Baby Momma 2 (14 page)

Almost a month had passed since Ris walked out of my life leaving the kids, her clothes, and everything we had together. There was always a shadow of doubt in the back of my mind that still carried the slightest fear that maybe something had really happened to her. It would nag me whenever my mind had a chance to wander, like when I was cooking, or taking a shower, or in those last few moments just before I'd fall asleep.

Lania had turned up within the next few days according to Keyshawn. She'd called him hung over and still high, claiming that Ris was of course laid up with that Keisha girl he'd mentioned. I was hurt, but Key turned out to be my knight in shining armor, gluing the pieces of my family back together little by little, even while dealing with the murder of Curtis, who I later found out was like his mentor, according to his teammates and all the news reports I'd read. They'd found parts of Curtis's body when some trappers caught a gator with a human arm in its mouth about a week after Ris disappeared. They never caught the killer or found the rest of his body; hell the only way they even knew it was Curtis was by his damn fingerprints. I could tell it still really bothered Keyshawn sometimes.

I'd decided to surprise him and make veal parmesan with bacon-wrapped asparagus for dinner. Closing my eyes I let myself enjoy something that I didn't get too often: a quiet house. The kids were at the park with Key, taking advantage of having him around since it was the off-season. I was in the middle of crushing garlic when that all-too-familiar alarm chimed on my iPhone. I hadn't heard from Jim in a while. Keyshawn insisted that I didn't need him since he had his own “special security” that he refused to tell me about. But until I knew Rah was back behind bars I kept Jim on standby.

“Hi, Jim, long time no hear.”

“Ye know they say no news is good news. Well I've got some info that'll pro'ly have ya doin' a jig or whatnot.”

“I'm ready.” I took a deep breath, not sure if it would be about Larissa or Rasheed, but anxious either way.

“Not gonna sugarcoat this—they found Rasheed's body yesterday a few miles south of Emporia back in Virginia. Was burned up pretty bad; had to use dental records to identify it. He was inside one of those CMA CGM shipping containers. There was another corpse in there with 'im, one of 'em a female, but we're still waiting on more information. No ID on the Jane Doe as of yet. But I know you'll sleep better now knowing he ain't after ye.”

I was dumbfounded. There were tears in my eyes from both sadness and joy.

“He wasn't alive . . . when they burned him, was he, Jim?” No one deserved that kind of death. Not even Rah.

“Not sure yet, sweetheart. We'll know more in a couple of days. I'll give you a ring back. 'Til then you be safe and enjoy yourself now.”

I didn't know what to do with myself. I left the food and everything in the kitchen and walked out the front door; the humidity made sweat bead on my forehead almost instantly. I inhaled, smelling the rain that was coming and the rose bushes on the side of the house that'd just started to bloom. The sky was dark from the approach of one of our usual evening thunderstorms and for the first time in months I was able to just enjoy standing outside, not worrying about who, or if someone, was watching me or waiting.

 

 

“Woman, you got this house smellin' good.” Key walked in right on time with Lataya in his arms and Trey following not too far behind him.

I'd already set the table and was just keeping everything warm until they got back. Fresh basil, garlic bread, bacon; yes, it did smell good and my stomach growled in agreement.

“Everybody wash their hands, it's time to eat.”

He came over and gave me a soft kiss, handing me a small pink and white envelope.

“What's this baby?” I looked at it, amused; he never failed to amaze me.

“Oh I don't know, let's open it later.” Winking playfully he marched off to the hall bathroom to help the kids wash their hands.

The storm started to roll in just as we finished up dinner. The thunder and lightning were scaring the kids and Keyshawn wasn't helping, jumping and yelling, “Boo,” in between every damn thunderclap. This was probably one of the worst ones we'd had all summer; it was going on nine and it still hadn't let up.

“Mommy, can we sleep wif you?” I looked at Key and sighed.
Damn and double damn because this is definitely some of that good old-fashioned handling business weather.

