Dead on Arrival

by Kiki Swinson

  My blood was boiling. I wanted so badly to stand up and slap the shit out of her no-job, meddling ass. But I knew that putting my hands on her would be a huge mistake, so I got her where I knew it would hurt, and that was her personal life. All the niggas she fucked and continued to fuck.

  “You got a fucking nerve coming in my house and disrespecting me. If you weren’t Dawn’s sister I would drag you by your hair and haul your ass out of here,” I told her.

  “Do it, nigga! Do it!” She stepped closer to me.

  Dawn stepped between us. “You’re a lucky-ass bitch!” I said.

  “Nah, nigga. You’re the lucky one because if I had it my way, I would file the divorce papers for my sister myself.”

  “Well, thank God you’re not. Now mind your business before I call the cops and have your ass thrown out of here,” I replied while clenching my teeth. I had so much other shit I wanted to tell her. For starters, she was a fucking unemployed high school dropout and a whore. Everyone down at Norfolk International Terminal had fucked her. Talking about Dawn not being able to get pregnant, she can’t get pregnant either. So for her to come in my damn house and start stirring up drama between my wife and me is unacceptable. This bitch needs to know who’s really in charge.

  “I swear I can’t believe that you married this nigga! You would’ve done so much better if you’d married that nigga Blake,” Alexia continued.

  “Well, she didn’t, so deal with it,” I snapped.

  “I don’t have to deal with that shit.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you what, deal with the fact that you had to have over a dozen abortions because you were fucking two and three niggas at one time and you had no idea who the father was.” I hissed like I had venom spewing from my mouth.

  “Nigga, you don’t know shit about me!” Alexia shouted.

  “Reese, are you fucking kidding me right now?” Dawn said as she stood between us.

  “I know you’re a fucking ho! And I know every nigga you slept with. I mean, hell, every nigga at NIT know who you slept with,” I continued. I was digging deep in my bag of information so I could humiliate the hell out of her. Judging from her facial expression, my tactic was working, but I could also tell that my words were hurting Dawn.

  “Reese, stop it right now! I fucking mean it!” Dawn yelled at me.

  I stood on my feet. “Tell her to stop it! She started this whole fucking thing!”

  “Fuck him, Dawn! He’s a fucking loser anyway!”

  “Bitch, you’re the fucking loser! That’s why you can’t keep a man! Nobody wants you,” I roared.

  “Oh, but you wanted me,” Alexia said. She and I were standing at opposite sides of the kitchen table.

  “Bitch, I never wanted you!” I protested, but she was right. About one month before I met Dawn, I met Alexia at the nightclub Upscale in Chesapeake. I was with one of my friends, who pointed out that he knew Alexia and that she was easy to get into bed. So, being the adventurous man that I was, I bought her a few drinks and then I tried to talk her into coming back to my apartment so I could fuck her. Now the only reason it didn’t happen was because she was with two of her homegirls, and she drove. So she gave me her number that night. I can’t tell you why I never called her, it just didn’t happen.

  “I want both of y’all to shut the fuck up right now!” Dawn roared as she stood between us.

  “I’m not doing shit! This is my fucking house. Just send that bitch on her merry way.”

  “I ain’t gotta go nowhere! This is my sister’s house too,” Alexia griped as she stood her ground.

  “Dawn, get that ho out of my house right now! I’m not gonna say it anymore,” I warned her.

  Without saying another word, Dawn grabbed Alexia’s hand and tried to pull her in the direction of the front door. “Come on, Alexia,” she said.

  But Alexia snatched her arm away from Dawn. “Are you scared of this nigga or something?” she blurted out.

  “Nah, she ain’t scared of me. She ain’t got a reason to be,” I told her as I took a step toward her.

  “So, whatcha about to do?” Alexia asked me while Dawn grabbed her arm once again and started pulling her.

  “I’m not about to do anything.”

  “So, why you walking toward me like you’re about to do something?”

