by Mary Monroe
“How . . . when . . . Lo’retta, you can’t be serious,” Maureen said, wondering how she was able to speak in a calmer voice now. “What I want to know is why?”
“What do you mean ‘why’? You don’t love him and you never did. You even said so! Mel needs a woman who loves him like I do. He’s everything I ever wanted in a man.”
“Lo’retta, let’s start over. Now, you need to tell me what the fuck is really goin’ on with you and Mel,” Maureen ordered. “I need to—”
“Don’t play dumb, Mama,” Loretta interrupted. “Didn’t I already tell you what’s goin’ on? I love him, Mama. I always have. And he loves me and wants to be with only me now, not you. I will love him until the day I die!”
“You just hold on a doggone minute, girl.” The hair on the back of Maureen’s neck stood up like quills, as if she’d just been spooked by a ghost. But this was no ghost talking to her. This was her only child, the same child who had sucked so hard and often on Maureen’s right breast when she was a baby that to this day Maureen had to put a Band-Aid on the nipple of that breast at least once a month to keep it from aching. “None of this is makin’ any sense at all to me!” Maureen screamed.
“Mama, the real reason Mel married you was so he and I could be together more.”
“Is that what he told you?” Maureen threw her head back and laughed long and loud.
Loretta waited for her to stop laughing. “No, he didn’t have to. I always knew he did and—”
Maureen laughed again.
“I’m glad you think this is funny, Mama. I didn’t think you’d take it this well,” Loretta snarled.
It took a lot of effort for Maureen to compose herself. She had laughed so hard, tears were streaming down the sides of her face. “So you and my husband have been fuckin’ each other right up under my nose, huh?” she asked as she wiped off her face with the palm of her hand.
“The way you say it makes it sound so cheap and tacky. We’ve been makin’ love, Mama,” Loretta insisted.
Making love? Maureen almost laughed out loud again. If a girl fucking her mother’s husband wasn’t cheap and tacky, what was? She was glad that Loretta was not in the same room with her. She would have stomped her into the floor by now. “We didn’t have sex until after I turned eighteen. Honest to God.”
“I’m supposed to believe that? You just turned eighteen three months ago. Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe that you and Mel just started screwin’ around now?”
“You can believe what you want, but it’s the truth. Mel is no fool. He wasn’t goin’ to risk goin’ to jail for sleepin’ with me while I was underage,” Loretta pouted. “Besides, like I just reminded you, you said from the get-go that you didn’t love him. How do you think that made him feel all these years? Especially after you got all gaga over that Jay!”
“Why, Lo’retta?” Maureen asked. She was in pain all over, but the pain from her neck up was excruciating. The inside of her mouth burned with each word. Her ears rang. Her head felt like somebody had mauled it with a brick.
“Why what?”
“Why did you do this to me? How could Mel let this happen? Did he get you drunk and take advantage of you? Is that how this mess got started?”
“Mess? The only mess in this matter is you and your old-age attitude. With all that I got goin’ for me, you had this wild notion that I was goin’ to hang around Goons and end up like you—just a housewife sittin’ on a porch! I’m surprised you don’t have a cat yet to sit on the porch with you! You were wrong to think that I’d settle for so little, Mama.”
“Lo’retta, I’m your mother. You got my blood and I—”
“Well, I’m nothin’ like you!” Loretta cut Maureen off.
“You got that right. I would have never done somethin’ like this to Mama Ruby!”
Loretta cackled like a witch. “I guess not! That’s so funny. Even you wouldn’t have wanted any of those baboons Mama Ruby screwed around with.”
“What do you mean by sayin’ you didn’t want to end up like me? I have a good job, a decent home, family, and friends that love me. I’ve accomplished things that any mother would be proud of—and you should be too. Because everything I ever did was so I could provide a better life for you!”
“Well, you didn’t do enough! For my ninth birthday, all I got was a Happy Meal at McDonald’s. I never got over that!” Loretta paused and let out a long, loud, exasperated breath.
