Arnell returned to the table. “There may be a way out,” she said, sitting.
“I have to run away from home,” Trena cried. “I can’t stay—”
“Trena, I think you’ve been down that road before.” Arnell stirred her sherbet to soften it.
“But I—”
“How would you like to be my daughter?” Arnell asked.
“Huh?”
“If you were my daughter, I could take you for an abortion.”
“You’re not old enough to be my mother.”
“I am, if I had you at sixteen. I’m thirty-three. Happens everyday, including to you.”
Trena’s tears dried up. “Can we get away with it?”
“I think we can. We can’t use my gynecologist, she knows I’ve never had children. I’ll have to find a new GYN.”
“Not in Brooklyn,” Trena said. “It’s too close to home.”
“I’m thinking Queens.” Arnell ate a spoonful of soft sherbet. She let the sweet, cool fruity flavor slide down her throat. It was good.
“You think I can get the abortion this week?”
“I doubt it. Doctors have to schedule operating rooms in advance, except in an emergency. Of course, it will have to be soon, you’re almost two months. I’ll make some calls tomorrow. And while we’re at it, we’ll get you tested for VD.”
“Oh, God, I—”
“Trena, calm down. It’s just better to know. Hopefully, you’re okay. I may get tested myself.” Arnell saw the look of confusion on Trena’s face. “Hey, better safe than sorry.” She began eating her sherbet again. She noticed Trena watching her. “Would you like some?”
Trena nodded.
“Help yourself,” Arnell said, mindful of not pampering Trena. Trena was going to have to start growing up and being responsible for herself. “There’s another mug in the first cabinet on the second shelf.”
While Trena scooped out her sherbet into a plain white mug, Arnell continued to eat hers. She hated having to go behind Trena’s parents’ backs to get Trena an abortion. Boy, if they ever found out, she would be in as much trouble as Trena, but someone had to give Trena a second chance. If it had to be her, then so be it.
Once again seated, Trena ate a spoonful of sherbet, rolled it around on her tongue before swallowing. She immediately scooped another spoonful into her mouth. Arnell watched Trena enjoying the sweet, cold dessert. It was obvious that her appetite was returning, or at least that baby inside her was begging to be fed.
“There’s some orange sherbet in the freezer, if you want it,” Arnell said.
Trena went right away to the freezer. “I like to mix them,” she said, wasting no time opening the new container of sherbet.
Smiling to herself, Arnell wondered what it would be like for her if she were to get pregnant. She watched as Trena scooped mounds of orange sherbet into her mug atop the softening raspberry. “Trena, I’m going into the living room, bring your sherbet in there.”
“Okay.” Trena left the half-empty container of sherbet open on the counter. In the living room, she sat on the floor at the coffee table. “Arnell, can I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“Do you like your mother?”
“That’s an interesting but odd question. Why do you ask?”
“See, I love my mother, and a lot of times I even like her. Since I ran away, I had time to think about my mom and I guess I know now that all that bitching she was doing was for my own good. Even my sister was only thinking about what was best for me. But your mother, Queen Esther, she don’t seem like a normal mother. Did she ever get on you for . . . you know, being with men?”
Arnell almost laughed. The only time Esther had bitched at her was when she didn’t want to sleep with the men she was set up with. How funny was that?
“My mother is far from normal, Trena. She’s on a planet all her own.”
“Do you like her the way she is?”
“To tell the truth, Trena, if I had to choose a mother, Esther would not have been my choice, but since she’s the mother fate gave me, I deal with it. I know Esther’s not your typical mother, and I would have been scared to death if she had been stranded on a deserted island when I was born.”
“How come?”
“She probably would have eaten me at birth.”
“That’s whack.”
“Trena, my mother has always been out for self and I understand that, because now, I’m out for self—without her.”
“I guess I’m lucky to have the mother I have, then.”
“I would say so.”
“So you don’t love your mother?”
That, Arnell did have to think about. “I wouldn’t say that I don’t love her. I guess I do. I just don’t like her very much.”
The sound of a car could be heard pulling up into the driveway outside the living room window. Arnell rushed to the window. She knew the car. What she didn’t know was why that car was in her driveway.
Thirty-Five
Big Walt’s muscular body filled Arnell’s doorway, dwarfed her living room chair, and filled Trena’s eyes with fear. Trena had not eaten another spoonful of sherbet since she heard Arnell say that Big Walt was their unexpected visitor. Trena had tried to run to the bathroom to hide, but Arnell wouldn’t let her—Big Walt was not going to force Trena to go back to The Honey Well—not in her presence. Trena stayed seated on the floor, but she was no longer relaxed. She started playing with her sherbet—lightly jabbing the frozen dessert with her spoon. She really thought Big Walt was there to take her back.
Arnell wasn’t afraid of Big Walt, he had never been a threat to her. In fact, Big Walt had always been especially protective of her. Still, there was no doubt in her mind that Esther had sent him.
“So what does Esther want?”
“Arnell, how come I can’t just be stopping by to see you? I miss seeing you at The Well.”
Arnell smirked. “Yeah, right, tell me another.”
