"Well, that's why! What kind of mother would just pass her daughter on to a man who fondles her?"
"Shut up, mother! Just shut up! He did no such thing! No matter how angry I may be at him, he's not that type of person. She admitted it was a lie, and I, for one, believe that is was. Shawn would never do such a thing! That I do know about him!"
"Well, whether he is guilty or not, we're getting her back! You want to do something with you life? You still can; she can go off to school for the major part of the year, that's plenty of time for you to get your life in order."
"Wait a minute! You want me to fight him to keep her from him, just to send her off to school?"
"And what's wrong with that? Sent you off…you turned out just fine! No better polished woman have I ever seen, than you. She deserves the same."
"Yeah…she deserves to be as I am now, miserable, with nothing normal about me or the things that I do." Deidre sniffed and wiped her nose, thinking. Then asked suddenly, "Why did you and dad even have me? Why was it necessary?"
"Why do you think? Nobody lives forever; who will the company and everything we've built up go to, if you don't have at least one."
"So...that's it? Just to have someone to pass it all to. Just so it doesn't slip away into the hands of others. I mean...why would it matter? You'll be dead anyway…how would you know?"
"Hmmm, that's true. Very true." Her mother reflected in thought.
Deidre sat and stared at her. "Mother, have you ever once...held me in your arms, and squeezed me close, proud of what you'd created?"
"Giving birth hurt like hell! I wasn't in the mood for the tender scene, okay? You were always well taken care of. We paid for the best nurses and nannies. Besides, I was there for all of your little recitals. All your little award ceremonies, all the graduations… and who threw you the biggest birthday parties anyone has ever been to? Me! I did my part. My mother did hers, and her mother did the same! Now you do yours for your daughter, and quit this embarrassing weeping. You're giving me a headache."
Deidre turned and looked out of her window, the plane was airborne. Now if she could only be so lucky as to wish it into a crash landing… if it did, that would be just fine with her.
Chapter 40
The chicken smelled wonderful, making Sylvia's stomach growl—loud; again she looked over at Shawn, he was determined to keep a straight expression. No grinning whatsoever. Angela was in the back seat munching on her fries. "Pum'kin, why don't you wait until we get back to the hotel and eat with your cousins," Shawn suggested, glancing up through his rear view mirror. "Ooh, they taste so good! Okay, I'm gonna eat just one more," she mumbled with her mouth full. Suddenly Shawn's hand snaked back and grabbed a handful. "Hey! Daddy! You got mash potatoes!" she reminded him. He chuckled, eating the eight or more fries.
Sylvia was dying for something, anything—she was starving. Suddenly a fry appeared under her nose from the back seat, Angela with wide eyes was offering her some of hers. "It's not fair daddy have some and not you," she reasoned. Sylvia smiled and decided she would hold off and eat at the hotel. "Aaah, you are so sweet, Angela, but I'm going to wait, okay? Thank you, though."
She sat back with a shrug. "Okay." And popped it into her mouth.
They finally pulled up into the hotel parking lot, Shawn driving around to the back of the hotel and parking near their entry door, when Sylvia noticed the pearlescent beige Ford Minivan with all of its doors open and kids jumping out. She could see the back of a woman leaning in to unbuckle one of the younger ones.
"They're here already. When it comes to food, Derrick does not play—he eats three times as much as I do!" Shawn chuckled. The woman set the child down and turned, looking toward them, a big fat smile burst on her face while waving at them.
"Oh…my…God—no way!" Sylvia gasped.
"What? Do you know her or something?"
Sylvia was quiet a moment, stunned, then finally answered, "Yes, I know her. She dated Armundo before he left her and came to me."
"Your first husband?" Shawn asked, surprised.
"Yeah…we all came from the same neighborhood and went to the same high school, Gage Park."
"It's a small world," Shawn spoke the old cliché, pulling in one space away from them.
Meribel was standing and waiting to receive a hug from Shawn as soon as he cut the engine and stepped from the vehicle.
"Heeey, papi! How you doing?" she asked, her Puerto Rican accent still pretty strong, hugging him tightly as he gave her a good squeeze, lifting her off the ground, giving her a solid kiss and suck to her neck which made her squeal in laughter. "Papi, you so crazy! Turning me on in front of my husband!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Hands and lips off the wife!" Derrick barked, grinning that very same grin as his older brother.
