by Mary Monroe
“Mel’s dead?” Maureen asked, turning the clipping over. “When did this happen?”
“The same night I had my baby. I didn’t know anything about it until Mona called me up a few days later and sent me the clipping from the Goons newspaper.”
“So you stay in touch with Mona, huh?”
“Yeah, even though she blabbed to you about me. You just don’t know who to trust these days. That’s why I don’t even want her to know I had a baby. Anyway, I’m surprised you or Uncle Virgil didn’t read about Mel in the newspaper. I didn’t call to talk to you about it because, well, I just didn’t. I wanted that man to stay off my mind, and I knew you did too.”
“Uh, I guess we both missed readin’ the newspaper that day,” Maureen said. “But I’m surprised Catty and Fast Black didn’t see it.”
“It was on page six next to a big ad about some roach repellant. Mona would have missed it herself if she hadn’t been lookin’ for some newspaper to clean some fish on.”
“Well, I don’t know what happened to Mel, but the way he lived his life, anything could have happened to him. I’m sure he had a few enemies,” Maureen said. “Can I keep this clippin’ so I can show it to Virgil?”
“I don’t care. I had been meanin’ to throw it in the trash anyway. I don’t want anything in my life that’ll remind me of that devil,” Loretta hissed. “I just hung on to it so I could show it to you someday.” Loretta gave Maureen a pensive look. “You glad Mel died?”
Maureen didn’t respond right away. “No, I’m not glad Mel’s dead, but I’m not surprised. If anybody had it comin’, he did.” Maureen shook her head. “He was a pitiful excuse for a man.”
“He sure was. Uh . . . I know I had a lot to do with him and me hookin’ up, but I have to let you know that it wasn’t worth it.” Loretta could barely look Maureen in the eye, but she did anyway. She wanted to see what was in her mother’s eyes, and she wanted Maureen to see what was in hers. Her remorse could not be measured. It was the one emotion that she would feel for the rest of her life.
“Betrayin’ somebody never is worth it, honey,” Maureen stated. “Do you mind if I give your uncle Virgil a call?” Maureen asked, already reaching for the telephone on the end table.
“I’ll let you talk in private,” Loretta said, rising. “I’ll be on the porch.”
“Virgil, Mel’s dead,” Maureen said as soon as he answered his telephone.
“Who killed him?” Virgil asked, not sounding the least bit sympathetic.
Maureen immediately read the clipping to him. “What do you think happened to him? Maybe somebody had a key and had let themselves in while Mel was out. Somebody he had pissed off. There’s no telling how many women he was involved with and any one of them could have stolen his key and had a copy made. Maybe they’d heard he was marrying another girl, and snapped. They let themselves in, hid in a closet, and came out and beat him with something and pushed him out that window. They locked the door back before the manager got to the door with his key. Or, when the manager got inside, when he wasn’t looking, whoever had snuck in, snuck back out the door. How else could Mel fall or be pushed from that sixth-floor window right in the middle of a telephone conversation with his fiancée?”
“Hmmm,” Virgil said. “Whatever the hell happened, it sure is a strange story. You really think it could have happened that way?”
“Him jumpin’ out of that window on his own or accidentally fallin’ out makes no sense at all. Like I just told you, I think somebody got into that ‘locked-on-the-inside’ apartment somehow and beat the shit out of him and threw him out that window,” Maureen answered with a shudder. “Somebody or . . . somethin’.”
“I think the same thing. Somebody or somethin’ . . .”
“You think it was Mama Ruby, too, huh?”
“I didn’t say that!”
“But that’s what you think,” Maureen accused. “I know you do, Virgil!”
“I don’t know! I . . . I . . . maybe his conscience finally got to him and he really did jump.”
“In the middle of a telephone conversation? What about him screamin’ and sayin’ what he said? That man didn’t commit suicide, and he didn’t fall from that window. He also didn’t gouge out his own eye or cause his head and neck injuries! Now you tell me, do you think the same thing that I think really happened?”
“Mo’reen, Mama Ruby is dead. She can’t chastise nobody else no more,” Virgil said.
Maureen let out an eerie laugh. “She won’t need to now.” She exhaled and pressed her lips together. She had nothing else to say. She balled up the newspaper clipping and tossed it into the ashtray on the coffee table.
