Lost Daughters (30 page)

M
ONA CLEARED HER THROAT AND TOOK HER TIME RESPONDING. “OH,
hi, Miss Mo'reen,” she said in a scared, squeaky voice. “Whassup?”

“That's what I want you to tell me,” Maureen said sharply. “Will you do that?” Her words hung in the air. The fact that Mona was taking so long to respond made Maureen impatient. “Mona, can you talk to me right now?”

“Um . . . I guess,” Mona muttered, coughing to clear her throat some more.

“I need to talk to you about somethin' real serious.”

“Uh, I was gettin' ready to go to breakfast on the beach!” Mona's voice was trembling. That alone told Maureen all she needed to know. Mona was in cahoots with Loretta and Mel.

“I won't hold you up but a few minutes,” Maureen said quickly, praying that Mona wouldn't hang up on her or that the overseas call wouldn't get abruptly dropped. “Mona, Lo'retta is supposed to be in the Bahamas with her stepdaddy. I took them to the airport myself.”

“What hotel did they book?” Mona said quickly in the same scared, trembling voice.

“They didn't go to the Bahamas.”

“Hmmm,” Mona mumbled. “I wonder where they went?”

“They called me from New York yesterday. That's where they went.”

“Dang! Now that's hella messed up, Miss Mo'reen! I knew this was goin' to happen one day. I kept tryin' to tell her how crazy that was.”

“So you knew they were havin' sex?”

“Oh, yes, ma'am. I sure did. Lo'retta was my girl. She told me everything.”

“Then you can tell me when this affair started?”

“Um, I don't want to get Mel in no trouble, Miss Mo'reen. He was always real nice to me. He only charged me half his regular price to do my graduation pictures. He did a lot of airbrushin' on my prints so I ended up lookin' almost like a model myself. He's a real nice man.”

“Look, girl. That motherfucker was always nice to me too. Now I want to know when that ‘real nice man' started screwin' my child! If you know, you'd better tell me unless you want me to pay your mama and daddy a visit and tell them that you helped Lo'retta get into this mess.”

“But I didn't do nothin'! Please don't tell my mama and daddy that I was involved! They might change their minds about gettin' me a new car when I get back home like they promised.”

“Mona, you need to tell me exactly when Lo'retta and Mel started havin' sex. Please. I'm her mother . . . and I need to know.”

“See, Lo'retta had a crush on Mel from the get-go. She called me up the same day y'all first went to his studio. She told me that she had just met the man she had been waitin' on all her life,” Mona sobbed. “She told me that she didn't care what she had to do to get in his pants—even make him hook up with you if she had to. And she sure did.”

“Lo'retta was only fourteen when we met Mel,” Maureen pointed out. “Do you mean to tell me that this thing started
then
?” Even though Maureen had already presumed that the affair had begun when Loretta was only fourteen, having it confirmed by Mona made it seem even worse.

“Yes, ma'am. Well, maybe not the same day she met him, but Lo'retta started workin' on Mel real quick. She thought he was the bomb. She even took the bus—usin' my bus pass—and went to his place and gave him a real good blow job before you ever called him up to see if he wanted to do her portfolio and help her get some modelin' jobs.”

“So my daughter threw herself at Mel?” Even though Loretta had clearly implied that she had initiated the affair, Maureen still didn't want to believe it.

“Somethin' like that.”

“Somethin' like what? Did he give her drugs or alcohol?”

“Lo'retta's goin' to be hella mad at me for blabbin' her business.”

“Look, girl. You can tell me what I need to know or you can tell the police. Now what is it goin' to be? You want to talk to me now or at the police station as soon as you get back to Florida?”

“I'll tell you everything you want to know now.” Mona sniffed.

“Let me ask you again. Did Mel give my child drugs or alcohol?”

“Not that I know of. I never saw Lo'retta do no drugs or drink no alcohol.”

“How often did she see him?”

“Oh Lord. Almost every day. She used to make me drive her over to his apartment in my daddy's car when she wanted to see him. They'd give me some money and send me to the movies. But when she went to visit Mel for a quickie, I'd sit in a parkin' lot and wait on her. Some days she would be up in his place for a
real
long time. I had to bring my Walkman and some books to read. One time they took so long, I went to sleep in my daddy's car waitin' on them to finish.”

Maureen had to sit down to keep from falling to the floor. She rubbed the back of her neck and her forehead. Pain was shooting throughout her body, from the bottom of her feet to the top of her head. The pain in her stomach was the worst. It felt like she had been gored by a raging bull. “Mona, who else knows about this? What about her other friends?”

