Three Chords, One Song

by Beatrice M. Hogg

  “You must be proud of her.”

  Mariah smiled. “I have always been proud of her. I have loved her since the day she was conceived. When I found out that I was pregnant with her, I knew that she was going to be special. I loved being pregnant with her, even though it broke my mother’s heart when she found out.”

  Eve realized that she didn’t know much about Mariah’s background. “Your family is in Georgia?”

  “No, they are in Alabama. I was raised in Birmingham. I hated living in the South. My mother had a fit when I told her that I was moving to California to become a singer.” Mariah smiled at the memory. “I didn’t tell her about my relationship with Mik, and I didn’t even tell her that I was pregnant.”

  “How did she find out?”

  “Well, as much as I enjoyed being pregnant, labor was hell. I was in labor for a long time. Mik got scared and thought I was going to die. He called my mother. She caught the next plane heading west.”

  Eve wondered if her mother would have done the same thing.

  “She was shocked that I was with a white man, and she felt I had let her down by having an illegitimate child. But she never treated Lucy any different from her other grandchildren. In fact, I don’t think that Grandma Shelton treated her any different, either.”

  Eve was surprised that Mariah had brought up her grandmother. She thought back to Lucy’s infrequent visits to their grandmother in Pittsburgh. “No, I don’t think that she did. She was always glad to see Lucy.”

  “But you weren’t always glad to see Lucy.” Mariah looked over at her as they took the Malibu exit.

  Eve sighed. “I remember the first time I saw the two of you. You and he were going to Europe, and you brought Lucy over to stay with Grandma Shelton while you were gone. Everyone was fawning over her, talking about how pretty she was. He just ignored Ricky and me. Everything was ‘Lucy this, Lucy that.’ When we were alone in Grandma’s bedroom, Lucy picked up one of my toys and I slapped her. I resented her and I resented you.”

  “Do you still resent us?”

  Eve shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. But I have learned to control my temper a little better.” She tried to change the subject. “My mother flipped when I got a gun. She was afraid I was going to kill someone.”

  Mariah frowned. “I don’t like guns, but sometimes they are a necessary evil.” Mariah took her left hand off of the wheel and scratched at the scar on her right arm.

  Eve looked closely at the scar. “That’s from a gunshot wound, isn’t it?”

  Mariah nodded.

  Something clicked in Eve’s brain. “Soleil’s mother shot you, didn’t she?”

  Mariah continued to look straight ahead as she maneuvered through the Malibu hills, but Eve saw her take a deep swallow. “She tried to kill me.”

  “Does Lucy know?”

  As Mariah shook her head, Eve remembered the argument between Lucy and Soleil a few days ago. She felt that Lucy did know, but she couldn’t say that to Mariah.

  “Soleil is in danger. And so are the rest of us. Faith will stop at nothing to get what she wants.”

  Eve wanted to find out more about Faith, but she saw Soleil’s truck in the driveway as they neared Mariah’s house. She felt another chill, and it wasn’t because of the Jag’s air conditioning.

  Soleil

  Soleil decided to go over to Mariah’s to see how Lucy was doing. She figured that Mariah had taken Eve to Lieberman’s office, leaving Lucy alone with her thoughts. For once, she felt that she could help her big sister, instead of the other way around.

  The Land Rover was in the garage, but the Jaguar was gone. No one answered the doorbell when she pressed it, but she knew Lucy was inside. The houses were closer together in this part of Malibu, so Soleil decided to use ghetto tactics.

  She stepped back from the house so she could see Lucy’s bedroom window. She cupped her hands and shouted, “Lucy! Open the fucking door!”

  No answer.

  “Lucy, you crazy bitch, you better open this door! You know I can scream all night, so you better bring your ass down here!”

  Soleil saw the curtain move slightly.

  “LUUUCY!” Soleil placed her hands on her hips. She started to laugh. Lucy hated to be embarrassed.

  Lucy came to the back door and opened it. She was pale and her hair was matted to one side. “Stop being so loud!” She glared at her sister.

  “You look like shit.” She sniffed the air. “But at least you don’t stink.”

  Lucy continued to glare. “I took a shower. Then I went back to bed. What do you want, anyway? Mariah and Eve aren’t here.”

