unconscious, then take nude photos of James and herself. She reflected back on that day in Las Vegas.
After she spiked the Kool-Aid, Amaryllis loaded film into a tiny camera and hid it on a window ledge in between two large potted plants in James’s living room. Then she went into his bedroom and undressed. After that, she crawled beneath his bed and waited for him to come home from a business trip. Her plan went perfectly when James got home and drank a glass of the spiked Kool-Aid. It took almost an hour for the Vicoden to take effect.
Amaryllis crawled out from under his bed and found him passed out on the sofa in the living room in front of his television.
She called his name three times to make sure he was asleep before she carefully removed his boxers and positioned him on the couch where the camera would catch his entire body. She set the camera for ten seconds and climbed her naked body on top of him with her back to the camera. Then she placed James’s hands on her breasts. When she heard the camera snap, she climbed off him and set it for another ten seconds, then climbed on him again, this time bending forward, placing her lips on his. Her mission was accomplished.
Thinking back on that time caused Amaryllis’s blood to run warm in her veins. Her plan to destroy her sister’s relationship folded when Michelle found out what Amaryllis had done. She had written Amaryllis off until she received the news that Amaryllis had gotten robbed and beaten. When Michelle heard that her sister was left for dead and in a coma, she rushed to the hospital to be by Amaryllis’s side and prayed her out of the coma.
Amaryllis was discharged from the hospital on a Sunday morning. She caught a cab to Michelle’s church and threw herself at her sister’s feet, begging for forgiveness. It was at that time when Amaryllis said to Michelle’s bishop, “I need you to tell me what I gotta do to be saved.”
Since then, Amaryllis had taken on her role as a new creature in Christ seriously. But, as she stood in her room holding Tyrone captive just as she did James, Amaryllis had yet to learn how to let the Lord fight her battles. She was hell-bent on teaching Tyrone a lesson, even if she had to repent for it later.
She tore eight inches of tape from the roll and spread it across Tyrone’s hairy chest, then abruptly ripped it off. His eyes rolled to the back of his head in pain. Where thick, coarse hair once was, was now as smooth as a baby’s bottom. He screamed out in pain. “Oww, oww.”
Amaryllis walked around to the other side of the bed. “I told you there would be consequences and repercussions, didn’t I? Why are you making me do this, Ty?”
Tyrone’s chest was on fire. Tears came to his eyes as he watched in horror as Amaryllis tore another piece of the tape and spread it across his stomach, then viciously ripped it off. “Oww, oww, oww. Please stop, please!”
Amaryllis tore a third piece of tape and placed it beneath his navel this time. His eyes grew wide at the thought of what Amaryllis was about to do. He got delirious and yelled something he shouldn’t have. “No, Icee, please stop!”
Amaryllis’s fingers were on the beginning of the strip, ready to snatch it until Tyrone cried out the mysterious name. She paused and looked at him. “Who the heck is Icee?”
He didn’t say a word. If he was in trouble a minute ago, he knew that he was really going to get it right then. Amaryllis saw tears streaming from the corners of his eyes down to his ears.
“Ty, I’m only gonn
a ask one more time.” She spaced her words apart and spoke very slowly. “Who…is…Icee?”
If Tyrone told Amaryllis about Icee, she’d continue to torture him. If he didn’t tell her, she’d still torture him, so he opted to change the subject. “Amaryllis, baby, you are sooo beautiful.”
Amaryllis ripped the tape away. Tyrone screamed so loud, he almost shattered the bedroom window. She threw the roll of tape across the room and picked up a slab of wood she’d purchased from the store. She positioned it between Tyrone’s ankles.
He got scared all over again and started to sweat. “Wha-what are you doing?”
From the floor by the bed, Amaryllis picked up a baseball bat, then looked at him.
“Have you seen the movie Misery, Ty?” she asked him calmly.
Tyrone began squirming on the bed, trying to escape the rope that tied his hands. “Oh, Lawd, Jesus. Help me, Lawd. Please help me.”
