His Woman, His Wife, His Widow Page 10

  “Yeah. This car was definitely a good deal. I hope my friend appreciates it and takes good care of it.” He smiled his beautiful smile and said, “By the way, happy birthday, beautiful. Can I get a hug and kiss now that your mama ain’t all up in our business?”

  Normally I am a little gun shy about kissing Shaun when my mother is within five hundred feet. But today, since it was my birthday, I leaned over in the seat and planted a big wet one on the sexist man in the world.

  “I am really sorry about Mama giving you the third degree,” I apologized when our lips parted ways. “She has seriously been trippin’ on our relationship lately. She is constantly telling me I’m too young to be so involved with just one guy. Most times I ignore her, but every now and then I give her the real, letting her know I’m in love with you and nothing is going to change that.”

  “Don’t let it worry you, baby. And whatever you do, don’t piss her off to the point where she flat out forbids you from seeing me. I would hate to have to come up in your mama’s house late one night in my army fatigues with dark green paint under my eyes to kidnap you military style.” Shaun could be so silly and funny most times. He usually had me cracking up laughing.

  “So what do you have planned today, sir?”

  “It’s your day, baby. What do you want to do?”

  We were still parked in front of my house, had not moved an inch, and he still hadn’t given me my birthday present. He hadn’t even made mention of it. This wasn’t like him at all. Shaun was always so anxious to share with me the gifts that he buys me. I guess I needed to drop a hint.

  “Shy has been bugging the heck out of me all day trying to find out what you got me for my birthday. She even threatened to beat me up if I didn’t let her know immediately after I received it. If you don’t mind, I would like to drive by her house and show her whatever it is you got me.”

  My man is no fool. He could tell I was trying to be funny right off the bat. So he played along.

  “Okay, cool. We’ll drive over to Shy’s house and show her your present,” he said all nonchalantly. “As a matter of fact, why don’t you drive while I fish your present out?”

  Shaun got out of the car and came around to the passenger side and opened the door for me. I sat there for a few seconds, confused about him allowing me to drive his friend’s car, but I finally got out and went to the driver’s side.

  “Are you sure your friend won’t mind me driving his new car?” I asked as I pulled away from the curb heading toward Shyanne’s house.

  “It’s cool. Don’t worry about it. My friend won’t mind a bit.” He went into the glove compartment and pulled out a white envelope. From the driver’s seat I could see the official looking envelope had someone’s name on it.

  What kind of birthday present came in an envelope like that? It couldn’t possibly be jewelry. Maybe it was a gift certificate or cash. If it were either of those, I would have to admit I would be disappointed. Shaun was usually so thoughtful and considerate when picking out trinkets and gifts for me.

  Maybe it was airline tickets, and he was planning on taking me on a trip. I didn’t know how I was going to swing it if that were indeed the case. Mama barely agreed to let me go to the movies with Shaun. There was no way I would even broach the subject of leaving town with him. Well, I won’t worry myself about it until I know for sure. I’ll even play it cool and wait until we arrive at Shyanne’s to find out what the envelope held.

  When I pulled into Shyanne’s driveway and parked the car, Shaun grabbed my hand and kissed it. He then leaned over and gave me a full kiss on the mouth. Next, he presented me with the envelope.

  “I hope you enjoy your birthday present, Lindsay. It took me a long time to come up with something special enough for your seventeenth birthday. I love you.”

  As I took the envelope from his hand, out came my big mouth best friend tugging on the driver’s side door.

  “I thought I heard somebody pulling into my driveway. When I looked out the window I wasn’t sure who it was until I saw y’all smooching. Whose car is this? What did you get for your birthday?” As usual she was talking a hundred miles a minute, not giving me a chance to answer one question before she fired another at me. This time Shaun answered instead.

  “Go ahead, Lindsay, open the envelope and tell Shyanne what you got,” he said.

  “You mean to tell me you don’t even know what you got? You got more patience than me, girl. I would have demanded he tell me as soon as he got to my house.”

