by Ambria Davis
I quickly interrupted him. “No, please don’t. Don’t do that, don’t judge her,” I said. I could feel my eyes watering up. “She already paid for her mistakes. She don’t need anyone else judging her. So can you just drop it?” I pleaded, just as a tear rolled down my cheek. Wiping it away with my free hand, I silently counted to ten, trying to get myself together.
We sat on the phone in silence, listening to each other breathe.
“Ma, are you all right?” he asked with his voice full of concern.
“Umm, yeah, I’m fine. Could you maybe not mention our conversation to Jayden? I don’t want him getting the wrong idea about my girl, without him finding out the whole story. Since she’s not here to tell him, he will never know the whole story, so I don’t want him to know that part either.”
“Okay, I understand. I won’t tell him anything.”
“Good. Where are you guys anyway?”
“Well, we ’bout to leave the hotel and head to the mall right quick.”
“Oh, well, that’s where Kayla and I were headed after we left here. After that, I have to stop by the funeral home. Maybe we could meet you guys at the mall,” I mentioned, taking a peek at Kayla. She was still playing with that damn iPad, but I wasn’t tripping, because she had eaten most of her food.
“All right, just call me when y’all make it there, so we can meet y’all in the parking lot.”
“Okay, I’ll see you when I get there,” I said in a sexy tone.
“Bet.”
After we hung up the phone, I stayed outside a moment longer to catch a little fresh air. I can’t lie and say this shit isn’t getting to me, because it is. Never in a million years did I imagine that my life would be like this. I’ve always imagined my life with Mimi in it. Not one time did I imagine her being dead. Shit still don’t seem real to me.
Sighing, I was about to walk back inside when my phone started to ring again. Looking at the caller ID, I noticed that it was the people from the funeral home.
“Shit, I wonder what the hell they ass want,” I said softly. I hope they ain’t calling me to remind me about my appointment. Hell, I know that I’m supposed to see them later.
That reminds me that I have to call the detective that is working her case and find out why they ain’t showing her murder investigation on the news anymore. I mean, it has only been a week, and they completely cut her shit off. I don’t hear shit else about it. It’s like they done either quit trying to find Kaylin, or they’re trying to keep all of this one big-ass secret. Whatever the reason may be, I’m going to find out.
“Hello,” I said, answering the phone.
“Umm, good afternoon. May I speak with Ms. Troy Miller, please?” I heard a male voice say.
“This is she. How can I help you?”
“Well, I’m Ralph from Davis and Weber’s Funeral Home,” he said, then paused.
“Okay, Ralph. Again, how can I help you?” I snapped. Hell, I knew who the hell he was. I spoke with his ass the other damn day. I wanted to know why he was calling me when I was due to pay them a visit later on today.
“Umm . . . I know that you were supposed to come pay us a visit later on today, but something has come up, and I’m going to need you to come in a little earlier than expected.”
“Well, how early and what is the problem, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Umm . . . Can you come in right now?” he asked, ignoring my other question.
Looking at my phone, I checked the time. It was almost one o’clock in the afternoon. Hell, I was supposed to stop by at 2:00 p.m. to confirm Mimi’s funeral services. It was only an hour away. Why couldn’t he just wait to tell me whatever he had to tell me then?
“Well, can you just tell me the issue over the phone?” I asked in a sarcastic tone.
“Umm . . . Well, I’d rather tell you in person, ma’am.”
Blowing air out in frustration, I replied, “Okay, I’ll be there in a minute.” Then I hung up on his ass.
What the hell is so damn urgent that he can’t tell me over the fucking phone? I wondered. His ass was supposed to have Mimi’s body ready, and I was supposed to be delivering the rest of the payment today. What is he going tell me—that somehow she miraculously lived? Yeah, right, I fuckin’ wish.
