A Sister's Survival

by Cydney Rax

  Elyse was silent for a while. She waited until she knew that Natalia had fallen asleep.

  “I did what I had to do,” she said.

  “Meaning?”

  “When I was in that room trying to pack my stuff, I heard him come through the door. And I was tired, Coco, so sick of him trying to take advantage of me. Thinking I was weak and a toy that he could play with. And I kind of lost it in there. I was like, ‘If you want this come and get it.’”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Yes. I was trying to use reverse psychology. Dru told me about it. I thought that if I freely offered my body to him then he wouldn’t want it anymore. So, I did kiss him and stuff. But nothing more than that happened. Because you walked in after that.”

  “Wow, Elyse.” Coco was stunned. “But honestly, baby girl. Did you want him to fuck you?”

  “No. Don’t even ask me that question.” Elyse was stubborn and angry. “I don’t like him and I don’t want him touching me.”

  “But did I hear y’all kissing, Elyse?”

  She nodded. “Yes. I made him kiss me.”

  “You did?”

  “Yes!”

  “But why did you—?”

  “I was trying to survive, Coco. I had to do the first thing that came to my mind to make it out there alive.” Elyse began to cry. “I wanted to let him know how it felt to be me. To feel powerless. And I thought if I acted like I really wanted him, it would turn him off.”

  “That’s risky, though, Sis.”

  “I know, Coco.” Elyse shuddered to think what might have happened if Coco hadn’t interrupted. “I tried to do something I hoped would work. If I messed up, I’m sorry. I don’t care about him. I don’t want him at all. I want my man.”

  Coco nodded, understood. She knew that Elyse had been excited when Gamba told her that he’d be coming back to Houston soon. But then she got a second call from him informing her that plans had changed once more. Elyse was so frustrated. She missed Gamba. And now she again had no idea when he’d be back.

  She felt like she was losing her strength.

  And she sorely needed his presence to face the challenges she’d be forced to handle.

  “It may have sounded and looked bad. But I swear to you that all I was trying to do was survive, Coco.”

  “I know, sweetie. Because I was trying to survive just like you.”

  Chapter 20

  Death Is Better than Life

  The big house in The Woodlands was silent all throughout the evening. And that’s what Liz noticed when she first walked in the door early the next morning. She used her key to enter the house. And that’s when the strong aroma hit her. She sniffed. Gas filled her nostrils. She covered her nose and immediately slammed the door shut. She’d had a key to the garage door that she’d go through in order to enter the house by way of the kitchen.

  Liz’s mind raced.

  “What’s going on with the gas? Why is it leaking?” Alarmed, she got her cell phone and dialed Mrs. Taylor.

  It was six in the morning. And she’d never tried to contact her boss that early before.

  The call went into voice mail.

  “Mrs. Taylor. It’s Liz. This is an emergency. You have a gas leak at your house. I’m going to call the gas company. I-I—call me back.”

  Her mind whirled. Her heart pumped with fear. She thought about the girls. Liz had been working there since midsummer. Her normal procedure was to arrive at the house around six. Burgundy would already be up, but the girls would still be sleep. Liz would enter the house and, if needed, get breakfast started. She’d wake up the girls and get them ready for the day. Sometimes Natalia and Sidnee would have a schedule that included participating in planned activities created for children. Summer day camps, aquatic centers, and boat houses. Liz would play chauffeur and security guard. Basically, she’d do anything and everything that was asked of her—as long as she was with the girls.

  Liz decided to turn around and take a few steps back down the walkway that led to the house.

  “What on earth is going on here? Is the house about to explode?” She peered up to look at the windows of the second floor. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. But looks could be deceiving.

  When she first came to work for the Taylors, she was impressed, almost intimidated. This husband and wife were as close to a “power couple” as she’d ever been. Working for them was fascinating as well as stressful. She never wanted to make any mistakes while having the girls in her care.

  While Liz stood there gazing at the house and fretting about what might happen, she realized she still had not hung up from the voice mail she’d left for Burgundy. Feeling anxious and embarrassed, Liz hung up and called Nate.

  That call also went into voice mail. She left him the same message. Liz pulled up the Internet on her phone and located the number to CenterPoint Energy. She hung up and waited.

  When a gas truck arrived, she identified herself and explained what was going on.

  “Is there anyone in the house?” the gas company employee asked. Another uniformed male was also with him.

  “Not that I know of. I called the owners of the house but got no answer.”

  “I see.”

  Liz used her to key to let them in. She waited outside, her heart wildly beating as she imagined what might have caused the leak.

  The men were gone for about five minutes. She dialed Mrs. Taylor again while she waited but got no answer.

  Soon the first guy came back outside. “It was hot in the kitchen. And I noticed the oven had been left on. We shut off the gas and have opened all the windows. There’s a smell. We know it as ethyl mercaptan. It’s a pretty strong odor, but it’s very strong on the first floor, and some has seeped up to the second. This is a huge house. It’ll need to get it checked out. So I’ve called HFD too. We’ll need an ambulance. There’s a man lying down in a room. He’s unconscious.”

  Liz let out a long wail. “Oh no. Please God. There are kids. Baby girls. Check their room. On the second floor. Hurry.”

