One Sunday at a Time

by E. N. Joy

  “Mount Carmel East,” he replied, then got into the vehicle.

  “I need to move this vehicle to let them out.” The first officer nodded to the ambulance, which he had parked behind. “Rob, can you finish taking his statement and get some photos of his injuries? I’ll go to the hospital and finish speaking with her.”

  Officer Rob agreed, and his partner got into his vehicle, backed out, then followed the ambulance.

  “I’m going to see about my baby,” Ms. Lucas said. “Where’s Tatum’s car seat?”

  Lynox helped his mother-in-law get the car seat out of his car. He put it in her vehicle while she went inside and packed up the baby’s diaper bag. After she drove off with the baby in tow, Lynox and Officer Rob took things inside, to the living room.

  “I know this isn’t easy for you,” Officer Rob said as he stood in the living room, taking note of what Lynox had to say. “I know you love your wife, but abuse is never okay.”

  “My wife doesn’t abuse me,” Lynox said as he sat on the couch, wiping his hands down his face. "And I won't be taking any pictures of any injuries either. I'm fine."

  The officer could see that Lynox was not going to accept the fact that even though he was bigger and stronger than his wife, that didn’t mean it was okay for her to get physical with him. If they knew a man wouldn’t hit them, some women felt it was safe to come at him. But what about the woman who was wrong in thinking that, and whose mate totally lost it and retaliated against her, causing her great harm or even death? Women had to understand, just like men, that it was never okay to take an argument from the verbal realm to the physical one.

  For the next fifteen minutes the officer questioned Lynox and had him write down a statement as to what had taken place that evening.

  “What’s going to happen to my wife?” Lynox asked the officer after he had taken Lynox’s statement.

  “Well, she may end up spending the night in jail. They may let her out. Depends on her criminal record.”

  “She doesn’t have one,” Lynox said.

  “Well, she might get let out on her own recognizance. Depends on the judge. They all take domestic violence pretty seriously.”

  The words domestic violence made Lynox want to cringe. The fact that the world would think his wife had beat him up was embarrassing. But hadn’t she?

  “You can probably call downtown, or you can wait for her to call you.” The officer pulled a card out of his shirt pocket. “Feel free to give me a call if you have any questions regarding the case.”

  “Thank you,” Lynox said, taking the card.

  Lynox showed the officer out. He closed the front door and then went over and sat on the couch. He had to take a minute to get his mind straight. He had no idea what lay ahead, but he knew that it wouldn’t be easy and that he couldn’t do it alone. So before he began inquiring into Deborah’s arrest, he did what he knew he had to do in order to get through everything. He got on his knees and called on Jesus.

  Chapter 16

  Lynox didn’t know how to feel about the fact that Deborah’s one phone call hadn’t gone to him, but to her mother instead. He’d always been the first person she called on if she was in need. She had never called her mother first when she got a flat tire, and that time she took a client out to lunch, realized she’d left her wallet in her other purse, and needed someone to bring her money to cover the bill, she hadn’t called her mother. She’d called him. But now, at the most crucial time in her life, when she had been arrested, she hadn’t called him.

  Receiving a phone call from his mother-in-law the morning after the incident and getting updates on his wife from her had not been what he expected, or what he felt he deserved. From the tone of Ms. Lucas’s voice when she called, he’d deduced that she felt that he didn’t even deserve her phone call. Lynox wasn’t sure exactly what Deborah had told her mother, but he could tell by her sharp, short, and sassy tone that she blamed him for the predicament her only child was in.

  “I’m sorry about all of this,” Lynox had said, trying to apologize, but Ms. Lucas had already hung up in his ear.

  He hadn’t even gotten a chance to ask his mother-in-law if Deborah had asked about him. Was she angry at him? He had no idea where her mind was at. All he knew was that she had received seven stitches in her head, had been taken to jail, and was waiting for bail to be set. Getting out on her own recognizance had not been an option.

