Pill didn’t know how to take that last comment. Was that it, Lord? Was that the lesson? Was that why Martin angered her so?
As if she were God’s mouthpiece, the woman continued, “They are an eyesore for a reason. If they weren’t, we would easily become complacent. Let a series of unfortunate events happen to us here, and that could be us.”
Pill pretended not to hear that answer. “I see Martin has got new kicks. He must not be that down and out.”
That was the first thing she had noticed about good ole Martin. They were stark white and of the orthopedic type, but new nonetheless.
“You always see bags of donated stuff just sitting wherever their car is parked. Who knows though, he may be sitting on a pretty penny. Now wouldn’t that be something? Momma used to say the poor are the richest people on the earth or the dumbest. I’d hate to think he’s taking money out of the pail and buying tennis shoes.” She thumbed in the direction of Lend It. “Like the people who go to places like that there. Tell me how a person who can’t afford to pay their bills in the first place can afford to shell out fees and pay interest on top of what they already owe and can’t afford.”
Why was she talking to this woman? Pill was beginning to think that this woman was not only an eyesore, but a tremendous earache as well. “Well, let me get out of here,” her new friend said, beating her to the punch.
“All right, God bless,” Pill said, looking at the woman curiously before looking at Martin in the medium strip of the busy intersection. This time she didn’t see much difference between him and herself.
Did they suffer from dumb luck or were they plain dumb? Was it a mistake even coming here? She had a feeling this was one in a series of unfortunate events.
Chapter 27
Corey didn’t immediately recognize the familiar address when he arranged packages for his deliveries early that morning. He didn’t even give it a second thought as he glanced at his docket throughout the day. Before he knew it, he was back in Mr. Thomas’s neighborhood for his last delivery of the day. These packages were marked for delivery at his sister-in-law’s address.
He had mixed feeling about seeing Sheena. How would he answer her obvious question of, How’s my sister doing? He was certain everything within him would betray him if he tried to give the patent answer that everything was fine.
He parked his truck in an alleyway between apartment buildings before retrieving the packages. He wondered what Sheena may have ordered that came in two separate packages. He placed the long, flat box under the padded envelope. The signature Spiegel seal made him examine the label closely. Pamela Jones.
Corey slammed the door closed and took the steps two at a time up to the second floor. He knocked on his sister-in-law’s door more like the police performing a raid rather than a deliveryman. He waited until his unassuming sister-in-law opened the door.
“Boy, you almost got an earful from me beating on my door like that.” She yielded the way for Corey to come in. “What’s up, Corey? Where’s Pill?”
“I don’t know where your sister is because apparently she lives here with you, and apparently she is unmarried. Tell me she just ordered an early Christmas gift for you,” Corey said, holding the padded envelope up for her to see the label.
Sheena sighed heavily. “Oops,” she said.
“Oops is right. This is from her favorite store,” Corey said sarcastically, tossing the envelope on the couch to examine the box underneath. “Wait, look, this is for her also. The invoice says an eBay Preferred Seller. Perfect. My money is going to eBay too? For real, Sheena, how often does Pill get things delivered over here?”
Sheena leaned against the back of the recliner to give his question some thought. “Not often, only a few times since you’ve been married.”
Corey blew out a puff of air before letting the box drop on the couch as well. “You all are running a scam on me big time.”
“That’s Pill,” she smirked. “She loves to shop.”
“I’m glad you think this is funny, but I’m nearly through, Sheena. I’m telling you now,” Corey said.
He watched the smile shorten on his sister-in-law’s pasty chocolate face. She removed the packages from the same microfiber couch he used to sit on with Pill when they were dating and extended her hand. “Sit, Corey,” she said with all the authority of a big sister.
Corey sat, consulting his watch. Sheena plopped down in the recliner adjacent to where he sat, causing her short legs to fly up. In their relaxed state, her limbs still didn’t touch the ground. She curled up in the chair by folding her jean-clad legs similar to the way a cat would ball up in his owner’s lap.
“So deceitful,” Corey said, still bemoaning his findings. “I say we are going to stop spending and bringing more stuff into the house, and what does she do? She sends it to your house.”
“I’m sorry,” Sheena replied.
Corey leaned forward to prop his forearms on his knees while he talked. “It’s not you. You were just being a good sister. Like you said, it’s Pill. You must know how she is. She wants what she wants when she wants it.”
“No, part of it is my fault. I guess it was my job to prepare her for marriage, teach her not to be so selfish. Although there was no one to teach me.” Her eyes became a slideshow of emotion, plunging into the depths of sadness before changing over to what Corey deciphered as amusement. “I’m guilty as sin actually. I used to call her a little leech, riding my back and sucking me dry. Then, when she started dating someone decent like you, and she told me you all were getting married, I broke into a happy dance. Hallelujah, my work was done.”
She laughed heartily, and Corey broke into a chuckle himself despite the very unfunny circumstances. They were talking about his wife, and he had not the slightest inclination or bit of information to defend her.
“You set me up,” Corey said, feigning anger. “You’re just as deceptive as she is.”
