Preaching to the Choir

by Royce, Camryn

  The paramedics were there within three minutes, and as they performed life-saving measures on her mother, Milan made sure to call her father and tell him to pick up Maddie from daycare and meet them at the hospital. She secretly hoped Michael didn’t show up, or else he’d be the one who needed medical attention.

  * * *

  Michael felt bad about the way he ended things so abruptly with Milan, but deep down in his heart, he knew it had to happen. What they’d been doing had always felt sort of wrong to him, and that feeling was what led him to find Alana in the first place. He had always felt ashamed of not being able to bring a girl home to meet his parents, mainly because if he brought Alana over and they mentioned it to Milan, she’d flip out. Just exactly the way she’d done when he told her he’d cheated on her with other women in the past.

  He also felt bad for not going to the hospital to see his mother. He knew he’d run into Milan, and he just wasn’t ready to have a confrontation with her, especially while their mother was fighting for her life. He’d told his father that he’d pick up Maddie and meet him up there, but he’d gone home to Alana instead. They’d had a long, adult talk about Maddie, and he was relieved that Alana was so understanding and accepting after a bit of reassurance. She’d always given him the benefit of the doubt, and that was exactly why he knew he had to start treating her better before he lost her.

  As he prepared dinner for Alana and his daughters while they watched TV, his new cell phone began ringing.

  “Babe, can you answer that for me?” he called out to Alana. The ringing stopped, and he assumed she’d answered it. “Who is it love?” he asked next, but was greeted with silence.

  Setting down the spatula he was using to flip the grilled chicken breasts he was making, he walked through the kitchen and dining room to find Alana sitting up straight, staring at his phone.

  “What is it, baby?” he asked, coming up behind her. When he got closer, he saw a paragraph sized text message on the screen and his heart sank.

  Alana turned on the couch to face him, her big eyes full of tears.

  “Your mother passed away.” She said quietly, handing him the phone.

  “What?!” Michael shouted, snatching the phone from her.

  She got up from the couch and rushed up the stairs without another word as Michael immediately recognized the number the text had come from. Milan’s number.

  “So while u were busy trying to escape from our relationship & go play house, I told mom & dad everything. After he found out his perfect son was fucking his little girl, he gave me your new #. How could u Michael?? After everything we’ve been thru, u leave me like this? I could go to jail for falsifying my birth certificate, but I didn’t care because I wanted to marry u. I wanted to be urs forever. No one elses. U messed it up. Oh & guess what? Mom died after I told her the truth about us. Live with that while ur trying to convince everyone ur perfect. U will pay for what u did to me & mommy, Mikey. Watch.”

  Michael knew he had to talk to Milan before she did something stupid, but his first priority was making sure Alana was okay. He took the stairs two at a time and knocked on the bathroom door, where he could hear her crying loudly.

  “Baby, let me in.” he said, jiggling the handle.

  “I believed you, Michael. I trusted you. I loved you.” She wailed between sobs.

  Michael placed his forehead on the door, feeling his blood boil. He was livid with Milan, and he was fighting the urge to take it out on Alana. He had meant everything he said about being better to her, and he wanted to keep it that way.

  “Alana, I can explain everything. I promise. My mom just died, baby…give me a break.” He said after a moment of silence.

  Hearing Maddie’s cries from downstairs further frustrated Michael, and he began to feel like he was going to snap. Heading downstairs, he scooped up both little girls and climbed the stairs once again. Placing Michaela in her bed to sleep, Michael shut her door and went back to the bathroom door with Maddie in his arms.

  “Baby, I love you. I want to talk when you calm down. After everything we’ve been through, don’t let this ruin us. I’m begging you.” He said in the nicest tone he could manage although he was growing irritated. “I’m going to take Maddie for a ride to calm her down. I love you.” He said, listening for a response.

  After he got nothing more than sniffling and more crying, he gave up. Loading Maddie up in the car, he backed out of the driveway hurriedly with only one destination in mind: the hospital.

