A Rich Man's Baby (24 page)

J
arell had to stay in the hospital for a few more days after I was released. Since he was a few weeks early he still had a little fluid in his lungs. They wanted to keep a close watch on him and treat him. I sat next to the incubator. The monitors were attached to Jarell's little body. His heart monitor was beeping. I grabbed his little hand and said a prayer. I didn't know why, but I felt like it was my fault he was in there. Like God was paying me back for plotting on his daddy. I knew this whole situation started out wrong, but it turned out good. I loved Kevin, and I didn't try to get pregnant, but I didn't stop it either. I just wanted my baby out of here. They said he would be there for at least another week. All the staff has been so great and good to us.

His nurse, Nancy, walked up to his incubator to take his vital signs. She had on purple and white scrubs with teddy bears. She unwrapped her stethoscope from her neck and placed it on his chest.

“He is doing fine. Won't you go home and get some rest?”

“So you'll be with him the rest of the night?” I asked.

“No, his nurse will be Kathy tonight. I'm about to get off. Oh, and by the way, thanks for the tickets. My husband is going to be so happy.”

“You're welcome, just continue to take care of my little guy,” I said as I stood up and kissed his hand one more time. I collected my belongings and exited the hospital. I turned on my cell phone and called Alexis.

“Alexis, is Kierra asleep?”

“Yeah. Mom, you know I have to go and register for my classes tomorrow, so can you pick up Kierra?”

“Where is Jamil?”

“He's not here yet.”

“Just take her to school and I'll pick her up.”

“Mom, how is the baby doing?”

“He's fine. I'm just leaving the hospital now. Maybe you can come and see him tomorrow.”

“I will.”

“Well, have Jamil call me when he gets home. I'm on my way to Kevin's house. I'll give you a call when I get there.” I was exhausted. Balancing two households was crazy. My plan was to have everyone under one roof when Jarell came home. Jamil only had one more year of school, and Alexis was out the door and about to be living on campus.

I couldn't wait to get home and relax. The minute I walked into the house I was going to fall into Kevin's arms. I found my car in the crowded parking lot. I hit the remote and opened the car door. I put my seat belt on, and a woman jumped into the passenger seat with a silver and black gun pointed at me and told me to drive. I was so scared I froze.

“Start this car and drive!” she yelled as she placed the cold metal barrel to my head. I snapped out of it, and started the car up and backed out of the parking space.

We went to the parking attendant. I couldn't find my ticket, and I wasn't trying to find it. I wanted the parking attendant to look and see the gun, maybe even call the cops.

“Listen, Miss, you can have the car and you can have my money. Please, just let me out here. Miss, I can get you whatever you want,” I begged

Who was the crazy woman, and what did she want from me? She didn't look like a criminal or carjacker. She even spoke well. Why was she trying to rob me?

She laughed at me and said, “Bitch, please. Can you get me my man back?”

“Your man?”

“Yeah, my man. You stole Kevin from me. I warned you to leave him alone.” You know what I'm talking about, you got my notes.

A tingle went through my entire body.

“Bitch, you took my man. You ruined my life. You embarrassed me. I'm an attorney, you ain't nothing. But even though I have everything, he wants to be with you when he can be with me.”

I didn't know what to say to her. “I didn't mean for this to happen. He didn't tell me he was involved with you. Please don't hurt me, please don't kill me.”

She screamed as she pointed the gun in my direction.

“Shut up and make a left at the light. Get on the expressway.” She seemed like she was trying to find somewhere to go, and I followed her commands. I didn't want her to kill me. My mind raced back to all the crazy letters that she wrote about having a bullet with my name on it and six million ways to die, choose one. I didn't want to die. I thought about crashing the car.
But how about if the gun goes off and I kill us both?

“Get off here,” she said as we exited the expressway. Then she instructed me to pull over next to a park by the stadium. I started reasoning with her again. I didn't want to die. I kept praying to God.

Get out!” she yelled. I got out and contemplated running, but I didn't want to get shot in the back and I probably wouldn't make it very far. I could still barely walk. Maybe I could just reason with her. She told me to walk toward a tree in the park.

