by Mary Monroe
“We still plan on comin’ back for Thanksgivin’ or Christmas, God willin,” Big Maureen said as Virgil drove her and her husband back to the airport with Maureen in the front seat, snapping pictures with one of the less complicated cameras Mel owned.
“When Lo’retta gets back from them Bahamas, tell her to send us some of them pictures Mel’s goin’ to take down there,” Lukas added. “Maybe the next time we come to visit, she’ll slow down so she can spend more time with us.”
“I’ll make sure of that. Even if I have to put a leash on her neck,” Maureen promised with a wicked laugh. “Her and Mel both.”
It was an emotional parting. Virgil and Maureen spent so much time hugging and kissing Big Maureen at the curb in front of the airport that Lukas had to practically drag her away so they wouldn’t miss their flight.
After Virgil dropped Maureen off at her place, she drank a glass of wine and took a nap. She had to get up early to take Mel and Loretta to the airport the next morning.
When Maureen got up a little before 7:00 a.m., Mel and Loretta had already eaten breakfast and were anxious to be on their way.
“How come y’all didn’t wake me up?” Maureen asked, padding into the living room where Mel and Loretta sat huddled together on the couch. “And—” Maureen gasped and stopped talking. On the floor near the door were seven large suitcases and the huge footlocker that Mel used to transport some of his camera equipment. “Why do y’all need so much luggage for just ten days? Folks will think y’all goin’ to another planet.”
“Uh, I wanted two or three outfits for each day. You know me,” Loretta said in a nervous voice, turning to Mel. “Mel is bringin’ his best camera equipment so he can get some good shots. Right, Mel?”
Mel nodded vigorously. “That’s right!” he said quickly. “I had to pack a lot of outfits too. A couple of my clients from my last shoot are already down there, so there will be several parties. I didn’t want to wear the same thing to each one.”
“Well, I hope y’all have a good time. I sure do wish I could go too. When I do have some vacation time, we’ll go again,” Maureen said, glancing at her watch. “Let me get my shoes on so I can get y’all to the airport on time.” She blinked at Mel. “Oh, Mel, where is your SUV? I didn’t see it when I got home last night.”
“Huh? Oh! I let one of my buddies borrow it until I get back,” Mel responded. “His is in the shop.”
“I hope your buddy takes good care of it. I know how much that SUV means to you,” Maureen said.
After Maureen had dropped Mel and Loretta off in front of Miami International, giving them both long hugs and lots of kisses, she returned to the apartment and made herself some hot tea. She did some housecleaning and a few loads of laundry, and she called to chat with a few friends she had not talked to in a while.
Mel had promised to give Maureen a call as soon as he and Loretta arrived in the islands, which she felt should have happened by now. They’d been gone for almost eight hours. She was more than a little concerned. She was tempted to call the number that Mel had given her just to make sure they had made it to their destination all right. But she changed her mind right away. The last thing she wanted to do was pester them. She eventually assumed they were already having such a good time that they simply had not had the time to check in with her.
After another hour had passed and Maureen still hadn’t heard from Mel and Loretta, she became extremely worried. The way she kept glaring at the telephone, you would have thought that it was responsible for them not calling.
She picked up the telephone several times, but each time she placed it back into the cradle without attempting to call Mel. After a glass of wine helped her relax, she decided that it would be better if she just waited for them to call her later that night.
But they didn’t call her later that night.
They didn’t call the next day either.
Maureen was frantic by now. At 6:00 P.M. on the second day, she finally dialed the number Mel had given her. There was no answer. She called four times in two hours and there was no answer. Now she was convinced that something really bad had happened. The thought of losing her only child and her husband at the same time was more than she could bear. Her life would be over because she knew she would not be able to go on.
She finally called Virgil.
“Virgil, I can’t get in touch with Loretta and Mel,” she hollered, clutching the telephone in her hand like she was afraid it was going to escape.
“When was the last time you talked to them?” he asked.
“When I dropped them off at the airport yesterday mornin’,” Maureen replied, almost choking on her words.
