by Nikki Turner
Rydah was temporarily quiet. “She committed suicide?”
“I’m afraid so.” Gladys dropped her head. “Umph, umph, umph! She was such a beautiful girl, so full of life.”
“Okay. Yes, ma’am.” Rydah accepted the info her grandmother shared with her. She didn’t push, but she really wanted to know more.
“Well, I will call and check on Simone and see if she is up for dinner. And if she is, I will make you all your favorite things and you can have some personal, quality time bonding with Simone—and Tallhya, too, if she can come over after. So for now, let’s get pretty and get to the bank before it gets too late.”
They got dressed, and her grandmother stopped her at the door. “Where is your jacket?” Gladys asked her granddaughter as if she were still seven years old.
“I didn’t bring one. Guess I wasn’t thinking.” With the need to explain herself to her grandmother, she said, “It was ninety degrees in Miami when I left. And it’s March. Shouldn’t winter be gone?”
Gladys shot her a look. “Girl, that’s Miami and this is Virginia, two entirely different worlds. You will not get sick on my watch.” Gladys did a beeline to her cedar walk-in closet. “I think I have a mink wrap you can throw over your shoulders so you won’t catch a cold.”
“Glammmmmm. . . .” Rydah felt like a little girl in the Barbie store. All of the endless furs, in all styles, colors, and shapes. “O-M-G! If I die, just bury me here. Glam, did you will me these, too?”
“Sure did,” Gladys proudly said. “A couple to your mother, but most of them to you.”
“Put this wrap on and let’s get to the bank.”
Rydah picked up a beret-style mink hat that matched the wrap her grandmother suggested she wore. “Is it okay for me to take this?”
“That old thing is older than you, sweet pie, but you can help yourself to anything you like.”
“Well, here’s to vintage.” Rydah adjusted the mink beret over her hair, which was styled in Indique tresses that fell down her back. After getting the angle just right, she said, “I’ve got unfinished business with this closet when we return.” The thought of scavenging through her grandmother’s closet excited her as much as the perfectly rebuilt engine of a 1970 Mercury Cyclone GT.
Chapter 14
Identical
“Why is Tallhya staying here?”
The parking lot of the hotel was littered with needles and crack vials. Gladys pulled into a parking space near the front. A prostitute, walking with a trick, strolled by the car. The prostitute glanced nervously into the window of Gladys’s Cadillac, making sure it wasn’t the vice in an unmarked car. Satisfied that Gladys and Rydah weren’t po-po, the prostitute—wearing a purple wig and a tight-fitting purple polyester dress, with concave cheeks and dark, lifeless eyes—pulled her trick along by the hand. She was Tallhya’s age. Six months ago, before getting hooked on smack, she was a young fly stallion with all the answers. Now she was not only out of answers, but she was also devoid of hope.
Gladys said, “Don’t make me into no liar.”
Tallhya popped out of room 218 looking tired and disheveled. She waved down below, then took the stone stairs to the parking lot. When she climbed into the back seat of the Caddy, Gladys said, “This is your sister, Rydah. Rydah, this is your sister, Tallhya.”
The siblings looked into each other’s eyes for the very first time, and both girls instantly felt a familial connection. For a moment, Tallhya thought that she was on the brink of really going crazy again. Not only did Rydah have the Banks sisters’ piercing grey eyes, Tallhya observed, but she was also the spitting image of their elder sister, Bunny, who had recently committed suicide after her boyfriend was murdered. Tallhya had to pinch herself to make sure she was awake. But would that work if she were seeing a ghost? She didn’t know.
Rydah said, “Nice to meet you, finally.”
Tallhya was still trying to discern whether she was smack dead in the middle of a bad dream, or if things were possibly turning around. First, Gladys had called her about some money that Me-Ma supposedly had squirrelled away. God only knew how badly she needed the money. And now she was sitting behind a sister that she never knew she had, that just so happened to look exactly like a sister she’d just lost.
