Beautiful Liar (10 page)

Ray suddenly emerged from the crowd. “It’s
okay, officer. I got him. Come on, Mr. Terry. They’re going to save
her.”

Terry reluctantly came with Ray, but he never
took his eyes off the wreckage. “She’s not moving, Ray.”

“I know, Mr. Terry. I know.”

Ray had just finished saying a prayer for
Tracey and the baby when his phone started ringing. “Hello?”

“What’s wrong?” Debbie asked, automatically
hearing the sorrow in her man’s voice.

“Tracey, the girl I told you was pregnant by
Cairo, got into a really bad accident.”

“No! Is she okay?”

“It’s hard to say. It doesn’t look good.”

“And the baby?”

Ray sighed. “We’ll see.”

“Who told you, Cairo?”

“I seen it. It happened right in front of the
hospital.”

“Does Cairo know yet?”

Ray saw the doctor watching him and cuffed
the phone until he bent the corner. “I think he’s aware of the
accident, but he doesn’t know all the details.”

“Are you okay? Sounds like you’ve been
crying.”

“I’m fighting it. Listen, bay. Let me get off
this phone. You know it’s not supposed to be on around this
equipment.”

“Okay, see you when you get home. Bye.”

Ray cut the phone off and placed it inside
his pocket.

Cairo was on the phone sitting up when Ray
entered his room. “…you better not come up her dressed like that.
You’re going to get me kicked out before it’s time.”

Ray motioned for him to get off the
phone.

“Hold on,” Cairo said, before placing a hand
over the mouthpiece. “What’s up?”

“I need to talk to you about Tracey.”

“Alright, hold up a sec.” He then resumed his
conversation on the phone. “What do you have on now?...So that’s
how you walk around your apartment?...Wow! I’m in one of those
hospital gowns ass naked…I’m serious! I can’t even stand up without
my ass showing.”

Ray waited patiently for five minutes before
he snatched the phone and hung it up.Cairo’s eyes enlarged. “Why
the fuck you do that? That was Vanessa. She signed to So So
Def.”

“Fuck her, man! Tracey is doing bad. She may
not make it.!”

Cairo seemed momentarily shocked by the news,
but he quickly recovered. “Damn, she just got that car, too. Is it
totaled?”

“What?!”

“She was driving her new car when she
wrecked, right?”

Ray couldn’t believe what he just heard, so
he assumed that his words hadn’t completely dawned on Cairo.
“Didn’t you hear what I just said? Tracey might—”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard you. But what can
I do? I hate that it happened, but hey, shit does happen.” He began
to reel the phone cord in again. “Y’all ain't going to be happy
until y’all break this thing.”

“Do you even care that your baby is in
jeopardy, too?”

“Here you go, sounding like my pops. That’s
not my baby!”

“How do you know? Let you tell it at first,
she wasn’t pregnant at all.”

He shrugged. “So, I was wrong. But I know for
a fact she’s not pregnant by me.”

“What’s your proof?”

“She told me this morning she’s due on
Halloween, so that means she’s like twenty-three weeks along. That
also means she got pregnant around the third week of February. I
did the math on that shit and what I realized is that I didn’t
start dealing with her until the last week of that month. See?
She’s trying to get me?”

Ray wanted to explain to him the week’s
difference wasn’t significant enough for him to exclude himself,
but his patience and reasoning was exhausted. “Okay, say if it’s
not your baby. Tracey loves you, and she wrecked after she left
from seeing you. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“Yeah, it means something. But if she loves
me so much like you say she doesn’t, then why didn’t she bring me
some real food? Do you have any idea how nasty this hospital food
is? This shit tastes like cardboard.”

“You’re a selfish bastard! One day, all the
fucked up shit you’re doing is going to catch up with you. Know
what I’m talking about?” He spun on his heels and stormed out of
the hospital room.

Cairo began to give the comments some
thought, until he realized that the phone was still unplugged. He
knew without a doubt his R&B chick was trying to call him
back.

Terry’s lungs were burning
, and his
legs felt like rubber. He couldn’t recall the last time he ran with
such urgency. Every organ in his body screamed for him to recollect
himself, but he kept on. He knew he had to get to his son’s room
before it was too late.

