Daddy Dearest (17 page)

Ching’s head jerked in Cataya’s direction. He knew that she was at her boiling point because he had never heard her use profanity.

This didn’t seem to resonate with Dehila. She started laughing. “You hate me, but you love your daddy. Ain’t that ass backwards.”

“You don’t know shit about me!”

“I know that your daddy got your mama killed and you’re still buddy-buddy with him like a damn fool.”

Cataya closed the space between them to make sure that she heard Dehila correctly.

“What did you say?”

“You heard me. Your daddy got your mama killed an-“

Cataya hurled herself into Dehila, ramming her back to the wall. She then followed through with some wild punches, but was stunned when Dehila landed a few of her own.

It took Ching a few seconds to separate them. He was shocked by the way that Cataya was acting. “Cut out! Stop!”

“Then you better get her!” Dehila seized the opportunity to move out of the corner that Cataya forced her in. ‘’’Cause I ain’t going to let nobody put their hands on me!”

“Let me go, Ching!”

“Chill Taya.” He turned to Dehila. “Go upstairs please!”

Dehila gladly put some distance between them. “I know what I’m about to do. I’m about to call my mama and see what she has to say about this. I bet you get your ass up out of this house today.”

“I don’t care who you call! She watched her disappear up the stairs, while desperately trying to break free from Ching. “Take your hands off me!”

“No fight. She no worth it. Let’s take ride. We-“

“Here she goes right here,” Dehila said, coming back down the stairs on the phone. “Here.”

Ching passed the phone to Cataya.

“Hello.”

“What’s the problem, Cataya? Dee said that you jumped on her.”

“It ain’t no problem. She just better watch what she says out of her mouth.”

“Just calm down and tell me your side of the story.”

Cataya did just that. She was disturbed by the length of time it took her aunt to respond. “Hello?”

“I’m here. Look, Taya. Dee was wrong about the way that she said that; that I grant you. That’s a touchy subject for you. But, it’s not like she’s lying. I sometimes wonder myself why you insist on staying in touch with that man. He had your mother killed!”

Cataya had no intentions on revealing her reason, so she commented on another sensitive subject. “The point is, Dee doesn’t have any right to throw my mom’s death in my face.”

“You’re right. I’ll get on her about that. Meanwhile, don’t be fighting your family. We’re the only one’s you got.”

Cataya now felt herself getting frustrated with Fannie. She held her tongue solely out of respect.

“You hear me, Taya?’

“Yes, I hear you.”

“Good. Now behave yourself. I already told Dee to. Oh! Happy Birthday.”

“Thanks,” she responded, dryly.

“I’m working overtime, so we’ll do something when I get home tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“Bye.”

The phone started ringing as soon as she hung up.

“Hello?”

“This is a collect call from…”

Since Cataya could remember, she had always been able to control her temper. It was a habit to think rational because she recognized the advantages of keeping a level head. But the pain of losing her mother had her displaying a rare behavior that surprised everybody including herself. It was like a blind fury that engulfed all reasoning, and caused her to act on impulse.

So when she accepted the call she introduced him to the unknown. “What the fuck do you want?!”

“This is your father, young lady.

“I know who the fuck this is. Who else would be calling from a prison?”

“Uh, I called to tell you Happy Birthday, but I see that I caught you at a bad time.”

“Just tell me why. Why did you do it?”

“Do what, Taya?”

“Don’t play with me! You‘ve been doing the same shit since you’ve been locked up, but I know what happened! Aunt Fannie told me everything.”

“Everything?”

“That’s right. Everything!”

“Cataya. Just hear me out. I..I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that. Se…What did Fannie tell you? I bet it ain’t nothing but lies.”

“Just know that she told me the whole nine. How you threaten to kill my mom if she left town with me. Everything!”

“Can you just hear my side of the story? There’s always two sides, you know?”

“Yeah, go’head. I’ve been waiting all my life for this. Let me hear it.”

“Yes, it’s true. I did threaten your mom, but…When I first found out that she was dead, I was numb with pain. I never wanted that for her.

“You was probably in pain because you thought Ron was going to get caught and implicate you!”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talking about! I was only five when it happened, but I remember my momma telling Andre that Ron was parked outside of the house. So don’t you lie and tell me that you didn’t have nothing to do with it!”

Hammer was amazed that her memory went back that far. He was suddenly aware that if he wanted to save his relationship with his daughter, he had to be completely honest with her.

“Okay, Taya. I admit that I sent Ron there that night…”

Cataya couldn’t believe that she was getting his confession over the phone. She then wondered if the conversation was being recorded; it surely would be needed in court.

“…I sent him there to bring your back by any means. But right before he was about to do it, I called him and told him not to hurt anyone. And to this day, I feel responsible for her death because I distracted Ron. Maybe if I wouldn’t held him on the phone for so long, he would’ve seen the killer go in the house. I’m so sorry,” he sobbed.

By now, Cataya was only focused on her father’s admittance to having a role in her mother’s murder. The statement alone, to her, concurred with everything that Fannie had told her.

“I hate your fucking guts! Karma is a bitch. Ron got what he deserved, and you’re next!”

“Listen to me, Cataya.”

“I’m done listening to you. As a matter of fact, I’m done with you completely. And that includes being your daughter! She ended the call and blocked the number.

