Caught Up

by Shannon Holmes

  And yet this was far from over. On the contrary, this was only the beginning.

  Chapter Ten

  It was going to be a good day. Dixyn told this to herself over and over from the time she opened her eyes. There was no indication that it wouldn’t be. Her morning shower invigorated her. She treated herself to her favorite breakfast: cheese eggs, grits, and bacon. Her breakfast had never tasted so good. It was time to forget the murder, the strip club, and her fake friends. The sun was shining bright. It was the dawn of a new day, and she had to get on with her life.

  Dixyn could have stayed at home all day and still found plenty more reasons to smile. But duty called in the form of motherhood, so it was off to her mother’s to spend some quality time with Ava. Dixyn called ahead so her mother would be expecting her.

  “Hello, Ma?” Dixyn said into the phone. “What are y’all doin’?”

  “Nothing, Dixyn. Ava just running around the house driving me crazy. The usual. What are you up to?”

  “Oh, I was on my way down there and I wanted to see if you guys were gonna be home before I came,” she replied.

  “Dixyn, you know you got my house keys, so even if we weren’t here you could have let yourself in and waited for us.”

  “I know, Ma, I just didn’t wanna surprise you no more like I did before. From here on out, I’m gonna start coming down there regularly until I’m able to bring my daughter back home.”

  “C’mon then. I’ll tell Ava you’re on your way,” her mother said.

  “Yes, do that. I’ll see y’all soon.”

  Dixyn couldn’t get to her mother’s house fast enough. She was going to chill out in the country for a few days for some much-needed rest and relaxation.

  Dixyn finally pulled into her mother’s driveway. As soon as she inserted her key into the door, she heard the pitter-patter of small feet.

  “Mooooooommmmmmmyyyyy!” Ava yelled as she raced toward her mother.

  Dixyn knelt down and extended her arms and Ava leaped into her embrace. It was tender moments like this that Dixyn truly missed the most. She wished she could walk back outside and reenter the house again and again. There was nothing in the world that she would trade this feeling for.

  “Hey, Ava, I missed you so much, baby. You missed me?”

  “I miss you too, Mommy. When you goin’ ta take me home? I wanna go back home with my mommy and daddy. Where Daddy? I don’t see him in a long time.”

  “Daddy . . .” Dixyn began. “Daddy’s away . . . Daddy’s away at college.”

  “I thought my daddy finished school,” Ava replied.

  “No, he went back to study a few more things.” Dixyn regretted needing to lie to her child. But it was her way of keeping home alive, her way of hoping Bryce didn’t receive a lengthy sentence. She quickly changed the subject. “What you did you do today?”

  “I watched TV and played a game on the ’puter. Come, Mommy, I’ll show you the game.” Ava took her mother’s hand and led her straight to the living room.

  Dixyn found her mother planted there on the sofa, her gaze fixed on the flat-screen television that hung on the wall. When Dixyn noticed how quiet and motionless her mother was, she knew this could only mean one thing: she was watching her daily dose of soap operas.

  “Hey, Mom!” Dixyn called out, knowing that the greeting would annoy her mother. “Mom?”

  “Shhhhh!” Mrs. Greene replied without even bothering to look at her daughter. She was totally engrossed in her favorite soap opera, The Young and the Restless, as she was every weekday around this time. “I’m trying to find out how Jack Abbott is gonna get out of this mess.”

  “Ma, you really need to quit watchin’ these stories,” Dixyn said. “Anyway, I thought I told you the best ones come on Friday and Monday. You could miss the rest of the week, just tune in on those two days and you’ll find out everything you need to know.”

  “I been watchin’ these stories since before you were alive and I’ma keep on watchin’ them till the day I die,” Mrs. Greene answered. “Now shhhhh! Leave me be, Dixyn.”

  Dixyn laughed off her mother’s words. She knew there was nothing she could say or do that would dissuade her mother from watching her soap operas.

  Dixyn sat down at the computer desk with Ava in her lap. She watched as her daughter maneuvered perfectly on the computer until she found the website she visited frequently to play games. Dixyn realized that when it was all said and done, Ava would be more computer savvy than she would ever be.

