Sheila and Sylvia were going wild laughing and trying to keep it in, they had to leave the room, and in a hurry, running in fact because they were going to burst out of control. Meribel was holding her burning cheeks, she couldn't wait to get back to mama Gert and tell her what she'd just witnessed and heard.
"Mr. McPherson, what have I told you about trying to tell me what to do? You have no rights to tell me anything! If I want to call Dr. Chan, I will. I am after all, just your friend, just as you are - just - my friend - right? I'll give you a perfect example, lets say you wanted to go to bed with someone, ooooh, lets say, someone I know... a so called friend of mine, well considering the fact that we are just friends - you and I, that is ... I have no say in that. Now do I?-..."
"Ah shit... fuckin' hell... I knew it!"
"...-therefore, by the same token, whomever I should call for whatever reason,YOU have no say in, because we are - only friends... now if you have nothing else to say, I'll get back to the things that I was doing before you interrupted."
"BITCH!!! SHE TOLD YOU!!! THAT BITCH!!!"
"You so much as admitted it yourself, and stop yelling in my ear... doesn't matter-..."
"WHEN SHE TELL YOU?!"
"Doesn't matter... you can do - anyone, or anything, you want to Mr. McPherson. My point is this - you're free... and so am I. Goodbye."
"DON'T YOU HANG UP THIS PHONE!!! YOU HANG UP, I'M NOT CALLING BACK!!" He threatened.
"That's up to you sir... you see that's another thing about friends, they come... and they go. Goodbye."
{{ click }}
Jake broke Sylvia's phone. He leapt to his feet, yelling, cursing, raging, needed someone to punch, Dr. Chan came to mind. He stood calling down the curses of all that was evil. Raging at God for bringing him to this point in his life. Growling low from the back of his throat, "Damn her black soul! Who the hell does she think she is! Pulling this shit on me! NOT ME! Women want me... every fucking where! Dammit! Made me break this ga'damn phone! Something else I gotta replace! Fuck it! I'm done... I don't need this shit! Hell - we just friends anyway! Not even that! Not even that! Not gone be, your friend no more!" He repeated the words he'd heard Isaac say to Mundo, adding the stomp as well, like a little boy having a fit.
"OH MY GOD!! GIRL!! YOU GOT HIS ASS!!! DO YOU HEAR ME!?? YOU GOT HIS ASS HOOK, LINE AND SINKER!" Meribel shouted.
Sylvia and Sheila ran out to hear what was going on and to be filled in on how it ended. After Vivian gave them a replay, with Meribel's excited help, Sheila demanded.
"So what exactly does this mean? You kickin' him to the curb or not?"
"I moved didn't I?" She asked, not wanting to get too much more into it with Sheila present.
"So you not having his babies anymore?" Sylvia asked.
"SYLVIA!!!" Vivian blasted.
"Uh shoot! I'm sorry - I'm sorry!" Sylvia quickly apologized, realizing her error.
"Hang on here a minute! Having whose baby?? Jake's babies? You was gone get pregnant by Jake?!" Sheila asked, hand on hip, head tilted with that, 'I just know you ain't!' look.
"I wasn't going to necessarily have his babies, as much as it was to have my own." She tried to explain.
"And where exactly does he come in on this?" Sheila asked.
"Well, since I don't exactly have sperm laying around, nor can it be purchased at our local Walgreen's, I thought to borrow a few of his."
"Girl you done lost your goddamn mind! And how come you didn't tell me she was planning this?!" She first said to Vivian, then demanded of Sylvia.
"She just told me yesterday!"
"And I'm not telling you nothing else Sylvia!" Vivian stomped, upset.
"Baby I'm sorry, it slipped." She tried to apologize.
"Uh huh... I see now, now ya'll done gone to keeping secrets from me! I see how ya'll gone be." Sheila complained.
"I didn't wanna tell you because I knew you'd be trippin' about it." Vivian defended.
"With good reason! Get yo' ass a goddamn husband first! Then the babies will follow! How exactly was it you planned to borrow a few of his sperms?!" She asked next.
