Jake was boiling, he stood calling himself a thousand kinds of fools! How many women!? How many wanted him?! How many were looking for him, hoping that he would come their way, and what was he doing, standing here, taking this shit from a woman he hadn't even screwed yet! Here she was, in the snap of a few seconds, telling him off, and sure enough, just as he'd said, the very thing he knew about - "Them" - black women, she confirmed with her next words.
"...'cause if it is - you know what you can do for me? You can - kiss - my shiny black ass!" With that said, attitude high, Vivian headed for the door.
"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM THAT DOOR, WE'RE NOT DONE - YET!!!"
"OH, YES WE ARE - REMEMBER - OR ELSE!!" Vivian yelled back, snatched the door open after unlocking it.
"YOU JUST TOLD ME - YOU - LOVE ME!? WHAT ABOUT THAT?!"
"I have - changed - my mind! I'm gone tell you something right now, Mr. Jacob Patrick McPherson - you ain't gone be tellin' me - 'or else'! Or ELSE - I'm gone be gettin' the hell up outta your face, like - now! Goodbye!"
"FINE - THAT'S IT! YOU GO OUT THAT DOOR..." Jake rushed around his bed to the door, standing in it to yell at her, "... THAT'S IT, FOR REAL! FOR GOOD! DON'T YOU COME BACK!"
Vivian had made it to the center of Shanna's living room when those shouted words came at her, she stopped, looked back, "DON'T WORRY YO' PRETTY LIL' O'WHITE HEAD ABOUT IT - 'CAUSE THIS HERE ONE NEGRO..." She stopped as suddenly, she heard him barreling down the hall, stomping to get her, "WI-OHH!!!" she let out a shout, spun and dashed for the door. She made it out just as he was about to grab her. Coming from a history of running, speed was something she did not lack.
"VIVIA-A-A-AN - I CATCH YOU - YOUR ASS IS MINE!!!" Jake shouted from the porch.
Vivian stopped and turned to see where he was, she was midway between Shawn's house and Shanna's; he was at the bottom of the steps by Shanna's deck. Vivian grinned, breathing steady from her sprint, not a bit breathless, "WHAT'S WRONG, OL'MAN! KINDA SLOW, AIN'T YOU?!" She yelled at him, laughing at him.
"GET HERE - NO-O-OW!!" Jake yelled.
"NO!"
"DON'T MAKE ME RUN AFTER YOU, IF I HAVE TO CATCH YOU...!"
Vivian started laughing, "OL'MAN - YOU COULDN'T CATCH ME - IF I GAVE YOU AL-L-L DAY!"
Jake's eyes narrowed at her. She laughed, "YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT! THINK ABOUT IT! DON'T EMBARRASS YO-...... WI-OHH!" She yelped, spinning and took off running again, he was after her. She gave a quick glance at the road in her dash to make sure it was clear and sped across it, running as fast as she could, thanking God above she wore her sneakers that day. As fast as she was, she could feel and hear Jake closing the distance, she increased her speed, praying to get to Sylvia's and then into that basement door, through both of them and to Gert, before he caught her.
Chapter 167
Shanna was in the midst of laughing and talking, telling the circle of women the happenings of herself and Officer Collier, when Vivian burst through the basement doors as if all hell had broken loose. "MAMA GERT, MAMA GERT - TELL JAKE LEAVE ME ALONE-E-E-E-E!!!" She crashed into the basement screaming, with Jake not far behind her.
"What in blazin' hell! VIVIAN - JAKE!" Gert stood up, as Vivian came rushing across the room to stand behind her.
"I know ya'll done lost ya'll mind!" Sheila snapped, looking from Vivian back to Jake.
"What is wrong with you, girl!?" Sylvia asked.
"You wait, 'till ... I catch - my ... my breath!" Jake warned her, leaning in the doorway, gasping, trying to breathe. Standing behind Gert now, Vivian's cockiness reared it's head once again. "Catch your breath?! A minute ago, you was tryin' to catchme! Now you tryin' to catch your breath?! Make up your mind what you want, to catch me, or to catch your breath? 'Cause ain't no way for you to catch both! Tryin' to catch me, you sho'nuff gone lose your breath! That's what smokin' them cigarettes get you, tryin' to-... WI-OHH!!!" She yelped the hoot, hollering and rushed behind Sheila's chair and then Sylvia's, as Jake came at her. "MAMA GERT, TELL'IM GONE NOW - LEAVE ME ALONE!!!"
"JAKE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" Gert stood, trying to block him.