“With Pill, it’s not deception. It’s more of a sense of entitlement.” She reached out to place her hand on his arm. “I wanted her to have all the stuff I couldn’t have. I was paying the bills, and I envied Pill’s wardrobe. Crazy, I know. I was proud to give it all to her, before she started asking for more and more, that is. That proved that I could handle the responsibility of raising my sister. I was twenty-two at the time. It meant the state couldn’t come to take her from me if she got what she needed and more of what she wanted. I was keeping the family together. I did the best I knew how to do at the time. I guess you can’t spoil and school someone at the same time.”
Corey reached his other hand out to her to grab to show he understood. He had done the same thing, he thought. He wanted so badly not only to be seen as a man in her league, but for them to create a league of their own. The revelation was stunning. The more you gave, the more she mistrusted.
“That explains a lot. It’s as if I am just discovering the woman I married,” Corey said, letting go of his sister-in-law’s embrace and sitting back. “Talk about crazy.”
“Pill isn’t all that selfish. Let me tell you, there was a time when I thought we would be put out on the streets. I was running with this guy named Tyrell then.” She paused as she tried to swallow back the bile of her past. “I made the risky decision to disobey God’s stature, mind you, and move in with him to make ends meet, as if any man could be a better provider than God. At first it was heavenly. I mean, I didn’t have to work two jobs and could get a decent night’s rest, until he started jumping on me. It wasn’t even two months before he started taking out his frustrations on me. Don’t ask me why I took that. I guess I figured it was the sacrifice of security. I didn’t know because I never had any.”
Corey’s heart clenched in his chest as he listened to his wife’s sister as if hearing her for the first time. He could hear the shame in her voice. He found it hard to even look at her.
“When Pill found out, I’ll never forget. She got some of the biggest, baddest dudes in the neighborhood to pack and
move our stuff. She told me a single-family home wasn’t worth getting popped upside my head. She vowed to get a job and help me if we could only get our old apartment back. That’s when she started working at the beauty shop with Ms. McQueen a couple of blocks away, and we did it.”
“Gosh, I feel like I should thank you,” Corey said, standing and pulling her up to give her a long overdue hug. He whispered, “for everything. I can’t . . . I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a parent die so young, let alone everything you had to take on.”
Corey felt her break away from their embrace, chuckling and shaking her head, “Oh, Corey, Corey, Corey, our mom is not dead. But I’m not surprised she told you that. She’s in prison, serving twenty-five to life at Mecklenburg Prison.”
Corey didn’t hesitate to grab his wife’s packages before heading for the door. He ignored his sister-in-law’s attempts to get him to sit down again.
Sheena stood, calling after him, “Don’t be mad, Corey. Pill has never felt worthy—never felt whole because of it. It’s not the same as feeling pretty or fly. Because of what my momma did, who she was, deep down, I bet Pill doesn’t think she is even good enough for you.”
He wasn’t in the mood for any more stories or revelations. In his opinion, both sisters had one too many checks in the deceptive column.
Chapter 28
Corey didn’t anticipate seeing Crystal on his way to confront Pill. He had not been this late pulling the truck in since the times he carried Mr. Thomas’s deliveries on his route. She had removed that headache for him. Now she was at the backdoor of the warehouse where the offices opened out to the truck lot as if she were waiting on him and had left the light on for him.
He thought no woman could appeal to him, rouse his senses, besides Pill. He was tired, and Crystal was a sight for sore eyes. She never looked more beautiful than she did then with her hair fanned out in ringlets on either side. She signaled for him to wait. When she returned to the carport with her belongings and a plastic bag, he felt like he was returning home from the war and she was the woman waiting on his triumphant return. She didn’t know he was off to war and ultimately she would be the one left behind.
She smiled in her approach, ever the work wife in their mock marriage. “I wondered if I missed you. That would have been three days in a row. I was about to take it personally. I bought you some boneless wings from this new place Gloria and I went for lunch. Oh my goodness, Corey, you’ve got to taste them. It will make you slap your mother,” she said, extending the bag with her right hand and extending her other arm for a hug.
Corey looked around before hesitantly walking into her embrace. “Thanks.”
“What happened out there? Why are you so late coming in?” She picked up his vibe right away as she studied his face after he broke away from their hug.
“Nothing, I just ran into a friend. That’s all.”
There was a moment of silence as he thought about his half truth. He didn’t really have a friend in this world. Everyone had pretty much sold him out. He thought about his wife. Her sister wasn’t the only one that sacrificed for Pill. He had done his share. He had sacrificed his share of his dream in the moving and hauling business, and even, on some level, family ties with his cousin, Rico and an opportunity with the family business. He hadn’t been willing to give Crystal up too.
He scanned the area with his eyes until he was convinced they were alone. Then he stared down at her. “Look, Crystal, people are beginning to talk, you know . . . about us.”
“You say that like I should care, or it’s a bad thing,” she laughed while moving in closer to where he was standing like he was a streetlamp and she was in need of light. “There really isn’t much to talk about. I am far from being considered fast, but brother, you move slower than peanut butter rolling down the hill. I’ve been waiting to give them something to really talk about.”
