Lost Daughters

by Mary Monroe

  “Maureen, why didn’t you call me to pick you and Virgil up from the airport?” Mel asked, nervously scratching the side of his head.

  “I left a message on the answerin’ machine tellin’ you what time to pick us up. You didn’t call me back to let me know you got the message, so we took a cab home,” Maureen said tiredly.

  “Mama, I don’t know why you didn’t just drive that new car I bought you to the airport and leave it there until y’all got back home,” Loretta commented.

  “It don’t matter. I got there and I got back home,” Maureen said dryly, looking around the room. She was glad to see that everything was as neat and orderly as she had left it.

  “What did you just say about a half sister?” Mel asked. He moved his feet off the coffee table and sat up straighter too.

  Maureen set her suitcase down and eased down onto the couch next to Mel. “I left a message on the answerin’ machine about that too,” she replied, looking from Loretta’s surprised face to Mel’s. “Didn’t y’all listen to it? I called around seven o’clock Saturday mornin’. Where did y’all go that early?”

  “We had a power outage around that time,” Mel lied. Lying was something he had become so good at that he could do it on cue and sound sincere. “It was the longest outage this street has had in months. We got up early that morning and went to my friend Mark’s house over in Liberty City. Mel paused and groped for a few more appropriate words. “The outage didn’t affect every resident on our street, or even in our building.” He added the last sentence in case one of the neighbors told Maureen a different story. “We stayed with Mark until he left for Key West this morning.”

  “Don’t worry, Mama. The power wasn’t off long enough for the ham hocks you put in the freezer before you left to thaw out,” Loretta threw in.

  “Oh. That’s good. We can have them for dinner this evenin’,” Maureen said. She snatched a rolled up newspaper off the end table and started fanning her face. “Well, I’m glad to be home. It’s hot here, but that Louisiana heat was stiflin’. It was as close to hell as a human bein’ could get and still be alive on Earth.”

  “So, when do we get to meet your half sister? Is she a great big fat woman like Mama Ruby was?” Loretta asked with an amused look on her face.

  Maureen chuckled and shook her head. “Not hardly. She was a little on the heavy side, but not half as fat as Mama Ruby was. I would say she weighs close to two hundred pounds.”

  Loretta’s jaw dropped and her eyes crossed. “Two hundred pounds? And you don’t think that’s that fat?” Loretta threw her head back and howled with laughter. Mel had to hold his breath to keep from snickering himself.

  “Well, that is kind of heavy, I guess,” Maureen chortled. “Anyway, believe it or not, her name is also Mo’reen. Everybody called her Big Mo’reen and they called me Little Mo’reen.”

  “How old is she?” Mel asked, looking just as amused as Loretta. “If your mama had her when she was a teenager, she must be pretty long in the tooth by now.”

  “Big Mo’reen is a little past fifty,” Maureen replied. “She’s got grown kids and grandkids. They all live in other states. She’s comin’ to visit us later this year, maybe for Thanksgivin’ or Christmas.” Maureen smiled.

  Despite everything that had transpired, Maureen was in one of the best moods she’d been in since she was a child. When Mel pulled her into his arms later that night, she felt like her life was almost complete. If she could bring herself to love him, it would be.

  CHAPTER 46

  MAUREEN WAS GLAD TO RETURN TO HER JOB AT THE NURSING HOME, and all of her coworkers were glad to see her. Two of the people who had been on board only a few weeks before she got there had already quit. Maureen had to take over some of their duties until they could be replaced. Even that didn’t bother her.

  So much had been going on in the last few days, she had not had time to call up Jay and check on him. When she did, three days after she’d returned from Louisiana, she learned from the outgoing message on his answering machine that he was still out of town. She assumed he was still in St. Louis.

  Catty and Fast Black took Maureen to dinner that Friday evening, and when she told them about Big Maureen, the first thing Catty asked was, “Did she take after Mama Ruby?”

  Maureen laughed. “She ain’t that fat,” she replied.

  “I don’t think Catty meant that,” Fast Black offered. “We hope your sister ain’t the kind of woman that goes around chastisin’ folks the way Mama Ruby did. Remember that one-armed man she stuck with a pitchfork that time? Killed him dead.”

