by Mary Monroe
“Who said I wanted Pee Wee back?” I asked, glad she was in her house so she couldn’t see the look on my face. I was sick and tired of people trying to tell me how to live my life—even my parents. I didn’t want to remind my mother that had it not been for her, Lizzie would never have entered my life in the first place!
“Why not? Other than him havin’ a restless, wanderin’ pecker, ain’t nothin’ else wrong with him. And how many times do I have to tell you that ALL men are dogs? But as long as you keep ’em on a tight enough leash, you can make ’em behave.”
CHAPTER 62
Jade was released from the hospital a week later. By then, Vernie had fled. I didn’t get to see him in person before he boarded a plane for Alabama, but he called me up from the airport. Just like that sweet Mexican that Jade had tried to bully into marriage.
“Annette, I just wanted to let you know that I am sorry I didn’t have a chance to get to know you better. Just from the few times I did see you, I could tell you are a good woman. I don’t believe any of that stuff Jade told me about you,” he said, his voice trembling.
“Vernie, I am really glad you called. I have always been on your side, and I am so sorry that you had to go through all that mess with Jade before you took action. I don’t condone violence, but in this case, she had it coming.”
“I’m glad she’s going to be all right and I still love her. But…but I don’t like her. Does that make sense to you?”
“It makes a lot of sense to me because I feel the same way. I don’t like a lot of the people I love.” We both laughed. “Do you think you’ll ever come back to Ohio? Or do you think you will try to resume your relationship with Jade in Alabama?”
“HELL NO!” Vernie roared. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to holler like that. But I wouldn’t try to resume a relationship with Jade in heaven!”
“That’s a very potent statement, Vernie, but I understand. You don’t have to apologize for anything to me. I just wish you the best.”
“I called up my mama the other day, and she’s already got me an appointment with a lawyer when I get home.”
“Oh? I am so sorry to hear that. Are you thinking about getting a divorce?”
“Annette, since the day I married Jade, that’s all I’ve been thinking about! Before I left, I did hug her and I told her that I was sorry about hitting her with that lamp. She didn’t even apologize for hitting me first, but she told me that she was glad nobody got killed. She also told me how upset she was about me making her break off her silk-wrapped nails when we were struggling over that lamp.”
“That’s Jade for you,” I mumbled.
“Anyway, I’m sorry I hugged her now because I think she took it the wrong way.”
“What do you mean by that? Does she think you’re going back to Alabama just for some R and R?”
“I don’t know what that damn girl thinks, and I don’t care!” Vernie yelled. I was so glad to hear him being so much more assertive. I was sorry that he had not been that way sooner. Maybe his marriage would have had a chance.
“She kissed me on my jaw and told me to take care of myself. She also told me to ‘stop being such a crybaby’ and to get to know my Bible better so I could be a better husband.”
I rolled my eyes and let out a heavy sigh. “And what did you tell her?”
“I don’t even remember what rolled off my tongue. But I know I didn’t say anything about being a better husband to her. All I want to do is get the hell out of this state!”
“Good luck, Vernie. You have my address and phone number, and whenever you want to communicate with me, do so.”
I didn’t tell Rhoda about my conversation with Vernie when I met her for lunch the following Friday. I was in a fairly good mood and I wanted to stay that way. I hadn’t read the newspapers or listened to the news on the radio in the last few days so I didn’t know about Mike Tyson biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear during their fight a few days ago. I didn’t think it was funny, but when Rhoda told me, I laughed with her. By the time we finished lunch, I felt like my old self. But I knew I wasn’t…
Pee Wee had started coming to the house every day now, but he still had not said anything about the future of our relationship. He didn’t bring up Lizzie’s name, and I didn’t either. One reason I didn’t ask him his business was that I didn’t want to know if he had another reason for not mentioning our future himself. And it was a reason that Rhoda had brought to my attention. “Maybe he’s still out there because he’s involved with somebody else now,” she’d suggested.
That was one thing that I had not even thought about. And if that was the case, I didn’t want to think about it.
I decided to work late that night. Rhoda collected Charlotte from school and dropped her off at my parents’ house so she could spend the night there.
After work, I stopped by a nearby deli and ordered a chicken salad for dinner. I took my time eating it, half of which I left on the plate. When I left the deli, I stopped at the Grab and Go convenience store to pick up a few feminine products and had a chat with the long-winded cashier. It was around nine thirty by the time I made it to my side of town.
There was some construction going on along my usual route, so I had to drive down Rhoda’s street to get to mine. There was an ambulance parked in her driveway again! It screamed out of the driveway before I could even park my car.
Bully was standing in the front doorway with his shirt hanging open and a dazed look on his face. “What the hell is going on this time?” I yelled. “Where’s Rhoda? Where’s Otis?”
“Otis had a union meeting tonight. Rhoda’s in de ambulance with Jade,” Bully told me with a weary voice, still looking dazed. I knew that Bully and Rhoda had been lovers for decades, and I knew they cared about one another. They were one of the most passionate couples I knew. But what I couldn’t figure out was why a handsome man like Bully was so attracted to a woman—his best friend’s wife at that—with as many problems as Rhoda. But what did I know? There were probably people thinking a lot worse things about me.
