Snapped (30 page)

Russell nodded. “Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady.”

She resisted the urge to laugh in his face. Reluctantly, she unlatched the screen door and accepted the flowers from the pesky man. “Thank you,” she mumbled.

“You’re welcome!” Russell shifted his weight from one foot to the other, hoping that she would invite him in.

Toya shot down those hopes. “I have company, so I’ll talk to you soon.” She noticed Russell’s frown fade and wondered why it gave her a thrill to see him so disappointed.

Russell craned his neck to see if there was another man in there with her. Noticing this, Toya blocked his view. “Thanks for the flowers,” she said. “Good night.”

Before he could protest, she shut the door, locked it, and
tossed the flowers on top of the piano in her living room before going back downstairs to the basement.

Octavia was smiling at her when she came back. “Was that your boyfriend?” she asked.

Toya sucked her teeth. “Hell no! That monster? You should see him! He’s the most hideous creature I’ve ever seen!”

Octavia laughed. “But he brought you flowers!”

Toya shook her head at the young lady, turned the TV off, and said, “See? That’s what I’m trying to tell you. Men think they’re smarter than us. Every time I see this guy, he’s giving me a compliment, asking me to go out with him, and now he’s bringing me flowers. All of that is just so that he can distract me from the fact that he’s a beast long enough for him to get what he wants. Never that!” She led Octavia upstairs to her guest bedroom. “Don’t ever let a guy run game on you. Outsmart them, and they’ll respect you more.”

Toya handed Octavia a pair of her newly laundered pajamas. Then she led her to the master bathroom and handed her a washcloth and towel. “Go ahead and take a shower. Put these on and get cozy. It’s getting late, and Lord knows when your mother will get here from the hospital. If she needs to stay there overnight, we’ll both play hooky tomorrow and go up there to meet her. And if she comes in tonight, I’m gonna make her stay here rather than driving all the way back to Manhattan. So you go on and wash up, say a prayer for your grandfather, and get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Thank you,” Octavia said, smiling at Toya. As she shut the bathroom door, Octavia thought about her grandfather and closed her eyes. “God, please don’t let Granddad die,”
she prayed. “And please help me deal with my problems in the best possible way. Amen.” She turned the shower on and stepped into the steamy enclave, wishing the water would wash away all of the things that were going wrong in her life, leaving her feeling powerless to stop them.

Dominique had been sitting by her father’s bedside all night. She looked at her watch and noted that it was close to seven
A.M
. and Bill was still hanging on. She glanced at the window on the far side of the ER and saw sunlight beginning to peek through the darkness. A slow smile spread across her face.

“Daddy,” she said, speaking into her father’s ear. “I told you that you were stronger than they thought. They said that you wouldn’t survive through the night, but you did. The sun is up and you’re still here, fighting. I love you. Don’t give up.” She stroked his hand. “Whitney is on her way.”

Dr. Yang came over and explained that they needed to run a CAT scan on her father. “We want to determine why your father hasn’t regained consciousness yet. The scan will tell us if there is brain activity and whether or not that activity is normal. We’ll need you to sign a release, giving us permission to perform this test on behalf of your dad.”

Dominique nodded, taking the pen he handed to her and signing the paper. “It’s a good sign that he’s still alive, right? I mean, you said that he wouldn’t make it through the night.”

Dr. Yang took a deep breath. The last thing he wanted to do was give her false hope. “The fact that he’s still alive is a good thing, obviously. We just won’t know until we run the necessary tests what, if any, long-term effects there will be.”

Dominique thanked Dr. Yang and stood back as they prepped her father in order to transport him for the tests. She said what had to be the hundredth prayer she’d said in the past twenty-four hours. Before they moved her father, she walked over to him and kissed him on the forehead. “I’ll be right here when you get back, Daddy.”