"I was going to have a civilized conversation with him. Have him come to an agreement with me, and then he would go to a clinic of my choosing, deposit the sperms for me, and then I would go and receive them. Simple as that."
Meribel was cracking up. Sylvia stood looking at Vivian like she was crazy. Sheila could only stare, wondering had falling for Jake sucked out all her good sense.
"Girl I have had myself a good time let me tell you!" Meribel started, "Because I wouldn't have missed this mami, for the world! Especially that part, where you would have Jake - go to a sperm bank? I can tell you now, from what I just heard, if you can talk him into sharing a few, he gone want to make them deposits his-self - in person, directly from him to you! You can forget that clinic shit ... ain't no way, but a baby by you two? Oooh, wouldn't it be beautiful Sylvia?" She gushed at the idea.
"I know - wouldn't it?! They should be girls! They'd be out-o-sight!" Sylvia couldn't help herself, she would love to see a baby by Jake and Vivian, of course, through the correct channels, and that would mean her little Jesse James would have cousins his age to play with.
"Would you just listen to yourself? You suppose to be helping this girl make some sense! Not cheering her on."
"Sheila come on, she's a grown woman and as far as I can see, she's doing one hell of a good job handling Jake."
"I think so too mami! You got his ass going! But you gotta stick to your guns! Although, you gotta give a little too, but then, drawn back a bit, because you don't want him to think, ah... I got'er!"
Just then the phone rang. They all turned to look at it.
The answering machine picked it up.
{{ Beep }}
"Don't have to answer the phone, don't need to. I'll be there Saturday - maybe sooner. You think you scare me? Think you can control me? You just a lil'girl... a tiny, little, weakling of a woman. You ain't running nothing here! You be ready Saturday... you be ready! Goddammit!"
{{ Click }}
"Saturday he gone be in for one helluva a surprise." Sheila laughed. "A tiny little weakling of a woman?! Ain't that some shit?"
Sylvia shook her head as she looked at Meribel - both reeling, incredulous with what was happening, while Sylvia spoke up saying, "Obviously that notion runs among the McPherson men, because Shawn has never said it, but his actions have insinuated it, they want their women, to be just that - women."
Meribel nodded her head.
"That's goddamn cavemen shit!"
"Look who talking! You don't act all tough with Dennis! When Dennis home, you be, baby this - and baby that - all sweet and delicate." Vivian reminded her.
"That's because I choose to be that way. When you got a good man, you gotta give yo' man that, make him feel big and strong, like he in charge. I could fight'em, but ain't no reason to, long as he taking care of business, doggone right I do. But he don't demand I be that way, its something I just do. That motherfucker that just hung up, sound like he gone be demandin' the shit. Is Shawn like that Sylvia." She asked.
Sylvia had to take a breath and deal with Sheila after putting it that way, while she hadn't called Shawn a motherfucker, calling Jake one, was a bit too close to directing it at her own husband. She could see that Vivian hadn't liked her calling him that and so bit her tongue not to defend Jake.
"Sheila..." She started.
"Yeah?"
"My husband is a man... a real man. If he feels the need to demand, the right way that is, that I see and respect him that way - and he does what it takes to be deserving, I'mo give it up to'im. So far, he's deserving, so - caveman or not... let me worry about that. You deal with your man the way you see fit, and I'll do the same. If Vivian should end up with Jake... I'm sure she'll have enough sense to handle him the way he's deserving - caveman - or not." Sylvia finished.
"Ain't you something, done got some nerve! Tryin' t'tell me off! He must be all u
p in your stuff!" Sheila made a face, but smiled.
"You know it baby... so don't be knockin' my man while you braggin' about yours! But I ain't mad at'chu though, love you too much for that. Point is, I'm happy!"
"Well take yo' happy ass on home then!"
"I'll go home, when I get ready, doggoneit!"
"I'mo call'em tell'em come get yo'ass - tell'em right where you at! Keep messin' wit' me! And you, let's get this shit and get out'ah here - gettin' late goddammit."
They finished up with no animosity. They were the kind of friends that could tell each other like it was. Period. No one took offence because there was no reason to, they respected each other too much. If one said too much and stepped a bit out of line, it was corrected right on the spot, especially with Sheila - the one often stepping out of line, and she accepted it, because she knew herself and would expect no less from either of them.