  The man raced back upstairs. Liz paced outside the house, her mind racing as she waited.

  The day before when she had had to go on her errand, she’d promised Sid that she could go with her. But the girl changed her mind at the last minute, and Liz left the house without thinking any more about it.

  Soon the man came back downstairs. “There doesn’t seem to be anyone else in the house. I checked all of the bedrooms.”

  Liz sighed in relief. “That’s good, but I don’t know where the girls could be. If their daddy was here, where are they? Why wouldn’t anyone call me and tell me that the girls aren’t here?” She explained that the lady of the house was out of town.

  Soon an emergency vehicle siren could be heard wailing in the distance.

  After a brief moment, a red Houston Fire Department vehicle pulled up in the driveway. Liz stood by in a daze and watched as two paramedics rolled a gurney into the house. A fireman was also with them. She wanted to run inside so bad. What if the girls had crawled into their parents’ bed to go to sleep like they were known to do? That would explain why the men hadn’t seen them in their own bedroom.

  “Please check the master bedroom,” she called out. Too afraid to enter the house herself, she wrestled with a foreboding that something bad had happened. So she began to pray.

  When Nate was wheeled from the house his eyes were closed. He looked asleep.

  “Do you know, can you tell, how long that gas was on?” she asked.

  “No, ma’am. But if his brain didn’t receive enough oxygen. . . anyway, we are taking him to Memorial Hermann The Woodlands. We need you to follow us. We’ll need some information.”

  “Of course.”

  Liz stood to her feet. She could barely think. But as she drove, Liz recalled all the conversations she’d heard between her employers while she’d been in their presence. She knew they did not have a very happy marriage. She knew that Nate was forced to sleep in another room
and not with his wife.

  “Maybe he was very unhappy. Maybe his wife is trying to leave him. Oh God, why is this happening?” She prayed that everything would work out and wondered how much she could disclose since she’d signed that nondisclosure agreement.

  “What if these people fire me for telling their personal business?”

  A few minutes before she reached the hospital, her phone rang.

  “Mrs. Taylor. Oh, my God. You have to come to the Woodlands hospital right now. Your husband—”

  “Liz, what’s going on?”

  “The gas oven was left on at the house.”

  “What? Why? Where are you?”

  Liz explained where she was and everything that had happened since she got to the house.

  “My goodness. I’m in Seattle . . . at a convention. I’ll have to catch the first flight out. How is my husband? Did you get to talk to him?”

  “No, ma’am. H-he was unconscious.”

  “What? Is he going to be all right?”

  “I-I don’t know, ma’am. I just don’t know.”

  Burgundy pressed her head into her chest with closed eyes. She hung up the phone and looked next to her. Ed was there in her hotel room. He was resting on the couch. They’d stayed up all night talking and didn’t fall asleep until a couple hours ago. It was around six-forty in the morning in Houston. Four-forty in Seattle.

  Suddenly a gust of freezing cold air blew in her direction. Her teeth started chattering. Burgundy regretted that she did not wear an extra layer of clothing that would provide protection from the brutal elements. But it was too late. And even though she was fully clothed, she felt naked. Vulnerable. Her husband was in trouble and she was in a hotel room with another man. They’re weren’t doing anything but talking. So why did she feel so guilty? How did she get here?

  It’s only after you’re in a jam that you think about the things you’ve done to put yourself there.

  “I’m scared, Elm, so afraid.” She stood up and paced the floor with her bare feet and the perfect pedicure.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “My husband has been in an accident. And they’re taking him to the emergency room.”

  “What happened?”

  Burgundy explained what she knew to Ed.

  “Why are you still here? You should be on the phone trying to find the first flight out.”

  “I am. But I feel so frozen. Like my brain stopped functioning. I hate when I feel this way.”

  “I see. You want me to help you.”

  She nodded and closed her eyes.

  Edmund took care of everything. He found a flight back to Houston for her. She rested on the bed as he placed phone calls. He knew she’d need to charter a private plane. Flying domestic out of Seattle that day would take hours.

  “Burgundy, prices start at seventeen thousand.”

  She nodded, got her purse, and handed him a credit card.

  While Edmund made the arrangements, Burgundy sat so stiffly that it was like she no longer had a heart.

  Soon Edmund was talking to her again.

  “Don’t you want to pick up your cell?” he asked in between calls. “It’s ringing off the hook.”

  She snapped to it and answered her phone.

  “Hello?”

  It was Liz.

  “Mrs. Taylor. I’m sorry to tell you this, but . . . your husband died. They couldn’t save him.”

  “What? Oh no!” She screamed and threw down the phone.

  Burgundy did not hear as Liz went on. “And we can’t find Sid. No one knows where she is.”

  * * *

  When she finally landed in Houston, she took a car service that Edmund arranged to transport her so she wouldn’t have to worry about driving herself. Soon they were on the way to a hospital in The Woodlands.

  Burgundy got escorted to the room in which her husband’s body lay. Burgundy slowly walked to his bedside. Nathaniel Taylor lay still. The room was so quiet it was eerie.

