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I didn’t want to hear the details. “I don’t believe you could do something so brutal and nasty to me. Why me? Why did you pick me to be your beard?”
He opened his mouth to answer and then shut it.
“How could you be so cruel to another human being, Phil?”
“I’m sorry, Evelyn. I don’t know what else to say.”
I threw the knife and it hit him in the face before clattering to the floor.
“Get out, Phil. Get out and don’t ever speak to me again.”
“Evelyn . . .” He stopped a moment, took a deep breath, and the rest of the words rushed out. “Would you do one last thing for me?”
No, this motherfucker did not just ask me to do him a favor. I stopped breathing and just stared at him.
“Would you please help Saundra through this? Not for me. I don’t deserve anything. Please do it for her?”
Saundra!
“You mean she didn’t know?”
He blinked. “She does now. Saundra walked in on us last night and ran away. I’m sure she is at Asha’s house.”
“Walked in? You mean that . . .”
“Yes,” he said simply. “Hugo and I were having sex. It was the first time in my house. I swear it. She was supposed to spend the night with Yero. I don’t know why . . .”
Hugo!
“STOP!” I screamed. “JUST STOP!
“You’re right. It’s too much to ask.” He turned to leave.
That’s when I snatched up the microwave, ran up behind him and used it to club him right in the back of the head.
Chapter 33
SAUNDRA
I sobbed on that cold leather, my chest rising and falling until it hurt, tears racing down my face and drenching my blouse. I wept for Evelyn, who loved a man who would never love her or any other woman. I wept for Mama, who had lain with a man who was obviously just experimenting to see if he could stand making love to a female.
Finally, when I could cry no more, I closed my eyes tight and wished that I could fall asleep and wake up to find out it was all a nightmare. If not that, then that I could wake up in some alternate universe where Asha and I were still little girls with Mama making banana pancakes in the kitchen. Oh, to find myself back on the bottom bunk in the small bedroom of our old apartment with Asha on the top bunk reading under the covers with a flashlight, listening to bags of garbage drop from the window of some lazy tenant down into the alley. To be small, adored, and ignorant of just how ugly and deceitful the world could be.
I heard Asha’s bedroom door opening and knew she was coming to check on me, so I regulated my breathing and pretended to be asleep.
She stood there for a moment, kissed me on the cheek and went back to her room.
It occurred to me that she would probably take the next day off from work and I didn’t want her to. I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to plan. There was no way I was ever going to tell my sister the truth about Phil. I was too ashamed.
So, I waited another hour and then tiptoed around until I found a pen and some paper. I wrote a note to her in big letters. It said:
Asha,
I know you mean well but go to work in the morning. I need time to be alone and sort some stuff out. Please don’t be stubborn about this, Asha. Respect my wishes and I promise to call before you go to lunch so you know that I’m all right.
Love,
Saundra