"Momma, move out the way now! She thinks 'cause she ran in here to you, that's gonna save her!"
"Save her from what, I'd like to know?!" Gert demanded.
Shanna, shocked, was looking from Vivian to Jake. Vivian was eyeballing the stairs. Shanna started giggling, she could see the mischievousness in her face, and started scooting her chair over to give her a clear path to make it. Vivian glanced to the stairs, and then to Jake, wondering if she could make it.
"You know what, momma - you just don't know what she does to me! All you see is the sweet Vivian... ohhh, my black velvet! My sweet lil' shining star! Oh, I can't wait-..." Everyone started laughing at him, he was red in the face, sweating, hair all rustled and standing up. Fussing at his mother, pitching his voice in a woman's tone, attempting to imitate her.
"What I do to you!? I ain't done nothing to you! You the one trippin'! Tell yo' mama what you said! Tell her what you told me!" Vivian fussed from the far side of the kitchen, with the table, chairs, Sylvia, Sheila, Shanna, and Gert between them, Crystal and Angela standing behind her, shocked and laughing.
Jake growled, looking over his mother's head at Vivian, pointing at her, he promised with a threatening slow shake of his head, "Wait 'till I get my hands on you."
"See, mama Gert, he threatening me! And by the way, he been beatin' on me!"
All the women in the room turned eyes at him, "WHAT!?" Gert, Sheila, and Sylvia said at the same time, accusingly.
"I - YOU - UGH!! WAIT 'TIL I GET YOU THIS TIME!!!"
Shanna stood this time, shocked, "JAKE! You've hit her!?" Shanna asked, stunned.
"I - WAIT A MINUTE HERE! SHE HIT ME - THREE TIMES!!! I JUST SLAPPED HER ON THE ASS! TELL THEM WHY I SLAPPED YOU ON THE ASS! LIKE I'LL BE DOING IN A MINUTE, WHEN I CATCH YOU!"
"Are you sure - you want me to tell them that?!"
Everyone swung their eyes from her, back to him, narrowed, accusingly.
"Don't any of you look at me like that! I'm a man! I'm not ashamed of being a man! But YOU!..." For what he was about to say, he looked at Angela, "YOU - get up them stairs! Out of earshot, I don't want you hearing this."
Angela had a brief stomping fit, pounding one foot onto the floor, not wanting to leave the basement, "Sylvia!?"
"Baby, gone upstairs a minute, ain't no tellin' what this man about to say, go on now. You can come back down in a minute."
"ACH!" She gasped exasperated, and stomped up the stairs. When she was gone, Vivian crossed her arms over her breasts, "As you were saying?"
"Look at her! See what I mean, momma?!"
"Well, what's she doin', Jake?"
"If I let her have her way, I'll wake up one day, and she'll be clipping my dangling - balls - on her ears, asking me, you like my new earrings?!" He gestured, shaking his head as if her, and wearing them to make them swing.
All the women gasped out loud, then sprayed and snickered, when Gert, trying to play it off yelled, "JAKE! That's a terrible thing to say! Mind your manners and stop exaggerating! After all, what would she wear with'em?!"
Sheila squealed, her and Sylvia slapping each other a high five. Jake saw it and growled some more. Feeling sorry for him, Sheila turned to Vivian, "Girl, what you done did to this man?"
"I haven't done anything to him!" She defended herself to Sheila, then to Gert, "Mama Gert, tell'im to stop it now! 'fore he hurt hisself trying to catch me! He the one that started it! You still haven't told your mama what you said!"
"You all need to sit down somewhere, for somebody get hurt!" Sylvia called out, shaking her head, trying to help Shanna shuck all of the corn.
"Well, one thing is certain, I am shocked at you, Jake! I can't believe you'd raised your hand to my sweet Vivian!" Gert reprimanded him.
"Your sweet Vivian?! Do you know what she says to me!? How she treats me?!" Jake fired out.
"I treat you as well as you deserve to be treated!!" V
ivian sassed with her head going.
"Do you see! Look at her! Look at her! And you want me to spend the rest of my life with a woman like that! You wanna know what she told me!? What she says to me? I'm not gonna put up with it!"
"Nobody's forcing her on you, Jake! What she say to you!?" Sheila asked, needing him to get to the point.
"Yeah, what does she say, son!?"
"Yeah, we wanna know what she says?!" Shanna demanded with the others. Sylvia and Crystal stared, waiting.
Jake tried to imitate her by cocking his hip and rotating his head, but his body just didn't move that way; they started laughing before he could get it out, "AH - laugh! Yeah, you're all the same! Especially black women! You all know how you are! Every last one of you! You, you, you and you, too!"
