by Mary Monroe
“I wouldn’t be where I am right now if it wasn’t for Mel,” Loretta said in a whiny voice. “Uh, anybody want some iced tea? I made a pitcher.”
After Loretta had poured everybody a glass of iced tea, she plopped back down onto the couch and looked across the room at Jay in the easy chair facing her. “So, Jay—oops, is it all right if I call you Jay?”
“Now, you know better, Lo’retta. I raised you to call grown folks either Mr., Mrs., or Miss, unless it’s somebody you are related to,” Maureen reminded. She occupied the hassock at the end of the couch.
“That’s not what I meant.” Loretta sniffed. “I didn’t know if I should call him by the same name that that old woman gave him or the name his real mama gave him.”
A pensive look crossed Jay’s face as he cleared his throat. His heart rate accelerated. Maureen was the only one who noticed the tears pooling in his eyes. “For the record, as far as I am concerned, Leona Freeman was my real mother. All my life she was the only relative I knew, so she was very special to me—and still is. ” Jay paused and smiled at Loretta. His eyes were red and his lips were so dry that when he smiled, his lips looked like they had been molded out of clay. “Call me Jay.”
“Cool. So, Mr. Jay, didn’t you ever wonder how come she didn’t have any relatives? How is it that old woman kept you all to herself all these years?” Loretta asked.
“Yes, I did wonder about that. From the time I was able to talk, I asked her about it. She told me that all of our folks were dead,” Jay replied.
“Harrumph!” Loretta snorted. “Even I wouldn’t swallow a story that flimsy. I mean, everybody has at least an uncle or an aunt or some cousins or somebody somewhere in the world. Even homeless people livin’ on the street. Maybe the family members are not close, but there should at least be some pictures or some evidence of other family.” Loretta paused long enough to take a long drink from her tea glass. “Mr. Jay, I’m surprised that you never got up in that old lady’s face and scared the truth out of her. It’s just not possible for a human bein’ to be born into a family and then everybody on both sides of his family up and dies! Things like that only happen in the Bible. You should have known that old woman had done somethin’ shady.”
Jay looked like he was in a daze. Virgil looked like his mind was a thousand miles away. Maureen wanted to give Loretta a good whupping.
Corrine gave Loretta a tight-lipped, exasperated look and shook her head. “What about people who were deserted when they were babies, Lo’retta? There is no way in the world for them to know anything about family,” she pointed out.
“Whatever, whatever.” Loretta’s lips snapped brutally over her words as she responded to Corrine’s comments, adding a dismissive wave. She returned her attention to Jay. “Now, Mr. Jay, I think that if you had been on top of things, you could have straightened out this mess before now.”
Maureen couldn’t believe her ears. She was appalled to hear Loretta being so blunt and borderline disrespectful. Especially since she had already told her how traumatic this situation was for Jay. “Lo’retta, Jay would probably be more interested in hearin’ more about how well you’re doin’ as a model,” Maureen suggested, her face burning with embarrassment. The last thing she wanted to put Jay through in her own apartment, in front of her family, was a bunch of insensitive comments and questions. Loretta had done enough damage. “I know you’d rather talk about your modelin’ some more anyway.” Maureen gave Loretta one of her sternest looks and Loretta gave her one of her most defiant looks.
Jay spoke before Loretta had a chance to start up again. “That’s all right, Maureen. I don’t mind talking about it. I don’t like to talk about it, but for some strange reason lately the more it’s discussed in my presence, the easier it is to deal with. The day Mother told me, I didn’t think I could survive the night. I’m all right now, though.” Jay’s smile went around the table.
Jay was not “all right now.” He was still in a tremendous amount of pain. Maureen could see it in his eyes. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold on to him until his pain went away, but she knew she couldn’t do that, especially with her husband sitting just a few inches away from her.
At the same time that Maureen was sitting there wanting to console Jay, Virgil wanted to do the same thing for her.
He knew he would do just that. Any day now.
