In Your Arms Read online

  “Sounds good to me. Mind if I ask why you’re staying at a Residence Inn?”

  “It’s a long story, Mrs. Haggler.”

  “Yvonne, you can call me Yvonne.”

  “Okay, Yvonne, but it’s still a long story.”

  “Okay, okay, I won’t push it. You don’t have to cop an attitude.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” Marcus turned into the parking lot. “Maybe I do need a drink. Maybe two or three.”

  The hotel did have a bar, but it was closed. “That’s okay, Marcus, we can talk in your room.” Yvonne said and led Marcus away by the arm.

  “My room?” Marcus replied sheepishly.

  “Don’t worry. I promise I won’t bite you. I haven’t bitten anybody in years.

  When they got to his room, Marcus opened the door and Yvonne went in. “Make yourself comfortable,” Marcus said as they entered his room.

  Yvonne immediately walked from room to room and opened every door. “A little paranoid, are we?”

  “Just a habit. I like to know where I am.” Yvonne answered as she peeked out the window. She wasn’t sure if she liked the fact that the room was on the first floor. She sat down. “Don’t just stand there, sit down. This is your room.” Marcus sat down in a chair across from Yvonne. She made him feel nervous and uncomfortable. He tried not to show it, but it was too late.

  “Am I making you feel uncomfortable, Marcus?”

  “No, no; of course not. It’s just that … well, you see—”

  “Marcus.”

  “Huh.”

  “Just relax and say what you’re trying to say.”

  “Well, Yvonne, I … ah, I left my wife today.”

  “Oh, Marcus, that’s too bad.” Yvonne said. Her accent had suddenly returned, only now it sounded phony. “Or maybe it isn’t.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “You could be happy you left your wife.”

  “No, Yvonne, I’m not happy about it.” Marcus said quietly and slumped down deeper in his chair.

  “You wanna tell me how you feel about it?” Yvonne asked, kicking off her heels and curling up on the couch.

  “I don’t … wait a minute. I’m the one who is supposed to be on the couch.”

  “Oh, you mean like a shrink. I been in therapy before.”

  “You’re not crazy, are you?” Marcus said with a smile.

  “No, I was just depressed about some things. Therapy helped me deal with it. But you gotta really get into it. You know what I mean? Dig deep down and get in touch with the source. I know it sounds kinda dippy, but it worked for me.”

  “So what were you so depressed about?”

  “Some things were happening to me, but that was just at the surface. What was really happening was I had never really dealt with what my mother did to me.”

  “What did she do?”

  “Marcus, I was a sixteen-year-old virgin when I met Richard. I liked him but I barely knew him. He arranged the whole marriage thing with my mother. They came to me after they had worked it all out and she told me that I was going to marry Richard. That it was the best thing for all of us. She said that she couldn’t afford to do anything for our family and Richard said he would send her money every week. She sold me to him.”

  “I didn’t know that. I mean, I just thought that you were a young bride who moved to Atlanta with her new husband. I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

  “It all turned out all right. Richard was so sweet. He treated me good and I learned to love him with time. But she sold me, like I was a slave or something. Suppose Richard wasn’t a good man. She didn’t know him from a can of paint. Anything could have happened to me. She didn’t care. I was just another mouth to feed. So I had to go. She did the same thing to my sisters when they got old enough. Found some old man, and sold them too. Beverly’s husband wasn’t bad. He just worked her like a slave, but so did my mother, so she was used to it. But Virginia, she wasn’t that lucky. Denny was an animal. He stayed drunk most of the time. He treated her like dirt, beat her, and raped her when he felt like it. Forced her to have sex with his friends.”

  “My God. Is she still with him?”

  “No.”

  “How did she get away from him?”

  “The hard way. He hit her in the face with an iron because she wouldn’t have sex with him. She ran out the house screaming and just by chance, the police were driving by. They took him to jail. She was so afraid of him. We had to beg her to press charges. They gave him ten years and I moved her out to LA with me.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Not really, Marcus. She was pretty shot out when she got out there. Fell in with the wrong people, started smoking crack. Let some nigga turn her out. He made her turn tricks to support their habit.”

