Chapter 13 #2
“No, you’re wrong honey. Would you allow Bishop to come up in here doing all of that?
” She paused, I suppose to wait for him to answer but he didn’t so she continued.
“This girl has come prancing into our lives causing nothing but confusion and destruction. Now, she got us damn near at war with each other and as the matriarch of this family, as you all be saying…respectfully, I’ve earned the right to put my damn foot down.
And I WILL NOT watch my family crumble because of an outsider. ”
“Well then you better tell that boy of yours to handle it before he forces us to handle it our way.”
“Tell him…I got this. Now respectfully…I gotta go.”
Night had settled over Magnolia Graves by the time I arrived back at Saint Mercy. I’d spent the majority of the day back at the funeral home preparing the body of an elderly man that was found deceased by the riverbank.
The church stood tall and silent beneath a sky crowded with storm clouds. Most people assumed that the church slept after dark but that was the furthest from the truth. I unlocked one of the side entrances then walked through a long narrow hallway.
When I came to the staircase that led to the basement, I descended the stairs then walked past the archive room and descended the stairs that were hidden behind a storage room just down at the end of the hall.
The deeper I went past the basement, the colder and thicker the air became.
The hidden door I was seeking waited at the end of the long hallway corridor.
Once I approached the hidden door, the solid oak and had no markings, no signs and no indication that it existed at all, but I knew I did.
I was the only person that knew it existed.
I tapped on the door then gave it a slight push until I heard a click.
Stepping back, the door opened, then I walked into the undertaker’s record room that no other undertaker had ever stepped foot into beside me.
The undertaker’s room that was back at the funeral home in a secret office was a space that my grandfather created. But this room I created as an extension to that one. No one other than myself knew about this room and it was right here at the church.
Just before I closed the door, I stepped back out into the hallway and looked both ways.
I thought I had heard footsteps, but no one was there.
I stood there, in the middle of the hallway, as quiet and still as I could be just in case someone was lurking, but no one was there.
Once I was sure that I was alone, I went back into the room.
Just like the archive room, this room had rows upon rows of shelves that stretched from one end of the room to the other.
There were boxes, files, pictures, letters and decades of secrets that weren’t public history but all private truths.
Everything that my great grandfather and grandfather recorded along with everything I recorded was in this room.
Everything that Magnolia Graves tried to forget could be found here.
Back at the funeral home, the office that my grandfather started was similar to this room and it was also private, but this room was much more secure than his.
People knew of Elijah’s private room and although he enforced that no one was welcomed in it, people couldn’t be trusted, which was why no one knew of mine.
I had removed my aunt’s file long ago from the room back at the funeral home and filed it securely here.
Going to the far back, darkest corner of the room I removed Vivienne’s file then sat at the desk in the middle of the room.
Pictures of her body when it arrived at the funeral, after it was prepared to be embalmed then dressed for her services spilled out onto the desk.
As I stared at the picture of how she looked when she got to the funeral home my mind went right back to the night, she died.
Dubois Hill Estates was a compound that was hundreds of acres long.
It included the main house, which was the house me and siblings were raised in, and Bishop’s home at the time.
Seraphine was heavily into horses when she was younger, so we had a ranch and barn with four horses.
And my mother, being southern raised, had an area where she grew vegetables and fruits.
The estate was kind of like a small town within a small town before me and my siblings grew up and our homes were built there.
I remember the day Vivienne died like it was yesterday, because it was the first time I was forced to go rogue against my own emotions and do something that changed the direction of who I was forever.
It was the middle of the night, and I was jolted awake by her screams…
they were blood curling, gut-wrenching screams. When I looked over to my digital clock next to my bedside it read 3:15 am…
witch’s hour. I was nine years old at the time so terrified that every inch of my body was trembling.
The first place I could think to run to was my parents’ room.
When I opened their door, my father wasn’t in there and my mother was sleeping peacefully.
“Ma!” I shook her shoulder violently, but she didn’t budge. “Mother, get up! Please, I’m scared.” I cried out but all that could be heard was her loud snoring.
Back then I didn’t know she was indulging in wine and sleeping pills at night. As a child, I couldn’t understand how she wasn’t awakened out of her sleep by all the noise.
Leaving out of their bedroom I raced down the hall and that’s when I bumped into Solomon and my father. The look Solomon gave me was one that I’d only see whenever he’d get in trouble and was due to meet our father in the discipline room. The look my father gave me was one of relief.
“Come on boy. I gots something for yall to do.”
As we got closer to the front door, the screams got louder, and once we made it outside was when I could hear Bishop’s voice.
I followed my father and Solomon as we raced to the barn with the horses and my ignorance led me to believe Bishop was beating on a horse, but when we made it to the barn, I deeply regretted ever leaving my room.
My aunt was laid out on a bail of hay, bloody while Bishop was standing over her heaving barely out of breath.
“What on earth!” My father shouted.
“This bitch has defiled me…us… this entire family for an outsider.” Bishop said between breaths. “She handed over files to Isaiah like she was giving out turkeys for Thanksgiving. This whole time this trader has been spoon feeding that man everything he is going to use against us.”
“Go straight to hell, you piece of shit! You and your brother both deserve everything you have coming for you!” Vivienne cried out. “You took everything from my family and you gon’ have to kill me dead to stop me from doing the same to you.”
Bishop raised his hand to strike her against but this time he slipped and fell on some blood, hitting his head on a wooden stand. Everything was happening so fast I couldn’t process it all.
“Solomon, Ezekiel, finish this bitch off. She’s left us no choice!” My father roared as he tended to his brother.
Solomon looked at me as I stared at my aunt who was looking at me with piercing eyes. It was like she was pleading with her eyes to spare her and there was a coldness and stubbornness at the same time. Solomon ran and grabbed a manure fork and hoof nipper. He handed me the nipper.
“Stab her! And don’t stop til I tell you too!” Solomon demanded but I couldn’t move.
Frozen…stuck I could barely breath. All I could hear was my father, Bishop and Solomon yelling at me to attack her, but I couldn’t. My aunt had never done anything malicious to me, why would I want to bring harm and pain to her.
Then I got hit from behind so hard that it felt like I’d lost my hearing temporarily and saw stars, it took me a minute to collect my bearings. “If you don’t do it, I’ma kill you soon as we finish her ass off!” My father demanded.
Once I got my sight back clearly, I looked down at my aunt who was looking at me with soft eyes, and her final words haunted me to this day.
“It’s okay…I forgive you, baby.” Then her eyes turned cold, “Do it! DO IT!”
It felt like an unknown force had taken control of me, and I started stabbing her repeatedly with the nipper as she hollered and hollered out.
I stabbed her until I was out of breath then fell back on my ass.
She was lying there barely breathing before Solomon took the fork and brought it down into her chest killing her instantly.
The sound of a door slamming caught my attention causing me to jump up from the desk and to look out into the hallway, but no one was there.
I stood in the middle of darkness just to make sure that no one was down here with me and after a few minutes, there was still no movement so I went back into the room, turned off the light and left the room as fast as I could.