  Lynox paced the floor, not knowing what to do at this point. He looked over at the baby’s empty swing. He hadn’t even thought to ask Ms. Lucas how Tatum was doing. The doorbell ringing snapped him out of his thoughts. He raced over to the door, not knowing if it was Deborah coming home or what. She hadn’t taken her purse with her when the ambulance took her away, so she didn’t have her house keys to get in.

  “Coming!” Lynox called out, practically tripping over his own feet as he raced over to the door. Without even looking out the peephole, he flung the door open. A huge wave of disappointment covered his face when he saw that the person standing on his doorstep wasn’t his wife.

  “Well, dang, I’m glad to see you too, partner,” Reo said. He would have had to be blind not to see the look on his writing partner’s face.

  “I’m sorry, man. I thought you were Deborah,” Lynox said when he opened the screen door to let Reo in. He’d forgotten all about the fact that the two of them were supposed to spend time today working on their manuscript.

  “Something wrong with Deborah?” Reo asked. Lynox had already walked away, so Reo closed the door behind them.

  Lynox, still in the same clothes from last night and not having had a wink of sleep, flopped down on the couch and exhaled, as if he’d been holding his breath for hours.

  “This looks serious,” Reo said. “What’s going on? How can I help?” Reo was very sincere in his query, and he stood there, waiting for Lynox to reply.

  Lynox stared up at the ceiling for a minute, deciding whether or not he wanted to share with Reo all the details of last night. The last thing he wanted was for some type of stigma to be attached to his wife. He didn’t want people looking at her funny for having been arrested for domestic violence. But Reo’s wife had been arrested for murder. Reo would be the last person to judge Deborah. And he would know, more than anybody else, how Lynox was feeling right about now.

  “From the looks of things,” Reo said, “it seems like what you need more than anything is prayer. And I don’t need to know what’s going on with you to pray for you.” Reo bowed his head and began praying. “Dear God, I come to you as humbly as I know how. I ask that whatever is going on with my brother, you be in the midst of it all. Please order his steps, touch his mind, and give him peace. Surround his family with a supernatural barrier of protection. Lord, anything that looks bad right now, we ask that you turn it around and add your favor to it.”

  “Yes, Lord,” Lynox mumbled, truly moved by his friend’s words.

  “Lord, send down your power, grace, mercy, glory, and anointing. Shower down, Lord. Shower down. In Jesus’s name, I pray. Amen.”

  “Amen,” Lynox said. He then looked over at Reo. “Thanks, man. Whew. I really needed that.”

  “Anytime,” Reo said. He stood there. “Well, you’re clearly in no mood to write. So why don’t we take a rain check?”

  “That sounds like a good idea, because with Deborah being in jail, I can hardly put a sentence together, let alone a paragraph.”

  “Jail?” Reo said, shocked at the news his ears had just heard.

  “Yeah, man. Deborah was arrested last night.”

  “For what?” Reo really didn’t mean to pry. It was just that Lynox had spilled the beans, so he couldn’t wait for them to spread all over the place.

  Lynox hesitated. “Domestic violence.”

  “Against you?” Reo looked Lynox up and down, questioning with his eyes whether Deborah had really whopped on his big self. The minor bruises and scratches really weren’t as visible as they’d been under the flashl
ight last night.

  Lynox nodded. He didn’t even want to say it.

  “Wow,” was all Reo could say.

  “They arrested her and took her to jail. Well, not straight to jail. They at least allowed her to go get stitches put in her head first.” Lynox said it as if Reo had been present last night and knew all that had gone on.

  “Stitches? Wait. You’re losing me.” Reo shook his head. “Deborah got charged with domestic violence, but she’s the one who’s hurt?”

  “Yeah, she busted her head when I pushed her against the night table.”

  Reo raised both hands as he stood there. “Whoa. Hold up, man. You my dawg and all, and I’ll definitely continue to pray for you, but I can’t condone men hitting on women.”

  “No, no.” Lynox began to shake his head. “I didn’t hit her. She was clobbering me, man. And since I would never hit her, I tried to push her away. When I did this, she fell backward and hit her head. She corroborated my story. That’s why the police didn’t arrest me.”

