by Mary Monroe
“You can stop right there!” I hollered, holding my hand up in the air like he could see it. “I’ve got enough mess going on in my life without Lizzie adding to it. You tell that nasty-ass bitch if she ever tries to ‘put me in my place,’ I will beat the dog shit out of her—again!” I hung up before Pee Wee could say another word.
I was so stunned I started breathing through my mouth. In addition to all of the other problems I already had, I was not going to add Lizzie to the mix. I knew that the most effective way to make sure that didn’t happen was for her to hear it from me!
CHAPTER 60
As soon as I got to work that morning, I called up Pee Wee’s barbershop. I was glad Lizzie answered.
“Lizzie, this is Annette. We need to talk,” I stated. I was too agitated and angry to sit down. I had the speaker on, so I talked as I paced back and forth in front of my desk.
“About what?” she asked, sounding nonchalant.
“About my husband. It’s time we had a woman-to-woman talk about this situation.”
“That’s fine with me,” she hissed. “What’s your problem?”
“Look, you are one of my minor problems, but don’t think I won’t come over there and bitch-slap you in a major way! If you’ve got a problem with my husband coming to see me and his daughter, that’s your damn problem, bitch. If you want to ‘put me in my place,’ all you have to do is tell me where to meet you. We can settle this once and for all.”
“I am not about to fight you or any other woman over a man. And anyway, you’ve already lost the battle. Your husband lives with me!” Lizzie slammed down the telephone.
I didn’t like to cuss, even though I had done it a lot lately. And I certainly didn’t like to fight and act like I had been raised in a jungle among wild animals and savages. But the way things were going in my life, I knew that it was just a matter of time before I snapped. And when that happened, I was not going to be responsible for my actions.
Just as I was about to slam my fist against the wall, Rhoda called.
“Thank God it’s you,” I told her. “I’m having a bad day.”
“Who isn’t? I’ve gone through two beers already this morning.”
“How are you doing? How is Jade doing?”
“She’s goin’ to be fine. Listen, I’ve been thinkin’ about what you said about Vernie, and me doin’ the right thing. Uh, he was only tryin’ to defend himself.”
“Does that mean Jade’s not going to press charges?”
“Oh, she wants to. She’s been jumpin’ up and down in that hospital bed. She wants to see him suffer.”
“With all due respect, the boy’s been suffering since the day he met her, Rhoda. What more does she want?”
“Well, I can tell you what she doesn’t want, and that’s a divorce. She said it would be too much of an embarrassment for a girl like her to get a divorce.”
“A girl like her?”
“Yes, a girl like her!”
I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. I covered my mouth as soon as I could so Rhoda couldn’t hear it. “Are you telling me that she thinks things are going to go back to normal? And in her case, that’s pretty scary.”
“I know, I know.” Rhoda groaned under her breath. “Otis bailed Vernie out of jail this mornin’.”
“Oh? Well, that’s a move in a positive direction. And I know he’s not happy about what he did to Jade. How is Vernie feeling?”
“Annette, he wants to leave and go back to Alabama! He—he wants to desert my daughter the same way that Mexican did. When she hears about it, it’s goin’ to crush her! Oh—I’m at the end of my rope!”
“Calm down. You don’t need to work yourself up into a frenzy again. Do you want me to meet you for lunch today? It sounds like you need a shoulder to cry on.”
“Yes, please let’s do lunch. Come by around noon. The puffiness around my eyes should be gone by then.” Rhoda sniffed. “You don’t know what a lucky woman you are, Annette.”
“Come again.”
“Well, other than Pee Wee leavin’ you, you don’t have a whole lot of drama goin’ on right now. By the way, how are things between you and Jacob? When you talk to him, tell him I’d like to invite you and him over for dinner as soon as things settle down with Jade. Do you think you all can make it?”
“I can, but I don’t think he can.”
“Excuse me?”
“I won’t be seeing Jacob anymore.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?”
“Not over the telephone. Let’s save it for lunch.”
