54. Corinthians
Corinthians
“Get out of the car,” Uri said, standing outside my door. We were at the cemetery. I hadn’t been here since my parents' funeral. I looked through the window at their headstones. “Cori, please.”
Slowly I got out. Uri closed the door, then took my hand and led me to their plots. I felt like that little girl again, the one who was scared to say anything, but this time I felt freedom as well. I wasn’t carrying the burdens of their secrets.
“Why are we here?” I asked, looking at the headstones. “I don’t want to be here.”
“Tell them what you need to say,” he said, standing beside me. “All that anger you're carrying with you, let that shit out.”
“Uri…”
“Let it out, Cori, because we got niggas to kill,” he said. His focus was on their headstones. “Tell them every fuckin’ thing you ever wanted to say. I don’t care what you do. Scream that shit from the top of your lungs for so long that you end up hoarse if you gotta but let it the fuck out.”
“I don’t know what to say.”
“Everything,” he let out a humorless laugh.
“Tell them everything because after today you ain’t ever coming back here.
Not to visit them. I ain’t rushing your grandparents to death; please don’t think I am, but the next time you step foot in this cemetery again it’ll be to bury one or both of them, and that’s it. ”
I nodded, then continued to stare at their headstones.
At one point, I probably had a million and one things to say to them.
I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them.
“I hate you,” I finally said. “Hate you, Daddy, because you were supposed to protect me from all the bad shit. Instead, you willingly pushed me into it. You made sure I knew what danger, anger, and pain were, first by your hands, then by Roberts. You auctioned me off to the highest bidder, knowing the monster that he was. And you, Mommy?” I smiled even though I knew it didn’t reach my eyes.
“You’re no better than him. No.” I shook my head.
“I take that back; you’re worse than him because you knew what love was.
Daddy didn’t know; he was never exposed to it, just the harsh reality of the world.
But you? You knew; you came from a home filled with love, yet you turned your back on us too.
I was a product of him, but Psalms? She was a product of you.
And that’s what hurts me the most. Your actions broke her, and no matter how hard I tried to help her from that pain, you fought against it.
You pushed her towards it. You made sure she was hurt to the point of no return.
And now her brain is split. I sit and watch her struggle, how she tries so damn hard to be what everybody thinks is normal and knows that she doesn’t think she is.
That’s on y’all, not me. And for a long ass time I thought it was my fault.
That no matter what I did, what I said, what I prayed for, she would never be what she wanted to be because of y’all.
” I tapped my left hand against my thigh.
“I thought I was broken. That she was broken, but it wasn’t us.
It was y’all. Y’all didn’t love anyone but each other and yourselves, and for that I hope you rot in whatever hell Madea and Granddaddy sent you to. ”
“You feel better?” Uri asked. I wiped my tears away and nodded. “Good, now let’s go home.”
We walked back to the car, and Uri started it up. He put his hand on the gearshift but didn’t take the car out of park.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Why didn’t you tell me Trey was at the house that night?” he asked. “I gave you the folder; let you look at the names to verify. Why didn’t you say Trey was missing?” he looked at me, eyes filled with question and fear.
“Because I didn’t want you to have to kill your brother,” I answered. “How did you know he was there?”
He reached behind my seat, picked up his bag, and took out his laptop.
After he put it in his lap and booted it up, he handed it to me.
“Press play,” he said. Hesitantly, I did, and I watched the video of everything leading up to my assault.
“His fate was sealed the moment he gave me that video, and he knew it.”
I closed the laptop and gave it back to him. Uri tossed the laptop into the back seat, then put the car in drive and pulled off.
“I can't ask you to kill your brother,” I finally said.
“You didn’t ask me to,” he replied.
***
“Ay,” Uri tapped my leg, and I looked from the window to him. “Hungry?”
“No,” I answered, shaking my head. “I just want to go home and sleep.”
“Food first,” he said. It wasn’t a question or option, and I knew that. And honestly, I wasn’t in the mood to argue either. I sat back in my seat, turned to look back out the window, and rode. We pulled into a small hole-in-the-wall seafood restaurant, and my stomach started growling. “Come on.”
