Lost Daughters (28 page)

I
T TOOK MAUREEN SEVERAL MINUTES TO PULL HERSELF TOGETHER
enough to dial Virgil's telephone number. He and Corrine were still at work, so she got their answering machine. Catty and Fast Black were also unreachable. But Maureen had to talk to
somebody
or she was going to go stark-raving mad. It had to be somebody who could understand her pain.

Without giving it much thought, she dialed Jay's number. She had not talked to him in a while, so she had no idea what he was up to these days. She almost hung up when a woman answered. Even though Jay had decided to reconcile with his ex, as far as Maureen was concerned, he was still her friend and she had every right in the world to call him. Besides, she had provided a shoulder for him to cry on when he was in pain. Now it was time for him to do the same for her.

“Uh, is Jay there? I'm an old friend of his. I used to take care of his mama,” she blurted, hoping that if this woman was Jay's ex-wife, she wouldn't jump to any unnecessary conclusions. All she needed was a friend right now, not a lover.

“He's not home right now. Would you like to leave a message?” the disembodied voice on the other end said. Maureen had seen Jay's ex-wife with him at Loretta's graduation—at least that's who she assumed the woman was. Jay had not introduced her to the ex and had not revealed much information about her, so Maureen knew practically nothing about the woman. Other than the fact that she was very pretty and very young. The woman on the other end of the line sounded like a woman in her seventies or eighties.

“Uh, I'll call him later,” Maureen said, about to hang up. “Wait! Are you his wife? Maybe I can leave a message with you.”

“His
wife
?” The woman clucked. “Honey, I'm old enough to be Jay's grandmother. Me and his mama went to the same church. I come by to clean and cook for him every now and then. The poor thing.”

“Oh. Well, what about his wife?”

“What about his wife? His
slut
would be more like it! Harrumph! That wench gets around like a chain letter. She done moved in with another man. She didn't hang around with Jay once she found out he wasn't goin' to feather her nest. She thought he was goin' to be gettin' all kinds of money from these news and book publishin' folks for lettin' them tell his story.” The old woman stopped talking for a few moments and uttered a string of profanities under her breath. “Excuse me. I usually don't cuss like that, but I do when it involves that woman. Me and Jay's mama begged him not to marry her in the first place. Anyway, that boy don't want to profit off what he went through like some folks would if they had the chance. Leona didn't raise him up to be that way. Jay is just a simple man and he wants to live a simple life. He don't want no book deal or nothin' else. That boy is doin' real good workin' for the cable company. What'd you say your name was?”

“Mo'reen. I'm a friend of Jay's. It's been a while since we talked, so I thought I'd call to touch base with him,” Maureen said.

“I'll tell him you called, Mo'reen.”

A few minutes later, someone knocked on the door. Maureen looked through the peephole and saw a stout young white man she had never seen before. Well, since her bills had all been caught up, she knew it wasn't a bill collector. Could Mel have arranged for a process server to bring her divorce papers already? she wondered as she snatched open the door.

“Yes? What is it?” she hollered, making the man flinch.

“Oh, I'm sorry to bother you, ma'am. Did Mel leave yet?”

“What? How do you know Mel?”

“I don't really know him, ma'am. I'm the one who bought his SUV. I just wanted to let him know he left some CDs in the glove compartment,” the man said, lifting a brown paper bag.

Maureen looked from the bag to the man's face and blinked. “Whatever he left in that SUV, you can keep or throw away.”

“Oh! Well, thank you, ma'am. Uh, I hope he made it to New York with his fiancée all right. He seemed real anxious to be on his way. You must be the older sister he told me he lived with.”

Maureen gave the stranger an eerie smile. “Somethin' like that. And, yes, he and his fiancée made it to New York all right. Now if you'll excuse me . . .” Maureen closed the door and plopped down into a chair, but she couldn't sit still. So that son of a bitch
and his fiancée
had this planned down to the last detail.

She got up and paced around in her living room for almost half an hour cussing out loud, crying, and laughing like she had lost her mind. When she got tired of doing that, she left her apartment and drove around until she almost ran out of gas.

By the time she returned home, Virgil had returned her call and left her a message. So had Jay. She didn't know which one to call up first. Before she could make up her mind, Jay called.

“Maureen, I was happy to hear that you had called,” he told her. “How have you been?” he said in a cheerful voice.

She responded by bursting into tears and spewing unintelligible gibberish for a whole minute.

Jay waited until she paused before he said anything else. “Maureen, what's the matter? Please get a hold of yourself! Calm down so I can understand what you're saying. Do you want me to come over?” Jay was more than a little concerned; he immediately slipped into a panic mode. He knew that whatever Maureen was crying about had to be something major.

