After six months of being with
Wayne, things still seemed to be going okay. He was a little insecure because
Jada knew a lot of guys and fucked a few, and his short stature didn’t help his
confidence one bit. Jada’s phone rang and it was Faith, asking was she still
coming out for Twan’s birthday to have drinks. “Of course I am, I’ll see ya’ll
at the Dew Drop around ten’ish. She hung up the phone and turned to find Wayne
giving her a mean mug.
“Everything is cool Sweetie, I’m
going to have a few drinks and come back, I promise I won’t be long,” she said
as she kissed him.
“You know you can come if you want.”
“I may,” he replied. “I gotta go but
I’ll call you.” He smacked her ass and kissed her again then grabbed his keys
off the mantle. It had been a while since she had been out so she was excited
to see everyone. To keep Wayne at ease she didn’t go out as much. She turned on
the Bose sound system, so that the volume could be heard throughout the house
while she heated up some spaghetti and got dressed.
“If I ain’t in the front…at least
I’m gonna be, by your side.” She sang pulling out the casserole dish from the
fridge, swishing her hips as she punched numbers on the microwave.
“Whew, that was on time.” she rubbed
her stomach rinsing the plate placing it in the dishwasher. Continuing to
two-step up the stairs reaching the closet, she mixed and matched different
things until she finally decided on fitted dark blue jeans, a cream sweater and
brown flat knee boots.
**********************
She slid her coat off, and placed it
on the back of the bar chair. Faith came up from behind and gave her a hug.
“Glad to see you. Come on, we are
over here.” The girls cut through the crowded dance floor and up two small
steps to a platform that overlooked the bar.
“Hello everybody,” Jada said with a
wave before sitting down. Steve knew she had a dude but still was excited to
see her; he revealed a huge grin and winked. The music was jumpin’ thanks to J
Dub and Sauce the Great while the drinks flowed all night. Time passed and it
was one o’clock in the morning. Wayne hadn’t called or texted Jada all night
and it was getting late, so she gave her farewells and Faith walked her out.
They didn’t get out of the bar doors
good, before they were met by Wayne. He stood before them with a crazed look in
his eyes. The two women turned to look at each other and looked back at him.
Just that fast, Wayne pulled out a .22 and pointed it at them.
“She’s good, I got her. You can go
ahead and bounce!”
Faith was stunned and froze in her
tracks like a statue. He grabbed Jada’s forearm and kept the gun pointed on
Faith. “I’m good.” she said handing Faith her keys and off with Wayne she went
down the street until they reached his maroon Honda Accord. Keeping the .22
caliber pointing at Jada, he instructed her to pull off.
“Drive!” the demonic voice yelled as
he mushed her in the right side of the face making her neck jerk to the left.
Jada heavily accelerated running a stop sign. Tonight she’d been with friends
and family. She had grown to trust Wayne and had not thought to bring the .38
out with her.
“Who the fuck do you think I am,” he
spewed “You must think I’m a joke.”
Jada turned and looked at him in a
state of confusion trying to keep her eyes on the road and him at the same damn
time. She glanced back and forth with her peripheral view of him, then to the
road again.
“What are you talking about?” Jada
replied. He grabbed a hand full of her hair and pulled her head back and down.
Her head was in the little opening that was between the front seats. This made
only the view of the sagging upholstery and dome light that was missing its
cap, visible.
She gazed at the roof of the car
with hundreds of scenarios playing out in her head. “Out of all the guns in
the world, this ni**a pulls a .22 on me.” Jada was familiar enough with
guns to know that at least if he had a bigger gun he’d kill her and not
paralyze her. The thought of being paralyzed and not dead was even worse to
her, so she decided to be cool.
“I can’t see.” she cried out, as
tears ran down her cheeks. She pleaded for him to let go. By now, they were
sitting in the middle of Wittenberg Avenue in front of an alternative school.
Kissing her in the mouth he slowly let go of the grip he held on her hair. She
drove in silence while he continued to hold the gun on her, screaming cuss
words going on tyrants. She drove only a few more blocks and he grabbed her arm
and bit into it like a clamp in a wood shop. The excruciating pain forced Jada
to swerve and she pulled over. Wayne threw the car in park and pounced onto
her, biting her three more times; on the right arm, left forearm and then again
on her back as she turned toward the driver door window. With faint, cracked
screams echoing out, he finally let go as he slid his teeth out of her flesh.