CHAPTER 35
MAUREEN HAD NOTICED HOW QUIET AND AGITATED VIRGIL APPEARED to be toward the end of the evening. She knew he had been under the weather lately, but he’d been sick before and she’d never seen him look so pitiful. She also knew that he still had flashbacks related to his ordeal in Vietnam. He didn’t like to talk about that experience, so it was rarely discussed. She assumed that that was the reason for his gloomy demeanor.
But Jay was a different story. Each time Maureen saw him now, he looked a little worse. The dark circles around his eyes made him look like a panda. The lines on his face, which had barely been noticeable before, now looked like they had been carved into his skin with a blade. A few times tonight he had spoken and moved like a robot. After he had nibbled on a short rib and swallowed a few sips of the tea that Loretta had made, he ignored everything else on the table—except the wine. It was the only thing that he and Virgil consumed more than anybody else.
Virgil was still not feeling well, so he wanted to get home and take a long bath, swallow some aspirin, and drink a huge hot toddy. He hugged Maureen and Loretta, nodded at Mel, and shook hands with Jay and wished him well. Then Virgil practically pushed Corrine out the front door.
After Jay had finished his fourth glass of wine, he was so tipsy it was a struggle for him to get up from the couch. He moved like a man twice his age. With an involuntary burp and a weak smile, he turned to Maureen and thanked her for inviting him to dinner, made a few comments to Mel and Loretta, and then prepared to leave.
Jay had come to Maureen’s apartment in a cab. It was a good thing he had done that. He had been so distraught and distracted lately that he didn’t feel safe driving his own car anyway. A look of relief had slid across his face when Maureen insisted on driving him home. She silently prayed that Mel would not offer to go with her, but a prayer wasn’t even necessary for that. As soon as Mel heard her offer to drive Jay home, he announced that he had some last-minute prints to develop and promptly excused himself. By the time Maureen had collected her purse and car keys, Mel had already disappeared from the room as swiftly as a thief.
Loretta got up off the couch and walked Jay and Maureen to the door. “It was nice meetin’ you, Mr. Jay. I hope you get over that kidnappin’ thing real soon,” she said, shaking her head and giving Jay a pitiful look. “I’m surprised you haven’t had a complete nervous breakdown by now.”
Jay chuckled. “I think I’ll be just fine, Loretta. Good luck with your future modeling assignments. If I don’t talk to you before your prom, have fun. I’ll attend your graduation if I can.”
It was a quiet ride to Jay’s house. It seemed like he and Maureen went out of their way not to discuss his kidnapping, but it was on her mind as much as it was on his.
“Jay, I hope everything works out for you. No matter what, you can always count on me for anything you need,” she told him as soon as she parked in front of his house.
“Not everything, Maureen,” Jay replied. He didn’t want to look at her because he didn’t want to see the look on her face. But he did look at her when she touched his arm a few seconds later.
“I can’t do anything about that and I’m sorry you feel the way you do,” she said hoarsely.
“Sorry I have feelings for you?”
She shook her head. “No, not that. I’m just sorry about what’s goin’ on with you right now. I’m not sorry you have feelin’s for me, Jay. I have feelin’s for you too. But . . .”
“You don’t have to keep reminding me that you’re married. I just want to say one thing about that.”
“Like what?”
“Listen
to me, just from what I observed tonight, you deserve more than what you settled for, Maureen. You can do so much better than Mel.” Jay quickly opened the door on his side and leaped out of Maureen’s car before she could respond. She sat there until he got inside his house, shaking her head and thinking about what he had just told her. The more she thought about it, the more she agreed with him.
Confused and more concerned than ever now, Maureen couldn’t imagine what other thoughts were going through Jay’s head now that he had had a glimpse of her life with Mel. As if Jay didn’t have enough to think about already! He had made it clear that he didn’t want to dwell too much on his situation. He wanted to focus on her. Under the circumstances, though, Maureen could not figure out how he could even have “romance” on his mind with all of the chaos going on in his life right now.
However, it pleased her to know that Jay still had feelings for her.
