She was enraged when he picked up the phone and wouldn’t let her talk. Then to make matter’s worse, he wants to talk about the stupid papers, that she originally thought was a phase and a waste of money, but now she wanted them to go away for good. She wanted to work on their marriage. But Jerome hung up on her and then immediately blocked her number. She did not know where he was, so she had to find another form of release.
She called Greg to hook up with him. He was busy, but said that he’d be free to see her that evening. Cece agreed to take him up on that offer, but went through her phone to call some friends in the meantime. She was glad that she did, because one of them told her that she had been seeing Jerome with some young girl in the nearby Wal-Mart on Cicero. They would either be in his truck or sometimes in a mint green Honda Civic with license plates that said I READ 2.
Cece thanked her for that information and would often go down Cicero to ride through that parking lot looking for either of those vehicles. She was not going to let him go, nor was she going to use such a cold method of communication to contact him, such as email. She would see him in the streets one day and they would talk like adults.
That evening at Greg’s house, they had sex as usual. It wasn’t great to Cicely because she was distracted, but Greg still managed to cum. He didn’t care, but decided to ask her what was bothering her anyway. Apparently, it was exactly what she had come over there for and had been waiting on him to ask the whole time. Immediately, she piped up and went straight to the point. She told him that she had gone to the doctor earlier and tested positive for HIV.
Greg looked at her face and realized the seriousness of the situation. Like Cece, he was surprised, but not shocked. His surprise quickly turned into rage, which he directed toward her, as he had done to Charlotte so many times in the past. If she wanted Charlotte’s spot, then here it is, he thought, as he reached out and grabbed her throat and picked her up off of her feet. He raised her up so high, that she had to look down on him, as she flailed her arms wildly and scratched at his hands for him to release her.
He growled, “Bitch, if you gave me ANYTHING, I will kill you. I knew I shouldn’t have fucked with yo nasty ass! How dare you bring yo ass over here and fuck me, THEN tell me this shit? I should fucking kill you right now! Get yo ass out of my mother-fuckin house and don’t you EVER come back! You better find God, because if I have that shit, I’m going to find you!”
Before he had finished his threat good, he was throwing her down toward the door. She hit the ground and bounced back up and onto her feet, scrambling to grab at her clothes that were nearest to her and the door. Whatever she couldn’t grab on her way out the door, she was going to have to do without. Her priority was making it out of that house alive. Everything else was an afterthought. Cece ran out of the door naked, with her purse on her shoulder and the pile of clothes in her arms. She’d pull into a dark alley and put her clothes on, when she had gotten far enough away from Greg.
Chapter 16
Back at the house, Mrs. Sheri had woken, visibly shaken from a bad dream that she tried to shake off, but had great difficulty. She typically didn’t like sharing them and scaring other people with repeating its contents, but when she got up, Adele asked her right away, before they even exchanged morning greetings. She asked her Grandma what was wrong, and instead of lying or blowing it off, she repeated the dream to her.
Mrs. Sheri told her that it was a strange one. It wasn’t a full story, just a snippet of one. In the dream, Estelle would go to the park and run to get her hip back into shape every morning. This particular morning, she decided to push herself harder than she had done all of the times before. As she ran around the track, in the park, during her early morning run, she began to overheat. She remembered first her legs began to feel as if they were on fire, then it crept up to her chest and even though she stopped running, the pain wouldn’t go away. She fell to the ground and screamed out in pain, but no one could hear her because she couldn’t get her mouth to open and make a sound. Unable to do anything, Mrs. Sheri woke up in a sweat.
Adele wasn’t the type to get excited from her grandma’s dreams, but this time, she was extremely bothered since her grandma had already made an impact with her dreams from before. Not to mention, Estelle did say that she was going to the park, not to run, but could mean that she was running from someone. She didn’t know, but could not share those thoughts with her grandma. She was already upset and had been through so much. This dream did not necessarily have any truth in it, today, so she did not need to give her old grandma a heart attack at this time either.
Adele told her grandma to drink some tea and to relax. It was time for school, so she would head out to get to class, but she would catch up with Estelle and they would come home directly afterward. Her grandmother agreed and they sent up a quick prayer before Adele left, to ask for peace.
Adele decided to drive her mom’s Civic, just in case she needed to ride around in some different areas, if Stell decided to skip school. Adele went to school, but did not see Stell in any of her early classes, so she waited until lunch, just in case she showed up then. When she did not show up, she decided to give her-self an early dismissal to go look for her. She was no good mentally in her classes anyway, with Stell on her mind.
Adele rode around all of the places that she thought that Stell would have gone with Fonzo, to look for his car. After about an hour before the local schools started to let out and the streets got crowded, she came up on the backside of a park that really had nothing in it. The people, who used it, only went to the pond to fish or maybe walk their dogs and sit a spell, but it wasn’t really for kids, because it did not have a playground or pool in it.