“C’mon, Arnell. Why you wanna play me like that? I thought we were friends.”
“Big Walt, in six years, you’ve only been out to my house three times and all three of those times was because I was having car trouble and you brought me home. So cut the bull. What does Esther want?”
Big Walt settled back. “Your mother misses you.”
“I’m sure she does,” Arnell said, looking at Trena who was sitting back on her heels, her head down. “However, I’m in the process of cutting that apron string she’s been choking me with.”
“Ah, c’mon, Arnell. The queen means well and you know it. When she—”
“Big Walt, you don’t know—”
“Arnell.” Big Walt put up his huge hand to silence Arnell. “I know I don’t know your mother like you do. No one does. But I’m not fooled by her, either. She can be cold, and she can be a, pardon me, a bitch. But the queen is a fighter. She’s done whatever she had to do to survive. Nothing was ever given to me, so I can understand that. I had to fight for everything I got—me and my brother both. My mother left us with our grandmother when we were barely walking.”
“Did you ever see her?” Arnell asked.
“Sure, when she was in between men and needed a place to sleep.”
“Was she an addict?”
“Not that I know of. She was just a woman that couldn’t be without a man and the men she got, didn’t want her with kids on her back.”
“Her children should have come first.”
“Damn skippy,” Big Walt said. “Now, the queen? Arnell, she thinks the sun rises and sets on your head. That woman loves you to death. All she wants from you is your love and respect.”
“Love? Respect? Big Walt, you sound like Melvina.”
“That’s cold. Melvina’s a serious snitch. I’m nothing like that, but—”
“No you’re not, but you believe my mother’s lies about loving me. The truth is, she doesn’t know the meaning of love or respect.”
“You’re wrong, Arne
ll. Queen Esther really loves the hell out of you.”
“I thought you said you knew my mother.”
“I did say, not as well as you, but I know that you’re probably the only person she’s ever loved on this earth. I know that her and Tony were tight, but when it comes to you, the queen would slay the devil to keep you safe.”
Arnell just looked at Big Walt. Most people didn’t know that he was only twenty-six years old. He looked at least four years older, but that was because of his size and the clean-shaven head he proudly sported. Just like his head, Big Walt was always clean—he always wore a suit. Dressing down for him was wearing a sports jacket with a pair of sharply creased jeans. But the tie was always there, no matter how hot the weather. When Big Walt was on the job, his size alone was intimidating and when he growled, he could stop a heart from beating. Yet, he wrote songs that could make a heart sing. It would surprise many that Big Walt was a songwriter. When he was on the job at The Honey Well and there was no trouble for him to deal with, he often sat scribbling in the little notepad he carried tucked in his jacket pocket. As much as Big Walt loved writing lyrics, it wasn’t for himself he wrote, he couldn’t sing a note. He wanted to hear a real singer sing his songs the way he was hearing them in his head. Arnell had seen the words he had written, and realized that Big Walt’s heart was as big as his body. His songs were beautiful. If any of the clients ever guessed that Big Walt was a teddy bear and not a grizzly, they might no longer fear him.
The one other person who knew that Big Walt had a soft side was Esther. She really liked him and that was because she could easily manipulate him into doing anything she wanted. Of course, having a trump card up her sleeve helped a lot when it came to Melvina and Big Walt. Only one year after he started working for Esther, she gave him a twenty-thousand-dollar loan so that he could purchase the studio equipment he needed to produce his music. He paid her back by working off the debt salary free for ten months. Every since that loan, Big Walt did whatever Esther wanted him to, without question.
“Why are you bothering me about that woman?” Arnell asked. “Trena, I know you’re on my side.”
“I am, but she’s your mother.”
Big Walt looked at Trena like he had only just noticed her. “You’re the little girl who just moved into The Well, ain’t you?”
Trena slipped her hands down between her thighs as if she were trying to warm them. Her head was rigid as she stared at Arnell.
“You got that wrong,” Arnell said. “This is the little girl who escaped The Well. Trena, eat your sherbet, it’s melting.”
Trena scooped up a smidgen of soft orange sherbet, just barely enough to taste on her tongue.
“You had no business being in The Well in the first place, little girl,” Big Walt said. “The Well’s not a playground.”
“She knows that now,” Arnell said.
Trena wouldn’t look at Big Walt.
“By the way, Arnell. Guess who I saw the other day on the A train coming into Brooklyn?”
Arnell thought about it. If Big Walt was asking her that question, it had to be someone from The Honey Well. “Don’t know and don’t much care.”
“I figured you’d say that, but it was Kitt.”
Arnell never liked Kitt—too much of a whore. The girl really liked prostituting. Arnell remembered trying to talk to Kitt about getting out of the business before she even got started good, but Kitt said, “You don’t want me around because you’re jealous. I get more clients than you.” Arnell left her alone after that.
“That’s the girl whose room I was in, right?” Trena asked.
“That’s her,” Arnell said, noting that both Trena and Kitt had gotten pregnant in that room by the same man.
“Yeah,” Big Walt said, “Kitt wants to come back to The Well. She begged me to ask the queen to let her come back. She said she had an abortion, and that she hates walking the street.”
