by Tracy Brown
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Prognosis
Rah-lo arrived at the hospital and found Celeste sitting in the waiting room, staring off into space. He rushed toward her, his heart racing. Celeste had ridden to the hospital in the ambulance with Ishmael. He had never regained consciousness and she was distraught. Not knowing who else to call, she had dialed Rah-lo’s number and frantically explained what had happened. Nina was dead and Ishmael was near death, from the looks of it. Rah-lo had dressed quickly and sped to the hospital. He was only moderately concerned about Ishmael’s well-being after the way he had betrayed him. But Celeste sobbing uncontrollably on the phone had tugged at his heart. He was still hurt that he believed she had crossed the line with his friend. But Rah-lo still loved her tremendously and wanted to calm her down. Celeste sounded like she was on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
Celeste looked up at Rah-lo as he approached her. “They don’t think he’s gonna make it.”
Rah-lo didn’t know what to feel. He was heated that Ishmael had been with Celeste. Ishmael had violated the boundaries of their friendship. Maybe this was divine justice. But at the same time, the man had been Rah-lo’s friend once. The two of them had grown up together, grown in the game together. Rah-lo couldn’t help feeling kinda bad for the guy.
Celeste sat in stunned silence. Ishmael could die. She couldn’t believe that only an hour ago she had been talking to him and now he might never talk—or breathe on his own—again.
The doctor came out of Ishmael’s room and explained to them all that Ishmael was in grave condition with severe head trauma, several broken limbs, and a collapsed lung. Ishmael was hooked up to a respirator and his vital signs were steady at the moment. The doctor assured them all that he would do everything possible to keep Ishmael alive but warned that if he survived that might be only half the battle. Ishmael could be brain damaged or a paraplegic. The doctor gave Celeste Ishmael’s personal effects—his cell phone, wallet, and car keys. She held them in her hands, feeling terrible. She would forever be grateful to Ishmael for saving her life.
“What happened?” Rah-lo asked. “How did Nina know where y’all were?”
Celeste shrugged. “I don’t know. We didn’t even see her until about a second before she hit him. Ishmael decided that he would leave today and go back to New York. So we were gonna go get something to eat before he headed to the aiport. We were walking to the parking garage and we were talking about last night.” She looked up at Rah-lo, her eyes filled to the brim with tears. “We didn’t have sex, Rah-lo. You don’t have to believe me, but that’s the truth.” She got lost in thought momentarily, remembering how Ishmael’s kiss had made her weak. She continued, “As we were talking about it, we heard a car coming fast toward us. I looked up and saw Nina driving, but it all happened so fast that the next thing I knew Ishmael had pushed me out of the way. He pushed me so hard that I fell backward onto the sidewalk. And then I heard a loud bang, and that was when she hit him.” Celeste’s voice cracked, and she fought back tears, recalling the terrible sound Ishmael’s body had made when it hit the ground. “She was driving so fast! He pushed me out of the way at the last possible second.”
Rah-lo listened to her and watched her fight the tears that threatened to plunge forth at any moment. One lone tear escaped her eye and slid down her cheek. Rah-lo gently wiped it away and stroked her face softly. She looked up at him and their eyes locked. He was still incredibly hurt, still wondered if she was telling the truth about not sleeping with Ishmael. But Rah-lo loved her and hated to see her so distraught. His cell phone vibrated and he saw Asia’s number on the display. He stepped away to answer it in private.
“What?” he answered flatly.
“Don’t ‘what’ me, Rah-lo. Don’t tell me you’re out chasing Celeste around again. I’m here at Uncle James’s house with Wanda and these bad-ass kids and you’re not even here. I need to talk to you, Raheem.”
He sighed. “Ishmael was in an accident. He’s in the intensive care unit … .”
“What happened?!?”
“Nina ran him down with her car.”
“What?”
“She’s dead.”
“W-what? I don’t understand … .”
Rah-lo explained to Asia what had happened and that Celeste had barely survived. He told Asia Ishmael’s grim prognosis and she held the phone, stunned.
“Oh my God!” she said at last. “What hospital is he in?”
“Don’t worry about that. You don’t need to come here. You’ve done enough.” Rah-lo hung up the phone and went back to sit beside Celeste.
Asia rushed upstairs and asked Wanda for names of hospitals in close proximity to where Celeste lived. She called Patient Information at each facility until she found the one to which Ishmael had been admitted. She raced out the front door. Asia felt terribly guilty. Nina was dead; Ishmael was in the hospital. Was it all her fault? She arrived at Emory Crawford Long Hospital and raced into the emergency room. When she walked in, she saw Rah-lo sitting in the waiting room, comforting Celeste as she wept on his shoulder. For a flashing moment Asia wished Nina had succeeded in killing Celeste. At least then Asia would be rid of this bitch. She looked at Rah-lo and wondered what had happened to the man who hated Celeste’s guts just the day before. Little Brian had said that Rah-lo was furious with Celeste. It suddenly appeared that he had forgiven her, and Asia was steamed.
“Rah-lo,” she said, approaching the two of them. “How is he?”
