Karma's a Bitch

by J. Gail

  “I will look into it Mrs. Jackson. Would you like to go in to see Tony now? I’ll take you in,” he offered.

  “Yes, I would, but only for a little while. I gotta be at work by noon. My boss be trippin’. Just so you know if you need any new employees in here, I’m available!”

  The doctor chuckled as he opened the door. “I’ll keep that in mind. Alright, come on then Mrs. Jackson.”

  Quanisha stood up slowly and turned to the doctor. “Wait. I gotta tell you something.”

  “Huh? What’s that?” the doctor asked as he shut the door back, thinking that it was something personal.

  “I gotta tell you… My last name isn’t Jackson, it’s Williams. I ain’t married to Tony, I just said that to get to see him. They wouldn’t have let me up to see him in intensive care if they knew I was just his girlfriend,” Quanisha admitted and looked down at the floor.

  The doctor folded his arms and looked at her sternly. One would think by the expression on his face that he was upset, but really he was impressed with Quanisha. Here she was, this passionate hard working young lady, admitting a lie to a complete stranger. She didn’t have to tell him the truth about not being married to the patient, and he would have never known either way.

  “Young lady, don’t worry. We’ll keep that between you and me okay? Let’s just go in to see Mr. Jackson,” the doctor reassured as he opened the door again and led her out of his office.

  Chapter 10

  The real Mrs. Jackson, Tony’s grandmother, was being released that day. To her surprise, instead of her son coming to pick her up, the thin light skinned nurse who claimed to be Tony’s new girlfriend was taking her home. Jenny had only told her that Tony was unavailable, and that he had asked her to take care of things for him.

  Only one of Mrs. Jackson’s so called friends had come to see her the whole time she had been in the hospital, even though they had made an announcement about it in church. She was really feeling some kind of way about that. They were always the first to call when they needed something from Mrs. Jackson or wanted to gossip, but didn’t even care to visit her when she was laid up.

  Now, Mrs. Jackson couldn’t believe that her own grandson wouldn’t make the time to come pick her up from the hospital himself. And even worse, he hadn’t come to see her in over a week. Even worse than that, he had sent this annoying girl Jenny to handle her. Jenny had been coming in there to see her almost every day since she was admitted, and she wasn’t even her assigned nurse. She wanted to tell her to leave her alone so many times, but the God in her just wouldn’t let her hurt the girl’s feelings. Still, there was something about Jenny that just didn’t sit well with Mrs. Jackson.

  “Are you doing okay Mrs. Jackson?” Jenny asked for the sixth time as she wheeled Tony’s grandmother down the hospital hallway. Tony’s grandmother only nodded as she leaned her elbow on the arm of the wheelchair and put her head in her hand.

  On the ride home, Jenny had to ask Mrs. Jackson for directions to her house.

  “Tony didn’t tell you where to drop me off child?” she asked curiously.

  “No, he was in such a rush that he didn’t have a chance to write down the directions for me,” Jenny explained quickly.

  “Oh, well. I guess. The directions are so easy though. Why couldn’t he come pick me up from the hospital again?”

  “Um, I think he said he had to go see a friend of his about some business. Maybe he is going to get a job?” Jenny mused.

  “Hmmph. Maybe,” Mrs. Jackson said skeptically. The last time Tony had a job was when he was 21, helping with newspaper sales on the street. That job had only lasted for three days, because Tony started complaining that his feet were hurting him from standing up for so long. Her grandson would much rather lay down on someone’s couch and live for free.

  “Tony and I are really getting along well. He is such a loving man. I see great things for his future,” Jenny gushed.

  Tony’s grandmother looked over at Jenny for a long while. She examined this young woman closely, and wondered if they were talking about the same Tony. She loved her grandson to death, but had never thought of him as a ‘loving’ man, especially not to a female who he had just met. What could Tony possibly see in this girl, she thought. Jenny was… indescribable. She just wasn’t Tony’s type. She was meek and average looking. Her eyes were dark and untrustworthy. She didn’t have any fire in her belly. She was just… there. Yes, Jenny and Tony had come into her room to visit on several occasions, but it never came off to her the way that Jenny was describing. Most of the time Tony seemed very unconcerned about Jenny’s presence; it was almost as if Jenny wasn’t even in the room. Mrs. Jackson wondered if anything Jenny was telling her about their relationship was the truth.

