D.S. the Messenger

by Raymond McClary

  “Hey, hey…Don’t cry. Listen; when the baby is born I want you to bring the kids by, okay? Let’s stop talking about death, and focus more on life and family, because the way I see it, we are blood brother and sister…joined by a bullet.” Tonia nods, smiles, and waves while leaving the room.

  “Wow, I’m going to be a dad…You know what that means?”

  “No, Sage, what?”

  “No more Pocahontas.”

  “Sage, you are depriving me of my positional privileges so soon? We can still do it until the third trimester…Sage! Your eyes! They are their original color again.” They kiss.

  “I love you so much and I will never leave you like that ever again. I can assure you of this.

  P.S. THE MESSENGER

  ϕϕϕ

  Ten months have gone by since the shooting incident. The Mecan family is having a party to welcome the neighborhood over to see the new joy in their life. Everyone was there. Momma Strong and Lynda were also there with Little Perry Strong. Mr. and Mrs. Stacker were talking to Sage and Deva. David said, “You two have a beautiful son.” Sage replied,

  “The two of you have a handsome grandson.”

  “We sure do.”

  Deva is holding the baby.

  “It’s time for Junior to eat.”

  Sage asks, “Do you want me to get a bottle or is Junior getting it straight from the tap?”

  “From the tap today, because I’m not as sore as I was yesterday.”

  Sage whispers, “Is there anything I can do to help ease the pain?”

  “Why of course…I’ll tell you later after our guests are gone.”

  “Ummm, that makes me want to end the party right now.” He taps Deva’s butt while he’s walking away.

  Mrs. Stacker says, “I know for sure that I can handle one grandchild; two or three may be pushing it.” Sage smiles at her as he walks toward the managers of his stores.

  He says, “I’m glad that everyone is here. I want to commend each and every one of you on the exceptional jobs you have done in helping one another out while managing the shops during my absence. You’ve done more than just shown that you have the tools to handle the business, you have also relieved me of all the little concerns that I’ve had about all of you. Next week, I want to sit down with everyone and discuss a partnership and 401k packages for the employees. It’s time to create a strong future for everyone. In particular, when it involves retirement.” Everyone was cheering and thanking Sage for his plans and course of action.

  One manager says, “Man I can see it now. We can branch out to other states and travel around just like Red. As a matter of fact, where is Red?” Another manager says,

  “I haven’t seen Mya in a while, now that you have mentioned it.”

  “Has anyone seen or heard from her?” An employee of the shop says, “I haven’t seen Red, but I have seen her car around here from time to time near the supermarket. I saw a man loading her trunk with groceries one day.” Everyone yells, “A MAN!” Well, was he loading the car and driving it or just loading it?”

  “I don’t know if he was driving the car. I’m just telling you what I saw, that’s all!”

  Sage walks inside his home into the living room where Deva and Sage Jr. have been resting. He puts on a jacket and says,

  “I’m going over to Red’s place to check up on her.”

  “Then I’m going with you.” Says Deva,

  “I thought you were feeding the baby?”

  “He did eat. I burped him, now he is asleep. Mom can watch him while we are gone. Besides, Mom has been waiting patiently to hold and sing to him.” Sage calls Mrs. Stacker and asks her to watch the baby while he and Deva go to check on Mya.

  “Why of course! Take your time coming back.”

  “No, we will be back, as soon as possible.” Mrs. Stacker ran inside to be with the baby. Moments later Deva walks outside and they got into his car to travel to Mya’s house.

  As he drives down the road, he looks at Deva and watches a tear as it slowly streaks down the front of her cheek. He slows down the car and pulls over to a soft shoulder on a quiet street. He gets out of the car. Deva watches him as he walks around to her passenger door and opens it. He extends his arm towards her to assist her by the hand. Deva gently grabs it. After exiting the car he closes the door, places his arms around her and began to hold her very close to him as Deva began to cry. He was aware of the reason Deva needed to release her emotion. They knew that they could have lost one another forever and that the fear of the unknown as a whole was so great that both of them could not see. That is, until the cloud that did not allow them to see it was gone. While laying her head against his chest Deva says, “You know I was very upset with you.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you did not let me in Sage. I tried my best to understand why you had to do this on your own. But I am your wife. Though you felt like it was the best thing to do to protect me from whatever was out there, you still put me in harm’s way! You could not control the way that officer was questioning and snooping around to find out more about you nor could you control the way everything came apart at the shop. Sage, I almost lost you!” Deva hits his chest.

