by Mary Monroe
I was glad to be back in the motel alone. After I ate, I took a shower. I scrubbed myself until my flesh ached, but I still didn’t feel clean. Especially since I had slid back into the same underwear and clothes, which were all pretty ripe by now.
I couldn’t sit still; I couldn’t concentrate on anything on the television screen. I couldn’t call anyone I knew, and I couldn’t go anywhere on my own. I had truly begun to feel like the victim that I was pretending to be.
The room was small, but as much pacing as I did, I had probably walked enough to cover a football field. Other than one of those dollar-store Bibles in the nightstand drawer, there was nothing in the room for me to read.
I had some make-up in my purse, but I didn’t want to hide the dark circles around my eyes. I wanted them to stay there and get even darker if possible. For the first time in my life, I wanted to look like a frump. I had to look like a woman who had been through a kidnapping ordeal when Jesse Ray picked me up.
Wade had to go home to check on his mama. She’d called him up on his cell phone three times in the last hour. He’d cussed and fussed about it nonstop for twenty minutes. I knew he loved his mama, but Miss Louise had become a major thorn in his side over the years. To calm her down, he took with him twenty bucks that he had “borrowed” from me to give to her.
I didn’t know where that Jason went, and I didn’t care. All I cared about was the fact that the next time I saw Wade, he would have made the call to Jesse Ray from another pay phone to make sure he had the money.
I managed to eat half of the food from McDonald’s; then I decided I’d try to take a nap. I was so worn-out and anxious, I knew that if I did manage to fall asleep, I’d sleep like a log. I don’t know when I finally dozed off or how long I slept. But I woke up in a hurry when I realized there was a rough, hairy hand over my mouth. I was so groggy, I thought it was a monkey’s paw. I tried to bite it, but the skin was as thick and tough as rawhide.
“What the hell? Jason, what the hell are you doing?” I shouted, pushing him and his hand away. I sat up, coughing and glaring at him as he leaned over me. “Motherfucker, what the fuck are you doing?” I hollered, wiping his filthy DNA off my lips. Jason’s touch was enough to make my stomach turn. I wished that it had been just a monkey’s paw. For one horrific moment, I thought that he was trying to rape me!
“Be quiet!” Jason snarled. “Shet the fuck up!” His breath was as foul as cow dung.
I swung at him, aiming for that one upper tooth that he had left, hoping to knock it out. He turned his head just in time for my fist to land on his cheek. “Fuck you! What the hell do you mean by coming up in here, putting your funky hands on me?”
“I didn’t want to surprise you and have you jump up swinging at me,” Jason said, pouting.
“Surprise me? Well, you did just that! Don’t you ever touch me again, Jason. You don’t know me well enough to be putting your nasty hands on me like that! My own husband doesn’t put his hand over my mouth, motherfucker.”
“Fuck you and that punk-ass husband of yours. You ain’t got to worry about nothing no more, so you can calm your ass down,” Jason boomed. There was a strange look on his face. “We got the money,” he continued in a hollow voice. “All neat and pretty in a little black suitcase.”
My breath felt like it was stuck in my windpipe. I coughed and cleared my throat. “What?” I asked, looking around the room and behind Jason, surprised that Wade was not present. “Where’s Wade?” I demanded. I had to slap the side of my head and then shake it to keep my thoughts from rolling around in so many different directions. A headache came on so fast, it felt like somebody had just batted my skull with a baseball bat.
“He’s around, close by,” Jason replied, snapping a finger. “He’s getting everything situated so we can get you back to your old man.”
“Well, what’s that got to do with you putting your hand over my mouth? Where is Wade?” I asked again. I leaped up from the bed, so fast, I almost knocked Jason to the floor. “Where is the money?” I asked, my hands on my hips, looking around the room some more.
“Wade and the money is at my pad over on Telegraph.”
“Why is he there? Why didn’t he come with you?”
