23. Lawton
Lawton
Rushing through the door, I asked, “Where is she?”
When Mrs. Jessie called my phone earlier, I was upstate visiting with Preme. I hate that I wasn’t here when the shit went down. The whole ride back to the city, I felt helpless.
I knew how much Tali loved Gema just like I knew how much Mrs. Jessie loved and cared for her. For Talitha’s mother to accuse them of abuse was absurd.
When Mrs. Jessie called me to tell me what had went down, she explained that at first she thought Talitha was okay, but she shortly realized that she wasn’t and figured she needed me.
“In there.” Mrs. Jessie tipped her head toward Gema’s bedroom.
“I got her,” I let her know. “You can go ahead and head home. Ain’t nothing we can do right now.”
“Take care of her for me, Law. She really needs you.”
“I got her,” I reassured and locked up after her when she left.
Sliding off my jacket, I pulled my phone out of the pocket and powered it off. On the way over here, I let Chari know I would be out of pocket for a while.
I also had her reach out to Rossi to let him know not to expect Talitha in office for a few days. After kicking off my shoes, I walked into the room and found my baby wrapped up in Gema’s covers sleeping peacefully.
The way her face was puffy and her eyes was swollen, I knew she had cried herself to sleep. Gently pulling back the covers, I reached under her and hoisted her up from the bed.
She stirred a little bit and without opening her eyes, her arms wrapped around my neck. She was fully dressed and hadn’t even come out of the shoes she wore to work.
Carrying her bridal style of out of the room, I held onto her as I walked us upstairs to her bedroom. “Talitha.” I nudged her. “I need you to sit on the side of the bed for me.”
When she nodded against my chest, I placed her down. Kneeling, I pulled off her shoes before rising and unfastening her pants. She lifted her hips just enough for me to be able to undress her.
After I got them down her legs, I reached for the sweater and pulled it over her head, leaving her in her underwear and a spaghetti strapped cami.
Pulling back her covers, I patted the bed. “Lay back for me.”
Laying back, she shifted in the bed and rolled over placing her back to me. I pulled the covers back up over her and closed the blinds in her room. “Where is your phone?”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled hoarsely.
Walking out of the room, I descended the stairs and looked around the living room for her purse. Coming up empty handed, I swiped her car keys off the table and went outside to see if she had left it in the car.
After unlocking the car door, I located her purse and phone sitting on the passenger seat. I grabbed everything and went back inside.
Instead of turning her phone off, I plugged it up on the nightstand beside the bed. “Have you eaten?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You gotta eat, baby.”
The room got quiet for a moment and the next sound that boomed through the room was loud wails emitting from Talitha’s mouth. “Please don’t cry,” I begged. Rounding the bed, I slipped in beside her and grabbed her. Sitting back on my knees, I cradled her to my chest.
“She lied on Mrs. Jessie. She’s never even raised a hand at Gema. My Mama hates me so much that she would make up lies.”
“I know baby,” I sighed and rubbed her back. “We gone get everything worked out.”
“I hate her, Law. I’ve never hated anyone in my life cause Papa Joe told me God wouldn’t let me in Heaven with hate in my heart.
But I hate her. I hate her cause she took Joe Lee word over mine when I told her he touched my private parts.
I hate her cause she hates me. He wanted to leave her and she blamed me for it. I didn’t do anything.”
“Ssssshhhh. I know you didn’t.”
I don’t know if Talitha realized that she had let it slip that her mama’s husband was the one who touched her. I mean, I had my suspicions, but I wasn’t the type to put something on anyone without proof.
Now that she’s verbalized it, I wholeheartedly believed he did that shit. All the more reason for me to get that muthafucka knocked off when we got Gema back in her care.
“Gema didn’t wanna go. She only gave in because I told her I would go to jail.
I should’ve fought harder with them,” she sobbed.
“Stupid bitch showed up with the sheriff cause her ass scary as fuck. And I know the rest of ‘em knew about it. I just talked to Betty Jo this morning. Her snaggle mouth ass didn’t say anything about it.” She sniffled.
“When I take her to court, I’m taking all of them. I got enough proof to bury all they asses. I held off for Gema’s sake. Now. I just don’t give a fuck.”
“I know you don’t and that’s fine. You gotta do what you gotta do to get her back here.”
“And I’m going to do it by burying them. She tried to use that bruise on Gema’s back as a sign. Bitch had taken pictures of that shit and showed it to the judge. Had their stupid asses really investigated, they would’ve known what the cause was and that it wasn’t that serious.”
