10. Hades #2
My feet stopped when my eyes landed on Julianna.
What the fuck is she doing here? She’s not family.
Like Jin’jer said, she didn’t have any chill when she got out of her seat and began to walk in my direction.
This bitch does the most and always has.
Jin’jer stepped in front of me as a shield.
I leaned down and kissed her neck as a thank you.
All eyes were on us. Zeus and Poseidon stood to their feet. Julianna got within arms’ reach of us before she stopped. “Hades, can we . . . aah!”
Her words were cut off when Jin’jer’s fist connected to her face. “Bitch, if you ever in your fucking life talk to him again, I will kill you. Think it’s a game.”
Before she could really pounce on her, I grabbed my baby and pulled her back. Hera and Hestia rushed over. “What the fuck, Jin’jer! Why would you do that?”
See, to my siblings, when they looked at Julianna, all they saw was their auntie. My behavior toward her was simply unpalatable to them. When I looked at her, I saw a sick bitch. My grandfather came over. “Enough! Everyone, sit the fuck down, now!”
Julianna stood there crying into my sister, Hestia’s, arms like she was the real victim.
I didn’t move until my mother called my name.
She didn’t call it in a reprimanding manner.
It was more of a pleading one. She wanted to know what was going on with me.
I walked to the circle of seats that was already set up.
“Now, somebody better tell me what the fuck is going on,” my grandfather demanded. “Hades, you know damn better than to put your hands on a woman. You were not raised like that.”
My grandfather normally held conversations with us in Greek, but since he was speaking English, that meant that Julianna never learned the language. Dumb bitch!
My body shifted in my seat. “You’re right. I was raised to not put my hands on women. I would never do that, but a bitch, I’ll fuck up.”
“Nigga, I will fuck your ass up!” Zeus roared. Oh, he’s mad, mad. That word was rarely used by any of us. We had to be raging mad if we used it. My mother taught us that the word was unacceptable.
Julianna had a towel under her leaking nose. “Hades, I don’t understand where this hostility is coming from. You know I love you.”
Well, I guess that’s the segway I need. I chortled then crossed my arms over my chest. “Oh, you love me. You call fucking on an eight-year-old love?”
You could hear a cloud form outside, fuck the rat pissing on cotton.
Julianna’s eyelids widened. My mother stood to her feet with a face of disbelief.
Hera and Hestia sat there with there mouths covered by their hands.
The confusion that sat on the faces of the men in the room was comical.
“What the fuck did you just say?” my mother blurted.
“Th-that’s a lie. Why are you saying that, Hades? I love you. I would never do that to you or anyone else. Are you fucking crazy!” Julianna’s outrage was almost believable.
I shook my head. I wasn’t going to address her. “Mama, do you remember the summer I refused to go to New York? I told you that I wanted to spend time in Greece with my cousins. This bitch was the reason for that sudden change. I couldn’t take the shit anymore.”
For the next few minutes, I gave them the gruesome details of what I went through during my summers from the age of eight to twelve. All of the women allowed their tears to freely fall down their cheeks. My brothers, father, and grandfather wore frowns.
Julianna jumped up from her seat. “You are a fuckin’ liar, Hades. I never fuckin’ touched you. Why the fuck would I do some shit like that when I was with Asclepius?”
“Wait, wait! So, what you’re saying is you didn’t touch my brother because you were with another man, but if you weren’t with him, you would have touched my fucking brother? Bitch?—”
Hestia’s words were cut off by Julianna. “No! That’s not what I mean. He’s fuckin’ lying. Come on. Y’all know Hades has always had issues and acted out. I was just pointing out the fact that I was with Asclepius.”
Jin’jer mumbled about her being the reason that I acted out. I just sat there and gawked at her. “Pappoú, fónaxe tóra ton Asklipió (Grandfather, call Asclepius now).”
Julianna, or Aphrodite as she was referred to by club members, was with Asclepius for years.
He eventually moved on, met his forever, and was living a happy life to my knowledge.
He was at the gala with his wife who was a physician like him.
The sound of the ringing from my grandfather’s phone caught everyone’s attention.
“Uranus, what’s up? You good?” He answered right before the call went to voicemail.