  When they finally pulled up in front of Mrs. Jackson’s rowhome, Jenny helped Mrs. Jackson up the stairs and into the door. As soon as Tony’s grandmother stepped foot in the door she was waving Jenny off.

  “Go ahead chile, don’t let me hold you up,” she told Jenny as she turned around to get ready to close the door shut in her face.

  “Are you sure Mrs. Jackson? I can go get you some new food, and cook you a nice lunch?”

  “No don’t worry about that, I can go shopping for myself a little later. All I want to do now is just rest,” Mrs. Jackson reassured.

  “Oh. Okay, well you have my phone number now, so feel free to give me a call if you need anything,” Jenny replied as she backed up a few steps.

  “I surely will, you take care of yourself,” Mrs. Jackson said as she shut the door promptly.

  “That girl is a pain in the ass,” she mumbled to herself as she shuffled her way over to the kitchen so that she could set her bag down and call Tony. She looked up at the ceiling. “Forgive me Lord.”

  The phone just kept ringing and ringing as Mrs. Jackson sat at her kitchen table and attempted to call Tony. She tried again and got the same result.

  “What in the world is going on with that boy,” she said to herself. She rubbed her forehead in distress. She tried to remember Quanisha’s phone number off the top of her head, but her memory was suffering after the blow to her head that caused her to be in the hospital for all that time. At least Quanisha would be able to tell her more of what was really going on. She was going to get to the bottom of what was really up with Jenny and this whole Tony situation, one way or another.

  * * *

  Quanisha sat in Tony’s hospital room reading the latest issue of her favorite gossip magazine, which she had picked up from the gift shop. She loved reading about all of the celebrity news, real or fake. Tony was finally wide awake. He was staring up at the ceiling in deep thought and memory. It was obvious that he had a lot on his mind, in particular his near fatal encounter with Trek’s boot. He and Quanisha had been fighting non stop ever since Tony became conscious and started speaking to folks again, which was only two days before. This was a rare moment when neither of them were speaking. Quanisha just sat by with him for support before she had to go to work at noon.

  “Where’s this doctor at?” Tony asked as he turned his neck to Quanisha. He was still in a lot of pain.

  “I don’t know, he busy. He got shit to do,” Quanisha answered without ever looking up at Tony. She was still highly pissed and confused about the whole Nurse Storms confrontation. She still wanted answers from Tony about why that nurse thought she was his woman. Tony was pretending as if he didn’t know what she was talking about, and Jenny hadn’t shown up again at a time when Quanisha was visiting. Lucky for Jenny, because regardless of what the doctor had said, Quanisha probably would have descended upon her on sight. After years of being with Tony, Quanisha knew he wasn’t telling her the whole truth about this nurse girl.

  Quanisha had come to see Tony everyday since Dr. Stephens had given her the okay to come visit again. He had asked Quanisha to give him at least a week to talk to Nurse Storms himself. It was a beautiful fall Friday afternoon, almost a week since she and the doctor had spoken s
o she was hoping he had an update. Maybe he could tell her the things that Tony wasn’t. She had checked Dr. Stephens office earlier, but he wasn’t in until later on in the afternoon.

  “Well I wish somebody would tell me what the hell is going on with my moms! Jen— the nurse told me she was still in this hospital, but that they wasn’t letting anybody see her right now. What the hell is goin’ on!?”

  Quanisha looked up from her magazine and looked at Tony curiously. “I told you I don’t know Tony, but I’ll go try to check out her room myself before I leave. What room she in?”

  “Ummm. What was it… I think it’s room 503? On the fifth floor.”

  “Aiight, but if they ain’t lettin’ nobody in there I doubt they gonna let my ghetto ass in. And who the hell is ‘Jen the nurse’?” Quanisha asked, not missing a beat as she looked at Tony with her nose scrunched up.