He could only imagine the ruckus that was
going on at that very moment. Ray ran in front of him, and Terry
prayed that he alone was enough to stabilize the situation.

He heard the commotion as he neared, and
there was no doubt in his mind that security was on their way.
Visitors were sticking their heads out of the rooms, trying to see
what was going on. Some were closing their loved ones’ doors to
block the noise.

The first thing he saw when he entered the
room was Cairo hanging headfirst off of his bed, and Ray was
subduing Vicky.

“Let me go!” she screamed. “I’m going to kill
that bastard!”

“Calm down, Vicky. You’re tripping for
real.”

Terry went to his son’s aid, almost tripping
over some debris in the process. “You okay, son?”

“Get her, Pops! She punched me in the chest
wound!”

He spun to Vicky. “What the hell is your
problem, young lady?”

“He pushed her to do it! I’m going to kill
him!” She was desperately trying to break loose from Ray.

“You’re going to jail if you put your hands
on him again.”

“I don’t care! He killed my niece! Let me go,
Ray before I punch you in the face!”

“You sound ridiculous, blaming him for an
accident. I loved Tracey like a daughter, but God took her and
there’s nothing anyone can do about it. You need to use some of
that energy to pray for that little baby that’s struggling for his
life.”

Vicky collapsed to the floor and bawled at
the mention of Tracey’s child. Ray was still reluctant to let her
go.

Cairo diverted his eyes on his bleeding
wounds and became furious. “Oh shit! That bitch! Ray, get the
water-head ass bitch out of here and see what’s taking my nurse so
long. I need tending to.”

Vicky suddenly leaped to her feet in an
attempt to reach Cairo, but Ray held on to her fast. “Let me go!
I’m going to kill him!”

Cairo struggled out of the bed and held his
fists up. “I’m telling you, shawty. I’ll fight a girl!”

“Get back in bed, son! “ Terry demanded.

“Not until y’all get her ass up out of here.
I’m not going to keep letting her attack me.”

Four security guards rushed into the room,
asking what was going on.

“I want that bitch arrested for assault!”
Cairo said, pointing at Vicky. “Look at my shit.”

“You haven’t seen an assault yet, you fucking
crab!”

They went back and forth like that until the
security guards ushered Vicky out with much effort.

It was only then that Cairo got back in bed,
holding his chest. “How do I keep hooking up with all these crazy
bitches?”

Ray glared at him with a disgusted look on
his face.

“What, Ray?” Cairo asked. “Say what you have
to say, it’s all over your face.”

“I love you like a brother, but you’re a
cold-blooded bastard!” He stormed out of the room as Cairo called
after him.

His attempts failed, so he turned to his
father. “See, Pops, that’s why I’m the way I am. People are so
wishy-washy.”

“They way you are don’t have a thing to do
with nobody else. People change up on you because all you think of
is yourself.”

“I think of other people, too.”

“You never thought about Tracey.”

“Here we go again!” he said, throwing his
hands up.

“I know you didn’t feel the same way she felt
about you, but son, she just died. And you‘re acting like you’re
not affected.”

Cairo didn’t say what he wanted to say out of
respect for his father. But in his mind, he was screaming that he
hadn’t been affected. To him, every time he broke up with a female,
it was as if she had died, because she was no longer a part of his
reality.

“Then, it’s possible that’s your son fighting
for his life,” Terry continued as he pointed towards the door. “And
you haven’t once asked how he’s doing.”

“’Cause he ain’t mine,”

“It’s a possibility that he is.”

“A slim one,” he retorted, stubbornly.

“We’ll soon know, because I got the doctor to
do a paternity test.”

“Good. That’ll settle all of this nonsense.
And I’ll tell you another thing, I want an apology from everybody
when it’s proven that I’m not the father.”

“For your sake, you better hope you’re not,”
Terry said, walking towards the door.

“Where you going?”

“To check on my grandson.”

“Can you see what’s taking the nurse so long?
I need…” he trailed off when Terry slammed the door behind him.

All eyes were on Vicky as she screamed and
clawed at the security guards who were escorting her out. They seem
to anticipate her every attempt to break free, but she wasn’t
discouraged.

