"I was just - so mad, and Mundo acted like - he was on Victor's side... I just went off on him."
"Well, look at you now."
"I know mama, I know it's my fault."
"What happened to anger management?"
"My next appointment is this Wednesday, tomorrow."
"Nice, and you get to go like this." Sylvia shook her head, "Come on, let's head across the road."
Shawn had gone into the house looking for Mundo, finding him and Jake talking in the kitchen. They both turned to him as he came in from outside. Mundo bracing himself, looking humble and contrite.
"Wait until you see your sister's face. Every time I look at it, I get more pissed off!" Shawn stated right away, holding eye contact with Mundo.
"I've talked to him and he gets it, Shawn." Jake blocked more correction, feeling enough was said now.
"Yeah, that doesn't change how she's suffering, does it? One thing I cannot abide, and will not - is a man hitting a woman, it pisses me off! I'm not going to pretend - that it doesn't, not to hurt your fucking feelings! Not when it comes to something like this! I'm telling you now, it better not fucking happen again! Walk the FUCK away! Get in that fucking blazer or come where your mother and I are... those are your only choices! Not fucking hitting your sister!" Shawn gruffly informed him, red in the face and angry. "Now, I wanna know where the fuck Victor lives! Go in my office and write his address down - now!"
Mundo moved quick to do as he was told, saying not another word.
"What are you gonna do?"
"I'd like to fucking kick his ass! That's what I'd like to do! But Crystal would never speak to me again! So, I'm going to have to feel better by telling his feeble ass off! I hate motherfuckin' white guys like him! Can't stand on their own two goddamn feet! Can't stand up for what he wants! Playing stupid ass games instead of being decisive!" He cut Jake a look at that last part. Who didn't fail in grasping the implication being applied to him. He let it slide. His brother was angry, and the last thing he wanted was for them to get into a fight.
Mundo came out of the office and passed Shawn the address. At the same time, Crystal and Sylvia entered the basement.
Shawn folded the paper away and put it into his pocket, and ignoring everyone, trotted up the steps.
Crystal panicked, looking from where Shawn disappeared up the stairs, to her brother. "Where's he going?" She asked.
Mundo stared at her, at the sad look on her face. At the fact that she was even speaking to him, and felt a punch to his stomach.
For Sylvia, the look on her son's face when he saw his sister told her loud and clear, she need not say anything. Plus, Jake was shaking his head behind him, telling her with his eyes to let it go. Considering how angry Shawn was, she had no doubts that he must have spoken to him already. She left her daughter's side, heading for the stairs to catch her husband before he took off.
Jake decided to head outside for a cigarette, leaving the two alone.
"Did you - give him Victor's address, Mundo?" Crystal asked, now that it was just the two of them.
"He ask for it, Crys."
"Oh man, oh man... I can't believe this is happening to me." She whimpered, walking to the sofa and sat down. Still holding the ice to her jaw. The other hand palmed her forehead as she leaned forward, elbow on her knee, trying not to cry again. She had a headache.
Mundo walked slowly towards her, and sat next to her.
"Crys? Hey... sis..." He gulped.
She glanced at him and beat him to the punch. "I'm sorry, Mundo - ... I deserved it." She was going to cry again.
"No you don't! Not what I did to you - you don't! I'm wrong ... I ain't have no business hittin' you like that. Oh man, I am so wrong, I swear to god I am so sorry." He pleaded, feeling two inches tall.
"I shouldn't have went off on you, I know you mean well, I know you love the boys."
"You know I do, Crystal! Shit - you and Victor can't get ya'll shit right, give'em to me goddammit! I'll raise 'em, shit!"
Crystal smiled at him; it hurt to; she winced.
"Aaah man -..." Mundo put his arm across her shoulders. "I ain't mean to hurt you like that, Crys-..."
"Yes you did, motherfucka'!" She was chuckling.
Mundo chuckled as well, "Come on now, no I didn't. That shit's wrong, and ma-a-an - papa-Shawn been going off on my ass! And Jake - Jake threatened to kick my ass - showed me his fist!"
"He did?! No he didn't!"