  Soleil was enjoying pissing off her sister. “I came to see you, bitch. I came to keep your sorry ass company.”

  “I don’t need any company. And quit calling me ‘bitch.’ ”

  “Then quit acting like one! Get your swimsuit. We are going to lie on the beach.”

  Lucy wiped her eyes. “I don’t want to go to the beach.”

  “Did I ask you what you wanted? I’m telling you what we are going to do.” She compared her muscular forearms with Lucy’s slender ones. “You know I can kick your ass!” Once, when she was little, she got into a fight with Lucy and pulled out a chunk of her hair. She laughed at the memory.

  Lucy absently ran her fingers through her hair. Apparently, she remembered the incident, too. “I’m sure that you can.” She looked Soleil up and down. “You are bigger than me now.”

  Soleil laughed again. “Bigger and badder! Now let’s go!”

  Lucy sighed and opened the door for Soleil to follow her into the house. She headed up the stairs. “I’ll be right back.” She turned about and gave Soleil a wicked smile. “Bitch,” she muttered.

  Soleil started laughing. Then she started singing an old Elton John song, “Bitch is Back.” She stripped down to her tiger-striped bikini and put her jeans and tee shirt on a chair.

  When Lucy came back down in a purple one-piece suit, Soleil gave her a hug. “Lucy, I’m sorry about the argument the other night.”

  Lucy returned the hug. “Me, too. We can’t change the past, we have to deal with the present and prepare for the future.”

  “We have to stick together if we are going to get through this.”

  Lucy looked into Soleil’s eyes. “I’m surprised to hear that coming from you.”

  “Yeah, I know. I’m not used to having someone on my side.”

  “Mariah and I have always been on your side.” She took her sister’s hand.

  “Yeah. Why, I don’t know. I have never been anything but a thorn in Mariah’s side since the day that I was born.”

  Lucy smiled. “But you are still family. I just wish your mother wasn’t around.”

  Soleil sighed again. “I wish that every day of my life.”

  Lucy went into the laundry room and came back with two beach towels. She handed a towel to Soleil, went into the bathroom and came back with a bottle of sunscreen. “Let’s go catch some rays and sprays.”

  Eve

  Eve saw Soleil’s clothes on the chair when she entered the kitchen. “They must be outside,” she said to Mariah.

  “Why don’t you join them?”

  “I think that I will.” As much as she hated California, she had to admit that she enjoyed sitting on the beach. She headed upstairs to change into the bathing suit she had borrowed from Lucy. Halfway up the stairs, she turned around. “Mariah?”

  Mariah looked up from some papers she had in her hand. “Yes?”

  “Thank you. For everything.”

  Mariah smiled widely. “Don’t mention it. You’re family.” She winked and returned to her papers.

  Brad

  Brad MacRae watched the two women through the binoculars. Faith had showed him where Mariah Williams lived. He was surprised she lived in such a ritzy area. He had never met any really wealthy black people before, not even in Mt. Lebanon. Mariah’s house practically looked like a mansion. He couldn’t be
lieve that she had earned enough as a singer to buy a place like this. Maybe Faith was right—maybe Mariah had been a hooker for a while.

  He looked again at the two women. They were both beautiful, in their own way. Soleil was taller and more rounded. When she smoothed sunscreen on her arms, the sun tattoo on her arm gleamed. Without that hair, she would have been a knockout. She had the most beautiful face he had ever seen on a woman. Her skin was the color of nougat, creamy beige without a blemish in sight. If only she got rid of those red and brown twigs on her head. She had full, high breasts that made him lick his lips. From the pictures that he had seen at Faith’s apartment, he knew that Soleil had inherited her figure from her mother. The skinny whore had once been as beautiful as a model.

  And then there was Lucy. Lucy had that vulnerable, lost look that he loved. He knew he could get her to do anything, if only he could get her alone. Lucy was also beautiful, with her long, dark brown hair and large brown eyes. She was thinner than Soleil, but the one-piece suit she wore accented her small breasts and slim hips. When she laughed at something Soleil said, he saw her straight perfect teeth. She was a little darker than Soleil, but the light chocolate of her skin made her even more seductive.