“Don’t go gettin’ all upset yet. If you don’t hear from them before you go to bed tonight, we’ll figure out somethin’ in the mornin’.”
Virgil hung up but Maureen didn’t stop with him. She called the airline reservation desk thinking that maybe they had missed their flight and were still sitting in the airport waiting on another one. She immediately realized that that didn’t make any sense at all. Who would sit in an airport for a day and a half? If they had missed their flight, they would have let her know unless . . . unless something or someone was preventing them from doing so!
Maureen refused to believe what the woman at the airline told her. Loretta and Mel had not missed their flight to the Bahamas—they had never been booked on it in the first place.
CHAPTER 50
“HMMM. THAT’S STRANGE. MA’AM, CAN YOU CHECK ANOTHER schedule? Maybe they took a later flight,” Maureen said to the representative. “Maybe I wrote down the wrong time.”
“The flight you’re inquiring about was the only flight to the Bahamas on that day,” the woman said in a very sympathetic voice. “Maybe they gave you the wrong information.”
“Uh, I don’t think so. I discussed everything with them several times. I checked and rechecked with them several more times before they left. Is there somebody else I can talk to?”
“Ma’am, they’ll tell you the same thing I just told you. The two individuals you are calling about did not book a flight on our airline to the Bahamas or any other destination.” The woman didn’t sound so sympathetic now.
“There must be somebody else I can talk to!” Maureen yelled, almost in tears. “A supervisor? Or somebody who would have been on duty durin’ the time they were supposed to leave?”
“I’ll transfer you,” the woman said. She clicked off before Maureen could say another word.
As soon as Maureen heard a different voice, she repeated what she had said to the first representative. Before this woman said anything, she put Maureen on hold.
Maureen’s heart was beating like a bongo drum. She had heard and read so many grim stories about some of the bad things that happened to Americans in foreign countries. Her hands were shaking so hard she almost dropped the telephone. She only had to wait a few minutes for the representative to get back to her, but it seemed like an eternity.
During those few minutes, every mother’s nightmare had run through her mind. What if some island sex maniac had knocked Mel out and kidnapped Loretta and was going to sell her to one of those brothels that one of the cable channels had featured on a documentary last month? The world was a dangerous place for girls as beautiful as Loretta. The thought of her child being a kidnap victim, too, was more than Maureen could bear to think about! She had other thoughts that were just as unbearable. Such as, maybe some unscrupulous island cabdriver had decided to rob them on the way to the time-share! What if he had killed them and left them dead or dying in a ditch or a jungle for the jackals to eat?
“There are no reservations on any flight with this airline for those two parties,” the representative told Maureen.
“Maybe they booked reservations on a different airline,” Maureen said hopefully.
“Maybe they did.”
“Ma’am, I’m sorry but this is my daughter and my husband. There is no reason in the world for them not to h
ave called me by now. Don’t you think that’s strange?”
“Yes, it is strange, but we don’t have any information to share with you.”
“Is there somebody else I can talk to? Like the police?”
“Ma’am, if you feel this is a police matter, I suggest you call them.” This representative sounded so abrupt and impatient that Maureen thought she was going to hang up on her.
“I don’t want to call the police if I don’t have to. I just . . . I just thought that maybe you could help me figure out what happened.”
“Have you checked with any of the cruise lines? Or a private carrier?”
“Huh? Oh. No, I didn’t think about that,” Maureen mumbled.
A cruise ship or some private carrier? Wouldn’t Loretta and Mel have told her if they decided to go to the Bahamas on a ship or a private plane? Maureen had dropped them off at the airport in front of American Airlines like they had told her to.
What the hell? She had to find out what was going on and she had to find out soon. But she didn’t even know where to begin to look. She didn’t know who else to call. Just as she was about to open the telephone book, the telephone rang.
It was Loretta. “It’s me,” she said. Her voice was so low Maureen could barely hear her. Maureen had never experienced an overseas telephone call before, so she didn’t know until now just how odd and far away the caller’s voice would sound.
