Marriage Mayhem

by Samuel L. Hair

  “We had a car problem, you know what I’m sayin’, but it’s all good right now. How do I get to where you saw her? I gotta handle my business quick, fast, and in a hurry, so I can get on back to the city, you know what I’m sayin’.”

  “I hear you, but just don’t forget to call me and tell me about it,” Denise said, smiling. Her day had finally come to get her revenge.

  “Don’t trip, baby girl, I got you.”

  After she had given Tyrone the directions, Maurice burst into the room and began yelling in his Jamaican accent.

  “I knew you were up to something! I told you to leave that bullshit alone! You’re fuckin’ hardheaded! You’re gonna fuck around and get yourself involved in some serious shit, Denise!” He was furious.

  “Calm down, babe, calm down. All Tyrone is going to do is beat the bitch up a little, that’s all. So quit—”

  “Gangsters don’t fight; they shoot and kill people! Did it look like he was trying to beat me up, or kill me? That nigga and his crew didn’t come all the way out here to beat up nobody! I thought you had better sense than that, Denise! If something happens to Karen, and that detective finds out that you were somehow conspired, your ass is going straight to prison!” yelled Maurice.

  Denise stood wide-eyed thinking about what her husband had said. He’s right. Gangsters don’t fight, but they’ll kill you in a New York minute. Maybe I should call Tyrone and give him some wrong directions. I don’t want to go to prison, and I really don’t want to see anything drastic happen to my father’s wife. All I wanted to do was just teach her a lesson. Damn, what have I gotten myself into?

  Before the car even stopped in front of the address, Tyrone had already opened the door and hopped out. Then he swiftly approached the front door and began pounding. Seconds later a female counselor appeared.

  “May I help you?” asked the heavy set Caucasian woman. She instantly wondered why this hoodlum was pounding on the door.

  “Tell Karen to come outside, I need to holla at her!” Tyrone demanded, with a mean look.

  “I’m sorry, sir, but Karen no longer resides here.”

  “You a goddamn lie, bitch!” Tyrone yelled, and then pulled out his gun. “I’ll blow this muthafucka up, bitch! Now tell Karen to come outside or else we’re comin’ in!” He then signaled for his crew.

  “Sir, I’ve already told you that—” Tyrone pushed her to the floor and hurriedly went inside. His crew followed his lead.

  The woman remained on the floor panic-stricken while watching the gangsters trot from room to room looking for Karen. She wanted to ease away and dial 911, but seeing the assault weapons quickly changed her mind.

  After searching the entire house and still not finding Karen, Tyrone then approached a different female counselor.

  “She was here earlier, where in the fuck is she now?” Before the woman could answer, Tyrone slapped the hell out of her and then pushed her to the floor.

  A thin Hispanic woman spoke up.

  “Karen graduated from the program at noon today, and left with her husband. Neither of us have any idea where she is now. Please don’t harm us, sir.”

  “Ain’t that a bitch!” yelled Tyrone, furiously. “You mean to tell me that she’s been living here all this fuckin’ time and just all of a sudden moved out today?”

  “That’s what I was trying to tell you,” replied the heavyset woman, still lying on the floor.

  The residents and staff were all in a state of shock. They did not know if they were about to die or what.

  “Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Tyrone said to his crew.

  The gangsters then hurriedly ran out the door, and then hopped inside the car and burned rubber.

  While making their way back to L.A., Tyrone called Denise and cursed her.

  “You stupid bitch, you got me and my homeboys all the way out there for nothin’! You owe me gas money, bitch, or I’m fucking you up, too!”

  “Kiss my big, black ass! I gave you the fuckin’ address to where she was. Hell, don’t blame me because you were too late getting out here. If it weren’t for that raggedy car you drive, maybe you would have made it on time,” said Denise, with an attitude.

  “You betta check yourself, bitch. You can’t just talk to me any kind of way.”

  “Fuck you, nigga. You might scare Karen, but you don’t scare me,” said Denise, and then hung up before he could say another word.