"Close enough! Shit - I got both of them on my ass! An' I ain't gon' lie to you, that Jake - that motherfucka' sca'ed me a lil' bit! You can't never tell what the hell gone happen wit' white folks! Shit, at least you know with a black man, you just gone get cussed out and knocked upside the head - but hell, white folks?! Yo' ass come up missin'! Shit, ya'll ass liable to find my ass cut up and buried in the woods! White men going off scare me!"
"Stop, fool! Don't make me laugh... oh, oh, oh - it hurts! Yo' crazy ass!"
"I ain't lyin' to you, sis! Shit, Jake had my ass in that bathroom! I thought - ah hell! Mama - mamaaa!"
Crystal laid back on the sofa, trying not to laugh as he went on, "What you laughing at? Hell wit' that! That goddamn Jeffrey Dahmer ass struck fear in a whole bunch a black men! Made us have to rethink our shit!"
"Stop! Don't say no more!" Crystal's stomach was hurting and her jaw was aching.
"I'm just tellin' the truth, 'cause a brother....a brother will just shoot yo' ass! You - you can survive a gunshot; that's possible. But once yo' ass been digested?" Mundo shook his head back and forth thinking about it, "Can't nobody bring you back from a Ziploc. I don't know what mama done got us into. Shit - I'mo have to be careful from now on."
Crystal was in pain, the agony of laughing was killing her.
Mundo sat in front of her, sounding like a little lost boy, "I don't want nobody to eat me. They eat people."
"Shawn?" Sylvia softly called to him. "Maybe you should calm down first before you go there." She suggested, following him from their bathroom where he used it, washed his hands and went into the closet to retrieve his leather.
"I am calm. Very calm, under the circumstances."
"Shawn, she's a grown woman, she has to deal with him, let her."
"Sweetheart,..." Shawn had his jacket on, and gently grasped his wife under the chin, "... fix a plate for me, I'll be back." He kissed her lips, and strode off towards the door and out of it. Sylvia drew in a deep breath, sighing. She walked to her big picture window to see him backing the SUV out of the garage, the flashing of his break lights caught her eye as he carefully turned the vehicle on the road and sped off.
Turning away, all she could do was feed their children.
"Angela! Bring the boys so I can feed you guys."
* * *
Meribel couldn't put her finger on it, but she knew her husband. Something had changed about him over the last couple of days. He was withdrawn. Not his usual easygoing self. There was most certainly something on his mind; to see him this way, was driving her nuts. He was avoiding her touch, and last night he hadn't come to bed until almost two in the morning. The kids were all around the huge table that occupied their kitchen, all eating and chattering away, but he was staring at her as she stood at the stove, turning more flour tortilla's on the eye of the stove. The way she and her mother had always heated or cooked tortillas.
She glanced over at him, and he made it no secret that something was on his mind and she was the source of it. He didn't look away from her. He didn't smile. He didn't wink at her, as he might have, which was his habit. He wasn't staring through her, he was staring AT her. The smoking of a flour tortilla that was burning made her blink and look away. Picking it up quickly from the flame, she tossed it in the garbage, shaking her hand and blowing her fingers. His behavior was disconcerting. It was shaking her up inside. She couldn't read him, because this was so unlike him. He seemed... down. Depressed. Contemplative. Deep within, some kind of maelstrom of the mind. Meribel felt if he didn't ta
lk to her soon, she would go mad with wondering. She was trying hard to focus on the goal of losing weight. She wanted to be sexy for him again. She wanted him to desire her the way that every woman wanted to be desired by the man she loved.
And she did love him. Even in the face of things she was not content with in their relationship, there was no one else she wanted. Walking the tortillas to the table, her kids immediately grabbed for them. He was still staring at her. He was making her stomach hurt. Making her wonder what he was planning, and of course her imagination went wild.
'He's trying to prepare me for something! He's trying to work up the nerve! Oh my God! He's fallen in love with someone else! He's having an affair!' Her thoughts were so troubling, she couldn't sit back at the table to eat. She stared into his eyes, saw his gaze locked into hers. There was sadness there. Meribel looked away and left the kitchen.
Her stomach hurt.
