Trickery & Envy (12 page)

Vivian
lay by his side in total contentment. “I surely didn’t expect that. Toni...Toni...Toni,” she said and then slowly rolled over laying a gentle hand on his mid-section. Vivian smiled and happy with the way she was feeling moved her hand slowly up his lightly haired chest and near his shoulder. Her pleased expression turned perplexed at what felt like her hand moved over a small muffin.

Toni
squeezed his eyes shut. He was motionless.
God please let this go smoothly.

Vivian as if her hand was a gear put it in reverse and back
ed over what felt like the same muffin.
Is that a breast?
She had a slight frown on her face.
That’s kind of big for a man
. Vivian rolled over to turn on the lamp on her side of the bed. She looked at Toni’s chest and quickly covered her mouth with her hand. “Toni, baby...,” she said in shock of what she was seeing. “You have...” and she looked in the direction of his penis and swiftly removed the sheet from him. Her expression quickly turned to repugnance. She rapidly sat up.

Toni close
d his eyes again sending another quick prayer to the Lord.

Vivian gawked at the package that just rocked her world.

“Where is your other testicle it’s so big and why are your breasts so large?” She looked at Toni for an explanation and traumatized by his condition covered her breast with her hands as if she had found herself in bed with a stranger.

Toni disappointed at
her reaction sat up and against the headboard. He waited before trying to explain.

While he collect
ed his thoughts Vivian thought back to when they met and how she felt something wasn’t quite right about Toni. How she felt he was almost too cute to be a man. Her next thought came rapidly and aloud. “Oh my God you’re one of those people, an Aphrodite!”

Toni
gave a pinch of a smile.
Close, but not exactly.

“Vivian
.” He opened his arms to her. “Come here,” he softly said as she began distancing herself from him scooting to the edge of the bed.

“Just tell me are you an
Aphrodite?” She looked over at the size of his breast again and closed her eyes, shuddered at how large they were. “They’re so big,” she said.

“
I wear a spandex top to hide them,” Toni softly said. “Vivian I was born a hermaphrodite. I have both X/Y chromosomes. In more laymen terms, I was born as both sexes. I have dual genitals. My mother could have made a decision when I was born for me to be male. It would have resulted in surgery to remove the female parts of me.”

Vivian
looked befuddled.
Parts?

A
despondent Toni looked toward his covered genitals. “She said when I got older that they would have placed me on hormones to reduce the size of my breast. My mother wanted the decision to be mine. She didn’t want to select the wrong gender for me. There are a lot of people who were hermaphrodites who feel their parents made the wrong decision in selecting their sex. She didn’t want that for me.” Toni then closed his eyes a couple seconds. “As I mentioned before, my mother died when I was eight.”

“You
said parts?” Vivian was looking stunned at Toni.

Toni
in the awkward moment said, “Yes, I have the other female part.”

Vivian jump
ed out of bed devastated by his disclosure. “A vagina I can’t do this!” and she hurried over to the other side of the room for her underclothes. “You’re scaring me, Toni.” Vivian was visibly shaken up by this disclosure. “Shit, shit, shit,” she uttered sliding into her panties. She looked over at her bra lying on the deep brown ottoman and moved her head rapidly as if it wasn’t enough to shield her. Instead she grabbed her red satin robe and quickly slid her arms into it and tying the thin straps into a bow. “You have to leave Toni. I can’t do this,” throwing her hands up, refusing to hear anymore.

What Toni hoped against was playing out, her rejection of him.
He outstretched his palm to her again.

“Don’t do this Vivian,” he pleaded
and with rejection fast filling a place that housed love for her. “Please...don’t push me away,” he implored. “I was hoping for a more positive response.”

Vivian
couldn’t look at Toni anymore. She turned away putting her hand out as if it were a stop sign. Tears filled her eyes.

“Toni, please
, please leave...I need some time...you’re a woman. Please, just go.” Vivian kept her back to him as tears slid down her face.

Toni on the verge of weeping himself rose from the bed
. He began putting his clothes on sliding into his brief and pants and with a sunken heart glanced over at her. She still refused to look his way.
God why did I know this was going to happen,
he though shaking his head as he pulled his black spandex t-shirt over his head then his shirt. A dejected Toni looked at Vivian again with a tight smile. He then proceeded to comply with her request and departed without another word. Toni knew no matter what, he had to give her space. As he reached the living room he slowed his step contemplating another plea, but within seconds moved on.

Toni
got inside his black Ford Explorer and hurting couldn’t start his SUV. He placed the key into the ignition then helplessly leaned over the steering wheel and cried. He balled his hand and slammed it down on the steering wheel sounding the horn.

“God,
please don’t let me lose this woman,” he prayed.

Vivian mov
ed quickly to shower. It was as if Toni had lied and giving her a STD, and if she acted quickly enough she could decontaminate the infection before it spread. She stepped inside and turned both the hot and cold water on full blast. The only thing the water did was quickly flatten her hair that she had done yesterday by her assistant. Vivian threw her head back as the water streamed fast down the sadness in her face.

“Why didn’t he tell me?
Why didn’t he tell me? I can’t do this!” she cried out.

***

The sound of Toni’s horn had Jennifer raising her head from her pillow. She had been asleep. She got up out the bed in her cotton pajamas and went over to the bedroom window. Charles was so deep into sleep he didn’t feel Jennifer rise out of the bed. He could sleep through a severe thunderstorm, which he actually did once. While shingles flew off roofs, including theirs, and while trees were being struck by lightning, Charles continued to sleep. It usually took a couple of nudges from Jennifer to wake him from a slumber.