  His mind was racing, and his heart felt like it was in his throat. He would kill Milan if she did anything to risk his reputation and he could only pray that God had mercy on her if she’d ruined his chances with Alana. When he pulled up to the entrance, he spotted Milan talking to their father near the smoke pit. Barely putting the car in park, he hopped out, grabbed Maddie and stormed over to Milan.

  Her eyes widened when she saw him, and when he handed Maddie to her grandpa and yanked her up by her arms, she knew what time it was.

  “Are you insane?!” his father yelled, dropping his cigarette as Maddie continued to scream.

  “Let me go, Michael!” Milan yelled, unafraid.

  “What is the matter with you? Don’t you see how fucked up this shit is? This is exactly why I disappeared on you, ‘cuz you crazy as hell!” he yelled back. “I don’t want anything to do with you, crazy bitch!” he said as he shoved her away and turned to leave.

  “Have some respect! Your mother is dead!” Milan yelled back.

  “Because some selfish little bitch had to drop a bombshell on her out of self-pity!! You know mom had heart problems! ‘The hell was you thinking??”

  Milan yelled inaudibly at his back as he walked over to his car and got in, slamming the door. Michael sped off as the hospital security came out to see what the commotion was about. It was only when he hit the speed bumps on the way out of the parking lot that he realized how bad he had been off his game. The thumping sounds coming from his trunk with each bump were a dead giveaway. He quickly drove to the metropolitan park just off of the expressway and pulled into one of the secluded spaces near the pavilions.

  Popping his trunk, Michael stared down at Willie’s decomposing body with no regrets. If Milan thought she was going to run her mouth like Willie surely would have, she had another thing coming. After surveying the scene, Michael wrapped Willie’s frail, smelly body in the tarp he lay on top of and slowly drug the corpse to the nearby ravine. Because he was twice Willie’s size, it didn’t take much effort to roll his body down the short ravine and into the creek. It’d be months before anyone found him.

  Wiping his hands on his suit jacket, Michael then went back and retrieved the .38 special from his glove box and made sure to wipe it clean before placing it inside of an old plastic bag and putting it in the midst of the overflowing trash can outside of one of the pavilions. If anybody was going to destroy his reputation, it wasn’t going to be Willie, and it damn sure wouldn’t be Milan either.

  When Michael finally arrived back to the house he shared with Alana, he was horrified to see that half of the house was engulfed in flames. His thoughts immediately went to the chicken breast he’d been cooking. Flying out of the car, Michael called 911 before he frantically burst through the front door, causing a backdraft. He was blown 25 feet backwards and knocked nearly unconscious by the rush of the air coming in to meet the fire.

  He stared hazily at the darkening sky above him, feeling himself drift off completely.

  * * *

  Milan sat on the edge of the bathtub, crying her eyes out. How could this happen? After feeling sorry for herself for a few moments longer, she stood and threw the pregnancy test in the trash. Milan washed her hands, fixed her makeup, and left her the bathroom of her parents’ house.

  “You’re not going to go see him?” her dad asked her as he grabbed his keys off of the table.

  She shook her head as she lifted Maddie into her high chair and handed her a bag of cheerios.

>   “That little girl is Madison’s sister. As screwed up as it may be, your mother wouldn’t allow you to be this spiteful. Your brother, Madison’s father, is going through a lot. This is bigger than you, my child.” He said before walking out, giving her a lot to think about.

  Looking at her beautiful little girl, Milan became sick to her stomach. All she saw was Michael’s face. All she saw was her father about to lose the house because Michael had convinced him to take out a second mortgage which he claimed was for Maddie’s developmental health problems. Milan now knew he’d used both of his parents to get money to buy the house they’d shared as well as the one Alana stayed in, not to mention the renovations he’d made to the church.

  She’d always felt as if Alana was the dumb one for thinking Michael was who he claimed to be, but now she saw that she never really knew who he was either. Everything she thought she knew about him was a lie. She couldn’t believe her mother had to die in order for her to know the truth.