'Oh my God! He's going to ask me for a divorce! I can see it in his eyes! Oh my God!' Her mind taunted her in anguish. She headed for the stairs and up to their room, unsure of what to do.
Derrick's head turned back from watching the door his wife left out of to look down at the table at his ravenous children, wondering why couldn't life be so carefree as it was to a happy child? He watched Joseph standing in his chair, -which he shouldn't be doing, he'd probably fall- leaning over the table to get another tortilla, he loved them. Derrick smiled, he loved that little boy. Turning from him, he stared at his one daughter, she was making faces at Shawn2, who had just rudely belched in her face and then took another bite out of his loaded tortilla. His beautiful children, in a rainbow of colors. Dark and light, two of them white. DJ and Marcus were dark. While DJ sported an afro, Marcus had straight hair, but dark skin. He was almost as dark as DJ and his mother. Quite a contrast from his light brown hair and light brown eyes. He looked like him, all accept for his coloring. Tall as could be, handsome, happy and strong. Girls loved him. Luis looked like a ginger-haired Puerto Rican, not as dark as his mother, DJ and Marcus, but certainly not white. He had a cafe au lait to olive tone about him, with afro-curly hair. They kept it cut short because he hated having a red afro. Derrick smiled, he wasn't sure where that red had come from, but there it was. Shawn2 was olive to white. Sasha was back and forth - summer to winter, slightly dark in the summer, fair-light in the winter. In fact, as he sat thinking about it, they all tanned well in the summer, all accept Joseph, who was the only one of them white. Just plain white, like his father.
Regardless of their range of looks, hair textures, colors, they were all his and he couldn't be more proud of them. From DJ, who was home for the summer - classes ended, to his baby boy.
"Joseph, ask someone to pass you what you want, before you fall." He finally warned him. Joseph obediently sat down as Sasha pushed the tortillas and other dishes closer to him, gabbing away at her brothers; whom all patiently tried to pretend they were paying attention to what she was talking about, when neither could care less. All except Shawn2, who'd just said to her, "Shet up, pea-head! Nobody wants to hear you!"
"Shawn!"
Shawn2 glanced at his father.
"Leave your sister alone."
"She talks crazy, dad! Why'd you guys even have a girl!?"
"No! The question is... why'd they have you!?" She blasted back.
"They had to keep trying for at least ONE good looking kid out the bunch!"
"If that was the case, they would have stopped after you!" She fired back, head working from side to side, hand on her narrow hip.
"No uh, it's like having a thousand dollar bill...who wants only one? Problem is, they only got a dollar next time - you!"
"I'm not no dollar! You the dollar bill! There ain't even no thousand dollar bills - anyway!"
"Yes there is - dumb girl!"
"Don't call your sister dumb, Shawn!"
"She is dumb, doesn't even know there's a thousand dollar bill!"
With narrowed eyes, Sasha looked from her brother to her father, "Daddy, is there such a thing as a thousand dollar bill?"
"Yes baby, there is."
"SEE! What'd I tell you! You never seen one, because not everyone has the privilege of getting one. Like me... I'm a privilege to have." He bragged.
Hurt, because she couldn't think of a come back, she turned to her father, "Daddy, am I just a dollar bill?"
"No sweetheart, you're a five thousand dollar bill! Even more rare to see than a thousand, the reason we have only one. It's nothing you flash around, but one that you frame, admire and cherish. That's you. Come here."
She popped up out of her seat, smirked at her brother and walked to her father, climbing into his lap. "I love you, my special girl. You're worth more than hundreds of five thousand dollar bills, and certainly more precious than a couple of thousands." Derrick hugged her to him, and kissed her brow. Sasha was content to sit there. It was wonderful being daddy's little girl - the only girl. She sat up smiling down the table at her brother, whom she directed, "Bring me my dish of evening fair, please. I no longer wish to sit among peasantry, I find the air surrounding your presence - foul! You commoner! Come - bring it to me!"
Derrick shook, chuckling at her air of supremacy. She had the British, aristocratic accent down to a perfection. He glanced at Shawn, "Well? You heard - bring it now."
"ACH!" Shawn2 gasped. "DAD!"
