by Aviva Gat
“At the community center?” Madeline answered. “You used to go there.”
“Mmhmm.”
“How nice,” Madeline responded into the silence. “Well, I should explain why I am here.”
“You don’t remember me, do you?” Rhonda cut her off with a big smile on her face. She sat on a chair next to the couch and shook her head side to side with her eyebrows raised. “You don’t remember me at all.”
Madeline had always tried hard to remember people. It was an important skill for a politician. And at this moment she was more than embarrassed by Rhonda’s statement.
“To you, I was just another little black girl. One of your projects,” Rhonda said, the smile still big on her face.
“I’m sorry Rhonda.” But then it all came back to her. The look on Rhonda’s face when she picked her up that morning. The sweat from her palm as she held her hand tight in the taxi. The way she quivered when she signed the forms at the clinic. How she looked disgusted as she ate her Tasti D-lite. Rhonda, with her long braids, red nails, had grown up. “Rhonda…” Madeline repeated. “I remember. I remember, everything.”
This realization was quite a shock to Madeline. She had pictured Hunter’s wife a million times, but she had never pictured the young girl from that day. The young girl who needed help. Who had seemed so lost. Who Madeline had helped. In her mind, Hunter’s wife was nothing like that girl. She was a tough, strict mother, TSA agent with a scowl and bone to pick.
This changed things for Madeline. She wasn’t exactly sure how, but the conversations she had played out in her head before coming in seemed completely irrelevant.
“Well, what do you want anyway?” Rhonda asked. She was picking at her nails, which were still long and perfectly manicured, but in a color much less flashy than what Madeline had remembered. “I told you, Hunter ain’t here. And if he did come here, I’d kick him out all over again.”
This was the opening Madeline had been looking for. “What happened?” The moment she said it though, she thought it was a mistake. Was she bringing up something that would turn Rhonda against her? “Was it…because of me?”
“Because of you?” Rhonda laughed harder than she would have allowed anyone else to laugh while her daughter was asleep. She clapped her hands hard and shook her head, before almost reprimanding herself for the loud noises. Her head glanced toward the hall where her daughter’s bedroom was and then she looked back at Madeline. She continued speaking in a whisper. “Girl, not everything is about you.” Although in her mind Rhonda was nodding hard. “You see that’s the problem with people like you. You think that the world revolves around you. That you are the catalyst that causes everything to happen.”
The truth was that Rhonda had no idea that Hunter had strayed. She may have accused him of cheating hundreds of times, but in her mind, she never believed it was a real possibility. Not Hunter. He was a gentleman, if she had ever met one. He wasn’t like other guys she knew in Harlem. Hunter may have been a lot of things, but Rhonda did not think that a cheater was one of them.
Instead, she blamed Madeline for the invisible influence she had over her husband. She was sure it was Madeline who inspired his political career, who taught him how to find loopholes to jump through, who gave him the courage to do what he did. Surely that all came from his previous relationship with her.
“You’re right,” Madeline said. “How selfish of me. Do you want to tell me what happened?”
Rhonda shook her head, but began talking anyway. “Well, maybe you are right. Maybe it was because of you.” She leaned back and crossed her arms in front of her chest. “But I don’t need to tell you nothing.”
“Right. I’m sorry for prying.” Madeline sat quietly and sipped the glass of water Rhonda had put down for her. The two women sat in silence for a few moments before Rhonda spoke up.
“Why are you here?”
“Well I heard about your divorce, and maybe it is too intrusive, but I want to help.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Well Hunter does. He asked me for money to help pay for the divorce.” Madeline bent the truth for Rhonda, still unsure of her involvement in the blackmail.
“He wants money for the divorce? Well that is a laugh, ain’t it? Our divorce is the least expensive thing in his life right now. You think I’m paying a fancy lawyer? My lawyer’s face is on a bus stop.”
“So why did he ask me for money?”