After Maureen had hung up the telephone, she walked toward the front porch where Loretta had gone. She stood in the doorway for a few moments looking at her daughter.
Loretta occupied another one of the cheap metal folding chairs that she and Thomas owned. She sat as still and mute as a sphinx, staring at San Francisco’s magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. The drab gray housedress she wore looked like part of a circus tent. But at two hundred and eighty pounds, she didn’t feel comfortable wearing anything but housedresses that looked like part of a circus tent.
It was hard to believe that this was the same girl who used to prance up and down the beaches in South Florida in a string bikini! And it was even harder to believe that she had once been one of the most successful black models in the business.
Maureen wondered how things would have turned out for her and Loretta if they had never met Mel. She also wondered how much of what happened was her fault. She knew of many troubled children who ultimately blamed their parents for every stupid thing they ever did. She had to blink hard to hold back her tears. She didn’t know if she had succeeded as a parent or not. Because as hard as she had worked to make Loretta happy, Loretta had become her own worst nightmare anyway: a housewife sitting on a porch, with not one, but two cats.
READING GROUP GUIDE
LOST DAUGHTERS
Mary Monroe
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions that follow are included to enhance
your group’s reading of this book.
Discussion Questions
1. Maureen felt that she had to do more for Loretta to make up for the child she lost. Do you think that if Maureen had not spoiled Loretta, she would have been a better daughter?
2. Despite the fact that Maureen treated Loretta like a princess, Loretta still stole her husband and enjoyed doing it—especially since Maureen admitted that she didn’t love Mel. Do you think Loretta would have seduced Mel even if Maureen did love him?
3. Do you think that it’s wrong to marry someone for reasons other than love? Should love be at the top of the list of requirements, or do you think that companionship and security—and in Maureen’s case a father for Loretta—are more important than love?
4. Mrs. Freeman kept Jay after her niece had kidnapped him because she didn’t want her niece to go to jail. Do you think that Mrs. Freeman should have notified the authorities that she had Jay after her niece committed suicide?
5. Jay’s biological relatives were thugs and convicted criminals, so he had a much better life with Mrs. Freeman. Did that make up for her role in his kidnapping?
6. When Virgil realized how Maureen felt about Jay’s kidnapping, and the crime of kidnapping in general, he finally decided to come clean and tell Maureen that Mama Ruby had kidnapped her at birth. Do you think that he should have taken this secret to the grave like Mama Ruby did?
7. When Virgil finally told Maureen the truth about her background, did she react the way you thought she would? Did you like the way she reacted, or did you hope she would get hysterical and sever her relationship with Virgil?
8. Do you think that Maureen would have been better off not knowing that she was the victim of a kidnapping?
9. Do you think it was a smart thing for Maureen and Virgil not to tell anyone else about Maureen’s background? Do yo
u think she should have told Jay?
10. When Virgil and Maureen met Big Maureen, Ruby’s biological daughter, was she the kind of woman you thought she would be? Were you glad they decided not to tell her that Mama Ruby had kidnapped another woman’s baby?
11. Do you think it was a good idea for Maureen to cook up that scheme about a Canadian couple and persuade Loretta to give her baby to them? Do you think that Big Maureen was the best choice, or do you think Maureen really should have arranged for some other couple to adopt Loretta’s baby?
12. Were you surprised when Mel dumped Loretta? Were you happy that her career ended and she had to settle for so little? Did you feel sorry for her when she ended up as her worst nightmare: just a housewife sitting on a porch with a cat (in her case, two cats)?
13. Maureen forgave Loretta and they eventually restored their relationship. However, Maureen told Loretta that she would never trust her again. If your daughter stole your husband, do you think you could ever be close to her again? Would you ever trust her again?
14. A lot people in American culture believe that “what goes around, comes around.” Loretta and Mel were so arrogant, greedy, selfish, and deceitful that in the end, those things were their downfall. Do you think they both got what they deserved, or do you think that fate was a little too harsh on them?
15. Do you think that Mel accidentally fell out of his apartment window? If so, how do you think he got those injuries? Who, or what, do you think he was talking to when he asked, “Who the hell are you?” just before he died?
DAFINA BOOKS are published by
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New York, NY 10018
Copyright © 2013 by Mary Monroe
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Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2013930673
ISBN: 978-0-7582-7472-4