Amaryllis positioned herself next to Tyrone’s right ankle and raised the bat over her left shoulder. “Spare the rod, spoil the drunken boyfriend.”
Tyrone lost his mind as he screamed, hollered, and cried. Amaryllis swung the bat but stopped short of his ankle and hit the mattress just two inches from his leg.
“Next time I won’t miss. Who’s Icee, and why is she stalking me?”
Tyrone was moaning and crying. “Please, Amaryllis, please.”
She raised the bat over her left shoulder again. Tyrone screamed louder than any woman she knew. Again, she swung the bat and struck the side of the mattress, just inches away from his ankle. The shriek that came from his throat was piercing. He screamed and cried and cried and screamed as Amaryllis walked to the other side of the bed. Through his tears, he saw three Amaryllises raise three bats over three shoulders.
“Who is Icee?” Amaryllis demanded.
“Icee is crazy just like you.”
Amaryllis was about to swing but paused. She gave Tyrone the widest grin and spoke like she was extremely happy all of a sudden. “You wanna see crazy?”
She dropped the bat and walked out of the bedroom. Because of the duct tape, Tyrone’s chest, stomach, and the area beneath his navel were red and on fire. Crying, he tried to wiggle free of the rope that tied him to the bed but couldn’t do it. Amaryllis came into the bedroom. In one hand was a bottle of isopropyl alcohol. In the other hand was a book of matches.
“What do you think Pastor Alford is preaching about this evening, Ty?” she asked.
Her voice had changed. Before Amaryllis left the bedroom, her tone was high. Now she was calm, cool, and collected.
At that exact moment, Tyrone knew that Amaryllis was as crazy as Jack Nicholson was when he was trying to kill his wife in the movie, The Shining.
“I don’t wanna kill ya’. I just wanna bash your freakin’ skull in.”
Remembering those words sent chills down Tyrone’s spine. He looked at Amaryllis, and for a split second, he could’ve sworn that he saw Jack Nicholson’s head on her shoulders. When Amaryllis’s face came back into focus, Tyrone wondered how she could be worried about what their pastor was preaching about while torturing him at the same time.
She stood over Tyrone and poured the entire bottle of alcohol beneath his navel. His eyes got wide, and he screamed so loud, his throat burned. “Oh, Lawd, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Help me, Lawd. Save me, Jesus, save me.”
Amaryllis struck a match and held it six inches above Tyrone’s private area. Snot ran from his nose down the sides of his face. He hollered out just as Amaryllis was releasing the match. “Okay, okay. I’ll tell you. Please don’t burn me. I’ll tell you.”
Amaryllis calmly and slowly blew out the match. Of course, she wasn’t really going to burn Tyrone. She only wanted to scare him. It had certainly worked. “I’m listening.”
Tyrone was moaning and crying. How in the world did he end up with two crazy broads? In the two years he’d been with Icee, she’d stabbed him four times, pushed his car into Lake Michigan, and held him hostage in his own home for ten hours by pointing a gun at his head.
One night a year ago, she put a mayonnaise jar in a canvas bag and threw it on the floor. Then she stomped on the bag until the glass looked like little diamonds. In the midnight hour while Tyrone was asleep, Icee poured the glass across the bathroom floor. Lo and behold, like clockwork, Tyrone got up at two A.M. to use the bathroom. Three steps onto the floor, he screamed in pain. For the next three weeks, he went about his days wearing orthopedic shoes on heavily bandaged feet. Though it had been a year since that had happened, Tyrone sometimes still walked with a limp because a piece of glass couldn’t be removed from his left heel.
Now he was tied to a bed with another psycho standing over him whom he’d only been dating for three weeks. She was threatening to set fire to what Tyrone considered his most prized possessions.
He confessed to Amaryllis that he’d been dating Icee for two years. When Amaryllis joined Progressive Ministries a month ago, it was love at first sight for Tyrone, but he didn’t know how to break it off with Icee. He explained that Icee had followed him to her house one night. “That’s how she found out where you lived.”
“How did she get my cell number?”
“I guess she must’ve gotten it from my cell phone.”
