by Mary Monroe
It didn’t take a mind reader to determine what Jade was thinking. “Shet up, you nosy old bitch!” she screamed, shaking a fist at me. “SHET UP, I SAID!”
There was a horrified look on Rhoda’s face, but she remained composed. “No, you shet up,” Rhoda said, wagging a finger in Jade’s direction. “Go on, Annette. Did you hear or see Bully attackin’ my daughter? Did you see him in the kitchen with her?”
“Yes, I saw him in the kitchen with your daughter. No, I didn’t see him attacking her.”
“I thought I told you to shet up!” Jade started to move in my direction, shaking her fist some more. I prayed that she didn’t hit me. Even with Rhoda present, I would defend myself. When she spoke again, she did so with her mouth stretched open so wide, I could see the base of her tongue. “Pig face, don’t you stand here and make me look bad!” Jade shouted at me.
Rhoda grabbed Jade’s wrist and stopped her in her tracks. “Girl, I advise you to get a grip. Keep your lips still until I hear what Annette has to tell me.”
“But, Mama! Annette is crazy! She hates me! Please don’t listen to her lies! She’s always been jealous of me! She’s been trying to ruin my life ever since I was a little girl!”
“If anybody was being attacked, it was Bully,” I insisted, surprised that I was able to speak in such a calm manner. “Rhoda, I don’t want to get too graphic and repeat what Jade said—and did—to Bully. But she was all over that man like a cheap blanket.” Despite all of the pain that Jade had caused me, I didn’t enjoy hurting her. But there were enough people in my life who were already in enough pain. It was not fair for me to stand by and let Jade get away with hurting Rhoda and Bully. I had no choice but to reveal what I had witnessed.
“Why you ... you ... big fat liar! You’re a damn, fat-ass, middle-aged lying COW!” Jade hollered. Her eyes looked like they were going to explode. Her lips were quivering like she’d just been Tasered.
“Jade, I know you, and that means I know what a low-down, dirty little tramp you can be,” Rhoda said calmly, folding her arms. “You’ve ruined a lot of lives, but I won’t help you continue to do so. Now, you tell me the truth. Did you or did you not come on to Bully?”
“NO! Do I look like the kind of woman who has to come on to a man like you two used-up old clucks?” Jade blinked hard and shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
“Do you mean to tell me that Annette is lyin’ on you to my face?” Rhoda asked, sarcasm dripping from her lips like sap.
“SHE IS! SHE IS LYING, MAMA! HONEST TO GOD,” Jade roared, tears sliding down her face like hot wax.
“Okay, if she’s lyin’, then please tell me why you think she’s lyin’ on you? What does she have to gain by tellin’ such a bare-faced lie?” Rhoda asked. From the expression on her face, it looked like she was in as much emotional pain as Jade. And I could understand why. There was nothing worse than being in a situation in which a loved one was also the source of your pain. That was probably the only thing that Jade and Pee Wee had in common these days. They both managed to inflict unimaginable pain on the people who loved them the most.
“I DON’T KNOW! I—I—feel like I’m going to faint—aaarrrggghhh!” Jade’s eyes rolled back in her head. And just as I expected, she stumbled around for a few seconds like a newborn colt; then she hit the floor with a thud.
CHAPTER 22
FOR JADE TO BE AS MEAN AND FEISTY AS SHE WAS, SHE SURE fainted faster and easier than anybody I knew. As soon as she had hit the floor, she stretched out on her back like a baby seal. I helped Rhoda lift and haul her ass to the couch. Rhoda immediately began to fan and gently slap Jade’s face, trying to revive her. Less than a minute later, Jade opened her eyes and started boo-hooing like a baby.
“I’ll get a wet cloth,” I offered. I started to leave the room, but before I could, Jade sat bolt upright. She stopped crying so abruptly, a few rapid hiccups flew out of her mouth. Then she looked from Rhoda to me, glaring at us with the level of hostility that I had become accustomed to. She jumped off the couch and started to hop up and down like a kangaroo. When she stopped hopping, she began to chant, “Ooo ... wooo ... wooo ... I can’t go on ... I can’t ... go on!” She paused and rubbed the side of her face and wailed like a stuck pig for at least two minutes. It was a pitiful sight. What I couldn’t understand was why she would want to make herself look even more ridiculous. Rhoda stood with her arms folded and a disgusted look on her face.
