BOMAW 4-6

by Mercedes Keyes

  "LET MY HAIR GO! YOU HEAR ME... LET IT GO - I SWEAR FO' GOD I'M GONE POP YO' ASS AGAIN! LET IT GOOO!!!"

  "ARE YOU CRAZY!!! GET THE HELL OFF OF HER!!! NO-O-OW MUNDO - OFF OF HER - NOW!!!" Shawn bellowed, locking his arms around Mundo's upper body to yank him away, but Crystal still had his hair. "LET HIM GO CRYSTAL!!!" Jake had to get in the midst of them to squeeze Crystal's wrist so she was forced to loosen her grip on Mundo's hair.

  Shawn had Mundo, picking him up and dragging him away from her, rushing with him into the other room.

  Jake picked Crystal up from the floor, this while both were still trying to get at each other. Crystal kicking out at Mundo and screaming.

  "STOP IT!!! CALM DOWN!!!" Jake shouted at her, having to lock his arms around her, pinning her arms down by her side and moving her toward the sink away from the table. "Calm down!" Jake grunted in her ear as she struggled to break free from him.

  "NO! HE AIN'T MY-..."

  "SHUSH! I mean it... calm down... don't say anymore, breathe and calm down. Look at your boys... look at 'em! Now calm - down."

  Darren was standing in front of her shaking his arms, screaming for her to pick him up. She began sobbing, picked him up and held him, with Isaac trying to get between her and Jake, not understanding. All he knew is that he didn't want anyone hitting his mama or hurting her anymore.

  "Mamaaa, mamaaa, mamaaa." He cried over and over. Crystal knelt down, feeling dizzy. Her nose was still bleeding, hair mussed, some of her braids loosened. She was trying to wipe her nose and hold them, too. Jake stood with the faucet running cold water, using one of the kitchen towels to wet and wipe gently to try and clean her up. This as they listened to Shawn, for the first time ever, shout at Mundo in the living room.

  "THAT IS YOUR SISTER!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

  "MAN - SHE CAME AT ME FIRST! I AIN'T TAKIN' THAT SHIT FROM HER! WHAT THE FUCK! I AIN'T VICTOR! HELL, LOOK AT ME!!"

  "LET'S GO OUTSIDE - NOW!!" Shawn shouted.

  "OH - I see... so you gone fuck me up now, hm?"

  "First of all... let me explain something to you!" Shawn bit out through clenched teeth. "I don't fuckin' disrespect you! Don't you fuckin' disrespect me! If I wanted, as you put it, to fuck you up... I would already be in the midst of it! Outside! Now!"

  Mundo felt his face burning with anger and humiliation, but headed out the door with Shawn behind him.

  "You don't even know what the hell happened, man, and you gone just take her side and shit!" Mundo started out right away. "Look at my face man!" He cried, turning to face Shawn.

  "Look at your face?! Look at hers! You're a fucking man! At least I thought you were! What kind of fuckin' man, would hit a fucking woman! Your own flesh and blood! Your own goddamn sister!?" Shawn demanded heatedly, talking up close to Mundo, who stood braced, thinking that Shawn meant to hit him. He'd never seen Shawn so mad at him, so he didn't know what to expect, neither did he know how to handle the situation. He was already hurting from having it out with his sister, but the last thing that he wanted, was to have Shawn on him like he was at the moment.

  "She hit me first, man!"

  "So - damn - what! You don't know how to block? You don't know how to defend yourself!? You don't know how to pin her, until she calms down?" Shawn demanded.

  Mundo stood staring at him, tears in his eyes.

  "I'm gonna tell you something, son, listen loud and clear. There is no reason under the sun, for a man to hit a woman! None! Doesn't matter how mad one gets - at her angriest, she is no competition for a man! You actually had your fist in the air, to hit her - again! I could not believe my fucking eyes! NOT FROM YOU!!!"

  "Man, you wasn't there to see her! Crystal goes nuts, man!"

  "You think Crystal is the only woman in the world to get angry? To go nuts?! My sister, Kathy Ann, was like that! If I'd ever struck her back, and believe me, she's hit me many times, and the one time I had to deal with her, my father kicked seven colors of shit out of me for actually hitting her back! Believe me - I never did it again!"

  "So, what you suppose to do, just stand there and let them kick your ass!?"

