Tears on a Sunday Afternoon

by Michael Presley

  I laughed a cold dry laugh. “Malcolm, your daughter’s being fed through a straw by Annette. Your daughter can’t even raise her voice when Annette’s around. And when she finds out that Lauren’s pregnant again, who knows what she might do.”

  “I don’t talk to my daughter, but I do understand the effect Annette has on her. I might have to kill her.”

  I smiled. Now he was talking my language. A thorn that I thought would always be in my side was being removed. I was certain that I would have killed the bitch myself, but it would be better if Malcolm did it. So many things had changed since I had killed my father. I now felt empowered to do whatever I had to do to take care of my problems. Taking a life no longer meant anything to me.

  “I believe you can do it much easier than I. I don’t think Emerald would be happy with his father in jail.”

  “You’ve pushed me ahead of schedule,” Malcolm said. “But I’ve seen my daughter with cuts and bruises and I know they didn’t come from you. I agree with you. That isn’t a good environment for Emerald.”

  “Have Dora call your daughter tomorrow and, in seven days, I want my money. I’ll give you two weeks to take care of Annette. I’ll bring the papers giving you legal guardianship and the right to change Emerald’s last name. In return I want you to bring me the three million.”

  “It seems like you’ve really thought this thing through,” Malcolm said. “What happens if I don’t bring the money?”

  I confronted him with my eyes. “Then one day you’ll have to hire detectives to find Emerald.”

  “You realize what will happen when I find you.”

  “If you find me. I read recently that they found a child who went missing twenty-five years ago. Are you willing to take that chance? If you are, then we have nothing more to discuss.” I turned to walk away.

  “Okay, you have a deal.”

  I swung back around to see him extending his hand to me. “Three million dollars.”

  “Yes.”

  Malcolm grasped my hand tightly to see if I would flinch. The time for flinching was over. He held my hand for about a minute, extracting the life blood from it. When he finally let go, I slipped my hand into my pocket; my face expressionless. As I turned to walk away, I knew that the next time Malcolm and I met on those grounds, one of us would not be walking away.

  I drove over to Julie’s house under the pretense that we would be discussing the robbery. In actuality, I wanted to talk about us. She had told me that Brian wasn’t coming over so we could talk. I didn’t want to talk; I wanted to take her in my arms and make earth-shattering love with her.

  She opened the door wearing fitted jeans and a tight, red shirt with the word “Blackfunk” screen printed in black on the front. “What’s up?” she asked, leaving the door open for me to come in.

  “I need directions.” I walked in and closed the door.

  “Where you going?”

  Damn, this will make me sound like a child. “To your heart.”

  “Donald, don’t start this.” She sounded like I had drained the very life out of her.

  I went up behind her. “Don’t start what?”

  I could hear her heavy breathing as her body fought the temptation to turn around.

  “I knew that you would start this. Donald, you don’t want me. I’ve known you for all these years and you’ve never approached me. Now that I’m in a relationship with your friend, you’re bringing this on me.” She sat down on the couch.

  I remained standing. “Julie, I’ll walk away right now if you tell me that you want us to just be friends. I don’t know when it happened but, somewhere along the line, I fell in love with you. I touched you and my blood ran ten miles a minute. Can you honestly tell me that our relationship hasn’t changed?”

  Julie remained silent for what seemed like an eternity. “Donald, you’re so damn selfish. How long have I waited to hear you say those words to me? I’ve seen you through both the sunshine and the rain. I’ve held my feelings for you under my skin for so long; just waiting. It pained me when you walked down the aisle in this loveless marriage. If you had looked, you would’ve seen the tears in my eyes, but you were too wrapped up in the glitter.”

  I was astounded. I knew that Julie liked me but I didn’t know the extent of her feelings. Now it was my turn to feel ashamed and stupid. “Julie, I didn’t know.”

  “Of course you didn’t know, because you could only see Donald.” Julie was crying.