  He watched as he saw Eve come out of the house in a white one-piece suit. The sight of his ex-wife did nothing for him. With her tan, she was almost the same color as Soleil. The sun had streaked her short blonde hair. Why had he even married her? With her small breasts and wide hips, she didn’t have the figure of her sisters. But when they were all seated together, he was taken aback at their facial similarities. It was undeniable that they were blood sisters.

  But his attention drifted back to Lucy. She shook her thick hair, which was starting to curl, and stood up. He licked his lips again. He was going to get Lucy. And he was going to get rich.

  Eve

  When Eve came over, Lucy stood up. “I’m going to see Mariah. I’ll be right back. You can have my towel.”

  Eve lightly touched her arm. “I’m glad that you are doing better.”

  Lucy smiled wanly. “Yeah. Me, too.” She headed towards the house.

  Eve sat down next to Soleil.

  “Hi ya doin’, sis? How’s the ex?” Soleil looked at Eve to gauge her reaction.

  Eve shook her head. “The crazy son of a bitch thinks he is entitled to some of the money. Lieberman told him that he wasn’t, but I don’t think he is convinced. Mariah thinks he will try to get it some other way, but I don’t know how.”

  Soleil laughed bitterly. “It’s a good thing he doesn’t know Faith.”

  Eve looked at Soleil and her tiger bikini. She felt pale, skinny and inadequate next to her youngest sister. Soleil’s sun tattoo gleamed like the real thing. “Do you think that you have enough sunscreen on?”

  Soleil smiled and took off her sunglasses. “Got to. I freckle real easily.”

  Eve laughed. “So do I.”

  “So does Lucy. Just another thing we have to thank dear ol’ Dad for.” Soleil shook her hair and sat up.

  Eve looked at her sister. Soleil was the most beautiful woman she had ever seen. With her light brown flawless skin, cat-like eyes, high cheekbones and full lips, she could have been a beauty queen.

  “What are you staring at?”

  “What is it like to be so beautiful?” Eve knew the question sounded stupid, but she had to ask. Eve was intrigued by Soleil and wanted to get to know her better, in spite of her reluctance to talk about herself.

  “It sucks major ass.”

  Eve laughed. That wasn’t the response she expected. She knew Soleil wouldn’t deny her attractiveness, but the answer still surprised her. “Why?”

  “No one takes you seriously. All they see is a pretty face or a nice body. At the Musicians Institute, I had to work my ass off to be accepted as a musician. Instead of wanting to jam with me, all of the guys wanted to fuck me. And all of the girls were jealous of me.” Soleil put her sunglasses back on.

  “But you were finally able to win them over, right?”

  “Yeah, after they realized I could really play. And I had to threaten to beat the shit out of a few of them fuckers. It was hard, with no one to turn to for advice. Faith went through it, but she was never able to deal with her looks. And look how she turned out. But I knew I wasn’t going to turn into a fuckin’ whore like her, as much as she tried to turn me into one.” Soleil scratched at her tattoo and frowned.

  Eve could sense that Soleil was getting ready to shut herself off again. She knew she was treading on dangerous ground, as Soleil didn’t like to talk about her mother. She changed the subject slightly. “How did you get your name, Soleil Esparanza?”

  “What is this, twenty questions day?”

  “No, I just wanted to know, that’s all. I just want to get to know you better.”

  Soleil looked over at her. “Well, my father, I mean our father, always liked Yes. On the album Tales from Topographic Oceans, the chorus of the last section is ‘Nous sommes du soleil, we love when we play.’ He loved that song. And my middle name is due to Faith’s mother, Charity. Esparanza means ‘Hope’ in Spanish. Faith, Hope and Charity, in the wrong fucking order, three generations of dysfunction.”

  Eve had to laugh at the smirk on Soleil’s face. She could imagine she was rolling her eyes behind her shades.

  “So what about you, Eve-lyn? Where does your name come from?”

  “Well, I think there was some maiden aunt in England on my mother’s side named Evelyn.”

  “But isn’t Evelyn a man’s name over there, like Evelyn Waugh?”

