by E. N. Joy
With knife in hand, Puddin' took it and began to cut. She began to cut at the seatbelt in order to free herself. Those were her honest to God intentions; to use the knife only to cut herself free from the seatbelt. But when she felt his fingers inside of her, inside of the womb that was carrying her child...when she began to focus on his breath burning her skin, his tongue washing over her body, something inside of her snapped. Before she knew it, there was blood. Blood was everywhere.
For a minute there Puddin' wondered if it was her own blood. Had she cut herself in an attempt to cut the seatbelt? But within moments it became clear of just whose blood it was. It wasn't hers; it was his; the good Samaritan's bad blood.
Puddin' could no longer hold back the tears that had fought their way out. She couldn't fight the tears back then in that man's car, and she couldn't fight them now as she sat in the motel room reliving every single moment right before Junie and Saved's eyes.
"I don't even remember plunging the knife into him," Puddin' cried. "I only remember using the knife to cut the seatbelt off of me. Then after that I remember getting out of his car. I went back to my car and tried to start it. I prayed to God to let it start while I pumped the gas pedal. Nothing. It wouldn't start. I had to get out of there, though. I had to get out of there fast." Puddin' wiped her running nose with the back of her hand.
"I looked in my rearview mirror and knew what I had to do. So I got out of my car and got back into his car, on his driver side. I pushed him out of the car, onto the side of the road and just drove off. I knew they'd eventually be looking for his car. I knew I couldn't drive it forever. And I especially knew that I couldn't drive it to Columbus and get my brother caught up."
"So you decided to get us caught up instead?" Saved asked, anger attempting to surpass her empathy for Puddin'.
"I'm sorry," Puddin' said. "It wasn't intentional. I just thought...I don't know what I thought." Puddin' washed her hands down her face. "Anyway, you two didn't have anything to do with it. There won't be any doubt about exactly where you were at the time of the murder," Puddin' reasoned. "Besides, you're just two kids who escaped from juvie. You can even say you were my hostages." Puddin' reached into her pocket and pulled out the knife. "I can say I held you two at knifepoint. I mean, what are they going to do to two kids but send them back to juvie?"
"Not me. I'll be eighteen next month," Junie confessed. "They'll charge me as an adult for sure."
Both Saved and Puddin' shot Junie a puzzled look.
"If you'll be eighteen next month, then why in the world did you even escape?" Saved asked, almost as if she was pissed at Junie's stupidity; as if he knew they'd get caught up in a murder rap. "They would have let you go next month on your birthday anyway?"
Junie shrugged. "I mean, I figured at this point it didn't matter. I didn't plan on getting caught or anything. Figured they probably wouldn't even waste time looking for me."
"Geez," Puddin' sighed and then buried her face in her hands. "I don't know what to do."
"I know what you should do," Saved said. "You should just call the police and tell them the truth. Tell them exactly what happened. It was self-defense. As God is your witness, it was self-defense."
Puddin' looked at Saved. "You really are for real aren't you? I mean, about you and God? You really think He has this magical power to lift us up out of every situation and protect us?"
"Yes, I do," Saved exclaimed, standing. "It's power, but it's not magic. It's called grace and mercy."
The last thing Puddin' wanted to do was stand there and get into a battle of religion with a teenager.
"Look, I have another idea that I know will work," Saved suggested.
"What's that?" Puddin' asked.
"Do you want to pray?"
"Pray?" Puddin' tsked. "What's God going to do for me?"
"The Bible says-"
"Don't tell me what the Bible says." Puddin' spoke in a loud, harsh tone. She was truly fed up with all of Saved's religiosity. "I mean look at you? What has Jesus done for you when you're right in the same boat with me? You are on the run too. Although you're not running from the same thing as I am, you're still on the run nonetheless. And you want to tell me about what the Bible says?" Puddin' looked down at the Bible Saved carried around. "Why you read that stupid thing anyway?"
Saved shrugged. "It gives me hope. And no offense, Puddin', but I can't let you steal my hope. So I'm going to ask you not to say anything against God or His word."