“That’s fine. Let me ask you one more thing before you hang up. How’s Pee Wee takin’ the news about Lizzie wantin’ to go work for his rival?”
“What did you say?”
“You didn’t know? You didn’t know that Lizzie went on an interview with Henry, and that she’s goin’ to go work for him?”
“I didn’t know. I guess she decided she’d rather clean up his barbershop than do manicures, huh?”
“No, she’s goin’ over to Henry’s to do manicures and pedicures. Pee Wee’s business is boomin’ and it’s kickin’ the hell out of Henry’s. Now he wants a cute woman on his payroll. Lizzie has a lot of regular customers who will follow her to Henry’s place. I don’t know how they worked it, but she had to do some sneaky shit to be this far along so fast. I got the whole story from Scary Mary this mornin’. I thought you’d know by now.”
“Well, I didn’t. Uh, listen, I’m about to have a staff meeting. I’ll see you at noon.” I was still reeling from the bitch-slap that I’d received from Jacob. I didn’t think that I could stand to hear more on the subject of Pee Wee and Lizzie at the moment. But as soon as I got off the phone with Rhoda, I called Pee Wee’s barbershop. To my everlasting horror, Lizzie answered again. “Put my husband on this phone!” I ordered. Pee Wee came on immediately.
“What’s wrong now?” he wanted to know.
“Why didn’t you tell me that Lizzie was leaving you to go work for Henry Boykin to be his manicurist?”
His silence spoke volumes. “What? That’s because I didn’t know!” he snarled. “I—this is news to me! When is this supposed to happen?”
“Ask her,” I said. Then I hung up.
Rhoda had to cancel her plans to have lunch with me. The hospital had called her up after I’d talked to her, and told her that Jade had just suffered a setback. Rhoda was too upset to go into detail, but it had something to do with the fact that Vernie was planning to do a disappearing act.
I was sitting at my desk, toying with some lettuce on the salad that I’d picked up for lunch, when Pee Wee called. As soon as I heard his voice, I started talking. “I am not in the mood to waste any more of my time talking about that woman.”
I was so sick and tired of dealing with one issue after another, I knew that I had to do something. One thing was, I was going to stop letting Lizzie and Pee Wee’s actions get on my nerves anymore. The biggest concern I had now was Jacob. I had already started the process of having his wages attached. There was just no telling how he was going to react.
“I didn’t call you to talk about Lizzie. I called to talk to you about our daughter,” Pee Wee told me in a sorry voice.
A large lump immediately formed in my throat. “What about her?”
“If you didn’t want her hangin’ out with that pregnant child, why would you let her hang out with those Turner kids? They are way worse than that Patsy girl.”
“Look, I have no idea what you are talking about. Yes, I told Charlotte to stay away from Patsy. A pregnant preteen is not the kind of kid I want my daughter hangin’ out with. I know all of her other friends, and none of them is pregnant.”
“You know that Jasmine Turner?”
“Of course I know Jasmine. She sleeps over at least twice a month. She goes to church every Sunday, which is more than I can say for Charlotte.”
“Well, goin’ to church every Sunday ain’t doin’ her much good. She smokes more weed tha
n a Rasta man, and she’s been screwin’ around with some of them boys from the high school. Did you know she was into all of that?”
I was almost speechless. It was a struggle for me to find my voice. “I didn’t know. And how did you find out?”
“Jonah Ripley came up in here for the first time to get his hair cut this mornin’. He’s sick of goin’ to Henry’s place. He’s related to the Turners, and he’s the one who told me about Jasmine.”
“I’ll talk to Charlotte as soon as I get home this evening. And the Turner family is such a nice, quiet, churchgoing family…”
“I ain’t finish,” Pee Wee said quickly. “You know that Jasmine’s got three older brothers?”
“Why are you asking me a question that you already know the answer to? One of those boys delivers my newspaper every day. You know that.”
“That ain’t all he delivers. He’s got three different girls pregnant, and they are all due to give birth the same month. Did you know that? And I was told that every day, as soon as them Turner kids get home from school, they party like Rick James.”