I was deep in thought when my phone started to ring yet again. Seeing as though it was a private caller, I let the call roll to voice mail. I didn’t have time to be entertaining that petty shit right now. Someone had been calling me from a private number for the past couple of days. Hell, I even answered the call a couple of times, but all I kept hearing was shallow breathing. I could also hear what sounded like beeping sounds. I tried to get them to say hello, but they never said anything. Even on the answering machine, all I heard was them breathing, and the shit was really starting to creep me the out. I have no idea as to who this person could be, but I really hope that they’ll leave me the hell alone. Right now was not the time for me to be entertaining all of that petty shit. I had more important shit to be doing other than answering private calls from people who don’t want to be known.
When I was done, I went back inside. I wasn’t even hungry anymore, so I just sat at the table while Kayla finished up the rest of her food. I know dude from the funeral said he needed me there right now, but I wasn’t about to put anybody’s needs before hers. Mimi wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. I’ll just go whenever she finishes.
After another fifteen minutes, she was all finished. She went back to her iPad activities, while I took on the task of cleaning up the table. When I was done, Kayla and I headed out to my car.
I wasn’t in the car two seconds when my phone started ringing again. Looking at the caller ID this time, I saw that it was my messy-ass cousin Asia. Not wanting to be bothered with her messy ass right now, I hit IGNORE, sending her call to voice mail. I’d call her back after I left the funeral home. I already had a lot of shit going on, and knowing her messy ass, she had nothing but drama coming from over her way. I mean, the bitch was so messy that her own mother didn’t want to fool with her. She’d give you up in a fucking heartbeat. She put the true meaning in the saying, “Blood makes you related, loyalty makes you family.” I never considered that ho my family. She was like everyone else . . . a fucking associate. That ho wasn’t good for no-fucking-body, not even herself.
Starting up the car, I looked up, and I could’ve sworn I saw that same black car that was parked down the street from the salon. It was leaving the parking lot. Shaking my head, I murmured to myself, “Bitch, you tripping. You better get it together.” I said a silent prayer asking the Lord for guidance through this hard time, threw the car in drive, and made my way to the funeral home.
It took me all of fifteen minutes to get to the funeral home from where I was. Just the sight of this place gave me the chills. A funny feeling developed in the pit of my stomach, and I just wanted to leave, but I knew that I couldn’t leave without doing what I came here to do. You only have a couple of days left. After that, you won’t have to see this place anymore, I kept repeating silently to myself.
After finding a parking place, I turned the car off and just sat there so I could get myself together. A few minutes later, my stomach had finally calmed down a bit. Pulling the keys out of the ignition, I reached over and unlocked the glove compartment so I could get the documents that I needed pertaining to Mimi’s funeral service.
Once inside the glove compartment, I searched for the envelope that I was looking for when a red flashing light caught my attention. It was coming from the phone that Mimi gave me when she was about to leave town a few weeks ago.
I glanced at the phone like it was some type of disease or something. This was the last physical thing that my friend had given me before she died. Lord, I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes yet again. I dabbed at my eyes and silently swore, You can do this, Troy. I then took a glance in the backseat at Kayla, who was quietly sitting there, still playing with the iPad. Hell, she’s bee
n a trooper through this whole ordeal. This child has lost both of her parents, and she’s holding up better than me. If she could do it, then I could do it too.
Pushing the phone to the side, I grabbed the envelope that I was looking for and closed the compartment door. Then I grabbed Kayla, and we got out. Kayla looked from me to the building, then back at me. Taking her hand into mine, I got down so that I was eye level with her.
“Kay, Auntie is going to run in here right quick to handle some grown folk’s business, then after that, we’ll go to the mall. Okay?”
“Okay,” she nodded.
“Good girl,” I said and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead. “Come on.”
Grabbing her hand, we made our way to the front of the building. The minute we entered, the smell of death and stale air immediately met our noses. As soon as I walked in there, I wanted to walk right back out. This shit ain’t for me. I hate being around death. The shit was creepy and spooky as fuck. I didn’t want to be anywhere around it.