  “Nobody,” Tony said as he turned his head away from Quanisha and scratched at his balls. Quanisha hopped up from her chair and threw her magazine on the floor.

  “You know what nigga, you ain’t foolin’ nobody! I’m gonna get to the bottom of all this shit one way or the other. So you gonna either tell me now, or you’re gonna pay out your ass later. What’s it gonna be?”

  “There ain’t nothing to tell Nish! I don’t know what the fuck you tryin’ to figure out!” Tony tried to sit up and argue with Quanisha, but he became lightheaded and had to lay back down.

  “You know I’m sick of your lyin’ ass! You know what I had to go through just to see your dumb ass? And you still ain’t bein’ upfront about this shit? That nurse bitch said you was her man!”

  “Baby, I’m telling you. I ain’t dealin’ with no nurse. I don’t know what that girl told you, but it ain’t true.”

  “Yea whateva nigga,” Quanisha said getting her stuff together. “I ain’t never comin’ back here. Fuck you. After all this, and you still treatin’ me like shit.”

  “Nish, come on Nish. Baby don’t leave,” Tony pleaded as he watched Quanisha bustle her way out of the room. “Quanisha!”

  Quanisha looked at her watch and saw that it was only 11:10am. She wanted to stop and talk to Dr. Stephens, but she was so furious that she couldn’t even bear to look at him at that moment. She was afraid he might peg her as some out of control hood rat chick that was always angry. She just wanted to go about her day and forget that Tony had ever existed.

  Driving to work, Quanisha got a call on her cellphone. It was her friend Trina, who was just coming out of the beauty salon.

  “Hey girl what you doin’?” Trina asked in a huff.

  “Nothin’, what’s up with you,” Quanisha said, not really wanting an answer. She was trying to calm herself down after dealing with Tony.

  “Girl, I just left Shakira chair, so you know my weave is bangin’. This shit looks real! All of dem at the salon said it looked just like my own hair. I told them they need to stop sweatin’ me,” Trina laughed. “Now all I need is to get my nails did up at Kim’s and then I’ll be ready to go. I’m gonna shake my ass all over the club tonight. You still goin’ right?”

  “Tonight? Man I don’t know. Where you goin’, Palmers?”

  “Hell yea, girl you better be going. I got this new ‘fit just for tonight, and I ain’t lettin’ it go to waste.”

  “Ain’t Tahira goin’?”

  “Naw. She backed out at the last minute, like she always do. Girl I ain’t focused on her anyway. You know she still owe me money from the last time we went out, buying her all them drinks. How the hell you gonna come to the club with $10 in your pocket? Then we gotta leave when she wanna leave. Fuck that,” Trina ranted.

  “Okay, aiight. I’ll guess I’ll roll through there. I need somethin’ to get my mind off this nigga girl. I swear once I find out what’s goin’ on with this Nurse Storms bitch Imma snatch somebody head off.”

  “You still on that? Girl you got to be kidding me. If I hear one more thing about that broke ass nigga Tony I think Imma tear this fresh new weave out of my head! Girl leave that nigga alone! He all up in the hospital, pitiful as shit,” Trina paused to laugh at the image in her mind. “There ain’t no better time to leave his ass. Everybody in the hood talkin’ bout how he got his ass whooped up and down Kingsessing Ave. Personally, I wouldn’t worry about his ass no more if I was you,” Trina went on.

  “Well you ain’t me, so don’t be tryin’ to tell me about my man,” Quanisha went into defense mode. Trina had a bad habit of running her mouth too much, and it drove Quanisha crazy.

  “You the one always bringing his ass up! Don’t be talking about the nigga every second of the day if you ain’t trynna hear nobody opinion about ‘im,” Trina spat back.

  “Fuck you bitch. Yo Imma get off this phone before I end up cursin’ yo ass out for real. What time tonight? You comin’ to get me right?” Quanisha said, getting ready to get off the phone. She wasn’t even totally sure she was going, but if she was going she damn sure wasn’t driving.

  “I gotta come get you?” Trina thought about that for a while. “Aiight, whatever nigga, I gotchu. Be ready at like 10:30. We might be able to catch the ladies night thing and get in for free.”