“Yes, baby. Let's go get our PJs on.” Glancing at Key, I led Trey to his bathroom.

He gave me a wink and my ass got excited. That shit meant,
oh we are gonna wait 'til they fall asleep and then the business is gonna get handled.
It didn't take long before all four of us were cuddled up in the bed and the three of them, with their bellies full, were of course unconscious before ten-thirty. Lataya was lying on Keyshawn's chest and Trey was all up in my back when I remembered the envelope he'd given me. I'd left it on the counter downstairs and now my curiosity was getting the better of me.

The storm was still on ten and I couldn't believe the thunder didn't wake the kids up. I'd stopped to look out the window and my mind couldn't help drifting to Larissa. We used to love to watch lightning storms together. “Nature's fireworks” was what she always called them. An exceptionally bright pinkish silver fork split down from the sky and I wondered if she was watching it now.

My phone dinged from its docking station on the kitchen counter. Slipping the small envelope into the top pocket of my pajama top, I checked my phone. It showed I had one missed call. Secretly, I hoped it was Ris. Every time I dialed her number it went to voice mail. Even though she was on my account, I never turned her line off, even though I pretty much assumed she'd probably gotten a new phone by now. I didn't know why I didn't just disconnect it. The missed call was Jim and I pressed the play button to listen to the voice mail he'd left me.

“Hey, Michelle. Funny thing. Was on the phone with the coroner's office in Virginia going over a few details. The body was set on fire after death. There was no burn or scar tissue on the inside of his lungs.”

Well that was good; the last thing I wanted to think about was Rasheed suffering a painful, horrible death. He had a ton of enemies and I could only imagine who would do something like that once they got a hold of him.

Jim's voice mail went on: “Only problem is, tissue samples show massive decomposition. That man been dead for about three, maybe four months. Somebody got a hold of him and took him out
soon
as he got busted out of that prison, Michelle. So my question to you is—”

My iPhone slid from my hand, the glass shattering on the tile of the kitchen floor just as lightning split the sky open and thunder crashed so loud it sounded like a tree trunk being split in half like a twig. I didn't need to hear the rest of Jim's question because the answer was standing in my kitchen, soaking wet, staring me in the face. Rasheed was already dead but this could be the night I was going to die too.

 

 

“Okay, sweetheart, you gotta trust me on this shit.” Kita was a third-year medical school student who'd been workin' in the women's ward at the prison to finish up her residency or whatever the fuck they called it. She was one of the few people who actually took really good care of me during my pregnancy. She felt the worst 'bout what happened to initially even get my ass locked up, and e'reday when she could see me by myself all we'd talked 'bout was findin' a way to legally get my case appealed. When dat fell through an' every appeal I turned in got turned down, she started tryin' to find ways for me to get out illegally. Kita could lose her financial aid and all her school shit by doin' this, so even though my ass was scared as hell I wasn't gonna let her down.

“This is some experimental shit we been workin' on in lab back at Old Dominion. We've tried it a few times on animals, small pigs, and I'm gonna write my thesis on it and maybe earn myself an article in the
Medical Journal.
It's gonna slow down your heart jus' long enough for you to flat line. It disrupts the electrical transmitters that the EKG machine picks up on. But never mind; that shit's technical. Anyway, in three hours you'll go right back to normal. You still gon' be breathin'; it'll jus' be
extremely
shallow. So shallow nobody will even be able to notice.”

We were sittin' in the post-delivery intensive care ward, if that's what you wanna call it. It was really just an area of the prison that they'd sectioned off with a few raggedy-ass hospital beds that had curtains in between 'em, but since there weren't a whole lot of pregnant women up in there it was pretty much all mine. A few days ago I'd been stabbed in my cell by my cellmate—the shit sent me into labor a couple weeks prematurely, but me and my baby were both some fighters and we made it out okay.

