by Mary Monroe
After we got back to my house, Pee Wee decided to stay the night. It was the longest night of my life. The three of us must have drunk ten cups of coffee each. I wanted something stronger, like a double shot of Jack Daniels, but this was one time that I wanted to be as lucid as possible.
Every time I heard a siren or a car drive past the house, I ran to my front window. I went out to my porch a few times, looking up and down my street. At one point I looked up at the sky, wondering if the Devil had finally overpowered God. It was getting harder and harder for me to believe that God didn’t make mistakes.
My chest tightened, and for a moment it felt like I couldn’t breathe. I stood up and paced back and forth throughout the living room. I knew that I couldn’t stay in the house too much longer not knowing where my child was. We had called up all of her friends and nobody knew where she was. At least that was what they told us. I didn’t have much faith in our police department, so I knew we had to do whatever we could on our own.
Pee Wee went out and visited the homes of some of the same friends of Charlotte’s that we had already called. Still, none of them had seen or heard from her, or so they claimed. Not even Harrietta and her kids.
After Pee Wee returned, Lillimae offered to go back out with him and search the malls and the video arcades and any other place we thought she might be, and to post the flyers she’d printed with Charlotte’s picture and our telephone number. I had to stay in the house close to the telephone in case she or the police called. I firmly believed that she would call home soon, scared and desperate.
By morning, I was too frantic for words. Pee Wee and I were still on the living room couch. He had fallen asleep around seven A.M., still sitting in an upright position. I had slept in snatches; a few minutes during one hour, a few minutes during another hour. I had eventually dozed off for about an hour. I almost leaped out of my skin when the telephone rang around eight-thirty. I was already awake, but the telephone startled Pee Wee. His body jerked and he let out a shrill yelp. Then his eyes flew open in such a quick and mechanical manner that it seemed like they’d been programmed.
It was Rhoda on the other end of the line. I was glad to hear her voice. If I ever needed her emotional support it was now. Charlotte was more like a daughter to her than Jade. But Rhoda started talking before I could get a word in edgewise. We were running neck to neck in the crisis department with our daughters and since she’d called me, I felt I needed to hear what she had to say first.
“Girl, I’m a stone wreck,” she murmured in a disembodied voice. “My family is unravelin’ like a ball of yarn.” She stopped talking and blew her nose. She sobbed for a few moments before she continued, “I won’t keep you long, but I just wanted to let you know that I’m back home.”
“Uh-huh. I’m glad to hear that. I know you must be tired, but I’m sure you’re glad it’s over. I wish Pee Wee and I could have come down for the funeral. Poppy was a real nice old man. How was the service?”
Rhoda ignored my question. “It’s done,” she whispered. Her voice sounded so weak and hollow it made me shudder. Grief was so contagious. But I didn’t need any from her; I had more than enough of my own.
“What? What’s done?”
“You know ... what we talked about before I went to Jamaica.”
“Uh, let me call you back from the kitchen,” I told Rhoda. “I don’t want to wake up Pee Wee.”
“Oh? He spent the night?”
“It’s not what you think. Not this time,” I muttered. I hung up and quickly padded to the kitchen and called Rhoda back.
I couldn’t even think straight. My mind had already spun out of control, so I was confused as to what Rhoda was talking about. “Now, tell me exactly what you mean.” It took me a few moments to process what she’d just said; then it hit me like a ton of bricks. “Oh! You did do that ... that thing you said you were going to do to Jade?”
“I tipped the authorities off two days before we left. I had to make sure they searched Jade’s luggage.”
“I can’t imagine how difficult it was for you to do all what you did. I just hope that things go the way you want them to,” I mumbled.
“If they don’t, I don’t know what to do next, Annette. Listen, I can’t tell you how much it means to me to be able to confide in you. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have you. Thank you for bein’ my friend.”
“I feel the same way, Rhoda.” I was still trying to decide at what point I should let Rhoda know about Charlotte. That was hard to determine because I didn’t know whose mess was more critical: hers or mine. At least she knew where her daughter was. I didn’t know where my daughter was, or even if she was dead or alive. “Things will work out. You did ... uh ... what you had to do.”