  “Bitch, just get out of my fucking house! You’re not wanted here,” I concluded, and then I walked around her and Dawn. I started walking down the hallway toward my bedroom so I didn’t have to hear Alexia’s mouth anymore. I swear, if she were my woman, talking to me like that, I would’ve choked all the breath out of her body and gladly taken the thirty-year prison sentence to go with it.

  I closed the door after I entered my bedroom. I heard Alexia utter a few more words to Dawn and then I didn’t hear her voice anymore. I didn’t hear Dawn’s voice either. I figured she must’ve walked outside with Alexia, or even left for that matter. Either way, silence was something I needed to unwind. With the drama surrounding my relationship with Dawn, the bills we had and the gambling debt I couldn’t get rid of, I needed this time to think. I needed to figure out how I was going to get things back on track. I needed a plan and I needed it right now. I just hoped that whatever I came up with eliminated my problems completely. If it didn’t, then it would be a waste of my time.

  2

  DAWN

  That argument between my sister Alexia and Reese was way out of line. Now I understood why my sister jumped to my defense, but I’m a grown woman so I can handle my affairs concerning Reese. The last thing I wanted to happen was for Reese and Alexia to get into an argument. I loved them both, so I didn’t want to pick sides. I wanted things between them to be civilized and nothing more.

  “You do know you were wrong for picking that fight with Reese,” I pointed out as we sat in her car, which was parked in our driveway.

  “Fuck him! He’s a big boy. He’ll be all right,” Alexia said.

  “You know he’s not gonna want you coming over here anytime soon.”

  “But this ain’t his house. Daddy helped y’all with the down payment that his trifling ass hasn’t paid back yet. So he shouldn’t have a say whatsoever about who comes and goes from this house.”

  “Alexia, you’re starting to give me a headache right now. Let it go so we can talk about something else.”

  “I don’t wanna let it go, Dawn. You’re too good for him. Have you ever thought about why his baby mama moved out of the state? She moved way down South because she didn’t want her kids around that evil-ass nigga every day. Now they only see him maybe twice a year, if that. And have you ever thought that the reason why God hasn’t allowed you to get pregnant is because Reese Spencer isn’t the man you’re supposed to be with? I mean, look at him. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself. He a narcissist. He’s frugal as hell. He’s immature and he’s ignorant. Plus he doesn’t pay y’all’s bills on time because he’s gambling it away at the gambling spot. When he does give you money for the bills, it’s never enough, which is why you always gotta go and borrow money from Dad. I say cut your losses and leave that nigga now.”

  “It’s not all his fault that we’re behind on bills. You know I use the bulk of my paychecks on the fertility treatments. Those visits are very expensive,” I told her.

  “See, that’s the thing, you wouldn’t have to pay for your fertility treatments if Reese was handling his business like he’s supposed to.”

  “You’ve got a point there,” I agreed. She was right. If Reese was holding me down and taking care of our household properly, then we wouldn’t have all of these financial issues. I think it’s time to give him an ultimatum.

  “So, whatcha gonna do?”

  “I don’t know. But I’ll figure it out,” I assured Alexia, and then I changed the subject. “Has Mom figured out what she’s going to do for Dad’s birthday?”

  “She said something about taking him on a seven-day cruise to Cozumel, Mexico, and the Cayman Islands. So that’s pr
obably where they’re gonna end up,” Alexia replied.

  “That sounds nice.”

  “If your husband didn’t owe everyone, he’d probably be able to take you to places like that too,” Alexia blurted out.

  I gave her the evil eye. “Let me get out of this car before I say something I may regret later,” I warned Alexia, and then I opened the passenger-side door and stepped out of the car.

  “Don’t be mad! You know I love you!” Alexia yelled as I pulled the door closed.

  “Yeah, right! Sure you do,” I replied, and walked away from her car. I waved Alexia off as she backed out of my driveway. As she started driving away, I turned my back and stepped back into my house. Immediately after I closed and locked the front door, I went into the kitchen to clean things up. I heard the television in the bedroom, so I knew Reese was probably lying in bed watching it—or maybe replaying the argument he’d had with Alexia, over and over in his head. With Reese, anything was possible. I just hoped that whatever he was doing, it wouldn’t fester and linger into tomorrow. I swear, I couldn’t take another day of drama with Reese. It was mentally draining, and I didn’t have another ounce of strength to put into that nonsense.