  “Aiight, call me before you head out.”

  * * *

  By the time Quanisha and Trina got to the club at around 12 midnight, the line was wrapped around the corner. Trina began bitching almost instantly.

  “Oh hell naw. I ain’t waiting on this line,” she said, gesturing to Quanisha with her head as she began walking straight up to the door. All the women waiting on line looked her and Quanisha up and down as if they were the most audacious bitches that ever walked the face of the earth.

  Quanisha was dressed in a black leather bustier with a tight short jean skirt and some black boots that looked like sandals at the bottom with their open toes. Trina was dressed even more scandalously in a see through pink top held up by spaghetti straps that kept slipping down her shoulders and revealed her white 36 DD bra underneath. She had on a pair of tight white jeans that were ripped strategically, showing various parts of her body, including the sides of her larger than life butt cheeks. The word around town was that Trina was dipping and dabbling in the stripper scene around North Philly, and even doing some whoring in the Atlantic City area on weekends. That was why she always had money on her. She did her dirt away from her home in West Philly in the hopes that nobody in her hood would find out, but of course they did.

  “Yo, I know the dudes that’s throwin’ this party. They told me to come and ask for ‘im,” Trina said confidently to the bouncer.

  “What’s your name?” he asked as he stared at Trina’s double D’s.

  “Trina, but my buls call me NaNa,” she answered with a smile and a wink. She licked her lips with her pierced tongue to entice the bouncer even more. Quanisha folded her arms and leaned back in her ghetto stance. She rolled her eyes at Trina’s antics, and hoped that everybody else at the club didn’t think she was some kind of stripper ho like her friend.

  The bouncer smiled and gestured Trina in. “They can go ahead,” he said to the lady collecting money behind the booth, and they strolled right into the club. Some of the women waiting on line started talking about “how did those hos get in like that,” jealous at the fact that Quanisha and Trina were let in without having to wait, and without having to be searched by the burly female bouncer.

  “Yo go get us some drinks, Imma go to the bathroom,” Quanisha told Trina as she headed towards the back of the lobby area. She wanted to check her makeup, but also wanted to go in separately to the main party area in an attempt to disassociate herself from Trina. Trina was way too hoish for her taste, which is why she didn’t really like going to the club with her. But Quanisha needed a release that night. Maybe she could meet a baller that night who would sweep her off her feet and take her away from Tony for good. She needed a brother that was paying all his own bills, had money, his own place to live, and knew how to treat a lady. He also most definitely had to
be faithful and trustworthy.

  Quanisha snapped out of her daydream as two loud women brushed past her and into the bathroom before her. She stopped and looked in the direction where they just went and tried to compose herself. Quanisha had a short fuse that was usually lit by ignorant project bitches that showed no respect to anyone or anything. But she was trying to have a peaceful night tonight, so she decided to brush it off and continue on.

  “Nish you know you gotta chill,” she said to herself and chuckled as she headed into the bathroom.

  When Quanisha walked up the stairs to the first floor of the party at Palmer’s Night Club, it was packed out. She was kind of glad though, because that way she had an excuse to not find Trina so quickly and man-watch instead. She grabbed an apple martini from the bar, and then posted up a few steps away from the door in her best model stance. She was trying to attract the attention of any one of the dudes standing by with their clean cut Freeway beards, throwbacks and fitted hats. She was hoping one of these dudes were ballers, not just fake wannabe’s that came to the club with $5 in their pocket. Her theory was that if they didn’t buy you a drink, they were broke, hands down. Any true baller wasn’t going to sweat over an $8 drink.

  After a few minutes, Quanisha glanced over and saw a tall dark skinned brother with a red hat on over his eyes looking her way with a smirk on his face. He looked interested in what he saw, and was holding a half full bottle of Moet in one hand. Those bottles cost at least $100 each at that club, so she knew this dude was balling something terrible. She smiled deviously and rolled her eyes at him playfully. Before she had a chance to turn back and take another look, Trina came barrelling her way and put her hand on Quanisha’s shoulder to hold herself up. Quanisha knew Trina was showing off when she looked down at the ground and started shaking her head.