by Phenomenon
Corey
Corey was extremely excited to return home. After the reception he’d met a nice girl and spent only a few hours with her before going to his room to pack. He sat on the side of the bed and shared some of the pictures from the wedding on his Twitter account and Youtube page tagging his sisters in them and even Ginger. He tweeted, “Finally returning home from the trip with my brand new sister and the priceless original.”
Moving into Kenisha’s apartment was a dream come true for him. He’d always wanted to live in a place just like that and secretly hoped that one day Kenisha would get rich and give the apartment to him anyway. Boy was that the law of attraction working or what? He was getting the apartment with a month of rent already paid up for him. Things were finally starting to look up. He was establishing himself as a man without the women in his life supporting him. Corey was looking forward to that the most.
Kenisha
Kenisha stood in the doorway of the bathroom watching Taurus lay in bed. It was their wedding night and she was dressed in a beautiful Bob Mackie for Glydon night gown that Ginger had given her as a bridal gift. Kenisha knew that she should progress toward the bed but she was nervous as if it was their first time together. Taurus smiled at her uncertainty. “How do you feel?” Taurus asked as Kenisha stood in the doorway and she lay under the covers nude. Kenisha replied, “Scared.” She paused then continued. “Why would God allow this? He’s gonna punish us later probably.”
Taurus laughed at her. She didn’t mean for it to be misconstrued as disrespect but she laughed with joy because she was preparing to lay with a woman that was not only concerned about what God thought of her but wasn’t afraid to speak of it at a time like that. “God isn’t a punishing God. Of course He has wrath but I believe that He wants something from us. He cares about what we want and He provided us with the desires of our heart but it will come at a price, beautiful. I’m no fool about that. There are prerequisites to the promises of God, there always was and there always will be. This joy that we have right now is expensive so please come from by that door and live in it with me.”
Kenisha finally moved toward the bed next to her wife where they prayed, gave thanks then laid together. For the first time as a married couple they shared themselves with one another. It was adoring and loving and loud and passionate and fiery and aside from the view of society, it was righteous.
Taurus
“So how do you feel about our new last name?” Taurus asked as she Kenisha and Corey walked through the airport to board their flight the next day. “Who knew when we were joking about it that we’d actually do it?” She laughed. Corey responded. “Out of all the names why did ya’ll change your last names to Chorus?” Kenisha and Taurus looked at each other and burst into laughter. Realizing that their last name was a form of a private joke, Corey accepted what he thought was playful idiocracy and left well enough alone.
Taurus reached for her phone to use her electronic boarding pass and noticed that she had 86 Facebook alerts. She wasn’t in the position to attend to them at that moment but she was aware that she and Kenisha hadn’t been answering phone calls. There were a lot of people back home that may have seen the status change and wanted more information but they had mutually decided to deal with the people back home when they arrived back home. Kenisha’s mother had also been calling and Corey had been ignoring her calls as well. Neither of the three felt that her mother was welcome at the wedding due to her judgment and intolerance of Kenisha doing anything outside of what she wanted her to do in an effort to relive her youth through her daughter. It did spark some curiosity in Taurus so after they’d checked in she asked Kenisha, “Have you received a lot of phone calls?” Kenisha quickly responded that she wasn’t concerned about the phone and they’d address it once they were home lying in bed together.
All three travelers fell into a deep sleep on the plane. They were all excited to start the new portion of their life, so much so that by the time they’d awakened the tires were landing on the tarmac. Corey knew that they all were in store for an ear full especially from Kenisha and Corey’s mother. After finding the car and paying the exuberant fees for the longer than planned stay in the parking lot, the first stop was Kenisha’s place. While driving in the car Kenisha took the keys off of her ring and politely handed them over to her brother.
“Since this is going to be the first time you walk into your own apartment you should do the honors of opening the door.” Corey took the key from his sister and hid the fact that he was jumping for joy on the inside. “Thanks sis.” Before he could give the thank you speech to his ever deserving sibling, they noticed their mother Caroll’s car parked outside of the apartment. Actually, there were quite a few unusual cars parked near Kenisha’s place. When Kenisha, Corey and Taurus walked toward the apartment they heard voices inside, one of which was Caroll.
Corey opened the door and walked in to see a host of the worst church members congregating in Kenisha’s place. Upon watching the three of them stand there in shock, everyone was ready for an unusual encounter.
Chapter 18: Suge Avery says “I’s Married Now”
Caroll
“Um, excuse me what the hell are ya’ll doing in my house?!” Kenisha had never cursed her mother before but she was never really a woman in front of her either. Her mother had trained her to be submissive to her by brow beating her with guilt over the years. However, Kenisha’s recent experiences had made her more of an adult and independent woman than ever before. She was grown and married so she continued. “The only way my landlord would’ve let you in is if there was an emergency and this doesn’t look like an emergency to me so why are you here?”