  Reo put his hands down.

  Lynox was lightweight offended that Reo had even thought he was that type of guy. “Man, you know that’s not who I am,” Lynox said. “I would never put my hands on a woman.”

  “My bad. I didn’t know what to think. I mean, you hitting me with the one-two right now.”

  “I know. I feel you,” Lynox said. He looked at Reo. “You was really gon’ cut me off just like that?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Reo said without hesitating. “I can’t even look at a man who puts his hands on a woman, let alone hang with one. Even more, write a book with him. All I can do is pray for a brother like that and hope he gets delivered, so we can kick it again. But as long as a cat is abusing a woman, I ain’t got no holler.”

  “That’s what’s up,” Lynox agreed. “But so you know, I’ve never put my hands on my wife or any other woman.” He paused for a minute. “Can’t say in these past couple of months I haven’t wanted to, though.”

  Reo chuckled. “You preaching to the choir on that one. Like Chris Rock said, a brother may not hit a woman, but, man, there are times when he wants to shake her butt.”

  Lynox let out a harrumph and shook his head. “You ain’t never lied.”

  Reo finally sat down. He took the chair opposite Lynox. “So I take it things haven’t gotten any better as far as the way Deborah has been acting.” Klarke had shared with Reo how Deborah had tried marijuana but hadn’t stuck with it long term. Reo wasn’t sure if Lynox knew about her little experiment, so he didn’t mention it.

  Lynox stared off into space, thinking about how bad things had actually gotten. “I really do wish I understood how her mind is working. She’s changed. She’s not the woman I married. And if something doesn’t give, between you and me, I don’t know if she’s the woman I want to stay married to.”

  “Yo, hold up with all that,” Reo said. “You in your feelings right now. Don’t let emotions that are on ten right now make decisions that your heart will regret. First thing’s first. You two need to get through this whole jail and court situation, and then go from there.”

  “Yeah. You’re right,” Lynox said. “This is so crazy. It’s like a nightmare.”

  “I hear you,” Reo said. “Do you have any idea when they’re going to let her out?”

  Lynox shook his head. “No. She hasn’t called me or anything. She’s been communicating with her mother. My mother-in-law in turn gives me an update.”

  “The heck with all that,” Reo said. “That’s your wife. Get yourself together and come on.” Reo walked over to the front door.

  “For what?” Where are we going?”

  “Where do you think we’re going?” Reo asked. “We’re going to go see about your wife.”

  Reo was right; Lynox needed to go see about his wife. Not call the jail or the courts on the phone and possibly get the runaround, and definitely not get the information secondhand from Ms. Lucas. He needed to go downtown personally and get some answers.

  With his friend’s final words, Lynox went upstairs, washed up in the sink, brushed his teeth, and changed into a jogging suit really quick. He’d put off going downtown to see about Deborah. It had seemed like a waste of time if they weren’t going to let her out. On top of that, Ms. Lucas had been giving him updates. But knowing his mother-in-law and her attitude toward him, he wasn’t so sure that if Deborah was to get out, she’d even call him and let him know.

  “All right, man. I’m all set,” Lynox said after taking the steps two at a time back down to the living room. “Let’s go.”

  Reo was still standing by the front door. “Make sure you have your ID, your wallet, credit cards, cash, or whatever, just in case you have to bail her out or something.”

  “Got all that,” Lynox assured him, tapping his front pants pocket. He snatched his keys off the table next to the door and then went and opened the door. But he froze solid when he saw what was waiting for him on his doorstep.

  Chapter 17

  “Deborah, honey, I was on my way to come see about you,” Lynox said. He wanted to throw his arms around his wife and pull her in for a hug, but he wasn’t quite sure what type of head space she was in. He restrained himself and stared at her with a glowing look on his face. The look was comparable to love at first sight. No matter what they’d been through the night before, he was glad to lay eyes on his wife.