CHAPTER 59
“WHY DOES IT SEEM LIKE WE ARE TALKIN’ LIKE THE CHARACTERS in the Mission Impossible movie? My phones aren’t tapped,” Rhoda said.
“My phones are not tapped either, but maybe we should watch what we say anyhow,” I replied. “You never know who is lurking around a corner.”
“Well, it’s cool on my end. I’m the only one up,” Rhoda said with a noisy sigh.
“All right. Tell me everything. You said you did what you said you were going to do?”
“I did. My daughter was detained by Cleveland customs agents a few hours ago.” Rhoda sniffed. “Annette, she didn’t say a single word to me the whole time we were in Jamaica. Not even during Poppy’s funeral! When she found out we were on the same flights, she downgraded from first class to coach—she has never flown coach—so she wouldn’t have to sit anywhere near her dad and me. If she had given me just a hint that she wanted to make things right, I probably would have changed my mind about what I did. But she didn’t. By the time we were packed up and ready to come back to the States, she was lookin’ at me like she wanted to kill me, mumblin’ all kinds of obscene shit under her breath. That did it. She cooked her own goose. I knew then that I had to go through with my plan.”
“If she wasn’t even speaking to you, how did you manage to get access to her luggage?” I asked.
“I didn’t. Every time I attempted to go into the room where her luggage was, somebody walked in on me.” At this point, Rhoda’s voice became hard and menacing. I was glad that we were on the telephone because I didn’t want to see what kind of look she had on her face. “And when I did get into the room without any interruptions, I found out that she had already packed all of her bags and locked them! Everything but the zippered leather container that her boogie board was in.” Rhoda paused and let out a loud breath.
“Boogie board? Who goes to Jamaica for the funeral of a loved one and feels good enough to go to the beach to ride a boogie board?” I asked. I could have answered that question myself, but Rhoda didn’t hesitate to do so.
“Jade.” She let out another loud breath. “She left Poppy’s funeral early to go attend a reggae concert on the beach. That little witch wouldn’t even ride in the same limo with Otis and me to go to the funeral, or to the airport to come back to the States!”
“I thought Poppy’s passing might soften Jade a bit, make her relax,” I stated.
“A ton of Ex-Lax couldn’t relax that girl. Anyway, after they, uh, searched her luggage and found a five-pound plastic container of high-grade marijuana underneath her boogie board, they took her into a room and strip-searched her. As a matter of fact, they strip-searched Otis and me, too, since we were traveling together. It was so humiliating!”
“Oh Lord! Well, obviously they didn’t find anything on you or Otis, or did they? On Otis, I mean? I know he smokes ganja big time when he’s down there with his relatives. I hope he didn’t forget to check his pockets before he left.”
“Oh, you don’t ever have to worry about that man. He’s a lot of things, but he is not stupid. He’d never get caught with any shit on him, in the islands or anywhere else.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Are you all right?”
“Don’t worry about
me. I’m fine for now,” Rhoda assured me. “Thank God Otis is holdin’ up. But my in-laws are fallin’ apart.”
“I figured they would. It’s a shame that you had to do this while they are still mourning Poppy. How is your side of the family handling this?”
“I just got off the phone with my parents. They are the only ones that I’ve told so far. After all the havoc Jade wreaked when she lived with them in New Orleans, my daddy said jail is where her ass belongs. My mother is fit to be tied. She’s threatenin’ to crawl out of her sick bed and come to Ohio to beg for Jade’s release.”
“Oh Lord. I didn’t realize how many folks were going to be impacted by what you did, Rhoda. Are you sorry about it now?”
“Annette, I am not sorry about anything. I agree with my daddy. Jade belongs in jail.”
“For something she didn’t do?”
“Let’s not go there again,” Rhoda snapped.
I could feel her exasperation, so I decided to tone down my responses. “Um, I am just glad you’re all right. So what happens next?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, since they found something on Jade, did they take her to jail?” I watched a lot of true-crime shows on TV. I read books written by some of the most popular crime writers. And I kept up with the news. Even with all of the knowledge they provided, I still didn’t know what the general procedure was for someone attempting to smuggle drugs into the States. But I did know that it was a very serious situation.
“They took her into custody. She’s in the county jail for now. I do know that she will face a judge soon.” Rhoda mumbled something that sounded like a dying person’s last words. For a moment, I thought she was going to slip into a coma. “I had to do it, Annette. I had to save her.”
