I was awakened by DeCarious knocking at the door. He came in and said, “What’s up with all this church stuff?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on, Adrienne. If you don’t want to go to church with my mom, all you have to do is say no. Don’t go with her just to be nice.”
“I wouldn’t do that. I wanted to go. Your mom gave me this Bible and everything. She is teaching me some things I didn’t know,” I said, grabbing the Bible off of the nightstand.
“Wow, and you’re reading it.” He chuckled.
“Yeah, like why are you laughing? I’m really trying to make changes in my life. I’m down here, right? I’m learning a lot. My mom never took me to church like that. And I’ve never been to a Baptist church, so it’s good. And I want Malaysia to know about religion and stuff.” I was saying anything and everything that sounded good and DeCarious was falling for it.
“Yeah, that’s true. That’s nice. That’s real nice. I like that, Adrienne. Well, I’m outta here. I’ll be back before you leave to go home.”
“All right.”
“Oh, if y’all going to be coming down on a regular basis, what I’ll do is fix this room up for y’all.”
“Yeah, that will be cool.”
Tuesday morning DeCarious dropped us off at the airport. He gave Asia a kiss and then just said good-bye to me. It wasn’t a bad visit, but the next visits had to be better. It seemed like it was taking him forever to warm up to me. This was going to be so much harder than I expected.
Chapter 20
Cherise
DeCarious has called and texted me a lot and we went on two dates. Right now I was just taking it slow. I liked him, but I didn’t want our relationship to interfere with my job. There wasn’t anywhere written that I couldn’t date DeCarious, but it was a conflict of interest. As a reporter I was supposed to be objective, and that’s hard if the person you’re covering is your boyfriend. I wasn’t sure how this would work out yet. Then there was the athlete factor that worried me. Even Toni said he probably had a lot of women, because of what he does. She told me to have fun with him, but not to take an athlete seriously. But it didn’t seem that way. He came off as a genuine good guy. DeCarious was always helping out his parents or he was at the studio helping out.
Toni and I were about to go to Charlotte to visit our granddaddy. He was sick and Auntie Rose said the doctors said he could go either way. So we had to go and check on him.
“Toni, be ready. I will be at your house in the next half hour.”
“I can’t go,” she said.
“What? You are the one who convinced me to go. So now I have to go all the way Charlotte by myself? Auntie Rose is cooking a big dinner because she thinks we are coming.”
“I know, but I can’t go.”
“If something happens to Granddaddy, you are going to be so upset with yourself.”
“He’ll be all right, until next time. Give him a kiss and tell him I love him. Dave wants to have a talk with me. It is real important. He is trying to save our marriage.”
“Okay, whatever.” I sighed.
“So are you still going to go?”
“I really don’t have a choice, Toni.” I hung up on my sister. Sometimes she made me so angry. I hated going home to visit or deal with my family. For the most part, I didn’t deal with our family because of our cousin Patrick. Patrick was right between Toni and me. We all were close because our parents were always on the road, and his mom was on drugs.
My grandfather and grandmother took care of us all. Uncle Duke was my father’s youngest brother. And when I was about nine and Patrick was eleven and Toni was fourteen, Patrick confided in us that Uncle Duke was molesting him. We convinced him to tell on Uncle Duke. He did, and we all swore that Duke was going to go to jail and they would kick him out of the house. But when he told, no one believed him and they said Patrick was crazy.
All the adults in the family said Uncle Duke would never do anything like that because he had so many women. But I knew what Patrick was saying was the truth because he repeated the same story over and over to us. And every time he would see Uncle Duke he would tremble and get scared. But every time he said that Duke touched him, my granddaddy beat him until he stopped saying it. Like it wasn’t true. Right then and there is when I lost respect for all the adults in my family, and we all plotted to get out of Charlotte and never return. Toni and I did it, but Patrick is still there, and he was the one who needed to leave most.
By the time we were teenagers, Patrick was on drugs, a runaway, and a male prostitute. And then our family shunned him altogether. But Uncle Duke was still allowed to come around and no one ever said anything.
I tried to keep in contact with Patrick, but he was always moving around and changing cell phone numbers. I even tried to get him to move to Atlanta with me. Once I got to Charlotte I was going to see if I could get in touch with him.
I was mad that I had to drive to Charlotte on my own. I turned the radio on to V103. This was a time I wished I had invested in satellite radio. I hated when the stations changed. I heard the phone ring and I turned down the radio. I thought it was Toni calling back.
“How you doing, Ms. Long?” I recognized DeCarious’s voice.
“I’m fine, Mr. Simmons. How are you?” I giggled.
“I’m fine. What’s up with you?”
“Right now I’m starting my long journey up I-85 to Charlotte.”
“By yourself?”
“Yes, unfortunately.”
“You should have told me. I would have rode with you.”
“That would have been nice.”
“I still can go. How far did you get?”
“I actually just got on the road. My sister was going to drive with me, but her and her husband have to take care of something.”
“Do you want me to ride with you? I’ll drive and that will give us a chance to talk some more.”
“You’ll drive up there with me?” I really didn’t want to drive four hours by myself.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, I can meet you off the highway at the Exxon.”
