Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (39 page)

Sissy’s eyes blinked then blinked again. The
screaming panic her head began to ease. She heard Charlie and Sandy
counting breaths. She saw Aden’s face. His brow was furrowed with
worry but his eyes were kind. She tried to look away but he held
her head in place.

“
I can’t do it,” Sissy
whispered.

“
Yes, you can and we’ll
help,” Aden took up the breathing exercise. “Deep breath. Sissy, do
it.”

Sissy took a deep breath.

“
Count with me,” Charlie
said. “One, two, three, four. Let it out – one, two, three,
four.”

At the last out breath, Sissy began to
sob.

“
I love you, Sissy,” Sandy
said. “Just as you are.”

“
They’re here,” Nash
said.

Aden kissed her forehead.

“
We’re going to get out of
the way,” Aden said. “But we’re right here with you every step of
the way.”

The paramedic’s hand covered Teddy’s hand.
He nodded and Teddy moved out of the room. Noelle hugged Teddy with
one arm while still holding onto Nash with the other.

“
Is she going to die?”
Noelle whispered.

“
Of course not,” Delphie
said from the hallway. “Come on. Let’s make some cookies for
everyone while this is settled.”

“
But…?” Noelle looked back
at the bathroom.

“
Let them handle this,”
Delphie said.

The second paramedic bandaged the wound on
Sandy’s forearm and went to work on Sissy.

“
How is she?” Aden
asked.

“
She’ll be just fine,” the
paramedic said. “When her emotion wears off, she’ll be in a lot of
pain. Did she do this to herself?”

“
She has an eating
disorder,” Aden said. “We keep track of what she eats but it sounds
like she slipped this week.”

The paramedic nodded and quickly set up an
IV.

“
Suicide?” the second
Paramedic asked.

“
No,” Sandy said. “She has
an eating disorder.”

“
She’s done this before?”
the first paramedic asked.

“
No, never,” Sandy said at
the same time Charlie said, “Yes.”

Surprised, Sandy’s head jerked to look at
Charlie.

“
You can let go,” The
paramedic put his hand over Sandy’s.

“
She used to cut herself,”
Charlie said. “About five years ago.”

“
We can stop the
bleeding,” the second paramedic said to Aden. “But if it was my
daughter, I’d call a Plastic Surgeon and have him do the stitches.
That way, you’ll minimize the scars.”

“
You can let go,” the
first paramedic said to Charlie. “She’s sedated.”

“
Charlie?” Sissy slurred.
“Don’t go. ‘K?”

“
I won’t leave you,”
Charlie said.

“
Oh my God! Sandy look at
your arm,” Sissy said. “I’m so sorry!”

“
Don’t worry,” Sandy said.
“We’ll go with you. Tomorrow morning all of this will just be a
memory.”

“
We have everything
bandaged,” the second paramedic said to Sandy. “Why don’t you find
her something to wear?”

Nodding, Sandy went into Sissy’s room to
find some sweats.

“
Sir, we can take her out
on a stretcher,” the paramedic said. “But with the
stairs…”

“
I’ll carry her,” Aden
said.

Sandy came in with underwear and sweats.
They got Sissy dressed and then Aden carried her down the stairs to
the ground floor. Charlie and Sandy trailed behind him. The
paramedics loaded Sissy into the ambulance, Charlie and Sandy got
in.

“
We’ll meet you there,”
Aden said. “I’ll pick up Rachel.”

Sandy gave him a sad wave and the paramedic
closed the ambulance door. Aden turned to go back in when he ran
into Sam.

“
How did you…?” Aden
asked.

“
Delphie found her cell
phone. She called me,” Sam said. “You can go. Delphie says she’ll
only be there a few hours. There’s an excellent plastic surgeon
available.”

Sam gave Aden keys to the Lipson
Construction extended cab truck he’d just stepped from.

“
The plastic surgeon is
dating an ER doc,” Sam said. “Very hush, hush. But Delphie says
Sissy needs to meet her. The kids are making cookies with Delphie.
She called Jill and Jill’s picking up Rachel when she gets
Katy.”

Sam patted Aden’s shoulder.