  “Where is she now? Is she all right?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen her in years. I hope she’s all right. I used to go looking for her when I hadn’t heard from her in a while. The last time she disappeared I never did find her.”

  “I’m sorry, Yvonne.”

  “Don’t sweat it, Marcus. I’ve come to grips with all that. But we’re supposed to be talking about you, not my dysfunctional family. Tell me about your wife.”

  “My wife.” Marcus stood up and walked around the room. He picked up his jacket. “You mind if I smoke?” he asked, pulling the pack of Kool’s from the pocket.

  “I am so glad you said that.” Yvonne replied, digging in her purse for her pack of Benson and Hedges 100’s. “I’ve been dying for a cigarette all night.” They both lit up, inhaled deeply and exhaled, like a common sigh of relief. “Now I need a drink.”

  “Are you sure that you don’t want to go somewhere and have a drink?”

  “No!” Yvonne said quickly and firmly. “I’m sorry, Marcus.” She laughed. “Now tell me about your wife.”

  “My wife Randa. What can I say about my wife Randa?” Marcus returned to the chair and sat down. “She was a wonderful woman. She was beautiful, intelligent and she had so much energy. She was always doing something for somebody. She volunteered at a retirement home a couple of days a week. She had a teenage girl she was mentoring. We were very happy together. She was my best friend. We had so much in common and we would spend hours together just talking. That’s the hardest part of dealing with this. I loved her, sure, but we were so close. I feel like I lost the best part of myself. We did just about everything together. People called us the poster children for the perfect relationship.”

  “Sounds like you guys had a good thing going. I mean, you do make her sound like she was just the perfect little woman.” Yvonne rolled her eyes and took a drag.

  “And like a fool, I bought into it, hook, line, and sinker. But she wasn’t right. I was such a fool. I was so blind. How could I have been so blind?” Marcus leaned forward quickly in his chair. “I saw so much in her, but I guess I saw what I wanted to see. I put her on that pedestal; she was bound to fall off.”

  “What happened, Marcus?”

  “What happened? You really want to know what happened to make this the worst day of my life?”

  “I’ll try not to take that personally.”

  “Please don’t. Seeing you has been the only high point in an otherwise fucked up day. Excuse my language.”

  “That’s all right, Marcus, I’m a big girl now. All grown up. I’ve heard people curse before. I’ve been known to say a curse word or two, myself. But you stop trying to change the subject. Tell me what happened.”

  “The day started out like any other. The alarm went off, we made love to each other, just like we did every morning.”

  Yvonne smiled. “I like it in the morning too. Makes the day go so much better,” she said, seeming to purr like a kitten as she stretched. “I’m sorry, Marcus, go on.”

  “We showered together, and she cooked breakfast while I got ready to go to the office. Randa mentioned that she might go shopping with her girlfriend, Deloris. I asked her to
pick me up a new tie.”

  “What color?”

  “Black. Anyway, we ate breakfast and I left for the office, just like we do every morning. I had been working at home the night before, getting ready for a meeting with a client that I had this afternoon, and I left the papers at home. I called Randa to see if she could bring me the papers and we could have lunch together, but there was no answer. I needed those papers, so I went home to get them. When I got home her Benz was in the driveway. I figured that Deloris came and picked her up, and she had gone shopping.

  “I went inside and called her name a few times, she didn’t answer. I went into the den and I couldn’t find the papers, so I turned on the computer so I could print them. I had just picked up the papers off the printer when I thought I heard a noise. I stood still for a second, but I didn’t hear anything. So, I turned off the computer and headed for the door.

