Lost Daughters

by Mary Monroe

  “No, I’m not drunk,” Maureen snapped. “I’m giddy because I’m gettin’ married again. Probably around February or March.”

  “Married? You?” Loretta yelled. “To who?”

  “Jay.”

  “Jay who? I don’t know nobody by that name, do I?” Loretta didn’t give Maureen enough time to respond. “Wait a minute! Do you mean that kidnapped man that was all over the news last year?”

  “Yes. That’s the man I’m goin’ to marry.”

  “What? I thought he was gay! Why else would he wear a white suit to my graduation?”

  “Jay Freeman is not gay, Lo’retta. He is just as straight as you are, my dear.”

  “Hmmm. Well, there’s only one way you would know that for sure, Mama. Have you been screwin’ that man?”

  “Yes, I sleep with Jay and I always enjoy it.” Maureen couldn’t remember the last time she enjoyed smirking so much. It felt damn good and she wanted to do it some more, so she did. “So what?”

  “I didn’t know you still . . . got busy. Especially at your age.”

  “You mean you didn’t think I would ever want to sleep with another man after Mel?

  “That was different,” Loretta whined. “Mel had a plan.”

  “I know that now. And it included sleepin’ with me so he could sleep with you.”

  Loretta purposely ignored Maureen’s last comment. “Did you do it with Jay before Mel took off?”

  “No, I didn’t. Jay wanted me to, but I couldn’t cheat on my husband. I would never do that, even to a husband like Mel.”

  “Then did you sleep with Jay to get back at Mel?”

  “Lo’retta, I don’t give a flyin’ fuck about Mel now. I’m marryin’ Jay because he loves me and I love him. We’ve been in love with each other for a long time.”

  “Even before?”

  “If you mean before you and Mel, the answer is yes, but I couldn’t do a damn thing about it until now.”

  “Hmmm. Well, how come you didn’t leave Mel and marry Jay? Everybody might have been happier then.”

  “If I knew then what I know now, I would have left Mel and married Jay a long time ago.”

  “What about me?”

  “What about you?”

  “If you had left Mel to marry Jay, what would I have done? You knew I didn’t like Jay.”

  “You had Mel, remember? So you would have done whatever you wanted to do, Lo’retta. Like you always do.” Maureen paused and rubbed her forehead, wondering why Loretta was really calling after so much time had gone by since their last conversation. “How have you been? I take it your abortion was a success.”

  “See, that’s what I called to talk to you about.”

  “Well, talk to me about it.” Maureen was surprised at how firm she was able to make herself sound. She hoped her daughter realized that too. She wanted this ungrateful, inconsiderate child to know that she was still moving forward with her life.

  “I didn’t go through with it. I’m goin’ to have this baby.” From the tone of Loretta’s voice, it seemed as though she were revealing that she had a terminal illness.

  The words hit Maureen like a ton of bricks. Her lips began to quiver. It took a few moments for her to organize her thoughts and form a response. “Oh?” was all she could manage.

  “I really was goin’ to abort it, though.”

  “Oh? Well, if you don’t mind me bein’ nosy, what made you change your mind?” Maureen asked, with her heart pounding against her chest like a sledgehammer. Did Loretta change her mind because Maureen’s interference had had an impact on her after all?

  “I didn’t change my mind. See, I was scared so I kept putting it off and I put it off for too long. Dummy me! By the time I’d made up my mind to go through with the abortion, it was too late. Besides, I had miscounted anyway. I was seven weeks farther along than I thought. That’s why I got big so fast! I was still havin’ my period—up until July—so I had no reason to think I was pregnant.”

  Seven weeks farther along than she thought? So Loretta was already pregnant when she and Mel ran off back in June! The knowledge that her daughter was still living under her roof and was pregnant by her husband opened up a whole new wound for Maureen. This shocking new development was almost more than she could stand. Her chest felt like it was going to explode, and her jaw started twitching so hard it felt like she had been kicked in the face.

  “Oh. Well, I still hope everything works out the way you want it to,” Maureen said, her jaw still twitching.