  I sat down on the couch and gently eased her into my arms. “Why didn’t you say something?”

  Julie got up from my chest and turned around to look me directly in the eyes. “You’ve dated so many beautiful women—doctors, lawyers and models. Donald, how could I compete with those women?”

  I kissed her softly on the cheek. “Julie, you don’t have to compete with those women. They meant absolutely nothing to me. I’ve always cared for you but I’ve always run away from you. You know the life I live. I didn’t want you to be destroyed with me. I loved you so much that I didn’t want you to get hurt. You have so much to give a man.”

  Julie rose from the chair and walked away to lean on her bedroom door. “Brian is a good guy.”

  I remained seated. “I agree; Brian is a good guy.”

  “I have no doubt that he’ll stay with me and be faithful. Brian isn’t trying to fuck the world like you.” Her voice was stern and penetrating. “To follow my heart and be with you would only lead to failure.”

  “Do you not want to follow your heart?”

  I got up from the couch and walked to her. She took a few steps back into the bedroom. I had seen Julie’s bedroom a thousand times but that day it felt like I was seeing it for the first time.

  “Donald, there’s a big difference between following your heart into eternity, as opposed to following your heart into destruction.” She sat down on the bed.

  “Julie, I came here to get the directions to your heart. Today, you tell me that I’m already there. You know that I would be lying if I told you that the road I have chosen will be an easy one. Actually, I know it’s going to be an extremely difficult one. I’ll have to do things that might break me or push me forward. I offer no guarantees and that’s the God’s honest truth. But today, I’ll also tell you another God’s honest truth. I love you. In a few days, all hell will break loose and my life will either come to an end or I’ll move on with the journey.”

  I sat down next to her on the bed and took her face in my hands. I pulled her toward me and bent her head ever so slightly as I laid a kiss on her forehead. “It’s your decision.”

  “Donald.” She slipped her hand in mine as I got up to leave.

  “All I’m asking is that you think about it.” I bent to kiss her hand ever so gently. “Tomorrow, I have a terrible job to do.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  I began to make my way toward the door. “Maybe one day.”

  Julie followed me. “Be careful.”

  “I will.”

  As I walked away from the doorway, I turned around to look at her once more. I saw a reflection of myself in her eyes, the reflection of a troubled soul moving toward salvation or an end. It seemed like I had been going back on my word lately and tomorrow wouldn’t be any different. Tomorrow, I was going to fuck my wife, something I said I would never do.

  Chapter 14

  7TH DAY

  I attempted to fantasize so that my dick would get hard as I sat down in front of the 50-inch Panasonic plasma TV. As was the case with most of the latest black pornos, the women were taking it in all three holes. I was watching Gang Bang 179 and while I didn’t see Gang Bang 1 through Gang Bang 178, I assumed they followed a similar pattern. Some fellas got together and then invited a few women over until dick, pussy, ass and mouth were thrown all over the place. The brothers were huge; the white and black women accommodating. A jealous man would’ve taken the remote and thrown it at the TV. I wasn’t lacking in penis size, yet the brothers on the
screen were putting me to shame. With deep concentration and the visual motivation on screen, my penis finally stood up for roll call. This was one time sex was going to be very painful. Lauren and I had exchanged STD test results so, I was somewhat safe to go in without cover.

  As I tugged on my penis, my stomach began to rumble. I wanted it to be the shortest time that it had ever taken me to bust a nut. I was hoping to be in Lauren less than thirty seconds before I sent my soldiers hunting. The more excited I became, the more my stomach rumbled.

  “Come in!” I shouted.

  Lauren came in wearing a pink, see-through negligee. She looked half-decent with her raisin tits and small ass to complement her bony frame. “I thought you would never call me.”

  “It was difficult,” I said as she took her position on the bed.