  “I was out the house, Yvonne, and I was just about to close the door when I heard the noise again. I turned around and walked up the steps straight to the bedroom and opened the door. There she was. My wife. Pulling her hair out, riding some man’s dick. I stood there. I couldn’t move. I stood there … I guess it couldn’t have been too long before I went back downstairs. I just walked outside, and I sat down on the steps. I don’t know how long I’d been sitting there when I heard the door open and close and open again. When I looked up Randa was standing in front of me.” Marcus lit another cigarette from the one he was smoking.

  “What did you say to her? Better yet, what did she say to you?”

  “She asked me if I had been in the house. I just looked at her. I guess she got tired of me staring at her not saying anything, so she went back in the house. The two of them came out, got in the Benz I pay for, and left.”

  “Damn! The least she could have done was make the nigga go home in a cab. Show you some respect. She needed to stay there and handle her business.”

  “I thought so too. But remember, I’m a fool. What makes it worse is, after she leaves, the neighbor woman walks up to me.”

  “The neighbor woman?”

  “The neighbor woman, that’s what we call her.”

  “Okay.”

  “The neighbor woman says, ‘I’m glad you finally woke up. And don’t let her tell you that this was the first time.’ Then she walked away. Now I felt embarrassed on top of feeling stupid. If the neighbor woman knew, the rest of the block did too. Maybe even the whole subdivision.”

  “I don’t know what to say, Marcus.” Yvonne stretched and repositioned herself on the couch. “Did Randa come back?”

  “Yeah, she came back. While she was gone I thought about all the things I would say to her. How could you, who is he, how long has this been going on?”

  “Maybe you should have asked the neighbor woman.” Marcus cut his eyes at Yvonne. “Sorry. Dagg, it was a joke.”

  “When she came back I couldn’t say anything. She tried to explain, telling me that this was the first time. But the neighbor woman cleared that up. Told me how sorry she was. And she promised me if I forgave her it would never happen again. I couldn’t say anything. I thought of a hundred things to say but I was so mad, the words just wouldn’t come out. I sat there for a minute or two, then I just got up and left.”

  “I’m so sorry, Marcus. I know that must have hurt.” She yawned.

  “Of course it hurt. You know what’s funny about this whole thing?”

  “What’s that, Marcus?”

  “I met her the day after you moved to LA I remember thinking that maybe I’d get lucky and find a woman as beautiful and as sweet as you.”

  “Oh, Marcus.”

  “I love her, Yvonne.” Marcus stood up and began to wander around the room, talking while he paced back and forth. “But she betrayed all that. Not just me, but us. Everything about us, everything we meant to each other. She betrayed everything that we were. Everything we talked about. All of our plans. Our hopes. She betrayed our future. That’s what hurt. We used to talk about growing old together. Sitting on the porch watching our grandchildren run around. Grandchildren. We had been talking about having a baby. We had even gone out and started buying stuff we knew that we’d need for the baby. She betrayed all that. While I was building a future for us, she was tearing it down. I don’t know what I’m gonna do without her.”

  Marcus stopped talking.

  “No comment from the peanut gallery?”

  He walked to the couch. “Yvonne? Yvonne?”

  She had fallen asleep.

  “Stop me if I bore you.”

  Marcus went and got the spread off the bed. He laid the spread over Yvonne and kissed her on the cheek.

  “Good night, Yvonne.”

  Phase 2

  When Yvonne woke up the next morning, Marcus was already gone. He left a note on the television that said: Gone shopping. Be back around noon. Please wait for me. Yvonne smiled when she read it. Then she picked up the box of hair color and went into the bathroom. When she came out, she no longer had long, black hair. It was now short, and auburn.

  She gathered her things and called for a cab to pick her up. When they asked what her destination would be, she hung up the phone. She put on her sunglasses and left the room through the sliding balcony door and went into the lobby. She asked the desk clerk to get her a cab and said she would be waiting in the bar as she walked away.

  Once the cab arrived, she offered the driver a fifty-dollar bill to take her where she wanted to go if he wouldn’t call it in. The driver quickly promised, and they were on their way. Yvonne told him to drop her off at the Indian Creek Marta station. She would walk from there.