  "No! Of course not! That's not what I'm telling you! What I telling you is - you do not raise your fist to a woman ever! NOT EVER! If it's your sister, you block, you dodge, you pin her down. PERIOD! If you can't do that - you get the hell out of there! You don't provoke and make it worse! So, if you get a woman, and she goes off on you, you gonna punch her around like you did your sister!?"

  Mundo said nothing, just stood staring.

  "If your mother runs at me, gets mad enough to hit me, according to you, I have the right to hit her, just as you did your sister - is that right? Would you wanna see your mother looking the way your sister does now?! How would that make you feel?! To see her that way?"

  Mundo looked away, starting to feel ashamed.

  "Well? Answer me? Is it okay for me to do it to your mother?!"

  "Of course not." Mundo was forced to answer.

  "Let me tell you something - when it comes to a woman, not your sister, but a woman you're personal with, if you must hit, there's only one place that is appropriate. And that's on her ass! And then, only when there is no other alternative!" Shawn stood a moment and backed off of him a bit, taking a deep breath. "A REAL man - does not use his strength against someone he KNOWS cannot match him; and a fist - to a woman's face, Mundo? Come on man... no way. Even if she threw the first punch. I just want you to know, for the first time ever - I'm ashamed of you. Honestly. I'm begging you, don't ever - be - that kind of man, Mundo. Go on to the house, I'll be there in a minute." Shawn instructed, knowing that this was going to upset Sylvia; but there was little that could be done about that. He had to check on Crystal.

  Walking back into the house, Jake had her sitting down at the table. He obviously put it back on its legs. He stood over her, cleaning her face, talking to her gently. She was crying and holding her boys. Jake looked up at him with tears in his own eyes, trying to remain calm. Shawn's eyes went from his brother to Crystal.

  "Lil'mo... baby, what's going on? Hm? Sweetheart?..."

  Crystal crumbled into tears again.

  "Here, boys - come with me." Jake took Darren, against his will, into his arms and then grabbed Isaac as well.

  "Nooooo, mamaaa, mamaaa." Darren cried out, struggling to get away from Jake, who ignored him and took the boys with him, leaving Shawn alone with Crystal. She was in his arms sobbing and shaking.

  Shawn picked her up as if she were a little girl and carried her to the sofa, holding her as she sobbed. "Shhh - shhh - calm down. Darlin', please..." Shawn shifted back, lifting her face gently to look at it. He held the wet cold kitchen towel now, dabbing at her nose, looking at her swelling jaw, and grew even angrier.

  "I - I don't - kno - know what to do ... I tri - tried - I tried papah - I tried - but - but - I don't know - what to do-o-o-o."

  Shawn held her and felt with all the power in him that she was still a little girl, a lost, frightened, flailing for help, little girl - and now - his little girl. He was pissed at Mundo, pissed at Victor - knowing that he was the root cause for upsetting her, even though he was still pretty much in the dark.

  "Shhh, shhh, shhh - come on - tell me, Lil'mo - what happened, baby?"

  "Vi - Victor - he - he wants the boys - and - he - he's seeing - seeing this girl - his mom - they - they like her - but - not me - not meee - I - I don't know what to do. I don't-..."

  "He's seeing someone else? You sure?" Shawn asked.

  Crystal gave a rapid nod, holding the towel, too - to her nose as she did.

  "How do you know?"

  "I - I saw them. And - he - wants - wants the boys - gonna spend the weekend with her... and his parents - friends... for Memorial - I - I don't know what to do. Why - why is he doing this to me? I - I don't mean - to - to be the way I am." She forced out between hiccupping squeaks, sounding like a little girl. "He says, when we - we divorce, he - he wants - joint - or - full custody." She whimpered bro
kenly.

  Shawn bit into his lip to calm down ... at the moment, all he could see was getting his hands on Victor.

  Chapter 148

  When Jake walked into the house with the crying boys, it was to see Sylvia standing in the middle of the basement confronting Mundo about what had happened. He was crying, trying to explain to her what had taken place.

  "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU AND YOUR SISTER HAVE BEEN FIGHTING OVER THERE?!" Before he could answer her, the boys crying distracted her from him. Angela was sitting on the floor, wide-eyed and watching.

  "What's going on?" Sylvia asked Jake.