  “I can’t believe you’re gone,” she said. “I wish this wasn’t happening. Talk to me, Nate. What happened?”

  Before long the room began to fill up. Julianne, Nate’s sister, stormed into the room with her hands shoved inside her jacket.

  “That’s two brothers I’ve lost,” she said. “My parents are gone. Now it’s just me.”

  Burgundy hugged her. “We’re still family. That won’t change.”

  They held each other up without saying another word. Alita and Dru showed up. But Coco and Elyse were missing from the gathering. No one noticed at first.

  “Damn, I feel bad now for every negative thing I spoke about the man. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody,” Alita mumbled. She could barely stand it and left to go sit in the lobby.

  “This is fucked up.” Her niece Natalia came to be with her.

  “Where is Sid?” Alita asked.

  Little Natalia hunched her shoulders.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “When did you last see your sister? You’re supposed to watch her at all times. That’s what big sisters do.”

  “I dunno. I dunno,” Natalia cried.

  “Think. Try to remember. What were y’all doing yesterday?”

  “We got up. Took our bath. Ate our breakfast. We played with Liz. She got a phone call. And . . . and.”

  “Think harder.”

  “I can’t.” Natalia burst into tears. Alita realized she shouldn’t be pressuring a seven-year-old. Especially one that was usually accustomed to having things go her way.

  Alita stood up. She walked back into Nate’s room.

  “B, where is Sid at? Why isn’t she here with us?”

  Burgundy looked confused. “Sid? I don’t know. Liz should know. Find Liz.”

  The next few moments resulted in confusion, shouts, accusations, and threats. Burgundy decided to leave the hospital. She signed the necessary papers regarding Nate’s body then had Alita drive her all the way to The Woodlands. Natalia was in the car with them. Liz followed behind in her own vehicle.

  But before they reached Burgundy’s house, she got a phone call.

  “This is the Houston Fire Department,” a man said. “And a child who appears to be around four years old was found—” The man continued talking. After a while Burgundy stopped listening. She stared into space. She reached over and gripped Alita’s arm, pinching her skin until it was raw.

  “They found Sid. They found her.”

  “What? What do you mean found her? Is she all right?”

  “They told me she had a seizure in her sleep.”

  “But is she all right?”

  “They found vomit in her mouth.”

  “B, is Sid all right?”

  “My baby is unconscious.”

  * * *

  There usually comes a moment in a person’s life when they question God.

  Why?

  That’s all I want to know. Why did you let this happen? Why didn’t you stop it?

  Why, God, why?

  And Burgundy knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she believed in God. In his existence. In his ability to provide, protect, and deliver people out of trouble. Moses was proof of that. And so was David. You can’t forget Daniel, who was trapped in that lion’s den. And there were many others.

  But none resonated more than Job. The man who saw so much trouble that he despaired of life to the point of wishing himself dead.

  And for a moment, Burgundy entertained morbid thoughts.

  “Take me too, Lord. I don’t want to live anymore. I can’t imagine life beyond this. It hurts. God, it hurts.”

  How could she even think past the horrible things that she’d just found out. It was like a bad dream, a cruel trick that someone had played on her.

  But why?

  She managed to pull herself together enough to allow the fire marshal to tell her what happened.

  “We searched the entire house from top to bottom and we wan
ted to make sure we covered all our bases. And we did a second very thorough search. One of my men went into the family room.”

  Burgundy nodded with a dazed look on her face.

  “He pulled back furniture. That’s when he found the little girl. She was curled up into a little ball. Behind the huge sofa. Like she’d simply fallen asleep. But we assumed it was the carbon monoxide.”

  “Hide and go seek,” Burgundy whispered.

  “What?” Alita said.

  “Sidnee prided herself on being better than everyone else at that game. She wanted to find a hiding place that no one could guess.”

  “Oh, my baby,” Alita said. “My baby.”

  No one could say anything.

  All Burgundy could do at that point was deaden her emotions. She asked Alita to go to her medicine closet in her master bedroom.

  “Bring me that bottle of sedatives. Get me a glass of water. I want to go to . . . go to sleep.”

  Alita gave her a sharp look.

  “I don’t know about that. We are driving right back to the hospital to see about your baby.”

  “Lita, please . . . yes. Just help me to think, to move, to breathe..”

  “I got you, Sis.”

  * * *

  Alita and Burgundy returned to the hospital. Sidnee Taylor was in a coma. There was no telling if or when she’d pull out of it.

  More and more family members began to arrive, both at the hospital and at her house. Burgundy remained at her daughter’s side, wishing so bad that she could fall asleep. But she was too afraid.

  But as the hours dragged on, she knew she had to snap out of it, collect herself, and be the strong woman that she knew she was.

  She was able to lie down on a couch located in Sid’s room. She let Alita bring her some tea from the café. After she sipped from a cup, she allowed herself to feel again.

  Aside from the comfort she received from being surrounded by loved ones, Burgundy struggled with other emotions. Shock, for one. Because in all her years of being a mother and a wife, and through all the things her family had been through, she never imagined that her husband would die so young, in his early forties, and that her youngest child would lapse into a coma on the same day.

  What happened? Why would our oven be left on, and by whom? How long was it on?