“Talking about the bruise from when she slipped?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s horrible.” I shook my head. I was here the night that shit happened. Gema slipped trying to reach for her bath towel. She was old and feeble, so Mrs. Jessie nor Talitha let her bath alone.
Even with the built in railing in the shower they never took a chance. We took Bertha to WellStar, and she was cleared. They told us what to give her for the pain and that was it.
“She was being spiteful, but I got something for that ass… believe me.”
The whole time she spoke, she went through a range of emotions, at first, she was hysterical, now she was fighting mad. I couldn’t do shit but sit here and let her get all this shit off her chest.
First thing in the morning, I was going to reach out to my attorney to see what could be done to reverse what her mama had did.
Eventually Talitha stopped venting and it wasn’t too long before she had fallen asleep in my arms. I held onto her as long as I could. When my stomach started growling, I laid her down and headed downstairs to find something for us to eat.
* * *
“Baby.” I nudged Talitha awake. “Sit up for me.” I knew she wouldn’t have much of an appetite so instead of ordering a full course meal, I settled on soup from Panera Bread.
Blowing on the spoon, I held it to her mouth. “Open up.”
Talitha rolled her eyes at me but opened her mouth so I could feed her. I know she wanted to fuss but she didn’t. She sat there with her arms folded and let me feed her until the bowl was empty.
Grabbing the bottle of water from behind me, I opened and passed it to her so she could take a few sips. When she was done, I took the trash and placed it on her dresser.
“In the mood to shower?”
“Not really.” She shook her head and laid back down.
“That’s fine. You can get one in the morning.”
Going downstairs, I discarded the trash and hit the lights before making my way back upstairs. I had clothes at her house so after making sure she was good, I grabbed everything I needed and swaggered to the bathroom to shower.
When I made it back into the room, she was knocked out sleep. Getting in bed with her, I tugged her arm until she woke up long enough for me to pull her body on top of mine. I felt sorry for her, and I didn’t know what to say to make her feel better about the situation.
Until I spoke with my lawyer, all I could do was be here for her. Everything else that we had going on would have to take a backseat until we could figure out our next steps.
* * *
“Nawl, Pop. She really ain’t doing too hot. I mean better than I expected, but I can barely keep her out of bed.” I explained.
Standing at the island in the kitchen, I sipped from the coffee mug while staring out the front window.
Talitha and I had been held up in the house for the last forty-eight hours and outside of her getting out of bed to use the bathroom, I couldn’t get much out of her.
My baby was hurting and knowing that there was nothing I could say or do to make her feel better had me really worried.
“Have you tried to reach out to her grandmother?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “I called this morning. The phone going straight to voicemail, so they’ve either turned it off or blocked mine and Talitha’s number.”
“That shit ain’t right. You can’t just come uproot an elderly person like that.”
“I know. I thought about sending Drix and Preme out there to bring her back but I’m not trying to make it worse for her.”
“Yeah, that’ll be the wrong move. I’on know what to say Dutch. When you meeting with the lawyer?”
“She’s coming over today. Mrs. Jessie reached out to her and set-up the meeting since Talitha wasn’t feeling up to it.”
“That’s a start. I guess, hit me up when you find something out.”
“I will.”
“Is there anything you need me to do?”
“Nawl, Pop. Ain’t shit that can be done. I’mma reach out to Kovi and handle that for you. I haven’t forgotten, shit just got a little chaotic for the moment.”
“You good, Dutch. I know how shit works. Jrue being patient right now. As long as we can get the shit taken care of before the season starts, that’s all we’re concerned with.”
“Bet. I’ll hit you up later. I gotta call Drix and see where he is with my shit.”
“Aite Dutch.”
Hanging up the phone with Poppa, I dialed Drix. I put a call in to him and had him doing me a favor. The last time we spoke was over an hour ago when he let me know he was on the way.
“You good?” I asked when he picked up the phone.
“Yeah. Pulling up now.”
“Bet.” I hung up the phone and sat the mug down on the counter. Walking to the door, I unlocked it and pulled it opened. “This nigga,” I huffed when I saw Preme sliding out the passenger side of Drix truck. “Fuck you pick this nigga up at?” I asked when they were close enough to hear me.
“We were out handling business when you called,” Sincere shrugged. “Who house this is?” he asked and stepped around me to enter the door.
“My lady, nosey ass.” Shutting the door behind them, I led them to the living room. “You got my MacBook?” I asked Drix.