Maureen cried louder and harder.

He waited for her to stop crying again, and when she did, he quickly said in a soothing tone of voice, “Is this about Mel? Did he hurt you?” The last thing Jay wanted to get caught in was a domestic situation where Mel could end up hurting him, or where he wound up hurting Mel.

“Yeah, this is about Mel. He's gone,” Maureen managed, choking on a sob. “He's gone for good.”

“Gone? As in dead?”

“No, not dead. But he left me and he won't be comin' back. He's goin' to divorce me.”

Jay wanted to clap his hands and dance a jig. He didn't do that because he didn't want Maureen to know how happy he was to hear that Mel was out of her life.

“Uh, I'm sorry to hear that. He seemed so in love with you. Is there another woman involved?”

Maureen couldn't respond right away. She was literally speechless.

“Maureen, did Mel leave you and run off with another woman?” Jay asked, hoping she'd say yes.

She coughed until she was able to form more words. “He took my daughter with him.”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute. Hold on, now. I know Mel is not Loretta's real father, and I know she's crazy about him, but are you telling me that she chose to be with him over you?” Jay let out a loud, deep breath. Then he got angry. “Goddammit! I can understand you being so upset—”

“He's fuckin' her!”

Jay stumbled and fell against his kitchen wall. “What did you just say?”

“My husband is fuckin' my daughter!”

“Holy shit!”

“They've been carryin' on for years. I should have known not to trust a goddamn stepfather. I should have known better!”

“Now, don't you go condemning all stepfathers. I just might become a stepfather myself someday. I already know quite a few and none of them would even think about touching one of their stepdaughters.”

“Well, this bastard did. All this time . . . all this time! I didn't see it comin'. I didn't suspect a damn thing! I encouraged Lo'retta to ‘like' Mel and to ‘be nice' to him so he could help her become a top model. Jay, I practically served my own daughter to that funky, low-down black dog on a silver platter! How can I live with myself now?”

Jay listened as Maureen told him how Mel and Loretta had cooked up a bogus trip to the Bahamas to throw her off until after they'd made their getaway. “I should have known somethin' wasn't right when they left here with more luggage than any normal person would take on a ten-day vacation. There is just no tellin' how long they had been plannin' this. All that time they were probably laughin' at me behind my back! The man he sold his SUV to came by a little while ago to drop off some CDs Mel left in it. Mel had told him that I was his
older sister
and . . . and that Lo'retta was his fiancée!”

“Maureen, try to calm down so we can sort things out. First of all, don't blame yourself for what happened. Things like this happen every day and in some of the best families.”

“What is it about men and their goddamn dicks?! Don't they care who they hurt when they use that evil piece of meat between their legs on the wrong person?”

“Maureen, honey, with all due respect, I have to disagree with what you just said about that particular part of a man's body being evil. Sex is beautiful when it's between two consenting people, if
both
parties are old enough to handle it.”

“Jay, if I wanted to hear somethin' like that, I would have called Dr. Ruth or some other sex guru. I called you for some emotional support, not a philosophical comment!”

“Maureen, I understand where you are coming from, but do you have all the facts? Like, did he rape her?”

“Did he rape her? Not hardly. He didn't have to! I would be upset if he had taken advantage of her and forced himself on her, but from what she told me out of her own mouth,
she initiated their affair
! That bein' the case, I'm even more upset than I'd be if he had raped her!” Maureen paused long enough to wail like an injured lamb for about ten seconds. “My . . . daughter set . . . me up just so she could steal my husband!” she said between sobs.

“Baby, sit tight. I'm on my way,” Jay said.

M
AUREEN WAS SO NUMB THAT WHEN SHE STUBBED HER FOOT ON
the doorjamb leading into the kitchen, she didn't even feel it. She didn't know that she had injured herself until she looked down and saw blood trickling from a small cut on the tip of her big toe.

After she put a Band-Aid on her wound, she walked back and forth from one room to another. It was better for her to keep moving. It was more distracting than her sitting or standing too long in the same spot. She kept glancing at her watch, wondering what was taking Jay so long. Half an hour had passed since she'd spoken to him. She even went outside and stood on the sidewalk in front of her building, hoping to see his car turn onto her street soon. For the next fifteen minutes, she walked back and forth from one end of her apartment building to the other.

When she noticed a few neighbors peeping out their windows giving her curious looks, she went back inside. Then she went into the pantry that Mel had been using as his dark room. Except for a metal desk and a trashcan, Mel had removed everything from the room. Maureen decided to check the four drawers on the desk. The first three were empty, but there was a green hanging folder toward the back in the last drawer. She parted it with her fingers and realized it contained a large manila envelope that had been folded in half and stapled shut. She bit her lip and braced herself. She suspected that this envelope contained something that was going to increase her pain. She was right.