“What other friends?”

“Like the Bronson sisters on Wallace Street. I never met them, but she used to call them up a lot and go to their house. She also started goin' to the movies with that Warren boy.”

“Nuh-uh. That was part of her and Mel's plan. When you got on her case and told her she needed to spend more time with kids her own age, she and Mel made you think that she was with me or the Bronson sisters. Or with Warren. But none of that was true. Anyway, Warren got into white girls at school, as soon as we started our senior year. He wouldn't take Lo'retta or any other black girl no place no more.”

“So you're tellin' me that those other kids were in on this scheme too? Those Bronson girls?”

“Oh no! They didn't know what was goin' on. On account of there ain't even no Bronson sisters. That was bogus too.”

“What do you mean?”

“Lo'retta made them up to throw you off. She did go to the movies with my gay cousin a few times, but usually Mel would be waitin' for her somewhere after she left the movie theater.” Mona stopped talking long enough to catch her breath. Now that she had started to spill the beans, it sounded like she didn't want to stop. “I don't know why they even bothered with all of them lies. They did a lot of their business in your apartment a lot of times. Every time Mel had a beach shoot, he checked into a room that his client paid for and that's where they hooked up a lot too. Did they already get married up there in New York?”

“SAY WHAT?” Maureen roared. “Do you mean to tell me that Lo'retta thinks Mel is goin' to marry her?”

“Yep! That's what she told me not long after they got together. She's been tellin' me that almost every day ever since. She said that Mel told her he would divorce you and marry her when she turned eighteen. Well, since she turned eighteen back in March, I guess they will get married now. Just to let you know, I don't think he felt too good about what he was doin'. I know that because a lot of times when I was around them, he couldn't even look me in the eye.”

“But knowin' what you knew, you could still come over here and look me in the eye?”

“I'm real sorry about that, Miss Mo'reen. Honest to God, I am. Lo'retta kept sayin' it was all right because you didn't love Mel nohow. I didn't know they was goin' to hurt you this bad. I thought that by the time we graduated, Lo'retta would be tired of Mel. I guess I was wrong, huh?”

“I guess I was wrong, too, Mona,” Maureen whimpered.

“Miss Mo'reen, I hate to say this, but I wouldn't want to be in your shoes.”

“You know somethin', Mona, I don't want to be in my shoes either,” Maureen replied, laughing like a madwoman.

“What they did is so messed up.” Mona paused and mumbled something to someone in the background. “Sorry, Miss Mo'reen. That was Tami Barber I was talkin' to. The girl that's sharin' my hotel room. Me and her are havin' our breakfast on the beach this mornin'.” Then Mona lowered her voice to a dry whisper. “I didn't tell her nothin' about this. That girl's mouth is as big as a canyon. If she ever finds out, everybody in town will be talkin' about you and how you got played by your own daughter and your own husband.”

“Mona, I would appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone else about Lo'retta and Mel. Would you please do me that favor?”

“I won't say anything. Everybody will find out anyway when Mel and Lo'retta get married and she gets real famous. When that happens, if I was you, I'd move to a place where nobody knows me.”

“Believe me, I'm not goin' anywhere, Mona. I don't care if they get married on national TV. This is my home and I'm not runnin' away from anything anymore.”

“That's good. I like you and I hope you find another man real soon. A man that don't like young girls. Well, now that you know everything, what do you plan to do about it?”

Maureen remained silent.

“Miss Mo'reen, you all right?” Mona asked. “I'm so sorry you had to find out the way you did. I hope you get over this real soon.”

A strange smile crossed Maureen's face. “I will,” she said, and she knew she would.

“C
ALL THE POLICE
!”
CATTY WAS LIVID. SHE STOMPED BACK AND
forth in Maureen's living room like some man had run off with
her
teenage daughter. “If I had a daughter and some nasty-ass, dirty old man took off with her, I'd have his ass arrested!”

Catty had been rough all of her life. She had cut a few people with the straight razor she carried in her purse, bounced rocks off a lot of heads, and bitch-slapped several women who had provoked her. She had even thrown a pan of boiling hot water on one of her lovers when she discovered he had stolen money from her. She had also been groomed for violence by Mama Ruby. When Mama Ruby used to “chastise” people, Catty had been one of her most loyal cohorts.