  Yvonne walked down Redan Road and up South Hairston to the Main Street subdivision to the home of Tyisha, with whom she had gone to high school with.

  “Yvonne, I wasn’t expecting you for a couple of days.” Tyisha said, giving Yvonne a big hug. “Come on in out that heat, girl. It must be ninety-five degrees out there. You’re drenched. What, did you walk here from California?”

  “No, girl. Just from the Marta station.”

  “Where’s your car?”

  “Don’t ask. Did you get that package I sent you?”

  “It came yesterday.”

  “Good.” Tyisha got the package and handed it to Yvonne.

  “What’s in there? You ain’t in no trouble are you, Yvonne?”

  “Better if you don’t know. I need one more favor from you, then I gotta go. And I want you to forget about this package and that you ever saw me.”

  “Whatever, girl.”

  “No, Ty. You never saw this box or me. Now, you promise me, Ty.”

  “Okay, okay, I promise. Now what you need?”

  “I need some clothes and I could use a shower.”

  “No problem.”

  Tyisha got Yvonne some clothes and Yvonne disappeared into the bathroom, taking the package with her. She turned on the shower and began to get undressed, then she sat down on the toilet and lit a cigarette.

  Yvonne opened the box and removed its contents. The box contained a bag intended for a laptop. She opened the bag and took out a 9-millimeter automatic and laid it down on the vanity. She looked in the bag at the legal-size envelope and the money.

  She shook her head and wondered how things could have gone so wrong. Yvonne opened the envelope, took out the papers and stared at them, wishing she knew what it said or what language it was. She returned the papers to the envelope and put it and the gun back in the bag. She finished undressing and got in the shower.

  While she was in the shower, she thought about Marcus and Randa. She felt badly for him. And as much as she hated to involve him in all this, she needed an ally and Tyisha wasn’t the one. Marcus wasn’t exactly James Bond, but he was all she had. Now he was the only one she could trust.

  Yvonne asked Tyisha to call a cab for her, but she insisted that she could take her anywhere she needed to go. “All right, Ty, take me to the New China Buffet.”

  “Are you h
ungry, Yvonne?” Tyisha said on the way to open the door. “I could have made you something to eat.”

  “That’s okay, Ty. I’m just meeting someone there.” She hated having to lie to Tyisha; she was her best friend before Yvonne move to LA, and they managed to stay friends, real friends, in spite of the money. Once the word got around that Yvonne was to receive a large sum of money, most of her friends changed. But not Tyisha. She always kept it real, which was exactly why Yvonne wanted her to have no part in this.

  When they arrived at the restaurant, they got out and Yvonne said good-bye to Tyisha.

  “Thanks for everything, Ty. You take care of yourself, and remember, you never saw me.”

  Tyisha hugged her friend.

  “Girl, you too much. Why everything with you got to be some big secret?” and returned to her car.

  Yvonne stood at the door and watched Tyisha drive away. When she was out of sight, Yvonne came out and started walking down Memorial Drive, heading for the post office. On the way, she made a mental note of the name of an apartment complex she passed and kept walking.

  Yvonne was hot and tired when she reached the post office. She went to the counter and asked the clerk for a box big enough to send a laptop and some tape. Yvonne looked around the post office for a secluded spot where she wouldn’t be seen by people or surveillance cameras and proceeded to pack the box. She took the gun out of the bag and taped it to the bottom of the box, then placed the bag with the papers and money on top of it. She sealed the box and then she retrieved Marcus’ card from her purse. Yvonne addressed the box to herself in care of Marcus, and marked it for next day delivery.

  With that taken care of, Yvonne went to the pay phone and made arrangements to get a new fake ID and passport. Then she called a cab. She had the cab meet her at the apartment complex and take her back to the Residence Inn. When she arrived she didn’t see Marcus’ car, so she let herself in through the sliding door. She turned on the television, laid down on the couch, and went to sleep.

  Yvonne was awakened by a knock at the door. She had started to open the door, but she paused for a minute.