“Listen, I don't know what happened between you and Kevin, but let's talk about it.”

“There is nothing to talk about.” She walked behind me. “I am Kevin's only one. Don't you get it? He is not going to be with you. I'm not going to let it happen.”

I was now convinced she was going to try to kill me. I wasn't going to let her. I had to do something. Her saying that was confirmation. I had to see my baby. I had to live another day to see my children. I don't know what came over me, I just ran up to her and tried to take the gun from her. We wrestled and I punched and bit her. She swung me around and kicked me in my stomach. Then I fell. I pulled her to the ground with me and just pulled her hair and kicked her. I felt her reaching for the gun; then it went off and she stopped fighting back. I stood up and backed away. Her body was just lying in front of my feet. I kicked her, and she didn't move. I dropped the gun and looked around.

“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God. What am I going to do? I killed her! Oh my God, she tried to kill me.”

I dropped to the ground and turned her body over. There was blood everywhere. I got it on my hands and clothes. I thought about calling the cops, but they might not believe me, and then I would go to jail. I knew my fingerprints were on the gun, so I picked it up and ran back to the car. I got in, covered with blood, and put the gun on the front seat. I just wanted to go home to Kevin, but somehow it seemed like that wasn't going to happen. I didn't know where I was going. I called Kevin, and he didn't answer his cell phone. I dialed him again. I couldn't think.

I drove straight to Adrienne's house. I took the gun from off my seat and placed it in my bag. I knocked on her door.

She answered the door, looked at me, and said, “Oh my God, what's going on? Did Kevin hit you?”

“No, this woman came up to me in the hospital parking lot and got in the car with me. She said I stole Kevin from her. Then she said she was going to kill me. Now she is dead.” I sobbed.

“What? What woman?” she said as she pulled me into her house.

“It was the girl with all the notes. They were from his old girlfriend. She tried to kill me, and I shot her, and I think she is dead.”

“Where is the gun? Where is she?”

“The gun is right here.” I removed it from my bag.

“Listen, first things first, take that mess off.” She pushed me into the shower. Red blood turned pink as it flowed off my body and into her drain. I cried and shivered. I never wanted to kill somebody. I just wanted to go home. I wished this never happened. Why did I do this?

I came out of the shower and Adrienne dressed me as I continued to cry. I put on her jeans and a black shirt. I began to pace back and forth in her living room.

“Where did you leave her?” she asked.

“In that park down by the stadium.”

“Did anybody see you?” she asked.

“No, I just left.”

“Okay, first we have to make sure she is dead. She might not be dead. If she isn't, we can get her to a hospital and we can fix this.”

We left in her car. We drove back down the expressway. I couldn't stop shaking. I actually started praying that maybe she was breathing. Maybe the woman wasn't dead. But the minute we turned into the park, I saw dozens of red and blue lights flashing and yellow crime-scene tape. My heart jumped. I couldn't even turn to look. I slid down in my seat.

“Where is she? What are they doing? What do you see? She must be dead. Oh my God, I'm going to jail.” I just began coughing and crying.

“You are not going to jail.”

“Yes, I am. I have to turn myself in. My children have lost their mother. I have to call Kevin,” I rambled on.

I called Kevin again and he still didn't answer.

“Tanisha, snap out of it. Listen, nobody saw you at the park. They have no way to know you were there. You can go home like nothing happened. We have to get rid of this gun. They collect the trash every Tuesday and Thursday at my old apartment. Let's go dump it there.”

We went to Adrienne's apartment building. I took the gun out of the bag. Adrienne took out baby wipes from her glove compartment and wiped the gun down back and forth. Then she took newspaper out of the backseat and wrapped the gun up and threw it in the Dumpster. I felt relieved. Adrienne was right—if they didn't have a gun and I didn't say anything, how could they track it back to me?

We were on our way back to her house when my phone began ringing. It startled me. It was Alexis's cell phone. I had to answer it.

“Mom, where are you? The cops just left here. They said they need to speak with you. They said it is real important and to call them.”

