by Mary Monroe
“Right here under my own damn roof!” Maureen mouthed, slamming her fist against the top of the desk so hard it rattled. “Right up under my goddamn nose and in my bed!” She was too angry to cry right now, but she had to do something. She ran into the kitchen and stood in the middle of the floor, looking around for something to take her anger out on. She snatched open the cabinet above the counter and pulled out a stack of plates. She threw each one to the floor, cursing so loud old Mr. Ben next door pounded on the wall.
A few minutes later her telephone rang. It was Mr. Ben and he sounded very angry. “Mo’reen, what’s all that racket over there?! I’m fixin’ to call the police. I’m tryin’ to get some rest and it sounds like y’all over there tearin’ down the house.”
“Oh, it’s nothin’, Mr. Ben. I’m sorry for disturbin’ you. I was standin’ on a chair tryin’ to get somethin’ out of my kitchen cabinet and a bunch of plates fell out and broke.”
“I done told that gal of yours to keep the racket down in her room when I’m tryin’ to take me a nap. All that moanin’ and groanin’ comin’ out of her room, five or six times a week! I don’t even want to try and guess why the headboard on her bed be bangin’ against the wall so much. Especially lately!”
“I’m sorry,” Maureen apologized again.
“The next time I hear all that racket, I’m goin’ to call the police,” Mr. Ben threatened.
“There won’t be no next time,” Maureen assured him before she placed the telephone back into its cradle.
This was much worse than Maureen had thought. Apparently, Mel and Loretta had no shame whatsoever. They knew how thin the walls in the apartment were. Loretta used to complain all the time about Mr. Ben’s snoring keeping her awake. Didn’t it ever occur to her that the old man might hear her and Mel? Apparently that was the reason they had begun to use Maureen’s bed!
It was almost 10:00 p.m. when Jay finally arrived. Maureen was in the kitchen looking out the window when she saw him park in front of her building. She wiped her face for the tenth time and smoothed down the sides of her skirt.
“I got stopped for speeding on my way over here, and I must have run into the slowest cop in town. It took him ten minutes to run my license and write me a speeding ticket,” Jay explained as soon as Maureen opened the door to let him in. Then he stopped talking, but his mouth was still open. “What the hell happened to you, Maureen? You look like hell! You sick or what?” Jay couldn’t believe his eyes. He felt Maureen’s forehead. Her eyes were red and swollen and dark circles had already formed around them. The lines on her forehead that he had never noticed before looked like trenches now. Her hair was askew, and she was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm. She had on one shoe and her blouse was soaked with her tears and snot.
Jay wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her to the living room couch. “Now, let’s talk about this thing,” he said, rubbing her back. “It’s going to be all right because I’ll be right beside you from now on.”
“Like I told you on the phone, my daughter took off with my husband,” Maureen said evenly, then sniffing so hard her nose ached. She had already gone through a whole box of Kleenex. She had set a second box on the coffee table, so she opened it and fished out several tissues at the same time and wiped her eyes and blew her nose.
Jay stared at her with his mouth hanging open again. “Damn!” he boomed, anger rising in him like a tide. “This is so hard to believe!”
“They supposedly left to go to the Bahamas so Lo’retta could celebrate graduation with some of her classmates. They wanted me to go with them, but I couldn’t take more time off work right now. When I didn’t hear from them by the end of the second day after they left, I got worried and called up the airline. Come to find out, they never got on a plane to the Bahamas in the first place.” Maureen paused. “They called me today to tell me they love each other and won’t be comin’ back.” She paused again, shaking her head. “I even found some pictures of them together. Nasty, disgustin’ pictures that would make Madonna blush. They were naked and fuckin’ the hell out of each other!”
CHAPTER 54
“DID THEY TELL YOU WHEN THIS ALL STARTED?” JAY ASKED, STILL RUBBING Maureen’s back. It was such a comfort to have him sitting next to her on her living room couch. She wished that she had called him sooner.