  “I should go fuck her up right now. Big mouth, bitch,” said Tyrone. Then he took a long swig of Olde English 800.

  The director of the program had called the police after Tyrone and his crew left. Karen had not left anyone a phone number to contact her, which made it impossible for the police or staff members to notify her of possible upcoming danger.

  When Stevie and Alexus saw their mother and Jermaine walk through the door, they both sprang up from the floor with joy and ran to their mother’s arms. Marvin, Karen’s oldest son, gave his mother a mean look, and without speaking he walked past her and went outside. He still had lots of animosity and bitterness toward his mother from her prior relapse and also from when he was placed in a foster home due to her continual drug abuse.

  When Marvin was between the age of seven and nine years old Karen beat him with sticks and threw objects at him whenever he got into mischief. He could never forget being tortured by his own mother. Instead of putting him on time-out, Karen would lock him inside a closet after she had severely beaten the daylights out of him. He tried hard to put aside the memories of being tormented by his mother, but the nightmares and disturbing thoughts haunted him almost daily. With Marvin having so much hatred toward his mother, Jewell and Bobby were more than sure that he would at least live with them until he was eighteen. Marvin’s mind was completely poisoned by the derogatory things that Jewell and Bobby said about Karen almost on a daily basis. Aside from that, he had witnessed his mother smoke crack on numerous occasions, give strangers who had offered her crack head jobs, and had even saw her on the whore stroll one day while with Jewell and Bobby. He simply wanted to exclude himself from her so-called family thing.

  Even though Jewell received a welfare check for Stevie and Alexus, and a check for Marvin, being the kind of man Jermaine was, he still made it a point to give Jewell six hundred dollars each month for the kids’ well-being. When Jewell first began receiving checks for Karen’s kids, Bobby had persuaded her to purchase a van, since they did not have a vehicle. Actually, they had never owned a vehicle until then.

  “Mommy, Mommy,” Stevie shouted, running into his mother’s open arms.

  “Mommy, mommy,” Alexus shouted, but instead of running into her mother’s arms she ran to Jermaine.

  Feeling remorse and suddenly regretting being in and out of her kids’ life, Karen began to cry.

  Bobby was seated on a worn-down sofa, sipping a tall can of Budweiser. He had spoken to Jermaine, but not to Karen. Jewell did not appear to be happy to see her sister at all. She was glad that Karen was taking her kids back home, but the thought of not receiving those checks anymore irritated her. After all, the checks that she was receiving had paid for her minivan, and would cover her rent and bills each month. The convenience of that allowed her to use her own welfare check as she pleased.

  “I can say now that God has made me understand that poisoning my mind and body with drugs is not the way. I love my kids more than anything in the world aside from God, and I will never do anything again that will take me out of their presence,” Karen said out loud, wanting Jewell and Bobby to believe that she was a changed person. They had heard that same old song way too many times, so neither of them paid her any attention.

  “Praise the Lord, hallelujah, and thank you God. Thank you for my kids and husband, thank you for—”

  “Shut the fuck up! Don’t you see I’m trying to watch the damn game! Every time you get your ass out of jail or rehab you come here with that same old shit!”

  “I feel bad spirits in here, I gotta get outta her
e quick before those spirits rub off on me,” said Karen, making her way to the door.

  “Well, get your tramp-ass out of here then!” yelled Bobby. “Ain’t nobody told you to come here in the first goddamn place. Fuckin’ crackhead bitch.” Bobby then took another long swig of beer.

  Jermaine remained silent and grabbed the kid’s belongings. He then said good-bye and left.

  Karen was excited to be back at home with her kids and husband. It had been a long, rough ride for her, but now it seemed like she appreciated life and her freedom more than before.

  With Stevie and Alexus trailing at her side, Karen paraded through her home wearing a big smile. This was a feeling that she never wanted to go away. This is my home, she thought. And I will never do anything again to jeopardize what I have. I appreciate my husband and kids. This is a life I never want to leave.