“Let me go!”

They didn’t let her go until they were
outside.

“Y’all are a bunch of faggots! He made my
niece kill herself!”

“You have to calm down, miss,” one of the
security guards warned. “You’re going to get yourself
arrested.”

“I don’t care! I’ll make bond and be right
back up here.”

He tried another approach. “Miss, I
understand your frustrations. I know how much of an asshole that
guy is. I had to stand guard by his room when he first came here.
He tried to demand I run and get him some silk pajamas and cashmere
socks. I told him to go to hell.” He laughed at his story, but
Vicky remained stone faced.

“I’ll tell you what. I can’t let you back in
this building tonight, but my vacation starts tomorrow. Whatever
happens in the next week happens. Okay? Sorry for your loss.”

“Thanks.” She made her way back to her car
and called Rasheeda.

“Hello?”

“Tracey passed.”

“What?!”

“She died on the operating table.”

Rasheeda dropped the phone three times
through her grief, so she just put Vicky on speakerphone. “I’m not
trying to hear that shit, Vicky! I’m not!”

“She’s gone, Ra.”

“Ow-w-w! And the baby?”

“He’s fighting for his life.”

Though she felt somewhat relieved that the
baby was still alive, Rasheeda still flopped back on her bed,
sobbing. “How…how are you going to tell your grandmother that shit.
It's going to kill her!”

Vicky knew this was true, because her
grandmother adored Tracey. “I don’t know.”

“What did they say was wrong with the
baby?”

“The doctors said he received some kind of
trauma from the collision; not to mention he’s a preemie.”

They cried together for a while before
Rasheeda spoke again. “We just have to pray. I know that God ain’t
going to let that innocent baby die.”

“He can’t.”

“Go talk to the baby, V. Encourage him to
live. He can understand you.”

“I can’t. I got thrown out of the hospital
for a day for kicking Cairo’s ass.”

“What he do?’

“That mutha fucker pushed her to do it!”

Rasheeda sat up. “How?”

Vicky told her about the conversation she had
with Tracey prior to the accident, and Rasheeda broke down
again.

“Listen to me. We both promised Kerisha on
her deathbed that we would protect her daughter with our lives. So,
before we do anything drastic, explain to me why you think he
pushed Tracey to do it. I need solid facts.”

“He…He took advantage of her vulnerability.
Even when I tried to confront him about her death, the mutha fucker
wouldn’t even get off the telephone.” She paused to sob. “I don’t
know what I’m going to do, because I know that my family is going
to want to have a funeral up top. But I can’t leave while the baby
is in the hospital. I can’t leave him!”

“Vicky! Vicky! Don’t worry about it. I’ll
arrange to have it down here. Just leave everything to me,
okay?”

“O…Okay.”

She ended the call a minute later, and pulled
up to the ticket booth.

The man working inside of it took her ticket
and gave her a look of pity. “It must be something in the air that
got all the pretty women sad today. Just earlier, a young woman
drove herself into an oncoming jeep. Committed suicide like life
wasn’t important anymore.”

Vicky’s whole body went cold. Though she had
already convicted Cairo of killing Tracey, there wasn’t any doubt
that she was going to make him pay now…somehow.

Ray knew that he was over
his limit,
but the way he felt right now, he wanted to get so drunk that he
would go numb. Thought he was dressed in all black, he had didn’t
attend Tracey’s funeral like he had originally planned. He wanted
to pay his last respects, but good sense told him he wasn’t
welcomed being Cairo’s best friend and the way Tracey’s family was
blaming Cairo for her death.He was brought out of his trance when a
woman sat on the stool next to him. This aggravated him slightly,
because there were tens of stools that could have accommodated her
in a solitary way.

“Excuse me, bartender. Can I get a gin and a
tonic?” the woman requested.

“Sure, coming right up.”

“Thanks.” She did a quick scan of her
surroundings and stopped when she got to Ray. “What’s your
story?”

Ray looked over at her in an uninterested
fashion. “Excuse me?”

“I said, ‘What’s your story?’”

“Busted, disgusted, and not available.”

She started laughing. “You, too? At least you
have a legitimate reason to feel that way. I get like this once a
week.”