  “You are absolutely correct. There were a lot of problems that could have been handled in another manner. To be completely honest, at times I did not like myself at all during that whole ordeal. I was judgmental, arrogant, and cold hearted. I have fought so hard to disassociate myself from becoming a stranger in my own skin when I lost my parents. But I simply could not control it. Please accept my apology for hurting you in that manner and not including you.”

  “I accept your apology.”

  “Come on, let’s go.” He assists her back into the car and hurriedly jumped into the driver seat and pulled off.

  As he’s driving, Deva asks, “Sage, what are you thinking?”

  “Baby, at this point I don’t know what to think. I was pretty hard on Mya that day.”

  “Don’t be down on yourself about it Sage. I can only imagine what you went through before talking to Mya.” Sage knew that was her way of wanting to know about his travels from New York to Florida. The tone in his voice became very serious,

  “I will tell you about the ordeals I’ve encountered and the dreams I’ve had…even though part of me wants to refuse to allow your world to be touched by the filth of my memories.”

  He pulls the car over in front of Mya’s home. They got out of the car and walked up the pathway to Mya’s door.

  “It looks like her grass is well kept. Her car is here. Let’s see if Mya is.” Sage knocks…No answer. Sage knocks again and says,

  “Mya, it’s me! Sage! Open the door.” The door opens. Sage and Deva walked inside. The door closed behind them. They turned around to see a man with a clean-shaven face and short haircut. He appeared to be well into his sixties. Sage noticed that the clothes he had on were made from material that came from his shop.

  The man says, “Hello Mr. and Mrs. Mecan.”

  Sage responds, “I’m sorry, but do we know you?”

  “You sure do.”

  A moment passes. Sage walks closer to him and takes a closer look and says,

  “Scripts!”

  “In the flesh!”

  “Man you look human! All the years that I have known you with that nasty beard and long hair and junk yard smell representing Rip Van Winkle, I now know what you look like without it! What made you do a 360 degree turn? Where is Red?”

  “Mya’s upstairs in her room.”

  Sage looks at Deva and says, “Go up there and check on her.”

  Deva walks up the stairs to her room.

  Scripts says, “Now Sage, I have been taking care of Mya the best way I could and her place. Mya said that I could stay here with her.”

  Deva yells, “Sage!” Sage ran up the steps like a track star. He ran into Mya’s room and almost passed out from the horrible stench that was coming from her room. Mya was sitting in a corner on the floor we
aring an orange nightgown that looked extremely dirty while staring up and out of the window. Her hair grew wildly as if it was never washed or straightened for months. Her eyes were blood shot with bags underneath them. Mya smelled as if she has not had a bath in weeks. There were pill bottles everywhere.

  Sage hollers, “SCRIPTS! GET YOUR ASS UP HERE RIGHT NOW!”

  Scripts came to Mya’s bedroom door and said,

  “Sage I told you, I….”

  Sage interrupts, “I my ass! Mya looks like shit!” He grabs Scripts by the neck collar of his shirt and pushes him against the wall. “Why didn’t you call me?”

  “Red told me not to or she would put me out.”

  “What are these pills, Scripts?”

  “They are pills to help keep her awake! Please Sage, let me go!”

  “What?” He lets Scripts go. “Why? Mya, why are you taking pills to keep you from sleeping?” Mya looks at Sage and starts to cry.

  He tells Deva. “Take these clean clothes and take her into the bathroom and clean her up. Please let her soak in the tub before you do anything.” Deva takes her into the bathroom.

  “Help me clean up this room Scripts by picking up all these pill bottles and trash from off the floor and dressers, it looks and smells like a damn pharmaceutical hell hole in here.”

  Sage opened the windows and pulled the sheets off of the bed and placed them in the trash bag.

  “Scripts?”

  “Yes Sage?”

  He takes a deep breath, rubs his face with both hands and asks, “Did you do anything with her?”

  “Sage, I’m not going to….” Sage looked at Scripts with an anger like no one has ever seen and said, “Answer…My…Question…”

  “No Sage, I didn’t do anything with her. I wanted to the first few nights I was here after my surgery. Mya was nice enough to let me stay here and heal. But then Mya started acting real weird.”

  “What do you mean weird?”

  “Mya began popping pills and talking crazy about her dreams, or more like nightmares.” Sage dropped the trash bag and asked, “What nightmares?”

  “Mya started rambling on about Perry and different women every night and how they were dying and bleeding all over the place. The way Mya was talking, I thought the woman went gothic! So I left her alone unless Mya wanted something. When I cooked, I made sure Mya ate also. I would bring her food into her room and Mya would tell me to hurry up and get out. When I would bring her next meal I would just grab all that I could from the last meal and leave…. I really do love her Sage.”

  “You could have called me Scripts whether you love her or not. I really don’t want to hear it. Where do you sleep Scripts?”

  “I sleep downstairs in the basement.”

  “Okay, you continue to do so. You’ve done enough up here. I will talk to you when I get downstairs.”

  Scripts removed the bags of trash from the room and went downstairs.

  Sage stands in the middle of the bedroom and says, “God what have I done?” He walks out of the bedroom and closes the door.

  ϕ

  An hour and a half had passed when Deva walks Mya out of the bathroom.

  Sage says, “Bring her in the other room while this one is airing out.” They walked into one of Mya’s smaller bedrooms. Sage says, “Mya, I want you to lay down and get some sleep.”

  Mya starts to scream, “I don’t want to sleep! I want my pills! Give me my pills!”

  Sage yells, “Mya! Mya! Mya! You are not going to have any more nightmares!”

  Mya was curled under the blankets saying, “Please give me some pills to stay awake. Please Sage!”

  “Mya, I’m not going to give you any pills. I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to stay right here with you.”

  “You are not going to leave me?”

  “No Mya, I’m not…I’m going to make sure that you have a very good dream tonight and every night from now on.”

  “Sage, you promise?”

  “No Mya, I guarantee it.” He started to stroke her hair and told Mya to close her eyes.

  “I can’t. I’m scared.”

  “Mya, I know you are, that is why I’m here. Now you must listen to me and you must also put your trust in God.” He rests his cheek against hers, while continuing to stroke her hair. Sadness began to overwhelm him as he thinks about the dreams that Mya had. A tear rolled from the corner of his eye and fell directly into hers. They fluttered as Mya tried to force her eyes shut.

  “Mya, I’m sorry that I did this to you, but it’s going to be okay now.” He whispers in her ear, “Your dreams will be your dreams…Now sleep, sleep, sleep.”

  A brisk air flowed through the room and pierced Sage and Mya sending a chill through their bodies. After Mya whined for a few moments, she fell off to sleep. He kept himself in that position while stroking her hair for at least an hour before he stopped, kissed her head and went downstairs. Deva approached him and they hugged as he said, “I really haven’t heard you speak a word since we walked into this house. Are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine…I just became speechless once we arrived and I don’t know why. Maybe it was unnecessary for me to utter a word while you were here to handle this problem. How is Mya?”

  “Mya will be fine.” Deva ardently strokes the side of his face with her hand and kisses him saying, I’m so relieved this is all over.”

  P.S.S. THE MESSENGER

  ϕϕϕ

  At the police precinct, an investigating officer brings a package to the Chief of Police.

  “Chief, I think we have a problem.”

  “What is it now?”

  “Sir, do you remember the Diaz case with the fatal shooting of the suspect that’s related to the officer who also sustained an injury?”

  “Yeah, yeah, what about it?”

  “Well sir as you are aware, it was because of that tailor who told married women that they may be infected with H.I.V.”

  “Yes, go on.”

  “Well sir, it seems as though he had a book of names, addresses, as well as contact numbers to reach them.”

  “Yes, that was turned over to the Health Department. You are telling me information that I’m already aware of, so get to the point!”

  “I’m sorry sir. Well sir, it appears that there is another book.”

  “Another book? Where is it?” He hands him the package. He opens it. “Where did you find it?”

  “Someone dropped the package off with this note attached sir.” The Chief read the note and looked inside of the book.

  “Well I just don’t believe this sh…! I want you to check the surveillance and see if you are able to identify the person who dropped this off, pronto.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “I want you to contact the Health Department immediately and have a representative sent over here as soon as possible!”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Well don’t just stand there! Get moving!”

  “Yes sir.”

  “One other thing…Contact that tailor. I want to talk to him personally. Whether he does, or even if he doesn’t, have any knowledge of this, he may be useful.

  D.S. THE AUTHOR

  Raymond McClary has taken his talents of storytelling to a southpaw-like direction of thinking. This fiction has such realism that he makes you believe that all of these characters actually exist. It was his cousin who inspired the novel, when her experience of contracting H.I.V. from her husband left her brokenhearted. She shared her strength with Raymond while also providing awareness during his informative years. Raymond is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

 

 
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