by Mary Monroe
“Her words don’t mean much. I love my niece to death, but I wouldn’t trust that girl as far as I could spit a plum pit. I’m just glad we got her to sign them papers. And I’m glad she bought that story about the globe-trottin’ couple from Canada. If she ever calls you up and asks you to get in touch with that couple, you tell her that the last you heard, they went to some remote place in Africa or Asia and can’t be reached.” Big Maureen snorted. “If she is still askin’ questions after you tell her that, tell her you heard that couple and the baby got lost in some jungle somewhere, one of them countries in Africa where them rebels is slaughterin’ folks left and right—especially foreigners. And they got a real bad hatred for foreigners. If that don’t do the trick, nothin’ will.”
“I don’t think it’ll come to that. In case it does, though, I’ll come up with somethin’ that’ll throw her so far off track she won’t know what hit her.” Maureen hated plotting against her own daughter, but her daughter had been plotting against her for too long. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know when I’ll get to a point where I want to see my daughter again anyway. She’s got a long way to go to get back in with me.”
“I couldn’t have said that better myself!” Big Maureen yelled.
“Thank you.”
“Now, will you meet me in New York or not? Lo’retta don’t have to know you came too. You can hide out in my hotel room. You can wear dark glasses and a head scarf so she won’t know you if she run into you on the street. I know you’ve already done a lot for me, hookin’ me up with a baby and whatnot, but can you please do this for me?”
Maureen hesitated for several seconds before she responded. She could hear Big Maureen breathing through her mouth on her end. “Well, if it means that much to you, I’ll meet you in New York. But no matter what, I don’t want Lo’retta to know I’m there,” Maureen said, letting out a long, loud sigh. “I’ll bring Virgil with me. Otherwise, me and him wouldn’t get to see the baby until we visit you and Lukas again.”
“Bring Jay with you too. I like that young man, and I wouldn’t mind seein’ him again.”
“No! I don’t want Jay involved in this in any way. He’s got enough problems without me addin’ somethin’ like this. Besides, he might be the one to spill the beans someday if we tell him. Lord knows if Lo’retta ever finds out you got her baby and that I lied about that couple in Canada, all hell will break loose.”
“I guess you got a point there, baby sister. Then just bring Virgil with you if you can.” Big Maureen snorted.
Maureen called Loretta and obtained all of the necessary information that she needed to pass on to Big Maureen. Once everything was all set, Big Maureen had to chastise Lukas with a little violent activity to make him stop asking so many nosy questions about her “going to Alaska” without him to pick up their newborn baby. By the time she got through mauling his head with her fist, he was as meek as a newborn baby himself. Everything that Big Maureen had told Lukas about the mysterious nun and the unwed pregnant young girl in Alaska seemed suspicious, but Lukas knew when to shut his mouth. He didn’t even question the bogus paperwork that had already been signed by the “girl in Alaska” that Virgil had put together. With the other papers that Loretta had signed, and the fake birth certificate that Virgil was going to produce after Big Maureen picked up the baby, everything seemed to be in place.
Maureen had no trouble arranging to take the week off from work, and Jay didn’t protest when she told him she had to go to Louisiana again with her brother on a private family matter. He didn’t ask and she didn’t tell him the real reason. “Just be careful and hurry back,” was all he said.
Loretta gave birth three days later. Big Maureen had already checked into the opulent Waldorf Astoria hotel the day before. This was the first time that Big Maureen had ever stayed in such a lavish place. When she and Lukas traveled, they always checked into a Motel 6 or some other low-end establishment. This was a first-class situation. She had even purchased a first-class round-trip airline ticket for the first time in her life.
As soon as Loretta called Big Maureen’s hotel room and told her to come pick up the baby, Big Maureen jumped into a cab. She carried a baby seat with her to haul the baby in and a shopping bag that contained an assortment of brand-new baby clothes.
Maureen and Virgil arrived in New York later that same evening. When they knocked on Big Maureen’s hotel room door, she opened it with a smile on her face so big she looked like the Joker. “Y’all come on in and meet my precious little baby girl!” Big Maureen crooned. If she had died and gone to heaven, she couldn’t have felt more blessed.
