Vexed

by Honey

  “Yeah, I need prayer, all right, to fight all these damn charges,” Jay said softly.

  “I’ll put your name in the prayer box at church today. It was good to hear from you, but I gotta run now. Brother Slocomb, our new minister of music, will tear my head off if I’m late. I’m singing “Encourage Yourself” by Donald Lawrence and the Tri-City Singers this morning. I’m so excited, honey. But before we hang up, bow your head and let Auntie pray with you.”

  * * *

  “It was so nice of y’all to put this together for us. Thank you.” Zach wrapped his arm around Venus’s waist and kissed her on the cheek.

  “It was my idea, but Dex, Ramona, and Charles deserve most of the credit. They did all the legwork. Look at all that spread. You know I can’t cook like that. I was responsible for getting your father and his family down here.”

  Aunt Jackie walked over to the picnic table with Zachary Junior in her arms. Nahima was right beside her, carrying one of her Heritage World baby dolls all dressed in red. “Isn’t it a beautiful day for a cookout? I’m glad we decided to do this.”

  “It’s a perfect day,” Jill said as she walked over.

  “After all we’ve been through, it was time for us to set aside a day to chill and enjoy one another.” Zach pinched Zachary Junior’s nose. “Most of the people I love are here with me.”

  “Son.” Wallace placed his hand on Zach’s shoulder. “Come go for a walk with me.”

  “We’ll be right back, y’all,” Zach announced.

  Zach and Wallace left the table and walked toward the pond. A mother duck and her ducklings sat afloat on the water. Father and son stopped under the shade of a tree to talk.

  “I spoke with Jayla’s attorney earlier this week. She has a new one. He’s a young black guy. Malcolm Henderson is his name. He thinks he’s convinced your sister to plead guilty but mentally ill to all charges pertaining to you. She’ll serve eight to ten years.”

  Zach nodded and rubbed his goatee. “What about the escape charges? I know she’s gonna serve some major time for that.”

  “Yes, she has to face those charges as well. It’s a long laundry list of offenses, but she’s fighting every last one of them. Jayla says Deputy Hardy and Nina planned her escape without her knowledge. She claims they sprung her out of the hospital and forced her to go along with them.”

  “That doesn’t sound right, Daddy. How did Nina and the deputy meet? They couldn’t have been friends. Jay had a sexual relationship with both of them. It doesn’t add up.”

  “It doesn’t, but it’s exactly what Jayla told her attorney. That’s why she insists that Nina be found. She’s responsible for the escape to Jamaica, according your sister. She even gave the authorities some information about one of Nina’s cousins in Mexico. Jayla swears that’s where she is, and she wants the FBI to go after her.”

  “You do know your daughter is a pathological liar, right?”

  Wallace nodded his head. Everyone knew Jay had a sharp tendency to lie.

  “And you know she’s crazy, but nowhere near clinically insane. I wouldn’t be surprised if she killed Nina and buried her body somewhere in that trailer park outside of Miami. I told Franklin and Ortega what I believe. Anyway, Jay needs some help.”

  “I know,” Wallace said with a faraway look in his eyes. “I wonder how she would’ve turned out if I hadn’t gone to the White Cloud Motel that afternoon with my gun.”

  “We’ll never know. By the way, you didn’t tell me how you knew Mama was there that day with Claudius Henry.”

  “I guess it was instinct. He was my best friend, and I knew that’s where he took all his women. When Belva Jane left home that day, headed for the beauty parlor, she was dressed to the nines. She didn’t ask me for the fifteen dollars to pay for her hairdo, like she usually did. I got suspicious, and the rest is history.”

  Epilogue

  One year later . . .

  Zion’s soft whimpers floated through the baby monitor and greeted Zach as he entered the kitchen. He had just returned home from work. Jill turned around, with a dishcloth in her hand. She bumped into her husband on her way to check on their two-month-old daughter. Zach reached out and grabbed her hips to hold her in place. He kissed her lips. Zachary Junior pulled the hem of his mother’s dress to get her attention.

  “That’s enough, Zachary,” Jill whispered against his lips. “The baby is crying, ya know?”

  Zach released her and shot her a bedroom promise for later with his eyes. Then he bent down and scooped up his son and tossed him in the air. He caught him and kissed him on the forehead. “We’ll go and take care of the baby. Finish cooking. It smells good, by the way,” Zach yelled as he ran up the stairs, his son bouncing in his arms.

