Beautiful Liar (12 page)

The baby opened his eyes, and stared at Cairo
with identical green eyes.

“Oh, man! He has my eyes!”

“I see. That’s the first time, to my
knowledge, he has opened them. He must know his daddy’s here.”

Cairo didn’t respond. He only returned his
son’s stare until tears formed in his eyes. He couldn’t explain his
sudden grief, but he guessed that it was the connection that a
father and son have.

Shame and guilt suddenly washed over him from
the fact he had been praying he wasn’t the father. And now, he knew
he had to be his son’s everything and he was all that he had.

Cairo turned to the nurse with a newfound
concern. “How long does he have to stay in this thing?”

“That’s up to the doctor. But I imagine until
his organs are fully developed.”

“Where’s the doctor now? Is he here?”

“Yes. He was just at the nurses’ station,
chatting with Delores.”

“I need to have a word with him.”

“Sure. Follow me.”

He took one last look at his son before
trailing behind the nurse.

She stopped at a man who was showing a woman
a picture in his wallet. “Dr. Polakwis, this is the father of the
Jenkins boy. He wants to have a word with you.”

The doctor shook Cairo’s hand while observing
him. “I wasn’t aware that you were in the car wreck also.”

“I wasn’t. I had a little accident of my
own.”

“I see. How may I help you?”

“I was—” he cut his words off when he heard a
monitor start beeping.

“It’s the Jenkins baby!” cried the nurse,
Delores.

Cairo moved as fast as he could behind them.
His heart started beating so fast as he watching them work on his
son. It was like a movie. Even down to the point when the blackness
engulfed him.

Through everything we have been through,

I still can’t bring myself to say
goodbye.

The grief is so intense, every time I
reflect back, I cry.

I miss you so badly that I find myself
reaching for you in my sleep,

Swinging my legs back and forth, trying to
locate your warm feet.

I wake up every morning expecting to see
your lovely face,

But you were only a dream, and the grim
reality is my heart’s vacant space.

My stomach turns, knowing you will never
again be mine.

No one deserves you like I do. I offer you
my body, heart and mind.

From: “The Book of Sweet Nothings”

By: Kevin Bullock

“
Stop, JJ!” Vicky
screamed. “You’re
going to kill him!”

“That’s what I’m trying to do!”

The onlookers at the cemetery looked on in
terror as JJ hammered his second cousin, Sweets, to the ground with
his fists.

“I told you Niggas to give me three feet,
didn’t I? Didn’t I?”

JJ ignored everyone’s plea to stop; they only
infuriated him. But when he heard his mother’s voice, he
immediately ceased his attack.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“Nothing, Ma. I had to serve justice on
him.”

“If you lay another hand on that boy or
anybody else in this family, I ‘m going to take this cane and bust
your head to the brain. Do you hear me?”

“But Ma!”

“I don’t want to hear it! You’re nothing but
a big bully.”

JJ glared at Sweets as he got to his feet,
holding his jaw.

“You’re lucky Mama is here. I would’ve just
been switching to fifth gear on your ass.”

“What is this about, JJ? I didn’t have
nothing to do with Uncle June leaving you. I rode with Spic and
them.”

“This ain’t got shit to do with Spic and
them. Don’t play stupid.”

Sweets held his hands out to his side and
looked around for someone to shed light on the situation. “What did
I supposedly do? Does anybody know?”

“You know what you did,” JJ replied.
“Stealing out of Tracey’s pocketbook that time. I haven’t forgot.
My ass whippings don’t have any statutory limitations on them. I
made up my mind eight years ago that I was going to get you for
doing that. And I just got around to doing it.”

Sweets glared at his cousin with a baffled
expression. “What the fuck is wrong with you? That was Malcolm who
stole that money from Tracey, nigga. We beat him down together,
remember? On Jamaican Ave.”

JJ thought about that before he started
brushing grass off Sweets. “Damn, fam. Why you ain’t say nothing,
crazy ass nigga? You a’ight?”

“JJ!”

He turned to his mother with a bashful
expression on his face. “Ma’am?”