"Ah, come on! You have her all the time! You be glad I was out of town when you found her!" Shawn joked, setting her down to turn to his brother, the two bear-hugging, so happy to see each other; it had been a while even though they talked on the phone often.
"Hey, Tio Shawn, where's Angela?" Sasha, his brother's only daughter, who was ten years old, asked him right away. There were five of them present from seventeen down to five. His 17-year-old nephew stood with his mp3 player ear phones on, grinning at him so much like his father. Derrick and his son were both taller than Shawn; in fact, they were the tallest in the family. Derrick standing 6'4 and his 17-year-old son, 6'5.
"My god, man, look at this kid!" Shawn blasted, staring at his nephew. "What are you guys feeding him? Man, I know you play basketball!" he stated as Angela jumped out of the SUV and Sasha was quick to hug her, so happy to see her cousin, finally another girl to talk and giggle with.
Marcus smiled, showing silver braces on his teeth. "Yeah…I'm good, too. We're gonna have to shoot some hoops, Tio."
"You sure you wanna do that? 'Cause I'm good, ask your dad…he may have me in height, but I got skills!" Shawn bragged, winking at his brother who laughed, patting him on the back. Derrick was eyeing the attractive young black woman that slowly came around the vehicle to meet his wife who, at the moment, was staring at her in shock.
Sylvia took a deep breath as she stared into the face of a woman she went to school with so long ago.
"Oh, no…no freakin' way…oh, my God! Sylvia Martin! I didn't know you were the Sylvia!"
"Yep…in the flesh," Sylvia presented herself.
"I cannot believe my eyes! Oh, my goodness! Baby! This is the one I've been telling you about. This is who junior's father married!"
Sylvia gaped. "What?" she asked. Meribel was shaking her head, looking from her husband back to Sylvia.
"You…were pregnant by Armundo?" Sylvia murmured, stunned.
"Yes, I was! So were two other girls! Then he knocked you up, too. You won him, and I for one, am eternally grateful, because it set me up to get that man right there! I just cannot believe this."
"Yes…good for me...I won him." Sylvia was anything but happy about that revelation. "I knew about the other two girls, but I didn't know that you were. Where is your son?"
"He lives in La Crosse. Girl, look at you! I am in total shock! So, you guys divorce?"
"No, he died, Meribel…in a car accident about two years ago."
"No freakin' way! Oh, my god! Girl, junior had been asking me and his dad for the longest, should he meet his dad...should he try and find him. We kept telling him that it was up to him, but he could never get himself to do it. Besides, he's always had a father…a damn good one!" Meribel went on passionately.
"Honey, can we move this inside, so we can all eat?" Derrick broke in, hungry.
"Okay…my goodness, you're not gonna starve!"
"Well, if you had cooked…"
"Oh! Here we go! You were at home today, too!" she lit into him.
"This way, everybody." Shawn started laughing, shaking his head at them, leading the crew through the door to the hotel as all of his brother's children piled in, with Angela and Sasha holding
hands and going in together. There were six children in total for Derrick McPherson's clan, starting with their oldest son that Meribel had been pregnant with when he first met her, who was named after him: Derrick Jr., twenty-one; Marcus, seventeen; Luis, fifteen; Shawn Everett the second, thirteen. Meribel introduced them as they walked through; and last, their 5-year-old, Joseph Nathan. The kids carried the KFC as she and Sylvia walked side by side. Sylvia could not believe how much Shawn II looked like his uncle. Meribel and Derrick told her how the family was always teasing him that Shawn must have slipped in from California when he turned over in bed one night. "Girl, the moment his mom saw him, she said, 'there's Shawn all over again.' So, naturally, that's what we named him."
Even Shawn was floored by how much the boy's features were his own, although he'd only seen him four or five times over the years; he was really turning more and more like him with each passing year. He just hoped he wouldn't be as dumb and angry as he had been. The object of their discussion had nothing on his mind but getting into the chicken bucket. Sylvia and Shawn opened their room doors and the kids went to one side with their food, while the adults talked in the other room eating theirs.