I didn’t know what to say or do next. I was too stunned to speak.
“I don’t know why you two old crows are picking on me like this again,” Jade whimpered. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I am the victim here! Annette is lying on me, Mama! Why would I want an old fart like Bully? I can get any man I want—I don’t need him!”
“I’ll ask you again, Jade, why would Annette tell such an ugly lie on you?” Rhoda asked in a steely voice with her hands on her hips. From the way she was tapping her toe on the floor, I could tell that she was running out of patience with her daughter. “Jade, I am not goin’ to let you walk away from this. Not this time. You’re goin’ to come clean for once in your life.”
“Huh? What do you mean, Mama?” Jade snarled, still glaring at Rhoda. I could see the rage simmering in Jade’s eyes, threatening to boil over at any moment. “Don’t you believe your own child?”
“Not if that child is you,” Rhoda replied, with her lips snapping brutally over each word.
“But ... I ... Annette’s had it in for me for a long time. Look at that smirk on her pie face.” Jade waved her hand at me in such a melodramatic, sweeping manner, it made me feel like a used car that she was trying to sell.
I may have possessed what Jade called a pie face, but I was not smirking. If anything, I felt sorry for her because I knew that Rhoda was not going to let her talk her way out of trouble this time. And it had been a long time coming. I had always believed that a good dose of Rhoda’s wrath would do Jade a world of good. But I never thought that I would be present to see it happen.
Rhoda moved closer to Jade. Jade stumbled back a few steps. “Jade, you tell me the truth or else,” Rhoda said through clenched teeth.
Jade gasped. “Or else what?”
“Believe me, you don’t want to find out, girl,” Rhoda assured her.
Jade held her breath. A few seconds later, she exhaled with such a tight look on her face, you would have thought that somebody had punched her in her nose. “All right! I’ll tell you why she’s lying on me! She’s still mad about me and Pee Wee! I could have taken him from her if I had really wanted him—but I was just playing!” Jade placed her hands on her hips and swiveled her head around, glancing from Rhoda to me. If looks could kill, Rhoda and I would have dropped dead immediately where we stood. “But ... but she’s still mad at me about it! She’s mad at the world because Lizzie came along and took Pee Wee anyway. Annette couldn’t hold on to him with Krazy Glue. Look at her, Mama! She’s just a fat, miserable old cow. Make her leave this house!”
Rhoda massaged her forehead with the balls of her fingers; then she looked at her watch. “Jade, I don’t have all day to deal with this. Now, this is your last chance to come clean. I want to wrap this up before your father comes home. I don’t want him to know everything that happened here today, but he’ll want to know why I sent Bully to a hotel. I am sure I’ll come up with a good story to tell him, so I am not worried about that. Now, this is your last chance. You tell me the truth now and we’ll go from here. But if you keep lyin’ to me, you will suffer!”
“You—you’re jealous of me!” Jade boomed. She was looking at me, so I assumed she was talking to and about me. But then she turned to Rhoda with a look in her eyes that I would never forget. It was a look that was a combination of pure evil and hatred. “You are the worst mother in the world! You’re a bitch and I hate you! I have always hated you!”
I gasped so hard I almost choked on my own tongue. Now Rhoda was the one standing as stiff as a telephone pole.
&n
bsp; I was shaking with rage. I didn’t believe in striking children Jade’s age, but if there was ever one who needed her behind whupped, it was her.
“Jade! How can you talk to your own mother like that?” I hollered, clapping my hands like I was addressing a disobedient pet. “Your mother has always treated you like a princess! She had your back when nobody else wanted to come near you! How dare you disrespect her this way!”
Rhoda held her hand up and shook her head at me. Then she turned back to Jade. “I want you to get all of your shit and get your ass up out of my house. Get out before I throw you out.” Rhoda was talking in such a calm manner, I didn’t know what to think. But I was so angry, I wanted to fly across the room and knock some sense into Jade’s bone head myself.