  “Are you wet, little girl?” Jill heard him say over the baby monitor. “Are you hungry too? Daddy’s gonna change you and take you to your mommy so she can nurse you. Ain’t that right, Zachary Junior?”

  “Baby wanna eat, Daddy.”

  Jill smiled at the sound of her son’s voice. Life was peaceful now, with no worries and no danger waiting around the corner. Jay’s sentencing for her escape from jail had taken place that morning. Jill had no idea of the outcome. If she really wanted to know the details, all she had to do was pick up the phone and call Aunt Jackie. But she wasn’t interested.

  “Somebody’s hungry.” Zach had entered the kitchen with Zion in his arms and Zachary Junior skipping behind him.

  “Let me fix your plate first,” Jill said. She reached down and ran her fingers through her son’s curls. “And I will fix yours too. Then I will nurse the baby.”

  Zach helped Zachary Junior into his high chair and then took a seat at the table and cradled his daughter. “Jay was sentenced this morning,” he said coolly.

  “I know.”

  “Aunt Jackie said she didn’t take it well. In fact, Jay showed her ass in the courtroom when the judge gave her an additional seven years, on top of the ten she’s already serving.”

  Jill placed a plate of food on the tray of Zachary Junior’s high chair and kissed his face. When she pressed her palms together and closed her eyes, he mimicked her gestures and bowed his head. Together, mother and son said a short grace.

  “Auntie said Jay started cursing and screaming some nonsense about Nina and Deputy Hardy at her attorney,” Zach continued, shaking his head. “Then she attacked the dude and swung at the bailiffs when they tried to get her off him. She threatened to kill the judge, the DA and, of course, you and me before they hauled her ass outta there, clowning like a fool. Auntie was so embarrassed.”

  Jill quietly placed a plate of piping hot food in front of Zach. She took Zion from his arms after she handed him a fork. Then she began to nurse her daughter. Zach paused and waited for Jill to respond. She felt his eyes on her. Nothing about Jay interested her one way or the other. How long the judge had sentenced her to serve in prison didn’t matter. Jill only hoped that Zach had found the closure he needed to move past what his sister had done to them. She had with no regrets.

  “I wouldn’t change a damn thing, you know? How it all went down may have been wrong, but I think we were meant to be,” Zach mused.

  “I know we were, Zachary. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

  “In Jamaica that night when you were tipsy, dancing on top of the bar and on my lap at Desmond’s spot, I wanted you. But I refused to cross the line. I honored the hood rule and kept my hands to myself.” Zach shook his fork in Jill’s direction. “Even after Jay brought you here to live in this house, I fought it. You were her lover, the forbidden fruit.”

  Jill lowered her eyes to look at the baby still nursing in her arms. “I know, Zachary. You’re a good man. I was drawn to you too, but I didn’t know what it meant. You made me feel safe, and I enjoyed being around you. It felt wonderful to laugh and speak freely about my dreams. You were a kind friend to me.”

  “And you deserved it. You needed a friend, someone to love you and treat you special. What h
appened that night after Jay discovered Nahima here was the turning point. It wasn’t an accident or some mishap. It was supposed to happen.”

  “I’m honestly sorry Jay got hurt. You lost her because of what we did. It turned her into a . . . a . . . I don’t know.”

  “Nah, baby. It brought out the real Jay, the one she used to be able to turn on and off on a whim. It’s her dark side. The monster within that had manipulated you, me, and everyone else. It was there all the time.”

  * * *

  “I ain’t bullshitting y’all this time. I’m sick!” Jay shouted through gulps of air. Her stomach rumbled again, causing her body to jerk out of control. The contents of her belly rose up to her throat. She almost choked on the blood and vomit as it gushed from her mouth. She wiped her lips and chin with the back of her hand. “Damn it! I need to see the nurse! Guard! Please help me, somebody!”

  The two deputies manning the security monitors stared at Jay as she kneeled in front of the commode, crying and puking. The female was on the phone, catching up on the drama between her ex-boyfriend and the chick that had jacked him from her and their daughter. She placed her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and turned to her coworker. “You ain’t gonna go down there to check on that fool?”

  “Hell no! She probably got her hands on some pills again. Let the next shift deal with her crazy ass.”