  Maureen nodded. “I don’t know if my sister chastises folks the way Mama Ruby did, but I remember that one-armed man. He shot Cousin Hattie, thinkin’ she was Mama Ruby.”

  “Well, the reason he wanted to get back at Mama Ruby was because she was the one that ripped off his arm,” Fast Black recalled.

  “I remember that too. I was a little girl when that happened,” Maureen stated. “From what I heard about the way that man assaulted Mama Ruby in that bar where it happened, he got just what he deserved. Everybody was talkin’ about that incident.”

  “There was a whole lot of stuff Mama Ruby did that even you don’t know about, but I ain’t goin’ to be the one to tell you. I don’t want that big woman’s ghost to come haunt me. Some of the stuff your mama done, it would curl your hair if you knew,” Fast Black said, shaking her head. “Me and my cousin Loomis and that redneck sheriff we called Big Red, we helped Mama Ruby cover up a lot of shit.” Fast Black gave Maureen a pitiful look. “I’m glad you only seen the good side of your mama. Aside from all the mischief she done, she was still a real good woman and you was real lucky to have her for a mama.”

  Despite Mama Ruby’s “mischief,” she had been a good mother to Maureen. “I know I was blessed to have her,” Maureen acknowledged, wondering what her friends would say if they knew what she now knew about Mama Ruby. Would they still love and praise a woman who had stolen another woman’s baby?

  Two days had gone by and Maureen still had not heard from Jay. That Monday evening around seven, right after Maureen, Loretta, and Mel had finished eating their dinner, Jay called. Maureen was in the kitchen alone.

  “I’ve been meaning to return your call, but I’ve been real busy since I got back from St. Louis,” he told her. “Then I had an interview in Key West with some TV folks. I went straight there from St. Louis.”

  “I thought you didn’t want to be on TV.”

  “I didn’t and I still don’t. I just turned down a show in Chicago, one in ’Frisco, one in L.A., and two in New York. But these Florida folks won’t let up on me. I figured the sooner I do something with them, the sooner they’d get off my back and I can return to a normal life. That’s why I did that show in Key West.”

  “What about that lawsuit against the St. Louis cops?”

  “That’s my cousin’s pipe dream, not mine. I don’t want to have anything to do with something like that. What happened is over and done with, and the people who were responsible for it are dead. Even if my mother and her niece were still alive, the last thing I would want to do is send them to jail.”

  “I can understand that. What good would it do now? But wouldn’t you want them to be held responsible for what they did to you?”

  “They will be.”

  “I know what you mean. What they did is now between them and God.”

  There was an awkward moment of silence before Jay spoke again. “How did your trip to Louisiana go?”

  “Oh, it was all right. We met some relatives for the first time. One was our half sister.”

  “You and Virgil have a half sister?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “You never mentioned her before.”

  “We didn’t know about her until we went to Louisiana. My mama had her when she was a real young girl, and somebody else raised her. She’s in her early fifties now and her name is Mo’reen too.”

  “That’s interesting. Did she know
that your mother was her real mother when she was growing up, or did she think that the folks who raised her were her real family?”

  “She grew up in some kind of asylum. My mama had to give her up when she was born, but she knew all along who her real mama was.”

  “I’m happy to hear that. At least she didn’t go through what I went through.”

  Maureen glanced toward the doorway and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Would you like to meet me for coffee or a drink or somethin’ tomorrow evenin’ after work?”

  “I would like to, but I can’t,” Jay replied.

  “Oh.”

  “Maureen, I didn’t want to tell you this over the telephone, but I guess I should do it and get it over with. I don’t want you to hear it from somebody else.”

  Maureen held her breath. Her heart rate had suddenly accelerated and she could already feel a lump forming in her throat. “Wh-what?” she stuttered, silently praying that Jay didn’t have more shocking news to reveal. She had heard enough lately to last her for the rest of her life. “Are you movin’ back to St. Louis to be close to your real family?”