“
It’s hard to believe
we’re all so interconnected,” Sam said. “But there’s no doubt that
we are. Go ahead, son. We’ll be here when you get back.”

Sam walked Aden to the truck. He waved to
Aden as the truck left. Humming a tune, Sam went into the Castle to
help make cookies.

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED and EIGHTY

Father

Thursday afternoon – 6:15 P.M.

“
What happened to your
face?” Bumpy asked his son, Jeraine, as he walked into his living
room. He kissed his wife, Dionne, and squeezed his pregnant
daughter, La Tanya’s shoulder. “Son? I asked you a
question.”

“
I have a gig on
Saturday,” Jeraine said. “I have to grow out my beard so they can
style it.”

The room became absolutely still and silent.
No one dared move.

“
Style it?” Bumpy’s
eyebrows went up with surprise. “Style what?”

Tanesha suppressed a giggle. Her laughter
was infectious and everyone laughed.

“
This is serious
business,” Jeraine’s words were defensive, but his voice was filled
with laughter. Covering his mouth with one hand, La Tonya’s husband
Ben tapped Jeraine’s arm with the back of his other hand. “It’s
really your fault.”

“
My fault?” Bumpy’s eyes
did the indignant parent blink.

“
Diddy gets his beard done
in a new style every day,” Jeraine sniffed. “If you had a better
beard, I wouldn’t have to grow it out for days ahead.”

“
Diddy’s father was a
pusher who died on the streets,” Bumpy said.

“
Your point?” Jeraine
raised his eyebrows.

Bumpy put his head back and laughed. He held
his arms out. Jeraine hopped to his feet to hug his father. When
they pulled back, Tanesha saw tears in Bumpy’s eyes.

“
Nice to see you son,”
Bumpy said. “You clean?”

“
Am I here?” Jeraine
asked.

Bumpy laughed and hugged Jeraine again.

“
Nice to see you, Miss T.”
He held his arms out for Tanesha. Tall and slender, she felt
engulfed by Bumpy’s bear hug. He kissed her cheek.

“
Are they staying for
dinner?” Bumpy asked Dionne.

“
Jer is,” Dionne said.
“Tanesha needs some help.”

“
Anything,” Bumpy said.
“What can I do?”

When the big man’s steely eyes turned to
Tanesha, she blushed and looked away. Jeraine put his arm around
her.

“
You remember Mitch
Delgado?” Dionne asked. “His daughter wants desperately to be a
ballerina.”

“
Sissy?” Bumpy asked.
“Seth’s talked about her dancing. He says she’s very
talented.”

“
Dad,” La Tonya said.
“She’s getting big.”

La Tonya gestured to her own ample
chest.

“
You remember how curvy
Patty is,” Dionne said.

“
Sissy has an eating
disorder. Bad. She almost died last year,” Tanesha’s eyes filled
with tears. “She’s been starving herself to keep from having curves
like her mom. She told Sandy she’d rather die than not be a
ballerina. She…”

Jeraine hugged her when she broke down.

“
She tried to cut her
breasts off this afternoon,” Dionne said.

“
Good Lord,” Bumpy said.
“How is she?”

“
They stitched her up and
she’s at home,” Dionne said.

“
I’ll drop by after
dinner,” Bumpy said.

“
Tanesha asked if I would
go to assess her,” La Tonya said. “They’re concerned maybe there’s
an underlying mental illness that they missed at the eating
disorder clinic.”

Bumpy smiled with pride at his psychiatrist
daughter.

“
Seth’s coming home,”
Dionne said.

“
Of course,” Bumpy
nodded.

“
We were at the hospital,
Dad,” Jeraine said. “And I remembered that you’ve met Misty
Copeland, you know the prima ballerina for the New York
Ballet.”

“
She’s a curvy ballerina,”
Dionne said.

“
I met her through
Rodney,” Bumpy said. “Miss T, did you ask your Dad?”

Tanesha shook her head against Jeraine’s
chest.

