Choosing Sides (9 page)

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Authors: Treasure Hernandez

BOOK: Choosing Sides
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Chapter Ten
“W
hat am I gon' do?” Halleigh asked aloud. She was sitting in the bedroom that she now shared with Mimi. The room was just big enough to fit two twin beds inside, but she was grateful just to have a place to lay her head. She had taken a shower, and Mimi had loaned her some of her old clothes.
Manolo had told Halleigh that she could stay as long as she needed to, and he had assured her that he would help her make the money she needed to get Malek out of jail. The fact that she still had four more months of high school crept into her thoughts. How on God's earth was she going to be able to get back and forth from school, let alone, be able to focus on things once she was back at school? After a couple of minutes of sifting a few options and ideas, she decided that she couldn't worry about that now. Perhaps she could go back to school once she got a job and saved up some money.
Mimi sat on her bed with her back against the wall, painting her toe nails. “How much did you say ol' boy's bail is probably going to be?”
“Ten thousand,” Halleigh replied.
“Damn! He gon' rot in that mu'fucka.” Mimi let out a low whistle. “He ain't got no family that can get him out?” she asked. “I wouldn't be spending my hard-earned money on nobody's bail. His family would be going half or something.” Mimi blew on her toes, attempting to dry the wet paint.
“His moms don't like me. She can't stand me. She won't even talk to me, so I don't know what is going on. His pops, I don't even know if he knows what went down yet. He was out of town for his job. He's always out of town working hard.”
“Good. Then let his hardworking ass pay the bail, and you hit the Genesee Mall and go shopping.”
Halleigh just shrugged her shoulders. She had already decided that she couldn't put that burden on Malek's parents' shoulders. Her heart was heavy, and whenever she thought about Malek sitting locked up in jail, she felt as great of a pain as when the two men had pulled the train on her and raped her.
At Halleigh's silence, Mimi continued her reasoning. “It ain't about you, it's about their son. They want him out of there just as much as you do. That's who I would be going to see if I were you.” Mimi hopped up off the bed and left the room.
Halleigh tried not to let Mimi's words override her own thoughts on the situation, but she couldn't help it.
It will take me forever to make ten G's by myself. I don't even know what type of job Manolo gon' give me. What if it's only making minimum wage or something? Maybe I should go to Malek's parents and let them know that I can at least pay half of his bail. It will probably be a whole lot easier for me to come up with half of the money rather than all of it. Besides, if they can put up half, we can get Malek out faster. And on top of that, maybe my sacrifice to get the money will finally show Mrs. Johnson how much I love her son. Then she'll finally accept me.
The next day, Halleigh found herself breathing erratically as she stood on Mrs. Johnson's doorstep. She was nervous, and she knew she looked a mess, but she hoped that Mrs. Johnson would put their beef to the side and agree to help her get Malek out of jail.
I'm just gon' tell her that this is not about us. Her son is sitting downtown in jail, and if we work together, we can get him out. I love him, and so does she. I know she won't just let him sit in there. She has to help me.
At first, when Halleigh asked Mimi to take her to Malek's house, she realized that it was Sunday and that Mrs. Johnson might probably be in church praying for her son to get out of jail. But when they pulled up in front of the house, her car was parked right outside.
Mrs. Johnson had decided against going to church for two reasons. One, the reporters were still outside her doorstep early morning, only vacating the premises when they realized that she wasn't going to answer the door to comment on her son's situation. Secondly, the last thing she wanted was for all those gossiping heifers at her church to pretend to comfort her and pray for her, just so they could have something to talk about. Hell, she might as well have talked to the reporters in that case.
Just as Halleigh was about to knock on the door, she saw Mrs. Johnson look through the curtains. Halleigh thought once she saw her that she would answer the door, but she didn't.
I know she knows I'm out here,
Halleigh thought in frustration. Tired of playing games, she knocked on the door with force. She shouted, “Mrs. Johnson, please open the door. We need to talk!” She heard the bolt lock click.
Mrs. Johnson opened the door with a stone face. “Stop beating on my door,” she said, no emotion in her voice. Her eyes were red, and she still wore her house coat, even though it was one o'clock in the afternoon.
Halleigh looked the woman in the eyes. “I'm sorry, but please . . . I need to talk to you.”
“What do you want, little girl? Haven't you done enough damage?” Mrs. Johnson said coldly. Her eyes pierced Halleigh's soul like a pair of machetes, her glare was so cold. “You've already ruined my son's life, now what?”
“Listen, I love Malek, and I know you think that I'm a gold-digger and that I'm only with him because he's going to the NBA, but that's not true.” Halleigh could see that Mrs. Johnson was about ready to close the door on her, so she quickly put her cards on the table. “Look, I know you don't like me, but this is not about me. I'm here because I want to help Malek. I know that you and Mr. Johnson work hard just to maintain, and probably don't have money stored away to get him out of jail, and I can't help him by myself. I think I can come up with half of the money for his bail. If you all can put up the other half, we can help him together.”
Mrs. Johnson just stared at Halleigh without any expression on her face. Her heart hated the girl that stood before her. In a way she was jealous of the way that Malek felt about Halleigh. For so long it had just been her and her son, until her husband came into her life. And before him, they never had much, but as long as they had each other, it always seemed to be enough. Mr. Johnson did some telemarketing sales work, but was mostly in and out of town with his second job as a Kirby Sweeper salesman, going to different conventions and traveling afar in search of new clients. So even now, it was still pretty much her and Malek in the house. And if Mrs. Johnson was being honest with herself, Mr. Johnson only married her out of guilt from his own childhood.