  Her knees were on the bed and her butt was facing the wall as I had instructed her earlier. She pulled her dress over her butt to expose her shaved vagina. A clear transparent liquid glittered between her vagina, with small rivulets running down her thighs.

  I continued to jerk faster on my penis as I stood up. I went quickly to her and entered her with the utmost ease. As I went in and out of her, my stomach rumbled even more until I felt it. It took me less than ten strokes before I sensed it coming. I was happy and disgusted at the same time.

  “I’m coming!” I shouted.

  By opening my mouth, the nausea that had built up in me came out at the same time. My mouth spewed vomit all over Lauren’s back and her hair while my little soldiers were in a race to penetrate the cell.

  “Oh shit!” She reached around to touch her neck. Her hand became a testament to my meal earlier today.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, not wishing to make an already ugly matter worse.

  “Me too,” she said and turned around and spewed her own vomit onto my chest.

  I turned away with the hope that her vomit would not splatter over my face. The warm liquid bathed my lower body. I stood there transfixed by the disgusting absurdity of the moment. Lauren got up and ran into my shower. I quickly followed her.

  I shook my head as the water cascaded down my skin, brushing against Lauren in the shower stall. “I can’t believe this,” I said.

  “You can’t believe this!” she replied.

  “This is disgusting.”

  Lauren turned around. “Donald, please get that shit out of my hair.” I took my hand and directed the water toward Lauren’s long black hair as I tried to remove my vomit. It was the first time I had touched my wife’s hair in over three years. I took my brush and brushed the vomit out. The warm water was flowing from her hair down her back. When I was finished, I got out of the shower and handed Lauren one of my towels. I took her negligee that I had previously stepped on as I hurried into the shower and put it in a white plastic bag I had on the vanity. I opened the window to let the combined scents of the sex and vomit out of the window.

  “This is a big difference from when we were trying for Emerald,” I said, reflecting on our previous lie.

  Lauren came out to the bedroom, her small frame wrapped in my big blue towel. Her long black hair was matted against her back. “We’re living the American dream.”

  I slipped black pajama bottoms on. “Or nightmare.”

  She sat on my bed. “Donald, you need your freedom.”

  There was compassion and empathy in her voice. It was as if she was caught up in a life that was not her own. “I need a lot of things,” I said, wishing I could fly away from there and start life over again with Julie and Emerald.

  She rubbed her stomach like the child was already forming. She looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. “I’m sorry that I deceived you on the day of our marriage.”

  It was the first time she had apologized for our predicament. “I wasn’t innocent,” I said, wondering if I would have married her knowing that she was a lesbian.

  “What time is it?” she asked in a daze.

  “Two-fifteen,” I said.

  She quickly rose from the bed and removed my towel. She handed it to me and I gave her the vomit-soaked negligee.

  “I don’t think Annette will take too kindly to meeting me in your room, wrapped up in your towel.”

  “I really don’t give a fuck about Annette’s thoughts.”

  “Well, I do. Annette can be very mean when she wants to. Otherwise, she has a good heart,” she said, opening the door.

  There was nothing to say. Lauren knew how I felt about her he-woman. It was only a matter of time before Malcolm put her into the earth where she belonged.

  “Are you going to call the maid?”

  Lauren was about to shut the door. “Yeah, she should be here in an hour.”

  I went to my closet. “My room door will be open, as usual.”

  “Okay,” she said and closed my door.

  I took out underwear from my drawer as I thought about what had just transpired. I was hoping not to have to repeat the performance. In seven days, Lauren should know whether she was pregnant or not. I prayed that she was. Although I had no intention of Lauren having my child, I needed for her to be pregnant for my plan to work. As I was walking down the steps to the front door, the front door opened. It was Annette.

  “Who the fuck you looking at, Bitch?” Annette spewed, her eyes seemingly wishing a million locusts on my body.

  I looked her up and down, then gave her a look of total confusion. “What the fuck are you? Man? Woman? Animal? Reptile?”