All four of them were on their feet then, "Hang on here! What we got to do with what's going on with you all?! Black women!?" Sheila demanded with her hands on her hips, "Yeah, why you got to include me in on it?! I haven't done nothing, trying to chill, and you bringing me in on it!" Crystal argued.
"That's because I don't know who's worse, you, or the one I'm getting!"
"What's that suppose to mean!?" Crystal fired back at him.
"I can tell you now, you ain't gettin' nothin' here, now Charlie!" Vivian sassed again. "'Cause I have told you what you can do!"
"THAT'S IT!!! FULL CIRCLE - RIGHT THERE - MOM - YOU KNOW WHAT SHE SAID TO ME? WHAT SHE SAYS, AND I'M NOT GONNA HAVE IT, I CAN TELL YOU THAT - RIGHT - NOW! 'CAUSE I'M NOT AFRAID OF YOU, NEITHER ONE OF YOU... No, sirsee I'm not..." Jake lowered his voice and looked at them as if they were plotting against him, "...'cause I'm just the kinda man you need! Yeah - that's right, I said it! I can handle either one of you - that's right - every one of you! And if necessary, all at the same time - that's right!"
"Son! Have you lost your mind?" Gert couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"He must have! How he gone handle all of us, if he can't even deal with her! Hmph!" Sheila pointed out, sitting back down.
"It's her! She's doing it to me! She is!" Jake pointed at Vivian, who stood smug, smirking at him, taunting him even more.
"You still haven't told us, what she said!?"
Jake attempted once again to imitate her stance, "She says to me, "You can - kiss - my assss! No - kiss my - shiny - black - ass!!"
Sylvia had been drinking some water and sprayed it and almost choked from laughing at him. Sheila was laying back in her seat, her stomach hurting, wiping the tears from her eyes. He looked so harassed and worn out. "OKAY - OKAY - JAKE'S HERE! Obviously I'm here for all of your entertainment! Mom, you especially - you aught to be ashamed of yourself. Setting me up, for a life of suffering."
"Son..." Gert was wiping at her tears, "... all I can say is, if you can't take the heat..." All the women joined in to say, "Get the hell - out - the kitchen!"
"CAN I COME BACK DOWN NOW?!" Angela shouted from the top of the stairs.
"Yeah, chile! Come on back down!" Sylvia was shaking her head, trying not to laugh at him anymore.
Vivian was guffawing so hard, she almost missed his move as he darted for her, "WI-OHH - HELP! NOOOOO..." She rushed for the stairs, Angela had to jump aside, as they came up them, Jake grabbing for her leg.
"YOU TWO LET MY BABY BY, 'FORE YOU HURT MY CHILD!!" Sylvia shouted, seeing Angela try to stay out of their way. "NOOOO, JAKE, STOP IT! LET ME GOOO!" Vivian screamed as he grabbed her leg, she was scrambling so, she got away as he barreled up behind her. Angela making it down, gasping from trying to stay clear of danger.
"You alright, baby?" Sylvia asked her.
"They're crazy!"
Sylvia ran to the stairs, "YA'LL BETTER NOT BREAK NOTHING IN MY HOUSE!!! UP THERE ACTING LIKE YOU BOTH HAVE LOST YOUR MIND!!"
All they could hear was running, stomping feet, and Vivian's yelps and screams, trying to get away. They heard the door slam, then open and slam again. Them running around the house, and finally back into the basement, and this time, Jake caught her just as she made it in the door.
"MAMA GERT - MAMA GERT - TELL'EM STOP IT!" Vivian squealed and screamed. Sylvia and Sheila were back to preparing food, ignoring her, shaking their heads.
"YEAH! Miss kiss ... my ass!" Jake was gasping, so out of breath, but he wasn't letting her go. He'd had to dig deep to catch her. Had almost given up, but she laughed at him outside, stuck her tongue out at him, called him 'ol'slow-flaky-ass-cracka'! "Stick your tongue out now. Ol'flaky ass cracka', huh? Slow flaky ass cracka' at that!" He had her across his knee, holding her there, his big leg over the back of hers, and leaning with her trapped under his upper body and arm. Her wiggling behind, right out in full view.
Gert was trying not to laugh.
"Jake, land sakes... turn that girl loose, now!"
"No! I'm not! Tell my mother how you've been tauntin' me! Tell her - tell her what you called me outside!"
"No! You can beat me till I'm black and blue!"