"Whatever." Puddin' threw her hand up.
"Well, even if you don't want to pray with me, I'm gonna pray for you."
"Yeah, yeah," Puddin said before a knock at the door interrupted everything. Puddin' shot Saved and Junie a look. "Oh, my God," she whispered as her heart began to thump crazily and the color drained from her face. It looked like any minute she'd look like one of those cartoon characters and turn green, then get sick to her stomach.
"Do you think it's the cops?" Junie asked. "Oh, snaps. I'm going down," he began to panic.
Once again there was a knock, and after the knock Junie's question was answered when they heard the words, "Police, open up."
"Jesus!" Saved said. Upon instinct, she grabbed her backpack, gripped her Bible and dashed into the bathroom and hid behind the door. She didn't close the door, but instead, kept it fully open. She did so by pulling it all the way to the wall, of which she leaned her back against. So the door being fully opened actually concealed Saved as she hid behind it.
Basically pinned between the door and the wall, Saved could see through the small crack of the door between the hinges. Immediately, she closed her eyes and began to pray. "Lord, in the name of Jesus, hide me. Keep me from evil and from danger. Keep my two friends from evil and danger as well. Cover Puddin' in the blood of Jesus so that she may get the victory. Let the truth as you know it to be prevail, dear Lord."
"You hide, too," Junie told Puddin', "and I'll answer the door."
Puddin' shook her head as she listened to Saved pray. "I ain't hiding." Puddin' stood her ground. She then looked down at the knife, assumingly the same knife she'd used to kill the man on the side of the road. "Saved might be right. Maybe I should just tell the truth. Turn in the weapon, turn in myself and tell the police the truth. After all, I'm sure that Bible of hers says something about the truth setting me free." She shot Junie a look, perhaps hoping he'd talk her out of it, but he didn't. "Well, here it goes." Just as Puddin' headed to the door, it caved in.
As Puddin' raised her hands to surrender, shots were fired. All the police saw was a girl coming toward the door with a weapon in hand. They began shooting wildly in order to protect their own lives.
Thump! Thump! was what Saved heard before she saw, through the crack in the door, the bodies of Junie and Puddin' hit the floor. Puddin' had been hit, and unfortunately, shots had also planted themselves in Junie's stomach.
Puddin' appeared to have been killed instantly. There was no movement coming from her. Junie, on the other hand, was clutching his wounded stomach as blood squirted and poured from between his fingers. He was lifting his head, trying to get up off the ground, but then after one large exhale, his head fell to the ground, turning in the direction of Saved. She stared into Junie's open eyes before his body went lifeless.
She froze and watched helpless from behind the door, too petrified to even breathe. Next she did all she knew to do at this point, and that was to close her eyes and keep praying. As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...
So deep in prayer, as time passed, Saved wasn't even distracted by all the commotion of the bodies being removed from the hotel room or the police searching around the room and what not, coming up with their own conclusions of how Puddin' and Junie had pulled a Bonnie and Clyde on the dead man. A car jacking and robbery gone bad is what they'd called it. Saved even prayed through the coroner's arriving and pronouncing the assailants dead on the scene.
Over three hours passed before Saved realized that she was alon
e in the hotel room. And she knew it was only God who had hid her to the point where not one officer even thought to look behind that bathroom door. Yes, an officer had come in and checked the shower to make sure no one else was hiding in it, but not once did he pull the bathroom door from against the wall and find her standing behind it; praying behind it. Or maybe he did. Maybe God blinded his eyes or maybe God put it on the officer's heart to just let her be. She had no idea and refused to lean on her own understanding. But what she did know was that she might have been behind that door, but God was the one behind her still being there alive, breathing and not in police custody or shot dead on the floor like Junie and Puddin' had been.