Catty continued to pace Maureen's living room floor with the tail of her knee-length skirt flapping up and down like an eagle's wings. There was so much profanity spewing out of her mouth, it sounded like she was speaking a foreign language. She calmed down long enough to say, “You want me to take care of that horny motherfucker? By the time I get through slicin' him up, he'll have
two
assholes!”

Maureen had cooled off considerably by now, but she was still so angry that if Mel had walked back into the apartment, she probably would have beaten him to a bloody pulp with her bare hands.

“No, I don't want you to do that, Catty. For one thing, he ain't worth you goin' to jail for. Another thing is, I don't think he'll come back this way,” Maureen said in a tired voice. “This was well planned. He even sold his SUV before he left, and he took some of my money.”

Catty's jaw dropped. “What money?” she roared. “That cocksucker robbed you too?”

Maureen had not told Catty about the joint bank account she had opened with Mel. At the time when she opened the account, shortly after she and Mel got married, she didn't feel comfortable with it. But he had badgered her about it almost every day. After he had convinced her that their combined savings would earn more interest, she had given in.

“Yes, he stole money from me too!” Maureen admitted without hesitation.

“How much?” Catty wanted to know.

“It was some money that we had in the bank in a joint account. We had saved several thousand, but that bastard took all but four dollars and eleven cents out of that account.” Maureen gritted her teeth and a scowl appeared on her face that no one in the room had ever seen before. She didn't care if everybody knew what a gullible fool she had been to open that bank account with Mel. She wanted them to know just how big of an asshole he was for stealing that money—knowing she would need it now.

“Fo' dollars and 'leven cents?!”
Catty bellowed.

“Fo' dollars and 'leven cents,” Maureen confirmed, pronouncing the words the same way Catty had.

“That motherfucker cleaned you out?” Catty shouted, stomping her foot on the floor so hard Maureen's lamps on the end tables rattled. “I still say you need to call the police. We can get him for robbery
and
statutory rape!”

“I keep tellin' everybody that Lo'retta is eighteen,” Maureen whimpered. She occupied a chair facing the couch where Virgil, Corrine, and Fast Black sat, all looking like they wanted to cuss out the world.

“This didn't start when she was eighteen. I know you ain't fool enough to believe that. Mel's been dippin' his spoon in Lo'retta's honey pot for a while!” Fast Black screeched. She was just as rough and tough as Catty. Not only had she shot one of her ex-lovers in the throat, causing him to lose his voice permanently, but she had also been one of Mama Ruby's “enforcers.” She knew where all of the bodies were buried—and had helped Mama Ruby bury a couple. Right now there was a sneer on Fast Black's face that could stop a clock if she stared at one long enough.

“I never did like that man! I knew there was somethin' fishy about him when I walked into the nail shop and seen him sittin' there gettin' his nails manicured!” Corrine crowed. This was the first time Maureen had ever seen her mild-mannered sister-in-law so angry. Veins stood out on her forehead and neck, and her nostrils flared.

“A manicure! Now if that ain't a sissified procedure for a man to get done, I don't know what is!” Virgil yelled, shaking his fist and glancing at his own raggedy nails. “One time Mel had the nerve to suggest that your friend Jay was a sissy! Oomph, oomph, oomph!”

“Like I said, Mel didn't just start doin' his dirt with Lo'retta!” Fast Black declared.

“I know that. Lo'retta's best friend Mona Flack told me that it started when Lo'retta was just fourteen,” Maureen revealed for the first time. She believed everything that Mona had told her, but she wondered what Mona
didn't
tell her.

“Say what?!” Virgil, Catty, Corrine, and Fast Black all hollered at the same time.

“There you go! You got a witness that he started foolin' around with that child when she was still a baby,” Virgil said, shaking his fist again. “Oh, if I could get my hands around that bastard's neck, he would never look at another young girl!”

“I know that Lo'retta's friend told me the truth about Mel screwin' my child when she was just fourteen, but I can't prove that everything Mona told me is the truth. Mel and Lo'retta would probably deny it all anyway,” Maureen pointed out. “She claims they didn't do nothin' until she turned eighteen.”

“The next time I go visit my boy up there in Brooklyn, I'm goin' to have him drive me all over New York City to see if I can track down that Mel. I'll beat the stuffin' out of him myself, and then I'll haul what's left of him to the undertaker. I won't leave till I know for sure he's straight-up dead!” Fast Black threatened.