“Well that’s a story.”
Chapter 34
Rhonda herself had discovered the truth about a year ago while searching through his office. She found a small figurine of a cobra in his desk drawer. Seeing the cobra shot her heart rate through the roof and made her hairline sweat. It was instantly recognizable—a symbol she had seen in many places throughout her life, including tattooed on the neck of the man that had raped her when she was 15. When she saw the figurine, she wasn’t sure what to make of it. Why was it in Hunter’s desk? She left the figurine where she found it, and did what every smart woman would do when suspicious of her husband. She placed a hidden camera behind a vent in a wall of his office. She placed it just so, so she had a clear view of the office and desk and, as long as the heat or air conditioner weren’t on, she could hear pretty much everything that was said.
She began watching endless footage of her husband. She watched him sitting at his desk, typing on his computer. She watched him on the phone and meeting with constituents. A few times she even watched him taking a nap. On the city’s dollar! She clucked her tongue at her lazy husband.
Most of the footage was uneventful. After several sleepless nights and a few warnings from her boss that she was taking too long of breaks at work, she almost stopped watching. But then, her husband received a visit from someone who looked rather different from his usual visitors. Most people who came to see him wore suits, or at least a collared shirt. This visitor wore black. Black pants, a black t-shirt. The only color was a green bandana tied around his wrist. Rhonda recognized the bandana. Everyone in Harlem knew what it meant. Only members of the Cobras could wear it. If you weren’t a member and were brave enough to be seen with a green bandana, well, you could be sure you wouldn’t have an arm to wear it on by the next day.
The man—if Rhonda could call him that—he looked like a young boy—placed a thick envelope in Hunter’s hand. “Bumpy says thanks. You did good, H-man.” The boy in the bandana left and Hunter moved a framed map of the city to show a safe behind it, where he put the envelop. Rhonda had no idea who Bumpy was, or why he was thanking Hunter. It even took her a few moments to understand who H-man was. But this was enough for her to keep watching.
Over the next few weeks, she watched different members of the Cobras come in and out of Hunter’s office and hand him envelopes that he continued to store away in his safe. Rhonda even once snuck into the office to try to open the safe, but she knew the key was with Hunter and she really had no idea how to pick a lock. Watching her husband meet with members of the Cobras made her blood boil. Her rapist was a Cobra. All the Cobras were rapists—that was their initiation. It was a known fact in Harlem. What was her husband doing with them?
In the meantime, Hunter had started buying her more and more jewelry. Every week there would be a new box left for her on the table. One time it was earrings, another a gold bracelet. They were beautiful and Rhonda really wanted to wear them, but she couldn’t. How could she wear something bought with money from her rapist? Hunter often asked her why she didn’t wear them, he offered to exchange them, but Rhonda just lied and said she was saving them for special occasions.
This went on for a few months, long enough that Rhonda began being tempted enough to start wearing the jewelry. In fact, she had barely closed the clasp of a new necklace when Hunter came home early from work. “It is so beautiful,” she said to him. He was sweaty and his face seemed to droop when she said it.
He gave a loud sigh. “I need it back. All of it.”
“No, I promi
se I’ll wear it! I’ll wear it all! Here, I’ll put those earrings on now,” she responded, thinking he was punishing her for not wearing his gifts with pride.
“No!” he yelled. “Give it all back to me.” He lunged for her jewelry box and scooped it under his arm. “The necklace too. Give it to me.” Rhonda suddenly became very afraid of her husband. Her hands shook as she unfastened the shining necklace from around her neck and handed it to her husband who disappeared with the jewelry.
As soon as the front door clicked closed, Rhonda jumped for her cellphone to check the footage from her camera. She hadn’t watched in a while, having gotten bored of seeing her husband rotate from sitting at his desk, to sitting at the table, to napping. It felt like a movie she had seen over and over and knew the lines by heart. She opened her phone and started watched footage from that day. She saw the usual movements in his office, visitors, phone calls, typing on the computer. Then the boy in the green bandana came in.