Finally creeping from behind the bathroom door, with her few belongings in hand, Saved saw the dried up blood from her two friends. She slowly walked to the hotel window and peeked out. A cop car sat out front of the motel office. She recalled Puddin' story of how a cop had stayed on guard outside of her house after they busted her boyfriend. Saved knew she had to get out of there, but walking right out of the front door in hopes of the cop not spotting her wasn't a chance she was willing to take. She knew God had hid her, but making her completely invisible to the entire world wasn't something she expected Him to do, although she believed with every being in her body that He had the power to do so nonetheless.
Heading for the bathroom, Saved immediately noticed a window above the commode. Standing on the toilet enabled her to climb up to the window, open it and crawl out to safety. Looking around, at first Saved didn't know where to go. She even thought about heading back to juvie, but instead, she let what she called the spirit within her order her steps. With the remaining cut of her money, she made her way to the Greyhound Bus Station to finish what she started. She was headed for Columbus, Ohio.
Chapter Nine
"Whoa, that's deep," I said after listening to the intense story Saved had just told me about her escape from juvie with her friends Puddin' and Junie. "So you came all this way, where you don't know anybody and nobody knows you, for a chick you hadn't even known for for a full twenty-four hours?"
Sadly, Saved nodded and with her finger drew circles in the water in the Jacuzzi that had to be near freezing by now. "Like I said, I know what happens to unclaimed bodies. When my old roommate at juvie died from an asthma attack six months ago, nobody claimed her. Oh, people claimed her stuff all right. Once the girls at juvie heard she'd died, they raided our room. Those hyenas took everything she owned, even her panties. All that was pretty much left was her Bible."
"Let me guess," I said. "You claimed that one, huh?"
"You got it." Saved smiled and then added, "Oh, and what good was a Bible without a knock off Louis Vuitton backpack to carry it in?" She winked. "But anyway, I figured as long as I had the Bible, I might as well go to church. So, that's when I started going to church and really listening to that preacher at juvie."
"Well, you told me what happened to your roommate's stuff. So what happened with your roommate's...you know...body?"
"When no one would step up and claim her body, the state just went ahead and buried her. No headstone or nothing; just a marker number."
Saved shook her head from left to right like she couldn't believe herself what she was about to say. "Can you believe juvie hall didn't even have a memorial or anything? All they had was a moment of silence and then life went on as usual." Saved paused. "Anyway, I watched that happen to one person, and I can't sit by and watch it happen to another. Puddin' didn't deserve what she got, and she don't deserve no nameless plot either. I know I haven't known her for that long, but there was a connection between us. We were supposed to meet. I think God knew her destiny and knew someone like me would make sure she didn't end up in some unmarked grave."
Not that I wanted to be the one to pop this young girl's bubble, but I had to keep it real with her. "You do realize the clock is ticking? I mean, the state is only going to give Puddin's family a few days to claim her body; a week at the most. How do you plan on finding this girl's people in that short amount of time?" I asked.
Saved stared off, "I have to trust God on this one. I have to trust that the Holy Spirit will lead me where I need to go in order to complete my assignment."
I then followed up my question with one that was much more selfish. I mean, sure I cared about Saved's plight. The story had moved me. If I was into making movies I probably would put it on the big screen, but this was real life. This was my life that Saved was walking into. I needed to make sure she planned on being in it for a while; a year or two tops. I didn't want to invest all my time and money in this girl with no return.
"Okay, so let's say you find Puddin's brother or whoever tomorrow? You guys have a nice little funeral and then what happens?" I asked.
"You mean am I going to use up all your bubble bath and hot water and then move on?" The girl had read me like a book. "No, I mean, where else would I go? I already told you I don't have any family. My mom's side of the family is scattered all over the map. I wouldn't know the first place to go in order to find any of them."
I couldn't resist hitting her back with her own analogy. "Don't you think God would lead you to them? I mean, the same way you believe He's going to lead you to Puddin's people?"
"Are you trying to be funny?" she was quick to say, shooting me a bitter look.
I put my hands up in surrender. "No, no. I'm just saying," I smiled.
"Umm, hmm," she replied in disbelief.