Once he was taken upstairs, Dominique stepped outdoors for the first time in hours. She looked around at the beautiful, yet blustery, winter day that was unfolding and wondered if her father would live to see another sunrise. As she stood outside, staring aimlessly off into the distance, she heard someone call her name. She looked around and saw Whitney heading in her direction, followed by her teenagers, Janet and Andrew. Dominique breathed a sigh of relief that her sister had finally arrived, and she met them halfway, hugging them all and ushering them inside the hospital. They sat in the waiting room and Dominique brought them up to speed on what was happening with Bill. When she was done, everyone sat in silence, soaking it all up. Everything had happened so fast.

Finally, Whitney spoke. “This is so sudden.” She shook her head. “When it rains, it pours, you know?”

Dominique nodded.

“Chris and I are going through problems, too. He has been calling me off the hook because I left town so suddenly that I didn’t leave any money behind for him. You know he got laid off from his job, and he’s struggling to
find a new one. Things have been so tight financially lately, but hopefully that will change soon.”

Dominique stared at her sister in silence. Here they were, with their father’s life hanging in the balance, and all Whitney could talk about was her husband. “Does Chris realize that your father is in a coma right now? Does he think that you should give a fuck whether or not you left money for him at a time like this?”

Whitney shrugged her shoulders. “That’s what I’m saying!” Her cell phone rang and she pulled it out of her purse. Looking at the screen, she pointed and said, “That’s him now.” She got up and walked over to a secluded section of the waiting room to talk to her husband. Dominique, meanwhile, was growing angrier by the minute. Figuring that she needed to get some much-needed rest, she was relieved when the doctor emerged and told her that Bill had been moved to a private room on the third floor and that his tests had been completed. “It will take a day or two to get the results back,” he explained. “In the meantime, we’ll just keep hoping that he wakes up soon.”

Dominique and Whitney led the kids up to the room where Bill lay still in his bed. Whitney went to her father’s side and broke down in tears when she saw his condition. When she composed herself, she asked Dominique what all the machines were for. Dominique, feeling like a pro now that she had asked a ton of questions throughout the night, explained them all to her sister. Finally, fatigue caught up with her and she told Whitney that she was going to take a break from holding vigil at the hospital in order to go and pick up Octavia and get some sleep. Whitney agreed, glad that her sister was going to get a break, and Dominique left the hospital and headed for Toya’s place in Brooklyn.

Hours later, Whitney
and her two teenagers sat in the hospital waiting room, sleeping with their heads resting on one another’s shoulders. Dominique came in with Toya and Octavia in tow and stood there in amazement as she looked at her sister. She turned to Toya in shock.

“This bitch is crazy.”

Toya frowned. “Has she even been in to see your father?”

Dominique figured that there was only one way to find out. She walked over and shook Whitney awake. Whitney opened her eyes and stretched, then smiled at her sister. “Hey, sis. Did you get any sleep?”

“I see that you did.” Dominique didn’t bother to hide her anger. “Have you been in to see Daddy?”

Whitney nodded. “I went in there a couple of hours ago. Nothing has changed.”

Toya shook her head. Dominique had told her that her sister was something else, but this was more than she had expected. “So you slept out
here
?” Toya asked. “You could have slept in your father’s room instead. If he did wake up, you wouldn’t have known. Or worse, if he passed away he would have been all by himself with you out here sleeping.”

Whitney was annoyed that this stranger had the nerve to question her. “I’m sorry . . . who are you?”

“Toya Blake, Dominique’s friend.” There was no softness whatsoever in Toya’s tone. In her opinion, this bitch was a sorry excuse for a daughter. When Dominique had come by that morning, she had cried herself to sleep at the thought of losing her father. She had told Toya how she hadn’t slept a wink the night before and how she had held
vigil at her father’s side without so much as a bathroom break. And here Bill’s firstborn was, snoozing in the waiting room. Toya had already decided that she didn’t like Whitney at all.