  “Shyanne, shut up,” I told her as I began opening the envelope. She was truly getting on my nerves.

  Inside the envelope was a green piece of paper. As I unfolded it and began to read, I realized it was the title to a car. As a matter of fact, it was the title to the black Thunderbird we were driving. The title indicated Shaun owned the car, not a friend like he originally made me believe. Now I was totally confused. What did any of this have to do with my present?

  Shyanne began jumping up and down like a crazed lunatic, and I thought for a moment she was having a seizure or something. Then she started yelling. “I can’t believe Shaun bought you a car for your birthday. Oh my goodness. This is the bomb.” She was talking so loud and fast it took me a second to understand what she was saying.

  Then I looked over at Shaun wearing a big silly grin on his face, and it hit me. The Thunderbird was my present. “Shaun, is the car mine?”

  “Yes, Lindsay. Happy birthday, baby.”

  I flung myself across the seat and wrapped my arms around him so tight I thought I was going to squeeze him to death. After finally letting go, I got out of the car and started dancing around and screaming with Shyanne.

  My man actually bought me a car. This was better than the sweater Nana Westbrook promised me or the book bag or the outfit. It was even better than the bracelet Granny gave me.

  I couldn’t believe Shaun actually loved me enough to buy me a car. I couldn’t wait to tell Mama. This should be all the proof she needed to see how serious Shaun was about me; that we were serious about each other. Maybe she would now understand that we do plan to spend the rest of our lives together.

  “Come on, Shy. Lindsay is going to drive us all to dinner to celebrate. Then she and I will have a more personal celebration later,” Shaun said with a wink and a smile.

  “What do you mean he bought you a car?” Mama yelled at the very tiptop of her lungs.

  Okay! This was not going at all as smoothly as I thought it would. I couldn’t believe she was reacting this strongly to me getting a car for my birthday. I thought for a minute she was going to slap me after I told her what I presumed to be good news. Mama just stared at me like I’d told her I was pregnant or worse. Then she started screaming at me.

  “You are too young to be receiving gifts like that from anyone other than me or your granny. Your grandmother can’t afford to buy you a gift like that, and I wouldn’t buy a seventeen-year-old a car like that even if I could afford it.” Mama was yelling and stomping around the kitchen like a mad crazy woman. What had gotten into her?

  “Mama, I don’t understand. I thought the fact that Shaun bought me a car would prove to you that he’s serious about us. Why are you acting like he has me strung out on drugs or something?” I was confused and angry. I didn’t realize it, but I was also yelling.

  Mama gave me that stare again, this time with her head cocked to one side and her hands on her hips. She took deep breaths and began speaking to me in her calm but deadly voice. This is the voice that said she was too tired to yell anymore, but still had enough energy to knock me into the middle of next week.

  “First of all, you are going to check your tone of voice. I ain’t but three seconds off you for being so stupid as it is. Secondly what do either of you know about being serious? This is your first boyfriend. I don’t know how many girls Rock-head has screwed around with, but I doubt he has any real experience in relationships either. And third, since you brought up drugs, I have been wonder
ing how can that little pinhead afford to buy you such a nice car? That is a 1991 Ford Thunderbird, Lindsay. Where did he get that kind of money?”

  I had no idea Mama suspected Shaun of selling drugs. She was not aware of the large amounts of money he always carried or what he did for his family. I was definitely not about to confirm her suspicions with the truth.

  “Mama, I told you Shaun works for his uncle at a collision shop. He works a lot of overtime, and he gets paid under the table so he doesn’t pay taxes.” My story sounded weak even to myself, but I was sticking to it.

  “Whatever, Nay-Nay. You can save that bull for someone who grew up in a pumpkin patch. I was born and raised in these streets, girlfriend. And you know what, it really doesn’t matter anyway because from this day forward, you are not allowed to see him anymore. You can just give me the keys to that car and tell me where he works. I’ll return his property to him myself. Now with that said, there is no need to discuss this any further.”