“My heart aches for her,” Arnell said cattily. “Big Walt, can we please stop talking about Kitt? I’m really not interested in anything about her. Now, you came here for a reason, and I believe that reason is my mother. What does she want from me besides my blood?”
“Okay,” Big Walt said, adjusting his tie. “Queen Esther asked me to drive out here to make sure you were all right since she couldn’t reach you by phone. She’s been worried about you. And . . .”
Arnell pursed her lips cynically.
“. . . she said to tell you—no, ask you—if you would please come to see her . . .”
“Not a chance in hell.”
Trena’s head swiveled from Big Walt to Arnell.
“. . . She said she had something very important to tell you. That you had to hear it from her first.”
“It being?” Arnell wasn’t convinced that it was important.
“That, I don’t know,” Big Walt conceded. “But I do know that something strange is going on at The Well.”
“Like?” Arnell felt herself growing wary. Esther was summoning her again but she wasn’t going to allow herself to fall into that trap.
“There’s this old dude that’s staying at The Well. He’s staying in this little girl’s room,” Big Walt said, pointing to Trena.
“It’s not my room,” Trena said under her breath.
Now that was strange. Arnell had never known a man, besides Tony, to ever stay at the mansion. “Who is he?”
“Don’t know.”
“How long has he been there?”
“Melvina said he came last Monday.”
Arnell’s brow shot up. “And he’s been there all this time? A whole week?”
“That’s right.”
“Maybe she’s found a replacement for Tony.”
“Come on, Arnell, it’s not like that,” Big Walt said. “The queen’s been staying in her suite—by herself. At first I thought she was hiding out because she was hurting behind Tony, but I think it got something to do with that dude.”
“What’s his name?”
“Kesley something or other.”
That name seemed . . . Arnell gasped. She remembered Esther mentioning that name just months ago. From what little Esther had said, it could not be a good thing that this man was back in her life. “Kesley Hayden?”
“Yep, that’s his name.”
“My mother said he was dead.”
“Then he’s a ghost,” Big Walt said. “Do you know who he is?”
Arnell shook her head.
“Well, I got this bad feeling,” Big Walt said. “Arnell, this dude’s walking around The Well like he’s the man of the manor. The other night, he took the money from the clients and I don’t know if he gave any of it to the queen.”
Arnell’s jaw dropped.
“Now, Arnell, you know that’s bad. You know how the queen feel about her money.”
“Who doesn’t know?”
“Well, that dude is messing with her money big time.”
Oh, damn. This is bad.
“And I’ll tell you something else that’s strange,” Big Walt continued. “You know the queen’s always checking out everything—the girls, the music, the house, the food. Everything.”
“To the tiniest detail,” Arnell agreed.
“Well, she don’t check a damn thing anymore, that dude does. As sure as I’m sitting here, I know this dude got something on the queen.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s making her sick. The other night, she had one of those heart episodes.”
Arnell wasn’t a bit concerned about Esther’s heart condition, she knew that Esther was a faker. Arnell waved her hand.
“That’s cold, Arnell,” Big Walt said with a chuckle. “But for real. I think the queen’s in serious trouble.”
Arnell was reminded of what Tony had told her. Things done in the dark will come out in the light. Esther’s past—the past that she didn’t want to talk about—had caught up with her. The man from thirty years ago that Esther thought de
ad, was staying in her precious mansion. This had to be driving her mad.
“Too bad Tony isn’t here to help her.”
“That’s for damn sure,” Big Walt agreed, “but you’re here.”
Arnell began shaking her head no. “I can’t help my mother. Whatever her troubles are with this Kesley person, they’re too much trouble for me. I have battle scars on my behind, on my mind, and on my soul from dealing with my mother’s troubles.”
“But she has no one else, Arnell. Tony is gone. You’re her blood.”
“Arnell,” Trena said, “maybe you need to go check on your mother.”
“Damn it!” Arnell fell forward with her elbows on her thighs and her forehead resting on the balls of her hands. “I can’t do this,” she moaned. “Every damn time I try to wrench myself out of my mother’s clutches, something comes up and flings me back into her grasp like I’m a goddamn boomerang with no will of my own. Why the hell can’t I get free of this damn woman and her problems?”
“I know why,” Trena volunteered.
Arnell waited for the answer that she knew would be too simplistic to be ignored.
“Maybe it’s because you do love your mother.”
Arnell slumped back against the cushion. “I don’t need my mother’s kind of love—it’s robbing me of my sanity.”
Thirty-Six
Once again, because of Esther, Arnell was on her way back to The Honey Well. There was nothing sweet there for her—only misery and shame. Big Walt insisted on driving her and Trena into Brooklyn, and he also promised to bring Arnell back home no matter what time it was. Arnell was planning on holding him to that, or she swore she’d kick his ass and make him pay for a car service to take her back to Garden City. She had no intention of spending another night in Esther’s mansion. They dropped Trena off in Bushwick on Broadway, two blocks over from her house—Trena didn’t want to be seen getting out of Big Walt’s car by her mother or sister. It was going to be hard enough as it was to keep her pregnancy a secret.
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