“I know you did,” I said, with my voice cracking and my heart beating like a bongo drum.
“Annette, I will call you later after I get some rest. But before I let you go, are you all right? You sound kind of strange.”
It was a little while before I was able to respond. Before I could get the words out, I had to rub my eyes and cough to clear my throat. Doing that didn’t seem to help much. My eyes felt like they were on fire, and my stomach was in knots. “My daughter disappeared last night.”
“WHAT? Oh my God! Why didn’t you say somethin’? How could you sit there and listen to me go on and on and not say somethin’ before now?”
“I am having a hard time dealing with it, and it’s hard for me to talk about. I was going to tell you before we got off the phone!” I replied, my voice fading in and out like a cheap cellular phone. I’d had a lump in my throat for so long that I had almost forgotten about it. But it began to throb again immediately.
“Damn, Annette! Well, are the cops lookin’ for her?”
“Rhoda, she’s a runaway. She left a note and snuck out in the rain while I was in the bathtub and Lillimae was in her room. All the cops did was file a report.”
“They’ve got to do more than that! Charlotte is a minor! A child, for goodness sakes!”
“They didn’t say it in so many words, but I got the impression that they won’t contact me until they need me to identify her body. Lillimae printed up some flyers last night, and she and Pee Wee posted them everywhere they could.”
“SHIT, SHIT, SHIT! I’m on my way over there!”
“Rhoda, I am sorry about your daughter, and I am truly sorry about your father-in-law’s passing. I know you’ve got enough on your plate, so don’t get too worked up about Charlotte. She’s a smart child. I know she won’t go too far for too long. I’m glad that she’s only a runaway, and not caught up in some mess like Jade ... if you know what I mean.”
Rhoda remained silent for so long I got even more concerned. Finally, she said, “I know exactly what you mean. They’ve already run a report about Jade on the local TV news. I can just imagine what a gossip buffet this is goin’ to cause at Claudette’s beauty shop.”
“I am so sorry you had to do what you did. And you know that I am behind you all the way. I am glad you’re home, and as soon as I freshen up, I’ll call you back to let you know what’s going on with Charlotte.”
“How is Pee Wee handling this?”
“Not well at all. Oh, by the way, Lizzie gave birth to a little boy.”
“Does Pee Wee know?”
“He’s the one who took her to the hospital when she went into labor, and he stayed until it was all over,” I snapped.
“My God, girl. You must be devastated with all this shit goin’ on. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I need you, but I think you need me more.”
“Rhoda, please. Stay home and get some rest,” I insisted. “I will see you later in the day.”
Right after I got off the telephone with Rhoda and returned to the living room couch, Lillimae came galloping down the stairs, waving her arms. “Eeeeow! Turn on the TV news! You will not believe what they just reported!” she hollered. I was surprised to see a woman as large and heavy-footed as Lillimae move with so much agility. Every picture on my living room walls, the ornaments on my end tables, and even the Venetian blinds on the windows shook and rattled as she sprinted across the floor with her housecoat flapping like a bat’s wings.
I held up my hand. “I already know,” I said with a heavy sigh.
“Well, will somebody tell me?” Pee Wee asked, straightening his shirt as he rose up off the couch.
“Rhoda’s daughter was caught trying to smuggle marijuana into the States from Jamaica,” I said, easing up off the couch with a moan. I was thoroughly exhausted from being awake off and on for most of the night, but I had to keep my wits about me somehow. I was slightly disoriented, and the inside of my mouth was so dry that my tongue kept sticking to the roof of my mouth. I had to flick it a few times like a snake before I could speak again. “That’s what she called to tell me a few minutes ago.”
Lillimae gasped. “That’s not what I—” Instead of finishing her sentence, she shot across the floor and turned on the TV. She flipped through several channels before she got to the local news, but the newscaster was signing off, with a grim expression on his face as he shook his head.
“I am sure they’ll be repeating the story off and on all day,” I predicted. “I didn’t know Jade was stupid enough to pull a stunt like this.”
