Epilogue
I told myself that after today, I would never wear black again. That’s all I saw when I stepped out of the car. Since losing Whodie, that’s all my life felt like... darkness. I adjusted my shades as Love squeezed my hand before letting it go.
“You okay?” she asked softly.
I nodded even though we both knew that was a lie I had been telling for years.
I hadn’t been good for a long time, but I was getting there.
Whodie was helping me get there. Nobody was ever good after burying the love of their life.
You just learn how to breathe through it.
Wake up and pray that it’s a better day than the day before.
The heels I wore clicked against the pavement as I walked forward, each step heavier than the last. I didn’t acknowledge any whispers at the church, and I wasn’t about to acknowledge them here either.
I stopped when I reached the front. The casket sat there, polished and dripped in gold just like my baby liked.
“Whodie,” I said, running my hand across his name on the casket.
I couldn’t even cry. I cried enough to last the rest of my life.
He was the only man who made me feel like I was the only woman in the world for him.
He never cared about my position because all he wanted was me.
I looked over at the picture next to his casket of him, smiling with his baby face before the facial hair.
It was one of my favorite pictures. He was smirking with his gold grill showing.
His eyes were low from the weed and pills at the time of his life.
“I’m going to miss your smile,” I murmured under my breath. I swallowed hard. “You said you weren’t leaving me. You said that shit like you meant it.”
Behind me, I could feel my brother’s presence before I even turned around.
He didn’t say anything. Hollow still carried the guilt and blamed himself.
Shit, we all did. As the funeral director nodded his head for them to proceed, I took a seat and just sat there numb.
When it was over, everyone stopped by and hugged me or gave me their condolences.
As the flowers were removed and the casket started dropping, I was going down in the hole with my man. I was dead too.
I had stayed at Hollow’s since the incident happened. Nothing could prepare me to go home and look at my man’s stuff in the closet. His colognes sitting on his side of the room.
“Adore, you can stay as long as you want,” Love told me.
“I think I need to go home.”
I only wanted to go so I could grab as much liquor as I could and drink until I was no longer on earth.
“Adore, just come inside. You can go home tomorrow. I’m not letting you go home after the funeral,” Hollow said.
The wind coming from the beach blew my hair in my face as I stared at Hollow, staring back at me.
He knew if I left, today would be the last day he saw me alive.
Instead of arguing, I walked behind him as he unlocked the door for me to walk in.
Like I had been doing the last few days, I went straight up the stairs to what had become my room again.
I stripped out of my clothes and went straight to the shower.
It was where I could cry and Love not try to console.
I didn’t want to be consoled. I wanted my man.
“Adore,” a familiar voice said.
My head was down on my knees.
“Adore,” the voice said again.
I looked up to see Whodie. I was dreaming. I had to be. When the shower door opened, and Whodie stood there in the flesh, I almost passed out. I couldn’t move. I felt like if I moved, then his ass would disappear.
“Damn, that’s how you look at yo’ nigga? You don’t miss me?”
It was him speaking that made my body react. I jumped up and ran into his arms. All I could do was cry uncontrollably.
“Are you dead?” I touched his face. “Nigga they said you were dead,” I hit his chest.
“I had to be, Adore.”
“What?”
“It was the only way to make sure everything tied to life stayed buried.”
“But...but you let me bury you? Who the fuck was that I buried?”
“I let you live, Adore. You told me you were tired of that life. As a man, I did what I needed to do so that life was dead. It’s in the ground now. Today, we start a new life.”
“Who the fuck put you up to this?” I asked as I wrapped myself in a towel.
“Who else?” Whodie looked at the door as Hollow appeared.
“Look, let me go ‘head and apologize now. The nigga said he wanted a new life. I gave him one. Shit, you too,” Hollow said.
“But how the fuck did y’all pull some shit like this off?” I asked both of them.
Whodie leaned on the counter and looked at Hollow.
“Look, I would hate to kill yo’ ass if Love finds out,” Hollow said. “I used to fuck the ER doctor. She owed me a favor. She called the nigga time of death, let me identify and bring the hearse to pick his ass up.”
My mouth dropped. “Now I’ve got something to hold over your head if you piss me off. Now you owe her?”
“Ion owe shit. Me and her ass even. Now, y’all flight leaves in the morning. Try y’all best not to mess my sheets up,” he said before closing the door.
“Flight?”
“A new life, baby. I’m no longer Whodie. You wanted marriage and kids. I’m about to give it to you. Just not in Florida. I don’t want any more questions. Let’s enjoy each other tonight and tomorrow, you’ll see what your man been up to.”
“Does it hurt?” I asked Whodie as I rubbed across his bandaged stomach.
“Hell fuck yeah. Bitch ass nigga almost had me wit’ a shit bag for the rest of my life. And no, I haven’t taken any pain pills, Adore.”
“I wasn’t about to ask that,” I said, looking up at him. “I can’t believe you’re here. Why would y’all do that to me?”
“Can I just hold you tonight. I told you, all your answers will come tomorrow. I missed you, and I just want to love you for the rest of my life.”
“I love you too,” I said, kissing his lips.
The next morning, Love had breakfast ready. I was looking at her ass sideways, too, because she knew my man wasn’t dead either. I didn’t know what type of monster Hollow had made her out to be, but she could act her ass off.
“Y’all got everything?” Hollow asked as he placed the few bags we had the car. “Ion want nobody callin’ me ‘bout shit. I got a nigga finally takin’ you away from me.”
“Soundin’ a lil’ jealous, bruh,” Whodie said.
“Nigga shut the fuck up. The only reason I’m lettin’ her go ‘cause yo’ ass got nine lives. Can’t kill you for shit,” Hollow joked.
Watching them two joke and dap each other did my heart some good. But it was something when my brother wrapped his arms around me that let me know I was one of the most protected girls in the world.
“I love you, Adore. You kno’ all you gotta do is call, and I’m comin’ with the beam on any nigga dome,” Hollow told me.
“I know, and I love you too.”
He kissed my forehead and stood there until we were no longer in sight. Whodie pulled up to a private strip where a jet was waiting for us. When we got on the private jet, Whodie had it decorated.
“What is all of this?”
“You kno’ this my first time doin’ some soft shit. I had Love help me. Yo’ brother wasn’t any help ‘cause he practically bullied Love into marryin’ him. I wanted to grant yo’ wish and make you a wife. You want a cornball ass nigga, that’s what I’ll be.”
“Whodie, that’s not what–.”
“Let me finish. What I mean by cornball is, I’m out of the streets.
I’ve already enrolled in school to get a trade.
We have enough money to live how we want.
I want to raise a family but not havin’ to look over my shoulder while at the park.
I don’t want to be a parent like my parents did me.
I want to be in their lives every step of the way.
So, our first stop is Vegas to get married and on to our new house in Calabasas. ”
“Wait? What?”
“You thought a nigga was young and dumb. I’m far from it, baby. I don’t want you to get shit twisted though, I’ll kill any nigga ‘bout you. That Whodie will never die. I’m just a better version of him for you.”
The diamond ring and roses sat in my seat with a card.
It was taking everything in me not to cry.
To think that just a few hours ago, I was dead on the inside, and now my man was fulfilling my wish.
His ass took me from the trap houses to Calabasas.
As we got settled in our seats, I looked at the ring on my finger.
My eyes looked out the window and my heart ached just a little.
He was giving up his life for me. Leaving our home state for me.
Just like the old Whodie would never die, the old Adore wouldn’t either. Just changing locations.
The End…