“Annette, thank de Lord you’re here! She dood it again! She dood it again!” Bully chanted.
“What did Jade ‘dood’ this time?” I asked, following Bully into Rhoda’s living room.
“Of course you must know by now!” Bully said, turning to face me with his hands up in the air and waving like he was directing traffic.
I gave him an impatient look before I let out a loud groan. “Bully, I do not know. If it’s not too much trouble, please tell me what is going on.”
“Sorry. I grovel in modification,” he said, giving me a slight bow, then lifting my hand and kissing it. “Forgive me, please. I am so overwhelmed.”
There were a lot of things I loved about Jamaican men. Like the level of sensitivity some of them possessed and displayed, their charm, and especially their sex appeal. Bully had all of those qualities, but he was also the most exasperating man I knew!
“Bully, who did what?” I removed my hand from his and glanced at my watch. “Has there been an accident or something worse? If you don’t tell me within the next few minutes, I am going to leave.”
He finally got to the point. Like Otis, when Bully got excited, his accent thickened and his English got more convoluted. I could barely understand what he was saying. “Let me tell you. De server come a little while ago with divorce papers from Vernie. Jade was in Red Rose with some girlfriends when he come. He go dere and serve she. Right in de public eye, Jade explode. She catch afire like de burning bush! I predict so much hell to pay soon, I can already smell de brimstone. Anyway, she get so upset she have panic attack, can’t breathe. She makes it home in the nick of time, waving divorce document like it was a death notice. Lo and behold, she falls and hits her head on corner of de coffee table. Me and Rhoda think it’s better she go back to hospital because she was bleeding like crazy. I hope she is not doing too badly. Losing her man the way she did, that’s pretty bad.” Bully paused and gave me a c
urious look. “Of course, you know what that feels like, huh?”
I ignored Bully’s last comment. “Jade must not be doing too badly if she’s going out to a bar,” I quipped. I didn’t mean to sound as harsh as I did, but it was hard not to when it involved Jade.
“Oh, she had to be at Red Rose tonight. Very big night dere tonight. She talked about it all day! Tonight was de monthly hot body contest night,” Bully explained.
“She just got out of the hospital and she’s out entering a wet T-shirt contest?”
“Not wet T-shirt,” Bully said with a dismissive wave. “Jade say wet T-shirt contest is for ghetto crowd. Only hot body contest for her—and she always win at least first or second place. She’s a tart, that one.”
“She sure is, Bully. Listen, I’m not even going to bother going over to the hospital. I’m tired,” I said, looking and feeling like I’d been up for the past two days. “When Rhoda gets home, tell her I stopped by, and tell her to call me if she feels like it.” I started walking toward the door; then I stopped. “No, don’t tell her to call me up tonight. You don’t even need to let her know that I was here. I’ll talk to her tomorrow.”
I went home and went straight to bed, and I didn’t open my eyes until the next morning. And as soon as I sat up in bed, Rhoda called.
“Annette, I’m losin’ my mind. I’m losin’ my child,” she whimpered so softly I could barely hear her. A split second later, her voice rose like a phoenix. “How will I ever be able to show my face again in the Red Rose? Vernie had Jade served with divorce papers there last night! And in front of her friends!”
“While she was competing in the monthly hot body contest…”
Rhoda gasped, then lowered her voice to a roar. “How did you know that?”
“I was passing by your house on my way home when the ambulance was pulling away last night. Bully told me. I told him not to tell you I was there.”
“Can you believe that Vernie can be so mean? She’s in bed now, doing fine, but still upset. No woman in her right mind ever wants to go through a divorce! Look at you! If Pee Wee had done to me what he did to you, I’d have probably killed him before I let my marriage end in divorce. I’m so glad that you decided not to get a divorce.”
“There are a lot worse things than divorce, Rhoda.”
“Such as?”
“Well, there are too many for me to list. But divorce doesn’t scare me.”
“Humph! You must know somethin’ the rest of us don’t know.”
“I wouldn’t say that. But like I said, divorce doesn’t scare me. As a matter of fact, it looks like I’ll be getting one after all.”
CHAPTER 63
I was about to pour myself a large drink, but I changed my mind as soon as I plucked a glass out of my dishwasher. For once, I wanted to be stone-cold sober when I talked to Pee Wee about our marriage. He’d said that he’d see me in a few hours.
Since my last conversation with Rhoda, which had been three days ago, I had done a lot of thinking. For one thing, I was not going to let my decisions be influenced by anybody else’s unsolicited input.
Muh’Dear had come by the house last night and bombarded me with comments like, “You’d better be tryin’ to get your husband back before another woman grabs him up.” She said a lot of things like that, but the one that hurt the most was, “You done ran off two men this year, and that should tell you that you don’t have what it takes no more.”
Daddy had come with her and all he’d said was, “Girl, you do what you think is right for you. Whomever you end up with, you’ll be the one sleepin’ with him, not us.”
