Put A Ring On It (15 page)

She met Shawn while she and Harlow were waiting in line to place their orders for cheesesteaks at a joint with the crazy name Gooey Looie’s. Harlow had lived all over the city while in foster care and she was familiar with South Philly. Harlow had sworn up and down that Gooey Looie’s cheesesteaks were bigger and better than Pats, Geno’s, and Jim’s. Vangie doubted it, and had
only made the trip to the crazy-named place to prove Harlow wrong.

She ended up loving the melt-in-your-mouth huge cheesesteak. And she also fell in love with Shawn.

Shawn was there with one of his friends. While his friend flirted with Harlow and tried to get her number, Shawn stood in line, minding his business, not making any moves on Vangie. In fact, he acted as if he didn’t even notice her.

Intrigued by his handsome face, athletic physique, and his short haircut with beautiful deep waves, she was challenged by his seeming lack of interest, and so Vangie made the first move.

“My girl’s from around here in South Philly, and she swears these cheesesteaks are banging. What do you think? Are they really better than Jim’s on South Street?”

Shawn scowled. “Jim’s ain’t got nothing on Gooey Looie’s. We were feenin’ so bad, we drove here from the northeast.”

“Oh, okay. I live on Belmont Avenue in West,” she said, mesmerized by his smooth, coffee-colored skin.

“You got a man?”

“Not at the moment.”

His luscious lips formed into a smile. Then he took out his cell. He didn’t have to say another word; Vangie took her cue and began rattling off her number.

If Vangie hadn’t been so thrown off-guard by his cool demeanor and exceptionally good looks, if her judgment hadn’t been clouded by the sex appeal that he oozed, she would have done a reference check and found out what was what with Shawn’s money situation. Unfortunately, she fell hard for a dude who was living in his mom’s basement, cutting hair to pay for weed, booze, and his gear. She fell deeply in love with someone who was living in the moment with no goals or future plans.

Her pregnancy came as shock. Abortion occurred to her, but she also saw the unexpected pregnancy as an opportunity to force Shawn to grow up and settle down. Throughout the entire nine months that she carried Yuri and during his first five months of life, Vangie’s life was pure hell. Shawn rebelled against fatherhood and settling into a stable lifestyle by continuously lying and cheating.

It all came to a head when Nivea reported seeing Shawn’s car parked near Drexel University, where Vangie was going to school.

Vangie ran out of her apartment carrying Yuri. She didn’t have time to get his car seat. Holding her baby in her lap, Vangie rode with Nivea to Shawn’s secret love nest.

They arrived at the spot and Vangie’s heart stopped beating when she saw Shawn and a cute chick emerge from the house that Nivea had pointed out. With eyes that went blurry from shock and disbelief, she watched Shawn walking with another girl—a chick with a banging body. The girl’s tummy was exposed, unmarred by childbirth.

Giving birth to Yuri had put a hurting on Vangie’s young body. Her breasts sagged a little and her stomach would need surgery before she could ever flaunt it in public again. Her envy of that girl’s body was enough to send daggers shooting out of Vangie’s eyeballs.

Shawn had his arm draped around his jumpoff, lowering his head and kissing her cheek as they strolled toward his car.

Seeing Shawn all booed up with another woman sent Vangie into uncontrollable rage.

Vangie placed Yuri in Nivea’s arms and yanked Nivea’s bottle of Pepsi out of the cup holder. Shaking the bottle up and down, she ran toward Shawn and the chick. She unscrewed the cap and
shot Shawn in the face with a blast of Pepsi. Momentarily blinded, he yelled and bent over, holding his face.

Vangie recapped the bottle and turned on the jumpoff chick. When the jumpoff saw Vangie shaking up the Pepsi, the girl turned around and tried to run back to her house. But motivated by jealousy and the desire for revenge, Vangie outran the competition. She caught the girl, grabbing her by the back of her collar before she could get to her front door.

The girl struggled and yelled for Shawn to help her, but Vangie yanked her into a headlock. With her free hand, she gave the Pepsi bottle a couple more furious shakes.

“No!” the jumpoff pleaded, but Vangie flicked the cap off and stuck her thumb into the opening of the soda bottle, fizzing the girl’s perfect makeup job.

“Whatchu doing fucking around with my man, bitch?” Vangie hissed while spraying the chick’s luxurious curly weave.