“Alone at last! I thought that dinner would never end. It was torture!” Loretta remarked with a grimace on her face. She and Mel had returned to the kitchen table after Maureen and everybody else had left. “Jay reminds me of a puppy that nobody wanted.”
“Having Jay in the picture could work in our favor. Babysitting him will give your mother something else to do with her spare time,” Mel said. “That means more time that you and I can be alone together.”
Loretta yawned and stretched her arms high above her head. Then she unbuttoned the two top buttons on her blouse and pointed to her bosom. “You still hungry?” she asked, massaging her right breast.
“I still want to feed, if that’s what you mean,” Mel replied, looking at Loretta with a hungry eye.
Mel stood up and waltzed to the other side of the table and stood next to Loretta, staring into her eyes. After squeezing and thumping her breast like he was inspecting a melon, he leaned down and kissed her so hard she gagged. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of her chair. They strolled arm in arm to her bedroom, glowing like they were Prince Charles and Lady Diana, but they were about as far from being “royal” as a couple of street bums. Mel threw Loretta down onto her bed and ripped off her clothes and underwear like a rapist. And she enjoyed every minute of it.
Loretta was soaking in rose-scented bubble bath up to her neck when Maureen returned home. Mel was in the kitchen organizing a stack of prints on the table. He didn’t hear or see Maureen come in and she didn’t disturb him. She was asleep when he came to bed about an hour later.
With her head propped up on two pillows, she looked so sad lying there. This was the first time since Mel had started sleeping with her daughter that he felt sorry for her. She had lost her mother and a child, and she had never experienced the love of a man. Not even now. She was too weak for her own good, but after all she had been through, a weakened spirit was to be expected. She was still attractive for a woman her age, and she was a kindhearted, sensitive, hard-working woman. However, she had other flaws that Mel could not accept in a woman. For one thing, she was too gullible and trusting. A more observant woman would have seen what he was up to with her eyes closed! The last time he’d involved himself with a sweet young thing, her busybody of a mother had figured it out by the end of the first week! There had been many others in the past and he had enjoyed each one. Loretta was different. She was ambitious and willing to do whatever she had to do to succeed. Unlike her mother, she didn’t have a problem being deceitful and using other people to get what she wanted. Like him, Mel thought with smug pride, Loretta had no problem using her looks and body to get her way. He liked that. She was a lot like him, and at the same time, she was just stupid enough to let him control her life without her even knowing it.
For the first time in his life, Mel had almost everything he wanted. When Loretta finished school in June, he would take his plan to the next level. He would divorce Maureen and marry Loretta. If everything continued to go according to his plan, and he had every reason to believe that everything would, the girl would be so successful that she would be the ultimate meal ticket. He would be rich and probably as famous as she was going to be. He didn’t expect a marriage to Loretta to last, but as long as it lasted long enough for him to get a toehold on the life he deserved, that was fine with him. The thought of all the benefits he would enjoy as Loretta’s husband made him almost pass out from glee. What a coup he had pulled off this time!
Unfortunately, there was a potential roadblock, but Mel decided that it was not a big one by his standards. As a matter of fact, he thought of it as more of a detour. Virgil. That meddling bastard was the biggest thorn in Mel’s side since his ex-wife. All through dinner, Virgil had given him dirty looks and each time he opened that hole in his face, nothing but shit came out as far as Mel was concerned. Mel was ten steps ahead of that naked ape. Now that he and Loretta had everybody thinking they didn’t spend so much time together anymore, maybe that sucker would keep his two cents in his pocket and mind his own business.
At the same time that Mel was roasting Virgil in his thoughts, Virgil was basically doing the same thing to him. Except he wasn’t keeping his thoughts to himself. He had an attentive audience. “I just don’t trust that dude,” Virgil told Corrine for about the tenth time after they got home. “Every time I said somethin’ to him this evenin’, he went out of his way not to look me in the face. I seen enough anyway. Dude’s got what I call ‘lyin’ eyes’ and lyin’ eyes mean a lyin’ soul. Somethin’ about him ain’t right. I suspect the dude is bad to the bone.”