“Okay, I'll be right there,” I said as I hung up the phone.

“What's wrong?” Adrienne asked.

“Alexis said the cops were at my house. Oh my God. How do they know it is me already?”

“I don't know. What do you want to do?” Adrienne asked as she pulled over a few blocks away from her house.

“What do you mean? I don't have a choice. I have to go and tell them what happened. They will believe me, right?”

“I don't know. Do you still have the notes?” she asked.

“No, I threw them in the trash so Kevin wouldn't find them. I should have kept them. I have to talk to the police. I have to explain myself. They will listen. If they don't believe me, then I'm going to jail. How much time do you get for murder?”

“I don't know, you have to talk to an attorney, then turn yourself in.”

“Turn myself in? I can't go to jail. I'm not ready for jail. I need time. I need to think.”

“Well, they will probably come to my house looking for you. So you can't stay there.”

“Where could I go?” I asked as my phone started ringing again. This time it was my home phone.

“Don't answer it. It might be the police. Listen, go away for a few days. I'm going to take you to the train station. We are going to hire you an attorney and then you can turn yourself in.”

“Where would I go? I don't know anybody outside of Philly. And what if they are looking for me? And they want to take me to jail?” I questioned as tears began pouring from my eyes.

“So what do you want to do? Do you want me to take you to the police station or home?”

“I don't know, I don't want to go to jail,” I cried.

Adrienne pulled up to the Thirtieth Street train station. Yellow cabs were everywhere. Oncoming traffic was beeping for us to turn. Adrienne made a quick left and pulled up in front of a sign that read
NO PARKING ANYTIME
.

“I think you should leave for a couple of days,” she said, looking around. “Just pick somewhere and go. Call me in like a week, and we can figure it out then. And I'll tell you when to come back. Take this.” Adrienne pulled a few hundreds out of her bag. “Here,” she said as she handed me the money. Then out of nowhere, a cop came and knocked on the car window.

“Miss, don't you see the ‘no parking anytime' sign?” the cop asked.

“Yes, I'll move, Officer.”

“Please do. There is parking on the other side,” he said as he walked away and put his ticket book back in his back pocket. The sight of the officer scared me. I was shaken. I couldn't walk. I couldn't move. We went to the other side of the train station.

“Listen, you have to go.”

“I messed up. I really messed up. Didn't I?” I repeated hysterically.

“Forget that shit. Do you want to go to jail?”

“No.”

“So get out of the car now.”

“But where am I going to go? What about my kids, my baby? Kierra? Kevin?”

“Tanisha, you have to think about yourself right now. Now take this money and get out of my car. Get on a train and call me in a few days.” She got out of the car and came around the side and pulled me out.

“I can't,” I said, frozen.

“You have to. Do you want to go to jail for forty years or get the death penalty?”

“I didn't mean to kill her,” I sobbed.

“I know that, but they might not see it that way. I'm going to watch over your kids for you. I'll make sure everything is okay. We are going to get you an attorney.”

I got the strength to get out of the car and had no idea where I was going. I didn't have any clothes or anything. Another cop car passed by, and I just knew they were coming for me. We both looked over at the car, but it kept going. I walked toward the train station. I took a deep breath when I heard Adrienne yell, “Tanisha.”

“Yeah?”

“I don't want to know where you are going. Don't ever call me or anybody else in your family. If you get on that train, just keep going. Don't look back. You hear me?”

“Yeah.”

I walked into the big train station. I looked at the schedule, and then walked up to the counter and bought a ticket. My train left in eight minutes. I was trying to keep my composure, but something kept telling me that I was not going to make it out of Philly. I walked toward the train and took a seat by the window. I sat up. There was no need to get comfortable; I knew the cops were on their way. They were about to storm onto the train in navy blue uniforms and surround me. They would tell me to put my hands up in the air and escort me off the train. The first place they always looked for fleeing criminals was the train station and airport. I just sat up and waited in my seat and waited, until the train began to slowly pull out of the station. A man came and touched my shoulder. I jumped and turned around to see the ticket collector.