Kita was still goin' in, explainin' the plan to get me out. A plan she'd come up with one day outta the blue after my last appeal was finally turned down an' a few of the other inmates started gettin' hostile toward me.

Some shit went down where some of Rah's product was supposed to be killin' people out on the street. They was up in here takin' they anger out on me 'cause I was picked up wit' a loaded car full of his shit, even though my ass ain't even know it was there. But shit like that doesn't matter on the streets. When somebody lose a junkie cousin, brother, or auntie to some bad dope, first thing they wanna do is take out anyone they think coulda gave it to 'em. My question was always why couldn't they ass be as gung-ho 'bout takin' the damn needle or pipe
from
the person as they was 'bout takin' someone's life
over
that person?

“It'll be jus' like havin' one of those dreams where you can't move an' shit but you'll be able to hear an' feel everything.”

Damn, she is still goin'.
I needed to pay attention. I nodded, intent on keepin' my ass focused this time. The baby ripped me wide da fuck open wit' her waterhead self when she came out.
She ain't get that big ol' thang from me. I'm blamin' all that dome piece on her damn daddy.
I was pretty sure my meds must've been wearin' off 'cause the stitches and the knife wound in my side was all startin' to throb again. Thinkin' about my baby made my eyes burn and I could feel the tears comin'. I started blinkin' quickly, tryin' not to cry, and counted the dirty yellow an' white checkerboard tiles along the ward floor. Some were cracked and peelin' up—others were broken in half, just like my family right now. We were separated and torn all apart.
I'd do anything to hold my li'l girl and my man again. Fuckin' worthless-ass prison bitches threw her in my arms and snatched her away before my blood was wiped off'a her or her umbilical cord was even cut.

“I'ma need you to be dat bitch, Honey. 'Cause they gonna tag you, bag you, and put yo' ass in the morgue, but you jus' keep thinkin' 'bout yo' li'l girl, okay?”

“I . . . I'm gonna be in there wit' dead bodies?” Jus' thinkin' 'bout not bein' able to move, freezin' inside a dead person storage locker, zipped up inside a body bag gave me chills. I was pro'ly gonna have nightmares 'bout this shit for the rest of my life.

“You'll be fine, Honey. My homeboy is wit' the coroner's office—he know what's up. Javis gonna get to you within the first half-hour of me declaring you dead 'cause you'll need to be put on oxygen ASAP. If we can help it you ain't neva' gonna make it to the freezer. You jus' gonna be in the morgue part—that's where they sit the bodies. Then it's a new ID, new name. New life.”

“All right, you know I'ma do what it take to get back to Paris an' Rah. I ain' gonna do shit to get either of y'all caught for helpin' me. I'll even cut the skin off the tips of my fingers, like I seen some of the lifers up in here done did, if I have to so they can neva' link the ‘new me' back to the me you talkin' to right now.”

“Girl, you jus' find your baby, get to your man, an' live the life you was meant to live.”

I closed my eyes, 'cause the pain from everything, from my wounds to my heart, was now too much to ignore, and the thought about the letter Kita had me write to Rasheed a few minutes earlier was just now startin' to sink in. In order for everything to work, everyone, including my love, had to believe I was dead. He could take care of Paris until I healed up and then we could all finally be together as a family. He was gonna be mad as hell at me for scaring him like this—I could already hear him cussin' me out now—but in the end it would all be worth it.

“All right, li'l momma, give me your arm.”

Kita dipped a cotton ball in alcohol and I jumped when the cold cotton touched my bare skin. Visions flashed before me of the man I loved smilin' as he looked down for the first time at the li'l girl we'd made. I focused on what I wanted. This prison shit was the bad dream and when I woke up I'd be back waking up back in my normal life.

“You're gonna feel a little pinch. Now start counting backward from one hundred, and when you wake up . . .”

I closed my eyes, holding the image of the baby girl I'd just named and let go of, remembering the smile of the man I'd loved and held on to.

“One hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight . . .”