Chapter 5
It couldn’t have come at a worst time. Being fired from the club meant she was going to be right back at the diner pulling doubles to afford basic necessities.
The irritation of all this was evident on her face.
Whatever was happening on the movie screen was irrelevant compared to what was happening on her phone.
Ernie had passed out thirty minutes into the movie like she knew he would, the unwelcomed chaperone was pecking away on his phone and Remedy was consumed by all the things that would fall apart if she didn’t figure out how to make something shake.
She recalled being in this place a year and a half ago when the iron gates closed behind her. At least the pole was a place she could forget the pain, betrayal, and embarrassment and make enough money to support herself.
Remedy: Any gigs?
Remedy: when?
Desi: end of the week
Remedy: I’m in
Locking her phone, she looked up to see the movie credits rolling and Ernie pulling himself out of his nap.
There was nothing more she wanted than to be free of Erys’ stare.
It was all consuming like he was trying to bare into her soul and see what she was made of.
Ever since that bloodied, battered day, she’d sworn off men, no matter how captivating he was.
“Ready to go home, Ernie?” she softly asked, stretching and standing to her feet.
He nodded, then asked, “Can I get some smothered pork chops for dinner?”
Remedy nodded, unable to ever tell him no. Even if she didn’t have it, she’d make a way. For him. Still she found it crazy that her best friend was a man nearly double her age with dementia.
“Sure. Can I get a nap and clean my house before I cook?” she queried.
“Yeah,” he buzzed, walking toward the exit behind her. “Erys, you eat pork or are you going to have wheatgrass or some shit.”
“Depends, can she cook?” Erys asked.
“For who she wants. She might fuck around and poison you,” Remedy shot back. “It’d kill you to be decent, wouldn’t it.”
“I paid for breakfast and the movie, I’m decent,” Erys shot back.
Remedy was growing increasingly annoyed by his presence and personality. Hot and cold and only one of the Moore men had a viable excuse to be a dick. “Nigga, I’ll give you you’re funky sixty-eight dollars and twenty-three cents back. Fuck you getting at?”
“That I’m decent,” he snipped back.
Remedy groaned and walked away. “Yeah, Ernie, I’ll bring you something to eat.”
She wanted to be sure that her emphasis was understood. She ordered the minimal amount of food she would need to make Ernie his requested dinner. When they got back to their corner of Trae Way, she hopped out, grabbed her bags, and quickened to her house.
A sigh of relief fell from her lips as she dropped her folded laundry by the door and kicked her shoes off.
Dropping her phone and keys, she roamed down the hall to wash the day off.
Clothes were put away, house was straightened up and she was starting on the dinner for one.
When everything was packaged up, she walked across her yard into Ernie’s.
Erys was on the porch with the phone pressed to his ear.
Remedy wasn’t trying to hear whatever he was saying but couldn’t help but overhear it.
“Soon as possible would be great. He doesn’t need a full suite, just a room for him and his things…from my understanding he roams at night…how soon? Tomorrow morning? Yeah, that’ll work,” Erys spoke, feeling Remedy’s eyes bearing into him.
She nodded when she locked eyes with him. Nothing but unmistakable anger on her face as she whisked in the house finding Ernie knocked out on the couch. Remedy put the Tupperware bowl in the microwave and hurried back outside, not caring if Erys’ conversation was over or not.
“You came back to drag him off to some nursing home?” she snapped. “Do you know what that place will do to him?”
“You said not even five hours ago that I was his son and I needed to do something. He’s leaving in the morning. I’m doing something. You’re free now.”
“I’m free now? What type of fuck shit are you on? In the last day, you have proven to be a lot but ain’t shit isn’t what I pinned you for. When I said do something, I didn’t mean lock him up and forget about him!”
Erys started to walk away from her. Not because she wasn’t right but because the pressure she applied was different. “He forgot about me, the fuck you barking at me for?”
“‘Cause that’s your daddy, nigga. People would kill to have half the man he is and you’re just going to lock him up? He’ll be dead before the end of the year!” Remedy protested, tears sprouting in her eyes.
“How you know that? You’ve only known him a year. I’ve known him all my life,” Erys shot, turning around to look down at her.
“Because he’ll stop living. He’ll stop remembering or trying.
He’ll give up. And I know that from being around him for a year.
You’ve known him your whole life and can’t see that the man fuckin’ misses his son and he mourns the life he almost had.
Whether he’s in the present or all those years ago. ”
Erys shook his head trying to find no logic in what she’d said. “He needs assistance we can’t give him.”
“He needs some fuckin’ love,” Remedy huffed, swiping her face free of tears. “He needs love. It’s that fucking simple. Understand this, if I come back here tomorrow and he’s gone, you better call and let Piedmont Assisted Living Home know that I’m coming too.”
“You in love with my pops or something?” Erys posed.
“I’ve already told you. He’s the only friend I got.
So yeah, I love him. And I won’t let you or no one else do whatever because you don’t know what it is to love someone,” Remedy shot back, ending the back and forth.
“I hope when he finds out what the fuck you did, he kicks your black ass from here to Fort Wraith. Ol bitch ass nigga.”
In the height of her anger she could feel his eyes on her as she stomped away.
The minute she was behind closed doors, she covered her mouth and screamed into her hand.
Ernie had been the only ray of sunshine in her life since returning to the real world.
Without him in it, she couldn’t understand how she was going to find the motivation not to quit.
She sobbed until she fell asleep, something she hadn’t done since her life imploded.
When she pulled her swollen eyes open, it was two in the morning and she could hear Ernie tapping his cane against her window.
Remedy pulled her tired body from the bed and shuffled to the door.
Upon opening it, she found him standing at the door.
“You can’t sleep?” she questioned, watching him walk in and ease down on her sectional.
“He’s trying to send me away,” he shared. “I heard him on the phone before he left. What I do to him that so bad he wants to send me away?”
Remedy secured the door and sat by him.
“Cherie, I just wanted to be a father to the boy. You took him and ran off. What I do that was so fuckin’ bad that you ran off like that?
” Ernie asked, looking over at Remedy. “Look at how he turned out? He fuckin’ hates me.
‘Cause he looks like me, talks like me, walks like me. I never gave my seed to no one but you and you turned him against me.”
Remedy shut her eyes hearing the pain in his voice. She had no words to say. Nothing to break him out of the hallucination or to comfort him. All she could do was be present like she’d been.
“Did you ever love me, Cherie? Or was that just some bullshit to keep yourself safe? Huh?” Ernie rumbled.
“Ernie…” she softly spoke, reaching over to hold his aged hand. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promise.”
“You got to help me with my boy before he grows into a man that resents me. You got to help me, Cherie,” he softly pleaded.
“I will. I promise.”
For Remedy, that promise was loaded and meant she had to do exactly what she didn’t want to – be in Erys’ presence.