46. Corinthians
Corinthians
“Uri, please!” I gasped as I pulled his hands from around my throat.
His eyes finally focused, and his grip loosened from around my neck.
I sucked in a deep breath, pushed him away, and crawled across the floor.
We’d fallen asleep, and I woke up to his hands around my neck.
I coughed and touched my tender neck. Uri sat on the couch; his face filled with regret.
“Cori…” he got up and started approaching me.
“No!” I coughed and put my hand up. “No!”
He stopped walking and put his hands up. “I-I-I-I-I-I’m so s-s-s-s-s-sorry,” he stuttered. “I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I d-d-d-d-d-didn’t me-me-me-me-me-mean to.”
I backed up to the wall and shook my head. My throat was on fire. I slowly stood, hand still on my throat. “Leave,” I told him. My voice was already affected by him choking me.
“Cori…”
He tried to approach me, and I reached for the pruning scissors I’d left on the table earlier. They were small, but I knew just where to hit him to cause the most damage and quickly if need be.
Uri’s eyes went to the scissors in my hand, and he stepped back. I’d never be afraid of Uri, not as a child and not now, but I needed space. I looked around, remembering that this wasn’t my house. I couldn’t tell him to leave.
“I’ll leave,” I struggled to say.
“No!” he yelled and tried to take another step closer to me. I moved the knife to my side, and he stopped. “I’ll l-l-l-l-l-l-l-leave; you c-a-a-a-a-a-a-can st-t-t-t-t-t-stay here.”
I shook my head. “This is your house.”
“Stay, Cori, p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-please,” he begged.
“I’ll le-e-e-e-leave. You stay h-e-e-here.
Please.” He took a step back. “Plea-a-a-a-a-please.” I nodded, and he sighed in relief.
“I’m going t-t-t-t-t-t-to get m-m-m-m-m-m-m-my k-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-keys from the ta-a-a-a-a-a-table and leave.
” I nodded again. He moved slowly to the table to get his keys.
“I’m sorry.” His eyes filled with tears.
“I didn’t m-e-e-e-e-mean to. I-I-I-I-I would never h-h-h-h-h-h-h-hurt you, Cori.
You have to be-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-believe me. ”
He picked up his keys, his phone, and his wallet, then backed out of the living room.
I didn’t move until I heard the garage door open and close, then the alarm announced that it was set.
I dropped the scissors and slid down the wall.
I wrapped my arms around my legs and rocked.
I tried to figure out what happened, what set him off like that.
I came up empty. I woke up to him mumbling in his sleep.
I assumed he was having a nightmare because he’d had a few over the last few months.
Any other time he woke up on his own, but not tonight.
His bracelet alarm was going off. I checked my phone and saw that his pulse was sky-high.
The only thing I could think of doing was waking him.
As soon as I touched his shoulders, he flipped us over and wrapped his hands around my throat.
Instinctively, I fought back, but Uri was bigger and stronger.
I wasn’t going to win. My screaming his name was the last option.
The alarm announced, the front door was opened, and I reached for the scissors. “Corinthians!” Madea came into the living room. She was still in her pajamas, rollers still in her head, her eyes filled with concern. “Corinthians!”
“Here,” I struggled to say as I stood.
Madea stopped dead in her tracks when she saw me, and her shoulders dropped. “Oh baby,” she sighed and approached me. “Come here.”
“He didn’t mean it, Madea,” I cried as she wrapped her arms around me. “He didn’t mean it.”
“Ssshhhh,” she hushed me as she rubbed my back. “Just be quiet.” I stood there in Uri’s living room being held by my grandmother and cried. I held on to her, scared to let her go just like when I was a little girl and came to see her for the first time after having to fight. “It’s okay, baby.”
“Madea, I need to tell you something,” I groaned.
“Not right now,” she said, still hugging me. She guided me to the couch, and we sat. “Right now, I need you just to hug me back and cry every tear you’ve been afraid to let out.”
So that’s what I did. I cried myself to sleep in my grandmother’s arms.
***
“You’re going to be bruised for a few weeks or so,” Nine’s mama Nadine said. She slowly moved my face to the side. “Your left side is going to be worse than the right.”
“Okay,” I hoarsely replied. My voice was gone. More than likely from a combination of crying and being choked. All I knew was that it hurt and no matter what I did it wouldn’t stop.
