by Tameka Hicks
She had the guests on their feet shaking their rear ends including Mrs. Graham. Since she was the birthday lady, Tamara took her song requests, which were, “What’s going on,” and “Human Nature.”
They loved her singing so much that they had her sing two more songs before she had to tell them she was done. Michael sat proud at the table because whenever he thought all of her talents were displayed; she threw a new thing at him making him proud that she belonged to him. “I’m ready to go home. I need to talk to you about something,”
Michael told her.
“You have a beautiful voice Tina.”
“Thank you,” she said to the strange woman.
He excused the both of them from the table. “Let’s go.”
Oh my goodness! All that singing, I had forgotten to get my plan together for tonight, she thought.
“Good night everyone, I’m about to go home,” declared Michael.
Mrs. Graham hugged and kissed Michael, and then she turned around and gave Tamara a forced hug. “Thank you for a great time. I’ll see you Monday. We’ll do lunch.”
“I enjoyed myself Mrs. Graham,” said Tamara.
They walked back to the car. He went to hold her hand, but she pulled it away, pretending to scratch it even though it wasn’t itching.
“I can’t stay out all night because Tamara has to go to work tonight.”
“You can’t live your life babysitting her damn kids. What would you do if I asked you to marry me?”
That question shocked her. “I don’t know, but we’ll worry about that when and if we ever cross that bridge.”
“Take me home first and I’ll find a babysitter for them, and I’ll come back to your house when they’re squared away in bed. “
“You’re going to leave them home alone?”
She laughed. “Do I look stupid to you? I’ll pay the neighbor’s teenage daughter, a couple of dollars to watch them until Tamara gets home.”
He stared at her. “What’s your problem?” “Nothing,” she replied. “Can u you promise me that you won’t leave me hanging tonight?” “Yes.”
He was disappointed that he was going to have to wait until later to see her. At least for the first time in four months she’d agreed to spend the night with him. He gave her two hundred dollars to take care of the baby-sitting fees, and for the cab fare back to his house. He kissed her on the cheek. “I’ll see you baby.”
“I’ll see you later daddy,” she got out of the car with her shoes in her hand. “I’ll see you later alligator.”
“After a while crocodile,” he smiled as he watched her go into the house before he pulled off.
The neon clock on the wall read twelve twenty two in the morning. She busted into Tina’s room and all three of them lay in the bed out like a blown fuse. She called Tina’s name. She lightly shook her, and then she started to shake her harder. “Tina,” she whispered.
“What do you want Tamara?”
“Get up! I need to talk to you about something very, very important.”
She exhaled deep, and got up carefully to make sure she didn’t wake up the kids.
“What are you up to now?”
“I have a bizarre plan that involves you.”
“Everything that you do is bizarre to me Mara. What do I have to do now?”
She gave her that devilish grin, that one that she flashed whenever she’s about to do something outlandish. She whispered. “I need for you to sl...”
“What?” she asked.