“Fuck you!” Jade screamed at her mother. “You’re just another old whore still trying to look and act young! Look at you! Standing there with more makeup on your face than Bozo the Clown! And your hair! All that long-ass hair, like you’re still sixteen! And it’d be as white as snow if you didn’t dye it!” Jade shot me another red-hot look. “And you—you still look like a freak show in my book. You’re still fat! All you do is kiss up to my mother like a lap dog. Don’t you know she only hangs around with a she-monkey like you to make herself look good? Are you so desperate for a friend that you would put up with that for all these years? You both are two straight-up dykes, I bet! All lovey-dovey all the damn time! I am ashamed for people to know that I know you two!” Jade turned back to her mother. “I have known about you and Bully since I was a little girl. I saw you with him on the beach in Jamaica one night, and I’ve been keeping tabs on you and him ever since. If Daddy wasn’t such a fool, he would have figured out what was going on a long time ago.”
“I told you to get out of this house,” Rhoda said, still speaking with a lot of control in her voice. I was amazed at how she managed to restrain herself.
I was so stunned, I couldn’t move my feet. But I could still move my lips and I had more to say. “Jade, you need to stop talking right now and do what your mother said. Let things cool off—” I suggested.
“Cool off, my ass!” Jade spewed. “I will leave this dump when I get good and ready. I am not going anywhere until I say what I’ve been wanting to say for years!” With her arms folded, Jade marched up to Rhoda and stood so close to her, their noses bumped. “Yes, I went after Bully! He needs a real woman like me! He’s only with you because he feels sorry for you! Other than Daddy, what other man would be fool enough to stay with a piece of a woman like you? Nobody but a dickless, old dinosaur like Bully, that’s who! Nobody else wanted you after that doctor cut off your titties! I was just trying to do Bully a favor. I wanted him to see what he was missing.. . .”
In all of the years that I’d known Rhoda, I had never seen the degree of hurt on her face that was on it now. She blinked hard a few times. Then she closed her eyes for a moment and slowly shook her head. When she opened her eyes, she blinked some more and slapped the side of her ear, like people do when they think their ears are deceiving them. But her ears were not deceiving her. I had heard everything that Jade said too.
“Rhoda, are you all right?” I asked. The reason I asked that dumbass question was because she looked like she was in a trance. When she swayed a little, from side to side, I thought she was going to faint. “Rhoda, maybe you should sit down,” I suggested, gently grabbing her arm.
“I’m fine,” she told me, slapping my hand away. She took a deep breath and looked at Jade in a way that made me sway a little from side to side.
“So? Are you just going to stand here and look stupid?” Jade hissed at Rhoda.
“Jade, you need to quit while you’re ahead,” I advised. “You don’t know your mother as well as I do—”
“Didn’t I tell you to shut the fuck up!” Jade retorted, wagging a finger in my direction. “My mother is a no-good witch and she knows it.” What Jade said next made a chill shoot up my spine like a bullet. “She’s the reason I am the way I am... .”
It was a strange comment, even coming from someone like Jade. And that made it even more ominous.
CHAPTER 23
I WAS EXTREMELY CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH Rhoda’s head. There was a look of overwhelming sadness in her eyes. She was already a petite woman, but now she looked even smaller, and so fragile I thought she was going to crumble to the ground.
Jade’s comment about Rhoda’s breasts must have hurt Rhoda clean down to the bone, because Rhoda’s lips began to quiver. Her hand, which was shaking like a leaf in a strong wind, suddenly stopped shaking and she began to slowly massage her chest. Her heart was beating with so much vigor that I could actually hear each thump.
Jade’s comment even made my chest ache. I didn’t even realize my hands were massaging my bosom, too, until I looked down at myself.
By making such an insensitive reference to her mother’s surgery, Jade had crossed a line that she could not cross back over even if she attempted to do so with her feet strapped to a pair of stilts. One of the few things that even I knew not to bring up with Rhoda was the fact that she’d lost both of her breasts to cancer. The last thing that she needed to hear was someone referring to her as “a piece of a woman” because of that surgery—especially when it had literally saved her life. And especially when that someone was her own daughter.