Caroll jumped to her feet and moved to face her daughter in disgust. “This IS an emergency. It’s all over the city that you flaunting about in sin talking about you married that heathen woman. We’re here for prayer and intervention cause I’m not letting you be some gay girl burning in hell Kenisha!” Suddenly another member of the wayward church that had previously allowed Caroll to be swaddled in demonic spirits leaped to her feet and asked. “Don’t you want to go to heaven baby? Cause God won’t let you in if you live like this.” A man from the church that Kenisha recognized as one of the deacons grabbed Kenisha by the shoulder. Taurus slapped his hand from Kenisha’s body. Taurus was familiar with what the laying of hands could do in the spiritual world and she was certain that his spirit wasn’t right.
“Don’t touch me young lady! You’re not a man and you can’t stand up to me like a man can.” The Deacon said. Taurus hadn’t felt that level of anger in a very long time. She stood silent waiting for God to tell her what to do, what to say; but in that moment God had chosen to be silent. “Dude, don’t touch my wife!” Taurus said firmly standing toe to toe with the awkwardly unattractive man.
Suddenly yells of “Halleluiah” blurted out from the mouths of the counterfeit Christians. They began shouting verses and scriptures from the bible and twisting them to support their agenda of hate. In an instant the 9 or 10 people swarmed into a circle surrounding them. “Corey I can’t believe you have the nerve to cosign this foolery. Sometimes you act as dumb as your father.” Caroll insulted Corey. He couldn’t believe that she’d compared him to the abusive alcoholic that he’d been forced to call dad. Corey had had enough. His love for his mother didn’t overcome the fact that she’d disrespected him in an unforgivable way. “BITCH! Don’t you ever compare me to that sorry excuse of a man that you used to go down on every night out of fear that you’d actually have to get a fuckin’ job!”
Kenisha’s head twirled around to face her brother displaying an unbelievable smile. She couldn’t believe that he’d said that to their mother. Kenisha was elated to finally hear her brother stand up to Caroll and although that was enough for Kenisha, Corey wasn’t finished. “You let us grow up with that maniac and you let him beat us and shit because you were a sorry mother. You were a sorry person. My poor sister became the woman that you should’ve bee
n and shot that motherfucka like a real G, while you sat there secretly blaming her for taking away your bill payer. But YOU wanna pray for MY sister? Shut your ass up!”
Caroll was so hurt. She’d loved Corey as hard as she could have, even harder than she’d ever loved Kenisha and he had no qualms about disrespecting her in front of so many key members in the congregation. So now they were going to think that both of her children were out of control. There was only one thing that Caroll could do. She had to choose one to save and one to demonize and the choice was obvious. The choice had always been obvious. “Corey, don’t let the devil that your sister worships corrupt you. You’re a good boy. You always have been.”
Taurus was at her wits end watching them throw oil all over the room, damaging so much of Kenisha’s hard earned property. A woman came out of the bedroom with the strap on sex toy that Kenisha kept hidden in her nightstand. The church woman was holding it up as Exhibit A in the mock trial of Kenisha’s soul. “Look at this! This is not what God wants for you. He wants you to have Godly sex with a man!” She yelled.
Taurus asked God under her breath, “Why aren’t you speaking? Why can’t I see what I usually see?” God quickly responded. “You couldn’t stand to see what’s really happening in the spirit world in front of you. This, you couldn’t take.”
Taurus asked. “What should I do?” To which God did not respond. Taurus accepted the silence as Him wanting her to decide on her own. “Excuse me!” Taurus yelled. “You are all trespassing. You have no right to be here. If you don’t leave now we’ll call the police and have you arrested. You will also be charged for all of the damage to her property. Now do us all a favor and get the hell out!”
The deacon threw a jar of praying oil directly into Taurus’ face and said, “We will not leave you devil.” Corey was inflamed with rage. Kenisha was flabbergasted. Corey rushed toward the deacon and was held back by the other members of the church. Taurus wiped the oil from her eyes and punched the deacon in the face with such forced that he fell to the ground like an anvil from a cartoon. Kenisha grabbed a lamp and began swinging it at the church trespassers hitting the woman with the sex toy in the head with the base. Corey, freeing himself from the crowd began wildly swinging at the men in the apartment finding his fist on the faces of three of them. As the fight escalated, blood stained the walls. The neighbors overhearing the commotion called the police.
The police arrived at the apartment and entered the half cracked door with their weapons drawn. This was an all too familiar scene for Kenisha and Corey. It appeared that whenever Caroll was involved she brought pain, turmoil and ruckus. “Everybody hands up.” Taurus stood still and raised her arms in the air. The deacon’s blood from his nose dripped down her wrist. The policemen couldn’t believe that the majority of the members of the brawl were middle aged typical looking church goers.
“Officer, this is my apartment. My landlord let all of these people in without my permission and they’re trespassing. They won’t leave. They attacked my wife and my brother. We were defending ourselves. Arrest them.” Kenisha yelled.
“We were trying to save her soul.” Caroll screamed. One of the officers, whose wife had left him for a woman, was not sympathetic to Kenisha. He was still in pain over losing the woman that he loved to a lesbian relationship. His ego was bruised and Taurus reminded him of the type of woman that his wife had run off with. The emotionally wounded officer stated. “Defense or not, it looks like you used excessive force on this man.” He pointed his gun at Taurus’ chest.
“Officer this man assaulted ME!” Taurus argued.