“Lady, a million bucks is a heap of money. He couldn’t leave it laying around his nosy-ass mama’s house, with her broke ass roaming from room to room. That woman spends money like it’s going out of style. Can you imagine what she would do if she stumbled upon a million bucks? And, that’s bad enough, but Wade didn’t want to be riding around town with it, with all these crazy motherfuckers around here.”
“Shit!” I hollered, stumbling to the bathroom, where I splashed cold water on my face. “I intend to let Wade know I don’t appreciate you coming back here, pulling a stunt like you just did, Jason!” I yelled, moving back toward the bed, drying my face with a wad of toilet paper.
“Christine, I want you to know right here and now, this ain’t my idea,” Jason said, with a leer. “I was beginning to like you. Even though you’ve been treating me like an ugly stepbrother. If you wasn’t already hooked up with Wade, I would make you my woman. I like women with big legs.” He paused and cleared his throat, his eyes locked with mine. “But I wouldn’t put up with that smart-ass mouth you got. I’d straighten you out in no time if you was my woman. With your hardheaded, bigmouthed self—just like a black woman! That’s why I’m going to get me an Asian woman next! A pure one straight off the boat so I can train her real good! You black women done got so out of control, it’s a damn shame,” he declared, shaking his head. “I don’t know what this world is coming to. Shit.”
I fought, with a gasp that was so brutal, it almost choked me. My legs buckled again, and I plopped down on the bed. I had to close my eyes for a moment, and when I opened them again, I choked some more. Jason was standing over me again. But this time there was a gun in his hand.
CHAPTER 35
“Jason, now you tell me what the hell this is about,” I demanded, folding my arms, my eyes on the gun. “Look, I’m already a nervous wreck, but you are really beginning to scare me. Now if Wade’s got the money, and he’s at your place, I want you to take me over there. We need to wrap this thing up so I can go on back home.” I didn’t even recognize the squeaky voice coming out of my own mouth. I couldn’t take my eyes off the gun in Jason’s hand. The fact that his hand was shaking made me even more concerned and scared. But scared was too mild a word to describe the way I felt. I was terrified, to say the least.
Jason sniffed and wiped his nose with the sleeve of his shirt. “You ain’t got nothing to be scared of,” he assured me, growling under his breath. “I ain’t going to hurt you.”
“You’ve got a gun in my face, and I don’t know why. Why shouldn’t I be scared?” I wailed, sounding stronger now.
Jason tilted his head to the side and gave me a pitiful look, confusing me even more.
When I attempted to get up from the bed, he pushed me back down, pinning me in place with his knee on my chest. Now that really made me mad. My breasts felt like somebody had set a cement block on them, and I could hardly breathe. But Jason’s gun was too close to my face for me to overreact. I responded with as much caution as I could manage. “Be careful, Jason. And get that gun away from me, please,” I pleaded, shaking a shaky finger in his face. “Now I want you to get the hell away from me and tell me what is going on. I’m tired, and I want to get the fuck away from you and your boy Wade.”
Jason gave me another pitiful look, and this time he looked truly sincere. “My oldest daughter is named Christine,” he muttered, looking at the floor. I was glad that he had pointed the gun away from me.
“So what the fuck do I care?” I yelled, attempting to rise again. He pushed me back down on the bed, still pinning me down with his knees on my chest.
“Christine, I … see, I just want to say something first. I don’t know what you seen in Wade, in the first place. He ain’t nothing but a dumb-ass punk. He couldn’t
even make it in Hollywood,” Jason declared. I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just kept my lips pressed together. His eyes looked like two black holes that somebody had cracked open in his face as a cruel joke.
“Well, this is the deal,” Jason continued, pausing again. “Me and Wade, uh, we decided to cut you out of the deal.” His nose was running. He wiped it with the back of the hand that held his gun. “Shit, I don’t even want to be doing this. But, see, Wade said if you try anything, I’m supposed to shoot you. And, he told me to make sure I shoot you in the head.” Jason looked at me and blinked. One moment he looked sorry, and the next moment there was so much contempt on his face, you could have peeled it off with a knife.