Dominique shook her head in disgust. “I’m going in to see Daddy,” she said flatly, then turned and went into her father’s room. When she stepped inside, she was pleased to see that the nurses had given her father a shave and bathed him. The blood that had been all over his clothes and hands the night before was gone, and he looked so much better. She walked over to him and kissed his face. “It’s me, Daddy. Mimi. Told you I would be back soon.” She settled into the chair beside his bed as Octavia stepped into the room. Seeing that her grandfather’s condition was graver than she had expected, she erupted into sobs, and Dominique rushed over to console her daughter.

Toya watched the scene from the doorway and fought back tears of her own. She thought about her own father and how she didn’t give a damn whether he lived or died. She felt her heart break a little at how sad that was, and abruptly left the room, leaving Dominique and her daughter to have some time alone with Mr. Storms. Toya returned to the waiting room and saw that Whitney was on the phone with that husband of hers again, sitting off in the corner while her children watched cartoons on the waiting room TV.

Toya sat down beside Janet and Andrew. “So, guys,” she said. “Have you been in to see your grandfather?”

They both shook their heads no. “I’m not good with hospitals,” Andrew explained.

Toya frowned slightly. “But this is your grandfather. Don’t you think you should make an exception for him?”

Andrew shrugged, and Janet didn’t bother to respond at
all. Toya couldn’t believe the aloofness coming from Whitney and her kids. While Whitney was over in the corner, seemingly arguing with her husband about something, her father was in the next room fighting for his life. Meanwhile, her kids seemed completely unconcerned about the man who was supposed to be their reason for coming to New York in the first place.

Finally, Whitney hung up the phone. She came over to where Toya sat with the kids and smiled at her. “So you’ve been friends with my sister for a while now, huh?”

Toya nodded, stared at Whitney, and said nothing.

Whitney nodded as well, searching for a way to fill the awkward silence. “That’s good. I’m glad she has friends like you to look out for her since I live so far away.”

Toya continued to stare at Whitney for several moments. “Well, you’re not so far away now. So here’s your chance to be there for your sister.”

Whitney frowned. “I don’t understand.”

“You came all the way here—for free, I might add.”

“That’s really none of your business. I don’t even know you like that.” Whitney really didn’t like this bitch.

“True, you don’t. But you know I’m telling the truth. Your father is in there dying, and you’re out here arguing on the phone. Dominique could use your support now. If you keep this up, when all is said and done, she’s not gonna want to have shit to do with you. I know I wouldn’t.” Toya got up and strolled to the ladies’ room, leaving Whitney to think about what she’d said. By the time Toya returned, Dominique and Octavia had joined their family in the waiting room.

“Toya, I think it’ll be good if we take the kids back to Daddy’s house for a little while. They don’t need to be up
here all day dealing with all this sadness and everything.” She held Octavia’s hand, since her daughter was falling apart emotionally. “Whitney, you might as well stay there with the kids since you seem to be so sleepy.”

Whitney caught the sarcasm in her sister’s tone and the sidelong glance Toya shot at her. She nodded and followed Dominique out to the car. They rode back to Bill’s apartment in the Mariners Harbor projects in silence, everyone lost in their own thoughts. When they arrived they piled into the elevator for the ride to his apartment on the sixth floor. As soon as the elevator doors shut, Andrew sucked in air in an audible attempt to hold his breath on the project elevator. Toya and Dominique looked over at him as if he had lost his mind.

“Why are you doing that?” Dominique asked her nephew.

“It smells like pee,” he explained, his nose scrunched up as if he would pass out if he took a deep breath.

Toya wanted to snatch his bourgeois ass by the neck and toss him off the elevator as they arrived at their designated floor. They all followed Dominique and Octavia as they led the way down the hall to Bill’s apartment. Once inside, they began to get comfortable. Dominique turned the TV on and showed Whitney where everything was. Toya found it odd that Whitney didn’t know her way around her own father’s home, and she questioned it.