“From what Lo’retta told me today, it sounds like it started right after I agreed to let her work with Mel—when she was just fourteen! She tried to make me believe they didn’t sleep together until after she turned eighteen, three months ago.” Maureen stopped talking because Jay was shaking his head so hard. She could tell from the look on his face that he was just as disgusted as she was.
“Three months ago, my ass,” he growled. “There is no way that could be true. The hungriest person in the world wouldn’t eat that bologna!”
Maureen moaned and groaned. Not only was she in emotional pain, but also she was in so much physical pain that her head felt like it was about to melt. “I never thought somethin’ like this would happen to me. I never thought that I would lose both of my kids.”
“Don’t look at it that way, sweetheart. Loretta is still a young girl, and girls her age do stupid shit all the time. Once reality sets in, she’ll come to her senses.”
“Even if she comes to her senses, how can I ever trust her again? How can I even look at her the same way again? And Mel . . .”
“Oh, fuck him! You should kick that son of a bitch right back into the hole he crawled out of!”
Maureen was stunned. She had never seen Jay so angry before. Not even after he’d had a few unpleasant encounters with some of his shady relatives.
“I shouldn’t have married him in the first place. I never loved him and he knew it,” Maureen sputtered, rubbing her neck. “What was I thinkin’? How could I have been so goddamn stupid to do a thing like that?”
Jay’s eyes got wide. “Did I just hear you say that you didn’t love Mel when you married him?”
“You heard me right. No, I didn’t love that man. I told him and Lo’retta just that!”
Jay’s eyes got even wider. “Then why in the world did you marry that hound from hell?”
“He kept askin’ me to marry him and I was tired of bein’ alone. I was gettin’ older, so my chances of findin’ somebody else who wanted to marry me got slimmer with each year. My brother didn’t want me to grow old alone, and my friends kept buggin’ me to marry Mel. And . . . and Lo’retta—she was the main one who kept buggin’ me to do it!” Maureen’s voice got low. She made the next statement through clenched teeth. “Lo’retta wanted a daddy.”
“Well, she sure got herself one!”
Maureen closed her eyes and massaged her throbbing head. She couldn’t control the images that suddenly slid into her mind like an avalanche. She pictured Mel shoving his tongue down her daughter’s throat the way he used to do with her. She pictured him on top of her baby with her legs spread open and him pumping into her baby’s precious young body. The visions made her so sick she thought she was going to pass out.
“Oh . . . my dear God,” she swooned, laying her head on Jay’s shoulder.
“Maureen, I’m here for you, and this time I’m staying,” he told her as he gently rubbed her back.
Jay stayed the night, holding Maureen in his arms on the couch until she had cried herself to sleep. The following morning she opened her eyes just in time to see him walking toward the door. “I have to meet with Mother’s lawyer this morning. The sooner I settle her estate the better. I’ll be going into work from there, but I’ll come back right after my shift ends. If you need to talk to me, call the front desk and they’ll send somebody out to the field to come get me. I left my work telephone number on your coffee table.”
Maureen staggered up off the couch and stumbled over to Jay. He kissed her. Not on the cheek or on the forehead like he had always done when they were just friends. This time he kissed her the way she needed to be kissed.
“
Thanks for comin’, Jay. I knew I could count on you,” she choked, her lips still tingling from his passionate kiss.
“Try not to let this get the best of you. We’ll get you through this,” Jay insisted. He kissed her again.
She watched him from her kitchen window until the green Buick he drove reached the end of her block and turned the corner. Then she picked up the telephone and called Virgil. “Hi,” she mumbled. “I hope I didn’t wake you.”
“I was already up,” Virgil said. “Hey, I talked to Big Mo’reen last night. She said she’d be callin’ you again later on today. I told her that she better make her flight arrangements today for them to come back for Thanksgivin’ if she wants to get a good deal on airfare. Oh! Did Mel and Lo’retta call yet?” Virgil sounded so cheerful Maureen didn’t want to dampen his spirits, but she had to.
“Yeah, they called yesterday.”
“Good. Now you can stop worryin’,” he said.
“Virgil, somethin’ else has happened,” Maureen croaked. “Somethin’ real bad.”