  At first it took me a few moments to fully comprehend what Sherrie Ann Westbrook had said. When all the syllables finally sank in, I thought I was going to lose my mind. This possessed woman who had obviously invaded my mama’s body was telling me I was not allowed to see Shaun anymore. She was saying that I had to break up with him and give him back the car. She wanted me never to be with the person that most made my day worth beginning. The person I loved more than anyone in the world, including her. I mean yes, I loved God, and I appreciated Him for creating me, but I was certain He created me for Shaun. My mama said all of this to me very casual like, then turned her back and faced the kitchen sink to wash dishes as if it were all no big deal. No! I realized at that very moment that it was not I who was losing my mind. It was Mama.

  Well, if she thought she was going to have the final say on this matter, she could just think again. There was no way I was going to stop seeing Shaun. I wasn’t even willing to start sneaking around with him behind Mama’s back.

  It was now my turn to deliver my speech, and I would use the same calm but no nonsense manner. “Mama, why in the world would I agree to stop seeing Shaun? I love him.”

  Mama turned around to face me again. I could tell she was surprised and angry that I was still even discussing the subject. Usually when Mama says no more discussion, I would storm away to my bedroom and pout. I suppose that’s what she expected from me this time as well, but this was too important for me to act like a baby. I had to make her understand that I was a grown woman in love.

  I continued to talk despite the look on her face that said if I spoke another word she would slap my teeth out. I was fighting for my life here and I had no fear. “Mama, you have been giving me a hard time about my relationship with Shaun from the very beginning. For the life of me, I cannot understand why. Shaun has been nothing but good to me and polite to you. Why can’t you just accept that I love him, and let me make my own decision regarding my relationship? If by some chance Shaun does hurt me, I am the one who has to live with that pain, not you.”

  Mama chuckled, but I knew she didn’t find any humor in our conversation. “You love him, huh? Girl, please. We have already talked about this more than I wanted to, and I am not discussing it anymore.” She turned her back to me again.

  Now I was truly angry. How dare she keep dismissing me and my man? I was more than one hundred percent sure that all of her grief and stupidity were a result of my daddy leaving her the way he did. Because of her pain, she refused to give Shaun and me a fair chance. But I’ll be John Brown if that man’s disappearing act was going to be a source of pain for me ever again. Forget that! I walked around to the side of Mama’s body and started talking to her profile.

  “Mama, as tired as you are of talking about this, I’m just as tired of you treating Shaun as if he has committed some personal crime against you. I’m tired of us having to pay for your failed marriage to Daddy; for his leaving the way he did.”

  Mama’s hands stopped moving in the dishwater and she stood very still, but she didn’t say anything so I kept talking.

  “Every man is not a low-down dog like Daddy. Just because you have chosen to believe they are and decided to cut yourself off from all of them, does not give you the right to make that decision for me. I am not going to stop seeing Shaun. I am not giving back my car and I am not going to continue to pay for the sins of my dead beat daddy.”

  I didn’t mean to be disrespectful, but I wasn’t going to apologize for it either. I was too through with her and her selfish attitude. I felt I had every right to express my views just like she did.

  Mama continued to stand at the kitchen sink as quiet and as still as the proverbial church mouse. She didn’t even turn to look at me. She just kept staring straight out the kitchen window. I assumed she was praying. I wasn’t sure what she was talking to God about, but I knew I was right, so I wasn’t concerned about it either. I had to make her understand what she was putting me through. If getting indignant with her was the only way she would listen, then so be it.

  The phone started ringing and the side door opened simultaneously. I turned from Mama to see Kevin coming in the house. I said hello to my brother, then walked toward the ringing phone on the wall. Just as my hand lifted the receiver from its cradle, a dinner plate slammed into the side of my head. WHAM! I instantly dropped the phone to the floor and grabbed my head.

  Before I could figure out what happened, my mother was on me like white on rice. She grabbed me by the front of my blouse with one hand and slapped the cowboy stew out of me with the other. From her perception, she was probably attempting to literally knock the devil out of me. I lost my balance and stumbled into the stove, but Mama was savagely clutching my blouse, holding me up on my feet, alternating between slapping and punching me.