"So, how did you two meet?" Sylvia asked, truly curious.
"I was so heartbroken over being pregnant and losing Armundo to you, that my mother sent me to live with my Tio, who had just bought some land here. Girl, forgetting where the heck I was, I just took off walking one day upset, crying, feeling sorry for myself. Miserable! I musta been about seven months pregnant. Got my silly butt lost in the woods. I must have walked for hours trying to find my way back. Honey, the country in the woods, ain't nothing like the city—don't go gettin' lost there!" She laughed, Sylvia smiled, agreeing.
"Anyway, I start bawling and crying, I'm talking to myself and God, asking why you do this to me! I'm gonna die here! Me and my baby will be found, nothing but bones...that's all that will be left of us." She laughed.
"Yeah," Derrick joined, "It was something to see. I was fishing, getting ready to head back, when I heard her. I got my stuff together and went looking for the source of the wailing, and there she was, sitting at the base of a tree, crying her eyes out. This perfectly round ball-belly protruding from her. It was over for me right then."
"Aaaah, isn't he cute!" Meribel pealed, leaning over to give her husband a kiss, picking up where he left off. "Yep, girl, I was a mess and he just swooped in, talked to me and calmed me down, askin' me my name and was I alright. Where I lived and how did I end up lost in the woods. I could barely talk...'cause I was like…hell naaaw! He was like—fo-ine! And all I could think about was, oh man...here I am pregnant, and this too fine tall-ass white dude comes and just blows me away. He took me home with him first, because we were closer to his house than where I walked from. His parents were soooo nice. Next thing, he and his dad drove me back home to my Tio's, and the rest is history."
"Well, I'm happy things turned out so well for you. You know, my kids live in La Crosse as well, there's two of them. I had a girl first, Crystal Bella and then my son, Armundo, he's a Jr. as well."
"Wow...lemme show you a picture of my Derrick," Meribel offered, and Sylvia pulled hers too. They talked for a while longer, Shawn explaining the current scenario that brought them there, and why Angela was with him. He left out the claim she made against him, because he just couldn't bring himself to share it with his brother; it still hurt and embarrassed him. Derrick and Meribel, during the time they sat and talked, noticed that Sylvia and Shawn didn't touch, barely looked at each other and they couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Meribel was going to get to the bottom of it; an hour later, they were ready to roll out, with her announcing, "Sylvia! You're going to ride with me in the van. You three, go with your dad in Sylvia's car! You two, go with your Tio Shawn, let's go."
Shawn sighed. Actually, he'd wanted to be alone with Sylvia, but giving her a quick glance, hoping she'd look his way proved in vain, she kept her face averted. After everyone was in and ready to pull off for taking Sylvia's car back, she sat longing for Shawn. As angry as she was, determined still to break it off, she felt his absence. Her body was actually physically moved by the fact that he was in a separate vehicle. Such strong internal turmoil over him just being in another vehicle stunned her, she was afraid that she was in deeper than she ever imagined. They started pulling out of the hotel, Meribel followed Shawn, and Derrick followed his wife.
"Okay...spill it. What's going on? I ain't gonna be beating around no bullshit bush. What's happening with you two?" Meribel asked bluntly.
"Nothings happening...we're just…" Sylvia trailed off, not sure what to say.
"Just what?" Meribel pressed.
"I-I don't know if we're going to make it, that's all."
"Make it, as in…together?"
Sylvia looked at her. "Yes."
"Why not? Aren't you in love with him? He sure as hell in love with you!"
"How would you know that?"
"Because you're all he's been talking about for the last…I don't know how many months! He's been calling Derrick for like…every week, talking about you. His mom and dad know about you. His other brother and sisters know about you. That tells us, he's head over heels! Shawn—does not go on and on about any woman! There wasn't even a big to-do over his first wife, Angela's mother. He just showed up out of the blue with her and said, 'Hey everybody I'm married. This is my wife, we're having a baby.' But you…he can't stop talking about you. I'm telling you, he and Derrick were on the phone until two in the morning about something that happened with you a while back. I think…someone broke into your house and attacked you, and Shawn got there just in time to stop it."
"You all know about that?" Sylvia asked, surprised.