  After a few minutes of watching her daughter play, Dixyn heard the theme music for the soap opera, signaling that the show was over. She eased up off the executive chair and walked over and took a seat next to her mom.

  “Hello, Mother,” Dixyn said cheerfully. “Is it safe to talk to you now? I’m not disturbing you or anything, am I?”

  “Oh, chile, please. You of all people should know how I am about my stories.”

  “I know, Ma. I’m just playin’ around wit’ you.”

  Mrs. Greene smiled lovingly at her daughter. “What’s going on, baby? You look different, better than the last time I saw you, like something’s been lifted off your shoulders. How’s everything?”

  It was almost as if her mother could read her mind. Mom knows best, Dixyn thought. She didn’t know where to start or if she even wanted to start at all.

  “I’ve been under a lot of pressure since Bryce got arrested. I guess I took too much upon myself tryin’ to be Superwoman and save the day. All the responsibilities, financially, that Bryce would normally take care of suddenly fell on me. Ma, you don’t even know the half of it . . .” Dixyn let out a hard sigh. “Finally things seem to be working themselves out.”

  “Dixyn, you know God never gives you more than you can bear?” Mrs. Greene said. “Matthew 11:28–30: Come to Me all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on My yoke and learn from Me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and My burden is light.”

  Dixyn wasn’t the least bit surprised by her mom’s statement. Her mom never missed a chance to impart some scripture on her. Any other time this might have annoyed her, but right now even Dixyn was beginning to think she needed the Lord in her life. “Mom, I fell in with the wrong crowd. I seen some things I shouldn’t have seen. I been in some places that maybe I shouldn’t have been. And all for what? Because I needed some money?”

  “Dixyn, let your conscience be your guide. If it don’t feel right, then it ain’t right.”

  Dixyn felt like she lacked the moral compass her mother had given her to guide her life. Although stripping hadn’t felt right, the financial results had been good. Their lives were totally different. Her mother had grown up in another time. The world had been a much simpler place back then. Right now she needed her mother more than ever. She didn’t want a sermon; she didn’t need to be judged. All Dixyn wanted was to be that little girl in her mother’s arms all over again.

  “I know I’m talkin’ in riddles and you can’t totally understand what I’m sayin’,” Dixyn said. “Ma, I wish I could tell you everything. One day I will.”

  Mrs. Greene moved closer and gently held her daughter’s hand, massaging it soothingly. She decided not to press Dixyn about the details. She had no idea what was going on. Dixyn would tell her everything as soon as she was good and ready, that she knew. For now, Mrs. Greene hoped that her presence and her touch were enough comfort to ease her daughter’s mind.

  Dixyn felt like a little girl all over again, a child trying to confess her way into forgiveness after doing a bad thing.

  “You can talk to me, Dixyn, always remember that. Last time you were here I had a feeling that something was wrong. I’m here for you, just like I’ve always been, no matter what happened or who did what. I’m your mother and I love you unconditionally, just like you love that little girl over there.”

  Dixyn couldn’t help the emotions from seeping through and bega
n to cry.

  “Everything is going to be all right,” Mrs. Greene whispered into her daughter’s ear as she hugged her.

  After a few minutes of silent sobs, Dixyn regained her composure and she wiped away her tears. Ava was only a few feet away from them but didn’t seem to have heard or witnessed the drama.

  “You know me and Herman was going to our timeshare this weekend in Virginia Beach,” Mrs. Greene announced. “We were going to bring Ava along, but now I figure that you can take her back home with you for the weekend. It seems like you could use the company.”

  Her mother was right. Dixyn certainly could use the company. More importantly, she saw this as an opportunity to get reacclimated with her daughter and vice versa. Yes, she would take Ava home and they would spend some quality time together. In Dixyn’s mind, this would be the first in a series of steps toward bringing her daughter home for good.

  Mrs. Greene continued, “You’re welcome to stay a couple days until we leave. That way you can kill two birds with one stone and spend time with both Ava and me.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Dixyn agreed.