Inside the envelope were half a dozen wallet-size photos of Loretta and Mel in various poses. In the first photo, Loretta was sitting in Mel's lap, looking directly into the camera with her tongue hanging out of her mouth in a very sexually suggestive manner. She looked like a panting dog in heat. She had on the pink and white bathrobe that Virgil had given to her for her sixteenth birthday.

The next two pictures were of Loretta alone, lounging on a bed,
Maureen's
bed, with a dreamy look on her face. She had on the same bathrobe. So far, the prints were not too alarming. But when Maureen looked at the next one, she gasped so hard she almost fainted. There it was in living color: a shot of Mel on top of Loretta. They were both naked and were in Maureen's bed. Loretta's long legs were wrapped around Mel's narrow waist.

“Right here under my own damn roof!” Maureen mouthed, slamming her fist against the top of the desk so hard it rattled. “Right up under my goddamn nose and in
my
bed!” She was too angry to cry right now, but she had to do something. She ran into the kitchen and stood in the middle of the floor, looking around for something to take her anger out on. She snatched open the cabinet above the counter and pulled out a stack of plates. She threw each one to the floor, cursing so loud old Mr. Ben next door pounded on the wall.

A few minutes later her telephone rang. It was Mr. Ben and he sounded very angry. “Mo'reen, what's all that racket over there?! I'm fixin' to call the police. I'm tryin' to get some rest and it sounds like y'all over there tearin' down the house.”

“Oh, it's nothin', Mr. Ben. I'm sorry for disturbin' you. I was standin' on a chair tryin' to get somethin' out of my kitchen cabinet and a bunch of plates fell out and broke.”

“I done told that gal of yours to keep the racket down in her room when I'm tryin' to take me a nap. All that moanin' and groanin' comin' out of her room, five or six times a week! I don't even want to try and guess why the headboard on her bed be bangin' against the wall so much. Especially lately!”

“I'm sorry,” Maureen apologized again.

“The next time I hear all that racket, I'm goin' to call the police,” Mr. Ben threatened.

“There won't be no next time,” Maureen assured him before she placed the telephone back into its cradle.

This was much worse than Maureen had thought. Apparently, Mel and Loretta had no shame whatsoever. They knew how thin the walls in the apartment were. Loretta used to complain all the time about Mr. Ben's snoring keeping her awake. Didn't it ever occur to her that the old man might hear her and Mel? Apparently that was the reason they had begun to use Maureen's bed!

It was almost 10:00 p.m. when Jay finally arrived. Maureen was in the kitchen looking out the window when she saw him park in front of her building. She wiped her face for the tenth time and smoothed down the sides of her skirt.

“I got stopped for speeding on my way over here, and I must have run into the slowest cop in town. It took him ten minutes to run my license and write me a speeding ticket,” Jay explained as soon as Maureen opened the door to let him in. Then he stopped talking, but his mouth was still open. “What the hell happened to you, Maureen? You look like hell! You sick or what?” Jay couldn't believe his eyes. He felt Maureen's forehead. Her eyes were red and swollen and dark circles had already formed around them. The lines on her forehead that he had never noticed before looked like trenches now. Her hair was askew, and she was shaking like a leaf in a windstorm. She had on one shoe and her blouse was soaked with her tears and snot.

Jay wrapped his arm around her shoulder and led her to the living room couch. “Now, let's talk about this thing,” he said, rubbing her back. “It's going to be all right because I'll be right beside you from now on.”

“Like I told you on the phone, my daughter took off with my husband,” Maureen said evenly, then sniffing so hard her nose ached. She had already gone through a whole box of Kleenex. She had set a second box on the coffee table, so she opened it and fished out several tissues at the same time and wiped her eyes and blew her nose.

Jay stared at her with his mouth hanging open again. “Damn!” he boomed, anger rising in him like a tide. “This is so hard to believe!”

“They supposedly left to go to the Bahamas so Lo'retta could celebrate graduation with some of her classmates. They wanted me to go with them, but I couldn't take more time off work right now. When I didn't hear from them by the end of the second day after they left, I got worried and called up the airline. Come to find out, they never got on a plane to the Bahamas in the first place.” Maureen paused. “They called me today to tell me they love each other and won't be comin' back.” She paused again, shaking her head. “I even found some pictures of them together. Nasty, disgustin' pictures that would make Madonna blush. They were naked and fuckin' the hell out of each other!”