  “It will. You know I always get my way. Anyway, a lot of stuff is on my mind these days, Mama.”

  Maureen couldn’t stop herself from injecting a dose of sarcasm into her response. “Stuff that’ll do you some good, I hope.”

  “I think it will. I don’t want you to think that I’m all bad, see. I know you probably still want to go off on Mel and give me a whuppin’, but it sounds like you really have gotten over what we did to you.”

  “Not really, and I probably never will, but I have a good life anyway. I’m happy these days. God keeps blessin’ me.”

  “And you should be blessed! You deserve to be happy too. I mean, you overpaid your dues by growin’ up with a battle-ax like Mama Ruby for a mama, havin’ idiot friends like Catty and Fast Black, and then to end up in that dead-end-ass job at an old folks’ home! If anybody deserves to be blessed by God, it’s you! You could be the poster girl for the underdogs!”

  Maureen was speechless. She remained silent because she couldn’t wait to hear what Loretta had to say next.

  “Mama, do you still have the contact information for that couple in Canada?” Loretta asked.

  CHAPTER 66

  MAUREEN WAS DUMBFOUNDED. FOR THE NEXT FEW SECONDS, SHE couldn’t tell if she was coming or going. She had to give a quick tune-up to her brain to try and figure out what Loretta was talking about.

  “Mama, did you hear what I just asked you? Do you still know how to get in touch with that couple?”

  “Couple? What couple?” Maureen had given up on the idea of Loretta letting the fictional couple in Canada have her baby. Loretta asking about them now caught her completely off guard.

  “Tsk, tsk, tsk, I guess you’ve gone senile too,” Loretta complained. “Don’t you remember tellin’ me about the couple who wanted to adopt my baby?”

  “Oh! You mean that nice rich couple in Canada. I . . . oh . . . yeah! Of course I remember. You got it right about me bein’ senile because my memory ain’t what it used to be. Yes. I still have their information.”

  “If they still want my baby, they can have it,” Loretta said quickly. “I don’t want to meet them, and I don’t want to talk to them, not even over the phone.”

  Maureen couldn’t believe her ears. “Uh, are you goin’ to come home and have the baby? I can take the baby up to Canada myself.”

  “Didn’t I already tell you that I’m never comin’ back to Florida? The only way I will go through with this is if you don’t get involved.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t want to see this baby when it’s born and I don’t want you to see it either. One of the other girls I know changed her mind after she and her mama saw her baby, and her mama talked her into givin’ it to her to raise. I know you don’t want to raise Mel’s baby, but you might change your mind if you saw it.”

  Maureen didn’t want to comment on Loretta’s last sentence. There were no comments that she could make without using a lot of profanity. “Uh, how do you want the couple to pick up the baby?” Maureen had not thought this far ahead. She had also not considered the possibility that Loretta might change her mind someday in the future and want to meet, or at least communicate by telephone or letter, with this bogus couple in Canada. “Uh, they want to keep this as impersonal as possible. They don’t ever want to meet or talk to you either.”

  “I don’t even want to know their names or exactly where in Canada they live. You already told me everything I want to know about these
people.”

  “I’m glad you feel this way,” Maureen said, relieved. “I think that’s the best way to handle this. I’m sure I can find somebody we can trust to come get the baby right after it’s born. They can take it to that couple. The husband and wife already said they would pay for any expenses involved.” Maureen immediately wished she had not said anything about money. All she needed now was for Loretta to ask for some impossibly huge amount of money in exchange for her baby. She recalled a TV movie that she had seen about a greedy female who had done just that. The girl had sold her baby for some humongous amount of money to a wealthy couple. Maureen hoped that Loretta wouldn’t ask for money in exchange for her baby. The thought of something like that happening almost made Maureen pass out. Poor Mama Ruby. It was a good thing she was dead. She would never put up with something like this! But if Loretta did want money for her baby, well, Maureen would scrape up whatever she could. Virgil had a nice savings and so did Big Maureen and her husband.