Scary Mary had left several messages on my answering machine, but I didn’t have the strength to call her back and listen to more of what she had to say.
Charlotte was the only one who said something that didn’t upset me. “Mama, I don’t know why everybody is all upset. It ain’t like my daddy moved to Mars or dropped dead. He’s still in our lives.”
Pee Wee didn’t show up until after eleven. By then Charlotte was in bed and I had settled myself on the couch with a glass of tea.
“No wine tonight?” he asked, easing down into that old La-Z-Boy that he still had not removed from my presence.
I shook my head. “I was not up for that,” I told him. “You want some tea?”
“I’m up for some wine, if you don’t mind.”
After I poured him a glass of wine and set the bottle next to his glass on the coffee table, I returned to the couch. I took another sip of my tea and looked him in the eye. “We need to make some decisions. When do you plan to pick up the rest of your stuff? That La-Z-Boy has been getting on my nerves for years….”
He drank some wine before he replied. “I know. Just like I was.”
I rolled my eyes, ignoring his remarks. “There are a bunch of old tools and fishin’ poles in the basement, too. If you don’t want it, I can call the junkman.”
His eyes got big. “I paid a lot of money for them tools and fishin’ gear! You know that! You would give all of my stuff away to the junkman?”
“I will if you don’t want it. I have no use for it. We’ve talked about this before.”
He set down his glass and rubbed the palms of his hands together. “Is there a reason why you want me to get all my stuff out of this house?”
My eyes got big this time. “A reason? The reason is that you don’t live here anymore.”
He shrugged and mumbled something unintelligible under his breath. “Maybe you don’t want nothin’ around here that will remind your new friend of me, huh? Is that what this is all about?”
“I don’t have a new friend, and if I did, I wouldn’t even think about moving him into my house,” I declared, waving my hand and snapping my fingers.
I hadn’t told Rhoda about Jacob hitting me in the restaurant, and decided that I wouldn’t. That was one thing I didn’t want Pee Wee to know about. After what he’d done to Louis Baines when he found out that he’d hit me, I knew that he would probably kill Jacob.
“I’ve had it up to my gums with all of that shit! All I want now is to be happy. And if being alone is the only way I can do that, well…”
“What happened between you and Jacob?” he asked sharply, giving me a suspicious look. “I heard he took off for Canada.”
“That’s not important. You didn’t come over here to discuss Jacob.” We stared at each other for a tense moment.
I didn’t know what was going through his mind, and I didn’t want him to know what was going through mine. I didn’t want to think about Jade and Vernie, the sorry state of my marriage, my daughter’s welfare, or much of anything else. My thoughts involved a lot of things, and the one that stood out the most right now was Jacob. He had terrorized me, but now that he was gone, I saw no reason for Pee Wee to know that. Besides, as long as Jacob didn’t plan on paying his mother’s funeral expenses, he would never work in Richland again. If he ever did, I would not hesitate to sick a process server on him. Then I’d haul him to small claims court and have his wages attached some more. I was confident that his moving back to Richland was unlikely. And with the top-notch security system Pee Wee had installed in my house, I was not worried about anybody else threatening my safety either.
“Well, he is part of the problem,” Pee Wee insisted.
“Look, Jacob is no longer a friend of mine,” I said. I made that statement with such a firm voice Pee Wee had to know that I was serious. “That relationship is over, too….”
He rose and stood next to the chair, still staring at me. “I don’t mind lettin’ you know that I’m glad to hear that,” he said with a sneer. “I always knew you could do better than him.”
I chuckled. “He said the same thing about you.”
“Whatever.” He rubbed the palms of his hands together again. “Well, since we started out as friends, do you think we can ever be friends again?”
“As far as I’m concerned, you and I are still friends. And will continue to be. But the d
ifference now is that we are just friends. That’s all.”
“We’re still married. We’re still man and wife.”
“You left me for another woman!” I said hotly, waving my finger in his direction like a sword.
He shook his finger at me and gave me an incredulous look. No, it was more of a hostile look, and I didn’t like that look at all. “So? You left me for another man!” he snapped. I narrowed my eyes and gritted my teeth so hard it made him flinch. “What’s that mean look for, Annette? I’m tellin’ the truth, and you know it!”
“I didn’t leave you for Louis Baines! I…I slept with him, but I didn’t leave you for him. I didn’t flaunt him the way you did Lizzie for everybody in town to see and pity me! I at least cared enough about your feelings to try and hide my affair. You rubbed yours in my face!”
“What difference does it make who did what? The bottom line is, we both fucked up!”
I leaped up off the couch and lunged for the wine. I took a long drink straight from the bottle. It was enough for me to get an immediate buzz. I whirled around to face Pee Wee again. “Do you want a divorce or what?”
“I don’t know what I want,” he said in a weary voice. That was not what I wanted to hear.
I returned to my seat, still clutching the wine bottle. “Well, when will you know? I don’t plan on spending the rest of my life tied up in a situation like this! I can’t live not knowing something more definite about our future together. If I or if we both meet somebody else that we want to marry, I don’t want us to have to wait for a divorce to be final.”