Big Maureen led Virgil and Maureen to the bedroom in her suite where the newborn baby girl lay wrapped in a pink blanket. Virgil and Maureen were in awe. This was the most beautiful baby either one of them had ever seen before.
What Maureen didn’t know was that this baby, her first grandchild, looked so much like she did when she was a baby that they could almost pass for twins.
Virgil did a double take and blinked hard. He had to blink even harder to hold back his tears. He thought back to the night that Mama Ruby had brought Maureen home. It felt like he was reliving that same event over again. Even though this baby had been given up willingly, it still seemed unfair that she would go through life not ever knowing who she really was. If everybody involved kept their word, this baby would think that Big Maureen and Lukas had adopted her and that her real mother was some anonymous girl in Alaska. It had been agreed upon that if something happened to Big Maureen and Lukas, Virgil and Corrine would raise the baby. Even then, Virgil would maintain the lie about the baby’s real mother being some girl in Alaska. If Loretta ever returned to Florida, Virgil wondered what believable lie he could come up with to explain why a baby he had inherited from Big Maureen, whose biological mother was some girl in Alaska, resembled her or Maureen. There were men all over the world who looked like Mel, so Virgil didn’t care if the baby resembled him. The baby’s appearance was the least of his worries though. For all he knew, it might not look like Loretta or anybody else they knew. But if he had to, he’d find a picture of a girl who had the same physical characteristics as Loretta and claim she was the baby’s mother.
For about twenty minutes, Virgil and Maureen took turns holding and fawning over the newborn. Then Big Maureen gently placed the baby on the bed and excused herself to go use the bathroom. Then something happened that would haunt Maureen for the rest of her life. She blinked and let out a muffled gasp. She could not believe her eyes. Mama Ruby materialized out of thin air and hovered over the bed with a huge smile on her face as she stared down at the baby. Maureen thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but when she blinked some more and rubbed her eyes, Mama Ruby was still standing there. And she looked as real as she had the last time Maureen had seen her. Maureen looked sharply at Virgil, who was staring toward the bed with his eyes almost bulging out of his head and his mouth hanging open.
The vision lasted almost thirty seconds. When it ended, Maureen gently nudged Virgil with her elbow. “Did you see—”
“See what?” Virgil said hoarsely, not allowing Maureen to finish her sentence.
“I think I saw Mama Ruby!” Maureen whispered.
“Oh, that’s just stress. I think I see Mama Ruby all the time too,” Virgil whispered back. “It’s all in your mind. Mine too.” He didn’t sound frightened and he wasn’t, but his voice was empty and weak. He was glad that Maureen just thought she saw what he thought he saw. Otherwise, he would have to sign himself into an asylum as soon as he got back to Florida.
“I don’t think we should tell Big Mo’reen what we think we saw,” Virgil suggested. “We don’t want to stress her out too.”
“I won’t,” Maureen agreed.
Big Maureen rushed back into the room, wiping her hands on a towel. “I held my bladder as long as—What’s wrong? Y’all look like you seen a ghost! Is my baby all right, y’all?” Big Maureen dropped the towel and shot across the floo
r and sat down on the bed. She lifted the baby, looking from Virgil to Maureen. “The way y’all lookin’, I thought somethin’ had happened to my baby!” Big Maureen said, gently patting the snoozing baby’s back.
“I thought I saw a mouse,” Maureen lied. “That’s all.”
“A mouse! Eeow! I’m glad I didn’t see it. I would think that Mickey Mouse is the only mouse you’d ever see in a fancy hotel like this,” Big Maureen laughed. “Y’all must be seein’ things.”
“Yeah, that’s it. We must be seein’ things,” Virgil said with a wan smile. There was an unbearably sad look on his face as he shook his head and sat down on the bed next to Big Maureen. She was gazing at the baby and repeatedly mumbling, “Coochy coo” as she tickled the baby’s chin. “We got to give her a real special name,” Virgil suggested.
“There ain’t but one name that’s that special.” Maureen gave Virgil a pensive look. “Ruby Jean,” she suggested. “But I refuse to call her Mama Ruby.”
