Fixin’ Tyrone (31 page)

She told her that if she ever caught Sydney in her house again, Crystal would get kicked out with him. And she meant it. Maybe it wouldn’t be anything permanent. Mia thought she might take her sister back in after a stint in rehab. But if it wasn’t the drugs, Mia didn’t know if she could ever trust her again. All credibility was gone. Mia could certainly forgive her, but her faith in Crystal might never be restored.

When she got to her house, Mia saw that her sister’s Tahoe was indeed parked in the driveway. Sydney’s Cutlass was still there, too. He parked his hoopty on the street, like a good boy, but Mia knew there was nothing good about him. He was a creep, a
wannabe
who should have kept his silly-ass addiction to himself. Mia cursed herself for not putting her foot down the first time she saw him lounging on her couch.

She pulled in next to the Tahoe and got out ready for war. She marched up to her front door with keys in hand, ready to barge in and put a brutal end to whatever sex/drug party they had going on in there, but her front door was already open. Mia paused at the threshold, wondering for the first time if maybe she shouldn’t call the police, or at least get a neighbor to go in with her.

But there was no time to contemplate either.

Crystal’s boyfriend appeared in the doorway, and Mia glimpsed the essence of evil. Sydney’s eyes were wild, almost deranged. He wore light-colored jeans and a white T-shirt. Sweat poured from his face as if he’d just stepped out of the shower. The perspiration matted his shirt to his chest. His lips were ashen, yet they glistened with saliva, mouthing some word or words that never got articulated.

Mia’s heart shot up in her throat. Her immediate thought was that this bastard did something foul to her sister. He had the look of a crazed animal. Mia hated that she didn’t keep a gun in her purse. She had a small can of pepper spray on her keychain, but this lunatic was only three feet away. She would have to look down at her keys to get the spray ready, and Mia didn’t want to take her eyes off him.

“What are you doing in my house?” she asked. Her voice was strong and confident. Mia didn’t know where the strength came from, but her words didn’t tremble at all.

Sydney stared at her and wavered in the doorway. He looked like he was trying to decide whether to go back inside the house or flee. He took a good look at Mia and chose the latter. Mia blocked his escape, but he had a good fifty pounds on her.

“
Get out my way, lady.
” He lumbered forward and knocked her aside with a swooping forearm to the chest.

Mia stumbled backwards and sideways. The heel of her right pump twisted underneath her, and she found herself falling. Her arms flailed wildly and her keys slipped from her fingers. She landed hard on one of the mushroom bushes that lined her walkway and felt the limbs and twigs poke into the back of her sports coat like stab wounds. Something sharp and rough scraped across her cheek, and a red light flashed before her eyes.

Mia let out a sharp scream that was first from shock, and then from pain. Crystal’s boyfriend walked right past her. Mia struggled to free herself, but each movement brought more pain. She felt like she was caught in the jagged mouth of some green beast. The branches scratched, poked, and snagged. With all her might, Mia pushed off with her hands and managed to throw herself forward.

She landed on her hands and knees. To her right Sydney climbed into his car. To the left, her front door stood open. Somewhere inside her sister was either injured or dead. Mia knew it had to be one or the other.

She quickly made it to her feet. There was pain in a lot of places, but three body parts hurt more than others: her backside, her shoulder, and the small of her back. Mia limped to the porch and put a hand on the doorframe to steady herself once she made it. Her breaths came quick. On a subconscious level she noticed that one of her fingernails had broken. Not merely broken, it was ripped off halfway down the nail plate. Blood seeped from the wound, staining the paint next to her doorbell.

Mia looked back to Sydney, but the Cutlass was on the move now, already two houses down. She took a half second to memorize his license plate number, and then she stumbled into her house to see what horrors he left behind.

It was much worse than she thought.

In her room, Crystal lay on her bed completely nude and uncovered. Her breathing was shallow and labored. Crystal’s lips were bluish. Her fingertips were, too.

Mia let out a soulful wail and almost collapsed in the doorway.

“
Crystal
!” She staggered to her sister’s bedside and leaned over the body. She held her sister’s head and lifted it from the pillow.

“
Crystal
!”

The girl was warm to the touch. Beads of perspiration dotted her forehead. Mia felt for a pulse next to her jugular and found one. It was weak, but it was there. Mia lifted her sister’s eyelids and saw that Crystal’s sclera was not bloodshot like one would expect with strangulation or other physical trauma. There were no bruises on her neck or face, either. Crystal’s pupils were extremely small, almost pinpoints. On a hunch, Mia looked up her sister’s nose. There was a small clump of what looked like dirt caught in the thin hairs lining her nostrils. It was the same kind of dirt that was in the pill Mia found last week.

“That son of a bitch,” Mia breathed. Her eyes watered and the tears flowed like blood. Her bottom lip quivered.

“It’s all right, baby.” She brushed her sister’s forehead and kissed it. “It’s gon’ be all right.”

Mia looked around the room for Crystal’s cordless phone. She found it on the bed next to the girl’s foot. She called 911 and told the operator her sister might be having a drug overdose. The operator told Mia to remain calm and stay with Crystal until an ambulance arrived. She said Mia should watch Crystal closely and begin CPR if she stopped breathing.

After Mia hung up, she found a pair of panties and a Nike jumpsuit. She dressed her sister, then held Crystal’s hand and whispered encouragement for what felt like an hour. Mia didn’t realize she left her front door open until she looked up and two paramedics stood in the doorway. She rose stiffly and stepped aside and let the professionals do their job.

She stood in the corner of the room and watched as they attempted, with no luck, to rouse her sister. They kept asking questions Mia didn’t have answers to.
No
, she couldn’t tell them what happened.
No
, she couldn’t say for sure if Crystal did any heroin today. And
no
, she couldn’t say how long she had been in this state.