“I just wish your name wasn’t Christine,” he whispered, rising. I didn’t bother to try to get up again. I was too stunned to move. “If some asshole was to play my daughter Christine like you about to get played, I’d teach him a lesson he’d never forget!” Jason turned his back to me, but he continued talking. “And, I don’t know if it’ll make you feel any better, but if you was my woman, this wouldn’t be happening.” He whirled around to face me again, holding his gun up in the air.
I rubbed my eyes and blinked, jerking my head back and forth. I looked from Jason’s face to the gun in his hand. But I still didn’t move off the bed. I slapped the side of my head and shook it, like I didn’t believe what I was hearing. And I didn’t. “I don’t believe this is happening,” I whimpered.
“Well, it’s happening, baby. Now you get your shit, and let’s get the hell up out of here.” Jason waved the gun and glanced at his watch.
I leaped off the bed, landing on my feet, with my hands on my hips. I was so angry by now that the gun no longer scared me. “You crazy son of a bitch!” I hissed. It was a struggle to keep my voice low. I could hear voices in the rooms on both sides of me. I didn’t want them to hear mine.
Jason folded his arms and looked me up and down. “If anybody in this room is crazy, it’s you. Did you really think that me and Wade was going to let a million bucks slip through our fingers, woman? I mean, get real, bitch! This is a chance of a lifetime. How many black men get something handed to them on a platter like this? I been praying for this kind of opportunity all my life,” he said. His tongue flicked in and out of his mouth. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead like pebbles.
I stumbled toward Jason, with my fist raised. Even with the gun still in his hand, he looked frightened. With every step I took in his direction, he backed up in the opposite direction. I stopped when I realized I had backed him up against the wall. “Jason, you listen to me and you listen good. You are not a stupid man,” I said in a hoarse, desperate voice. “You don’t need to do something this stupid. You are going to get paid, brother.”
“Correction! I done already got paid,” he said, with a hollow laugh. “Half a million dollars!” He lifted the gun, touching my nose with the barrel.
“That money belongs to me,” I hissed, moving back toward the bed. “I’m not leaving this room until I speak to Wade,” I said, holding up my hands. I dropped back down on the bed, crossing my legs.
Without a word, but not taking his eyes or the gun off me, Jason fumbled around in his jacket pocket and removed his cell phone. He punched in a number and handed it to me. When Wade answered on the first ring, I didn’t know where to begin.
CHAPTER 36
“Wade, your boy just pulled one hell of a stunt on me, and he just told me some shit I refuse to believe,” I began.
“Christine, don’t talk. Just shut up and listen,” Wade told me, talking in a voice that sounded like he was a million miles away. And, in a way, I guess he was. “I don’t like what you dragged me into. I mean, jail ain’t one of my favorite places to be. I know I ain’t got half of what you got to lose, but I don’t want to lose what I do have. And right now, that’s a million dollars. I think I deserve every penny of it.”
My heart skipped a beat, and then it almost stopped completely. The pain that shot through my entire body was excruciating. I was surprised that I was still conscious. “Wade, you can’t be serious. I know you and Jason both expect more money now since Jesse Ray paid double what we asked for. But I was planning on doubling your take, anyway, baby. I will overlook this little stunt Jason just pulled. We can all sit down and talk this thing over. And, I promise you I will be fair. And, the sooner I see you, the better.”
“I can’t see you no more,” Wade told me, with a deep sigh. “This thing we’ve had off and on all these years, it’s over. It’s over with for good. It’s time for us both to move on.”
“That’s fine if you want to end our relationship. I can live with that. And, to tell you the truth, I had planned to break it off myself, anyway,” I said in a bold voice.
“I can’t see you no more, period. Now if you know what’s good for you, you will do everything my boy Jason tells you to do.”
“Wade, don’t do this to me! Don’t be a fool! How far do you think you’d get with my money?” I wailed, glaring at the telephone in my hand like it was a time bomb. I didn’t know my small body could produce so much sweat. My hair and clothes were soaking wet.