Vision restored, Shawn came running fast. With what seemed like unnatural strength, he unlocked Vangie’s grip on the jumpoff. “Let her go, Vangie!”

“Is this where you’ve been spending your nights? Huh? You’ve been staying over here with that bitch instead of seeing about me and your son?”

“Take your ass home, Vangie.”

“Or what? What are you going to do, Shawn? You gon’ whip my ass in front of your son over some random slut?”

“Her name is Tanya and she ain’t random. I thought you’d get the message. A normal person would take a hint.” He leaned close to her face. “Check this out; Tanya is my new jawn. Now that you know, don’t come over here starting no more shit. I’m with Tanya now. Accept it and move on.”

Shawn’s words hurt like a punch in the gut. “Wh…what about
Yuri?” she stammered. “You’re just gonna walk away from your son for that tramp?”

“Trust and believe, I’ma take care of mine. But that don’t mean I have to deal with your nutty ass. Take my son home, Vangie. What kind of mother would bring her child out in this hot sun while she goes berserk in public? You on some nut shit!” Grimacing, Shawn turned.

Vangie grabbed him.

Nivea intervened. “Come on, Vangie. Let him go. Any man that would do you like this is not worth it.”

“Shawn!” Vangie screamed. “All those nights that I was sitting up waiting for you, you were over here with your bitch?”

“Vangie, you need to listen to your girlfriend, and take your monkey ass home!”

Vangie gasped. Shawn’s words were degrading and contemptuous. Vangie threw the empty plastic bottle at Shawn, clunking him on the shoulder.

“You better get your nutty girlfriend,” he told Nivea through gritted teeth. “She got one more time to throw some shit at me.”

“Are you threatening me, Shawn?” Vangie lunged for him.

Holding Yuri, Nivea jumped in front of Vangie.

Shawn shook his head, giving Vangie a look of contempt. “I’m trying to figure out what I ever saw in you,” he spewed, twisting his mouth in loathing. He snatched the door open, and went inside, slamming it shut in her face.

H
arlow would have loved for the trip down Memory Lane to have stopped at the part when she fell head over heels in love with Drake, but her mind was swiftly rewinding. Unable to stop the blast of cruel memories that began exploding in her mind, Harlow stretched out on the bed, grimacing at sights and sounds she wished she could forget.

1995

“What the hell is this?” Jody frowned at the letter from the school nurse. “You passed out on the playground?”

Eleven-year-old Harlow nodded.

“You alright, now?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So why is that nurse trippin’? Why do I need to come up to the school because you were running around and got dizzy?”

“I wasn’t running around.”

“Well, what happened, then? People don’t faint for no damn reason.” Jody was acting anxious—twitching like she did when she wanted to get high. Harlow didn’t want to get her more upset than she already was.

“I was talking with some of my girlfriends, and I got dizzy. I was trying to go sit down on the steps, and the next thing I knew, I was in the nurse’s office. The nurse tried to call you.”

“I don’t have any minutes on my phone. I have to get some when I get my check.”

“That’s why you have to come to the school. She said she has to talk to you.”

“That nurse can kiss my ass. I have better things to do than to be sitting up in your school. You probably got food poisoning from that garbage they serve in the cafeteria. Hmph, they better hope that I don’t hire me a lawyer and file a lawsuit against the whole damn district.” Jody popped some pills. “That nurse is working my nerves, trying to make me responsible for something that happened at school. You got sick on their watch, not mine!” Jody tossed the letter in the overflowing wastebin.

“Did you read the whole letter, Jody?”

“I read enough. I got shit to do tomorrow. I’m not breaking up my day to go talk shit with that nurse.”

“She said I can’t come back to school unless you sign me in.”

“You’re suspended?”

“I think so.”

“For fainting? Are they fucking serious? I’m going up there tomorrow, and I’m cussing everybody out. The principal, the teacher, and that fucking nurse. Everybody!”

“Please don’t embarrass me at school, Jody.”

“I’m going up there to defend you!”

“The nurse was asking me all kinds of questions.”

“Like what?”

“Like whether or not I’m sexually active, and when’s the last time I had my period…stuff like that.”

“Is that bitch crazy? What she tryna insinuate, that you’re pregnant or something?”

Harlow shrugged, and then looked down guiltily at the floor.

“You better not be pregnant! There’s no way you could be carrying a damn baby at eleven years old.” Jody reached out and gripped Harlow’s chin. Staring directly in her daughter’s face,
she hissed, “I taught you how to take care of yourself. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you?”