Tallhya was mesmerized by the likeness. Bunny was drop-dead gorgeous in every conceivable way, yet somehow, Rydah was ten times finer . . . more polished. She was stunningly beautiful: skin that looked as if it could star in an Oil of Olay commercial without filters, teeth straight from the Colgate box, hair spun like silk, and the aura of a movie star. Tallhya couldn’t pull her eyes away.
Although Rydah and Bunny looked so similar, Rydah seemed to be sweeter, and her confidence was through the roof. She was everything that Tallhya dreamed of being. There was something about Rydah’s energy and personality that motivated Tallhya, making her want better for herself. Her feelings weren’t motivated by jealousy, envy, or sibling competition. She just wanted what her sister had, but in her own way.
Tallhya was a little nervous when they went into the bank, but Kimberly made her feel comfortable. The formalities of signing the paperwork went over that easily.
Kimberly’s eyes were glued on Rydah. “It’s unbelievable how you two look alike.” Kimberly and Bunny had gone to school together. “Other than your hair being different, the two of you could be twins.”
That’s when the light bulb went off for Tallhya.
All of the Banks girls had similar characteristics. Even her brother, Ginger, was gorgeous. Tallhya figured that all she had to do was lose weight—a few pounds gone and she would be fine as well.
At that moment, she decided that regardless of what it took, she was gong to get slim.
Chapter 15
Reunited
“This calls for a celebration!” Gladys said. Her skin was glowing. “I got a real nice bottle of wine chilling on ice, and I’ve set the table with my good China.” She admired her spread.
Gladys had cooked everything herself. All the food was placed down the middle of her Mahogany formal dining room table, which sat twelve people. Lobsters, grilled and blackened salmon, shrimp prepared three different ways (fried, steamed, and grilled), scallops, mussels, mixed vegetables, corn on the cob, sweet and baked potatoes . . .
“Looks like Versace china, Glam.”
“You already know,” Simone said, taking a seat. “Aunt Gladys has always been over-the-top fancy. You can’t tell that lady nothing when it comes to some fly shit.”
All Tallhya noticed was the food. While her mother often looked hungrily at things with dollar signs in her eyes, there were shrimp in her eyes, telling the story of how she was about to devour that food.
“You got everything!” she said, joining her sister Simone. “Aunt Gladys, you know you shouldn’t be doing this to a fat girl.”
Rydah said, “Girl, when you go with me back to Miami in a couple of weeks, I got a doctor that’s going to fix you right up. He’s the same doctor that those celebrity chicks are going to. So you might as well indulge, girl.” Rydah admired the food. “Glammmm, this is too fab. You really outdid yourself,” she said, giving her grandmother a kiss on the cheek.
Gladys started serving the food. “I ain’t outdid nothing,” she said. “Glad to do it. Like I said, we’re celebrating. You girls only get to meet each other for the first time once. Shoot, it’s the least I could do. I’m happy that you girls are united and love each other and all that good stuff. So enough with the thanks, let’s just enjoy ourselves.”
The girls ate until they felt as if they would pop. Once they were stuffed, Gladys told Rydah to take them to the den. However, Simone insisted that they go out on the screened-in porch so she could smoke her medical marijuana.
“The only perk of cancer,” she said after inhaling her first toke of the night.
Gladys came out with a tray of glasses filled with wine and limeade, then doubled back to get chocolate cake, sweet potato pie, and apple pie. “For
the munchies,” she said.
“Glam, what you know about some munchies?”
“They ain’t just start smoking pot this decade, girl. Keep sleeping on your grandma if you want. I’ve been telling you for the last thirty years that I don’t miss much of anything.”
Rydah feigned an eye roll. “Excuse me,” she said.
Simone got up and gave Gladys a hug. “We appreciate you.”
Gladys fanned her off. “That’s what family is for, girl.”
“And these limeades are the best,” Tallhya said. “Always have been.” She looked up to the sky. “I know Me-Ma up there smiling at you, Aunt Gladys.” Being with Gladys reminded her of how much she missed Me-Ma. Tallhya smiled and looked to Rydah. “Me-Ma knows you would have loved her.”
“I know. My grandmother always used to talk about how wonderful she was,” Rydah said as Gladys had exited the room.