As she rode around for the past few hours, she heard a news report on the radio that talked about a body of a young child found in the park, that was badly burned and police was searching for clues and witnesses. They didn’t say much, because they didn’t know much. The investigation was underway. Adele looked at the park and couldn’t help but wonder why a child would be at this park in the first place; it had nothing to lure a small child to it. She pulled up at the park and saw the yellow tape in the distance and decided to turn the car off and think about her next move.
Chapter 16
Time had gone by and Cece had stopped seeing Greg, but had started working on trying to find Jerome and get him back. This one particular morning, she was with the guy that did her tattoos, a raggedy type of guy, with some serious skills. He said that he had to make a run to the suburbs to make some money from his side hustle, before he could sit down and give her the butterfly wings going across the top of her butt that she had been dying for.
She agreed to roll along with him while he made his stops. She sat in the car and banged on the dashboard to the beats of her favorite songs and hummed to all of the songs she dared not to sing aloud and scare a passerby as she waited on him to come back to the car.
It was a lovely 71-degree day in this peaceful suburb. The time was passing by so quickly and the music was jamming on his iPod. She listened to it, wondering how someone of his caliber had such a diverse style of music. He had some of the latest things out, as well as the old school classics.
One of the times that he came back to the car, she noticed that he smelled like sex. He was supposed to be going out making his money, which she assumed, was probably selling drugs or hot stuff, but instead he was stopping for sex. She laughed at him when she noticed it, but didn’t say anything. He said that he was almost done and they could leave. He hated being out there with those uppity folks. After he left the last time, she started to get hungry, so she left the car and walked to the nearest gas station to get a drink and a hot dog, when she noticed a mint green Civic pull out of the station with the license plates that read I READ 2 on it.
She couldn’t believe it. She had found Jerome or the hoe that stole him from her. She ran excitedly back to the car and luckily Joe was going back to the car at the same time. She told him
briefly of how she saw the hoe that ran off with her man and wished she could do something to send a message to her for stealing people’s men. Joe nodded his head and asked her what she wanted to do, as he pulled out his gun from his waist.
Cece nodded vigorously and her heart began to thump.
She said, “Now that’s what I’m talking about! If I can’t have him, neither will she. Let’s do this!” He started the car and drove in the direction she saw the Civic head in. It wasn’t long, before they found it parked next to the same park, that he was at earlier. The memories of the hoe from earlier, pissed him off so much more, that when they saw the woman was still in the car, without a word, he pulled up alongside her and opened fire before speeding off.
The two of them hit the road, cranking up the car radio as they sped away. They were both feeling pretty good about themselves at that point. Joe gave her some of his best work that evening. He had to pat himself on the back, after he looked at how graphic those wings were. Cece was feeling just as good about them so she decided for the occasion, since she was already naked on the bed, she would give him a tip for his services and ride him to sleep after his long day.
Chapter 17
Mrs. Sheri was at home trying hard to relax, but she couldn’t. She must have looked at the clock one hundred times that day. She busied herself by cleaning the entire house from top to bottom. Once the cleaning was done she cooked. After she finished cooking, she went to her room and prayed.
She sat in her rocking chair with her bible in her lap and her phone by her side to wait for her girls to come home. She did not have to wait long; before the three o’ clock after school bell rang, her phone piped up. She had gotten the call from the hospital that her granddaughter had been shot.
Mrs. Sheri was armed with her bible and prepared to go. She wondered how her dream about Estelle running in a park had anything to do with being shot. She didn’t know, but knew the answers would come when she got there. First she needed to get there and make sure she was okay. She left a note on the table for Adele to let her know that her sister had been in an accident, and they were at the hospital. She said to call her phone, when she got the message.
At the hospital, Mrs. Sheri was so stunned to discover it was not Estelle that had been hurt, but it was her sweet Adele. Mrs. Sheri thought that THIS would surely make her crazy! How much pain would she have to endure?
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
(James 1:12)
Once again, she wanted to cry and scream, but again, she knew that would do no good. It could only make things worse. The doctors told her that Adele had been shot nine times. The bullets were not in any of the crucial areas that would affect her breathing or walking. Overall, for someone who had been shot so many times, she was blessed. It was obvious that she had a guardian angel.
She was rushed into surgery immediately after she was brought in. They attempted to remove as many bullets as they could. A couple of them, they would have to leave in there. The first order of business was to stop the bleeding and treat for shock. They felt it was best to just leave them in there, as trying to remove them may cause unnecessary, localized nerve damage.
She was bound to a wheelchair in the beginning, but with therapy and prayer, would be able to upgrade to crutches and then a cane. Adele stayed in surgery for what felt like half of the day. In the waiting room, she continued to call the house to see if Estelle had shown up yet and check Facebook, twitter and every other social media outlets she could think of to see if anyone had heard from her or if they knew why Adele was at that park and had gotten shot in a parked car.