The officer never lowered his gun from Taurus, ignoring the multitude of other threats in the room. “He assaulted you but what did you do? Huh?” The officer moved closer to Taurus with the gun pointed at her. The other officers in the room were completely aware of why this officer was harassing Taurus and they didn’t agree. The officer was a terrible husband so no one on the force had sympathy for his wife leaving him. Another officer stated. “McCall lower your weapon. She’s a victim. The rest of you are under arrest for trespassing.” They begin reading the congregation their rights and placing them in handcuffs. Another officer took statements from Corey, Kenisha, and Taurus. Taurus had resolved that she would file a complaint against Officer McCall. She didn’t know what his problem was but she was going to let Internal Affairs hash it out.
Taurus
As the officers were loading the men and women into the paddy wagon the landlord arrived ready to give Kenisha notice to evict based on the brawl but it went totally different. Kenisha addressed him and asked why he’d let so many people into her apartment without her consent. He stated that the woman on her emergency contact list said that it was an emergency. The current policeman stated that the landlord had allowed a group of hostiles to enter the apartment to lay in wait and attack the tenant when she’d arrived. The policeman also told the landlord that he didn’t follow the proper protocol for emergency entry. Feeling the property slip through his fingers and reviewing the damage of all of the belongings, the landlord became increasingly nervous. He smelled the lawsuit coming and he was in no place to win it. There were a number of witnesses and undeniable evidence that he had allowed one of his tenants to be attacked by a number of people on his watch.
Taurus took the landlord to the side to speak with him. He was spewing a lot of apologies and his entire tune had changed when he’d realized that he was the one at fault for the situation. He didn’t want a law suit and Taurus knew that Kenisha didn’t want to deal with the hassle of one either. After a few minutes of speaking with Taurus the landlord scampered off. Kenisha asked what he’d said. Corey and Kenisha looked confused as they dipped Corey’s hand in a bowl of ice. “He’s coming back with the contract. In order for Kenisha not to file a lawsuit that would probably cost him the price of the entire building, we decided that he would give you the apartment. He’s going to pay for all of the damages along with all of the damaged items therein. The entire building is a rental but you’ll be an owner of this one apartment. He’ll still be responsible for the upkeep and maintenance indefinitely but the actual apartment is yours. There’ll be a contract similar to a bill of sale that identifies you as the sole owner with a paid in full purchase price. Even if he tries to sell the building in the future, you’ll still own this apartment. Kenisha and Corey’s faces were priceless. “What?!”Corey exclaimed.
Taurus laughed. “It means that you don’t have to pay rent boy because it’s like a condo that you own and it’s already paid for Corey; and Kenisha sweetheart you’re a property owner now.” Taurus laughed more at their shock. Taurus was a very good business woman and understood when she had someone by the balls. In an effort not to exploit them she understood that they were entitled to compensation for the landlord’s folly. She was also smart enough to only provide Kenisha’s promise not to sue. The owner never considered that Taurus and Corey would also have a case. Taurus held that bit of information as leverage should the landlord ever decide to begin misbehaving or try to re-nig on the offer prior to the final signing of the papers.
As they were straightening up what they could and making a list of all of the damaged property for the landlord to replace, Taurus heard trumpets. She then heard. “All things work together for the good of those that love me with all of their heart and all of their mind and all of their soul. I know the hearts of men.”
Taurus began laughing hysterically. She laughed so hard that she had to sit down on the floor and grip her stomach. Corey and Kenisha began laughing because Taurus’ laugh was infectious and they simply thought she was a freaking crazy person. Taurus was laughing because she then knew why God hadn’t answered her earlier when she’d asked what she should do. It was because God knew her so well that He knew she was about to swing on that deacon. God knew that her temper wouldn’t allow someone to throw oil in her face and she not pop him one. God then knew that Corey’s love for Taurus had developed so much that he would defend he
r and Kenisha would do the same. God had allowed this to happen to help Kenisha and Corey get the apartment. Taurus laughed more because she humbly acknowledged that her feeble little human mind could have no way come up with such a ridiculously accurate plan. So they all just laughed. They sat on the floor amongst the rubble and trash, laughing like three young people that deserved crazy checks.
Kenisha
It had been a rough day for Kenisha. She was just ready to lay it down. Because the apartment was no longer inhabitable Corey decided to spend the night with his sisters until the next day when he would go to his mother’s house and get the rest of his things. The landlord returned to pick up the list of items. He showed the maintenance man the apartment and told him that it needed to be fixed as soon as possible. The contract signing was the next day. Taurus called her lawyer while they were driving back to her house. They wanted to get the papers signed as soon as possible so that Kenisha could get her money back for the rent that she’d paid in advance and so that Corey could move his things in and Kenisha’s things out.
Chapter 19: Home Sweet Home, I Guess
Taurus
When they turned down the cul de sac Taurus got a nauseous feeling in her stomach. She knew something was wrong. She noticed a group of her neighbors with what appeared to be tools and ladders gathered on her lawn. As she pulled into her driveway Taurus saw the remnants of the word “DYKE” and “SINNER” spray painted across the front of her house. Her neighbors were working together to scrub it off.