  One thing was for sure she was going to make sure her mother hadn’t died in vain. Grabbing the phone book, Milan located the nearest abortion clinic and made the next available appointment. Despite what her father said, there was no way she was going to go see Michael. In all honesty, she’d been distraught to find out that the only fatality of the house fire had been the fetus Alana was carrying. She’d wished like hell Michael had burned alive.

  Drumming her manicured fingernails on the table she’d been sitting at with her mother less than a week ago, Milan began to mentally prepare for her mother’s funeral tomorrow. She had chosen to have it at New Faith instead of her parents’ church, and with good reason; the good Pastor was about to lose more than just an unborn child.

  Epilogue

  “My mother was a beautiful person, inside and out. She was the light of my father’s life, and my daughter loved her. Everyone loved her, actually…and she will be missed dearly.” Milan began tearfully in front of a crowded church. “But the thing that hurts the most is that she’s gone because of me. I caused her so much pain, and her pure heart couldn’t take it. I need to get this off of my chest and lay it in front of God. My heart is so broken that being judged isn’t even a concern. My mother deserves better than to die with this secret over her head.”

  Her father stood and rushed up to the podium next to her.

  “Baby girl, don’t do this. Don’t put that out there to these people.” He whispered, with one hand covering the microphone.

  “Daddy, its Michael’s fault that mommy is gone. He broke my heart, and I had no one else to talk to. This is his congregation, and they deserve to know the truth about the man they pay tithes to every week.” She whispered back, pushing his hand away and stepping forward.

  Her father stepped down, touched his late wife’s casket lovingly, and sat back down with tears in his eyes. Milan’s mouth was as dry as sand as she struggled to find the words. The large room was dead silent, and only the sound of the various women fanning themselves could be heard throughout the room.

  “I guess I’ll start with Mich—um, Pastor Matthews. He----“

  “…is very sorry that he’s late to his own mother’s funeral.” His booming voice said from the back of the church.

  Everyone shuffled and turned around as he and Alana made their way down to the podium where Milan stood, adjusting his tie as the trio stared each other down.

  “I apologize, pop.” He whispered, shaking his hand as his dad appeared flustered, not knowing where this was all headed.

  Alana looked awkward and out of place as she sat next to his father and placed Michaela on her lap. The two were fresh out of the hospital after passing out from smoke inhalation, but Michael had insisted on them coming with him to handle something before they were to finally be a family.

  “I’ll take it from here, Mi-Mi.” he said, a strained smile spread across his face as he joined her at the podium.

  She started to protest until she felt his death grip on her wrist. Instead, she stepped down and joined her father and Maddie in the front pew. Her knee jiggled furiously as she eyed Alana with jealousy and anger. She then focused her attention on Michael, waiting impatiently to see just how he would manipulate everyone once again.

  “Now, I would never choose to defile my mother’s service the way she intended to, but since she insisted on starting it, I’ll be picking up where my beautiful wife left off. I want to start by saying this is all her fault. That wonderful woman is being buried way before her time, because Milan Matthews is as selfish and vindictive as they come.” He paused for reactions, which he definitely got as everyone murmured in hushed confusion. “But, that’s neither here nor there. I’m far from perfect, and if anybody can attest to that, it would be her.”

  Milan had tears rolling down her face by then as she tried to ignore the whispering behind her.

  “The reason Milan decided to have my mother’s funeral at my church instead of the one she and my father attended is because she wanted to embarrass me in front of you all. But I can do that on my own. The truth is, Milan and I are getting a divorce and our daughter is mildly autistic.”

  There were gasps and outcries throughout the large audience as Michael’s eyes pierced through Milan with fire. His father looked as if he was on the brink of joining his late wife any moment, but Michael was on a roll.

  “Milan wanted to be spiteful and tell you all her version of our tragic love story, but the truth is, I’m leaving her, and I’m going to be with the woman I’ve loved all along, Alana Walker. We have a beautiful daughter together and she means everything to me. This church, my marriage, it was all a lie.”