Chapter 117
Shawn ate a plate full of fried cat fish and two large bowls of greens. Lydia had cooked them with smoked ham hocks and made a pan of cornbread. He knocked off half of that as well. "Whoooeee, chile you know you can put some food away. I love to see a man eat like that."
"Man ain't got no choice but to eat like that, when he served up food this good. I had this on my mind all day! I had nothing but scrabbled eggs and toast this morning for breakfast, and held off eating anything else because I knew this was waiting - and lemme' tell you - it was worth the wait."
Lydia sat across the table from him grinning. Staring at him as she wondered what made a man like this one, in her kitchen, go for her daughter.
"I'm glad to hear it, since i's just the two of us, min' if I ask you some things?" She opened the discussion.
"No ma'am, you ask me anything you want." Shawn welcomed whatever she needed to know.
"Thank you, ain't too much I know about you other than you can be a charming young man and you seem to be in love with my daughter, question is - why?"
"Well why not ma'am?"
"She black for one thing... you ain't. I can see for myself you a good lookin' man, so I know there been white women somewhere wantin' you. Sylvia told me from before when she was here that you was married once, got a little girl, she livin' wit'ya'll... how her mama take that?"
"Yes, I was married once before - we get along fine now - both of us agree that my daughter is better off with me under the circumstances - because with me is where she wants to be. I love my daughter and if truth be told, I played a greater part in raising her from a babe than her mother. Her name's Angela, and we've always been close. Following the divorce, she was with her mother for a while, but then due to a living arrangement her mother was in, my daughter decided she'd rather be here with me... and she is."
"She don't min' Sylvia?"
"She loves Sylvia - just as I love Sylvia. As for why ..." He stopped and thought for a moment, reflecting back. As he did, Lydia observed him, reading him as it were. She felt a slight pain of jealousy towards her daughter. Not because she was interested in Shawn by any means, but because no man had ever gone through what this one was to get her back. There had been no force within a man to make things work no matter what. If truths could be faced, she knew she hadn't made it easy for one to, or mainly speaking for Lucas Henry. It had taken her many years and a lot of time alone to come to terms with what her sons had accused her of. Running their father off. Yet, no matter what problems existed between them, he didn't have to desert his children, in the physical sense, he had. Financially - she'd gotten money from him. It hadn't been weekly, which would have been nice, but he'd never gone a month without sending something. Never less than a hundred fifty, and as much as five hundred at times and any sum in between. Besides that, she'd never paid a house note, he had, wherever he was, he kept the roof over their heads. She'd never complained about money, because she knew that he must be doing the best that he could. Besides, she'd never been able to find him. He'd always mailed her money orders with no return address.
She rose from the table to clean the kitchen, Shawn rose to lend a hand as he continued.
"...what can I say - there is that special someone, for everyone - that's what I believe. Your daughter - she alone, is that someone special for me." He said stacking his dishes at the side of the sink as she stood washing.
"How you know that? Ya'll just met not long since."
"I didn't need long to know. When it's that certain someone meant for you, it doesn't take long to know it. You just do. The chemistry, the excitement, the rush, the thrill, and the need - the need is powerful - at least it is in me - for her. I wasn't sure at first, but wasn't long before I gave into what I was feeling and that need has only gotten stronger. I'm gonna make a confession to you, you may not like it - but it's the truth - I got her pregnant on purpose."
Lydia stopped and looked up at him, holding the glass she was rinsing under the running water.
Shawn stared down at her mother and waited. When she turned back quietly to finish the dishes, he continued on to say, "I wanted her that bad Lydia, that I - a man, used pregnancy to make sure that in some way, she'd be mine. That sound awful?" He asked.
"It ain't right. Women do that kind of thing and they get put through natural born hell fo'it! I guess i's hard for me to believe a man would do it."
"Ma'am, your daughter - is the kind o'woman, that made this man - feel a need to do it. The fact that she's black has of course never escaped me. I wish you had come to our wedding Lydia, because then you would have met my mother. I think you two would get along fine. You see, my mother, believe it or not - wanted all of her children to marry anything but white."