“Lord have mercy, girl! I’m about to go crazy!” Maureen hollered, rubbing her aching chest. She exhaled and collected her thoughts. “You need to talk louder. I can hardly hear you. Can you hear me? Do you want to hang up and have the overseas operator connect us? Maybe we’ll have better reception.”
“I don’t need the overseas operator, Mama,” Loretta said with a sniff, speaking loud and clear this time. Now she sounded like she was calling from the next room.
There was complete silence for several seconds. The only thing Maureen could hear was Loretta’s heavy, nervous breathing. It sounded like she was breathing through a tube.
“You still there?” Maureen asked, her heart thumping and a lump forming in her throat.
“I’m still here,” Loretta said quickly.
“Where are y’all? I was worried sick!”
“Mama, shut up and listen.” Loretta stopped talking.
“I’m listenin’,” Maureen said in a tentative voice. “You goin’ to tell me what’s goin’ on or what?”
“Mama, if you ain’t sittin’ down, you better do so because I need to tell you somethin’ that you probably won’t like. Uh, it might even shock you. . . .”
Those words alone were enough to make Maureen’s legs wobble. She flopped down onto the couch and waited for Loretta to continue. “I’m listenin’.” The next few moments were agonizing because Loretta was taking her time getting to what she had to say next. “Lo’retta, please talk to me. You know I don’t like a lot of suspense.”
“Mama, me and Mel . . . uh, we didn’t go to the Bahamas.”
“Well, if y’all changed your plans, I wish one of y’all had called me up and let know before now. I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown until you called me. Where is Mel? Where are y’all if you didn’t go to the Bahamas? And why didn’t y’all go to the Bahamas? After all the fuss you made about goin’ down there!”
“Mama, please shut up and listen! We . . . we . . . are in New York,” Loretta blurted.
“We who?” Maureen’s thoughts suddenly got so jumbled, she couldn’t think straight. First of all, when Loretta said “we,” Maureen thought she meant her and some of her classmates. She knew that Mona and that Warren boy and that gay boy who had escorted Loretta to the prom were also supposed to take that trip to the Bahamas. Did they all decide at the last minute to go in a different direction? If that was the case, where was Mel?
“Me and Mel are in New York,” Loretta said, almost spitting the words out.
Maureen gulped so hard her eyes watered. “New York? You and Mel went to New York?”
“Uh-huh.”
“How come? Did y’all take some out-of-the-way flight or the wrong flight that rerouted y’all through New York first? Last time I checked, the Bahamas was in the opposite direction of New York, so why . . .” Maureen stopped talking and cleared her throat. Until she had all of the facts, she wasn’t sure what to say next.
“We didn’t get on the wrong flight.” Loretta stopped speaking too.
“Lo’retta, talk to me,” Maureen ordered. “What in the world is goin’ on, girl?” Maureen tried not to think the worst, like her daughter being caught up in some weird kidnapping mess—her ultimate nightmare—but that seemed as reasonable as anything else. If that was the case, why would a kidnapper take Mel too? “Baby, are you or Mel in some kind of trouble?” Maybe Mel owed the wrong people some money, or maybe he had said or done something to piss off somebody. Models and photographers associated with all kinds of people. Maybe some hoochie-coochie woman’s gangster husband or boyfriend got jealous of her relationship with Mel and wanted to get rid of him. If that was the case, why would they involve Loretta? “Lo’retta, I asked if you or Mel was in some kind of trouble?” Maureen was frantic. Poor Mel. He had had such a hard life. It was bad enough that he was estranged from his family and that his first wife had run off with another man. “Has . . . has somebody hurt Mel? Is he—”
“Hold on! I’ll . . . I’ll let you talk to him,” Loretta stammered, cutting Maureen off in midsentence.
“Hello, Maureen. I hope you are sitting down and I hope you don’t go off on me,” Mel said in a cautious tone of voice. “Now, we don’t want you to get too upset. These things happen.”
“These things? These things don’t happen to me! For your information, I’m already upset! If one of y’all don’t tell me and tell me fast what the hell is goin’ on, I am goin’ to get even more upset!” Maureen shrieked. “GODDAMMIT!”