At that, she touched his chest and toyed with the buttons on his uniform. Then she began to tug on his shirt, pulling him forward. Her hope was to pull him headfirst into an accidently-on-purpose kiss. Corey grabbed her arms above the elbows as if to steady himself but more so to offset the inevitable. He was close enough to smell her minty breath with just a hint of garlic. He felt his heart might beat its way out of his chest.
“I don’t want anything to come down on you, on us—our jobs. UPS sanctions, you know, professional decorum and all,” Corey panted. He was saying everything but what he needed to say.
She stepped back a bit, but he held on. This time he really needed a stabilizer. He felt weak, susceptible. He felt his conscience telling him no.
“Look, I’ve been thinking about us a lot. I know myself. I know what I like. I could really be into you, Corey. We used to talk every day, and I miss that. You’re so funny and fine too. So, I say, it’s cool. If you want, we can separate our professional relationship from our personal relationship. We can take things off site and go from there,” Crystal admitted.
Corey shook his head, but was otherwise immobile. Crystal was batting her eyes and tossing her hair. He knew she was speaking, but he heard Tyson’s voice, and that of his cousin, and finally Pill. That did it for him. He had to come clean.
“I’m available,” Crystal said on the tail end of her one-sided conversation.
Corey didn’t know if she meant for the night or for a lifetime. What does she see in me? Why can’t she see I’m not available, that I haven’t been all along?
As if she read his mind, she looked down from his stare, to their stance, to his hand on her arm. He wasn’t posing tonight. His second finger on his left hand held the truth.
She broke free from his embrace and looked him dead in the eyes, like a mother daring her child to lie in the face of the truth. “The chicken is cold now, but we can go out and grab a bite, unless you got something at home.” Her camouflaged question was a pop quiz catching him off guard.
“Crystal . . .” Corey started.
“You know the place where I can’t call because I don’t have the number. Let’s go there, Corey. Wingham Estates or wherever your own spot is. Let’s hang out and watch TV Land. Let’s chill.” She sounded like Rosie Perez, her accent becoming more and more apparent as her voice increased in volume.
Corey was afraid to look around now to see who might be hearing them. He was afraid to turn his back on her. “Crystal,” he said, trying to calm her.
“What, Corey? What? I told you everything about me,” Crystal said, cutting him off. “I said I was married, but happily divorced, and you? What did you tell me?”
“I’m married,” Corey admitted. He couldn’t hold her gaze. The shame kept his head bowed. “I’m sorry, I never told you.”
She threw her hands up and turned away from him. He thought she was going to stomp away, but she spun around fast. Crystal grabbed his hand before he could put it in his pocket. “Nice ring. Does your wife know that you take it off? Gosh, I feel so stupid. I knew—I knew something. I just didn’t want to see it in you.”
Corey knew exactly what she meant. He didn’t want to see it in himself. He wanted her around. He wanted her in his corner. He was dribbling. He had learned from the best.
“We were friends, at first, right? It just grew into something else, for, for both of us,” Corey pacified.
“No, Corey, you and your lies didn’t give me the opportunity to be your friend.”
“I’m sorry” was all he could say.
“And I feel sorry for your wife.” Her eyes were glazed over. She wiped at the lone tear in the corner of her right eye before pointing at him. “In the words of a very wise, but deceitful person, ‘Let’s not do this again, ever.’”
Chapter 29
“I will not be a participant in cultural genocide,” Shae said, watching Pill examine the roots of her own hair from the built-in vanity counter of Pill’s secondlanding bathroom.
“Must you always be so dramatic? It is just perm. You sound like Ms. McQueen and ’em. I could do the fron
t myself. I just need you to work the relaxer in good in the back,” Pill said, lifting up her flattened layers with the palm of her hand. “With my cut so short, it feels like I need a perm sooner.”
“Being that your cut is so short, it will make it easier for you to transition your hair into its natural state. Coils or twists would look good on you. Be free for once in your life, less bound to all the products and styling tools,” Shae said, fiddling with her hands as if they were full to illustrate her point.
Pill clicked the lights off on her friend as she thought of what it would be like to be free. She led the way to her bedroom. She was hoping freedom would come from eliminating some of her clutter and possibly luring her husband back into the bedroom. That meant getting rid of some of her things. Even though that was a task she had called Shae over to help her begin to tackle, she was beginning to have second thoughts about parting with anything.
“Whoa, what happened in here?” Shae asked as she looked around the disorderly disaster area Pill called a bedroom.
The moderate space was muddled with makeshift piles of everything from jeans to handbags mainly on the perimeter of the room. She intended to give some of her things away.
“My life is messy,” Pill admitted. As if seeing the clutter for the first time, she added, “Everything is out of control.”
“How does Corey stand it? You can’t possibly make the magic happen in this mess.”
Must everyone allude to or comment on my sex life? Pill busied herself righting a pile that had fallen over. She didn’t tell her that there had been no magic in a while—that Corey took to sleeping in the guest bedroom just last week. Pill didn’t know and didn’t bother to ask whether it was because he needed a refuge from the clutter or if he was still taking refuge in his anger over her and Rico.
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