Virgil didn’t reply right away. He sucked in some air and braced himself first. “Oh shit. What?”
“Mel and Lo’retta didn’t go to the Bahamas.”
“Hold on a minute now. This ain’t makin’ no sense to me. Didn’t you take them to the airport the other mornin’?”
“Yeah,” Maureen muttered.
“So did they miss the plane or somethin’?”
“Somethin’ like that . . .”
“Mo’reen, I can tell from the way you sound that we got another mess on our hands. Now, I’m gettin’ old and my blood pressure and heart can’t stand but so much. Hurry up and tell me what’s goin’ on. How come they took so long to call you?”
“Lo’retta and Mel went to New York.”
“Hmmm. Well, wasn’t it her plan to go to New York and sign up with one of them big model agencies anyway?”
“Yeah, that’s right. Lo’retta did say that she’d like to go to New York someday.”
“Well, I know it ain’t my business, but I don’t think it was a good idea for her to go to New York this soon after graduatin’. I sure don’t like the idea of her and Mel goin’ up there together. Mel is always bookin’ ahead, and if Lo’retta gets to be too much of a hassle for him to deal with, he might do some bookin’ that don’t include her.”
“Virgil, shut up and let me finish.” Maureen rubbed her chest and held her breath for a few seconds. Then she let out enough air to fill a balloon. “Mel and Loretta are in love.”
Virgil took his time responding. A few seconds later he yelled, “In love with who?”
“With each other,” Maureen whispered.
“Wait a minute! How and when did all this happen?”
“Instead of gettin’ on a plane to go to the Bahamas, they got on one for New York. The Bahamas trip was a setup to throw me off. They knew that if they had told me the truth before they left, there ain’t no way I would have let that motherfucker run off with my child. I would have beaten the bat shit out of him.” Maureen cackled like a wet hen. “If only I had Mama Ruby here now.”
“If Mama Ruby were still alive, by now they’d be diggin’ a hole in the cemetery for whatever body parts she left of Mel. And you know that’s the truth!” Virgil roared. “Did you call the police yet?”
“For what? Lo’retta is eighteen. Mel didn’t force her to leave with him.” The next few words tasted so disgusting in Maureen’s mouth they oozed out like vomit. “Virgil, Lo’retta was the one that called me and did most of the talkin’.”
CHAPTER 55
“I’LL BE DAMNED!” VIRGIL BOOMED. “I DON’T KNOW WHAT to say. Other than Mel is a dirty, rotten, horny old man and somebody ought to cut off his dick with a dull knife. If he ever brings his ass back this way, I just might be the one to do it.”
“Like I said, Mel didn’t force Lo’retta to go with him.” Maureen looked toward the door. “I called up Jay when I couldn’t reach you last night.”
“What for? Ain’t he got enough problems of his own? He’s damn near livin’ in a burnin’ house. What can he do for you?”
“I needed to talk to somebody. You hadn’t come home from work yet, and neither had Catty. I couldn’t catch up with Fast Black or anybody else to talk to after I got off the phone with Lo’retta. I left Jay a message and as soon as he was able, he called me back and then he came over. If he hadn’t, well, I don’t even want to think about what I might have done.”
“You listen to me. Don’t you do nothin’ stupid to yourself! I’ll come over to your place as soon as I get off work today. Since this is one of your off days, why don’t you come sit with Corrine until I get home? She ain’t goin’ to work at the cannery today, so y’all can keep one another company.”
“You know, I think I’ll do just that. I don’t want to be by myself right now.”
“One more thing I need to know.” Virgil stopped talking long enough to clear his throat with a hearty cough. “You and Lo’retta had a joint bank account. . . .”
“Yeah, we did. I haven’t checked it yet. Most of the money in it is hers. I put in whatever I can afford every payday so I can use it for a down payment on a house someday. A house that I thought I was goin’ to share with her and Mel and my future grandkids!”
“Well, you can still buy a house someday, baby girl, and I’m goin’ to help you do that. I hope that Mel and Lo’retta ain’t financin’ this rendezvous with none of your money!”