“My Lord! You think—honey, you better brace yourself. Be still! Don’t nobody move! Because if you are not careful, you’re goin’ to faint. The news I’m talkin’ about is not about Jade! I didn’t catch the whole news program, so they must have already reported on Jade before this, but ...” Lillimae paused and looked from me to Pee Wee. “Harrietta, the woman across the street who has been running a day-care center and looking after Charlotte ... she ... that woman has been arrested for child pornography!” Lillimae announced.
I didn’t faint, but the news was so devastating that it brought me down to my knees.
CHAPTER 60
LILLIMAE WAS SO UPSET SHE COULDN’T STOP CRYING. SHE HAD blown and rubbed her nose into a tissue so much that her nose was now swollen and her nostrils had expanded, making her look even more like Miss Piggy.
After hearing about Harrietta, Pee Wee and I were even more worried about Charlotte. It didn’t take a mind reader to know that we were all thinking the same thing: Did Harrietta have something to do with Charlotte’s disappearance?
Within an hour after we had heard the news about Harrietta’s arrest, Muh’Dear, Daddy, Rhoda, Otis, and Scary Mary arrived at my house; all were equally horrified, angry, and shocked into stunned disbelief. I could not decide what upset them more: Charlotte’s running away or Harrietta’s arrest.
Muh’Dear looked like Medusa. Her long gray hair was standing up on her head, shooting out in different directions and dangling like snakes. Scary Mary’s wig was on backward. Daddy had his glasses on so crooked that the lenses covered more of his cheekbones than his eyes. They had all seen a brief news report about Jade on the same TV news station, but the major news
was about Harrietta Jameson, the woman whom I had trusted to look after my only child.
Scary Mary calmed down long enough to give her version of a full report on Harrietta that she claimed she got directly from a “reliable source” on the police force. “They tell me that an anonymous tipster sent a package to a reporter at The Richland Review newspaper that contained all kinds of incriminating evidence against Harrietta! The reporter went straight to the district attorney’s office with that shit! That she-devil has been in cahoots with a child pornography ring with associates not only in the United States, but in places as far away as Nigeria and Amsterdam!” Scary Mary was so overwhelmed and angry, she had to pause to catch her breath. But she had more to say. “Anyway, y’all, it was on account of that tip-off that they jump-started an investigation into that woman’s activities. Come to find out, she done even pimped out her own young’uns! The child protective folks done placed all three of ’em in protective custody. The cops snatched Harrietta’s computer, and all kinds of tapes and pictures done been confiscated.”
While Scary Mary was still talking, I peeped out the front window a few times. I had been so preoccupied since yesterday, I had not paid any attention to anything going on in my neighborhood. I hadn’t even noticed any police cars in front of Harrietta’s house. Who would have ever dreamed what was going on across the street inside that lovely house with the lavender wind chimes on the front porch, and those two cute little peach trees and birdbath in the front yard? This was a mess and a half! The quiet residents on Reed Street would never get over this! Other than my friend Jean Caruso’s little girl getting kidnapped, raped, and murdered about twelve or thirteen years ago, we had never experienced any major scandals in this neighborhood until now.
“I ought to hire somebody to blow that sleazy bitch to kingdom come!” Scary Mary yelled. “If she ever gets out of jail, she’ll never smile again—unless she’s smilin’ at me! That low-down sexpot.” I was glad to know that even though Scary Mary made her money pimping other women, she drew the line when it came to sex and children. “My top girl June Ann, she had Harrietta lookin’ after her little girl Bonnie Sue. Now June Ann is so prostrate with grief, there’s no tellin’ when she’ll be able to get back to work. That’s money I’ll be short! Regardless, money or not, I do not tolerate grown folks messin’ over itty-bitty young’uns!” Scary Mary paused and gave me a look of pity. “Annette, child, there is somethin’ I never told too many people. But back when you told us about Brother Boatwright takin’ advantage of you all them years that you was growin’ up, I had my handyman Jude take me out to the cemetery where we buried Boatwright.” Scary Mary paused again and looked around the room. It seemed like Lillimae’s hand came out of nowhere and handed her a large drink. She took a quick swallow and continued, “Anyway, I went up to Boatwright’s grave. And guess what—I squatted down and pissed on it! I didn’t tell Jude why I was emptyin’ my bladder on that asshole’s final restin’ place, but he knew it had to be somethin’ unacceptable, so he peed on it too!”