“Do you want to talk now, or do you want us to call back after you calm down? I am not going to try and talk to you with you hollering and screaming like a banshee.”
“Look, Mel. You and Lo’retta were supposed to go to the Bahamas. Y’all ended up in New York—and I don’t know why! How can I not be upset? I need to know what the hell you two are up to. If you changed your minds about goin’ to the Bahamas, why didn’t you tell me before now?” Maureen hollered. “You better have a damn good story when you get home!”
“Loretta and I are not coming back to Florida,” Mel said, speaking so fast it sounded like one long word. A second later, he repeated it. This time talking more slowly and pronouncing each word like he was talking to an idiot. “Loretta. And. I. Are. Not. Coming. Back. To. Florida.” His voice was disturbingly hoarse.
Maureen’s tongue began to flap like a flag at half-mast. She couldn’t even speak again for a few moments. She held the telephone away from her ear and looked at it in stunned disbelief because she couldn’t believe what she had just heard. She wanted to hear it again just to be sure she heard right.
“Mel, did I just hear you say that you and Lo’retta won’t be comin’ back?” Maureen asked.
“That’s what you heard!” he said defensively.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means just what I said. We are not coming back.”
“Why the hell not? Put my daughter back on this telephone!” Maureen heard a voice shout. A voice that sounded so strange and hollow she didn’t recognize it. But it was her voice, and she sounded like an idiot. “Wh-wh-wh—” She had to stop trying to talk because gibberish was the only thing coming out of her mouth. She held her breath long enough to pull herself back together, or something close to that. “This is a nightmare and I must be losin’ my mind!” It was a nightmare all right, but Maureen was not losing her mind. Just her husband.
“I’m real sorry,” Mel went on, his voice cracking like he was about to cry. “I’m so sorry, Maureen.”
CHAPTER 51
“WHAT THE HELL? SORRY FOR
WHAT?” MAUREEN YELLED. “SORRY you ain’t comin’ back? Sorry you lied to me about where you were goin’? What? What?”
“I’m sorry that I’m . . . with Loretta now,” Mel said finally. “She’s my woman.”
If a trunk had dropped onto Maureen’s head and smashed it to pieces, it wouldn’t have hurt as much as what she’d just heard. This was what real pain felt like, she realized. But she was a fighter and a survivor, so she was going to go into this battle with both guns blasting. “SORRY IS RIGHT! YOU ARE ONE SORRY-ASS BASTARD!” Maureen roared. Her breath caught in her throat and then she almost threw up. “Melvin Asshole Ross, you put my daughter back on the goddamn telephone right now!”
“I don’t think she wants to talk to you right now. You need to calm down first—”
“This is about as calm as I’m goin’ to get until I know what the fuck is goin’ on! I said, you put my daughter back on this telephone and you put her on right now, Melvin Ross!”
Loretta let out an impatient sigh as soon as she got back on the telephone. “Mama, you better calm yourself down. You makin’ this harder than it needs to be,” she said condescendingly. “See, he’s all mine now.”
Maureen had never thought she would ever hear something so incredibly unbelievable. She got so agitated she couldn’t remain seated. She stood back up, but a spasm gripped her leg and she toppled to the floor like a bowling pin, knocking the lamp off the end table. She dropped the telephone, then retrieved it and sat back down on the couch within a matter of seconds.
“Mama, what in the world was that ruckus I just heard? Aw, shoot! I hope you ain’t havin’ a heart attack,” Loretta said, actually sounding concerned.
“Don’t worry about me havin’ a heart attack. You should have thought about that before. I just want to know one thing—HAVE YOU LOST YOUR DAMN MIND, GIRL?!” Maureen shrieked.
“No, I have not lost my mind—”
“You must have! Mel is my fuckin’ husband—”
“Well, so what? The bottom line is, he’s with me now. He just told you that—and you can’t do a damn thing about it. I’m in love with Mel and he’s in love with me.” Loretta paused and pressed her lips together and kept them that way for a few seconds, as if she was afraid to let more words come out of her mouth.