“Like I said, I’ll be talking to Charlotte when I get home. I’ll call you later.”
“I’m comin’ over there tonight,” Pee Wee informed me. “Maybe you can’t control my child, but I can!” He hung up. I sat at my desk, glaring at the telephone like it was a dirty diaper. I couldn’t even finish the salad in front of me or concentrate on my work.
Somehow, I made it through the rest of the day. Charlotte was in the bathroom when I got home. I decided to wait for her in her room, sitting on her bed. Just as I stood up to leave, I noticed something sticking out from under her mattress. I pulled out what I thought was a T-shirt or one of her undershirts. It was a pair of her white cotton panties.
The crotch was covered in blood.
Of all the things that had happened to me in the past and in the present, this was my worst nightmare. Somebody had violated my child. And whoever that hound from hell was, he was going to have to answer to me.
CHAPTER 61
Tears were streaming down the sides of my face like a waterfall. I stood there holding those bloody panties, trembling so hard I wanted to scream. Some old memories that I thought I had buried for good danced around in my head. I recalled the first time blood had appeared in my panties. It had happened when I was just seven years old, the first time Mr. Boatwright raped me.
“Mama, what are you doing?” Charlotte asked, stumbling into her room with a towel draped around the bottom half of her naked body. It had been a while since I’d seen her naked. I had no idea that she had started developing breasts. There was no telling what else I didn’t know about my own child. But I was going to find out.
“When did this happen?” I asked, holding the panties up in the air.
“Yesterday,” she muttered. I could see that she was nervous and frightened, and she had every reason to be! “I was going to tell you….”
“Oh? Well, were you going to tell me who did it?”
“Who did what?”
“Did Jacob…have you been to Jacob’s house? Did he…touch you?”
“Mama, what in the world are you talking about?” Charlotte moved back a few steps toward the door, clutching the towel tighter around her.
“Or was it one of Jasmine’s horny, baby-making brothers?”
“Mama, I stopped going over to Jacob’s house just like you told me. And Jasmine’s brothers don’t even like me. They like girls with big butts.”
“What about the drugs?”
“What drugs?”
“Are you going to tell me that those boys don’t smoke weed?”
“No, they do smoke weed.”
“And have you?”
Charlotte looked so frightened I thought she was going to melt into the wall that she was now backed up against. “I only smoked weed one time.”
I swayed like a palm tree. To this day I don’t know how I managed to keep from falling to the ground. “You are not to ever go back to that house!” I hollered, steadying myself by leaning against the wall. “Do you hear me! If I ever hear about you going around those boys again, smoking that shit, I am going to file a complaint against them!”
“I didn’t smoke weed with them! I found that roach on our floor.”
“What?”
“Uh, Uncle Otis and Uncle Bully used to smoke weed all the time when they came over here. Daddy did, too—before you ran him off. They would send me to the store to get that Glade room freshener to spray the air before you got home. I didn’t like it, so I’ll never smoke again. Not even cigarettes.”
“Do you mean to tell me that your daddy knew about this and he didn’t tell me?” I didn’t need the wall to steady myself now. I was so mad that I was stiff enough to stand up in a bowl of quicksand. I must have looked pretty menacing standing in front of my daughter; I had a scowl on my face, with one hand on my hip and my other hand holding her bloody panties.
“No, he didn’t know. I done it behind his back. Uncle Otis told me to never do it again. Uncle Bully told me the same thing, and I told them I wouldn’t. I don’t want to grow up to be a fool like Jade.”
“Your daddy is on his way over here. We are all going to sit down and have a long talk.”
“About what?”
“About your behavior. Now get dressed and get your butt downstairs. He’ll be here any minute, or so he said,” I told her, glancing at my watch.
Pee Wee didn’t come, but he called. “Uh, I’ve got a situation here at my place that I need to address immediately. I’ll try and get over there tomorrow.”
“I know you have more important things to be concerned about than your daughter. But like I’ve told you before, I can handle my end. You take care of yours.”