It gave Maureen time to think about all of the money she’d spent on Loretta over the years, and here she was still mad because she didn’t get special treatment on her ninth birthday? What was the world coming to?
Loretta interrupted Maureen’s thoughts with more ridiculous comments. “Now I got almost everything I ever wanted, and I am goin’ to get even more. I will be one of the most successful models in the world, and Mel is goin’ to help me get there,” Loretta vowed. “There is nothin’ you can say or do to make me come back home.” Loretta paused again and let out another loud breath. “And another thing, Mel will be sendin’ you the divorce papers as soon as we get settled.”
“Tell him not to bother. I will be filin’ divorce papers myself as soon as I can get to a lawyer’s office!” Maureen blasted.
“I hope you are not thinkin’ about cleanin’ Mel out.”
“You tell that son of a bitch that he won’t have to worry about that. I don’t want a damn thing from him!” Maureen hissed. She had to stop to catch her breath. “If you want me to pack up the rest of your shit, and his, send me the address where I can send it. Otherwise, I’m goin’ to throw out everything y’all left here into the trash where it belongs!”
“We took every goddamn thing we wanted, so you can trash whatever the hell we left behind anyway,” Loretta said with a smirk. “Anything else you need to say? If not, I’m goin’ to get off this fuckin’ phone and go take care of my man.” Loretta hung up before Maureen could get another word in edgewise.
This was not Loretta talking, Maureen thought. Either it was an imposter or Loretta had been playing a role her whole life. The real Loretta had never used profanity before, at least not during her conversations with Maureen. Here she was now cussing like a sailor!
CHAPTER 52
IT TOOK MAUREEN SEVERAL MINUTES TO PULL HERSELF TOGETHER enough to dial Virgil’s telephone number. He and Corrine were still at work, so she got their answering machine. Catty and Fast Black were also unreachable. But Maureen had to talk to somebody or she was going to go stark-raving mad. It had to be somebody who could understand her pain.
Without giving it much thought, she dialed Jay’s number. She had not talked to him in a while, so she had no idea what he was up to these days. She almost hung up when a woman answered. Even though Jay had decided to reconcile with his ex, as far as Maureen was concerned, he was still her friend and she had every right in the world to call him. Besides, she had provided a shoulder for him to cry on when he was in pain. Now it was time for him to do the same for her.
“Uh, is Jay there? I’m an old friend of his. I used to take care of his mama,” she blurted, hoping that if this woman was Jay’s ex-wife, she wouldn’t jump to any unnecessary conclusions. All she needed was a friend right now, not a lover.
“He’s not home right now. Would you like to leave a message?” the disembodied voice on the other end said. Maureen had seen Jay’s ex-wife with him at Loretta’s graduation—at least that’s who she assumed the woman was. Jay had not introduced her to the ex and had not revealed much information about her, so Maureen knew practically nothing about the woman. Other than the fact that she was very pretty and very young. The woman on the other end of the line sounded like a woman in her seventies or eighties.
“Uh, I’ll call him later,” Maureen said, about to hang up. “Wait! Are you his wife? Maybe I can leave a message with you.”
“His wife?” The woman clucked. “Honey, I’m old enough to be Jay’s grandmother. Me and his mama went to the same church. I come by t
o clean and cook for him every now and then. The poor thing.”
“Oh. Well, what about his wife?”
“What about his wife? His slut would be more like it! Harrumph! That wench gets around like a chain letter. She done moved in with another man. She didn’t hang around with Jay once she found out he wasn’t goin’ to feather her nest. She thought he was goin’ to be gettin’ all kinds of money from these news and book publishin’ folks for lettin’ them tell his story.” The old woman stopped talking for a few moments and uttered a string of profanities under her breath. “Excuse me. I usually don’t cuss like that, but I do when it involves that woman. Me and Jay’s mama begged him not to marry her in the first place. Anyway, that boy don’t want to profit off what he went through like some folks would if they had the chance. Leona didn’t raise him up to be that way. Jay is just a simple man and he wants to live a simple life. He don’t want no book deal or nothin’ else. That boy is doin’ real good workin’ for the cable company. What’d you say your name was?”