  "Angela... come and get Darren." He ordered. She jumped to her feet and did as instructed; taking hold of Isaac, too. "Come on, come go with me." She coaxed gently, trying to get both of them under control. Leading them to the stairs and up to her room, where she could close them in to calm and entertain.

  "We walked in and found them fighting. Shawn is at the house with Crystal. Why don't you go over there and let me deal with Mundo?"

  Sylvia didn't know what to do, she looked from her son back to Jake, deciding to go and check on her daughter. Keeping comment to herself until she knew what was happening, she walked around Jake and went out the back door.

  Jake stared across the way at Mundo. "Go wash your face, man."

  Mundo couldn't move. "I guess you mad at me too, huh?"

  "Not mad... just... I don't understand, Mundo. You see your sister's face?"

  "Jake, man... but she the one who started the shit. Yelling and cussing. She attacked me, she shouldn't start shit she can't finish."

  "Come on... let's see to your face." Jake directed. Mundo turned and headed for the bathroom with Jake behind him. Jake looked for something to put on his scratches and lip, while Mundo rinsed his face.

  Because he had been staying with them for a while, he had come to care a great deal for them both, one as just as much as the other, and so felt compelled to help Mundo see what was so wrong with what he'd done. "Mundo, I'm gonna say this to you, and I want you to listen. Everything that may have been wrong about what Crystal has done, was flushed - the moment - you used your fists on her. You may have been right, up until that point."

  "How you figure that?" Mundo asked, bracing himself at the sink, turning to look at Jake behind him in the small space they occupied.

  "Let me ask you something; while she was going off, were you at any time, afraid of her?"

  "No!" He answered immediately.

  "Okay, why weren't you afraid, with her going off on you?"

  "Ain't nothing to be afraid of, that's why?"

  "Why?"

  "'Cause - she don't scare me."

  "Why doesn't she scare you?"

  Mundo just stared, really not in the mood for guessing games. Realizing that, reading that clearly by his hostile eyes and tight mouth, Jake went on asking.

  "Mundo, I'm asking you, did you at anytime know that you could handle her if she attacked you? Were you aware that you could hurt her if you had to?"

  Exhaling as if tired of it already, he puffed out a, "Yeah."

  "So, why did you?"

  "Because she needed checkin', man!"

  "I see. So-..." Jake grabbed Mundo's wrist and by force, lifted it. Stunned, Mundo struggled with him, "MAN! What the fuck you doing?!" He blasted, trying to take his hand away from him.

  "Calm down! I want you to look at something!" Jake cautioned him, using his muscle and force on Mundo to hold his wrist up high and in hand. "Ball your fist." Mundo hesitated, but Jake held his wrist and waited, showing he intended for him to do it. When Mundo hesitated, he ordered him, "I mean it, ball it up."

  Finally he did.

  Jake balled up his own.

  "Look at yours... look at mine. By the looks of it, my fist is bigger. Because of what I've been doing since I was young, my fist is harder. My knuckles and fingers, are thicker, more calloused, and could more than likely do more damage than yours. If you hit me with your fist, being a healthy, strong young man, it would more than likely hurt like hell were you to hit me right. However, because I've been hit before... many times, I've learned a few things. Possibly enough, to keep you from actually hurting me. You see, I could stop you from hurting me by two ways. One way, I could try and reason with you, while blocking you, dodging your blows, and taking a few; trying to get through to you. Trying to get you to calm down and think. Because I care about you, what's happening with you - that would be the method I'd use to keep you from hurting me. Fact is, if you care anything at all about me, you'd at some point calm down and realize what you're doing. If you didn't, I'd have to walk away, or run - until you calmed down on your own. Not because I'm afraid of you, no, not at all. Reason I'd do it that way, because I know, in my mind and heart, if I needed to, I could hurt you. I could - as you put it - check you."

  Mundo stood staring into Jake's face, with his wrist still held in his strong hand. Standing there, Mundo could feel Jake's strength and knew he'd be in a serious battle, were Jake to totally go at him. His hands were so hard and strong, they were almost unreal.

  "Is it getting through to you, Mundo, what I'm saying?"

  Mundo stared on, unable to respond.