“You were right. Lizzie’s leavin’. She’s leavin’ the shop, and she’s movin’ in with Henry’s uncle Peabo. I…I found out that Peabo has been dippin’ his spoon in her sugar bowl for weeks! Anyway, she’s also goin’ to be Henry’s new manicurist. I guess that makes you happy, huh?”
“I don’t know what makes you think that. But I will say one thing; it sounds like she’s planning to milk every cow on the farm.”
I was not happy to hear about Lizzie’s new venture. The damage she’d done to me was still too fresh and it remained intact. That was more than enough pain for me to deal with at the time.
Pee Wee grunted. “That’s the way it looks to me. Did you talk to Charlotte yet?”
“I’ve got things under control for now,” I said.
“Are you sure? I do not want to ever hear about her hangin’ around with Jasmine’s brothers. You know how these young punks are these days.”
“And the old punks are not too much better,” I pointed out.
“Look, I am not in the mood for one of your mouthy beat-downs. I know I’ve caused you some grief these past few weeks.”
“Yes, you sure have, but you’re not the only old punk I was referring to this time.”
“What?”
“I don’t want Charlotte around you and your friends when you all are smoking weed.”
Pee Wee remained quiet for a few seconds. “Uh, don’t worry about it. It won’t happen again.”
“You’re damn right it won’t. Call me when you get a chance. I’ve had a splitting headache all day, and it just got worse.”
My head felt like it was going to explode by the time I got through “straightening out” my daughter. No matter how many times I asked her who was responsible for the blood in her panties, she wouldn’t tell me. She continued to say, “I don’t know!” By the time we went to bed, we were both in tears.
I took off work the next day and called to see if I could make an emergency appointment with my regular OB/GYN so I could have Charlotte examined. But there were no appointments available for another three weeks. I ended up dragging her to the free clinic on Morgan Street where the homeless people went. It took a young doctor just a few minutes to tell me what I should have known
already: Charlotte had had her first menstrual period. That’s why the blood was in her panties.
“She’s only eleven,” I yelled. Then it hit me: I had started my first period when I was her age. “Uh, thank you, doctor,” I muttered, on my way out the door.
“Happy?” Charlotte said with a smirk on her face as soon as we got out into the hallway. “What you got to say now?”
I gave her a tired look. I drove in silence for the first few minutes. “Honey, you could have saved us both some grief if you’d just told me what it really was.”
“I tried to, but you kept hollering and screaming at me to tell you the boy’s name that made me bleed. I don’t know anybody I like enough to let him do that to me….”
Her last sentence made me feel so much better. “I’ll pick up some pads,” I told her.
I suddenly felt very old. Even though I was already well into middle age, I had never really felt truly old until now.
“You do know that if you do something nasty, you can get pregnant now,” I mentioned, giving Charlotte a sharp look out of the corner of my eye.
She nodded. “Jade told me a long time ago that getting pregnant was no big deal. She told me about those abortions you made her get.”
That Jade. I was convinced that there was no hope for her, or of the two of us ever restoring our relationship.
I spent the next few days concentrating on my job. The times that Pee Wee came to the house to see Charlotte, he said nothing about Lizzie’s betrayal and departure, and I didn’t ask. I decided that if and when he wanted to discuss it with me, he would.
Since none of my neighbors reported to me that they’d seen Jacob lurking around my house or car again, I assumed that he had gotten the message. The only relationship between the two of us now was the one that involved the legal issue regarding his mother’s unpaid funeral bill. But he got the last laugh on me with that one, too.
Two weeks after I had his paycheck garnished, his employer notified me by certified mail that Jacob had quit his job. That same day, my mother called me up to tell me that Scary Mary had told her that Jacob had fled the country and moved to Montreal, where some of his relatives lived. “You won’t have to worry about him bein’ in the way no more,” she told me with a chuckle. “And with that wench out of Pee Wee’s hair, maybe you got a chance of getting him back. Get on it!”