“Mo’reen. I’m a friend of Jay’s. It’s been a while since we talked, so I thought I’d call to touch base with him,” Maureen said.
“I’ll tell him you called, Mo’reen.”
A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door. Maureen looked through the peephole and saw a stout young white man she had never seen before. Well, since her bills had all been caught up, she knew it wasn’t a bill collector. Could Mel have arranged for a process server to bring her divorce papers already? she wondered as she snatched open the door.
“Yes? What is it?” she hollered, making the man flinch.
“Oh, I’m sorry to bother you, ma’am. Did Mel leave yet?”
“What? How do you know Mel?”
“I don’t really know him, ma’am. I’m the one who bought his SUV. I just wanted to let him know he left some CDs in the glove compartment,” the man said, lifting a brown paper bag.
Maureen looked from the bag to the man’s face and blinked. “Whatever he left in that SUV, you can keep or throw away.”
“Oh! Well, thank you, ma’am. Uh, I hope he made it to New York with his fiancée all right. He seemed real anxious to be on his way. You must be the older sister he told me he lived with.”
Maureen gave the stranger an eerie smile. “Somethin’ like that. And, yes, he and his fiancée made it to New York all right. Now if you’ll excuse me . . .” Maureen closed the door and plopped down into a chair, but she couldn’t sit still. So that son of a bitch and his fiancée had this planned down to the last detail.
She got up and paced around in her living room for almost half an hour cussing out loud, crying, and laughing like she had lost her mind. When she got tired of doing that, she left her apartment and drove around until she almost ran out of gas.
By the time she returned home, Virgil had returned her call and left her a message. So had Jay. She didn’t know which one to call up first. Before she could make up her mind, Jay called.
“Maureen, I was happy to hear that you had called,” he told her. “How have you been?” he said in a cheerful voice.
She responded by bursting into tears and spewing unintelligible gibberish for a whole minute.
Jay waited until she paused before he said anything else. “Maureen, what’s the matter? Please get a hold of yourself! Calm down so I can understand what you’re saying. Do you want me to come over?” Jay was more than a little concerned; he immediately slipped into a panic mode. He knew that whatever Maureen was crying about had to be something major.
Maureen cried louder and harder.
He waited for her to stop crying again, and when she did, he quickly said in a soothing tone of voice, “Is this about Mel? Did he hurt you?” The last thing Jay wanted to get caught in was a domestic situation where Mel could end up hurting him, or where he wound up hurting Mel.
“Yeah, this is about Mel. He’s gone,” Maureen managed, choking on a sob. “He’s gone for good.”
“Gone? As in dead?”
“No, not dead. But he left me and he won’t be comin’ back. He’s goin’ to divorce me.”
Jay wanted to clap his hands and dance a jig. He didn’t do that because he didn’t want Maureen to know how happy he was to hear that Mel was out of her life.
“Uh, I’m sorry to hear that. He seemed so in love with you. Is there another woman involved?”
Maureen couldn’t respond right away. She was literally speechless.
“Maureen, did Mel leave you and run off with another woman?” Jay asked, hoping she’d say yes.
She coughed until she was able to form more words. “He took my daughter with him.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute. Hold on, now. I know Mel is not Loretta’s real father, and I know she’s crazy about him, but are you telling me that she chose to be with him over you?” Jay let out a loud, deep breath. Then he got angry. “Goddammit! I can understand you being so upset—”
“He’s fuckin’ her!”
Jay stumbled and fell against his kitchen wall. “What did you just say?”
“My husband is fuckin’ my daughter!”
“Holy shit!”
“They’ve been carryin’ on for years. I should have known not to trust a goddamn stepfather. I should have known better!”
“Now, don’t you go condemning all stepfathers. I just might become a stepfather myself someday. I already know quite a few and none of them would even think about touching one of their stepdaughters.”