"Get it here now, boy! Princess Sasha has spoken, do not flail and dawdle about - are you thick? Perhaps a slow wit?"
"Yes father, I think that he is." Sasha, maintaining her posh manner, crossed her arms over her flat breasts, slanting towards her father in agreement. "I feel it may be necessary to increase his training, the boy is apparently dim-witted - should his behavior continue, I shall demand from his hide a pound of flesh... at the very least."
"Aaah, my darling princess, you are the pride of your father, to have such compassion for a commoner such as he! Here boy!" Derrick snapped his fingers, "The princess has spoken, get moving! Else, I'll have to take a strap to you, a pound of flesh for the princess and a pound for the king!" Derrick pounded the table with his fist.
DJ, Marcus, and Luis were laughing as Marcus called out, "Faster boy, faster! Get ye moving, else thy will find a boot up yonder arse!"
"And hurry up, too!" Joseph commanded, standing in his chair again.
Shawn2 stood from the table, eyes shooting daggers at his sister as she sat waiting, he picked up her plate, brought it to her, holding it as if he planned to slap it right in her face.
"If you do ... you will pay." She threatened, as he approached and sat it down.
"Want me to feed you, too?" He offered.
"Come to think of it, yes... I do. Meat please, that chunk... that one there."
Shawn2 pinched it with his fingers.
"Not with your fingers boy, the fork! Are you daft?!"
He grabbed the fork, stabbed it and brought it to her mouth. She bit it off of the fork, chewing in satisfaction.
"That good?" Shawn2 asked.
"Yes, emmm delicious - in fact."
"Probably because, I been diggin' boogers! I been digging boogers! Big fat green long boogers!" Shawn2 sang, backing away and laughing.
"YUCK!!! DADDY!!! I'm gonna be sick!!" She shot up from Derrick's lap, running and gagging to the bathroom.
Joseph stood in his chair making gagging noises over his plate, spitting out his food.
Everyone thought it was funny, except Derrick, who with narrowed eyes informed him, "That son, was disgusting! And it better not be true!"
Derrick stood from the table shaking his head, going to see about his daughter, who looked up at him from the toilet as if she'd been suffering with a malady for years.
"Daddy, he made me sick to my stomach."
"You'll be okay, clean the table off for your mother, okay?"
She nodded that she would.
Derrick walked to the bottom of the stairs and looked up them, realizing that his wife hadn't come down yet. Almost
afraid to climb them, he did. Holding his breath, then releasing it as he went. He was afraid now. Afraid to push her. She wasn't happy with him. Her words spoken when she thought he wasn't listening, still made him feel as if he'd been punched in the stomach. He went to the door of their bedroom, carefully pushing it open. She was on the bed, sitting with her back against the headboard. Her knees drawn up with a Kleenex in hand. She was upset, had been crying in fact.
He stood in the door gazing down at her, as she stared up at him.
She was probably the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. He had literally fallen in love with her on the spot. She had been lost, scared to death, and swollen with Derrick. Never had he seen a more fetching image, than that day in the woods. Trees surrounding them, a soft breeze blowing through the tree tops, adding sounds of tranquility from the rustling leaves. There were wildflowers everywhere, and there he found her, sitting at the base of a mighty oak tree, all alone. He loved her right then. Looking at her now, with her hair straightened, falling around her shoulders, even being a bit overweight, it took nothing from her. She was so much like the wildflowers. He had always loved the woods, and sitting if not laying, among nature and all the beautiful things about it. To find her in the midst of it, gripped him.
"Well?" She asked, looking up at him from the bed.
"Well, what?" He asked softly.
"You finally mustered the nerve to tell me?"
"Tell you what?"
"What you've been mustering the nerve to say to me."
He closed the door, came and sat down on the bed next to her.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He admitted.
"Are you seeing someone else?"
"No! Of course not! Why would you think that?!"
"You've been different Derrick, like you want to say something to me and can't figure out how."
"You mean, like you?"
"What do you mean?" It was her turn to ask now.
"I don't please you, do I? Do you even love me anymore?"
"What are you talking about, Derrick?" Meribel cried, coming forward on the bed, she came to her knees beside him, her heart pounding from the look on his face.
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