Jennifer was straining her neck spying on the car in Vivian’s driveway. She saw the back end of
a black SUV. “Is that Toni’s car?” she quizzed and then glanced over at the digital clock on the nightstand. “What’s going on over there?” It was 2:30 A.M. Jennifer left her bedroom and headed to the living room to get a better look at her friend’s driveway. “First the police now car horns sounding,” she uttered. “It’s probably that damn brother of hers again,” she assumed then corrected her assumption after arriving at the dining room window. It gave her a broad view of Vivian’s driveway. “Wait, that is Toni’s car,” watching it back out of the driveway. “Why did he sound the horn? Maybe he hit it by mistake,” she concluded.

Toni
saw the woman who had called out to Vivian earlier watching him from her glass pane window. Jennifer didn’t attempt to hide she was looking. Though Toni had been to Vivian’s house a few times he had yet to meet Jennifer. He continued backing out of the driveway and then down the street.

Jennifer wait
ed a moment before leaving the window.
Maybe the horn was nothing,
she told herself and then turned from the window
.
Her next words came loud. “Then again, she hasn’t known him that long. He could have strangled her or something. I know it’s late, but I have to make sure Vi is okay.”

Jennifer went
to the phone on the counter in her kitchen.  It was a model of the black rotary phones used in the fifties. She liked sticking her fingers in the holes to dial. She dialed Vivian’s number and didn’t get an answer.

“Uh umm...something’s not right
,” she uttered. “I know she didn’t fall asleep that quick,” and now really concerned she called out to Charles heading back to her bedroom. “Charles!” she said again. “What am I calling him for when I know he can’t hear a word I’m saying.” Jennifer reentered their bedroom and stood over Charles. She shook him a couple times to wake him. “Baby, get up. Get up, baby.”

“What, what is it,” he
mumbled. He raised his head some to look at his wife and then let it fall back onto the pillow.

“
We need to go check on Vi. I saw someone in her driveway,” and Jennifer moved over to the window, “and now she’s not answering her phone,” she said.

“
Maybe she fell asleep,” Charles said and then yawned and slowly opened one eye to see what time it was. “Baby it is close to three in the morning,” he said and his heavy-eyes closed to finish getting the rest he needed.

“Maybe, but I feel something’s not right
.” Jennifer turned from the window. “I’m going to try her again and if she doesn’t answer, I’m going over there.”

“
Whatever suits you,” a sleepy Charles murmured. “Wake me if you need me,” he muttered and within seconds was back in dreamland.

Vivian hadn’t heard the phone ring before because of the shower
water running. She had since gotten out and put on a clean pair of panties and pajamas. She was now removing the sheets from her bed with fresh tears in her eyes.

“It’s no use Toni,”
she said shaking a pillow down into a pillowcase. “I can’t do this. I can’t be with a man that’s a woman, too,” thinking it was him calling.

The phone stop
ped after the third ring.

Jennifer now
felt sure something bad had taken place not getting an answer again.

Vivian
after putting the pillow into the pillowcase was about to go pour herself a drink when the doorbell rang. She wrapped herself in her robe and headed for the door. She peered though her blinds to make sure it wasn’t Toni.

“Hey, girl,” she said
after opening the door for Jennifer.

Jennifer d
id a quick scan of her friend as she walked inside. Though Vivian had showered and calmed down a bit she still looked troubled.

“Are you okay? I called you a little while ago and didn’t get an answer. I saw who I think was Toni leaving your driveway.”

“Jennifer you’re not going to believe this,” Vivian said and closed her front door and locked it.

“Did he hurt you
?” Jennifer asked and looked her friend over again for signs of trauma.

“Not in the way you think. I
was about to make myself a drink. Come on,” and Vivian headed to the basement.

Jennifer trail
ed her with a look of concern. “What’s going on, Vi.”

Vivian d
idn’t respond and just continued down into the basement. She went over to a glass cabinet where she kept her alcoholic beverages. She flipped over a small liquor glass and set it on top of a makeshift bar, which was the top of an old floor speaker that she refused to get rid of. She then removed a bottle of Bourbon from the glass cabinet. She took the cap off and poured herself a shot.

“This has got
to be serious,” Jennifer said, watching her friend.

“Trust me...it is. Do you want something?”

“I guess that would have to depend on what you’re about to tell me.”

“I’ll pour you a double.”

That’s exactly what Vivian did and then handed Jennifer the drink.

Jennifer
took the drink with her eyes fixed on her friend. She was seeing Vivian in a state she’s never saw her in before. Never has Vivian poured herself a double, nonetheless, offer her one; and at three o’clock in the morning. Jennifer knew she had a hard time dealing with the breakup with Chauncey, but she barely knew Toni. They were only a couple months in.
No way is she sprung this quickly. Hell, I haven’t even met the man yet.

Jennifer then scratched at an itch under the
yellow flowery scarf tied around her head.

Vivian head
ed for her purple leather recliner with a vision of Toni’s small penis and breasts in mind; a disgusting picture she was unable to wash away.

“He has breasts,”
she stated and while taking a seat spilled some of the bourbon from the glass down into her lap. She ignored the spill.

Jennifer
was about to take a seat on the ottoman. “You want to run that by me again,” she said looking over at Vivian, her butt in flight to sit.

Vivian wait
ed a few moments. “He has breasts, Jennifer,” she repeated and looking aimlessly off in the distance.

“Breast
s, you mean as in boobs, tits, like you and I have,” Jennifer said clarifying what she heard.

Vivian nod
ded.

“Vi
, how big were they? I mean some men do have breasts.”