“Well, this bastard did. All this time . . . all this time! I didn’t see it comin’. I didn’t suspect a damn thing! I encouraged Lo’retta to ‘like’ Mel and to ‘be nice’ to him so he could help her become a top model. Jay, I practically served my own daughter to that funky, low-down black dog on a silver platter! How can I live with myself now?”
Jay listened as Maureen told him how Mel and Loretta had cooked up a bogus trip to the Bahamas to throw her off until after they’d made their getaway. “I should have known somethin’ wasn’t right when they left here with more luggage than any normal person would take on a ten-day vacation. There is just no tellin’ how long they had been plannin’ this. All that time they were probably laughin’ at me behind my back! The man he sold his SUV to came by a little while ago to drop off some CDs Mel left in it. Mel had told him that I was his older sister and . . . and that Lo’retta was his fiancée!”
“Maureen, try to calm down so we can sort things out. First of all, don’t blame yourself for what happened. Things like this happen every day and in some of the best families.”
“What is it about men and their goddamn dicks?! Don’t they care who they hurt when they use that evil piece of meat between their legs on the wrong person?”
“Maureen, honey, with all due respect, I have to disagree with what you just said about that particular part of a man’s body being evil. Sex is beautiful when it’s between two consenting people, if both parties are old enough to handle it.”
“Jay, if I wanted to hear somethin’ like that, I would have called Dr. Ruth or some other sex guru. I called you for some emotional support, not a philosophical comment!”
“Maureen, I understand where you are coming from, but do you have all the facts? Like, did he rape her?”
“Did he rape her? Not hardly. He didn’t have to! I would be upset if he had taken advantage of her and forced himself on her, but from what she told me out of her own mouth, she initiated their affair! That bein’ the case, I’m even more upset than I’d be if he had raped her!” Maureen paused long enough to wail like an injured lamb for about ten seconds. “My . . . daughter set . . . me up just so she could steal my husband!” she said between sobs.
“Baby, sit tight. I’m on my way,” Jay said.
CHAPTER 53
MAUREEN WAS SO NUMB THAT WHEN SHE STUBBED HER FOOT ON the doorjamb leading into the kitchen, she didn’t even feel it. She didn’t know that she had injured herself until she looked down and saw blood trickling from a small cut o
n the tip of her big toe.
After she put a Band-Aid on her wound, she walked back and forth from one room to another. It was better for her to keep moving. It was more distracting than her sitting or standing too long in the same spot. She kept glancing at her watch, wondering what was taking Jay so long. Half an hour had passed since she’d spoken to him. She even went outside and stood on the sidewalk in front of her building, hoping to see his car turn onto her street soon. For the next fifteen minutes, she walked back and forth from one end of her apartment building to the other.
When she noticed a few neighbors peeping out their windows giving her curious looks, she went back inside. Then she went into the pantry that Mel had been using as his dark room. Except for a metal desk and a trashcan, Mel had removed everything from the room. Maureen decided to check the four drawers on the desk. The first three were empty, but there was a green hanging folder toward the back in the last drawer. She parted it with her fingers and realized it contained a large manila envelope that had been folded in half and stapled shut. She bit her lip and braced herself. She suspected that this envelope contained something that was going to increase her pain. She was right.
Inside the envelope were half a dozen wallet-size photos of Loretta and Mel in various poses. In the first photo, Loretta was sitting in Mel’s lap, looking directly into the camera with her tongue hanging out of her mouth in a very sexually suggestive manner. She looked like a panting dog in heat. She had on the pink and white bathrobe that Virgil had given to her for her sixteenth birthday.
The next two pictures were of Loretta alone, lounging on a bed, Maureen’s bed, with a dreamy look on her face. She had on the same bathrobe. So far, the prints were not too alarming. But when Maureen looked at the next one, she gasped so hard she almost fainted. There it was in living color: a shot of Mel on top of Loretta. They were both naked and were in Maureen’s bed. Loretta’s long legs were wrapped around Mel’s narrow waist.