“Bumpy is not happy.” The boy said. “Deadline is tonight. Got it?” In the video, Hunter nodded.
Rhonda didn’t understand, so she started going back further in the footage. She found another meeting with the Cobra member.
“What the fuck, H-man?” the boy said. “Dreads got life. You said this was cake. Bumpy says he expects you to return everything. With interest.”
“Bro, I can only do so much. I talked to the judge,” Hunter reasoned.
“Bumpy doesn’t care. You are no longer useful to the Cobras. And you know what happens to useless assets. How’s Rhonda, by the way?” The boy disappeared without expecting an answer.
Rhonda had heard enough to have a vague understanding of what happened. She closed her phone and started packing. She wasn’t safe there in their apartment. Hunter had betrayed her. She didn’t want to be with him for another second.
She moved her daughter to California and filed for divorce. Luckily, her job could be transferred to any main city with an airport so she started working harder and taking on extra shifts to pay rent for a small house in a nice neighborhood where her daughter would never even meet a gang member. Occasionally, she would spy on Hunter, just so she would know what was happening. From her spying she learned that Hunter didn’t meet his deadline to pay back the money with interest. She learned that Hunter promised double if they gave him a month. She knew that month was coming up. How Hunter was planning on coming up with the money, Rhonda had no idea until Madeline had come to her home that night.
Chapter 35
Rhonda sat with her arms folded and lips sealed. She didn’t owe Madeline anything. She especially didn’t need to tell her anything about what had happened between her and her husband. But then she had a thought. She hated her husband for what he did to her. For taking money from the gang that had stolen her innocence all those years ago. She hated him even more because he still seemed to have everything figured out, so much so that his perfect, beautiful, white ex-girlfriend was at Rhonda’s home on his behalf.
She still wasn’t sure why Madeline had come to see her, but she was starting to have an inkling. It made sense and she knew it all along. After all these years, after everything, she had been right about Hunter and Madeline—they weren’t really over. They had never been really over and now that Hunter was getting divorced, he could go back to what he really wanted.
He never really wanted her, Rhonda believed. Yes he was mostly a good husband and a good father (aside from his betrayal!), but he had done it from an act of duty, not love. Had there been no pregnancy, Rhonda was sure she and Hunter wouldn’t have lasted so long and instead he would have been back with Madeline even sooner.
And now that Rhonda filed for divorce, Hunter could have whatever he wanted. He could have Madeline and even her money to fix his problem with the Cobras. Well, Rhonda could not allow that. It wasn’t fair. He shouldn’t get what he wanted. And how convenient for her, Rhonda still had a chance to ruin it for him. With Madeline in her living room, she had the chance to ruin everything for Hunter, just like he had ruined everything for her.
“You remember what happened to me?” She said.
“Of course. You were so young.” Madeline responded. Madeline, however, didn’t know the whole story. How could she, being an outsider in Harlem?
“You know who did it to me?”
Madeline shook her head. Back then, Rhonda had refused to tell her anything more than that she had been raped and impregnated.
“Well, in Harlem, there is a gang called the Cobras. You don’t mess with them and they run the neighborhood. If you see someone in a green bandana, you look down and you walk the other way.” She paused to gauge Madeline’s interest. “I was a victim of their initiation ritual.”
Rhonda hadn’t thought about that day for a very long time. In fact, she had tried not to think about it since the moment it was over, but she remembered every little detail, down to the dirt in the boy’s fingernails.