"Well, you half of that now! You better say it, or the ass slapping will commence!"
"MAMA GERT, TELL'EM STO-O-OP!" Vivian whined, trapped and breathing hard.
"Jake, leave'er alone! You better not hit her!" Shanna called from the kitchen.
Jake leaned down close to her and spoke low, so only she could hear him, "You going back to the other place with me, so we can talk?!"
"No! You're the one who said to me 'or else'!" She spoke in a low clipped tone, laying over his leg, as if they were accustomed to conversing that way.
Gert shook her head, turned away and sat back down.
"Let me up!" Vivian ordered.
"Take back what you said first!"
"You take back what you said!"
"Okay, I'm sorry I said 'or else'. Your turn."
"I ain't got nothing to take back." She returned, still over his knee.
Sheila was looking at them like they were crazy. "Can you believe this shit, what is that?"
Sylvia shook her head grinning, as Gert answered, "Tha's lu-u-uv."
"Are you all just gonna sit there and let him do this to me?!" Vivian shouted from her upside-down position.
"Jake! Let her up now!" Shanna re-ordered.
"Jake, let me up, the blood's rushing to my head!" Vivian cried.
He moved his leg away, leaned back and let her go. She sat on the sofa, adjusting her clothes, fixing her hair as he leaned there next to her, staring at her, his eyes squinting from resentment. "I wish you would stop looking at me that way." She whispered for his ears only.
He laid back a few moments more, just staring at her. Finally, he grabbed his knees and hoisted himself forward and up. Saluted to her, then turned and left the basement. Vivian sat there for a while, staring back and forth from the door, over to where the women sat cooking.
"You better go on after that man, 'cause we don't wanna hear it later!" Sheila spoke up, "Oooh, Ja - Jake, oh, my Jake!" Sheila teased without even looking her way.
"Oh, hush!" Vivian growled, pouting now. With a sigh, she hesitated, and then finally stood, and slowly left the basement. When she made it outside, he was nowhere to be seen. She walked slowly to Shanna's home, up the steps and into the house. The door wasn't locked. She went back through the living room and kitchen, down the hall and to his door. Taking a deep breath, she pushed it open. He was in there putting his things away. She leaned in the door, waiting for him to say something, to look at her.
He carried on.
She went over to the bed and sat down, watching him. Finally she spoke to him, "Did I hurt your feelings calling you names?"
"Nope... I've been called worse. That didn't bother me one bit."
"Then why are you mad?"
"Because you don't - fuckin' say you love someone - then fuckin' take it back! I don't fuckin' tell anyone I fuckin' love them, unless I fuckin' do!"
"Ooh, well, fuckin' excuse me, I'm fuckin' sorry!"
"AND DON'T BE USING THAT FUCKIN' LANGUAGE! It's not fuckin' lady like! Lil' girl!"
Vivian sat, stared and finally sighed.
He continued on putting his things away. She moved back on his bed, picked up the remote on the side table and clicked on his 19 inch TV - he had cable, so she was flipping through his channels as he continued on.
"You want me to help you do that?" She asked softly.
"Nope. I get a feeling I better maintain my usual routine."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
He wouldn't answer, just carried on instead.
Vivian flicked through channels, while staring at him. Her pride made it hard to do, but she finally took a deep breath. "I meant what I said. I meant it - when I said - I love you."
He stopped a moment, putting one of his shirts on a hanger. At the closet, he turned to look at her. Then back into the closet, hanging his shirt on the rod. He walked around his bed, and stood there gazing down at her.
Vivian glanced up at him. "Well?" She asked softly.
"You scare me." He said it softly, honestly. "You're so young. Are you really ready for me? Am I really ready for you?"
She scooted over on the bed to the far side, then patted the space she'd vacated. Sighing, Jake laid there, kicking off his shoes to put his feet up on the bed; next, his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling. Wondering what things he contemplated, Vivian's eyes took advantage to adore him. His eyes shifted to her with a tilt of his head, he smiled. "Calling me an old ass flaky cracka'." He grumbled. "I'm not old - yet!"
She giggled, and surprising him, straddled him. "I got you now!" Grabbing his thick wrists, she pretended to pin him down, holding his arms out away from his head on the pillows. She didn't like him like this, unresponsive to her, as if upset. "Why you gotta be like this, you know I didn't mean it." She beckoned for some understanding, then, hesitantly, "Your turn, now - say it!"
Jake smiled, "Say what?" He replied, grinning up at her.
"You know what ... tell me."
BOMAW 7-9 Page 28