After a quick assessment, they loaded Crystal onto a stretcher and affixed an oxygen line under her nose. Mia said she would follow them to the hospital in her own car, but when she got to the driveway, she realized she didn’t have her keys. One of the EMTs found them in her lawn close to the front door. He handed them to her and then looked Mia up and down.

“Ma’am, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she said, eager to be on the road.

“You’ve got a cut on your face,” he said. “You look disheveled. Was there a fight?”

“I’m fine,” Mia said, then stepped by him and got into her car.
He’s already got a hurt girl in the back of his truck
, she thought.
What the hell is he worried about me for?
But when she checked her rearview mirror the answer to that became clear. The cut on her face went from her earlobe to the corner of her right eye. It was thin, but at one point it bled pretty good. The dried blood looked like Halloween makeup. Mia had leaves in her hair, too. She plucked the biggest one, and then another figure appeared in her window. It was a uniformed police officer this time. Mia had no idea when they got there.

“Ma’am, we’re gonna need to ask you some questions.”

“You’ll have to ask me at the hospital,” Mia said.

“Was there a sexual assault?”

“I don’t know. She was naked when I found her.”

“Were there drugs involved?”

“I don’t know,” Mia said. “All I know is it was her boyfriend. His name is Sydney. I don’t know his last name. He drives a gray Cutlass with twenty-inch rims.” Mia rattled off the license plate number.

The cop jotted down all of this information.

“Can I go now?” she asked.

“Yeah. We’ll meet you at the hospital.”

Mia backed out and got behind the ambulance. The ambulance had its sirens on, and that felt like a bad sign. Mia chased it, running every red light and stop sign it did.

She called Tyrone when they got on the freeway.

“Hello?”

“Tyrone, this is Mia.” Her voice hitched.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, immediately worried.

“It went ba—bad,” she said. “
Real
bad
,
Tyrone.”

“Mia, what’s wrong? Are you all right? You sister okay?”

“No, she’s not,” Mia said. “I think she
overdosed
.”

“
Oh, shit
.”

“She was naked, too. I think he rape—raped her.”

“
What?
What the—where are you?”

“I’m right behind the ambulance. We’re on our way to the hospital. The police were there. She was . . .
oh, my God . . .
”

“Mia, are you okay? You want me to come up there?”

“No. I don’t want the kids up here. Can you . . . can you take them to my house? I left the fr—the front door open.”

“All right, Mia. You wan—”

“Stay with them,” she said. “I’ll call you when I get to the hospital.”

“Mia, this is jacked up. Man, I can’t believe this. You say she
overdosed
?”

“I don’t know. I think that’s what it is. Her boyfriend was still there when I got home.”

“You
saw
him?”

“Yeah.”

“
Rape?
Man, that’s crazy. I’ma kick that nigga’s ass,” Tyrone said.

“I wish you would. He was sweat—sweating bad. He ran out. Pushed me down.”

“He
what
?”

“He pushed me. In the bushes. I’m hurt, my back. My face. Bleeding a lit—”

“Man,
what the hell
? That nigga put his hands on you?
I knew
I shoulda went over there. I shouldn—”

“Tyrone, calm down. Don’t worry about me. Just take the kids home. If
you
start tripping, they’ll start crying. Don’t tell them about
me
. Just tell them Aunt Crystal is sick.”

“
I’ma kill that ho-ass nigga
.”

“Tyrone . . .”

“Mia, I’m pissed off for real. That punk givin’ yo sister that shit. Put his hands—”

“Tyrone, listen, I need you to calm down. I’m doing bad already. You’re making it worse.”

“Mia, I . . .” He took a breath and was a bit more composed when he spoke again. “So, what you want me to do?”

“Just take the kids home. Let them do their homework. I’ve got Hamburger Helper in the fridge. If it’s not there, just get something easy out of the freezer, like pizza, corn dogs. I should be back by the time they get ready for bed.”

“Where you bleedin’ at?” Tyrone asked.

“Are you listening to me?”

“Yeah. I heard you. Tell me where you hurtin’ at. I’m worried about you, too.”

“I broke a nail,” Mia said. “I think halfway off. I have a scratch on my face, but it’s not really that big. My back hurts and my shoulder hurts. I got poked a few times

when I fell in the bush. I haven’t looked at it. I don’t

know—
I gotta go
. We’re getting off the freeway.”

“
Ho-ass, coward-ass nigga . . .
”

“Tyrone.”

“What hospital you going to?”

“
Jackson
,” Mia said.

“Call me as soon as—”

But Mia disconnected the line.

THE BIG H

The time Mia spent at Jackson Memorial was like a long, slow-motion blur.

When they got to the ER, the paramedics rolled Crystal into a triage area, but they directed Mia to another door that led to the waiting room. Once there, a large woman dressed in pink handed her forms and release papers to fill out. The same woman brought Mia individually wrapped alcohol swabs a few minutes later.

“There’s some blood on your face,” she said, her concern genuine and warm.

Mia took a compact from her purse and wiped the blood from her cheek. The scratch wasn’t deep, but it was long. Mia thought it would heal up in a couple of weeks. It was noticeable, but not to the point that anyone would stop and stare; or at least Mia didn’t think it was that bad.

While she had a mirror out, she went ahead and plucked the few leaves remaining in her hair. Her suit was soiled, there were seriou
s
scuffs on her shoes, and blood on her hands, but overall Mia thought she still looked presentable. There were certainly people in the waiting room who looked worse than her. A large woman to Mia’s left had bandages wrapped around a foot that was two times bigger than it should be. A homeless guy two chairs down looked like he went a few rounds with one of the local gangs.