There was a few seconds of silence. I'd upset her so she'd shut down. I needed to open her back up. "So, uh, what about your other partner? What about Junie? Why didn't you try to find his people?"
"Junie's got a Pops that lives right there in Cleveland. He's got other family members there too I'm sure. He's good. Puddin' wasn't from there. She doesn't have anybody there. I don't even think they'll be able to figure out who she is in order to be able to contact anybody." She splashed a little bit of water. "That's why I'm here. That's why I'm going to let God use me. I've let so many other people use me in life without even a second thought. So why should I make it difficult for God to use me?"
"Must be the Christ in you," I said, half serious, have skeptical. "I mean, most of the girls I've met over the years had already had their hearts ripped out. Didn't have nothing left to give a care about anyone else."
"Yeah, well. Anyway. I just need to make a little cash so I can maintain just long enough to do what I got to do." She looked up at me as if she'd just exposed herself. She recognized by the expression on my face that I'd picked up on the comment she'd just made. "You know what I mean...to help pay for the funeral if need be or whatever. I'm sure this brother of hers doesn't have a life insurance policy on her or anything," Saved tried to reason.
Right then and there I could have snatched her right up out of my bath and sent her packing. That would have been doubting my own skills though. I could get to this girl. I could make her love Poppa. I could make her think and feel as if she couldn't live without Poppa. I'd done that to plenty of girls just like her. Over the years I'd grown in my craft. I'd gotten better, not worse. Yes, she was much more of a challenge than most girls, but I could do this. Just as determined as she was to fulfill her so called assignment here in Columbus, I was determined to fulfill mine as well. So in my opinion, Saved and Me; this was destiny, baby!
"I hear you," was my only reply to her. And in deed I had heard her; I'd heard it a thousand times. It was like the hooker who says she's only going to strip just long enough to pay her way through college. Saved wasn't going nowhere; not if I could help it.
Having washed up while she told me the story, Saved splashed a little water on her and then declared, "I'm ready to get out."
"Oh, cool." I handed her a towel from where I sat. I had to admit, I was still somewhat fazed by the story she'd just told me about her cause for being in the capital city.
"Do you mind?" she asked, looking around as though she expected privacy.
"Look around,
girl. Look at all this expensive stuff. Yeah, I mind."
"Dude, come on. I ain't into all this jewelry and crap," Saved stated. "Take inventory, then once I get out, retake inventory to see if anything is missing. Matter of fact, I'll even let you body search me, but for crying out loud, can a chick dry off and lotion up without security on her back?" She sucked her teeth. "I might as well have stayed at juvie for all of this. Tsk. They don't even go that far at juvie," she concluded with an eye roll.
I had to laugh. This chick was something else-something else in deed. "I'ma go on and give you your little privacy, but I'm timing you." I looked down at my watch. "You got five minutes. And come straight out when you're done." Just then the doorbell rang. "Oh, that's probably Monet. I'ma go on and help her whip something up to eat." I headed out of the bathroom.
"You...cook?" she snickered. "I ain't trying to end up in an unmarked grave too. Please leave the cooking to Monet."
I stopped and faced her. "Girl, I'll have you know I'm a killer in the kitchen. I could start my own restaurant if I wanted to."
"Yeah, well, if that ever happens, you can be Mel and I'll be Alice," Saved joked about the old 70's sit com.
"What you know about that show?" I asked her.
"Shoot, my mom's used to watch all the reruns of that old stuff; Alice, Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days..."
I smiled as I reminisced on the days my moms actually took time to chill with my sister and me. We'd watch some of those same reruns. It was those times when she wasn't concerned more with the almighty dollar. It was the times when I could pretend that we were just regular.
The doorbell rang again, dragging my thoughts from way back when to now. "Let me go let this girl in," I told Saved as I went to the front door, looked out the peephole, saw that it was Monet and let her in.
"Hey, Poppa," Monet greeted me with a kiss. "I hear we have a new guest." Monet switched inside and headed straight for the kitchen with me close on her heels.