Dear Diary,
Today is Sunday, March 15, 1995. Friday was a long prosperous night. I hope you’re ready for some juicy stuff because I have a lot that I need to get off of my chest starting with the night after the party. I came home and got Tamara (Tina) and I had to run the entire plan down to her so I guess now I have to break it down for you. Last month, Tina had confided in me that she wanted a child of her own someday, but she didn’t see it happening because she was always too busy with my kids. I told her that she was going to get well reimbursed for the patience and the loyalty that she’d shown so far. Getting to the point, Michael wanted me to spend the night with him. I didn’t want to, but I had to. At times, I have to do things that even make me sick to the stomach. On the way home I thought of a good plan to help me-well, for us to get closer to our destiny. I know I’m rambling; be patient my dear friend. Michael wants to bear a child with me, but I wouldn’t dare to go there with him. I can’t have sex with someone that I have no feelings for. I could care less how much money he has; I can’t bring myself to do it. I have to draw the line somewhere. I called Michael that night and asked him if he would like for me to tie him up to the bed and he said yes with such delight. Yes, tie me up baby. I will be your slave, were his exact words. I asked him if he wanted to make me pregnant tonight and he said yes without hesitation. I’d talked to Tina and at first she wasn’t with it until I explained the full benefits of her doing what I had asked. Money will make most people do some crazy stuff. What would you do for a Klondike Bar? What wouldn’t you do for money? That’s a better question. The girl next door Tamika, let her daughter come over to my house to watch the kids overnight. I told her that we both were scheduled to go to work tonight and we couldn’t call off or we would get fired. I paid her daughter forty dollars and gave her mother forty dollars for letting her stay. I told Tamika that we had to work until eight o’ clock, and if she did a good job with them today, I would pay her well to keep them if I needed her again. I called Michael and told him to leave the key underneath the doormat so I can act like I’m a burglar breaking into his house. I did that, so he wouldn’t see Tina come in with me. She took a shower and got dressed and I called the cab and we headed straight to his house. Well actually, we had the cab driver drop us off at the corner just in case Michael was looking out the window for me. You always have to plan ahead. We successfully crept into the house. I was praying that he didn’t see or hear us come in. I directed her to hide in this room that he barely used. It was kind of empty and it looked as though he used that room for storage. His house was so big, he could’ve had someone living with him, and he wouldn’t even have realized it. I told her to stay hiding in the closet or somewhere in the room, just in case he came in there for something. I said, “I’ll come back and get you, when I’m ready for you.” I went upstairs and Michael was lying across his huge bed, penis at attention.
“Michael!” I yelled out.
He removed the blindfold from his eyes and jumped up quickly. He asked me what was wrong. I turned my back away from him and requested that he put his clothes back on. Why he wondered. You’re taking all the fun away from it. I wanted to be the one that takes them off of you. That was the only excuse that I could come up with. Are they back on? I asked him. He put his T-shirt and his boxer shorts back on. I pulled my handcuffs out of my purse and pushed him onto the bed and handcuffed him to the bed. I had placed his blindfold back over his face with another silk scarf of mines over it tightly so it wouldn’t move out of place. I tied his big ugly feet to the bed-posts. I would never let anyone tie my ass up to anything. I went downstairs and poured him a drink and laced it with two strong sleeping pills. I went into the room and got Tina, and we went upstairs. Before we went upstairs, I explained to her again what to do. We gave the medicine time to work, plus he had been drinking. As they were having sex I had to stay in the room talking into his ear, so he wouldn’t think anything was going on. It was like I directed my own porn movie. She was a little afraid at first, but after a few humps she didn’t care that I was in the room with them. “Will you have my baby?” he moaned.
“Yes, I’ll have your baby, but only if you promise to take care of us.”
He agreed, and exploded inside the real Tina like a rocket. And she closed her eyes covering up her face. He wanted to take off his blindfold and handcuffs, but I told him not to because he was still my hostage. He told me how much he loved me and wanted to be with me. How this was the best sex that he has
ever had, and after he’d confessed to me like a sinner at confession, the effect of the pills had started to kick in and he fell fast asleep. Tina got up and as she was putting her skirt back on, she fell and we both burst out laughing. I whispered into his ear that I would be back, and I had Tina to go back downstairs to her hiding spot until the cab came. After twenty minutes or so, when I went back upstairs, and he was knocked out cold, snoring like a pig. Tina went home without me because I had to stay. After she left, I jumped into the Jacuzzi and found a set of his silk pajamas to put on. I let him out of the handcuffs and with all my might I placed on his boxers and covered him up. I called Tina to make sure that she made it home, and I watched cable until I fell asleep. I wrapped myself up in another set of sheets next to him in the bed like a cocoon. I set the alarm clock on his night-stand for seven o’clock. I fell asleep watching Green Acres and woke up to breakfast in bed at seven forty nine. I had a ten o’ clock class, so I had to rush home to get ready after I ate. I’m going to have lunch with Mrs. Graham tomorrow. Maybe I’m after the wrong person. If I can get her, I’ll get the money. My plans are getting closer to the grand finale. Things are going to move kind of fast so prepare yourself.