She felt the warm blood as it trickled down her back. After she had driven a
while, he told her to go to a spot in London Estates. It was a place he
sometimes sold dope out of and he already knew the fiends wouldn’t be there
because they were in the process of moving to another spot.
No sooner than they had gotten
inside and the wooden door closed behind them, he punched her in the mouth and
caused it to bleed profusely. She held back her cries and tears only covering
her face leaning downward towards her right side. That infuriated him so much
that he pointed the gun at her temple and demanded she move her hands or he’d
shoot her where she stood. When she finally moved her hands he began kissing
her aggressively in her mouth and shoving his hand down her pants. The more her
lip bled, the more it seemed to entice him. As she attempted to wipe the blood
away, he grabbed her wrist and slammed it backwards. This made her knuckles
bang into the door. He licked up the left side of her face, from her chin to her
hairline, as he pressed his tongue forcefully against her skin. His teeth
roughly connected with parts of her face leaving a slimy trail of saliva. She
froze not breathing, and not knowing if he would try to bite her eye out. Then
he reached back and open handed smacked her, with the side of the gun in his
palm. He slammed into her cheekbone.
“Sit down and rollup!”
The residue from the cigar tingled
inside the cut on her lip. The cream cashmere sweater she wore was droopy and
damp since it was immersed in her blood and tears. He sparked the blunt and
told her to take off all of her clothes. Once she was naked he handed her the
blunt making her smoke.
“Fix your face,” he said walking
behind her. He pressed the front of his body against her chocolate nude
backside. In his right hand he still gripped the .22, as he wrapped the other
hand around her. He rubbed her left nipple softly then pinching it so hard that
the pain made her choke on the smoke. Letting go of the grip he once held on
her nipple, he grabbed her by the hair again and forced her to the back room.
In it, all that remained was a mattress on the floor, and an orange and green
floral fitted sheet that covered the window with two tacks, one on each end,
for a make-shift curtain.
He climbed on top of her shoving his
evil spirit inside. Staring at the ball of light that protruded through the
sheet, she wept and thought about Eugene. She wished he was here and what had
she gotten into with this deranged lunatic? After he finished raping her, Wayne
ordered her to put her clothes back on and followed her back into the living
room, where she got dressed. He continued beating her until the sun came up.
“C’mon we’re leaving!”
As they rode through the streets of
Springfield, Jada knew she had to make a move at some point. Tired and beaten,
she decided she was going to run for it and if he did shoot her…oh well, it
was, what it was.
They approached the intersection of
Euclid and Fountain, which was a two-way stop. Jada didn’t bother slowing down
for the stop sign, she opened the door, rolled out of the driver’s side, got up
off the ground, running as fast as she could until she tore through Faith’s
screen door on Rose Avenue and fell on the floor. Twan ran down the stairs with
an A-K, not knowing what all the commotion was about. Faith came out of the
kitchen, “What the fuck! He’s a dead man!” she yelled as she helped her cousin
up off the tan carpet and onto the couch.
Jada attempted to talk, but she
almost hyperventilated as she tried to articulate in broken words. That is all
that would come out as tears covered her face. Twan went to the kitchen and
brought back a glass of ice water then left out the back door, A-K in hand. The
screeching noise from his tires could be heard inside the house. Faith grabbed
a cold towel as she simultaneously patted Jada’s head.
“Don’t worry, don’t you worry.”
Faith said repeatedly rocking her cousin in her arms. Jada finally managed to
tell Faith that all she wanted to do was take a shower and change. Faith raced
to the linen closet and her room to get more towels, wash cloths, and a change
of clothes.
As Jada lathered up the washcloth, she
began to wash her wounded body. The soap burned as she dabbed the bite marks
that covered her body. As she washed her hair she could see patches of it going
down the drain, which made her start to cry again. She cupped handfuls of water
as she rinsed her mouth out. She could feel the tissue and swollenness of the
inside of her mouth and lips, as her tongue glided over them. She turned around
so that the water could run on her back and this almost made her jump out of
the tub. She rang the washcloth out as tight as she could and the water stung
the deep bite on her upper back. She wept for another forty-five minutes before
she finally got out of the shower. She was in a state of shock, still not
believing the ordeal she had just endured. Too ashamed to go downstairs, she
could hear the collage of conversation from A’lyce and Kansas, downstairs,
talking to Nikki and Simone. Even though they were the closet people to her she
was too ashamed to face them so she went and crawled in Faith’s bed and slept.