“I can live with that.” Virgil grinned, taking a deep breath, hoping it would make the tightness in his chest go away. “I’m sure that Mama Ruby—wherever she ended up—is lookin’ down on us and she’s real happy to hear that.”
“Yeah, we’ll name her Ruby Jean, then. Big Mo’reen, what do you think about that name?” Maureen said with tears in her eyes and a huge smile forming on her face.
Big Maureen nodded. “Ruby Jean is a good name,” she cooed. “And it goes good with Clemmons.” She paused and kissed the baby’s forehead. “I don’t care what I have to do, ain’t nobody never goin’ to take this baby away from me.”
Virgil looked from Big Maureen to Maureen, giving her a strange look. Maureen knew what he was thinking. He had heard those exact words before. Virgil looked back at Big Maureen to make sure she wasn’t looking at him. Then he smiled at Maureen and winked.
Maureen smiled and winked back at her beloved brother.
EPILOGUE
One year later, San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO WAS THE LAST PLACE ON THE PLANET THAT MAUREEN ever thought she would visit again. Especially at the same time that Loretta was there.
But she was not the same Loretta who had caused her mother so much pain. Loretta had morphed back into the loving daughter that Maureen had given birth to.
Loretta’s modeling career ended long before she thought it would. She had gained a whopping one hundred and twenty pounds during her pregnancy. Right after the six-pound, six-ounce baby’s birth, Loretta had gone on a strict diet and she’d begun to exercise for several hours a day with a trainer. But none of that had done any good. Even after all this time, she was still more than a hundred pounds overweight.
Kyle, the man she had planned to marry, had moved on and the “new friends” that Loretta had made in New York had deserted her too. The agency she had signed with offered to send her out for work with some of the magazines that specialized in “full-figured models,” but that was something Loretta was much too vain to consider.
When she ran out of money, she got a job as a receptionist in an office building on Madison Avenue. While on her lunch break one afternoon, she met Thomas Bruner. He was an air force pilot who was visiting some relatives in New York. Thomas wasn’t much to look at, but he was a good man. As far as Loretta was concerned, all she ever wanted was a good man. Well, she got one this time.
Before Thomas ended his month-long leave, Loretta was in love with him.
She was now married to a man who had advised her in advance that he was also “married” to the military and had fifteen more years to go before his discharge. They lived in a small, nondescript house in San Francisco, an hour’s drive from the Travis Air Force Base across the San Francisco Bay. Thomas spent most of his time on the base. Loretta had no friends, but she had several pets to keep her company when Thomas was away. That didn’t bother her because as far as she was concerned, this was the best she could do now.
“At least by bein’ married to Thomas I’ll get to travel,” Loretta said when she called home to tell Maureen that she had married Thomas Bruner and had moved to San Francisco. Maureen had not heard from her since the conversation they’d had just before Loretta had her baby.
“Lo’retta, I’m sorry things didn’t work out for you in New York and that you gave up modelin’. All I ever wanted was for you to be happy. So if Thomas makes you happy, that’s enough for me,” Maureen told her. “I wish you all of the luck in the world, baby.”
“Mama, I’ve been wantin’ to call you way before now,” Loretta admitted.
“Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know if you ever wanted to talk to me again. Anyway, I got to thinkin’ about you last night, so this mornin’ when I got up, I couldn’t stop myself from callin’ you. I’m glad you didn’t hang up on me.”
“I’m glad you called,” Maureen replied.
An awkward moment of silence followed before Loretta continued. “Mama, I would give anything in the world if I could hug you one more time.” Loretta sniffed. “I don’t want to come back to Florida and face all the people I let down, but do you think that someday you can come visit me so . . . so I can hug you? And, uh, to apologize to you in person for all the ugly things I said and did to you.”
Maureen was touched by Loretta’s words, but she wouldn’t allow herself to get too excited. She didn’t care what happened from now on; she’d approach everything Loretta did with caution. She would never let her guard down again. Not with Loretta or anybody else. Not even Jay. But she was happy to hear that Loretta had begun to turn her life around. It wouldn’t make up for all the pain she had caused, but at least it was a step in the right direction. Maureen was glad that she had not given up on her child.