Instead of my grandfather, my voice was the one that Asclepius heard next. “Asclepius, this is Hades. How you doing? He greeted me then asked what was up. “I have a question for you, and it may be a little unorthodox. Does Aphrodite have a birthmark on her upper inner thigh close to her pussy?”
You could hear everyone take a deep inhale and hold their breath.
Julianna’s eyes were closed because she knew her ass was about to get caught the fuck up.
There was some shuffling on the other end of the line before we heard a chuckle.
“Damn, she’s too old to still be out here with loose pussy.
Damn, Hades, you fucked too? She definitely has a birthmark there that looks like… ”
“A paint blob,” Asclepius and I said at the same time.
A paint blob was what she called her own birthmark.
“To answer your question, nah, I didn’t fuck her.
” I was scared to say it out loud for what it was.
Jin’jer told me that it would be important at some point to call it exactly what it was.
“She molested and raped me from the age of eight to twelve.”
My mother grew wings. It seemed like she flew over to Julianna and began to beat her ass. “Bitch, you fucking touched my fucking son! I’m going to fucking kill you.” The hurt in my mother’s voice was hard to hear.
My father let my mama beat her ass until Julianna was knocked out on the floor.
When my father lifted her in his arms, my mama delivered a hard kick to Julianna’s face.
Tears drenched my mother’s face. She wiggled out of my father’s arms then ran over to me.
I was still seated, but that didn’t stop her from wrapping her arms around me.
“Baby boy, I’m so sorry. God, I didn’t know. ”
“Damn, that shit is fucked up.” Asclepius’s voice came through the phone when the room calmed down.
“I feel like shit. I never told anyone, but the reason I left her ass alone was because I found pussy pics that she sent my fourteen-year-old nephew in his phone. I should have said something.” The remorse was loud in his tone.
My grandfather told him that they would talk later.
When he hung up the line, he dropped his head.
My mother still had me in her arms, and now my father stood behind her.
My siblings seemed like they were still processing what they just found out.
My father pulled my crying mama from me then wrapped his arms around her.
I leaned forward with my head down because this shit was crazy as hell.
I glanced at Julianna still on the floor, beat the fuck up and knocked out.
Jin’jer’s hand had yet to leave my leg. Eventually, my brothers came over.
I looked up into my brother Zeus’s eyes.
The only time I’d ever seen him cry was when Aoide was born and now.
As soon as I stood to my feet, he pulled me into a hug. “lypámai poly! éprepe na se eícha prostatéfsei (I’m so sorry! I should have protected you).” Zeus’s hold on me was tight.
“óchi, ísoun paidí. Den to íxeres. den sou eipa (No, you were a kid. You didn’t know. I didn’t tell you),” I told him. I didn’t want anyone to feel guilty.
Groaning caught everyone’s attention. Julianna was waking up from her little fist nap.
My grandfather stood over her with tight eyes and a fist. “How did I miss a pedophile in our midst?” He tittered.
“People don’t really look at women as if they could be rapists or molesters.
We put all of our time keeping men away from our daughters not realizing we left our sons wide open. ”
Julianna sat up with a groan of pain. In a low tone, she said, “I didn’t hurt him. I love him.”
“Bitch!” In the blink of an eye, my mama rushed over to my grandfather. She pulled the gun from behind his back, then aimed it. POW!
One bullet to the center of her forehead was her end. When Julianna fell back on the ground, my mama spit on her. “Prostatéveis tin oikogéneia me káthe kóstos, akóma ki an aftó simaínei thánato állou í ton eaftó sou (You protect family at all costs even if it means death of another or yourself).”
I reached out and pulled Jin’jer to me. My arms wrapped around her tightly. “Are you okay?” I asked in her ear.
“I’m fine. I love you,” she said softly. She lifted herself on her tiptoes to meet my lips. I really hoped she was alright. It wasn’t every day you saw someone murdered or found out your man was a victim of molestation.
My father walked over to his wife, took the gun from her hand, then kissed her temple before he hugged her tight.
My grandfather started to give out instructions to my brothers and told me to take my sisters and Jin’jer home.
With a final look at Julianna’s lifeless body on the floor, I felt a weight lift off me that I didn’t realize was there.
Based on Asclepius confession, I was not the only boy that may have been a victim.
My mama’s action saved some and avenged others. That gave me some peace.