It felt a little awkward to the girls that Rydah, who was their blood sister, kept referring to their grandaunt, Gladys, as her grandmother. She could see the looks on their faces, but it was her reality.
“Me-Ma was real churchy, but she had a heart of gold,” Tallhya said. “She wouldn’t hurt nobody, just better not mess with her grand-girls, I know that much! I swear, I miss her so much.” Just the thought of Me-Ma made Tallhya’s face light up.
“Makes me sad to think about her, she was so wonderful,” Simone added. “Since I lived with my dad, I went over there on the weekends and every other Sunday. She made me feel like I was her favorite.” She smiled.
“But in fact, she made us all think we were her favorites in her own way. We all accused each other of being her favorite, because she protected us like we were her own cubs.” Simone took a pull of her weed. “Now that I think about it, it was probably because she knew Deidra wasn’t shit.”
“Where is Deidra nowadays?” Tallhya asked, holding her breath.
“Chile, please,” she replied, sucking her teeth. “Nobody seen her in a few weeks now.” Simone took a long pull of her medical marijuana and reveled in knowing exactly what had happened to Deidra’s no-good ass. “Wherever she at, though, trust me, she better off there than here with us.”
“It’s her normal shit,” Tallhya added, shaking her head. “Always have been. Dashing in and out of lives, disappearing—and when she returns, it’s empty-handed. Probably somewhere scamming some damn body. Doing some fucking lowlife shit right now as we speak.”
“Yup, that’s Deidra for ya. Thieving and manipulating,” Simone said, blowing the smoke out of her mouth.
“Deidra needs to stop that shit before somebody kills her ass.” Tallhya put her two cents in. She hadn’t the foggiest idea that her sisters had already whacked Deidra and had no remorse for it.
“Damn . . .” was all Rydah could say. “She sounds pretty bad. She can’t possibly, reallyyyy be that bad?”
Both Simone and Tallhya said in unison, “Worse!”
“Unlike anything you would ever believe, and because this is supposed to be such a great moment of us being together getting to know each other, we won’t waste any more of our time together talking about her. Let’s just sum it up: the best thing she did for us was give us life and our good looks, honey,” Simone said.
“I concur.” Tallhya raised her glass and handed Rydah hers. “To sisterhood.”
“Sisterhood!” The ladies toasted.
Rydah was almost scared to tell the girls how great her mother was. She was secretly relieved that Deidra was the worst and she hadn’t had the opportunity of meeting her own mother. Damn shame, she thought to herself.
“Consider yourself lucky that you never crossed your paths with that sorry-ass bitch,” Tallhya said. “I told my therapist that that bitch is dead to me.”
“You still salty about Walter’s lying, cheating ass?” Simone asked.
“Yes, I am,” Tallhya said bluntly. “I sure am!”
“Cheating with Deidra just put the nail in the coffin?”
“Yup. Sure did.”
Simone just looked at her sister, and Rydah listened and watched them both. They had the same exact features, eyes and nose, just completely different weights, hairstyles, and personalities.
“I feel better about me, but . . . not him,” she said matter-of-factly.
“And aren’t you 1033 crazy?”
“Sure is!”
Like a tennis match, Rydah watched her two long lost sisters go back and forth.
“Meaning your crazy ass can probably kill somebody and get away with it?”
“Yup, and not do one day in the pen . . .” Tallhya nodded with a sinister smile. “I could kill your ass with my bare hands for taking me to a goddamn psychiatric facility and telling them people to Baker Act me. . . . Yup, sure could kill your ass dead!” She hit her sister with a playful punch.
“Ummmm . . . you can’t beat on a sick woman.” Simone tried to be quick on her feet, but she couldn’t find the words.
“Oh. any excuse will do. Don’t worry, you know-it-all bitch, I won’t! I’m not going to kill you, or Walter, for that matter.”
With a raised eyebrow, Simone asked, “Really?” She gave a sigh of relief.
“No, you safe. But don’t worry, I’m going to get his ass. In God you trust, or bet your last dollar that I’ve got plans for Walter. He’s going to pay for exactly what he done to me. . . .” The room was silent. “And he needs to be alive.”
“Ummmm . . . do share with us what you’re going to do to him.”
“I’m going to give him and the world the very best version of myself. Going to be so damn fine, stomach going to be flat and waist going to be snatched to the motherfucking gawds, booty popping, boobs sitting up perky. That’s what the motherfucker’s punishment is going to be.” She let out a bewitching laughter. “It gets me high just thinking about how he ain’t going to never ever be able to smell the puss ever in this lifetime!”
“That’s right, sister,” Rydah added. “Sometimes you have to make them sorry, even if they never say sorry.”
“Yes, that’s why I really need you. I need you to take me to that doctor, you know the one on Instagram that all the celebrities and strippers go to?”
“Dr. Slim Jim or Dr. Snatch or somebody?”
“Yup, him. Sister, I really need you to do this for me. I just need you to give me a ride to the place, let me get my consultation and date, and take me back and let me stay with you until I heal.” Tallhya was so passionate in her spiel.
Honestly, when Tallhya referred to Rydah as a sister, that was all Rydah needed to hear. There was something about the word sister that just warmed her heart. Growing up as an only child was always hard. Girlfriends who claimed that they were “sisters” came and went and took their sisterhood lightly. Inside, she had always yearned for a real sister, who, no matter what, was bonded to her by blood.
“I got you, sister. Trust me, with Dr. Snatch you going to give not just Walter a heart attack, but all these men and women alike.”
“Yesssssss. Check can’t clear fast enough!”
Simone gave her sister five. “That’s right!”
“Yup, that motherfucker . . . the nerve of him . . . nope, not anymore.” For a second, her mind started to venture off into those awful Walter memories, and then Tallhya had a light bulb moment, turned to Rydah, and asked, “As a matter of fact, you think if I ask Auntie Gladys to keep my share of the money, she would?”
“I’m sure she would. Why? What’s going on?”
“This motherfucker won’t give me my divorce, and he has my money tied up and is trying to come after everything I got. Being that Simone had me committed, it just didn’t make me look good in the court’s eyes, and they gave him control over my motherfucking money. Makes me so freaking angry every time I think about it. So, as soon as I get my money from the Me-Ma situations, what if I gift it to Aunt Gladys?”
“I’m sure it’s no problem. But yeah, let’s ask her.”
Rydah ate, talked, an
d laughed with her sisters and grandmother. With all the post-traumatic stress and feelings after the carjacking, it was the first time she had laughed in a long time. There was something about smelling the Virginia air that made her happy, or maybe it was just the love of her grandmother and the feeling of having sisters. She sat and enjoyed the moment until they heard the doorbell. Honestly, the sisters didn’t care who it was. No one else in the world mattered but them.
Then, Chase entered into the room, with a strange look on his face.
“Hey baby! What’s wrong?” Simone noticed the stressed look on his face.
Chase was a really good guy and loved every single thing about Simone, even the toilet she shitted on. He was a police officer on the Richmond Police Department and had an idea about Simone and her sisters’ shady past with the bank robberies, as he had been the head investigator. He loved Simone so much that he told her, “Listen, I’m not sure what your role was in this whole fiasco of these bank robberies, but I’m going to let it go. Just make sure it never happens again.”
And since then, she had been keeping her hands clean. She knew that if he dug deeper, he could possibly put her in prison for the rest of her life, but once he found out that she had been diagnosed with cancer, he told her he didn’t want lose her, and he had taken care of her ever since. If she survived cancer, and their relationship survived the treatments and the deadly disease, she would indeed marry him.
Chase insisted that they go to the Justice of the Peace and get married, and promised her a huge wedding after she beat cancer.
What did she have to lose? She had no family, really; no parents, and having lost a sister and a brother only days apart. The security of knowing she had someone in her corner who loved her to death was enough for her. But knowing everything that she and her sisters had done, and the things that she had manipulated and masterminded, the best thing for her to do was quit while she was ahead. She had a significant other on her side, and the fact that he just happened to be a cop in her pocket was the icing on the cake. Not to mention, the stability on his job and benefits and insurance didn’t hurt at all.