  After I cleaned up the kitchen, I grabbed a blanket from the hallway linen closet and lay down on the living room sofa. I powered on the television so I could take my mind off everything that had unfolded earlier. I wanted a peaceful life, and I was going to do everything within my power to get just that.

  3

  REESE

  I couldn’t believe that I had a good night’s sleep, especially after everything that happened last night. The argument that Alexia and I had was pretty heated, but for some reason I was all right today. All that bullshit she was talking I let roll off my back. But I would let Dawn know that Alexia was not allowed in my house anymore. And I meant it.

  After I got out of bed and went into the bathroom to take a piss, I walked back into my bedroom to get dressed for work. Once I got dressed, I put on a pair of socks and my work boots, and then I headed into the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal. When I passed Dawn and saw that she was lying on the living room sofa with her back to me, I strolled by her like she wasn’t there.

  In the kitchen, I took a bowl from the cabinet over the stove and then I grabbed the container of milk from the refrigerator and a spoon from the silverware drawer. I had been craving a bowl of cereal for the last two days, so I was in food heaven.

  Three minutes into my breakfast, my cell phone started ring, so I raced to the bedroom to retrieve my phone. I answered the call while I headed back down the hallway toward the kitchen. “Hello,” I said.

  “Yo, dude, we got something really big coming our way,” my homeboy Todd said. Todd Dale and I were very close. We both got hired to work at NIT around the same time. He and I were both around the same age, but Todd was a daredevil. It was nothing for him to do something outlandish. He was known for taking risks without thinking twice about the consequences. So when he called me this morning, I knew he was going to ask me to go along with something I might regret later.

  “What’s up?” I finally answered him as I went back into the kitchen.

  “I’ve got a solution to your financial problems,” he said.

  Hearing the word solution, I was overjoyed. Excitement engulfed me. “What is it?” I asked while I stood in the middle of the kitchen floor.

  “Something big is coming down the pipeline in a few days, so I want you to get ready because the payoff is going to be fucking huge.”

  “How much are we talking?”

  “I’m talking like fifteen grand each,” Todd said.

  “Fifteen grand?” I replied, wanting some reassurance. “You got to be pulling my leg, right?”

  “Nope.”

  “What is it? Exotic cars? A ton of drugs?”

  “Nah, man. It ain’t none of that. But I’ll explain it to you when you come to work. So look for me as soon as you get here.”

  “Will do,” I assured him, and then I disconnected the call.

  Curious about what Todd had in store for me, I decided not to eat my usual bowl of cereal. Instead I grabbed a bottle of Ensure from the refrigerator, snatched my car keys and wallet up from the countertop, and headed toward the front door. Before I was able to grab ahold of the doorknob, I heard Dawn say, “So your homeboys on the pier got another heist they want you to get in on?”

  I stopped in my tracks and slightly turned my head around to face Dawn, who by this time was looking straight at me, with the blanket tucked underneath her chin. “What are you talking about?” I asked her, even though I knew where this conversation was going.

  “You know what I’m talking about. So don’t play mind games with me.”

  “Dawn, are you really trying to start an argument right now? It is too early in the morning for that bullshit!”

  “I’m trying to keep your dumb ass out of jail.”

  “Who said I was going to jail?”

  “If you keep fucking with those containers, jail is where you gonna end up.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing.” I opened the door and left.

  I heard her mumbling something before I closed the front door, but I ignored it and continued on my journey.

  * * *

  On my way to the terminal I was eager to find out a little more about the job Todd called me about, so I grabbed my cell phone from the cup holder and called Ed.

  “Hey, brother, what’s up?” Edward greeted me.

  “Nothing much, are you down at the pier yet?”

  “Just got here a minute ago. Is everything all right?”

  “It wasn’t, until I got a call from Todd not too long ago.”