  “I think that it is a unisex name. But it is a drag to have to always correct people who call me ‘Eva-lyn.’ So I prefer ‘Eve.’ My middle name is Elizabeth, the same as my Grandmother Shelton, I mean our grandmother.” It seemed strange that Soleil never got to meet her grandmother, since Lucy had met her several times on her visits to Pittsburgh. “What about Lucy—where did her name come from?”

  “Lucille is the name of B.B. King’s guitar. Mik loved B.B. King. Her middle name is Esther, which is her maternal grandmother’s name.”

  Eve thought about Lucy. It would be safer to ask Soleil about Lucy than to ask her to reveal more about her personal life. She was interested in how Soleil’s viewpoint would differ from Mariah’s. “What is it with Lucy? She is hard for me to figure out.”

  Soleil took off her glasses again. “Lucy’s thing is that she has always wanted to be perfect. She wanted to be the perfect daughter, the perfect student and the perfect businesswoman. She is pissed that the world is full of imperfections, starting with her own family.”

  “Are you close to her?” Eve could never fathom their relationship.

  “I used to hate the bitch.” Soleil laughed. “She used to babysit for my mother when I was little. I used to break her shit just to piss her off. She never got angry. She would just say, ‘Now, Soleil, that’s not nice.’ Bitch! I used to hate her and her ‘nice’ Malibu Barbie lifestyle. Maybe I was jealous.”

  “But you didn’t answer my question.”

  “Are we close? No one is close to Lucy except Mariah. Maybe Ricky was.”

  Eve thought about the horrible rumor again. “Do you think that…?”

  Soleil shook her dreads. “Why are you obsessing about that? I don’t know and I don’t care! If Lucy fucked her half-brother, your whole brother, that was between them. If they did, they had their reasons, I’m sure.”

  “You are condoning incest?” Eve felt a chill of revulsion, even though the sun was warm.

  Soleil whipped off her sunglasses and looked at Eve with fire in her eyes. “You need to get your head out of your tight white ass. Don’t be so judgmental! Who do you think that you are? I guess that you think that I’m nothing but a whore because of what I went through. Get over it, Eve! Shit happens! Life happens! And it ain’t always pretty or packaged or moral.” Soleil was gesturing with her hands and talking so loudly that other sunbathers were looking in their direction.

/>   Eve was again surprised at Soleil’s reaction. “It was just a question.”

  “No, it wasn’t, and you know it! I know you are bitter because both your father and brother left you and Lucy was close to both of them after they were gone from your life. But don’t blame your unhappiness on Lucy!”

  Eve stared at Soleil. “I’m not blaming anyone for anything.”

  Soleil stood up. “Yes, you are! But there is one thing that you need to realize. Whether you like it or not, Lucy and I are all you have left, all you have left of your father.” Soleil picked up her blanket and folded it. “See you later.”

  Eve watched Soleil walk back to Mariah’s house. By the time she had entered the house, Eve found that her face was wet with tears. And she didn’t know why.

  For some reason, she wished that she hadn’t hit Lucy in the face when she was three.

  Soleil

  “Ooohhh! That Eve bitch is going to drive me crazy!” Soleil stomped into the kitchen where Mariah and Lucy were making a salad.

  Mariah laughed. “What did she say now?”

  “She needs to get off of her high horse. She thinks that because she grew up in Pittsburgh that she is better than us LA girls.”

  “Well, her mother was a secretary, not a rock singer or a groupie.” Lucy looked at Mariah.

  “So the fuck what! She needs to get off of that morality kick. She isn’t that innocent!”

  Lucy laughed. “The first time she saw me, she punched me in the face.”

  “What did you do?”

  Lucy laughed harder. “I cried. I was only three years old at the time.”

  Soleil looked out towards the beach. “Maybe I should go back out there and kick her ass.”

  Mariah tousled Soleil’s dreads. “Let her alone. She is real confused right now.”

  “Hell, aren’t we all?” She walked over to where Lucy was cutting up tomatoes. “Another fuckin’ salad! How about some steak?”

  “Who said that you were staying for dinner?” Lucy grinned at the expression on Soleil’s face.

  Soleil put her hands on her hips. “I’m moving in, bitch!”

  “Soleil!” Mariah clucked disapprovingly.

  “She’s been calling me that all day.” Lucy flicked a piece of tomato at Soleil.