BOMAW 10-12

by Mercedes Keyes

  Deidre stood realizing that what he said, was true. He would suffer more for their relationship, than she ever would.

  "I guess the unselfish thing for me to do, is make this easy on you and ... send you on your way, that's what you're really wanting, aren't you? You, maybe ... can't just walk away, so you need me to be firm and send you away? Right?"

  Jeremiah stood frozen. The answer was, yes ... and no. He wanted to leave her, but couldn't. He wanted her to send him away, adamantly send him off, but even then, would he be able to go and stay away?

  Deidre swiped at a tear that rolled down her cheek, she squared her shoulders and stated with full eviction, "Sorry to tell you this, but ah, I've made all the sacrifices I plan to this year! I've done my one selfless act when I gave my daughter up! So ummm, I'm gonna have to say ... to hell with everybody else. This is about me! And I, Deidre Charlotte Wherrington, I - want - you. I want you in my life, by my side ... and yes ... in my bed. And if you can't handle ... that ... then, you know where the door is. But I'm not about to make it easy for you to walk through it. So if you go, you'll have to leave me, on your own steam, by your own decision; with your own sense of pride, strength and determination. But I will not help you, leave me." She finished, staring right into his eyes, refusing to look away.

  "Our life ... if we ... stay together ... could be ... might be ... hell."

  "Oh ... is that all?" She started laughing, "You had me worried a moment, I was expecting something far more horrific than hell. Hell you say? I know hell ... I do hell, very well. But ... maybe, you can't." The laughter left a sad smile in its place, "I - I don't know, being a black man, I figure, who would know more - about hell, than you? I guess I was wrong. So ... if you're going to leave me ... don't wait until it destroys me beyond repair. Go now ... go now."

  Jeremiah stood staring at her. His mind kept playing the visual image of him walking to the chair, picking up his jacket and then, heading for the door. It played it once, twice and then a third and yet ... he could not get his feet to move. He was frozen to that spot. Frozen because, he wanted this incredible woman. He didn't give a damn about her being a Wherrington. He could care less if she had billions ... he was a successful man and could easily afford this home on what he raked in. Only problem was, the message playing inside his head, the message planted their by his mother. The problem was, he was black and successful. For a black man, this world and what was expected was too heavy. Now he understood why so many walked around with a chip on their shoulders. Simple fact of the matter was, you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. It won't matter that he hadn't chosen to be with her deliberately. It wouldn't matter that their coming together was as natural as the rising of the sun. None of that mattered, the truth. All that would be immediately apparent is that she is blonde, white, rich and he is a black man with her on his arm.

  "Go Jeremiah. Make life easier for yourself. You've worked long and hard for it to be that way, to be a success. I wish you the best."

  "If I wanted - to go - I would be gone! So please stop - telling me to go." He bit out through a tight jaw.

  "I thought that's what you wanted? If not, where do we stand?" She couldn't help but ask.

  "Can we go, one day at a time?"

  "Then six months from now, you find that you can't handle it, then what?"

  "I'm doing the best that I can, Deidre."

  She smiled, did an about face on the subject, clearly wishing to drop it. It was too much to deal with at that particular moment. "Will you come to dinner the night I invite my daughter, her father, his family? Will you come then, please ... and be here with me, please?"

  "If you want me to be, sure I will. What about our talk with him? The new arrangements?"

  "I can't deal with it right now. They just arrived. I don't want him angry with me right now, I want to wait until the very last minute for that. They are being guarded, lets just keep it that way until we have no other choice but to finally let him know."

  "I understand."

  She smiled, "Will you ... stay for dinner, tonight?"

  He smiled, "I'm starved, sure I will, what are we having?"

  Chapter 230

  "Mama-JoJo...where you get all of these different roosters and chickens from? They're beautiful." Sylvia asked standing at her sink, washing up the dinner dishes with Crystal and Angela's help. She couldn't help but look up at all the shelves upon shelves of them that surrounded the kitchen, on all four walls, every kind of rooster and chicken one could imagine in wood carvings, ceramic, soldered metals and glass. They came in figurines, salt and pepper shakers, sugar bowls, gravy servers, pitchers, planters, all kinds. Some of them looked very expensive, certainly a collectors item.