“Don’t worry about that,” Rah-lo hissed. He was sick of Asia’s presence. “I told you not to even come here. You and Nina came down here chasing men that don’t want you. I told you back in New York that it was over and you came down here anyway—causing scenes, starting trouble, fucking up friendships. Ishmael told Nina that it was over, too, and she couldn’t accept it. What’s it gonna take, Asia? You wanna kill me since you can’t have me, like she did to Ishmael?”
Asia listened to what her husband was saying to her. “You gotta talk to me like that in front of this bitch?”
Celeste glared at Asia, and pressed her lips together in order to keep from going off on Rah-lo’s wife. She looked right back at Celeste and tilted her head to the side. “What? You don’t like being called a bitch? That’s what the fuck you are.”
Celeste had enough. “You know what you are, Asia?” She stood nearly eye to eye with Rah-lo’s wife, tired of her shit. “You’re a miserable bitch, a terrible mother, a sad excuse for a wife, and a fucking stalker who can’t accept that your man doesn’t want your sorry ass anymore!”
“All right, that’s it. This ain’t the place for this shit,” Rah-lo tried to intervene, but both women ignored him.
Asia stepped closer to Celeste and looked her dead in the eye. “That’s supposed to upset me, Celeste? All you ever were was a fuckin’ jump-off. A fuckin’ ho he could stick his dick in without having to marry you. You’s a dumb bitch! Why do you think you’re not his wife? Huh? If he really loved you he could’ve divorced me and been with you years ago. Why do you think you never had any of his kids? ’Cause he didn’t want you for anything more than that beat-up pussy of yours. So now you fucked him and Ishmael and you think he wants you now, you filthy whore?”
Celeste smirked. “Well, he damn sure don’t want you, Asia. How does it feel to have to beg a man to love you? How does it feel to have to fly around the country chasing your ‘husband’ when he’s professing his love for someone else?”
Asia suddenly charged at Celeste and smacked her hard across the face. She grabbed Celeste by the hair. Holding her hair tightly, Asia swung Celeste around like a pendulum. Asia stopped swinging Celeste long enough to punch her repeatedly as Rah-lo tried in vain to pull Asia off of her. Anarchy erupted in the emergency room waiting area as the two ladies tussled. Rah-lo pried the women apart and he pushed Asia toward the door. “You gotta get the fuck outta here!”
“Tell her to leave, Rah-lo. What the fuck do I have to leave for?”
Rah-lo looked into Asia’s eyes and saw the emotions written on her face—hurt mixed with rage. She glared at him. She hated him at that moment but loved him at the same time. “How could you do this to me, Rah-lo?” The pain in Asia’s voice was very evident. “All those years you cheated on me with her. And now you come down here and try to get her back? Did you have to talk to me like that in front of her, push me away and all that? How am I supposed to feel?”
“I told you it was over with me and you before I left. So don’t act surprised now, Asia.”
She shook her head. “You still haven’t answered my question. How am I supposed to feel knowing that you came all the way down here just to fuck her again?”
Rah-lo shook his head. “That’s not why I came down here.”
“So then what was it?”
Rah-lo stared at Asia for a long time, wondering if she could handle what it was that he needed to tell her. “I love Celeste.”
Asia laughed. He sounded crazy. “You don’t love her. You love the fact that she keeps letting you have your cake and eat it, too. If you loved her, you would’ve been with her years ago.”
“I should’ve been with her years ago,” he said. “But I tried to stay with you for the kids. I thought that was the right thing to do.”
“That is the right thing to do, Raheem!”
He shook his head. “No, it’s not. I’m not gonna be unhappy anymore so that everyone else can be happy. And I don’t think I owe you an apology for wanting to walk away from a marriage neither one of us is happy in.”
“But you do,” she clarified. “You owe me an apology for a lot of things. I’m your wife and you’re down here chasing after another woman.”
Rah-lo ignored that comment. He had no intention of apologizing to Asia for finally finding the courage to leave. “Why did you come down here?” he asked, shaking his head. “You don’t even want me. You just don’t want her to have me. I told you back in New York that I was done with this shit. I don’t want to be with you anymore. I’m tired of fighting with you.”
“Rah-lo, I don’t want to hear that shit! We’re not just boyfriend and girlfriend. You can’t just break up with me and then that’s the end of the story. I’m your muthafuckin’ wife!”
“Then when were you gonna start acting like it? When? Now that I walked out you wanna claim your spot as my wife. Get the fuck outta here with that!”
“What did I do that was so bad, Raheem? What did I do?” Asia’s yelling caused several people to turn and stare at them. “You want perfection and I’m not fucking perfect. Nobody’s fucking perfect! Not even that bitch you keep running back to. She has flaws, too!”
Rah-lo nodded. “Yup. Everybody has flaws. But not the kind of flaws that make a man want to hit his wife. You jump all up in my face, constantly bitching and complaining, getting high and drunk, coming in late, neglecting your kids and shit—”
“I neglected the kids, Rah-lo? You can’t be serious! You walked out on them!”