  “I don’t want anybody too close to me to pick up the baby. Not you, not Virgil.”

  “I understand. Like I said, I can find somebody we can trust to come to New York and get the baby and take it to that couple.” Maureen was close enough to a couple of women at work. She knew she’d be able to talk one of them into posing as a representative for the couple in Canada. Who wouldn’t want a free trip to New York? Maureen knew she could fabricate a believable story to tell the woman so she wouldn’t have to know the truth about where the baby was actually going to end up. If she had to, she would hire some local actors to pose as the Canadian couple. Otherwise, she would have her coworker bring the baby to her, and she would take it to Big Maureen.

  “What about Big Mo’reen?” Loretta asked.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Do you think you could talk Big Mo’reen into comin’ to New York to get the baby? Maybe if that couple from Canada would get a hotel room here, too, Big Mo’reen wouldn’t have to go all the way to Canada to drop off the baby.”

  “I don’t know about the Canadian couple travelin’ to New York, but I know I can get Big Mo’reen to pick up the baby and take it to that nice couple. Uh, Big Mo’reen is family, though. I thought you didn’t want nobody in the family to see the baby in case they get attached to it and want to keep it, or somethin’.”

  “Oh, I doubt if Big Mo’reen wants to raise another baby at her age!”

  Thank God Lo’retta didn’t know how desperate Big Mo’reen was to raise another child! Maureen told herself.

  “Since Big Mo’reen ain’t had enough time to really bond with our part of the family yet, she shouldn’t have trouble doin’ somethin’ like this. Can you call her up right away? I want to get this mess straightened out as soon as possible so I can start makin’ plans for my future.”

  “I will call her up right away,” Maureen said, speaking so fast she almost bit her tongue. “I’ll make sure that couple in Canada got the papers for you to sign off on and whatnot.”

  “Papers? What kind of papers? I don’t want to sign off on a bunch of papers!”

  “Um, papers to make everything nice and legal. In case you decide later on that you want the baby back, these papers will protect the Canadian couple’s interest.”

  “Yikes! I would never want this baby back once I get rid of it. I am goin’ to be the most famous black model in the world. I can’t stand that Naomi Campbell, so I want to knock her off her high-ass horse as soon as possible. Besides, when I do get married, I don’t want my husband to be bothered with no ready-made family! That almost never works out.”

  Tell me about it, Maureen said to herself. “I am sure you won’t want the baby back, but I am also sure that the couple would like to have some peace of mind. They wouldn’t want to sit around wonderin’ from one year to the next if you might come to claim your baby. You signin’ the paperwork is just a formality.”

  “All right, then. Send me the paperwork I need to sign and I’ll sign it. If things get too complicated and I have to run back and forth to some lawyer’s office, I won’t go through with this!”

  “I’ll make sure it’s just some simply worded document that says you can never try to find or reclaim the baby. That’s all. Virgil knows some real sharp lawyers. I’m sure he can get one to draw up some papers.”

  “Just make sure that Uncle Virgil gets one that’ll draw up some papers that don’t have a lot of confusin’ mumbo jumbo and big words I have to look up. I’m not in the mood to deal with anything real complicated. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes. How will I get in touch with you?”

  “You know where I am, Mama. I’m in New York City.”

  “I don’t have your address in New York City, and you changed your telephone number and didn’t give it to me,” Maureen said dryly.

  “Is that why you didn’t call me?” Loretta whined. “I wondered how come you didn’t call me up and wish me a happy New Year!”

  “I would have . . .” Maureen was stunned and disappointed to hear that her daughter was such a dingbat. How in the world was Loretta going to make it in the cutthroat business of modeling and become the most famous black model in the world if she was this dense?

  “I guess I forgot to give you my new number, huh, Mama?”

  “I guess you did.”

  Loretta was the last person in the world who needed to be raising a baby. Maureen was glad she didn’t want to. She was also glad that Loretta had mixed up her dates, making it impossible for her to get an abortion.

  After Loretta gave Maureen her new telephone number and her address, she hung up without even saying good-bye.