  Deborah looked like death warmed over. Her hair was a mess, as the doctors had had to mess with it in order to put the stitches in. She didn’t even have on light make-up. She hadn’t washed her face or brushed her teeth. She hadn’t had the strength to do it. As far as she was concerned, they might as well have had her locked up in a crazy house, because that was where it felt like she’d been.

  She’d shared a cell with some career criminals, the kind she’d only read about in books or seen on television. Now she had put herself in a position to be labeled as one of them. And she wouldn’t be telling the truth if she didn’t admit that a part of her felt that Lynox was at least partly to blame. It probably was best that he didn’t try to hug her. She’d probably catch another case.

  Standing there, in the married couple’s pool of silence, Reo decided to excuse himself. “Well, I guess I better go.” He patted Lynox on the back.

  That quickly Lynox had forgotten Reo was standing there. “Oh, yeah, man. Thanks, anyway, partner.” Lynox gave Reo some dap.

  Reo walked out the door. He nodded and acknowledged Deborah by saying her name as he passed by her and walked off the porch.

  “How’d you get here?” Lynox asked Deborah, but just then he saw Ms. Lucas coming up the walkway with the baby.

  “I’m tired,” Deborah said. “I need to take a shower.”

  “A bath,” Ms. Lucas said as she walked up behind her. “Remember the doctor said no showers for a spell and not to wash your hair.” Ms. Lucas looked at Lynox standing in the doorway and at Deborah on the porch. “Well, go inside,” she told her daughter. “You can go inside, can’t you?” She then glared at Lynox. “Or did he file a restraining order against you too?” She brushed by Lynox and went right into their home like it was hers.

  “We already have a lot to deal with,” Lynox said to his mother-in-law. “Please don’t add to it. You weren’t here. You don’t know what all went on last night.”

  Ms. Lucas spun around, as if she wasn’t carrying the baby in his seat. “I know my child went to the emergency room last night to get stitches in her head through no fault of her own.”

  Deborah stepped inside the house while her husband and her mother argued.

  “Again, Ms. Lucas,” Lynox said, “you don’t know everything that happened to be able to speak on it.”

  She sat the baby’s seat down. “Then why don’t you tell me what happened?”

  Lynox looked at Deborah. She was his main concern right now. All he wanted to do was get things right with her. Getting things right with his mother-in-law would have to play second fiddle, and it w
as time he let her know. “Look, I appreciate everything you’ve done to help us out,” Lynox began.

  “To help my daughter and my grandbabies out,” Ms. Lucas said, correcting him.

  Lynox continued without addressing her last comment. “But right now Deborah and I need to take care of some things on our own. Preferably, before Tyson gets out of school. So if you don’t mind . . .”

  “If I don’t mind what?” Ms. Lucas asked. “I know you’re not suggesting I leave, are you? What for? So I can drive right back over here and take her to get more stitches, if she’s even so lucky the next time?”

  Lynox could see that things were really about to get ugly between him and his mother-in-law, a person with whom he’d had a wonderful relationship prior to last night. He looked at Deborah, begging her with his eyes to intercede.

  It took a second or two, but Deborah finally spoke up. “Mom, I’m going to be fine. I just want to get cleaned up.” She looked herself up and down. She then looked over at the sleeping baby. “If you could get him situated in his crib while I do that, I’d appreciate it. Then you can go. I’ll be fine.”

  “But don’t you want me to make you something to eat?” Ms. Lucas asked, almost begging.

  Deborah had pretty much told her mother exactly what she’d told the police, that she had been the one out of order and that Lynox had merely been trying to protect himself when he pushed her down, causing her to bust her head open on the night table. For all Ms. Lucas knew, though, Deborah could have been saying all that out of fear of her husband. Ms. Lucas hadn’t truly discerned the full truth yet and therefore wasn’t taking any chances.

  “Mom, I’m fine,” Deborah said. “There are a lot of things I have to work out with my husband. I have a court date coming up, and we need to make sure our stories are straight.”