33
I knew they were home, but they were probably either having sex or filming a video or both, and I was interrupting them by beating on their door. But I didn’t care. After what I’d just seen, all I cared about was getting inside their place and burying my head in their toilet.
“Damn…who is it?! Shit!” Ryan yelled through the door.
“Renee!”
The door swung open almost instantly to reveal my sister’s husband in basketball shorts and no shirt. “My bad. You were beating on the door like a grown man. Come in. Let me get Angie.”
As I followed him inside, he yelled, “Hey, baby! It’s your sister!”
“Nicky?!” Angie shouted in response.
“No! Renee!” Ryan answered her.
“Okay! Be right out!”
Ryan lowered his voice, turning to me. “Hey, let me go put on a shirt real quick. Have a seat. Want something to drink?”
I shook my head as I clutched my stomach. “No…can I use the bathroom?”
He nodded. “Yeah. You know where it is.”
I followed him down the hall, dashing into the bathroom and falling to the floor in front of the toilet. A few seconds later, Angie had rushed through the door I’d left open and was by my side.
“Renee, are you okay?!”
I shook my head as I gripped the toilet bowl and heaved so hard my head began to pound.
“What is it?! Why’re you sick?!”
“Mama…” I managed to say, as I coughed into the toilet.
“Mama? What’s wrong with Mama?! Ryan! Something’s wrong with my mother!”
Now Ryan was in the bathroom. “What’s wrong with your mother, baby? We need to go over there?!”
“I don’t know!” Angie wailed.
Positive that my stomach was empty, I collapsed onto my butt on the floor and shook my head. “No…she’s-there’s nothing wrong with her. Can I get a wet towel?”
Angie nodded. “Yeah. Baby, can you get her some water? Renee, can you stand? Let’s go in the living room.”
My hand trembled as I attempted to take a sip of the water. Angie was sitting next to me as Ryan sat across from us in an accent chair. They wore twin worried expressions as they waited for me to speak.
I glanced up at Ryan, and said, “Uh…I know this is your house, too, Ryan…but can you—”
He hopped up, stepped over to Angie and kissed her cheek, then said, “No problem. I’ll be back in the bedroom if y’all need me.”
Angie smiled up at him and nodded. “Okay. Thanks, baby.”
I took another sip of water and sighed. “I’m sorry if I interrupted something, but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go.”
“Where is Lorenzo?”
I shrugged. “At home, I guess.”
Angie stared at me for a moment. “Didn’t you just call me yesterday telling me you were engaged? What the hell happened?”
I filled her in on what had transpired between us, and she stared at me again.
“What?” I asked.
“Nay, why didn’t you at least hear him out?”
“I don’t know. It just…why didn’t he tell me before now?”
“Why didn’t you tell him about your fertility issues?”
“I don’t know that, either.”
“And what does any of this have to do with our mother?”
“I’m getting to that.”
She blew out a breath and nodded. “Okay…”
“Look, I’m going back home to Lorenzo. Just not tonight. I need time to clear my mind first.”
“You gonna at least call him? Something?”
I shook my head. “I can’t right now. My mind is all tangled up, and honestly, I know it has more to do with my feelings about not being able to conceive than him not telling me about his kids.”
“I guess. But I still think you should at least call the man. You live with him, Nay, and he loves you.”
“Not right now. Anyway, so I went home to Mama’s for the night and-and—” I grabbed my stomach which had begun to bubble as the scene popped into my memory. “Ohhhh!”
“You okay?!”
“No, because Mama was in my room, in my bed. Naked, on her knees…with a feather hanging out of her butt and another one sticking out of her hair.”
Angie’s eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head. “Huh-what?”
“And-and she wasn’t alone. Daddy was with her.”
“What?!”
“And-and-and he had on a cowboy hat, some cowboy boots, a leather vest, and some leather chaps. No pants or underwear…oh! I’m about to throw up againnnnn.”
“Shit! Me, too!”
I jumped up and ran back to the bathroom, dry-heaving for a minute or so with Angie sitting on the side of her tub watching me with this bewildered look on her face.
As I caught my breath, I continued with, “And he had this lasso in his hand, swinging it over his head. It was the freakiest, most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life!”
“Why did Mama have a feather hanging out of her ass?” Angie asked.
“Hell, I don’t know! Maybe she was supposed to be a turkey or a chicken or a peacock or a cockatoo or a damn pigeon! You think I took the time to ask questions? I got the hell up out of there!!”
“And why your room?”
“I. Don’t. Know. Wait, what if they’ve just been screwing all over the house for years?” My stomach bubbled. “Oh…”
“Girl, wait until Nicky hears this shit. Like, what the actual fuck?”
“You’re gonna have to tell her. I don’t even want to think about it again.”
“And Mama and Daddy…does this mean they’re back together?”
“I don’t know,” I groaned. “Can I stay here tonight?”
She slowly nodded. “Yeah, sure. Uh, shit. I need a damn drink behind this. Let me see if Ryan will run to the liquor store. You want some wine or something?”
“Yes, anything. Wine, Molly, Percocet, crack. I gotta get these images out my head. Daddy was all shiny and sweaty and I saw his-his—” I stuck my head in the toilet again.
“Ryan!” Angie shouted. “Can you run to the liquor store?!”