  Mama-JoJo was sweeping her floor, Shawn, Ben and Mundo sat at the table, Isaac in Mundo's lap, Darren in Shawn's. They were all talking after the incredible dinner Mama-JoJo made for them. She knew that Shawn loved catfish and greens. So she'd prepared that, homemade macaroni and cheese, corn bread, and for desert, banana pudding. Made with layers of vanilla wafers, banana's and vanilla custard poured on, baked and then served with a dollop of cool whip. Needless to say, everyone was stuffed so they could barely move. Even so, Sylvia immediately came to her feet to get the kitchen cleaned, not about to let Mama-JoJo do so after fixing such a dinner. The girls naturally followed. But Mama-JoJo would always find something to do, sweeping her floor and pointing out where everything went as she shared stories of days gone by and her experience with the younger Shawn after Jesse.

  She stood holding the broom, looking around at them, "Chile, yo' husband bring'em, or sent'em to me, most ov'em anyway. Them right there, Jesse got me. Them above there, what I started, then Jesse see I love'em, that's when he get me those. Then, once he gone, next thing I know it, yo' husband pick right up where he lef'off. Those come from Germ'ny, them there from Switz'a'land, those from Paris, that whole collection there from It'ly, and Po'land, and Hun'gry, in that curio cabinet right there, he sent me that from Germany too, it's got mo' from from Turkey, Netherlands and Spain, shoot girl, I got chickens and roosters from everywhere." She bragged grinning, looking over at Shawn.

  "Mama-JoJo, how you remember all those places they'd come from?" He asked, "Shoot, I forget where I got half of'em myself." He admitted.

  "'You remember you sent me pictures, an' long letters 'bout where you found'em. I must'ah read them letters 20 times each, lookin' at them chickens and roosters. Behind each one, you find them pictures and letters." She informed him proudly.

  "I remember Mama-JoJo. I'm the one who built you all these shelves up all the way around when I got back here. You had them chickens and roosters so, you couldn't even sit in the kitchen at the table." He grinned.

  She laughed remembering, then looked at Ben, "Baby get that garbage and pull it out fo'me; pick up that dust pan, hol'that down here, so I can pick up this trash. I can ben'over and do it when I gots too, but seein' as how I gots ya'll here, Mama-JoJo don't min' a lil'help." She smiled gently.

  "No problem ma'am, here ... sit down and let me get that up. I'll take your garbage out as well."

  "Thank you baby, I thank I will have a seat. You sho'is like yo' daddy baby ... lawd'a'mercy, that ain't no lie." She sat down stating.

  Sylvia had finished the dishes and was reeling at the fact that Shawn had traveled to so many places. This also went through Mundo's mind because he asked, "Man where haven't you been? You didn't tell me about all these places, I know you said before, you'd been around, but man!"

  Shawn chuckled, "The worlds a big place, there are many places I haven't been. Before I left to go to all of these places, I tried to get Mama-JoJo to go with me." He stated and turned to her, "Didn't I?"

  "Chile I ain't made fo'all that travelin' around. All them pictures you sent me, letters you wrote, I was good as there. 'Sides, I ain' know that woman you was travellin' 'round with."

  "Was that Merriam Styles?" Sylvia asked him.

  Shawn nodded as an a
nswer. He reached across the table and grabbed Mama-JoJo's hand, "We're gonna be here for the next couple of weeks, at the condo. You need us for anything-..."

  Sylvia broke in saying, "Anything at all, Mama-JoJo, you just call. Fact, I'll be cooking a big dinner after we do some shopping, it will be your turn to come over. Shawn and the boys will come and get you."

  Shawn smiled, "I always take my Mama-JoJo out to eat. Don't I?" He asked her.

  Mama-JoJo smiled, "Sho'do. Always ... ain't miss a time yet when you come here."

  "Won't this time either." Shawn assured her.

  "Well now, not only will he being done that, I'll be adding to it by inviting you over for a nice meal to enjoy with the family, okay?" Sylvia went on, not deterred.

  "That would be nice sugga', I will."