  "Mundo... if I chose to stop you from hurting me the second way, it would mean, that I don't give a shit about you. You see, the second way, is to instantaneously conclude that I could take advantage of our difference, using my strength, experience, and justification. You're wrong, you attacked me, so now - I get to pummel the hell out of you. I get to raise my fist into the air, knowing that when I hit you, it's going to knock your ass into check. You will not fucking mess with me again when I get done. But I'm in the right, because you provoked it." Jake paused, looking into Mundo's eyes. And went on to say, "You took your fist, and used it to slam - it - into the face of your own flesh and blood sister. You used your stronger, larger, more capable fist, to crash it into the delicate face of a troubled, frustrated, hurt - and scared young woman. That's how you used your fist, on someone weaker, and smaller than you. You used your fist on someone you should love with everything in you. Protect with everything in you... to your dying breath. So, can I use my fist on you now? Am I justified? What do you think?"

  Mundo stood breathing hard, his eyes welled up, feeling shame wash over him. He crumbled, "Man, I didn't mean to hurt her! I didn't hit her as hard as I could have. Man, I do love my sister!" He was crying now.

  "Mundo, with your fist... you should not be hitting her at all. Next time, walk away. Next time, block. Next time, dodge. Next time, say, "Calm down Crystal... calm down. I love you, calm down. I understand... calm down." That's your sister. She's the only one you got. Don't be using this on her man... 'cause she's hurting enough. She's hurting enough - he's putting her through hell, I know it, you know it - then, this is what she get's from her brother? A bloody nose and swollen jaw - and - you love her?" Jake let him go. They stood facing one another, Jake passed him the cream he found. "Here, put this on your scars."

  When Sylvia walked into the other house, Shawn was standing over Crystal, coaxing her to put a bag of ice on her jaw. They both looked up at her, Sylvia glanced from Shawn down to Crystal who was sitting on the sofa. Her jaw was swollen, pulling at the left side of her mouth.

  "Oh my God! Oh my God! Look at my daughter's face?! Crystal! Oh my God... look at you!" Sylvia approached her and sat next to her. "Your brother did this to you?" Sylvia could not believe her eyes.

  "It was my fault mama, I - I attacked him." Crystal admitted, her eyes rolling with tears again.

  "Why Crystal?"

  She shook her head and shrugged, looking away from her mother, she held the ice pack to her face. Shawn, still very angry over the whole incident answered. "She and Victor had an argument. Mundo gave her his opinion, she lost her temper. I want you two to go on back across the road, I'll be back in a few. Where does Victor live, Crystal?"

  Crystal looked up at Shawn, her eyes wide. "Why?" She cried, fearing the look
on his face.

  "I just wanna talk to him." Shawn informed her.

  "No, don't go talk to him, please?" Crystal pleaded.

  Sylvia could only stare at him, not sure what to think about what he was planning to talk to him about or do.

  "Crystal, give me his address or I'll look for it. But I will find it."

  "What are you gonna do?" She asked.

  "Just talk."

  "Just talk about what?"

  "That's between him and I, when I get there." Was his response.

  "Please don't do anything to him, they hate me enough as it is." She cried out.

  "FUCK THEM! I am fucking pissed off - who the fuck do they think they are?-..."

  "SHAWN!" Sylvia called in reprimand.

  He ignored her and asked Crystal again, "Where does he live? No, never mind-..." Shawn walked out the door and trotted off across the road.

  "Mama, what is he gonna do?" Crystal squeaked in disbelief that this was happening.

  Sylvia leaned to get a better look at Crystal's jaw, gently touching it. "Baby, don't worry about Shawn. There is nothing you, nor I can say or do, to stop him. I'm sorry honey, but by the looks of it ... whether you want one or not - you've got yourself a bonefide daddy, and I got a feeling he is off to do whatever it is, a daddy like that, would do."

  "Oooh, I don't want him to do anything."

  "I'm afraid it's too late now. Come on, let's head across the road. I've got something to say to your brother. As for you, you gonna have to do something about your impulsions to rage. As much as you want to be loud and proud and in control, you're not. You're just a woman, Crystal. Just a woman, in a man's world. As a woman, you do not need to be engaging yourself in physical battles with them, because you cannot win! Simply because, if they care to hurt you, they will. The only way for a woman to even out the odds, is to use a weapon. Are you willing to go that far, Crystal? You willing to kill somebody? In order to win a fight with a man, its either that - or take up karate."