I was flabbergasted and pleased at the same time to finally see a hint of acute remorse on Jade’s face—a puppy-dog look that almost reduced me to tears. Maybe she was not as insensitive as she’d led me to believe all these years. If Jade had apologized to me for all of the pain that she’d caused me and improved her general behavior, I probably would have forgiven her. And for Rhoda’s sake, I might have even eventually restored my relationship with Jade. I missed doing some of the things that I used to do with her. Like me taking her to the skating rink when Rhoda was too busy. Or the two of us going to the mall to shop and share a pepperoni pizza, and her referring to me as “Auntie Annette.” It would have warmed my heart for me to hear her call me that again.
“Bitch, why are you looking at me like I’m crazy?” Those were the next words out of Jade’s mouth, and they were directed toward me.
I was still stunned, but no longer pleased. The same puppy-dog look, which I had mistaken for remorse, was still on Jade’s face. “Jade, apologize to your mother. If you don’t want to do it for me or her, do it for yourself,” I pleaded.
Jade snickered and then looked at me like I was crazy. “You are so crazy!” she boomed, with spit foaming in one corner of her mouth.
The next thing I knew, that heifer ran out of the room with the bottom of her negligee flapping behind her like a dragon’s tail.
Within seconds I heard loud rap music coming from Jade’s room. After all of the pain that this girl had just caused, all she could think about was herself, and listening to one of the late Biggie Smalls’s final tunes.
“Are you all right?” I asked Rhoda, leading her to the couch. “You know she didn’t mean any of that. She still has a lot of growing up to do.”
“I ... I don’t believe what just happened in my own house,” Rhoda whispered. “I must be dreamin’.”
I shook my head. “You’re not dreaming, honey.” I began to wonder if I had done the right thing by telling Rhoda what had really happened between her lover and her daughter in the kitchen. It took me less than a second to convince myself that I had done the right thing. Even though it had caused a firestorm like none I’d ever seen before in my life.
Rhoda jerked her head from side to side; then she looked at me with extreme hopelessness on her face. She looked like a woman in mourning. I’d only seen this degree of bereavement at funerals. And in a way, I guess you could say that one of Rhoda’s loved ones had died. I didn’t see how this mess could ever be repaired. “Did you hear what my daughter just said to me?”
“I heard every word,” I rasped, words struggling to get out of my mouth. I had to clear my throat before
I could continue. “But I honestly don’t think she meant most of it.”
“That girl has lost her mind!” Rhoda yelled with her fist clenched. “She must have!”
“She’s just spoiled, Rhoda.” I wasn’t trying to defend Jade, but I didn’t want to make the situation any worse than it already was by saying what was really on my mind. But the truth of the matter was, I firmly believed that Jade was the daughter from hell. And I believed that she was going to be the way she was until something or somebody knocked her off the high horse she’d been riding on for most of her life.
But the worst was yet to come.
“Annette, will you please fix me a drink?” Rhoda managed, coughing and massaging her chest some more.
“I’ll get you a glass of wine,” I told her.
“No, that won’t do this time. I need a much more potent crutch. Pour me a double Jack Daniels on the rocks. And hurry!” Rhoda ordered. I could tell from the dazed look on her face that she was still in a state of shock. I was too. As much as I wanted other things to distract me to keep my mind off of my own messy life, I never expected something this extreme.
I ignored the portable bar in the living room and ran into the kitchen where Rhoda and Otis kept their hard liquor in a cabinet next to the refrigerator.
It took me only a few minutes to pour drinks into a couple of shot glasses. But by the time I made my way back to the living room, Jade had returned with her face fully made up. She even had on false eyelashes, coated with enough jet-black mascara to paint the side of a barn. She wore a pair of black stiletto heels, a white silk blouse, and a pair of jeans that were so tight, her crotch looked like it had toes. She had brushed out her long black hair and pinned it to one side with a heart-shaped barrette. Jade looked like she was on her way to a nightclub. “Mama, I’m almost out of my medication,” she said. Her tone of voice was so casual you would have thought that she was ordering a cheeseburger. “And when you go to the pharmacy to get my refill, get me some panty liners too,” she added.