Karma's a Bitch (20 page)

“I don’t know Tony! I got a lot going on myself, I didn’t have time to find out just yet. I promise you, I’ll find your grandmother for you,” Jenny lied. She didn’t even really know exactly why she wasn’t telling Tony that his grandmother was home already. But if she wanted to be honest with herself, she was doing it because she knew that Tony’s grandmother didn’t like her. She didn’t want anyone throwing negative ideas in Tony’s head about her, and messing up their plans to get married. Jenny wished he would stop bringing up his grandmother’s name everytime he saw her, but no such luck.

“You better get on that shit ASAP, and stop playin’ Jenny. I want to talk to my mom,” Tony said seriously. Jenny just wheeled him to the car and thought more about how things were going to be now that she had her man back.

* * *

“Hello, is Quanisha Williams there?” Dr. Stephens asked into the phone.

“Yea, this her,” Quanisha said skeptically. “Who dis?”

“Hi Ms. Williams, this is Dr. Stephens, from the hospital, where Tony Jackson is registered?”

“Oh yea, how you doin’ Doctor,” Quanisha replied. “I was looking for you the last time I was in the hospital, but I haven’t been back in a while…”

“I know. I wanted to get back with you and touch bases about our conversation. This might be an old issue at this point for you, but I like to keep my promises. I told you I would speak to Nurse Storms about your confrontation with her.”

“Yea, and what did she say?” Quanisha said shifting in her seat.

“Ms. Williams, I don’t know entirely what is going on, but she says that you attacked her and--”

“
I
attacked
her
?” When Quanisha heard this her blood pressure started to rise.

“But listen first. She also told me that she and Tony were engaged to be married. I don’t know how true this is, but I’ve got to be honest with you Ms. Williams, the whole situation seems a little fishy to me. Tony and I talk all the time and he never told me anything about being engaged. Actually I was surprised because he told me many times that
you
were his girlfriend. I honestly don’t know what’s going on.”

Quanisha became frozen in time when she heard Dr. Stephens say that Tony and the nurse were engaged.

“Ms. Williams?” Dr. Stephens said when Quanisha didn’t respond.

“Well do you believe me now then? That she’s crazy? There’s no way they’re engaged!”

“I don’t know about crazy but… well all I can tell you is that I will keep my eye on Nurse Storms. My instincts tell me that she’s hiding something, or just not being totally truthful about something. She doesn’t usually work on my floor but…” The doctor hesitated as he struggled between his human instincts and his need to remain professional. His conscience was winning. “Let’s just say I’m going to keep tabs on Nurse Storms. Something’s not right. In the meanwhile, Tony was released from the hospital today, and he went home with her. I just hope everything will be okay. Tony reminds me of myself when I was younger, and I’d hate for him to get caught up in some mess.”

Quanisha shook her head and felt as if she wanted to start crying again. Tony? Engaged? It couldn’t be. Not to that frail shapeless boring nurse! And he was going home with her?

“Doctor, I gotta go.”

“Are you going to be okay Ms. Williams?”

“Uh, yea. I don’t know. I just need some time by myself.”

“Alright. Well, don’t hesitate to call me if you ever want to talk. I may be just an old doctor, but I have an ear to listen. I know how it is out here for you young people these days.”

“Thanks Doctor. I’ll talk to you later,” Quanisha said holding back tears. She hurried up and hung up the phone before the doctor could hear her crying.

Before she could get it out, her home phone started ringing. She wondered if she should even answer it, but something in her was hoping that it was Tony.

“Hello?” she said in a low voice.

“Quanisha! Baby, you don’t know how happy I am to hear your voice child,” Tony’s grandmother said happily as she grasped her chest.

“Miss Teresa?”

“Yes Quanisha. I been tryin’ to call you for the longest time. I thought I had the wrong number!”

“I thought you were in the hospital?” Quanisha was confused.

“Girl I’ve been out that hospital for almost a week now. Where’s my son Anthony? Is he there?” Tony’s grandmother asked hopefully.

“Miss Teresa, I don’t have no idea where Tony is right now. He just got out the hospital today.”

“Huh? No I said
I
just got out the hospital baby,” Tony’s grandmother corrected Quanisha.

Quanisha was quiet for a moment. “Yea, I know. And so did Tony. He just got released from the hospital today, but I don’t know where he is though.”

“Tony was released from the hospital? What was he in the hospital for??” Tony’s grandmother started panicking.

“Miss Teresa, you tellin’ me you didn’t find out by now that Tony was in the hospital?”

“What hospital is he in child! Speak!” Tony’s grandmother said, growing impatient.

“He ain’t in the hospital no more. He got released today I think!”

“Oh my God. Oh my God.”

“Miss Teresa calm down, he alright. He just got into a little fight,” Quanisha said, undervaluing the ‘fight’ Tony had gotten into. “I went to see him last week.”

“Where’s he at now??” Tony’s grandmother demanded.

“I don’t know for sure Miss Teresa, but I was told he went home with some nurse,” Quanisha said and choked back her emotions. “I’m not sure what’s goin’ on.”

“Quanisha, what’s wrong?” Mrs. Jackson said, sensing that Quanisha was about to cry.