The first time she saw Ray was the day before it happened. She was with her friends sitting on the bleachers at the basketball court on 140th when he walked by. He hooked his fingers on the outside of the fence and stared in at the boys shooting hoops and the girls watching. He stood like that for a while, nothing but his eyes moving from person to person. No one seemed to notice him there except Rhonda. She caught his eye one time and quickly looked back at the lighter her friend was flicking on for her to light her cigarette. A little later, she caught his staring right at her. It made her blush and she smiled at him. He was cute, she thought. With his almost buzzed hair and broad cheekbones, his baggy designer jeans, he looked like a 15-year-old’s dream guy. She thought he might have winked at her, but she wasn’t sure. After all, guys weren’t usually interested in her. They liked girls like Keisha or her other friend Tatiana.
That evening, when the girls were ready to disperse from the basketball court, Ray came right up to Rhonda and introduced himself. He asked if he could walk her home. Rhonda wanted to say no, she liked walking home with her girlfriends and they still had so much to talk about. But Keisha and Tatiana oohed and aahed and gave approving looks to their friend. So Rhonda agreed. Anyway it was about time she started dating. She knew she was way behind her friends.
Ray was sweet. They talked about Tupac and their favorite songs. Ray told her about a movie he had just seen that Rhonda had to see. She took note in her head to watch it that evening so she could tell him next time she saw him. When they got to Rhonda’s home, he asked for her number and she gave it to him. She asked him why she never saw him at school and he told her he went to a different one. Rhonda had heard of his school, she knew it was for kids who had been expelled and that excited her. He promised to call and said goodbye.
That evening Rhonda watched the movie he recommended and she prayed he would call so she could tell him. Her prayers were answered later that night. They talked on the phone for an hour about their friends and hobbies and then he asked if he could meet her again the next day. “Like a date?” she had asked him.
“Sure,” he said. “Exactly.” They made plans to meet after school. He’d come to the courts and they could go from there. Rhonda hadn’t been able to sleep that night, she was so excited. In the morning she did her nails and put on her favorite outfit and went to school. The minute the bell rang, she ran to the courts and sure enough, Ray was there. He smiled when he saw her and handed her a Snickers bar. So thoughtful, she mused, remembering that she had told him her favorite candy the night before.
He said he wanted to show her something, so they started walking away from the courts. He led her up Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard until they got to the river. She had never been to this part of the river. The boardwalk wasn’t completed and there was no one else around. How romantic, Rhonda thought, opening the Snickers bar. She offered him a bite and he said no thanks with a big smile on his face.
Before she understood what was happening her back was pressed up against the railing. The bar was hurting her back and if she loo
ked to the side, she saw the river below. With one hand, Ray held her neck and with the other he tugged at her jeans. Her jeans that already had holes in all the right places tore easily as he pulled them down her legs. “Stop,” she tried to say, but she wasn’t sure if she said it out loud. Maybe she didn’t and that’s why he didn’t stop.
It hurt and she dropped the Snickers bar into the river below. She was afraid she’d fall back if she fought him, so she just stood there with her eyes closed, the railing bar banging further into her back with every thrust. It was just a couple minutes and then it was over and Ray stood back. She opened her eyes to see him smile at her and then he yelled “Cobras unite!”
Suddenly, a group of boys wearing all black except for green bandanas tied around their right arms, appeared. They were clapping and cheering and patting Ray on the back. She watched as one of the boys tied a green bandana around Ray’s arm and then sliced his palm open. The boy handed Ray the knife and he too sliced open his palm. The boys shook hands, mixing their blood, and then bottles of alcohol were passed around. No one looked at Rhonda. It was like she wasn’t there. But she didn’t move. She stood there, with her ripped jeans by her ankles, and watched the boys celebrate. It felt like hours when she finally had the courage to move. They boys were still celebrating and no one seemed to notice her pull up what was left of her pants and go.
She didn’t tell anyone about it, not even Keisha. When her friend asked what happened with Ray, she just told them he was a scrub and they all nodded knowingly. So many guys were.
It wasn’t until two months later that Rhonda took a pregnancy test. She had had her suspicions for a while, but couldn’t face it. What were the chances? It only lasted a couple minutes, maybe even just one minute. There was no way…