“I don’t like him much myself, but if he’s that bad, Mo’reen would have seen that by now,” Corrine said, handing Virgil his second hot toddy. “Mel is from Chicago, a place known for breedin’ savages, so he probably don’t know the first thing about bein’ a do-right man like you. Maybe some of Mo’reen’s good nature will eventually rub off on him. We just need to give him a chance.”
“Chance my tail! That man is up to somethin’. I can feel it,” Virgil yelled, waving his glass so hard, hot toddy splashed onto the floor. He lay in bed with his throbbing head propped up on three goose-down pillows.
“The bottom line is, the man is Mo’reen’s husband, so we have to tolerate him regardless,” Corrine said, already on her knees wiping up the hot toddy with a sock. “You know what, after meeting Jay and seein’ him and Maureen at the same time, I got a feelin’ they would like to be more than just friends.”
“I thought somethin’ like that before I even met him, but it’s goin’ to be a while before his mind is straight again. He’s goin’ to need all kinds of help from a professional. He might end up losin’ his mind behind what happened to him. Uh-uh, honey. With all the baggage Jay got on his hands, Mo’reen is probably better off with a scallywag like Mel after all.”
CHAPTER 36
IT BEGAN TO RAIN LATER THAT NIGHT. THE LIGHTNING WAS SO SEVERE it lit up Virgil’s darkened house like a strobe light. The thunder was even more frightening. Every few minutes it rolled across the sky and boomed like dynamite being set off in his own front yard. Large hailstones hammered his roof and the sides of his house, and even cracked one of the two windows in the living room. For most of his life, Virgil had endured the vicious storms that South Florida was known for. He had experienced several monsoons during his stay in Vietnam, so he was used to violent weather. Tonight was different, though. In addition to everything else that was on his mind, the bad weather made it difficult for him to go to sleep. It took another large hot toddy to help him relax enough to do that.
During the night, Virgil had a nightmare that was so disturbing it woke him up. In it, Mama Ruby was holding the shoebox she’d put Maureen in after she’d kidnapped her. He sat bolt upright in bed, flailing his arms and kicking the sheets off his bed like they had suddenly burst into flames. He was dripping with so much sweat he had to get up and put on another pair of pajamas. He was glad that Corrine was a hard sleeper. She was the kind of woman who could sleep through a tsunami, so she didn’t hear him moaning and hollering like a dying man.
; He went through the same thing the following night, and the two nights after that. He knew there was only one way to end his nightmares.
The following Thursday when Virgil knew that Maureen didn’t have to work, he called her up around 3:00 p.m. from a pay phone. “I need to talk to you about somethin’ real serious,” he told her. “Me and you need to be alone somewhere. . . .”
Maureen couldn’t imagine what it was that Virgil needed to talk to her about that was so serious they had to be alone. A few moments of ominous silence passed before she responded. “All right. Loretta’s still at school and Mel is out on a shoot, so we can be by ourselves here. I just made some hog head cheese, and I’ll make some tea and we can—”
“This ain’t goin’ to be no tea party,” Virgil broke in gruffly. “This ain’t goin’ to be no social visit.”
“Okay. Well, like I said, I’m here by myself, so we can have all the privacy you need.”
Maureen’s head immediately began to throb. One thought erupted in her mind like a volcano and it almost brought her to her knees. Virgil was sick. He was going to die. Oh, Lord! That had to be what he wanted to discuss with her! Just like Mama Ruby had once predicted, some odd, rare fatal disease that had taken root while he was imprisoned in that hellhole in Vietnam had finally reared its ugly head. What else could it be?
“I don’t want to talk to you at your place. Can you meet me at Ronnie’s?” Virgil said.
“That bar around the corner from the funeral parlor down the street?” Just the thought of Mason’s Funeral Home, six blocks from Maureen’s apartment, made her flesh crawl. It was the same place that had interred Mama Ruby’s remains. It represented death in the worst way. Was this another one of her ominous premonitions? Was her beloved only sibling really going to die? “You want me to meet you in a bar? How come you have to talk to me in a bar?” Near that funeral parlor!