  Next thing I knew, she released my mangled blouse and I fell awkwardly onto the floor between the wall and the stove. My deranged mother was not done with me yet. She kneeled over me with one knee in my chest and her forearm pressed firmly against my neck. I was barely breathing due to both the beating I had just taken and the pressure she was applying to my throat. The side of my head was bleeding steadily where the plate connected. I searched the room frantically for some sort of salvation and rescue. I was so disoriented from the lopsided fight that I didn’t have the presence of mind to pray for myself.

  I looked over Mama’s shoulder to see Kevin standing there wide eyed and scared. He was unsure as to whether he should run for his own life or do something to try to save his sister from being beaten to death. Thankfully he went with option number two. Kevin came over and put his hand on Mama’s shoulder trying to talk to her.

  “Mama, please, let her go. You’re choking her to death, and her head is bleeding real bad,” my little brother pleaded, but it did no good. At first, I didn’t think she heard him because she kept her eyes fixated on me. Then she finally spoke to him.

  “Kevin, get away from me. If she dies, then she will be getting what she deserves.” Then she directed her wrath back at me. “As long as I am alive, you little witch, no child of mine will ever speak to me the way you did. I don’t care how old you get, who you think you are in love with or how rude or nasty I get.

  “Now you have two choices. You can either do what I said and give me the keys to that fool’s car, or you can pack your grip and get your grown behind out of my house.”

  All the while that my mother talked, she continued to apply pressure to my throat. I was only a stone’s throw from passing out. I could barely hear her words. I only knew she was speaking because her lips were moving, and in her wrath, she was spitting in my face. However, I understood enough of what she said to know it all boiled down to me making a choice between my mama and my man.

  Again my little brother made an attempt to save me by gently pulling on the arm that was lodged deeply under my chin. This time, thank God, his efforts were more successful. Mama slowly removed herself from my body. She stood over me for a few seconds as if she were expecting me to r
etaliate for the butt kicking I just received. Even as mad and as beat down as I was, I was no fool. I knew there was no way of physically winning against her in her kitchen full of sharp knives and sharp cooking utensils. So an attempt to start fighting with her again was out of the question; even with my bad self.

  But emotionally she had not beaten me. My heart still stood with my man. Without saying a word, I went to the bathroom to clean myself up. I did the best I could with the huge cut on the side of my head, thankfully hidden in my hair. I assumed it was going to need stitches to properly fix it. Then I went to my room to pack.

  PART II

  A BRAND NEW BEGINNING ...

  Chapter Eight

  July 1994

  Shaun and I had been living together for almost eleven months. Coincidentally, it was he who called the house the night my mother sent that plate crashing into my head. He heard everything going on in our kitchen from the receiver that lay on the floor during the terrible commotion. He headed toward our house to make sure I was okay, and he arrived before I was done packing.

  Mama refused to let him in when he knocked on the front door. I could hear her in the living room from my bedroom instructing him to leave her property. She threatened to call the police if he didn’t leave immediately, and she promised him she would shoot him on sight if he ever returned again. Then she forcefully slammed the door in his face. Very un-Christian behavior, wouldn’t you agree?

  After gathering my things as quickly as I could, I left the house in my new car and hurried to find Shaun. I didn’t have to look too far because he was parked just on the corner of our block waiting for me. Hearing all of the drama from the phone, he instinctively knew that I would be leaving that evening. That’s my man. He knows me better than I know myself.

  Shaun followed me to Sinai Hospital where I went to have the gash in my head examined. It took seven stitches to close the wound. The doctor at the hospital asked me what happened, informing me that he was obligated to call the police if a crime had been committed. I was so angry with Mama, that I almost told them that she hit me with the plate maliciously so that she would be arrested. However, my love for her prevailed, and I lied to the doctor, telling them that I had a fight with my little brother and he hit me with the plate. I told them it was a simple case of sibling rivalry and that I didn’t want to press charges.