"Yes, we do! You left, took off, and he was a mess. He didn't know where you were, if you were even okay. Derrick had to help him think straight and gave him ideas on how to find you, because he couldn't sleep at night and was keeping us up! Over you! So don't you sit here telling me, 'you don't know if you're going to make it'!"
Sylvia sat back, more confused than she'd ever been in her life. This picture just painted of Shawn didn't fit what Georgiana Wherrington painted of him. She was quiet a moment, then said, "I'm so scared of him, Meribel. I'm so afraid of what he makes me feel. There are things that have happened, things brought to my attention that he didn't share with me. Today I stood at the courthouse feeling an absolute fool. After Armundo, I'm not gonna be stressing and fighting and arguing and being humiliated. I did that enough with Armundo. I learned an important lesson while being married to him; don't be so quick to defend, until you have all the facts."
"Hang on, hang on, hang on…somebody said something to you? Who?"
"I can't share what she said because it's private, but it's something I'm going to bring before Shawn."
"Who is she? His ex-wife said something to you?"
"No, her mother."
"I see, and I take it that it wasn't good?"
"No, not at all."
"Could she have been lying?"
"No…she knew things that she would have known only if what she said was true."
"Look! I don't know what she said. I don't know what this is all about…but what I do know, and what I am positively sure of is this: he is in love with you! Like we've never seen him before…not ever! Shawn has been through a lot of shit in his life. Stuff that only Derrick and I know about—"
"Stuff like what?" Sylvia asked with curiosity etched on her face.
"Oh, no, no, no, no, girlfriend, you need to get this from him! I'm not telling you shit! I've told you all I'm gonna tell you."
"That's the problem! He's not telling me anything! I have to hear bullshit from people like his ex-wife's mother! That woman should not have had anything to use against me that I wasn't prepared for! It was up to Shawn to tell me all the important things that might jeopardize our relationship! He claims to love me—then he needs to be straight up with me! After Armundo, I
need to be one hundred percent certain. He's good at sweeping me off my feet, being the dazzling gentlemen and all that, but it's all bullshit that don't mean a hill of beans if I can't trust what we have. Only way I can trust, is by knowing, being equipped up front—then I'll fight. But I'm not gonna be anybody's fool. That includes Shawn McPherson."
"Well…I can't blame you there. You're right, he should have come clean and told you everything. But…in his defence, he's come back from a long way down. His parents mean the world to him. His brothers and sisters are his heart and soul. He always regrets not being here for them because he took off. All I can tell you is this, Sylvia: he's made up of all the right stuff. He really is. But that don't mean he's perfect. All I know for certain is this: there is no way he would be telling his whole family about you, if this wasn't deep and real for him. So…hey, if you have to…give him hell…but don't give him up. You'll be regretting it just like his ex-wife does, if you do."
"How do you know that? That she still loves him?"
"Because she sends us Christmas cards still, and calls and tries to talk to me. It's all to try and keep tabs on him. You can always tell. She was always fishing for what is going on with him. The fact is…now…it's all about you. It's all about you two."
Sylvia sighed thinking, no...it's about us three. Then she smiled and corrected herself thinking of Angela. Us four…
Chapter 41
"Give me a kiss. Now you know how to act, don't you? Listen to your uncle and aunt, your grandma and grandpa—"
"I know, daddy, I'll be good. Thank you for letting me go," Angela returned, pulling away from her father after a kiss, more excited than she'd been in a long time to be around other kids, and now, her father's family. She'd been doing nothing but laughing and having fun ever since his brother and wife came with their kids. She turned to Sylvia. "Bye, Sylvia." Sylvia knelt before her to give her a hug. "Bye-bye, sweetie; can you do me a favor while you're gone?" she asked. With surprised eyes, Angela nodded. "Sure, Sylvia, what?" Sylvia's eyes held hers as she began, "First, have lots and lots of fun." That made Angela nod with a smile. "Second, and this is really, really important, okay?" Angela nodded waiting. "I want you to be very mindful of picking up after yourself. Volunteer to help with the dishes. Don't leave a mess anywhere you play. Keep your things neat and tidy in one spot, not all over the place, and be quick to pitch in and respond to the adults your father has left you in care of. Will you do that for me?"
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