In My Sister's House (27 page)

June did not notice the 1988 Toyota Camry with New Jersey plates following Nettie’s car on their way home. She was far too busy trying to salvage her relationship and calm a drunk and belligerent Nettie. June was pissed at Nettie for ruining the night, and Nettie was cussing her out, telling her that if she didn’t like it, she could leave. These threats were familiar and usually meant Nettie was just lit and running off at the mouth. However, this time they struck a different chord with June. She decided that it might be over between the two of them. Sure, she loved Nettie, but she was tired
of the jealousy, the fighting, and the arguing. She was also tired of being threatened with being put out of the place she called home. “Nettie, you
know
that Candice means nothing to me. You know she is just a part of my past,” she said. But it didn’t matter. Her words fell on deaf, intoxicated, angry ears.

Treasure watched as June parked the car, sliding down in her seat just enough to keep both women in view so that she could see which apartment they went into.

June attempted to help Nettie get in the house but Nettie would not allow her to touch her and stumbled up the stairs and into the building. After a few moments, a light went on and the women were visible from the street. June left no more than five minutes later. As Treasure sat in her car fingering the razor she kept tucked under her wig, she relived that embarrassing day at Legends and got angrier by the second, her eyes glued to the third-floor window. She assumed it was the bathroom because the shadowy outline of Nettie’s petite figure disrobed and descended into what must have been a tub. This was it.
This is what bitches get
, Treasure thought.

•  •  •

Skylar knew it would take a long time to come to grips with the loss of Nettie. Not just because Nettie was a dear, close friend who had died, but because of how violently she had died.

If that weren’t enough, Alexia was now being charged with the attempted murder of Torch, who spent three weeks clinging to life in intensive care and was now at the Lehigh Valley Burn Center, suffering from third-degree burns on his face and neck. He was expected to live, but had suffered severe damage to his face. Skylar was told he was unrecognizable. His lips had melted together, and he’d lost vision in his left eye. He would eventually have to have multiple surgeries to reconstruct his face and left ear. Because he went into shock and his lungs collapsed, he was now breathing with the help of a tube inserted down his throat. He was spending at least twelve hours a day in a hyperbaric chamber in an isolated dark room and
would never know life as it was. An ironic twist for a man named Torch.

Skylar definitely felt Alexia was wrong—dead wrong—to have done what she did. She just snapped. But she also believed Alexia had been a victim, too. Even the strongest person can only take so much. Alexia was just tired and fed up. All she wanted to do was live her life and start over. Skylar remembered something Nettie used to always say: “Everybody don’t go looking for trouble, sometimes trouble find them.” How true that had been.

Yes, too many memories were in the place. Although Legends had been cleared of all liability, the press had not been too kind with its coverage of the unfortunate circumstances. Skylar even heard that Legends was to be in
Philadelphia
magazine again. This time it would be the cover story. “The Rise and Fall of Legends: Was This the End?” How quickly things could change.

Lost in thought, Skylar didn’t notice that Flynn had come in.

“Hey, Sky,” he said softly.

“Flynn! Hey.” She went to him and they gave each other a long hug.

“Well, I’m on my way,” Flynn said, looking at her and holding her hands in his.

“I’m going to miss you, brother,” Skylar said, tearing up.

“Not as much as I’m going to miss you.” He smiled.

“Have you decided where you’re going, Flynn?”

“I haven’t. I saw that Amtrak commercial about the ‘See America Our Way’ campaign, where you pay five hundred dollars and you can see the whole country, and I thought I’d give it a try. I’m not sure where I’ll end up, but anyplace is better than Philly right now.”

“Boy, do I understand what you mean,” Skylar said.

All kinds of rumors had surfaced after the Alexia fiasco and Flynn had become the butt of many jokes by fellow comedians and everyday folks. No one was louder about it than Beatrice, who was headlining at the Laff House on Sixth and Bainbridge. Half of her material was about Flynn and Alexia. None of it was true, of course,
but it didn’t matter now. He had to go. “Sky,” he said, “you have Sidney, and he’s a really good man. I’m leaving you in good hands, baby girl.”