“Rest and relax,” Nadine said before I could ask what I should do next.
She patted my leg and stepped back. “I know it’s hard, but that’s all you can do.
” I nodded, then looked over at Madea and Psalms. Madea hadn’t left my side since she showed up.
Apparently, Uri called her, crying, saying it was an accident, and she rushed over to his house.
No questions asked, no more explanation needed.
Psalms showed up the next day when I didn’t answer her call.
She said she kept having a bad feeling and now she knew why.
“Don’t try and speak if you don’t have to.
” Nadine smiled. “I know it’s going to be hard with Judah running around, but at least try for me. ”
“Judah is staying with me for the week,” Madea announced.
I looked over at her, surprised. We hadn’t discussed Judah not being with me, but I couldn’t lie and say that not having to answer his millions of questions didn’t sound good.
“Now I’m going to ask this because I have to, but are you safe?” Nadine asked. She looked between the three of us and sighed. “I know you said it was an accident, but I need to be sure. Are you safe?”
“It was an accident,” I whispered. “He didn’t mean it.”
“Who didn’t mean it?” she asked.
“Uri,” I answered. Her eyes ballooned in surprise, then she nodded.
“Four?” she asked, and I nodded. She reexamined my throat then stepped back. “Okay, well, shit.”
“It’s fine,” I said, touching her hand. I didn’t know what Nadine knew of Uri’s past, so I wasn’t going into detail about anything.
Plus, I still needed to talk to Psalms about telling Madea everything.
I was tired of carrying this burden. I tried to say something, but my throat hurt so much I picked up my water and drank some to help with the pain.
“Rest, Corinthians,” Nadine said, patting my leg. “Just rest.”
***
“He choked you!” Psalms yelled and slammed the car door. “He choked you, and you’re going to forgive him.” She looked over the car at me and narrowed her eyes. “You’ve already forgiven him!”
“I haven’t done anything,” I told her. I shut the car door then walked to the house. “You comin’ or no?”
“Do I have a choice?” she asked, following behind me. I shrugged, and she kissed her teeth. “Why are you forgiving him, Sissy? He choked you.”
“He was having a nightmare,” I said.
Psalms dropped onto the couch, kicked her shoes off, then tucked her feet under her. I didn’t need to go into details because Psalms had nightmares. She’d woken up in tears or fighting more than anyone I knew. She dropped her head back against the couch and sighed.
“You forgave him because of me,” she said.
I rounded the couch, sat next to her, and she rested her head on my shoulder.
“I forgave him because he didn’t mean to,” I whispered.
“And I’m not forgiving him because of you in a bad way.
I’m forgiving him because I know someone else with the same fears.
How many times has Wednesday dealt with the same thing I’m dealing with right now? ”
“More times than I can count,” she sadly laughed. She looked at me and gave me a sad smile. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know,” I told her.
“He ran?” she reared back, face full of surprise.
“I told him to leave.”
“You put that man out of his own house?” she asked, and I nodded. “Only you would do some shit like that, and Four’s ass actually stayed gone.”
“He was the one who called Madea,” I said.
“Nigga got a death wish,” she said, shaking her head. She ran her hands through her braids, then sighed. “I would’ve called the cousins before calling Mary DeCorte.”
“Same,” I agreed. “But he called the one person I needed the most,” I smirked. “He knew you wouldn’t have listened if he called you.”
“I wouldn’t have,” she agreed. “I would’ve killed him without a second thought.”
“Which is why he called Madea.”
Psalms put her hand out for me to take. I held her hand, and she rested it on her lap. “You love him,” she said. It wasn’t a question, but I nodded anyway. “You’ve always loved him. I didn’t understand it, the connection y’all shared.”
“Me either.”
“Call him, tell him to come home, and he will. Talk, tell him you forgive him and figure out how to move past it.” She shook her head.
“I’m not saying it’s going to be easy; in fact, I’m saying the complete opposite, but y’all are worth it.
The love y’all share is worth it.” She turned and looked at me, her eyes sad but understanding.
***
I sat on the couch; the TV was the only light in the room. I picked up my phone, stared at the screen, then let out a deep breath and dialed Uri’s number.
“Hello?” His deep voice instantly swept over me, calming my nerves.
“Come home, Uri.”