  Dixyn had never particularly cared for the country. She was a city girl at heart, albeit a small city. Her hometown of Fredericksburg, Virginia was a city all the same.

  * * *

  Night after night she stayed up into the wee hours talking to her daughter until Ava fell asleep. Then Dixyn would just gaze out her window into the pitch blackness of the woods. She didn’t feel threatened by the nothingness she saw. On the contrary, she felt relief. Dixyn had seen so much over the course of a few weeks that seeing nothing didn’t bother her one bit.

  As boring as it was out there, the fresh air and cool breeze suited Dixyn just fine.

  Chapter Eleven

  As she got within a few exits of her home, Dixyn switched her phone back on. She was no longer concerned about the people she was trying to avoid. She realized that Bryce could have been trying to reach her for the last few days. If she missed his call, he’d probably go crazy, overcome by thoughts of infidelity. Dixyn didn’t want him to think that about her. He had enough to deal with already.

  Once her phone powered up, it seemed to erupt in a bevy of activity. She was besieged by missed calls and text messages, most of which were from her so-called friend Kendra. Dixyn didn’t know what Kendra wanted with her, nor did she really care. She didn’t have the time or energy to stay mentally vested in Kendra, B-Dub, or whatever was going on back at the club. She made a mental note to change her number that very day, as soon as she got settled in at home.

  Almost on cue, the phone suddenly began to ring. Absentmindedly, Dixyn answered without even checking to see who the caller was. “Hello? Who this?” she said slowly into the phone.

  “Where the fuck you been? You sure took ya time about hittin’ me back! What the fuck is good?” Kendra spat rapidly.

  “I was away,” Dixyn told her. “Let’s just put it like that.”

  “Bitch, we need to talk! I got something to tell you.”

  “What? What do you have to tell me?

  “Can’t talk about it on the phone!” Kendra snapped.

  “Why? What’s the big deal?”

  “It’s somethin’ we need to discuss face to face,” Kendra insisted.

  Dixyn could sense something was seriously wrong just by the tone of Kendra’s voice. She sounded just like she had a few days earlier. On the strength of the past friendship, Dixyn agreed to get together with her and hear her out. “Meet me at my house,” Dixyn said. “I’ll be there in like fifteen minutes.”

  As Dixyn pulled up into her driveway, she saw two cars blocking her garage. One she easily recognized as Kendra’s BMW and the other was a black Cadillac Escalade she couldn’t readily identify. Why had Kendra brought someone else with her? Kendra knew how funny she was about that kind of thing.

  Dixyn beeped her horn. Simultaneously, Kendra stepped out from the passenger’s side of the unknown vehicle while B-Dub exited from the driver’s side with a knapsack in his hand. Dixyn wasn’t prepared for this. The mere sight of B-Dub angered her. She was furious at herself for letting Kendra con her into meeting up.

  Dixyn stepped out of her car and began to remove her daughter from the safety of her car seat. From the corner of her eye she could see both B-Dub and Kendra walking toward her. Dixyn placed her daughter down and then moved toward the duo.

  “Ava,” B-Dub said excitedly, as if he knew her.

  The little girl stood there with a confused look on her face, clinging to her mother’s leg, refusing to greet this stranger.

  “Ava, c’mere, girl,” Kendra said, trying to diffuse the awkward moment.

  The child ran over to Kendra and leaped into her arms. “Kenny!” Ava squealed as Kendra smothered her with kisses.

  “Hey, Ava, I’m your uncle. My name is Uncle Brian,” B-Dub announced.

  Ava was too preoccupied with Kendra to even consider responding to this stranger.

  “So, what so important that y’all had to come to my place? Huh?” Dixyn asked.

  Kendra calmly put Ava down and looked Dixyn square in the eye. “Fonda and Chocolate are dead.”

  “What?” Dixyn gasped. “What do you mean dead? How? Why?”

  “Like I said, dead. Deceased. Passed away. No longer amongst the living.”

  Dixyn covered her mouth in shock. Although she didn’t particularly like Fonda or Chocolate, she wouldn’t wish death on anybody. The news had caught her completely off guard. “Well, how the hell did they die?” she asked.