“What about your comedy, Flynn? You think you’ll hit a few clubs on your cross-country journey?” she asked him.

“I doubt it. Ain’t got too much to laugh at anymore, Skylar. Besides, I ain’t that funny. You know it and I know it. Hell, the crowds know it, too.”

“That’s not true, Flynn! This city loves you! Everyone enjoys your act.”

“There’s a big difference between people laughing with you versus at you.” His voice seemed to mellow with each word. “But I’m cool with that. If nothing more, I enjoyed myself. And I thank you for giving me a home to do my thing for the past two years. I’ll never forget that. So many people go through life never having the chance to follow their dream. I had mine. Tell Storm good-bye for me and that I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to say good-bye in person. And listen, baby girl: I know shit ain’t right between you and your sister. But try and work that shit out, Skylar. Family is so important, you know?”

“I sure will. Take care, Flynn.” They embraced and then Flynn started toward the door. He put his hand firmly on the knob and, without turning around, said, barely audibly, “I’ve always loved you.”

“I know,” Skylar said.

As the door closed behind Flynn, Skylar knew that another chapter in her life had come to an end. People had been leaving her life in one way or another for as long as she could remember. At least she still had Sidney. Having a man so gentle yet so strong who loved her unconditionally, who was her support system, was so important. Sidney was the one person she could always count on.

Skylar decided to take one last walk through the building that held so many memories for her. As she walked through the kitchen, her mind went back to the days when she and Storm would run around and watch Dutch prepare the latest soul food dishes for customers.

She thought about how excited she had been going over the layout with the contractors for the new kitchen she had planned for Legends. She wondered what kind of kitchen the new owners would have. Wiping away a tear, she clicked off the light and reentered the main area of the building. An unlikely visitor stopped her in her tracks.

“Hey, sis,” Storm said.

“Storm? What are you doing here?” Skylar said softly.

“I figured you’d be here.” Storm closed the door behind her and walked closer to her sister. For a few moments there was silence. Skylar decided to speak first.

“I … I want to say I’m sorry, Storm,” Skylar said.

“Sorry? For what? I didn’t come here to get an apol—”

“Let me finish,” Skylar said. “I’ve spent all my life trying to be perfect. It started with Dutch. I always wanted to make sure that I was doing the right thing. Dutch could always count on me. When I was fourteen, he taught me how to run this business, while you were out running with your friends having fun. I never questioned it because I felt that he probably thought I was better at handling responsibility. That made me feel good, feel worthy. When errands were to be run, I was the one Daddy sent. You, on the other hand, stayed at home and rode your bike.” Skylar chuckled. “At church, I was on the youth usher board, ran the fellowship program, and sang in the choir. Not Storm. You sat uninterested in your seat, waiting for the service to be over so you could go join your friends. When some of the church ladies would ask why you were not involved in the same things, you’d reply without missing a beat, ‘Because I don’t want to!’”

Both sisters laughed. “But,” Storm added, “don’t forget that my flip-ass tongue also got me many an ass-beating from Dutch. Many a time.”

“True, but you had the balls to speak up,” Skylar told her. “It took me a long time to admit it, but I was jealous of you.”

“What? Be serious.” Storm was shocked.

“You were always so free. I wanted to be that way. I wanted to be that open to life.”

Storm looked at her, totally confused.

“Storm, you dance to the beat of your own drum. You always spoke your mind, whenever you felt like it, even to Dutch. If it didn’t feel right to Storm, she’d let you know it. When I look back on that, I’m envious,” Skylar said.

Storm was speechless. Never in a million years had she expected to hear her sister say such things. She wanted to interrupt but didn’t. This was too good to be true.

“No one ever thought to ask me if I wanted to do all those things. Everybody just assumed I was fine with it all. There were times I wanted to tell Dutch, ‘No! I want to go the park and just hang out sometimes, too.’ Or when the church wanted to add yet another responsibility to my overflowing plate, I could’ve said, ‘Please get someone else.’ But I didn’t. I made everybody else happy except for myself.” She seemed to drift for a moment, thinking about all of this, before looking up at her sister. “And yes, I did grow up thinking I was better than you. That I would be the success of the family while you continued to fail,” Skylar whispered.