  “So, you’re down?”

  “What kind of question is that? Of course I am. The quicker I can get Dawn off my back about the bills that keep piling up in the mailbox, the better my life will be.”

  “I hear you.”

  “So, what we gotta do?”

  “Come on now, Reese, you know we don’t discuss things like that over the phone.”

  “Yeah, I know. But Todd said we’re doing something different, so I thought—”

  “Stop thinking so much and get your ass down to the pier and we’ll talk then,” Ed interjected.

  “A’ight, I’ll see you in a few minutes,” I told him.

  “Yeah, a’ight.”

  After I got off the call with Edward, my cell phone started ringing while I was putting it back in the cup holder. I looked at the caller ID and noticed that it was my grandmother, Mrs. Mary, calling. She is a very special lady because she raised me from when I was three years old. After my mother went to prison to serve a life sentence for killing her boyfriend, my grandmother took me in and raised me all on her own with no man in the house. My mother wasn’t the only child my grandmother had, but it seemed like it. My uncle Ernest went away and joined the military. I remember he used to come and visit once or twice a year and everybody would say how proud they were of him. My grandmother used to have parties for him. But after serving ten years, he was discharged because of some mental health issues. When he tried to apply for jobs, no one would hire him, so he started using drugs and OD’d on a bad batch of heroin. That shit sent my grandmother into a bad emotional state. She lost both of her kids. I couldn’t tell you how, but she snapped out of it and did everything she could to raise me in the best way she knew how. But still, I was a product of my mother and my uncle. I couldn’t tell you how my father was because I never met him. But if he was anything like my mother’s crazy, alcoholic ass, then the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree.

  “Hey, Grandma, how you doing?” I asked her. My grandmother was seventy-two years old. She’d been living in the same house for forty-five years. She couldn’t drive herself around because she was blind in one eye, but she still knew how to tell me what to do.

  “I’m doing fine. Now when am I going to see you? You promised to stop by here this past w
eekend, but I didn’t see your butt.”

  “I know, Grandma. I’ve been working a lot of long hours, so when I finally clock out for the day, all I wanna do is go home.”

  “Boy, I don’t wanna hear that mess. I am your grandmother. And I want to see you. So you better bring your behind over here tomorrow. You hear me?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “And before you come, stop by that seafood place I like and bring me some of the fried croakers they sell. Make sure it’s hot too.”

  “Okay, Grandma. I got it.”

  “All right, baby. Well, I’ll see you then.”

  4

  DAWN

  I hated the idea of Reese stealing things from the shipping containers on the pier, but things had gotten extremely hard in our household, so turning a blind eye here and there so he could make a few extra dollars wasn’t going to hurt nobody. But when he got greedy and wanted to break into a container every night to see what he could walk off with, that’s when I had a problem with him. Reese didn’t understand when enough is enough. I told him all the time that if something happened to him, my job could very well be in jeopardy. But he didn’t listen and that irritated the hell out of me.

  Thankfully, I was off work today. Running into Reese on the pier wasn’t something I wanted to do today, especially after the argument we had last night. I also wasn’t in the mood to face my supervisor, Mrs. Leslie Powell. She was like a mother figure to me, so she knew my mood swings like the back of her hand. Like my parents, Mrs. Powell also disliked Reese. She reminded me as often as she could that he didn’t deserve to have me in his life. She warned me not to marry him too. But I loved Reese and I wasn’t going to allow anyone to make me walk away from him. Looking back, I could now see what everyone was talking about. But what’s done is done. I took the vow, for better or for worse, so I was going to make this marriage work.

  I planned to run a few errands and stop by my parents’ house while I was off today. My parents would love to see me since I hadn’t been by their place in over a week. They only lived ten miles away, so I’d normally stop by there at least three times a week. But with everything going on with Reese and me, I wasn’t up for hanging around my family. They tended to offer their opinions on how I should handle issues in my marriage whenever they saw fit, and frankly, I’d grown tired of it. I figured the less I talked to them, the less I would hear the bashing.