  Milan had heard enough. She stood and waved a hand at the young usher boy who stood silently in the corner of the room.

  “Hey, Michael. Let’s see you explain this one away.” She called out as the projection screen that had previously been playing a slideshow of her mother’s pictures went blank before a video began to play.

  Michael turned around to face the screen and his knees nearly buckled. There, on the screen was a cell phone video of him dumping Willie’s body. The whole church went into hysterics once they caught on to what was happening. Some of them ran out screaming, while others got closer to see better. The younger boys pulled out their cell phones and began recording as chaos broke out amongst the nearly 800 funeral guests.

  “That’s Willie! I know those shoes anywhere!” one of them shouted.

  Milan grabbed the microphone from one of the deacons who had been attempting to settle everyone down.

  “Your bullshit has finally caught up to you, Mikey. I followed you when you stormed off on me at the hospital that night. You were so geeked off the powder you had no idea I was less than 30 feet away from you. I guess you taught me well, being my BIG BROTHER and all.” She smiled slyly at Alana’s horrified expression as she dropped the mic and grabbed Madison from her father before disappearing into the crowd, leaving Michael surrounded by a crowd of his former congregation who wanted answers.

  Alana had moved to a standing position by that point, her mouth hanging open in horror as she watched the looped video clip over and over. People were brushing past her and shouting, but she heard nothing. She made eye contact with Michael long enough for him to see that she had removed her engagement ring and tossed it away from her. A single tear fell from her face as she shoved her way through the crowd, yanking her arm away from Mr. Matthews as he tried to stop her.

  *POP POP POP POP*

  The crowd suddenly scattered completely as Michael shot round after round into the air. His father was kneeling in front of his wife’s casket crying hysterically.

  “Dad, I’m sorry!” he said as he ran by, trying to catch up with Alana.

  His heart sank when he noticed she was lying near the lobby doors as people trampled her repeatedly, trying to run to safety. Michaela was nowhere in sight, and as he got closer, he noticed she was bleeding heavily from the abdomen.

  Michael’s eyes welled up w
ith tears as he knelt to check her for a pulse. His eyes scanned the nearly empty room for any sign of Milan or his daughters, and then back down to Alana’s bruised and bloodied face.

  “Somebody help me!” he shouted, knowing no one would hear him with all the commotion.

  As he reached for his cell phone, he felt a sharp pain in his neck and felt blood soon after. Blood began to run down onto his shirt as Milan appeared in front of him and then spit on Alana.

  “If anybody deserved a happily ever after, it was me. I guess I’ll have to make some changes.” She said as he held his neck to try to stop the bleeding. “Save me a seat in Hell, Michael.” She said before she dropped the kitchen knife into her purse and took Madison and Michaela by the hands, walking out on the one man she’d ever loved.

  PREACHING TO THE CHOIR

  READERS, PLEASE ENJOY THIS EXCERPT FROM JADED PUBLICATIONS NEWEST BOOK “A THUG’S CHARM” BY MERCY B

  Chapter 1

  BIANCA

  “Excuse me,” Bianca heard as she crossed the street. Her initial reaction was to keep walking. She completely despised when men tried to get down on her while in the car. It was like a secret rule she’d made to self to never respond to a guy that didn’t at least have the decency to get out and approach her as a man should.

  “Excuse me,” she heard again interrupting her thoughts.

  “It’s about time I read this rude ass nigga his rights” Bianca turned around to see the face of the guy behind the voice.

  “B, that’s Q,” her sister Kia said while giving Bianca a slight grin. The two, along with their mother, was on the way to American Apparel in Downtown, Memphis. The minute Kia mentioned the name “Q” Bianca’s entire demeanor changed. The mug that she wore when she initially turned around was completely wiped away.

  “Hey,” Bianca said.

  “Hey, how are you doing?” Q grinned. Bianca nearly lost her balance after witnessing such a beautiful smile.