  Jay let out a dry laugh. “Hell no!” he boomed. “I don’t think I want to see any of those folks again. You wouldn’t believe how many pimps and other thugs I’m related to. It seems like each time I talk to somebody on that end, I hear that there’s another cousin, or uncle, or aunt in prison or involved in some other shady shit.”

  Maureen wanted to laugh, but she couldn’t. Not until she heard what Jay had to tell her. All she could hope for was that it was something to laugh about.

  She was wrong. What he told her almost reduced her to tears.

  “Maureen, I know you’re content just being friends with me and I appreciate that. But that’s not enough for me. I’m a man and I can’t continue to be around a beautiful woman like you, feeling the way I do, and not be able to do anything about it.”

  “I see,” Maureen mumbled. She never thought he would be the one to sever their relationship. She had always thought that when and if that happened, she would be the one to do it. “I understand. Well, if you still want to call me up whenever you feel lonely or just want to talk, feel free to do so. I will always consider you a friend.”

  Before Jay could respond, Maureen heard a woman’s voice in the background on his end. “Baby, I’m back,” the woman said.

  “Uh, that’s Nelda. My ex. Uh, what I wanted you to hear from me is that we decided to give our relationship another shot.” The silence that followed for the next few seconds was so profound Maureen thought she had gone deaf.

  “Oh,” she muttered. Her heart was breaking into a million little pieces and there was not a thing she could do about it.

  “I would like to attend Loretta’s graduation next month, if you don’t mind. I’m sorry that I haven’t had the chance to get to know her better by now, but I know what a big day that’s going to be for her and I’d like to be there to see her walk across the stage and receive her diploma. Now, if you think that’ll be too awkward, I won’t come.”

  “No, it won’t be awkward for you to be there, but you don’t have to come. Especially now.”

  “I do want to come, so I’ll be there. About this other thing, uh, well, I think I’m doing the right thing by trying to restore my marriage. You see, Nelda hasn’t been with anybody since we broke up, and, well, I’ve been more than a little lonely myself, if you know what I mean.”

  “I think I do,” Maureen admitted.

  “Then I know you can understand why I decided to do this.”

  “I can,” Maureen snorted. “But like I said, if you ever just want to talk, you got my number. I wish you all the best. Good-bye, Jay. ”

  “Good-bye, Maureen. You take care of yourself.”

  She leaned against the wall still holding the telephone, listening to the dial tone. She twirled the cord around her finger and looked at it like she wanted to bite it.

  If Mel had not strolled into the kitchen to grab a beer from the refrigerator when he did, she would have bitten the telephone cord in two.

  CHAPTER 47

  BIG MAUREEN AND HER RETIRED COOK HUSBAND, LUKAS, DIDN’T WAIT until Thanksgiving or Christmas to visit Maureen and Virgil. They had arrived unannounced on a Monday evening around five the first week in June. They took a cab to Maureen’s apartment.

  Lukas, a stingy, horse-faced bag of bones, tipped the cabdriver a quarter, so he had to unload their luggage himself. “If I had known these Florida cabdrivers was too lazy to haul our suitcases, I would have kept my quarter,” he complained, struggling to carry the two large suitcases up onto the porch.

  “I wonder how come Little Mo’reen don’t answer her door?” Big Maureen said with a puzzled look on her face as she stood on the JESUS SAVES welcome mat, banging her fist on Maureen’s door.

  “See there. I told you we should have let somebody know that we was comin’ to Florida. Now what we goin’ to do?” Lukas whined, still holding the suitcases.

  “I guess we’ll just have to sit on this porch and wait on somebody to come home,” Big Maureen decided, easing down on the porch steps. She and Lukas sat there until nosy Mr. Ben next door poked his head out of his window.

  “Who y’all folks?” Mr. Ben asked, adjusting his glasses. “What y’all doin’ sittin’ on Mo’reen’s steps?”

  “Sir, do you know where my baby sister at?” Big Maureen asked, rising. “We just got here from Louisiana.”

  Mr. Ben opened his door and shuffled out to the porch, still adjusting his glasses. “Mo’reen gets off work around three, but she usually goes lollygaggin’ at the mall or some beer garden every day. Some days she don’t get home till six or seven,” he stated, looking at the suitcases. “She didn’t say nothin’ to me about no company comin’ to visit.”