“I’ll come out there when it’s convenient for me,” Maureen said without hesitation. She was proud of herself. In the old days, meaning the days before she found out about Loretta and Mel, Maureen would have said something like “Oh! I’ll be on the next plane, baby!” Well, Loretta was no longer so special that Maureen had to bend over backward and practically break her neck to please her. Now Maureen would treat Loretta the way she wished she had treated her when it mattered. Loretta was still special, but not a fraction as special as Maureen had made her believe she was during the BM—“before Mel”—days. Maureen didn’t even like to speak his name now. BM made her think of “bowel movement,” which was what Mel was in her book now.
“You can even bring Jay if you want to. I’m so glad that you finally found true love. I hope he comes with you because I’d like to give him a big hug too. I owe him one.”
It was hard for Maureen to believe that this was the same Loretta who had been so arrogant, insensitive, and self-centered and who had broken her heart into so many pieces. “I’ll ask him if he wants to come with me,” Maureen said, hoping that Loretta would conclude the call before she broke down and cried.
“Bye, Mama. I love you and I can’t wait to see you again.”
Maureen hung up, but she didn’t cry. She realized that she had done enough of that. This time she smiled.
Jay was apprehensive about Maureen going to visit her daughter. He declined the invitation, but he encouraged her to go anyway.
A month after Loretta had invited Maureen to visit her, Maureen hopped on a plane.
So here she was. Back in San Francisco, earthquake city.
Maureen occupied a metal folding chair in the cramped living room of the small house where Loretta and her new husband planned to live until he received his next relocation orders.
“Mama, I know I’m beginnin’ to sound like a broken record, but I’ll say it again. I’m so sorry about what I did to you. I just hope that someday you can find it in your heart to forgive me,” Loretta told Maureen as they sat drinking iced tea and munching on Fritos. Since Maureen’s arrival less than an hour ago, Loretta had apologized and hugged her several times.
“I did that a long time ago,” Maureen said. “But I won�
�t ever trust you again,” she added with a laugh.
“I wouldn’t trust me again either. Boy oh boy, what a fool I was.” Loretta looked and behaved like she was genuinely sorry, and this time she was. “Mama, I hope that couple in Canada is treatin’ my baby real good.” Loretta gave Maureen a strange look.
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,” Maureen said with conviction. Big Maureen and Lukas were treating Loretta’s baby very well. In addition to the plan that was already in place, Big Maureen had eagerly agreed that if she and Lukas planned to visit Maureen and Jay at the same time that Loretta did, they would not bring the baby. Maureen and Virgil had also made Big Maureen promise that she would not even show Loretta a picture of the baby. She could show her a picture of a baby, but not the baby that was the center of this strange situation. Maybe years down the road things would change, but until then, they would all stick to the original plan. “Don’t you worry about your baby. I know those people are takin’ real good care of her. You just need to focus on the future and forget about everything that’s happened.”
“You’re right, Mama. That poor baby is goin’ to be just fine. I will focus more on my future.” Loretta offered a weak smile. All of a sudden, her jaw dropped. “Oh, Mama! There is somethin’ I need to show you!” She excused herself and ran into her bedroom. She returned a few minutes later waving a newspaper clipping. “Mona sent this to me. Read it.”
Maureen took the newspaper clipping and read:
FORMER GOONS RESIDENT DIES UNDER MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES IN NEW YORK
New York City police are investigating the mysterious death of a popular photographer that occurred Friday night around 11:00 p.m. Melvin Ross, 43, was in the middle of a telephone conversation with his fiancée, up-and-coming teenage model Debbie Wes, 18, when it happened. Ms. Wes told police that she heard her fiancé say to someone on his end, “Who the hell are you—” and then she heard him scream. Seconds later, she heard a loud crash. When Mr. Ross did not return to the telephone after several minutes had passed, Ms. Wes notified the building manager, who entered the sixth-floor apartment with two witnesses. Mr. Ross had either fallen or been pushed from his living room window. There were no signs of a struggle or forced entry into the apartment, and both doors were still locked on the inside. The coroner’s report states that Mr. Ross sustained a gouged eye and severe trauma to his neck and head. Also, it was determined that he was deceased before his mysterious “fall” from the window. Police are still investigating this bizarre tragedy.