LUNCH TIME, NOT DRILL TIME
Monday at Noon
Mrs. Graham and Tamara drove (in two separate vehicles) two miles for lunch at her favorite restaurant called Graham’s House of Seafood. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out why she loved this restaurant so much. It was once a waffle house that she extended by having contractors tear down the middle wall and basically tripled the size of the place. When she had purchased the restaurant, she immediately decided to sell sea-food because she just LOVED fish, and since SHE loved fish, she figured (quite surely) that EVERYONE should love fish. As it turned out, she was right because business was booming and things were going great. Another thing she felt RIGHT about was the fact that Tamara and her son—her only son—were not compatible for each other.
It wasn’t that she disliked Tamara; she seemed intelligent and smart, it was just something about her that she could not figure out. At first, she thought that maybe it was the age difference or maybe she was after him for his RICHES, which was most likely. She’d seen women with that hawkish look in their eyes; the ones Michael, her precious Michael, had dated before. She wasn’t stupid, and she was determined to get that point across to him before it was too late. She constantly tried to warn Michael (it was just her motherly intuition) about his new girlfriend. He talked quite frequently and openly of marriage. She expressed to her son that Tina (really Tamara) brought this eerie feeling to her every time they were around each other. She even went so far as to hire an investigator to dig deep into Tina’s background, and she pulled out of the closet that her mother was a prostitute and had done time for abuse and selling her daughter to men for money. She couldn’t wait to confront her with these newfound allegations.
“What do you want me to say? My mother abused me.”
“My son doesn’t need to be married to an ex-hooker,” she said with a smirk on her face. “I don’t think he knows about your past, does he?”
Tamara shook her head. “You are crazy.”
“Honey, you can call it whatever you want, but Michael needs to know, don’t you think?
He usually was never defiant and always agreed with his mother because he wasn’t going to mess up his good thing, but he LOVED Ty, and he wasn’t going to let her slip through his fingers. He explained this to his mother the other day at lunch, so she had to pull out the big guns.
‘She’s one of a kind, mother. I love her and she’s going to be my wife and have my children one day, so if you're going to punish me because you’re miserable and alone-go ahead,’ and he stormed out of the restaurant and hadn’t called her for two days now. That’s a record.
“Mrs. Graham,” she whispered. “Mrs. Graham, to Earth,” said Tamara, snapping her fingers in front of her face.
“I’m sorry dear. I sometimes drift off into my own little world.”
“Are we going to eat because I’m starving?” She rubbed her stomach.
“You know I might be pregnant.”
“Yea, that’s what they all say,” she said matter-offactly.
They sat at her favorite table in the back room with a marvelous view outside. There were three fountains of water that had changing color lights inside of them. Some VIP customers could make reservations to have their food on the deck, but it cost a few extra dollars. The restaurant resided a few hundred feet in front of the woods. The inside was as beautiful and well designed as the view of the outside. The grass was beautifully maintained; she personally got onto her hands and knees to plant the roses in the garden. She put down the marble floors in the rest rooms. She’d personally chosen the interior theme for the restaurant all the way down to the Italian hand-stitched curtains. This place was a site to see, but yet it was affordable to everyone. It looked like a four star restaurant with the pricing of a soul food joint. Of all of her businesses, (thirteen to be exact) this was her pride and joy. She left the day to day operations of her other businesses to Michael and her nephew, but this restaurant was different. The restaurant was her pet project, her baby, besides Michael. She singled handily picked every employee who worked in the restaurant.