We met at a gas station. I parked in a supermarket parking lot and turned the alarm on and jumped into his big truck. I would normally not take anyone home to Charlotte, but it was only my aunt and sick grandfather.
My auntie Rose was sitting on the porch in her big blue-flowered dress when we pulled up in front of my granddaddy’s house. My auntie Rose was my father’s older sister. She never moved out or married, she just took care of my grandfather and the house. She stared at the truck, trying to see who was in it.
She stood up and said, “Cherise, I’m glad you made it.” She gave me a great big hug and then turned to DeCarious and said, “How you doing, young man? What’s your name?”
“DeCarious.”
“Nice to meet you, DeCarious. Come on in and have a seat.”
Granddaddy was in a hospital bed, by the steps. I walked over to his bed and said, “Hey, Granddaddy.”
He looked up, saw me, and called me by my nickname. “Ju Ju Bean.”
“Granddaddy, it’s me, Ju Ju Bean. You okay?” I asked him. He didn’t have enough energy to sit up so I leaned over and hugged him. I always had mixed feelings about my grandfather. He treated us good, but allowed everyone to treat Patrick like he wasn’t his grandson.
“Yeah, doin’ as best I can.” He coughed and paused and then said, “Where Sweet Pea?”
“She couldn’t make it, Granddaddy, but she told me to give you a kiss and tell you that she loves you.” I sat next to the bed and talked to him for a while and then went back to the sofa where Auntie Rose was talking DeCarious’s ears off.
“Why Toni ain’t come? What, she too good?” she asked.
“No, Auntie, she had a meeting she had to go to.”
“Oh, ’cause I know how y’all spoiled girls be thinking about us and coming home,” she said as she went into the kitchen and came back with a few glasses and a pit
cher of lemonade. She poured us both a glass and then asked, “You talk to your parents?”
“No, I hear from them twice a year. They send me a big gift on my birthday and Christmas. You know.”
“Yeah, your father does the same thing to me.”
I looked over at DeCarious. He was being friendly, but he looked bored and so was I. I felt like I did— what was I supposed to do? I checked on my Granddaddy and chatted a little with Auntie Rose and now I could leave.
“Well, Auntie Rose, I think we’ll be getting back on the road soon. I have to be to work early.”
“Ya’ll not staying for dinner?” she asked, disappointed.
“No, we can’t. I have to get back and so does he.”
“But I made all this food y’all better eat up. Toni was supposed to come. So was Duke, Duke’s girlfriend, my friend Josie, and her husband. You know Duke is ill, too! Got cancer.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“He got some other things going on with him, too. Good thing he has a good girlfriend now. She takes good care of him.”
“Auntie Rose, I would love to, but we have to get back on the road.” Just as I said that as I was leaving, there was a knock on the door. It was Patrick. I walked out and saw this skinny frame—he looked like a fraction of my cousin. I screamed as I gave him a hug. “I didn’t expect you to get my message and just come.”
“Yeah, as soon as I heard my favorite little cousin was in town, I got a ride over here. Look at you looking all pretty,” he said. I couldn’t say the same for him. He always stayed on top of his wardrobe and looks. But everything on him looked raggedy. His tan shirt had a few grease spots and his jeans were loose, like he wore them too many times in a row. His appearance made me a little concerned.
“I was just about to have dinner. Why don’t you stay for a little bit? Come in and get yourself something to eat?” I said as I changed my mind about having dinner. Patrick looked like he needed a meal and someone to talk to.
“No, my ride is waiting. Plus you know I don’t mess with them,” he said, looking over at the running pearl-colored Cadillac and the older man driver.
“I’m here. I’ll take you home. Auntie Rose is cooking dinner and Granddaddy is not doing so good.”
“Then I’ll stay.” He went and told his ride he was staying.
Patrick came in and sat with our grandfather as Auntie Rose began making our plates in the dining room. Auntie Rose was never a good cook, but the ham, mashed potatoes, string beans, and biscuits and gravy looked edible. I introduced Patrick to DeCarious and he gave me a thumbs-up sign when DeCarious wasn’t looking. We all talked a little and went to sit at the dining room table to eat. I picked at my food and so did DeCarious. However, Patrick was eating the bland food like he hadn’t had a hot meal in months. Auntie Rose didn’t mind—she was happy to take his plate and serve him seconds. Just as Auntie Rose placed Patrick’s plate in front of him again, Uncle Duke came walking through the door. Auntie Rose gave him a big king’s welcome. Damn. I saw Patrick’s eyes go down and his whole attitude changed once Duke entered the room. Duke was in his late forties, tall, dark brown, with a thin mustache. He always dressed like he was on his way to church somewhere, even when he was just going to the corner store. His girlfriend looked like she was in her late twenties and her son looked to be about ten. I couldn’t wait to hurry up and eat my food and go. I knew something was going to happen, I just didn’t know what. I should have left when I had the chance.
Uncle Duke’s girlfriend, Francine, sat next to me and Duke had the audacity to sit directly across from Patrick. I could feel the tension building. So to break up the uneasiness in the room I made small talk with Patrick. Then in the middle of the conversation Duke asked Patrick to pass the gravy to him. Why would he do that? I saw how Patrick looked at him, but I was surprised that he just passed it across the table.