  "Uh, Mama-JoJo, there's a lot of stuff, stacking up on your back porch, you want Mundo, Crystal, Angela and I to come and help you sort all of that out?" Benjamin volunteered himself and the others, as he re-entered the kitchen from her enclosed back porch, noticing things stacked high on it. He figured because of her age, she couldn't do it all herself.

  Crystal looked at him with a look as if to say, 'I like how you gone volunteer me.' - she was grinning of course. It went without saying that she would gladly do so, but all of a sudden, he was speaking for them. As if taking charge. Mundo was nodding his head, "Hey that's straight, if you need us to do somethin' for you, we be right on it." He added without a thought.

  "Me too Mama-JoJo, you know I'll help you if my dad brings me." Angela added. She had stayed overnight with her before, more than a few times when her father and mother were fighting; he'd take her off with him to stay by Mama-JoJo's, sometimes for a week or more.

  Mama-JoJo's mood changed, "I ain't thinkin' 'bout all that shit out there! Ya'll can set it on fire if you want." She grumbled.

  "Why? What is it?" Shawn asked.

  Mama-JoJo looked at him and answered, "Corliss Ella Ruthie! She gettin' to my last nerve, her and them bad ass chillin's of hers. That's all they mess back there."

  Shawn sat back, taking a deep breath. His mood changed as well, something Sylvia did not miss.

  "So what's going on with her?" Shawn asked in a dread like manner.

  Before Mama-JoJo could reply, speaking of the devil, she walked right in.

  "Grandmama, where are you? Whose Hummer is that parked out front-..." She froze mid-sentence, seeing first Sylvia, Crystal and Angela at the kitchen sink, then Benjamin standing in front of the back door, which shocked her, seeing him. She next looked towards the table over her grandmother directly to Shawn sitting against the wall, holding a little boy.

  "Oh ... I should'ah known it was you." She began right away. "Thought you moved back to Wisconsin? But here you are, back at my grandma-..."

  "One would think you'd be used to that fact by now." Shawn answered, eying her.

  "Don't come in here wit'it and don't you worr'why he here. What I tell you 'bout just walkin' up in my house like you live here? And you ain't gone live here." Mama-JoJo started right off, grumbling, her face angry.

  "Grandmama, do you mind if we don't discuss this in front of them. I just came to bring some more stuff."

  "You don't tell me what I'm gone discuss in my own house! And I done tol' you, I don't want no'mo' o'that shit in my house! That las' batch o'shit got roaches up in here! I keep tellin' you don' bring no more!" Mama-JoJo fussed standing up from the table.

  "Where else am I supposed to take it grandmama?"

  "Take it t'the dump fo'all I care! You ain't call me! You ain' ask me, you just gone do! I mean don't bring another damn thing in here!" She stood facing her.

  "What I'm supposed to do with all this stuff then grandmama? Tell me that? And I don't have roaches, didn't come from my stuff! Bad enough I had to get somebody with a truck to help me out, then you gone pull this, when you know you was gettin' lonely and scared, want somebody to come and stay with you, now here I am, you actin' like this 'cause he here!" Corliss pointed at Shawn.

  Shawn stood, setting Darren down to go to Crystal, "Corliss, I did not bring my family over here tonight for this. Mama-JoJo says she don't want your stuff here, that's that."

  "This ain't none of your business! You don't live here no more. This between me and my grandmama... my... grandmama!"

  "Hang on here lil'sista'! You don't talk to him like that and don' get to showin' yo'ass in front'o'company! I don'said what I had to say now."

  "It's just one more truck full grandmama, you got plenty of room! Its here now, you might as well let us put it on back there, then I be through."

  "WHAT DID SHE SAY TO YOU!? NO!" Shawn shouted at the top of his voice and at the end of his rope with it, with her. Shocking almost everyone in the room.

  Mama-JoJo wasn't shocked, nor was Corliss.

  "Who the heck you talkin' to like that!? Mama-JoJo why you let him talk to me like that?"

  "You hear what he say didn'ya'? Don't shout at you, you can't hear!"

  "Well I'm gone tell you this now, don't talk to me like that, you must have me mistaken for your wife or somebody." Corliss turned back to Shawn to announce.