Her wait staff had to be attractive, yet friendly. The cooks had to have an awesome reference background check to be on her payroll. She’d had credit checks performed (without their knowledge, of course) on her cashiers. Even the cleaners were thoroughly checked out before they were hired. She wasn’t a joke especially pertaining to the restaurant, and its daily functions. She stopped at the restaurant daily and checked the box for the customers’ comments or complaints. If she received a complaint, she would talk to the person and get to the root of the problem. If the complaint was something that could possibly ruin her business you were out of there. Mrs. Graham had always dreamed of owning her own restaurant, but she had gotten into other projects listening to her husband.
“Good morning, Mrs. Graham. My name is Tanya, and I’ll be your waitress for today. Are you ready to order, Mrs. Graham,” asked the smiling waitress.
“Yes, I’m ready to order Tanya,” said Tamara. “I’ll have your perch fish and fries with a Coke and hold the ice please.”
“Give me my usual Tanya. I’ve heard nothing, but good things about you.”
“Thank-you Mrs. Graham! So that’ll be baked catfish with an order of onion rings, large lemonade and no ice?”
“Correct sweetie.”
“I’ll be back shortly with your order and if you need anything, don’t hesitate to let me know.”
“Okay,” they said in unison.
She arrived with their soft drinks, napkins and eating utensils and placed them onto the table. Mrs. Graham took a cigarette out of her wallet and lit the CANCER STICK. Tamara placed her trigger finger underneath her nostrils covering her mouth to avoid inhaling the smoke. Smokers don’t care about other people all they know is what they want. I’m glad I let go of those things. They make your breath stank and your teeth brown, thought Tamara.
She blew the smoke out of her nose towards her. “From the look on your face is it safe to assume that the smoke is bothering you?”
“Yeah,” but she didn’t respond to the question because Mrs. Graham knew that Tamara had asthma. That was her way of being sarcastic towards Tamara. She took a couple more puffs releasing the smoke in Tamara’s direction again. This old bitch is trying to push my buttons, she thought. She placed her cigarette into the ashtray. “I’m not the one for small talk, and I brought you here for a reason,” said Mrs. Graham.
Tamara uncrossed her legs, scooting her chair closer to the table.
“Not to eat lunch huh? I didn’t think you did,” she smiled.
She shook her head.
“Oh really, I’m not surprised mother dear.”
“You’re probably already aware that I disagree with you and Michael’s relationsh
ip,” she took a sip of her lemonade. She waved for Tanya’s attention.
Tanya asked, “Yes ma’am. Is something wrong?”
“This is too sweet, and I forgot to tell you to use Sweet-and-Low in my lemonade from this day forward please.”
She smiled. “Sure thing.”
“Now, where was I?”
“As far as I’m concerned you're talking to a brick wall because you’re tripping Mrs. Graham. Michael loves me and there’s not a damn thing that you can do about it.” Tamara had seen that the waitress was heading with the tray of food and drinks in their direction. “Before you start being all in your child’s business, learn how to take care of yourself.” Tamara gestured for her to go to the bathroom to clean her nose.
“You have something white hanging from your nose. Maybe, if you look in the mirror sometimes at yourself and CORRECT the wrong things you find first; you would see that you’re no better than the rest of us.”
Mrs. Graham quickly excused herself from the table and went into her private restroom. Tamara made a phone call. “Did you do it?” she asked the caller.
“Here’s your order, and here’s Mrs. Graham’s order, her lemonade with sweet and low sugar.”
“I love you too Michael,” she hung up the phone.
“Thank you Tanya,” she handed her a twenty dollar bill.
“You don’t have to pay for your food it’s on the house.”
“That’s your tip. Thank you for your good service Tanya.”
She placed the money in her apron. “No, thank you….uh.. Ms….?
“Ta.. My name is Tina.”
“Let me know if you need anything.”
“I’m fine. You go ahead and tend to your other customers before the wicked witch of the west comes back demanding you to feed her.”
Tamara slid something out of her pocket and fumbled with it underneath the table as she quickly removed Mrs. Graham’s lemonade off of the table pouring whatever was in her hands into her glass stirring it with the straw. She heard someone speak to Mrs. Graham, and she hurried up and sat the drink back on the table. She started to eat her food.