Taking a deep breath, I walked up to the front desk and proceeded to ring the bell. While waiting, I took a slight look around. Bruh, this place is really creepy. I mean, this is already a funeral home. Why the lights gotta be all dimmed and shit? Hell, even the paint on the wall is black—now them people know they wrong for that.
“Excuse me, how can I help you?” I heard a sweet little voice say. When I turned, I noticed this short lady who was about four foot nine. Hell, Kayla was almost as tall as she was.
“My name is Troy Miller. I’m here to meet with Mr. Ralph, please.”
“Okay, let me go ahead and get him for you. You can have a seat over there,” she said as she pointed to two chairs in a corner to the right.
“Okay, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Would you all like anything to drink?” she asked, turning around.
“No, ma’am, we’re good.”
“Okay, let me go and get Ralph for you. I’ll be right back, dear,” she said and disappeared around the corner.
What were only minutes felt like hours as we waited for Ralph. I still had a funny feeling in my stomach, but I ignored it. I looked up in time to see the little old lady that I had seen before and a tall, old, bald-looking dude, walking down the hallway. I stood up and went to meet them halfway.
“Hello, I’m Ralph. You must be Troy,” he said, reaching his hand out for me to shake.
“Yes, that would be me,” I said as I shook his hand.
“Thanks for coming.”
“I already had to come here anyway, which leads to me the issue. Why did you need me to come in early today?” I asked him.
“Well, if you would just hold on right quick, I’d be more than happy to explain it to you in my office.”
“Okay. Come on, Kayla,” I replied.
“Umm . . . If you don’t mind, could you please leave her here with Betty? She’ll be in good hands with her.”
I looked at him as if he was crazy. I don’t know either of them. Why would I leave Kayla here with her? I asked myself.
“I see that you may have some doubts. You may even have some worries, but I promise you that Betty won’t let anything happen to her,” he said, sensing my hesitation.
I looked from them to Kayla, and back to them again. I then turned to Kayla and asked, “Kayla, would you be okay out here with this lady until I come back?”
She looked from me to Ralph to Betty, and then to me again.
“She’ll take good care of you, pretty lady. You’ll be in good hands with her,” Ralph added.
“Okay,” she said in a low tone.
“Are you sure?” I asked her. I wasn’t trying to make her stay if she didn’t want to.
“Yes,” she replied as she looked at Betty again. She then took the iPad out of its case and took a seat back in the chairs we had just been sitting in.
“All right, follow me; this way, please.” Ralph led me down a short hallway. He then took a right and led me down another hall. His office was located on the right-hand side of the hallway. Opening the door, he let me go in first and followed behind me.
“You may have a seat in one of those chairs,” he said, pointing to the two chairs sitting in front of his desk.
“Okay,” I said taking a seat.
“Can I get you anything? A bottle of water, a soda maybe?” he asked as he started playing with his tie. He was acting as if he was nervous about something. Shit, he had me wondering why the hell I came back here alone.
“Uhhh, no, thank you. Can we just get to the reason why I came here?” I placed the envelope down on his desk. “I have a funeral planned for Amina Washington this Saturday.”
“Well, that’s the thing—I know that you hired us to take care of Ms. Washington’s body and funeral service, but there’s a problem—we can’t seem to find Ms. Washington’s body.”
I didn’t hear nothing else after that. It was like what he said was on repeat in my brain. “There’s a problem, we can’t seem to find Ms. Washington’s body,” echoed in my head over and over. The shit was like a broken record. I was sitting here in shock and disbelief.
“Ms. Miller, are you okay? Did you hear what I just said?” he asked. The look on his face said, “Lord, I hope she don’t act a fool over this shit.” He just don’t know that his prayer wasn’t going to be enough.
I sat there with my fingers intertwined, trying my hardest not to let the first words that come out of my mouth be a whole lot of cuss words. I silently counted to ten in my head twice as I took a couple of deep breaths to calm my nerves.
“What you mean, y’all can’t seem to find her body?”
