Fixin’ Tyrone (35 page)

“Stop begging,” Mia told TC. “We’re gonna go get something to eat in a minute. Plus, you’ve still got to do your homework. We’ve got to get going,” she told her sister.

“They’re gonna discharge me pretty soon,” Crystal said.

Mia shot Tyrone a worried glance, and he returned it. “They said it’s gonna be a few hours,” Mia said. “I think I’ll take Mica and TC to the house and come back to get you by myself.”

“Who’s gonna watch them?” Crystal asked.

“Daddy watched us yesterday,” TC said.

Crystal’s eyes registered unease, but she didn’t say anything.

“So, we’re gonna go now,” Mia said, looking at her watch. “I’ll make sure I’m back in time. Y’all give your Aunt Crystal a kiss.”

The kids did as they were told. Tyrone told Crystal he would see her later, and TC and Mica followed him out of the room. Mia was the last to go.

“Here, put this over there,” Crystal said, holding out her lunch tray. “I’m not eating that.”

Mia took it and set it on a nearby counter. “How you feeling?”

“I feel all right,” Crystal said, rubbing her hair back with her hands. “I can’t wait to get out of here, though. You better hurry up.”

Mia smiled down at her. It was a warm, caring smile. “I won’t be long,” she promised and reached out to hold her sister’s hand.

Crystal looked up at her queerly. “Why you looking at me like that?”

Mia was on the verge of tears, but she fought them back. “I’ve just been worried about you, is all. You had us really scared.” She leaned down and kissed Crystal on her forehead.

“You’d
better
come back for me,” Crystal said. It was a joke, but she looked like she was really worried.

* * *

When they got home, Mia sent the kids upstairs to change out of their school clothes. She made a pizza for them and let them bring their homework to the dining room so they could work while they ate.

At six o’clock she got a phone call. Crystal was discharged and ready to be picked up. Mia made a call herself, and then went to the living room where Tyrone lounged on the couch, watching cartoons again. It was the Boondocks this time.

“Don’t let the kids watch that,” she said. She thought she sounded friendly enough, but Tyrone was immediately offended.

“I know that, Mia. You don’t think I know nothing?”

“I’m sorry. I was just . . . what’s wrong?”

“I didn’t know this
plan
of yours had you correcting me in front of the kids.”

On the way home from the hospital Tyrone said Crystal’s doctor was a dumbass. Mia did ask him to watch his language, but she didn’t think it was that big of a deal.

“They didn’t notice.”

“Yeah? They will if you’re doing it all the time.”

“You said you were going to make an effort to speak better in front of them,” Mia reminded him.

“It ain’t gonna happen overnight.”

“All it takes is a conscious—”

“
It ain’t gonna happen overnight
,” Tyrone said again, and this time Mia knew to back down.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just . . . it’s been stressful. When I did that in the car, I wasn’t, I mean . . . I wasn’t thinking. I can understand how it made you feel, though. I didn’t mean to offend you.”

Tyrone’s eyes softened. “It’s all right. I guess I do need to try harder. This is new to me. It’s hard.”

Mia smiled. “I know it is. I really can’t believe you’re putting up with me. It’s really special.”

Tyrone melted some more. He smiled, and Mia had to move in to kiss those lips. She sat on the couch next to him with her hand behind his head.

“I have to go to the hospital. They just called.”

“Have you talked to her yet?”

Mia shook her head and looked away. “No.”

The biggest problem was that Crystal seemed to be in a state of delusion. She told Mia and Tyrone there had been
no sex
. She said she didn’t remember taking off her clothes. But when the police showed up, Crystal said she didn’t remember what happened. She told the detective she and Sydney were kissing, and there “might have been” some foreplay.

When asked point-blank if the sex was consensual or not, Crystal said it must have been, because Sydney wouldn’t have raped her. The detective later told Mia they wouldn’t even seek charges for the drug aspect of this would-be crime. Crystal sounded like a willing participant in everything that went on.

Mia kissed Tyrone again. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

He nodded and watched her as she stood to go.

“They shouldn’t be hungry before I get back, but there’s some leftover—”

“I know.” Tyrone cut her off. “I’ve been in your kitchen before.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

“No,” he said with a grin. “You’re like a mama possum. Touch one of her babies, and she’ll bite your hand off.”

Mia sneered. “You compare me to a
possum
? Not a cuddly mama
bear
, but a
possum
?”

Tyrone laughed. “I ain’t seen no bears over at Maw Maw’s house. But I seen some possums!”

* * *

Mia left the house in a good mood, but she had butterflies in her stomach when she got to the hospital. Her heart felt sick by the time she walked into her sister’s room.

Crystal was fully dressed and on her feet. She had on the jumpsuit Mia put on after the sexual assault
that probably wasn’t an assault
. She stood in the bathroom with the door ajar. In the mirror, she was putting on red lipstick acquired from God-knew-where. Crystal wasn’t particular about her sources during a fashion crisis.

She looked up when Mia walked through the door and started towards her.

“Come on, girl. I gotta hurry up and get outta here. Somebody I know might see me looking like this.”

Her excitement withered when she saw the look on her sister’s face. Mia was very close to tears. Not only that, but Mia closed the door and sat in the recliner next to Crystal’s bed. She motioned for Crystal to take the far less comfortable wooden chair.

“Sit down.”

But Crystal didn’t want to. “Why? They said I could go. I’m all right.”