“I wish Mama Ruby could come back to life just long enough to chastise Mel,” Catty said with a mysterious look on her face. She smiled and started to look around the room, up at the ceiling, then around the room again with that mysterious look still on her face. “Mama Ruby, I hope you can hear me. We need you more than ever right now. When you get a chance, pay Mel a visit.
Amen
.”

“I second that amen,” Fast Black said, waving a clenched fist in the air.

It seemed like everybody wanted to get violent with Mel, or at the very least have him arrested. Even Big Maureen. When Maureen had called her up a few hours earlier and told her what had happened, she had gone ballistic too. “I knew there was somethin' demonic about that beady-eyed dog! I even seen him eye-ballin' Lo'retta's butt a few times when he didn't know I was lookin'. I would like to cut his throat and hang him upside down till all the blood done drained out of his carcass. Just like a hog butcherin'.” Maureen had no doubt in her mind that her big sister meant every word she said. Big Maureen never hesitated to use violence when she felt it was necessary. Everybody knew about the switchblade she had used to jab her husband in the butt the last time he had accused her of cheating on him. She didn't carry her weapon in her bra like Mama Ruby had; she concealed hers in a large coin purse with her loose change that she never left home without.

 

The whooping and hollering in Maureen's apartment went on until almost midnight. She was so exhausted by the time everybody left, she fell asleep on the couch. She'd been sleeping on the couch or a pallet on the living room floor ever since Loretta's telephone call. She had burned the sheets on her bed and sprayed the mattress with the strongest disinfectant she could find at the hardware store.

After John French had raped Maureen, she had cursed his soul, but after his death in the gas station robbery incident, she had ended up feeling sorry for him. She had even bent down on her knees and prayed with Mama Ruby for his soul. Maureen would
never
forgive Melvin Ross, but she prayed for him too; she prayed that he would burn in hell.

Even though Loretta appeared to be just as guilty as Mel, Maureen placed the bulk of the blame on him. Loretta was a child, and like most children, she did stupid, impulsive things. Mel, being a mature man and knowing the consequences of his and Loretta's actions, should have rejected her advances.

Instead of being a responsible adult, Mel had behaved worse than John French had. At least John had attempted to make up for his crime by trying to rob that gas station to get the money for Maureen to get an abortion.

Around 2:00 a.m., Maureen woke up. She looked around the apartment for things to do that would distract her and give her something else to think about. But no matter what she did—even scrubbing the inside of her toilet—Loretta and Mel's betrayal dominated her thoughts.

She went and locked the door to Loretta's room and didn't plan to go back into it again anytime soon. She knew she would probably never sleep in her own bed again, so she was going to either donate it to Goodwill or drag it to the backyard and burn it like she had done the rest of the items Mel had left behind.

A few minutes before 4:00 a.m., Maureen curled up on the couch and slipped into a comalike sleep. She didn't know that Jay had called or banged on her front door while she was having one nightmare after another until he returned that day around noon.

“You can't let this thing destroy you, Maureen,” he told her when she let him in. “You've got too much to live for.”

“Don't worry. I'm doin' just fine,” she lied.

“Well, you don't look fine. You look like you've been through hell.”

“I have,” she said in a hoarse voice. “This has been one bad-ass year.”

“God knows I can relate to that,” Jay quipped. “Things are just now beginning to feel like normal again for me.”

“Oh! I didn't mean to open up your wounds,” Maureen said with a hand in the air. The look on her face was so apologetic that Jay thought she was going to burst into tears again.

“You didn't open up my wounds. The ones I got will probably never heal anyway.”

Maureen let out a long, loud sigh. “I know it's early, but do you want somethin' to drink? I know I do,” she said, already walking toward the kitchen cabinet where she kept the alcohol.

“Most definitely. Whatever you have is okay with me,” Jay told her as he sat down hard onto the couch. He could feel Maureen's pain and anger, and he was as angry and in as much pain as she was. He was glad that Mel was out of her life, and he hoped that Mel stayed out.

When Maureen returned to the living room with two beers, she eased down on the couch next to Jay. There was a weak smile on her face. He was glad to see that the deep lines he had noticed in her forehead the other night didn't look as deep now, and her hair was in a neat ponytail. If the dark circles were still around her eyes, she had done a good job of hiding them with the makeup she had applied earlier in the day.

“Beer is all I have right now.” Maureen was about to take a sip from her beer can, but Jay removed both of the cans from her hands and set them on the coffee table. Then he pulled her into his arms.

They made love on the couch.