I watched him as he got out of the car, rounded it, and came to open my door.
It was something about the way he walked, carried himself, and watched his surroundings and me that screamed danger.
And it was sexy; he was sexy, unintentionally, because I knew that Uri wasn’t trying to be something that he wasn’t.
The confidence and even shyness that he only displayed with me showed that I was his safe space, and for a man like Uri, one that I knew had been through so much, that made my eyes water.
He trusted me in ways he would never trust anyone else.
He opened the door, then put his hand out for me to take. Once I was standing next to him, he looked down at me and lifted his brow. “What’s wrong?” He gently held my chin to make sure I didn’t move my head. “Nah, Cori, don’t look away. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” I laughed softly, then licked my lips. His pupils dilating was the only tell that my simple gesture affected him.
“Then why are you crying?” He let go of my chin to cup my face in his hands, using his thumbs to wipe away the tears that had already fallen. “Tell me what’s wrong so I can fix it.”
“You already did,” I told him. His brows creased in the middle, damn near touching, and I smiled.
Despite my tears, I was happy. “You just being you, fixed it. You coming back, you standing beside me. You loving my son and me. Just it all.” I wrapped my hands around his wrist. “The tears aren’t from sadness. They're happy tears.”
“Folks really do that?” he asked with a chuckle, and I nodded. “You do that?”
“Not before you.”
“Alright then, happy tears.” He gently kissed me.
Just like any other time he kissed me, my heart slammed against my chest. The excitement and joy I got from this simple gesture also showed me how much at peace I was with him.
“I can rock with that.” He kissed my forehead.
“As long as they are happy tears, then I ain’t worried about shit.
” He let go of my face but didn’t back up. “You good now?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, let’s grab some food then,” he said, then took my hand.
“I already know you want, Four,” the owner, Bright Bowlin, said as soon as we walked through the door. She looked from him to me then smiled as she leaned against the counter and rested her chin in the palm of her hand. “So, the rumors are true, huh?”
“What rumors?” Uri asked. He stepped behind me, wrapped his arms around my waist, and rested his chin on the top of my head.
“The two quiet ones are together,” she answered with another smile.
“Yo cousin gossips like a girl,” Uri laughed.
“It wasn’t my cousin,” she replied. “It was my auntie and the rest of the gang.” She laughed. “And that includes Ms. Nadine.”
“It’s true,” I said before Uri could reply. I knew he wouldn’t deny our relationship, but I also knew that he wouldn’t say anything if I didn’t. He was letting me set the pace and tone, and there was no reason to deny what was obvious.
“Yo granny been saying it for years,” Bright said, shaking her head. She stood, quickly rubbed her hands together, then dropped them. “Give me a second to wash my hands, and then I’ll put together y’all boils.” She started walking away. “Go on and sit down. I know what y’all both want.”
Bright went to the back, and Four walked us to the wall and leaned against it. His back rested against the wall and mine against him.
“I need to tell you something,” he said. My eyes wandered over the menu even though I knew it by heart. I came here often; Judah loved seafood and always wanted a boil or crawfish.
“Is it going to piss me off?” I asked, and his arms tightened around my waist.
“Nah,” he chuckled lowly. “I just want to tell you my plan so it ain’t ever a question about what’s going to happen when it comes to us.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.”
“I’ma kill the people that were in that room,” he casually said.
His tone was strong, filled with promises that even if I weren’t listening to him, his words were still spoken loud and clear.
“Everyone with no questions asked. Melissa was killed by Mercy. It looks like Robert has been making shit shake, and I didn’t know.
” He chuckled even though nothing was funny.
“I’m not going to lie. I thought I had shit handled by sending Trey in, but I was wrong.
Dead ass wrong, and that’s on me to admit and fix, which I am. ”
“Uri, your brother's actions aren’t your fault.”
“Thank you for saying that, but we both know that’s not true.” He kissed the back of my head. “Trey might be the oldest, but he ain’t the strongest, and I ain’t talking about physical strength. I saw that when I went to see him. He’s scared just like we all are; he ain’t ready to admit it.”