After meeting Malek and befriending him, and Malek so quickly taking to him as if he were his biological father, Mr. Johnson couldn't imagine exiting the boy's life. So he did what was right and committed himself to the family.
When Malek met Halleigh, Mrs. Johnson had to share her son's heart, and it hurt her dearly. She felt as if Malek had given up so much just to be with her, and that he didn't even know that the young girls these days were all alike. They come a dime a dozen, and they come running when their so-called man is on top, but are the first to get ghost when things look as though they're about to crumble. That's why Mrs. Johnson was a little surprised herself that Halleigh was trying to stick around, now that her son was obviously at his worst. But even that didn't melt the hard ice around her heart as she looked at Halleigh and thought,
I will never let her get her claws in my son's back again.
She figured this was the perfect opportunity to get rid of Halleigh and she took it. Mrs. Johnson burst into patronizing laughter right in Halleigh's face. “Sweetheart, do you really think that I would let my son stay in jail? That his father would let him stay in jail? Malek came home this morning,” she lied. “Being a future NBA star has its perks.”
A smile spread across Halleigh's face. “Can I see him, please?” she asked. “I just want to make sure he's all right.”
“Halleigh, I'm sorry to be the one to break this to you, but Malek left this morning. His father came into town and thought that it would be good for him if he got away from all this madness until things died down.” Mrs. Johnson was starting to believe the fable herself, and so she continued to add yeast to make it rise. “He didn't want to see you, honey. He said that you were the reason why his chances of getting in the NBA was now jeopardized. He'll be lucky to even get a decent college to accept him after this little stunt.”
Tears built up in Halleigh's eyes from the news she had just received. “Mrs. Johnson, can you please just call him? Just let me talk to him?”
“I'm sorry, honey, but he asked me not to give you or anyone else his number, and I have to respect his wishes. I know that you and I have had our days, but I truly am sorry that you had to hear this from me, the same way I had to hear about my son being in jail from you.” Mrs. Johnson cleared her throat, forcing down the sarcasm stuck there. “He just feels that it's time to move on with his life. A life that no longer includes you.”
On the inside, Mrs. Johnson was smiling, pleased with her deception. She could tell that her words were breaking the young girl's heart into a thousand pieces.
Anything to take care of my baby. He doesn't need her in his life,
she thought.
Mrs. Johnson knew that Malek's arraignment was set for the next morning, but she refused to let Halleigh know that.
I'll do anything to keep this girl away from my son.
Mrs. Johnson banked on her perception about the girl being correct, thinking that by later that night the hoodrat would already be sticking her claws into the next boy.
Halleigh was too shocked to move. She was too shocked to speak, so she just watched in desperation as Mrs. Johnson shut the door in her face. Her heart and mind couldn't quite grasp what Malek's mother had told her.
Why would he do this to me?
she thought as she began the long trek back to the South Side of town, not having Mimi wait on her. She had thought only positive thoughts. She'd go talk to Mrs. Johnson, and then the two of them would work things out.
Halleigh wasn't surprised that Mr. Johnson would scoop Malek up like that. After all, he'd always been the voice of reason in the home. Of course, he didn't care for Halleigh all that much either, but he didn't dislike her the way Mrs. Johnson did. Halleigh couldn't help thinking that things would have turned out different if she'd gotten to Mr. Johnson earlier.
Halleigh tried to hold her tears inside as she treaded through the city, often stopping just to get her thoughts together. It was like she was in a trance. Before she knew it, light became dark, and confidence became insecurity when she thought about her relationship with Malek. She was so sure that he would never leave her.
He promised me that he would take care of me. What am I going to do without him?
Feeling like her world had come to an end, Halleigh lost all perspective of her circumstances. Her mind went numb, and she headed back toward the new place that she hoped she would be able to call home.
Chapter Eleven
T
wo days after witnessing the brutal rape of her own daughter, Sharina had shot up a week's worth of products and was in need of a new fix. Actually, she hadn't noticed that Halleigh was gone until she needed her services again.
She ranted and raved through the house, “Halleigh, where the hell are you?” tossing furniture over as if Halleigh was hiding under them.
In a fit, and with a monkey on her back, she tore the house up, searching under tossed pillows on the sofa, under the bed, and in the closets. She even groveled on the carpet with a straw when she thought she saw a white dash of powder. Unfortunately, it wasn't crank (amphetamine) or crack, but a piece of lint.
“Where the hell is that heifer?” she grumbled, scratching an open sore on her arm. “She know I need her. Much as I done did for her, she better be glad I ain't callin' the law on her. If Flint PD wasn't so crooked, I'd report her underage ass. But, hell, the damn cop would probably fuck her too before they even made it to the station.”
After what seemed like hours of destruction for Sharina, she had finally worn herself out. The last place she had searched was the bathroom, removing everything from under the sink and the medicine cabinets, and tearing down towels and washcloths from the racks that held them. Sweaty, funky, and exhausted, she slumped down the wall and onto the floor. She stared at the toilet across from her, feeling like a piece of shit, wanting to just dunk her head in and drown herself.
But all of a sudden, it was as if she was having an epiphany. Her eyes lit up as she crawled over to the toilet. She found a little bit of blow that she'd hidden from her friends a few weeks earlier in the bathroom commode. She'd forgotten all about it until now. “Thank you, God,” she cried out. “Thank you, Lord,” she added, giving God thanks for the devil's work.
Elated at the discovery of the drugs, Sharina snorted some then shot up the rest. “I can quit any time I want,” she murmured to herself as her high settled throughout her body, “but I don't wanna.” She smiled. “Shit feels too good.”
She slumped, and her eyes closed. “I'm gonna get high forever,” were the last words she spoke out loud. But the last words she thought were,
And Halleigh's going to help me to be able to do it
.

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