Amaryllis left the bedroom to retrieve Tyrone’s phone from his jacket pocket. She brought the phone into the bedroom, stood by the bed, and began pressing buttons.
Tyrone prayed that she wasn’t calling Icee; she would surely finish what Amaryllis had started to do to him.
“Amaryllis, please don’t call her,” Tyrone begged.
“I’m erasing all of my numbers from your phone. And if you ever call me again, for anything, I will personally see to it that all of your fingers are shot off your hand. I dare you to think that I’m playing with you.”
After torturing Tyrone and making absolutely sure that he understood that she wanted nothing more to do with him, Amaryllis freed him and sent him on his way.
Then she changed the sheets on her bed and went into the living room. She sat down on the sofa with her cellular phone in her hand. She contemplated whether to make the telephone call she felt the urge to make. The more she thought about it, the more Amaryllis became convinced that she had to do it. She pressed the digits that she had retrieved from Tyrone’s phone. Her call was answered on the third ring.
“Hello?”
It was her. Amaryllis recognized the voice as the same one that had called and threatened her when she and Bridgette were at the mall. “Is this Icee?”
There was a pregnant pause before a response came through on the other end of the line.
“Yes, this is Icee. Who is this?”
The same threatening tone that Amaryllis heard before came through the telephone line right then. She hoped that the conversation would go smoothly.
“My name is Amaryllis, and I’m calling to speak with you about Tyrone Caridine.”
“What about Tyrone? What could you possibly have to talk to me about?” Icee spat the questions with fire. Amaryllis imagined her neck rotating with much attitude.
“Well, I wanted to inform you that as of today, I’m no longer seeing him. I had no idea that he was involved with someone else. Obviously you knew about me because I saw you outside of my building. I know that you put the black rose and card on my windshield. I know that you were the one who sent me and my friend drinks at the restaurant this afternoon. And I know you’re responsible for smashing my car windows and slashing my tires.”
Icee didn’t respond.
Amaryllis could hear the television in the background but only silence from Icee. “Hello?”
“I’m here.”
“Well, as I already stated, Tyrone and I are over. I apologize for upsetting you or hurting you, but I didn’t know anything about you. He was playing both of us. But now that I’m done with him, I’m asking you to never call me again. Please do not place anything else on my windshield or slash my tires. There is no n
eed for you to stalk me or sit in your vehicle outside of my building. I am no longer a threat to you.”
Again, Icee didn’t respond to Amaryllis at all. She simply disconnected the call.
Amaryllis sat on the sofa and thought about the love triangle she had unknowingly been a part of. “I thought I was done with this stuff, Lord. I’m trying to do right, trying to live right, but every time I turn around, something happens that makes me do things that I know I shouldn’t do.”
At that point, all Amaryllis could do was hope that Icee was mature enough to place fault where it belonged; on Tyrone. For once in Amaryllis’s life, she realized that she wasn’t the cheater in the relationship. She, indeed, had come a long way.
Amaryllis began to think about what her ex-boyfriend, Randall, said to her when she went to his church for forgiveness. His words of wisdom had comforted her. Randall had told Amaryllis to not be afraid of trials but learn to expect them. He reminded her that she had the power of the Holy Ghost to help her through anything.
Randall encouraged Amaryllis to stay in the Word of God because it was her weapon. He advised her to read her Bible daily and to never, under any circumstances, underestimate how low the enemy will go to destroy her. He also advised Amaryllis to keep her friends close and her enemies even closer. He assured her that God would protect her from all hurt, harm, and danger.
Amaryllis thought Randall’s words were a personal short sermon written just for her. She got up and went into her bedroom and grabbed her Bible from the dresser. She realized that she had failed God today. Amaryllis knew that torturing Tyrone was the wrong way to end the relationship. She also knew that tomorrow was a new day. She could repent now and start fresh in the morning.
“Lord, if You give me another chance, I promise to do right by You.”
Amaryllis prayed that God would give her another chance to make it right. She lay across the bed, opened her Bible, and read scriptures while she waited for Bridgette to return home from church.
Crossroads Page 6