  Maureen wasted no time calling Big Maureen. “Do you still want Lo’retta’s baby?”

  CHAPTER 67

  “HOLD ON. LET ME GRAB A BEER.” BIG MAUREEN DROPPED THE TELEPHONE onto her living room coffee table and trotted into the kitchen to snatch a can of beer out of her refrigerator. She returned to the telephone in record time, huffing and puffing and slurping her beer. Flopping down onto her couch, she said, “Okay, sugar. Now what did you just ask me?”

  “I asked if you still wanted to raise Lo’retta’s baby?” Maureen was so excited, she felt warm all over. She felt so good that she was grinning from ear to ear, something she had not done in months, except when she was with Jay. It warmed her heart to know that at least one good thing was going to come from the mess Loretta and Mel had created after all.

  Big Maureen screamed like a woman in ecstasy—and that was exactly what she was. “Lord Almighty! Do I still want to raise Lo’retta’s baby? Girl, you know I do! I thought she got rid of it?”

  “It’s a long story, and I don’t want to go into that right now. The main thing is, you can have the baby if you still want it. It’ll be your and Lukas’s baby, free and clear. You can name it whatever you want and raise it the way you want to, which I know will be good with you bein’ so much like Mama Ruby and all. But only you, me, and Virgil will ever know who the baby’s real mother is. That’s one of the things that we have to agree on.”

  “I can agree to that! What about Lo’retta? She won’t know nothin’? She won’t know me and Lukas got her baby? Wouldn’t she feel better knowin’ her child was with family?”

  “No. She thinks that some couple in Canada is gettin’ the baby.”

  “Huh? You mean there is another couple in the mix?”

  “Yes and no. Lo’retta thinks there is, but I just made them up.”

  “You made up a couple?”

  “I had to. She didn’t want anybody she knew to have the baby because she was afraid she’d eventually be around it. That’s why I made up the story about a rich couple in Canada. That pleased her and that’s the only way she would agree to my suggestion.”

  “Oh. I just don’t want to get that baby and get attached to it and then find out that somebody else might pull the rug out from under me and Lukas. You sure this is the only couple you made up? You sure there ain’t no real couple that might cause trouble?”
>
  “Big Mo’reen, you don’t have to worry about anybody messin’ things up for you once you get that baby. You just have to go along with my plan. You have to keep all of the details a secret. That’s the only way this is goin’ to work.”

  “We can do that.”

  “We? We who?”

  “Me and Lukas. Since he’ll be the baby’s daddy, shouldn’t he know everything I know?”

  “No! He can’t ever know the truth. It’s got to be just you and me and Virgil. I don’t even want Virgil to tell Corrine. She might decide to leave him one day, and who knows who she will blab our business to. Lukas might do the same thing. You just tell him that some unwed young girl up in Alaska is givin’ y’all her baby.”

  “That story sounds kinda flimsy, even to me,” Big Maureen stated. “You goin’ to have to do better than that, baby sister.”

  “Okay. How’s this sound: tell Lukas and everybody else that one of the nuns from that asylum you grew up in transferred to Alaska. Somebody told her how bad you wanted a child. Say she wrote you a letter and told you that she’d help you get this Alaska girl’s baby but that everything has to be kept top secret on account of the girl is kind of fickle.”

  “What would a black girl be doin’ in a remote place like Alaska?”

  “Her boyfriend got a new job up there in Alaska, and she followed him a few weeks after he left their home in . . . uh . . . Atlanta. But by the time she got there, he already had a new woman.”

  “And that’s why she don’t want to keep his baby?”

  “Exactly.”

  “That’s more like it.” Big Maureen actually clapped. “Now all I want to know is when and how I’m goin’ to get my new baby? Ooh-wee! Christmas is comin’ early this year!”

  “I need to talk to Virgil first. I’m goin’ to get him to draw up some papers for Lo’retta to sign.”

  Big Maureen’s mouth dropped open. “Papers? Yo Lawdy! If we involve a lawyer in this, someday Lo’retta might get a hold of him and make him tell her who got her baby!”