Mrs. Sheri could not report Stell missing, because she had not been missing for twenty-four hours yet. The police asked her a million questions about Adele as they attempted to solve the case, while she asked them a million more. They obviously couldn’t or wouldn’t tell her much, but she they did tell her that a child had been burned in that same park hours before and was trying to see if there was a connection between the two incidents.
Due to the extent of the murder that morning, they had very little clues to go off of, since the fire destroyed many of them. They relied heavily on eyewitness accounts to attempt to solve that crime. As soon as Adele was out of surgery and up to it, they would be interrogating her to see if she was able to shed some light on the either of the cases. Mrs. Sheri was not sure what the connection was. She assured the police that the girls had no younger siblings and didn’t even hang around any. It was unfortunate that someone would do something so vicious to a child, but she could not see the connection.
She stayed at the hospital until Adele had come out of surgery and into recovery. At that time, she decided to go home to eat and go to sleep She would go into the girls room to look for clues that may lead to the day’s events. She did not find anything unusual in either room, so she pulled out her kneepads. She was going to pray for closure and a rapid recovery. As she kneeled alongside her bed, her nightmare about Estelle flashed across her mind.
She paused and grew quiet. She said, “Lord, are you trying to tell me something? The dream that I had was about Estelle going running. She ran until she fell down in pain and unable to cry out for help. Has she gone to a park and fallen in a ditch or something? I don’t understand Lord, what are you trying to tell me?”
She analyzed the dream once more. This time slower and incorporating the conversations that she had and the events that had taken place earlier that day, into her analytical process. In the dream, she was in a park. Adele was shot at a park. In her dream, Stell had felt burning creep up her body and was unable to scream for help. The police told her that a child had been burned alive in the park, with no witnesses. No one had heard any screaming. Estelle was very small framed and missing. She could easily be mistaken for a child. If you were not able to see how she was dressed or conducted herself...
That was it. There was her closure that she asked God for. Estelle was gone and Adele would be fine. She wouldn’t be the same, but she would be alive. Mrs. Sheri thanked God for hearing her prayers and answering them. They were not always going to be the answers that she wanted to hear, but they were answers. She explored the origin of these problems a little more.
As she crawled into bed something reminded her of the bible verse: Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation. (Exodus 34:7)
Once again, Mrs. Sheri repeated this over and over in her head to analyze its meaning. Then it hit her like a rock in the face. These children had gone through so much due to the sins of their parents. Greg had started it, kept it going and would finish it, but Charlotte was no better. In God’s eyes, neither of them was any better in the realm of disobedience when it came to 1 Corinthians 7:10 that states:
And to the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband.
The good book speaks highly of marriage. Even in your marital vows, you promise to stay till death do you part. For this reason, before you choose a spouse, you must not rush into it. It must be created by love and blessed by God. You must pray together for strength and understanding for survival. Without prayer and God, your marriage and life is sure to fail. Charlotte and Greg lacked God in their marriage and it appeared to allow the Devil to wreak havoc throughout it.
Mrs. Sheri prayed herself to sleep, asking for forgiveness and leniency on the one life that He allowed to remain in her world. She asked for Adele to be given a chance of her own, to make her own sins to be judged for, instead of her predecessors. Mrs. Sheri prayed for her own forgiveness as well. She knew that she had not done a great job with raising Charlotte in the church as she had with Adele and Estelle and was sorry for it. She obviously played a large role in Charlotte’s demise. She decided that she was ultimately the cause of all of their deaths.
&
nbsp; Mrs. Sheri realized that she too was abused by her husband, but did not have the courage to leave, but fortunately, her mother did not need to cash in that insurance policy either. She stayed with it as God wanted her to, but she did her own sinning mentally as she often passed time away thinking of freedom and a life with others. A sin is a sin. The same sin that may have been passed down to Charlotte to suffer from and now her children...
The next morning, with her closure and peace, she said her morning prayers and asked the Lord again for forgiveness and understanding. It was so difficult to be that perfect Christian in the world that they lived in and follow all of His rules to a tee, but she prayed that he would judge them solely by their hearts and not their actions. She promised to do better and ended her prayer with thanks.
After her long night and morning of revelations and prayers she felt cleansed and at peace. She talked calmly and was able to think clearly. She was prepared to head first to the police station and then to the hospital, where she would stay the rest of the day with Adele. She needed to claim Estelle’s body and start the funeral arrangements.
At the police station, they all looked at her with one raised eyebrow, when she came in and told them that the burned murder victim was her granddaughter, without any evidence, eye witness account, or confirmation to go off of. The DNA tests and samples they were attempting to take were coming up inconclusive. They had no idea who this could have been, so how could she, they wondered. Besides that, her granddaughter had only been missing for one day, why in the world, she would want to claim a body so horrifically killed as her own, without waiting to see if her daughter showed up, they wanted to know.
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