  “The cops ain’t really sayin’ much, but word on the street is that they got killed. They got run off a back road into a ditch, and the car they was driving burst into flames. So if the crash ain’t kill ’em, then the fire did. Word on the street is it wasn’t an accident.”

  What a horrific way to die, Dixyn thought to herself. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Someone wanted them dead. It was a hit.”

  Dixyn stared at Kendra as if she didn’t comprehend what she was saying.

  Kendra continued, “We been movin’ around from motel to motel for the last few days, just in case what they say is true. It’s harder to hit a movin’ target—”

  “We came over here to let you know what’s up,” B-Dub interrupted. “There may be some foul shit goin’ on; no one knows for sure yet. We wanted you to be safe, just in case, ’cause we all in this together.”

  Dixyn considered what they had just told her. One thing she knew for sure was that she had to move wisely. For a few precious moments, no one said anything.

  Suddenly Dixyn broke the silence: “I’m callin’ the cops.” She was beginning to pay close attention to that small voice inside her that was telling her to do something before the same fate befell her. Dixyn was bluffing. Bryce had groomed her against talking to the police, so she didn’t plan on contacting any law-enforcement officials if she didn’t have to. Still, she had to make it clear to both B-Dub and Kendra that calling the police wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.

  “You don’t wanna do that, fam,” B-Dub said. “Remember, we still have that little problem wit’ the police ourselves. So if you contact them, that will only draw attention to us and the incident that we were involved in. They’ll ask questions that are designed to catch people in lies.”

  “Well, I don’t have anything to hide!” Dixyn shot back.

  “Fam, you think ’cause you didn’t pull the trigger that you didn’t have anything to do with it? Think again. You’re an accomplice. This is a commonwealth state, in case you didn’t know. In eye of the law in the state of Virginia, you’re as guilty as the triggerman. Once they shit you with that conspiracy charge, you goin’ down hard, just like the rest of us. So you better think about li’l Ava here before you do somethin’ stupid.”

  “B-Dub,” Dixyn replied, allowing a concerned expression to cross her face, “you may not know this, but the police tend to notice when people start dying all over the pl
ace. So what are we supposed to do, wait till one of us gets killed?”

  “Right now ain’t the time to be arguing over this matter,” Kendra said. “We need to put our heads together and try to think our way up outta this shit. We should all just lay low up in your house for a couple days, Dixyn, just to get our minds right.”

  Dixyn didn’t like the idea of having B-Dub or Kendra in her home. Under the circumstances, though, she had little choice. She couldn’t think of a better option at the moment. So she resigned herself to the thought that she would be able to keep a close eye on these two, if nothing else.

  After contemplating the move for a few moments, Dixyn had only one question. “Y’all only going to be here for a few days, right?”

  * * *

  For the next few days, Dixyn reluctantly played hostess to B-Dub and Kendra, cooking, cleaning, and making sure everyone was comfortable. However, keeping them comfortable made Dixyn feel like a prisoner in her own home. She was at their beck and call, and she couldn’t eat or sleep right. The situation surrounding their stay had really bothered her.

  Although Kendra was her friend and B-Dub was her child’s blood uncle, Dixyn made a conscious effort to always keep an eye on her daughter. She didn’t trust B-Dub as far as she could throw him, family or no family. And Kendra’s drug habit put her in the same category for Dixyn.

  “If anybody tries to take you anywhere, just start screamin’ your head off,” Dixyn coached her daughter in the confines of her bedroom.

  “Why, Mommy?” Ava asked innocently.

  “’Cause I said so,” Dixyn snapped. “Now do as I say, you hear!” She didn’t like coming down hard on her daughter like that, but under the circumstances she thought she was doing what was best.

  “Yes, Mommy.”

  Together, the trio of adults sat in the house for hours on end, trying to cook up lies and make up alibis just in case one thing led to another and they were questioned by the police. To Dixyn, this was like a dress rehearsal for some sort of school play, except the results of this production had real-life implications. If their lies weren’t believable, this whole thing could blow up in their faces, resulting in prison time for everyone.