  “She didn’t know,” Lukas volunteered with a sneer. One sharp look from Big Maureen silenced him.

  “What about her husband and her girl? You know where they at?” Big Maureen asked.

  “Oh, there is just no tellin’. They was home a little while ago because I heard ’em knockin’ around in there, but them two stay on the go. I don’t know why Mo’reen allows that gal to be so footloose,” Mr. Ben remarked. “Y’all can wait in my place if you want to. Just wipe your feet first and come on in.”

  What Mr. Ben didn’t know was that Loretta and Mel had piled out of Maureen’s bed an hour ago and were now kicking back in a steak house gnawing on some slow-roasted prime rib. Mel had finished a shoot early, and Lo’retta had left school “sick” so she could meet up with him. They returned to the apartment an hour after Big Maureen and Lukas had arrived.

  As soon as Mr. Ben heard Loretta and Mel return home, he beat a tattoo on Maureen’s door. Mel snatched it open with a scowl on his face.

  “Y’all got some out-of-town company,” Mr. Ben announced, giving Mel a suspicious look.

  “Who?” Mel asked, looking over the old man’s shoulder. Mel wasn’t expecting anybody from out of town, and even as dense as Maureen was sometimes, she wouldn’t have forgotten to tell him they had company coming.

  “Mo’reen’s sister and her husband from Louisiana, that’s who,” Mr. Ben snapped. “I’ll send ’em over here before they drink up all of my wine.”

  Mel and Loretta had to “entertain” Big Maureen and Lukas, and it was hellish for them. Big Maureen was a nosy, boisterous woman with a big appetite, and Lukas was a wimp who liked beer. By the time Maureen arrived home thirty minutes later with a few shopping bags from the mall, Mel and Loretta were fit to be tied.

  Maureen was surprised but pleased to see Big Maureen and her husband. When she called to tell Virgil, he and Corrine came over immediately. After Virgil arrived, he insisted that Big Maureen and Lukas stay at his house, since he had more room. “You don’t mind them stayin’ in the upper room, do you?” he asked Maureen in a low voice when he followed her into the kitchen to get another bottle of wine. “Ain’t nobody slept in that room since you moved out of it.�
��

  Maureen blinked. “Why should I care if they stay in there? The upper room don’t mean nothin’ to me no more,” she said, giving Virgil a guarded look.

  “I just thought I’d ask. I know we don’t talk about that room that much no more, but it still must mean somethin’ to you. I mean, for years it was like your sanctuary.”

  “Well, it ain’t my sanctuary no more. I have a whole new life, and the upper room is one of the many things I don’t want to spend too much time thinkin’ or talkin’ about,” Maureen assured Virgil.

  Maureen spent most of that Thursday entertaining her big sister and her husband. She drove them all over the Miami area to shop and sightsee, and she treated them to meals in some of the finest restaurants. She was so proud of the fact that Mel had postponed a couple of jobs just so he could accompany them to a few places. He even took several family photographs and developed them right away, with Big Maureen oohing and aahing about what a fun job he had.

  Mel was very gracious, but it was all for show. He couldn’t wait for these two countrified intruders to go back to Bigfoot country.

  “I’m glad to see that your girl gets along so well with your husband,” Big Maureen whispered to Maureen during Loretta’s graduation ceremony reception that Friday afternoon on the Goons High School’s spacious front lawn. They stood away from the crowd, sipping punch from plastic cups and watching Loretta and Mel as they chatted with some of Loretta’s classmates near the refreshment table. “They seem like they joined at the hip bone. Ever since we got here, I ain’t seen one unless I seen the other one at the same time. They must get along real good.”

  “They do get along real good. I thank the good Lord for that,” Maureen beamed. “Especially since we hear so many ugly things about stepfathers and stepchildren. But Mel’s one of a kind. I was lucky to meet him.”

  Big Maureen nodded. “You sure was. You luckier than most women I know. You got looks, a beautiful daughter, and a man that other women would kill for. Me, I wasn’t so lucky. I had a real rough time with men after my first husband died. After him, I could have brought the pope home and my kids would have found somethin’ they didn’t like about him.”