“No, baby, this is my money as long as it’s in my hands. And, you and I both know that there is plenty more where this came from.”
I was so stunned, I could barely think of what to say next. It was like my mouth and tongue were on hold. It took me a few more moments to get more words out. And they gushed out like lava. “Wade, what are you saying? Was my money all you cared about?” I whimpered. I was glad to see that Jason had sat down on the bed and laid the gun across his lap. But the glare from his evil eyes had almost as much of an effect on me as the gun.
“Christine, I know you might find this hard to believe, but I still care about you, and I always did. I know I acted like a piece of shit when we were kids, but I outgrew all of that. I still want you to be happy, and I think you can … but I can’t be the one to help you get to that point. You got a rich old man, a big-ass house, and you still a fine-looking woman.”
“Wade, I’m having a hard time here. Please listen and let me talk,” I sobbed. “I know … I mean, we had a lot of fun together. You came back into my life just in time, and I appreciate that. But you are not making much sense right now. I just don’t believe what I’m hearing. Are you telling me that you are going to keep all of the money that my husband paid to get me back? Or are you just trying to be funny? And, if this is a joke, and I sure as hell hope it is, it is not funny.” I had to stop because what I’d just heard out of Wade’s mouth was too goddamn incredible to believe. I laughed. I actually reared my head back and laughed until my throat and eyes hurt. “There is no way in hell I’d let you get away with this. You will spend the rest of your life in jail, motherfucker!”
“Uh-uh. I don’t think so. I know that, and you know that, too,” Wade assured me in a voice so calm, you would have thought that he was reciting the Lord’s Prayer. “Jason is going to drop you off where I told your old man to pick you up. You are going to go on home and love your man, bake some cookies, give yourself an egg facial, and do whatever else the hell you rich housewives do.”
“The hell I will!” I shouted, shaking my fist in the air.
“The hell you won’t. Remember that little photo session and that little moviemaking deal we done at the Marriott a while back? Remember them pictures, that video? Well, baby, I didn’t give everything to you like you thought I did.”
“You wouldn’t—”
“Oh yes, I would.”
“And what does that prove? I could say that I was forced. And drugged.”
“Uh-huh. And, if you believe anybody else would believe that, you better think again. What about all them phone calls you made to my mama’s house to me?”
“What about them?”
“You want to know how many of them sweet messages you left on my answering machine I still got? How would you prove I forced you to do that?”
“Wade, I need to
talk to you face-to-face. Either you have your boy bring me to wherever you are, or you’d better get back over here right now,” I hollered. My voice was so weak, it couldn’t even intimidate me.
“In exactly one hour, your husband is going to come pick you up. And, I’m going to tell you the same thing I told him: Don’t you never, I mean never, involve the cops or nobody else. If you do, you will regret it for the rest of your life. You can run, and you can hide. I know where your two kissy-poo girlfriends live. I got friends, too, and if something happens to me, they got the same information I got. You remember that. This ain’t just about you. Do you hear me?”
There was a lump in my throat so large, I had a hard time finding my voice.
“Do you hear me?” Wade asked again.
“I do,” I croaked.
“Now you go with my boy and do what he tells you to do. And, one more thing, I did care about you. If I was ever going to settle down with a black woman, it would have been you.” Wade hung up.
Without another word, I followed Jason to his car and crawled into the backseat. There were no words in the English language that could describe my feelings.
“This could have turned out a whole lot worser,” Jason said as soon as he started the car. “At least nobody got hurt. And, to tell you the truth, you lucky to have latched on to you a man like old Jesse Ray Thurman in the first place. I don’t understand why you didn’t realize that! Maybe y’all can work things out, after all. I heard you and him go way back, to when you was still in school ….”
I didn’t bother to remind Jason that Wade and I also went way back, to when I was still in school. My history with Jesse Ray suddenly didn’t mean much to me now. But my history with Wade still did.
And, it was those memories that got me through the next few hours.