“Uh, I hope not. I’ll call the bank’s automated information number and check the balance in the account.”
Maureen ended her call with Virgil and immediately dialed her bank’s twenty-four-hour toll-free number. She was so nervous and angry it took her several attempts to punch in the correct account number. When she got a response, she was horrified. The only money left in the account was her portion, which was only a little over four thousand dollars. Loretta had withdrawn her entire portion, over twenty-five thousand dollars! What Maureen didn’t want Virgil or anybody else to know was that she had also been stupid enough to open a joint account with Mel. He had deposited most of the money into that account, but at least three thousand dollars of that money belonged to her. When the recorded message informed her that there was a balance of four dollars and eleven cents in that account, she screamed. Four goddamn dollars! And eleven cents. Not only had she spoonfed her daughter to this monster, but she had also “paid” for it! That no-good, rotten-to-the-core, lying, cheating bastard! Maureen couldn’t think of enough nasty nouns in the English language to call Mel. She knew that if she ever saw him again, she would not be responsible for her actions. She was so enraged, she wanted Mel to suffer a penalty that would fit his crimes. As far as she was concerned, that meant he needed to be dead or at least close to it.
“Ohhhhh, if only Mama Ruby were still here,” she whispered.
Before Maureen left to drive to Virgil’s house, she went into Loretta’s room. Just looking at her neatly made bed made Maureen’s head spin. She sat down in the chair at the cute little vanity table that Mel had given to Loretta last Christmas. She cried until her eyes felt like they had been set on fire.
She got up a few minutes later and looked around Loretta’s room. Then she marched across the floor and flung open the closet door. Loretta had not left much behind. Just a few empty hangers and some dull-looking outfits that Maureen had given to her for birthdays and holidays over the years that Loretta had never worn. Tossing everything into the trash that Loretta had left, like Loretta herself had suggested, was not something that Maureen wanted to do. Loretta was still her baby and throwing her belongings away would be like throwing her away. Maureen was not going to give up on her too soon.
A few minutes later, she went into her bedroom and went straight to the large walk-in closet that she had shared with Mel. He had taken his best clothes and shoes with him. Most of his camera equipment was gone too. Well, everything he left behind was about to go up in smoke, literally.
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br /> Maureen sprinted across the floor to the dresser and started snatching open drawers. She used a pencil to remove some socks and boxer shorts that Mel had left in the top drawer. She didn’t want to touch any piece of clothing that contained Mel’s DNA—especially his underwear. Just thinking about his dick made her gag.
She stuffed everything into the same metal tub that she used when she scrubbed the inside of her toilet, shouting more obscenities than a rapper throughout this nasty chore. After she finished doing that, she took the tub and trotted out the back door to the yard. She dumped everything onto the ground next to the Dumpster and piled it into a pyramid shape. Then she struck a match. She waited until the fire had totally consumed the items and then she hawked a huge gob of spit into the ashes.
Maureen made several trips to the backyard with that metal tub and her book of matches. In less than half an hour, she had disposed of everything that Mel had left behind, even pictures from her photo album—especially the ones that included him and Loretta. She made a mental note to avoid Noble Street and the eastern part of the freeway. There were billboards in each location featuring Loretta in various ads.
After Maureen had rested on the couch for a few minutes, she got back up. No matter how tired she was, she had to keep moving. She had to keep busy to keep from losing what was left of her mind.
She stared at the telephone. Before she realized it, she had dialed Mona’s telephone number. As soon as she heard Mona’s answering machine, she remembered that Mona was supposed to be on that trip to the Bahamas too. Maureen wondered if that was where she really was. She was still Loretta’s pet flunky, so there was just no telling what her role was in this mess.
Maureen looked up Mona’s mother’s telephone number and dialed it, praying that she wouldn’t get another answering machine. One of Mona’s three younger brothers answered. “Hello, Gerald. Did Mona go on the trip to the Bahamas with the other kids who graduated with her?” she asked as soon as she had identified herself.