  Stevie was overwhelmed with joy to once again be able to play games on his own PlayStation, to be able sleep in his own bed, and to be able to go to the fridge whenever he wanted.

  A few hours later Stevie had fallen asleep playing Grand Theft Auto. The controllers were still in his hand.

  When Karen had attempted to lay Alexus in her own bed, she had cried and screamed so much that she had no choice but to let her sleep with her and Jermaine. More than likely, she was terrified of the fact of her mother leaving her again.

  Once Alexus had fallen asleep, Karen eased next to Jermaine and began slowly massaging his penis and wildly kissing him. His body responded with a super-hard erection as his tongue and lips fell into rhythm with hers. Suddenly, she put her head underneath the covers and began sucking and licking and slurping him so good that his entire body shivered with pleasure. Before he climaxed, she stopped.

  “I want it inside me, baby,” Karen whispered, and quickly thought, I want a baby by him. That way he’ll be a part of my life forever regardless of what happens in the long run between us. If he ever decides to leave me, then he’ll just have to pay me alimony. Yeah, a baby by him will secure me and the kids forever. Already, the devil had entered Karen’s mind and caused her to think wickedly.

  She climbed on top of Jermaine’s penis and gave him the ride of his life. The both of them had so much energy to burn, that they had orgasm after orgasm and still continued. They had made love for close to two hours without stopping.

  Karen was a little let down because Jermaine could not last longer, but the fact of having his semen inside of her gratified her.

  Minutes later, as he was falling asleep, Karen started massaging his penis, and then sucking and licking it, trying to get it hard, but it was no use. It was a dead soldier.

  At that moment, she got up and went to the closet and pulled out her favorite big, fat, long black dildo, and then put on an X-rated DVD. She then began satisfying herself. She simply could not go to sleep without having another orgasm.

  The following morning, Jermaine awakened Karen at 8:00 a.m., but for some reason she got agitated.

  “Are you crazy?” Karen asked. Normally she would not get up until a little after noontime.

  Jermaine had spoken with a friend of his, who was the manager of Target, regarding getting Karen a job.

  “I didn’t mean to irritate you, but a friend of mines said that he’ll give you a job if you fill out an application,” Jermaine said, standing over her. “The job is yours. Basically the only thing you need to do is apply.”

  “A job!” she yelled. “It’s eight o’clock in the goddamn morning, and you’re talking about a job? I’m tired and sleepy, Jermaine, so please leave me alone for right now.” She rolled over and attempted to go back asleep.

  “You do want to work, don’t you?” Jermaine asked, curiously.

  “Not this time of goddamn morning.” Now she was really getting irritated.

  “I think you’d better take your meds, sweetheart. Then maybe you’ll have a different view about what I’m saying.”

  “Why do I have to work? Hell, you make enough money to pay all the bills and the house note, why in the hell do I have to work? Quit sweating me about a damn job, Jermaine! Please don’t piss me off,” she replied, and then sprang up angrily. “And let’s get another thing straight; I don’t need you telling me when to take my fuckin’ medication!”

  Seeing that she was getting annoyed, Jermaine walked out of the room and had a seat at his desk and began thinking. His intentions were only to get her in the routine of waking up early and in the habit of doing something constructive that would assist on keeping bad temptations or evil thoughts out of her mind. He also wanted to get her in the practice of going to church. The last thing I need is a woman who confesses to believe in God with her mouth, but her words and actions prove different. And I sure as hell don’t need anyone who doesn’t want to help with the bills around here, Jermaine thought.

  A few minutes later, Karen appeared at Jermaine’s desk.

  “Anyway, who said I wanted a job, Jermaine?” Her hands were on her hips.

  “Every civilized, sensible human being should want to work, Karen,” Jermaine stated. Then thoughtfully he asked her a question.

  “You don’t exclude yourself from that category, do you?”