  "Ha! No chance of that! Whatever mistakes I've made, that wouldn't be one of them!"

  "You know what, you need to get the heck up out'ah my face! This don't even concern you!"

  Livid, Shawn turned to Sylvia, "Sweetheart, I apologize for this, but you're going to have to excuse us a moment." He warned her and charged over to Corliss, grabbing her by the arm, which she snatched away from him.

  "Get your goddamn hands off of me! Don't start yo'shit with me!" She bit out.

  "Watch your mouth in front of Mama-JoJo! Outside, in the back ... now!" Shawn ground out.

  She turned to Mama-JoJo, "Grandmama, would you please call your watch dog off of me! Tell him to leave me alone, this is not his business."

  "I ain't tellin'em nothin'! Next time you'ah call before you come here actin' and lookin'like a fool."

  "Outside, now." Shawn growled the second time, shoving her towards the door. She snatched away from him again and in a huff, marched towards the back door, Benjamin had to step aside, just as stunned as the rest of them, outside of Mama-JoJo that is. Shawn followed her out, realizing this would not go over well with his wife, but as far as he could see, it couldn't be helped. He was not about to stand by and let anyone run roughshod over Mama-JoJo. Jesse wouldn't have allowed it, he wasn't about to.

  Mama JoJo turned to them, mainly to Sylvia. "Look here, I'm sho'sorry about that, about her. She my granddaughter and she gets on my doggone nerve. Every time I turn around, its something else with her, one thing after another."

  Sylvia nodded, unsure of how to deal with it, but needed to know, "Was Shawn involved with her once?" She just had to ask, because he looked mighty comfortable grabbing her, pushing her around. For that matter, Corliss responded as if it was nothing new to her. Once more, she was left spinning when it came to him.

  "Ain't no way. She wanted him to be, but he never was. It's a long story, I'mo let him explain it to you. Thang is, I'on want you mad at him, over something like this. He always look after me, right along with Jesse he look after me. When Jesse killed, he step right in doin' for me all he can. So don't be mad at him. I can tell you now, all my kids, all my grandchillin's, that's the only one somebody I can depend on; who come and see about me. After my Jesse that is. My Jesse stay looking after me, sho'did. Then he bring him here to me, and he do the same. Better than my own chil'ren. Em hm."

  Sylvia nodded, thinking, wondering. Yep, she had more to learn about him.

  "What is your fuckin' problem? What the hell are you doing, harassing Mama-JoJo?!"

  "Excuse me, that is my grandmother. Hang on a minute, they waitin' in that truck out front with my stuff." She informed him walking around the side of the house to ask them to wait for her. Shawn followed her because he wanted to know what was going on.

  Corliss stood a bit shorter than Sylvia, five yea
rs younger, with two kids. She was a solid build, very shapely, big legs, large rear end, solid upper body, slightly thick in the waist, practically flat breasted. Strong black ethnic features, very full lips, dark eyes, small nose and smooth skin. She could be incredible looking, but long since gave up on fixing herself up. In fact, at that particular moment, she was wearing too tight jeans, a small top that showed a bit of her stomach with her short hair combed back, looking dry and lifeless, worked over by over-processing from relaxers, on top of needing a touch up. As for her teenage kids, neither of them were present to help her, they were out in the streets somewhere. She was due for eviction in the next few days and needed a place to stay. She knew that her grandmother had her own house with plenty of room for them and so she didn't see why she couldn't just let them move in with her.

  Seeing Shawn there was an unexpected surprise.

  At the truck, which was parked in front of the Hummer, she stopped at the drivers side speaking with the black man at the wheel.

  "Can you hold up a bit, I need to work something out."

  "I ain't got all night. You said all that had to be done is bring it and help you unload it."

  "My grandmama giving me a hard time and shit."

  "I ain't got nothing to do with that, what you gone do? 'Cause I got to go, I got other things to do." The man in the truck announced.

  "Well here, unload it right here." She instructed.

  "Whoa whoa whoa whoa... what did Mama-JoJo just say?!" Shawn reminded her none too gently.

  She turned to him, hand on her hip, head going, "Unfortunately, I have no other choice!"