“
Here’s what we’ll do,”
Bumpy said. “We’ll have dinner. La Tonya and I can go visit with
Sissy. Seth would want me to do that anyway. I’ll call Rodney and
we’ll see if we can’t get Misty Copeland to give Sissy a visit.
How’s that?”

“
Sounds good,” Dionne
stretched up to kiss her husband. He smiled.

“
If it’s all right with
you, sir,” Tanesha said. “I’d like to go to the Castle
now.”

“
Of course, of course,”
Bumpy said.

“
They’re waiting for me,”
Tanesha said.

“
We’re not the kind of
people who stand between a person and what’s on their plate,” Bumpy
said.

“
How can we help?” Dionne
asked.

“
I think you already
have,” Tanesha smiled.

“
Son?” Bumpy nudged
Jeraine. “Why don’t you take her? We’ll wait dinner for
you.”

Jeraine nodded. He put his arm around
Tanesha and led her to her car. Tanesha had pulled so far into
herself that Jeraine kept silent during most of the drive. He
parked in front of the enormous house on Race Street.

“
We should get a house
like this,” Jeraine joked. “Big, beautiful, and…”

“
I like the house by my
Gran’s,” Tanesha said.

Seeing how upset she was, Jeraine didn’t
continue his joke.

“
We’re doing a walk
through with Jake and Jill tomorrow right?” Jeraine
asked.

Tanesha nodded. He stroked her face and she
looked at him.

“
What’s got you?” he
asked.

“
Self loathing,” Tanesha
said. “Sissy has everything I wanted as a kid. She’s white, pretty,
talented, smart, she even has a loving family. I mean, her Dad’s
dead and her mother’s crazy, but she has Sandy and Aden. I would
have given an arm to have that or even someone like me who cared.
But all of that stuff I wanted so bad... inside she feels like I
felt.”

Moved by her words, Jeraine could only look
at her. Tanesha was lost in thought. He touched her chin. She gave
him a soft smile.

“
I’m going to do something
about this in my life,” Tanesha said. “And you’re going to write a
song to help people with it.”

“
If you say so,” Jeraine
said. “I think I’m going to be pretty busy with school.”

“
Maybe the best way for
you to help people is to keep making music,” Tanesha
said.

Not willing to defend her statement, she
gave him a peck on the lips and left the car. Surprised, he watched
her go through the gate. She waved at the door and disappeared.

It had never occurred to him that he might
be able to make music and have Tanesha in his life. He gladly gave
up music to be with her. She was all that mattered to him.

What if he could have a whole, full life
with her and have music too? His father had never been able to do
it. When Jeraine was in treatment, Bumpy had attended a few of his
therapy sessions. His father had told the therapist of his own
struggles with sex and drugs while he was a touring musician.
Bumpy’s choice was to have a family and a medical practice over his
music career.

But Jeraine wasn’t his father and Tanesha
was not his mother.

He stared at the door she’d disappeared
through for another moment. Shrugging, he made a U-turn and headed
back toward five points. Stopping at Seventeenth, he felt his hands
tap against the steering wheel. His mouth hummed a tune. By the
time he reached his parents’ home, he had the hook. If he wrote a
song for Sissy, it would sounds something like...

Smiling at himself, he went to have dinner
with his family.

~~~~~~~~

Thursday afternoon – 6:35 P.M.

Knocking on her father’s hotel door,
Anjelika glanced down the hallway. Her father was staying at the
Warwick Hotel courtesy of the CIA. She wasn’t sure what he was
going to do with the rest of his life. She knew he hoped to spend
his time in Denver with her and her children. They were his only
remaining family and he was aging fast.

The door opened and his bodyguard filled the
entryway. He gave her a grudging nod and moved aside so she could
step into the suite.

“
Leave us,” she said to
the bodyguard in Russian.

The bodyguard looked at her father and he
nodded. The man went out onto the patio to smoke.

“
You are angry,” her
father said in Russian.

“
The child got so anxious
about meeting you that she tried to cut off her breasts,” Anjelika
said in Russian.

Her father nodded as if it was expected.

“
She cannot be a prima
ballerina with her shape,” her father said. “Ivan has been very
concerned. He has been watching her diet and keeping her exercises
up.”