  She left the door open. “Get the fuck out of my house.”

  “You know, there is counseling for whatever you have. I’m sure there is help out there for whatever you are repressing. Look on the internet for a doctor or something. You shouldn’t go around looking and feeling like that,” I said, walking past her. “And I don’t think you understand. Just because you’re feeding here doesn’t mean that the title has changed hands.”

  “Your wife is mine, Pretty Boy. Don’t go forgetting that. I’m gonna go upstairs and have her wash my pussy.” Annette’s smile was like a grimace and I stood back.

  “Don’t you mean dick? Oh, I’m sorry; you don’t know what a real one feels like. I’ll let you touch mine if you promise you won’t cry.” I needed a little comic relief.

  “I’m going to get you, Motherfucker. I promise you; I’m gonna get you and it won’t be pretty.”

  “Promises, promises. Go grow a dick.” I slammed the door before she could form a response. As I walked toward the car, I heard the front door open.

  “You betta watch your back, Motherfucker!” Annette shouted from the foyer.

  I didn’t turn around. Instead I got into my car and drove off. I had done what I had to do and now I was doing what I wanted to do. I picked up the phone from the car seat and ignored New York law about driving with a headset as I dialed Julie’s number.

  “Hello, Donald.” Julie never called me Donald on the phone.

  “What’s up? Are you hanging out with Brian?”

  “Yeah, we’re about to go eat. You want to come?”

  I didn’t feel like being a third wheel, especially when I wanted to be the driver. “No, I’m going to take a rain check on that. But you guys have fun.”

  “Hey, you could call me tonight if you want to talk,” she said.

  “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

  I ended the call. I wanted nothing more than to talk with Julie. I wanted to be her lover and her friend. Julie was special and even though it had taken me a long time to grow beyond our friendship, the time had come for our worlds to intertwine. I had crazy thoughts about us. After the robbery, we could sail the world; just her, me and Emerald. Wherever she wanted to go, I would take her. When money was no longer an object, the world would become very small. I had always wanted a vacation home in Barbados; now it would go from being a dream to a reality. I had fucked hundreds of women but now I was ready to settle down with the right one. I smiled—that smile you make when you know life’s about to take a
turn for the better.

  I looked at my watch, picked up the phone and dialed Donna’s number. I was about to get to point D, but first I had to go through B and C. Donna was B; then later I would deal with C.

  “Donald, whatever you do, don’t even try to double-cross me. I’m telling you that right now. I will kill both you and your son,” she said as we sat in the car.

  I reached over and grabbed Donna by the throat. “Don’t you ever threaten my son.”

  She started to make gurgling sounds as I continued to squeeze her neck and pull her up from the seat.

  “O…” She was trying to say something to me.

  I released her neck. “You can threaten me, my wife or anybody else, but don’t you ever threaten my son.”

  She rubbed her neck as if uncertain that she was still alive. “I’m sorry, but I wanted to make sure you understand that this is serious business and I will do what I have to do.”

  Slowly I let myself calm down. Donna had never seen me like that and, from the look on her face, I don’t think she wanted to see me like that ever again.

  “My son has nothing to do with this. Whatever happens, he’s not on the table. I would walk away from a billion dollars if it would hurt my son. But, at the same time, I would kill a hundred men to protect him. In life we make choices; that’s what we do as adults. Your kids have nothing to do with this and neither should my son.”

  I leaned back into the car seat. My hands were shaking.

  Donna looked over at me. “You really love that boy of yours.”

  “Yeah, I do. He’s my life. Five years ago, we wouldn’t be sitting here. He has changed the way I look at life. It’s not all about me anymore.” The vibration in my pocket caused me to take out my cell phone. It was Julie.

  “It seems like your son isn’t the only one who has you preoccupied.” Donna had picked up on the change in my facial expression. “Unless that was your mother calling, and we both know it wasn’t, only a woman has that kind of effect on a man.”