“No, I didn’t. I walked out on you. I will always be there for my daughters no matter what. And you should know that by now. I never gave you any reason to doubt me as a father. I’m there cooking, cleaning, and all that shit while you’re out in the street acting like a fucking teenager!”
Asia hated what she was hearing, mainly because she knew it was true. She hadn’t been the best mother, nor had she been the perfect wife. Far from it. She had been selfish and she knew that. But that didn’t mean that she was going to roll over and play dead while Rah-lo rode off into the sunset with his bitch. “You’re crazy! I was the one who was there with you when you were nobody.”
“Please!” Rah-lo spat at her. “You were only with me because I am somebody. Don’t act like you just loved me all along and now you’re destroyed because I don’t wanna be with you anymore. You were caught up in who I was and what I represent and how it could benefit you. It was never about me. Don’t insult my fucking intelligence!”
“You know what, Rah-lo? Fuck you!”
It was Rah-lo’s turn to laugh. “You only want me to come back so that you don’t feel like you lost some stupid game. It’s a game for you to be with me and be my wife. You love the privileges. You don’t love me. The only reason you want me is to keep somebody else from loving me. You know that another woman will appreciate me.”
“You think you’re all of that, Raheem. What the hell is there to appreciate about you? You cheat on your wife! You’re a liar and a fucking sneak! You act like it’s all about you, but it’s not.”
He nodded. “Exactly. With you, it’s not all about me. It’s all about you and what you want and how you look and what you can get out of it. I don’t want that anymore. I want a divorce. Let me be happy and you can find somebody who can make you happy.”
Rah-lo turned to leave, and Asia stood in his way. “Tell me what I have to change and I’ll change it,” she said, her voice wavering slightly. This was uncomfortable for her—conceding defeat. She choked back a sob as she tried to block his exit. “I’m sorry,” she offered. She was desperate to change his mind. “I’m sorry for the way I was acting. Can’t we fix it? Please.”
It pained Rah-lo to see her this emotional. Asia had never softened this much around him. She was always so tough, so stoic and frigid. Now she stood before him with hurt etched on her face and tears sliding down her cheeks. He wiped them for her and lightly touched her face. “No, Asia. It’s over. I just want to move on. Let me do that. Go home and get the kids. When I get back I’ll come over and we’ll talk to them together. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”
Asia’s pain turned to sheer rage as she listened to her husband dismissing her like she was nobody. She had let down her guard and shown him what was in her heart and still it wasn’t good enough. Asia couldn’t stand the idea that even when she cried and pleaded with him it wasn’t enough to make him stay. She reached to kiss him and he pulled away. Asia swung at him and Rah-lo deflected the blow and shook his head in disgust.
“See? That’s why I don’t wanna be with you anymore.” He shook his head. “I’m gonna tell you one more time to leave me alone. I’m not gonna say it again. Please don’t make me hurt you. Seriously, Asia. Go home.” He stepped around her and went back into the waiting room, leaving Asia crying in his wake.
He found Celeste in Ishmael’s room. Rah-lo stood beside her and saw his friend lying there with tubes running all over the place, a respirator breathing for him. A monitor beeped softly near his bedside and the IV dripped steadily into his veins. Ishmael’s head was wrapped in gauze and visibly swollen. His eyes were puffy and his legs were both encased in casts. Celeste stood with her hand covering her mouth and shook her head in disbelief.
“Oh my God,” she sighed.
Rah-lo stood beside her and looked at his friend. Celeste went to his bedside and touched his hand lightly. He was covered almost head
to toe in bruises and casts, sutures and gauze. “Ishmael,” she said. “Hold on. You’re gonna be all right.” She began to cry softly. Rah-lo ushered her out of the room and into the waiting room, where he rocked her in his arms to calm her. She took some deep breaths and he handed her a cup of water from the nearby cooler.
“I need to talk to you,” Rah-lo told Celeste. She nodded and he led her to the other side of the room. “I want to apologize about what happened with Asia,” he began. “I’m sorry.”
Celeste shook her head. “You’re not the one who should apologize.”
Rah-lo looked at the floor and then at Celeste once more. “I love you,” he said. “I know I don’t always have the best way of showing it. But I never loved any woman the way that I love you. I didn’t expect all of this to happen when I came down here. I thought I would come here and find you and then we would see if we could have another chance to be together. But Ishmael came to see you and Asia followed me down here and then … this ain’t how it was supposed to end up.”
“You don’t have to apologize for all of this,” Celeste said. “I know you didn’t mean for this to happen.”
Rah-lo shook his head. “My marriage is over, Celeste,” he said, looking directly into her eyes. “I swear it is. I don’t want to be with Asia or with anybody else. I just want to be with you. Can we have a second chance?”
Celeste looked away and said nothing for a long time. “I don’t want to live like this anymore. Fighting, bitter exes … all of that shit surrounds you. Rah-lo, I love you, too. I probably always will. But I came down here to get away from all this. I came to Atlanta to have peace in my life and I didn’t ever want to have to deal with this kind of drama again. If you and Asia are finished, I think that’s great. But she’s always gonna be in your life. You have kids together. And she’ll do everything she can to make our lives miserable.”