  “It’s too early in the morning for this shit,” she replied, then attempted to walk away.

  “So you’re telling me that you don’t want to work?” His eyebrows rose.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “Well, what exactly are you saying, then?” His look was stern and serious.

  “Okay, okay. I’ll go to the damn job. Fuck it,” she responded. Then she walked away mumbling and cursing.

  Working was not actually part of Karen’s plan. First of all, she was not used to waking up early in the morning, and secondly, her plan was simply to do nothing more than provide him with superb sex.

  After being interviewed by the manager, Karen was then given an application to fill out, and then afterward she was instructed to go take a drug test. Thanks to Jermaine, she now had a job, even though the results of her test would take three days for Target to receive. The manager scheduled her to begin work the following day.

  After a couple of weeks passed, Karen felt pretty good about the fact of working. She was placed in the electronics department and her hours were from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Wednesday thru Sunday.

  Jewell had agreed to pick up Stevie from school and Alexus during Karen’s working hours for the small price of one hundred dollars a week.

  Jermaine now felt somewhat at ease knowing that his wife was doing something constructive for the majority part of the day. Now that things were somewhat back to normal he could focus more on acquiring foreclosure properties and finishing writing his book.

  His agent had recently informed him that his book had been accepted by one of the major publishing houses, and surprisingly a few days later he received a letter of acceptance and also a contract. Reading the acceptance letter, he was overwhelmed with joy and excitement. His dream of having a book published had finally come true. First he called his mother, then he called his sisters, and then he placed a call to his agent.

  “Hi, Stephanie! Thank you for helping me make my dream come true,” Jermaine said, fervently.

  “You did it, Jermaine, not me. All I did was submit it to the right publisher,” Stephanie replied.

  “I could not have done it without you, Stephanie, and I thank God for bringing us together.”

  Jermaine was in the third grade when writing his first book. Even then he used to visualize his book on shelves all over the world. His dream was to one day write a book that would be distributed around the whole world and would possibly make him famous. His father used to say to him at an early age: “A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. What the mind of a man can conceive and believe it can achieve through a positive mental attitude. Don’t just reach for a hill or a mountaintop, Jermaine; reach for the sky in all that you do. Associate yourself with positive, successful people and their way of thinking and g
etting good results will someday rub off on you. Always believe in yourself.”

  Chapter 8

  During the next few weeks, heated arguments between Jermaine and Karen began happening on a daily basis. Karen had gone to the extent of breaking or damaging expensive items and furnishings of his. Some days she would go nuts for no apparent reason, and when he questioned her about whether she had taken her medication that would irritate her even more.

  One day when Jermaine came home from work he discovered that the DVD player in their bedroom was broken. Stevie told him that Alexus had broken it. Immediately, Jermaine addressed Karen.

  “Can’t you teach Alexus to keep her hands off things she’s not supposed to touch?”

  He had recently witnessed Alexus pushing buttons on his amplifier, DVD players, his printer, his plasma screen television, his computer, and a few other things. He loved Alexus dearly, but was not going to tolerate belongings which he worked so hard for to continuously get broken.

  “You better not say a goddamn thing to my kids about your materialistic-ass shit! Kids are going to be kids, and if you can’t accept that, then you shouldn’t have married me!”

  “You’re only saying that because you didn’t buy any of this so-called materialistic shit! When I met you, you were pushing a goddamn baby stroller down the street, Karen! You didn’t have a fuckin’ pot to piss in!” Jermaine yelled angrily.

  The thing that really upset him was that Karen did not believe in disciplining Stevie or Alexus in fear that they would get taken away from her by children services. Being on probation for child endangerment, she really had to be careful how she treated her kids. They had already been taken away from her a couple times in the past and she did not want that to happen again. Basically, she let them do whatever they wanted to do.

  Jermaine had always been the laid-back, easygoing type of guy who did not like to fuss or fight. Karen, on the other hand, had been used to that type of lifestyle since her early teens.