“Well, I’d say by the way things turned out, you were right,” Storm said.

Moving closer to her sister, Skylar said, “No, Storm. I was so wrong. I was the one who failed. I failed you.”

Storm searched her sister’s face for some sort of explanation. She wanted to speak but didn’t know quite what to say.

Skylar continued, “I should have been there more for you. I never took the time to find out what you thought, how you felt, where you wanted to go. I never asked about anything you had going on in your life. I was too busy doing
me
, I guess. Believing my own press releases.

“So now, here we are, almost thirty, and we don’t even know each other. I don’t think we ever did. Losing Dutch and now Nettie makes me feel that all this fighting and discord between me and you is crazy! I resented you coming back trying to change things, claiming things that I felt you had no right to possess. I was wrong. Whatever Dutch left, whether you were here or not, is just as much yours as it
is mine. The selfish side of me didn’t want to believe that.” Skylar felt a lump forming in her throat. It’s hard to swallow guilt.

Storm took a deep breath before starting. “You know, Skylar, regardless of our paths, you are still my sister, my blood. Now, we can spend the rest of our lives trying to apologize for what went wrong, rehashing the past and feeling bad for every little thing we’ve done to each other, or we can nix the shit and start living for today … right now,” Storm said with conviction.

“Why you gotta cuss?” Skylar teased.

“What? Shit, you know I talk like that.” Storm playfully hit her.

“I … I have something I need to tell you. About your arrest,” Skylar said nervously.

“So, what’s your plan, sis, now that you’ve sold the place? Because I have a few ideas—”

“No, Storm, you have to hear me on this,” Skylar said, grabbing her arm—and her attention. “I don’t want to talk about that right now. I just want to make things right. So I need you to allow me to say what I need to say.”

Storm took a step back from her sister and said, “Wait one more second. Being locked up for so long, you tend to get easily bored. So you spend a lot of time reading as much as possible. Mostly it was the Bible or the dictionary. One day, after going over my case with my lawyer, I did something that I hadn’t done before. I read my file. Seriously, I sat myself down and really read my file. There were so many inaccuracies; and I uncovered information that I never knew. I gotta tell you, I was pissed.”

Uneasiness overtook Skylar. Feeling somewhat faint, she braced herself against one of the tables and the wall. This went unnoticed by Storm, who was looking away.

Storm raised her voice, not out of anger, but frustration.

“Then, I looked up the word ‘forgiveness’. Now, according to
Webster’s
, it said, ‘to give up resentment against; or the desire to punish. To pardon.’ What tripped me out even more was in the Bible. Jesus said in Luke 6:37: ‘Judge not and you shall not be judged. … Forgive and you will be forgiven.’ I realized then, what’s
done is done and can’t nobody do nothing about it. Like I said, Sky, I’m willing to start living for today … right now.”

With that, Storm opened her arms to her sister. Skylar, tears welling in her eyes, brought both of her hands to her lips as if to pray. She gently closed her eyes as a tear fell down her cheek. Slowly she began walking toward her sister. After a few steps, Storm did the same. The sisters embraced, collapsing in the moment. Holding on to each other for dear life, they sobbed uncontrollably, letting go of every hurt, every pain, all those feelings of abandonment that had been bottled inside for years. Cleansing their souls and spirits, the two sisters became one. Composing themselves, they wiped away each other’s tears.

“Oh, girl, you look bad!” Storm playfully told her sister as she stood back and gazed at her.

“I was just thinking the same thing about you,” Skylar replied.

With that they both started giggling, and they ended up on the floor, still holding on to each other, neither wanting to be the first to let go. Skylar jokingly told her they probably hadn’t had this much fun since they were in the womb.

“Naw, we was fighting even then. Trying to be the first one to see the light of day,” Storm told her.

For the next hour or so the two sisters remained seated on the floor in the empty building, forgetting about the time and revisiting childhood memories good and bad. Realizing that they had been on the floor long enough, they helped each other to their feet.

“So, sis, are you going to answer my question?” Storm straightened her clothes with her hand.