"What you say?! Yo'mama white ain't she?"
"Yes ma'am - partly so. We've been told however that were we to search our roots, we'd run into one of our great grandfather's who was black. I'm just not sure how great that one is, but he's back there. My mother has some how or another always reminded us of that. She feels that in order to keep that vein strong running through the family we need to bring black in every now and then to keep us, as she puts it, healthy, strong and good looking." Shawn chuckled at the last part.
Lydia grinned as well.
"Lord no wonder you full of yo'self!" She shook her head pulling down storage bowls from above to put the leftover greens away in. Shawn volunteered to do that while he attempted to bring a bit of his humble side forward.
"Ma'am I'm not so full of me as you think. There are times when my looks have done me more harm than good. On the road to learning what it means to be a man, there are so many distractions that can trip you up when your looks are considered, well... you know. I know it certainly made getting your daughter that much tougher. She was put off by my looks."
"Is that right? How you know that?"
"It's what most people think when they see a man like me, that I'm after only one thing..." He looked up at her then as he fitted the lid on the storage container, now filled with greens. "... and when I was younger, that may have been true to some extent. Trust me when I say, I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. And right now, all I want is what most persons want, and that's to be with that one someone who fills you with exactly what you need, to feel whole - complete. For me, that someone is Sylvia McPherson - my wife. And I'll go through heaven or hell, do right or wrong, and fight dirty or fair, to find her, to keep her ... for her - I would."
Lydia couldn't believe the sincerity she was witnessing, yet she had no choice but believe it. Because she could see it in his eyes, they grew moist when speaking about her daughter, and he was looking straight into her eyes, no attempt to hide his feelings, his soul practically open for her to examine.
"I see. Well I didn't tell her you was comin'. I keep that to myself."
"Thank you Lydia. I hope you don't mind, I believe both of my brother's will be here sometime tomorrow. I know Derrick for certain."
"Derrick? Which brother is that? They as handsome as you? Tell me 'bout your family." She asked as they fini
shed up the kitchen and headed for the living room.
Shawn actually blushed with her forthright compliment, following behind her as they clicked off the kitchen light and went to sit down. It was close to 9:30 Wednesday night, and he could feel a giddy anxiousness building for tomorrow. Thursday. The day he would see his wife again. He hadn't heard from her since their argument over the phone, and he hadn't checked his emails for that matter. He was done talking through those channels, he wanted to see her in the flesh. Then they would deal with whatever as he brought her home. Because there was no way he was leaving Chicago without her.
"Let's see..." He began as they seated themselves before her 25inch floor counsel Curtis Mathis t.v.. It was a big solid piece of chunky furniture with an oak cabinet over 20 years old and playing just as good as when she first struggled to buy it way back when.
"I'm the oldest of five. Three boys first, and then two girls."
"Them other two boys, they tall and good looking too?" She coaxed, grinning to see him squirm under her compliment.
"Seems so, actually... I'm the shortest. The other two are taller than I am. Derrick is 6'4 and my youngest brother, Jacob or Jake as we all call him, is 6'3. He's always been the best looking of us three."
"He better lookin' than you? I got to see him. What 'bout the other two?"
"My sisters, Kathy Ann is the oldest girl, and tough as nails! Talk about attitude, man she keeps it in her back pocket. The baby girl is Shanna, total opposite to Kathy Ann, sweet as can be and has always been my heart."
"What they look like?"
"Oooh, long honey blonde hair, pretty - even the tough one when she wants to be."
"Yo'daddy... what he like?"
"Old fashion. Religious. Very strict, well... he use to be. Perfect gentlemen to my mother and women, tough and uncompromising to my brothers and I. He has always believed that women had their place and men had theirs. It was a mans place to be head of his household, the bread winner, and protector of his domain, especially his women. He uh... also thinks that women are the fragile, weaker sex, and so must be excused for their transgressions. He feels that a man aught to know his woman and work with that knowledge accordingly, doing whatever necessary to get them to cooperate with what's right, while not hitting. My father believes any man that lays his hands on a woman in violence is not a man. That's what my brothers and I were raised under."
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