Harlow swallowed. She blinked her eyes, and opened her mouth, but couldn’t speak. “Uh…” she managed to say.

“Talk to me, girl. Did Skeeter pull out like he was supposed to?”

“Not all the time,” Harlow said miserably.

“Damn! Why’d you let him shoot his load up inside you? I told both of y’all that you had to be careful.”

“I tried to make him, but he won’t listen to me. You were getting high and—”

“Oh, now it’s my fault!” Jody twisted her face in anger. “Let me tell you something, you little bitch, if you let Skeeter knock you up, you better not be pointing your goddamn finger at me.”

Harlow kept her mouth closed. Jody scared Harlow when she was mad; especially when she was mad and acting jumpy. Harlow inched away from her mother. She’d come to associate jerky movements with violence. Jody had a tendency to slap her face or knock her upside her head for no reason at all whenever she was feening.

“Answer me. Is it my fault?”

“No.” Harlow didn’t blame her mother; she blamed Skeeter. Jody had warned her that she’d get pregnant if Skeeter didn’t pull out. Now there was the possibility that she could have a baby in her stomach. Harlow felt both excited and terrified by the possibility.

“I taught you right. I know I did. I did everything I could to keep this from happening,” Jody said bitterly. “But you wanna know what’s really burning me up?”

Harlow shrugged.

“I don’t understand why I had to hear this mess from the school nurse? You should have been told me that Skeeter wasn’t handling
his business right. Shit, if you had pulled my coat, I could have got you the morning after pill, took care of the situation before it got out of hand.”

Harlow wanted to ask Jody what a morning after pill was, but was afraid the question might rile her mother.

Harlow raised her head. “I’m sorry, Jody. I was scared to tell you. I knew you were gonna get mad at me.”

Jody looked at her daughter with disdain. “You’re hard-headed. Now it’s on me.” She pointed at herself. “If I don’t take care of this shit, I’m gonna end up looking like an unfit mother. All you had to do was follow my goddamn instructions!” Jody yelled.

“He told me to keep it a secret. I didn’t want Skeeter to get mad at me, either.”

“Oh, really? You more worried about how Skeeter feels than your own mother?” Seething, Jody rolled her eyes and then popped two more pills. “Skeeter’s locked up for twenty-six months, leaving me to deal with this mess by myself. When was your last period?” Jody snapped, glaring at her daughter.

Feeling a mixture of fear, guilt, and shame, Harlow responded in a whisper. “I don’t know.”

“What do you mean, you don’t know? When was the last time you were on the rag?” Jody started pacing and rubbing her arm. “I have enough problems, Harlow. I swear to God, I don’t need this shit right now! What about your titties?”

Harlow grimaced and folded her arms across her chest. “What about ’em?”

“Are they sore? Are they getting bigger?” Fury rose in Jody’s voice.

“No!”

“If you’re pregnant, I need to know how far along are you? Let’s see, when did Skeeter get popped?” Jody mumbled to herself. She stared into space for a while. She finally broke out of her daze.
“Skeeter’s been locked up for a couple of months; that means you have to be at least two months pregnant—maybe more. How long have you been getting dizzy?”

“About two weeks.”

“Why didn’t you come to me? Why does the school nurse have to be involved in our private business?” Jody said harshly.

“I don’t know,” Harlow said absently, her thoughts focused on the terrifying occasions when she’d gotten dizzy. She didn’t know what was happening to her. The first time, she’d been on her way to the corner store. All of a sudden she felt woozy, afraid that she’d end up on the ground if she took another step; she leaned against a parked car, and waited until the dizziness stopped. It happened a few days later, during math class. This time she’d placed her head on her desk, but that worsened the sensation. Her desk seemed to whirl around like a carnival ride. Finally, she asked her teacher for a hall pass. Miraculously, she’d made to the girl’s bathroom without fainting. Once inside, she’d lain on the floor, thinking it best to lie down before she fell down.

“Stop shrugging your shoulders. You gotta have some kind of answer for why you didn’t come to me about this dizziness.”

“I was scared. I thought I had a brain tumor. I thought I was dying.”

“I wish you did have a brain tumor. Medical Assistance would pay to have that removed. But a pregnancy…” Jody shook her head. “They don’t pay for an abortion, to remove babies.”