“Nothin’ Miss Teresa, I’ll be aiight. Listen, let me get you his doctor’s phone number.” Quanisha retrieved Dr. Stephen’s pager number from her purse and read it off. By the time she got off the phone, she was very much affected by Mrs. Jackson’s panicked state. She noticed a piece of the blunt that she and Randy had been smoking still sitting in a tray on the coffee table. She immediately picked it up and went to light it on her stove.

She couldn’t believe that Mrs. Jackson had no idea what had happened to Tony in the past few weeks, and now she and Quanisha couldn’t even get in touch with him. Quanisha took a long drag from the blunt and began to feel sorry for herself. Tony was engaged? There was just no way that could be true. He had told her that he loved her. How could he run off with that stupid nurse? Quanisha felt a sharp pain in her chest when she thought about how the nurse had been right, and she had been wrong all along. Maybe Tony really wasn’t her man anymore.

Chapter 14

“Jenny! Get off my fuckin’ back!” Tony yelled as he shook Jenny off of his shoulders. She had been kneeling beside him on the couch and trying to give him a massage, but was annoying the hell out of him instead with just the sound of her voice.

“Fine! I was just trying to give you a massage. You know, I’m getting sick and tired of how you’ve been treating me. What the hell did I do?” Jenny was willing to accept that her relationship with Tony would not be easy, but she decided that she was going to make the best out of it. Many women had this type of relationship, and they just dealt with the negative side of it. They took the good with the bad, and that was what Jenny was going to do. She was going to do whatever she could to keep her man around so that she could finally walk down that aisle and get married. In the meanwhile, she could take a few insults from him, but once in a while she felt the need to say something back.

“You bother the shit out of me all day long, that’s what you do,” Tony complained. “Why don’t you go the hell to work or somethin’?”

“Because I took off time from work to be with you Anth—Tony. I love you, and I want to make sure you’re okay before I go back in,” Jenny explained.

“Bitch, you real crazy. Damn, you got me all fucked up!” Tony said and shook his head as he flipped through the channels. “I told you I don’t love your ass. Stop sayin’ that shit. And go to work, I don’t need you here.”

Jenny folded her arms and looked at Tony sideways. “You know, that’s no way to talk to your future wife. You shouldn’t be calling me a bitch.”

Tony slowly turned to look at Jenny. But this time he
really
looked at her. A very serious thought ran through his mind and he started to wonder if this woman that stood before him was really mentally challenged. He had done everything in his power to express to her that he wasn’t into her, but yet here she was, thinking she was his future wife!

“What did you say?” Tony asked incredulously. He couldn’t even bring himself to say the words. Jenny smiled and looked at him with excitement.

“Stop being silly,” she said putting out her hand and gazing at her engagement ring. “I know you’ve seen the ring, but baby I’ve got some of the nicest things to show you! I wanted to save the dress for the traditional wedding reveal… but never mind that, I want to show you now.”

Jenny got up from the couch and dashed upstairs. Tony could hear her footsteps walking around the room above him. He was sitting back on the couch with his mouth wide open in amazement.

“Yo, this is a bad dream,” he said chuckling to himself nervously. There was no way this chick was serious.

Jenny came back downstairs and all of Tony’s fears came true. There she stood with a long white silk wedding gown draped over her arm, a veil on her head, and a small box clenched in her hand.

“Who’s that for?” he asked, still in denial.

Jenny looked at him with a peculiar smile on her face. “Uhh, it’s for me, duh.”

“And, who you getting married to?” Tony was still playing along. He thought this was some kind of practical joke. He was half expecting a candid camera crew to jump from behind the couch.

“Uhh, baby, hello I’m getting married to youuu,” Jenny answered. Her smile was quickly becoming a frown as she saw the expression on Tony’s face.

“No you not, you playin’ right?” Tony said, laughing.

“Anthony, what are you talking about? We talked about this at the hospital. You said we were getting married!” Jenny said, looking as if her face was going to crack. Her eye began to twitch.

Tony started laughing hysterically. He couldn’t even control it. His ribs were killing him, but this laughter he was having was involuntary; he couldn’t stop. Jenny just stood there hovering near him, with a fear that her whole world was falling apart.

“Marry you! Girl I must be on drugs if I was talkin’ bout marrying you!” Tony cackled at the top of his lungs. “Matter fact
you
must be on drugs!”

The look of distress on Jenny’s face at that moment could break a stone cold heart. She couldn’t stop her eye from twitching as she spoke. “What are you saying? That you don’t want to marry me?”

“Hell no!” Tony said bolting up from his seat. He went instantly from laughing to dead serious when he finally realized that Jenny was serious. “You musta lost your mind!”

“Tony, you know we love each other despite our differences—” Jenny started, but was interrupted abruptly.

“Bitch you better get out my fucking face with that shit,” Tony threatened as he pushed Jenny and the dress aside. “Damnnn you crazy as shit! What the hell would I marry you for?”

“Nooooo,” Jenny suddenly started moaning. It grew slowly from a low moan to a loud groan.

“You ugly, you skinny and you got a negative ass. Your breath stink like dirty chittlins all the time. Your hair is stringy like a dog,” Tony said counting off reasons on his hand. “You broke as shit, you charge everything you own on a credit card, your pussy’s wack, your head game is wack. Your eyes are damn near sunken in your head, your teeth are fucked up, you annoying as hell… and you think I wanna marry you??”