“Come here.”

“How come you always show your ass everywhere
you go? That’s why wouldn’t nobody let your ride with them. They
wasn’t up for your craziness.”

Vicky was tuned into the conversation until
her phone started ringing. “Hello?...yes, this is she…what!”

She ended the call moments later in tears.
When she shared the news with her family, they went into an uproar
and raced to their cars!

“That was real selfish of you,” Wendy said, once
she saw that Misty was awake. “I should finish the job.”

Misty realized she was still alive and curled
herself up into a ball and sobbed. “Why didn’t they let me die? I
don’t want to be here anymore!”

“Misty! Misty! Talk to me! Why did you do
that? I had just left you and you were fine. Talk to me! What
happened?”

“He was going to ask me to marry him, Wendy.
I…I went through his things like you suggested, and I found a..an
engagement ring! It was so…beautiful!”

Wendy began crying now. “I’m so sorry. I
really am.”

“I don’t want to be here anymore. I swear I
don’t.”

“What about your brother and me? You’re not
thinking about us. Carlos has been having a fit, calling me every
fifteen minutes or so.”

“He’s pissed, isn’t he?”

“More worried than anything.”

“What about Ty? Has he called, too?”

Wendy grabbed Misty’s hand and kissed it.
“Misty, baby, you have to get over him and come back to
reality.”

Tears filled Misty’s eyes all over again, and
her bottom lip began to quiver. She stared at her best friend for a
long time before she decided to speak. “But, it’s so much better
this way.”

“But it’s not real, Misty! It’s
dangerous!”

Misty already knew this, but like every
pleasure, there was a downside to it. And though, her pleasure had
her in a state, which was very unhealthy, she knew it was the only
thing that kept her close to him.

“Do you know the hardest thing that I ever
had to do?” she asked.

“What’s that, baby?”

“I…I had to dump his body.”

“What?”

“I had to. Before he died in my arms, he
urged me to do it.”

“But why?”

“Because, he told me if the police found him
there and searched the house, they would link him to the robberies
and take everything. I didn’t know what he had there, and I didn’t
have time to find it. So…I knew I had to do it. I cried and drove,
and cried and drove, until I was in the country somewhere. And…I…I
just kept walking back to his body to see if he was breathing. I
just couldn’t leave him on the ground like that…but I couldn’t
stay…”

She then burst out in a loud wail, and Wendy
began to rub her back and said, “I’m so sorry. Nobody should have
to go through that.”

“What am I going to do?”

“You have to live.”

Misty didn’t respond. She knew that Wendy was
right. It was her broken heart that was getting the best of her and
making her feel like this. She wasn’t any closer today from getting
over Tywan’s death than she had been on the day that he died. It
was torture, a slow death.

Ten minutes had passed with neither woman
speaking. One was patient and concerned, and the other was
contemplating and distressed.

Finally, Misty was the one who broke the
silence. “I’m sorry that I took you through this, and I love
you.”

“I love you too. I’m going to always be here
for you, Misty. I only want you to get better.”

“That’s just the thing. I can’t see that
happening as long as I’m still in love with him.”

“That’s some bullshit, Misty! There’s a way
to hold on to him without trying to kill yourself and being
depressed all the time. You have to move on. That’s what Ty would
want you to do.”

“I want to move on, but it has to be in a way
that doesn’t void or downplay what Ty means to me. Do you
understand what I’m trying to say?”

“I understand exactly, and I’m going to help
you. But you have to promise me that you won’t try to commit
suicide anymore. I can’t give you my all when I know it’s going to
be in vain.”

“I promise,” she said after a long
hesitation.

Strangely, the hospital floor was eerily quiet
after the all-out brawl had been broken up. Security had really
earned their paychecks, and the nurses had plenty of gossip for the
next few days. There hadn’t been that much action since the
survivors of the courthouse shooting had been brought in, some
years back.

Cairo sat stolidly on the bed as the nurse
stitched up the gash above his left eye. He only responded to her
questions with head motions, because every time he opened his
mouth, a sob escaped.