“I know,” Mia said. “But we have to talk. Sit down.”

Crystal took the seat uneasily and fixed a look of complete remorse on her big sister. “Mia, I’m sorry. The only reason he was over there is ’cause I told him I couldn’t see him anymore. I told him we had to talk, and he came over, and . . .”

Mia wished she hadn’t trailed off. She wished Crystal could finish that sentence with something logical, or maybe even something profoundly and totally weird. Mia wasn’t picky. Anything even halfway believable would work, but that was the problem. Crystal had nothing—not one ounce of explanation. Mia looked into her eyes and the tears started to fall.

Crystal began to cry too. “Mia. What’s . . . what are you . . .”

Mia closed her eyes. She opened them slowly and wiped the tears away with the back of her hand. “I’ve, uh, I’ve set it up for you to go to rehab.”

Crystal shook her head. “Mia, I don’t need to go to
rehab
. I’m all right. I’m not a
junkie
.”

“I don’t think you’re a junkie,” Mia said. “I don’t think you steal. I don’t think you do a lot of other bad things, either. But you
do
have a problem with drugs. If you don’t see that, then we have another problem right there.”

“I’m all right,” Crystal said. She looked like Mia told her she had to go to jail. “It was just an accident. I’m not gonna do it no more.”

Mia reached out and held her hand. “I believe you,” she said. And she really did. “But what you did, Crystal, it was something, it was, it was
awful
. I can’t—”

“Mia, I’m sorry. Just give me one more chance. I promise . . .”

“Crystal, I’m not throwing you out with the garbage. I love you.
I am
giving you a chance. I want you to go to rehab. There’s a program in Grapevine. I talked to the people. You have to live there for three months. It won’t be that—”

“
Mia, please
.” Crystal was blubbering now. Tears streamed down her face. Mia took a handkerchief from her purse and wiped her sister’s cheek with it. Crystal took it and blew her nose. Mia produced another hankie for herself.

“Mia, just give me
one more chance
. Let me come home. I promise I’ll—”

“Shhhh.” Mia shook her head. “Crystal, I have faith in you. I really do. I know you can pull through this. I believe this was an isolated event.
Honestly
. But the fact is, you got high. In my house. Probably more than once.”

“I didn—”

“Crystal, I’ve already made up my mind. If you don’t want to go to rehab,
rehab I’m paying for
, then you have to find somewhere else to live. I’ve already got your clothes in the trunk. We can either go
right now
, or you can tell me where you want me to drop you and your stuff off. I’m sorry, but those are your only options.”

Crystal’s mouth dropped. “Mia.”

Mia wiped away a fresh batch of tears, but stood firm. “Crystal, it’s the best thing for you.
You
know it, and
I
know it. If it was just a freak occurrence, then you can do these three months and have your life back. If you don’t want to go, then you make me wonder if it’s because you
don’t
want to stop using drugs.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“I just don’t want to lose you,” Crystal said. Her whole body shuddered. Mia put a hand on her shoulder. “I know I let you down,” Crystal said, “and you don’t want me around no more.”

Mia stood and hugged the girl. “Crystal, I love you. You know we don’t have a real close family. I don’t plan on losing the little family I still have around. I promise, if you do the three months and get your life back together, you can come home. I just can’t have you around my kids like this. You of all people should know that.”

And Crystal did know. “Just three months?” she asked, and Mia knew she had her.

* * *

Grapevine, Texas, is only twenty minutes east of Overbrook Meadows. When they got in the car, Mia tried to get answers to some poignant questions, but even this late in the game, Crystal was still elusive.

“How many times did you snort?
Seriously
.”

“Just those couple of times.”

Mia gave her a sideways glance.

“Not that much . . .”

“How much were you using?”

“I don’t know. Not that much.”

“What, a
whole
pill?”

“Not that much.”

“Why did you have him at the house again, anyway?”

“I don’t know. We were just supposed to talk.”

“And you ended up using dope again? Crystal, that doesn’t make any sense.”

Crystal kept her hands in her lap and her eyes on her hands. She nibbled her bottom lip.

“Why can’t you admit you wanted it?” Mia asked.

“Maybe I did, a little.”

“And you were going to have sex again? In my house?”

“I wasn’t, Mia. I swear. But then we got high . . .”

Mia shook her head. “How much did you do?”

“I wasn’t getting high at first. I thought I had enough, but I wasn’t getting high. So I did some more. But I still wasn’t getting high . . .”

For Mia, this was all utterly revolting. She thought she wanted to know all the slimy details, but she really didn’t. She dropped the questions and they drove in silence for a while. She played a Jagged Edge CD, surprised she could actually listen to it again.

* * *

Crystal had surprisingly few question about what her stay at the facility would be like. She wanted to know if she could have visits and use the phone. She asked if Mia packed her favorite socks and jewelry. She mainly wanted to know that Mia wouldn’t forget about her over there. Mia told her to stop being silly.

They got checked in at seven o’clock. Mia met the director, a few residents, and a squirrelly security guard named Rufus who claimed to have an eye on
everything
. Crystal got a room all to herself, and Mia stayed another thirty minutes to help her unpack and get acclimated to her new surroundings.

Crystal broke down again when Mia tried to leave, but that was to be expected. Mia found the strength to look her sister in the eyes, tell her it was for her own good, and walk away. In her recollection, it was the hardest thing she ever had to do.

* * *