“Umm, uhh, as I said before, we’re unable to locate Ms. Washington’s body. When we went to pick her body up from the hospital morgue, it wasn’t there.”
“Well, where the hell could it be, and how could y’all lose a whole fucking body? I mean, where they do that at?” I yelled.
“Ma’am, will you please calm down?”
“Calm down? You want me to calm down? How the fuck am I supposed to calm down when I’m only days away from burying my best friend and y’all can’t find her fucking body? Hell, what the fuck am I supposed to do?”
“Ma’am, I understand that you’re upset, but will you please calm down a bit?” he implored.
“I ain’t about to do a damn thing until y’all find my friend’s body!” Fuck he think this is—how the fuck you call me to rush over here—tell me that y’all can’t find her body—then tell me to calm down? Nigga, please, I’m from New Orleans. We don’t know what calm is. Hell, no wonder his ass needed me to come in early. I bet he wish that he would’ve told me this shit over the phone now.
“Ma’am, if you don’t calm down, I’m going to have to call security,” he pleaded, which pissed me off more.
“Call ’em. You think I’d give a lovely fuck? How you gonna call ya fake-ass flashlight cops on me when you should’ve called the police when y’all couldn’t find Mimi’s fucking body? Man, please!” I said, waving my hand as if I was dismissing him. “Better yet, I’ll do you a favor.”
Pulling out my phone, I scrolled through my call list looking for a number. When I found the number that I was looking for, I hit the SEND button and waited for the call to connect. I looked over at Ralph who was watching my every move. Rolling my eyes, I stepped away from his desk.
“Hello, may I speak with Detective Webber, please?” I tapped my foot as I waited for an answer.
“Detective Webber isn’t here right now. May I take a message?” she asked.
“Does he have a cell phone or something?” I asked. I didn’t need this bitch to take no message for me right now, I needed to talk to Detective Webber before I went to jail.
“He’s not in, and I don’t have his cell number. If you tell me what the problem is, I’d be happy to relay the message to him when he gets here.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tell him that Troy Miller called, and it would be in his best interest to call me
back ASAP.”
Looking at Ralph, I growled, “Y’all got two days to find Amina’s body . . . or else.”
Walking back to his desk, I grabbed my purse and headed for the door. I stopped right before I put my hand on the doorknob and looked back. “Oh, and it would be in your best interest to have my money back into my bank account today,” I ordered, slamming the door on my way out. I don’t give a fuck who he is and what he do. He better have my money back in my shit today, or I’ma pay his ass a personal visit. I’m tired of playing nice to every-fuckin’-body. Playing nice don’t get ya ass nowhere in this world anymore. Fuck, this was only extra shit for me to add to my list of drama. How could these people really lose a whole fucking body, bruh? I kept repeating the same question in my head.
Walking into the hallway, I instantly froze in my tracks. Shit, I forgot that I don’t know how to get the fuck up out of here, I thought.
Walking back to Ralph’s office, I opened the door to see him leaning on the desk with his head in his hands. “Yo, come help me get out of here.” He jumped as if I’d scared his ass. Hell, he works in a funeral home. His ass shouldn’t be scared of anything.
“Okay, could you give me a second please?” he asked. Fuck if I care about his issues. All I wanted right now was to get away from his ass and out of this creepy-ass building.
“Okay,” I said. Walking back into the office, I took a seat and waited for him to do whatever the fuck he asked me to give him a second to do. While I was waiting, I sent a text to Mark and asked where he was. I looked up just in time to see Ralph staring at me. Shit, this nigga is really starting to creep me the fuck out.
“Look, are you going to stare at me or are you going to show me the way out of here?” I snapped. He didn’t say anything. He just placed his hand under his chin and continued to stare.
“Look, it’s bad enough that y’all ain’t got my girl’s body and shit, but you staring at me and not saying shit isn’t doing shit for me other than creeping me out!” I screamed, getting up from the chair that I was seated in. “Fuck this! I’m about to find my own fucking way outta this bitch.”