He finished answering my question and then out of nowhere Patrick said, “I know you’re not going to sit across the table from me like nothing happened, like you didn’t used to come in my room and touch me.”
“When are you going to stop telling lies?” Uncle Duke said.
“You mind your manners, boy,” Auntie Rose said.
“I don’t have to mind shit. I’m grown now. I told y’all that motherfucker touched and raped me and y’all ain’t do shit about it. Y’all always taking up for him and he is the motherfucking devil.” He turned to my uncle’s new girlfriend. “If you know him like I know him, you better watch your son.”
“You going to keep on lying. Why are you trying to talk that crazy shit?” Duke asked.
“I ain’t lying shit. You know it’s true. When you look in the mirror you should see Satan because you the fuck are him.”
“You little faggot, you better be quiet.”
“I’m a faggot? How did I get this way, you fucking asshole?” Patrick said as he lunged across the table and punched Uncle Duke in the jaw. Once they got in contact with one another no one could break the fight up. It was total chaos and happening so quickly. They knocked all the food off the table, and the fight was going all around the house, from the dining room table to the living room, where my grandfather was sleeping comfortably. It was just a mess. The best thing for everyone was to just move out of the way. DeCarious attempted several times to break it up, but Patrick was just throwing wild, fast punches. My aunt was crying and rocking back and forth. She kept saying she couldn’t believe he would keep telling a lie for all these years. I couldn’t believe that she still didn’t get that her brother was a child molester. Uncle Duke was trying to stop fighting, but Patrick wouldn’t let him. He didn’t have enough energy to punch him anymore, so he began kicking him, screaming, “That’s why you got cancer in your ass and you going to get AIDS in your dick, bitch. ’Cause of what the fuck you did to me.” Patrick finally stopped hitting and went back to the table and began trying to salvage what was left of the food to make another plate. Uncle Duke’s girlfriend picked him up off the floor. He stood up and wiped down his clothing and left out the door.
Moments later, the cops arrived. One of the neighbors must have heard the commotion and called. The police came in the house and saw the damage. They questioned Patrick and then put him in handcuffs and interviewed everyone else. They were going to let Patrick go, but he kept talking trash.
“Patrick, just shut up. They are going to let you go,” I said as I walked over to the police car.
“Man, fuck that damn cop.”
“Don’t say that. If you get locked up right now, Duke wins. Don’t let him have that kind of power over you.” I walked over to the police officer and tried to reason with him. He said since Uncle Duke had left, he would let Patrick go if he was quiet. I finally was able to get him to be quiet and the police let him go.
We calmed my aunt down and then began trying to straighten the house up. Everything was everywhere. I looked over at DeCarious, sweeping up pieces of glass, and thought, What a great third date. I was so embarrassed. I couldn’t even imagine what he was thinking about. All I kept telling myself was, this is why I never go home.
I didn’t have much to say on most of the ride home and I think DeCarious understood. We dropped Patrick off and I closed my eyes and tried to forget what just happened.
DeCarious woke me when we were at my car. I couldn’t believe I slept the entire ride. He got out of the car, opened my door, and helped me out of the car.
“Don’t worry, because everyone’s family has drama a couple of times.”
“Please, I know every family has drama. But not like mine.”
“You know what, you might be right,” he said as he attempted to hold back a laugh. I started laughing, too. “Cherise, it is not funny, but when your cousin started cussing your uncle out, I said to myself, it is about to go down.”
“I knew it was, too, but I didn’t think Patrick was going to hit him.” I was happy he could make a joke out of the situation.
“Yeah, he
fights like a man. He got him good, and it seems like it was overdue.”
“It was, but I’m still sorry you had to see that, and thanks for helping to clean up.”
“I told you it was not a problem. You going to be okay?”
“Yeah,” I said as he walked me toward my car. He leaned me up against my car and began passionately kissing me and wrapping his warm arms around my core, which gave me the biggest rush. I had to push him away from me. He stopped momentarily, but then he moved in again, holding me even tighter. I had to stop, because right now the way I felt I would take him home and let him have his way with me and it was too soon for that.
“You sure you’re okay? Do you need me to follow you home? I can sleep on the sofa,” DeCarious asked.
“No, I think you might try to come in my bed.”
“I promise I will stay in the living room.”
“No, good night, DeCarious. I’ll call you.”
“Make sure you do,” he said. Even if he could control himself I wasn’t sure if I could. I wanted DeCarious to spend the night with me and reopen every space that hadn’t been touched in two years.
Chapter 21
Zakiya
I came home from work tired as hell. Working a lot of hours is hell, but it was the only way I would have enough money to buy a car and save for an apartment. I was going to start school with Elena at LACC, LA Community College, by December and we were going to try to get a two-bedroom apartment. Her brother’s wife and kids drove her crazy, plus I just didn’t want to overstay my welcome at my aunt’s house.
As I came in from work, I saw Aunt Vicky in the middle of the living room filling boxes. I said hello to her and walked straight back to my room and noticed Jade packing, too.
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