Terry waited until the nurse left out of the
room before he attempted to console his son. He had received a few
punches and kicks in the fight, but it was nothing compared to what
Cairo received. He was surprised that his son hadn’t sustained more
serious injuries.

He had never before in his life contemplated
hitting a woman, but it had been necessary today, because his son’s
life had been in jeopardy.

“Are you okay?’

Cairo covered his face and shook his
head.

“What is it? Are your ribs hurting?”

The head gesture again.

“Talk to me, son. I can’t read your
mind.”

A minute passed before he said, “I just want
to know how he died.”

“The doctor said respiratory failure. You
know that his lungs hadn’t fully developed.”

“That’s some bullshit! They must've killed
him, because I was just in there with him! He…he smiled at me!”

“Son, you need to calm down.”

“How are you going to tell me to calm down
when my son was just murdered?” Cairo yelled.

“Because I’m your daddy!” he screamed. “And
that boy wasn’t murdered!”

“But I was just in—”

“You seem to have forgotten who was by that
boy’s side since the very beginning. I’ve been in love with him
since Tracey told me that she was pregnant.”

“I’m sorry, Pops. But I’m hurting!”

“I’m just as hurt as you are, but all the
yelling and grieving in the world isn’t going to bring him
back.”

“Then what am I going to do?”

“All you can do is learn from this situation.
That’s what life is about; learning from your mistakes so you won’t
make them anymore.”

“How can I ever make this mistake again when
I probably can’t have any more babies? Remember what the doctor
told me.”

Terry wiped the corners of his mouth with his
fingers and sighed. “Son, this is going to sound cruel, but you
need to hear this. Some lessons are harsher than others. Lady Karma
just paid you back in full for all the women you done wrong. I just
hope that you learned your lesson.”

His father’s words rattled his soul. It was
almost like his son had died all over again.

It wasn’t until later that night that Vicky and
JJ were released on bond. While Vicky’s had been set at a thousand
dollars for simple assault, JJ’s had been set two thousand dollars
higher. They both exited the building with distraught
expressions.

Rasheeda awaited them. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m cool. Thanks for bailing us
out.”

“No problem. Everybody chipped in.” She then
turned to JJ. “How come your bond was higher?”

JJ suddenly started shadow-boxing. “Because
they put me in a holding tank with this country ass nigga wearing
blue. These Damu bees had him in there doing the Harlem Shake.”

They left him there fighting ghosts and
headed to the car.

Vicky stopped when something dawned on
her.

“What’s wrong?” Rasheeda asked.

“How did you avoid getting arrested?”

“I saw the security coming. I told you guys
to come on, but you were seven-thirty.”

“I was trying my best to kill that bastard.
That precious baby! Why…how did they say he died?”

“Your grandmother said that he had breathing
complications.”

Vicky dropped her head on Rasheeda’s car. “He
didn’t get a fair chance at life. That’s not right.”

“I know.”

JJ stared at the women in disbelief. His rage
must have been vibrating off of him, because both women looked up
at him simultaneously.

“Yo, B. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
Both of you done come down south and got straight up soft. Cottage
cheese soft. Mashed potatoes soft. That country-ass nigga drove
Tracey off the brink, and all you all can do is cry?”

“What else can we do right now?” asked
Rasheeda. “If we step foot back in that hospital, we’re going to
jail.”

“There’s a million ways to settle the score
with him. We don’t have to do it at the hospital. All we have to do
is wait for him to slip and hit where it hurts. I got a little time
off…well actually, I got fired…but I’ll stay down her until we get
the job done. Word to Bloods!”

Vicky started at her brother, and for the
first time in her life, she agreed with his radical views. She
sucked up her grief and listened to what JJ had in mind.

Misty stared out
of her hospital
window with a blank note pad in her lap. She found herself in a
mental standoff. On one hand, she wanted to ease her stress by
doing what she always did: write Tywan letters. But she knew it
would be hazardous to her survival, because it would eventually
place her back in a state of mind where suicide would be
looming.