 –—Chapter Nineteen–—

“Why do you have to leave?” Gwen asked Raf, as he was getting dressed. “Why?!”

“Because, I got something to do.”

She threw the covers back to expose her naked body. “You got something to do here.”

Maa-ann! Look at those tits! This bitch could be a porn star Gwen Del Rio. You got to buy me a camera phone Please!

“Haven’t you had enough? We’ve been at it since yesterday.”

“It has been a long time since I’ve been with a man. I wanted to take advantage of it because I probably won’t see you again.”

“I told you that you would. I just got a few things that I need to handle.”

“I just got a few things that I need to handle,” she mocked in a sing-song tone. “That should be a hook to a song. I bet Beyoncé’ could make that into a hit.”

I would do anything to see Bee’s tits. Anything EL The One DeBarge
began to sing one of Beyoncé’s hit songs.

Rafeal climbed back in to bed and kissed Gwen on the belly button. “You got to learn to trust a little more.”

“Look who’s talking. You hardly answered any of my questions last night.”

“What questions?”

“All the ones I asked. Especially the one about what kind of sickness you have.”

“I told you I don’t have a sickness. They-“

“Misdiagnosed you,” she finished his sentence. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you still haven’t told me what the misdiagnosed you with.”

“Why is that so important to you?”

“Because. I always seen you at the pharmacy getting your medicine and it’s just natural instincts to be curious about it. You know, you have H.I.V. or anything. That’s why I insisted on performing oral sex with a condom.”

And I swear on my mother’s grave I couldn’t tell the difference! This bitch has skills!

“No, I don’t have H.I.V.”

“Or the A.I.D.S.?”

“Or the A.I.D.S.”

Or the herpes. Or the claps. But he did have the crabs once when he fucked nasty ass Nikki.

Rafeal noticed her watching him expectantly, and for some strange reason, he felt obligated to oblige her. So he grabbed her hand, knowing that his revelation was about to push her away.

Don’t tell her shit! It ain’t none of her business, my nigga! You’re about to push away the only bitch that’ll fuck with your ugly as.

“They misdiagnosed me as a paranoid schizophrenic.”

You’re a sucker ass nigga! You know that? Now this bitch ain’t going to never show you her tits again.

“And the bullshit that I just went through was getting committed to Dorthea Dix,” he added.

She’s about to bolt ass naked out the door.

“Why?”

“Because…because. I wouldn’t admit to killing a man.”

A perplexed expression appeared across Gwen’s face. “Please explain that to me because I’m really confused.”

A muthafucker got smoked and he didn’t admit to doing it! What part of that don’t you understand?

After he explained, she glanced at him with a look of compassion. “So you act out when you don’t take your medicine?”

This bitch is worse than Oprah with all these questions. Let’s get up out of here before she asks to put the light bill in your name.

“You’re not listening to me. They misdiagnosed me. I’m not sick.”

“Who came up with that conclusion? You, or the doctors?”

Me.”

Fronting ass nigga there. I came up with that shit! Give me my props, my nigga.

“I see. I understand everything but one thing.”

What’s that?” he asked sitting erect on the bed.

You said that you got committed because somebody got killed, and you wouldn’t admit to doing it?”

“Correct.”

“What I don’t understand is how are you out now. Did you escape?”

This bitch is special. I’m talking about short bus special with a helmet built in the seat.

“No. I admitted to it.”

“You did?”

“I had to. It was the only way they were going to let me out.”

“Wow! Admit to murder and they let you go.”

Murder was the case that they gave me, he sung.

“That’s the advantage of being a schiz. I not one, though. I just played the role.”

Play deez nuts!

“If what you say is true, I couldn’t ever imagine going through anything like that. It must’ve been rough growing up as a child.”

“Actually, I wasn’t misdiagnosed until I was twelve.”

“What happened at twelve that made the doctors evaluate you?

Jesus Christ! Let’s go!

“Look, I really have to go. I have something very urgent to do.”

“Okay. Just answer this one last question and I’ll let you go.”

This bitch is either the police, or planning on writing a tell-all book about you. You got to kill her.

Rafeal ignored EL The One DeBarge. “You promise?”

“Promise.”

“What happened to you at twelve?”

Rafeal had always tried his hardest to forget the incident that had changed his life dramatically. He now knew that it hadn’t made him go crazy. It had only made him conscious of how cruel the world really was.

He turned his focus back on Gwen and grabbed her hand for support. “I witnessed my sister get murdered.”

Even EL The One DeBarge got quiet.

* * *

Hammer didn’t have to report to work until later on that day, but he badly needed to talk to the Chaplin. The conversation that he had with Cataya weighted on his heart heavily.

He had never heard her use such language, or that kind of tone with him, so he knew it wasn’t just going to blow over.

He couldn’t for the life of him figure out Fannie’s motive for trying to destroy his relationship with his daughter. She had been detrimental and destructive since the first day that he had met her.

It crossed his mind many times to get Ron to take care of her, but out of his love for LeLe, he hadn’t. He now regretted his decision because she had infected Cataya with her hatefulness.

When he entered Chaplin Stephen’s office, he saw the outgoing Chaplin picking up some books off the floor.

“Good morning, Chaplin Gordon.”

“Good morning, Bobbit.” He stopped doing what he was doing to shake Hammer’s hand. “How are you feeling this morning?”