Push Comes To Shove Part 18

"Yeah, but don't trip."

"Listen at what you're saying, Jewels. I'm worse off than when I started. How am I supposed to pay Squeeze?"

"What about Squeeze?" Kitchie entered the room with Ndia.

"Are you okay?" Ndia leaned over the bed's railing to kiss Jewels.

"My head is split pretty good, but I was bred for this s.h.i.t. Comes with the territory."

Ndia saw the back of Jewels's head. "They shaved you bald."

"f.u.c.ked up my brush waves and replaced them with forty-seven st.i.tches." She swung her feet to the floor. "I have to take a leak."

"You need some help." GP reached out for her arm. He wanted to get her alone so they could continue their conversation.

"Nah, I'm cool. I've been p.i.s.sing for twenty-six years all by myself. I'm a big girl."

"I meant, did you need help to the bathroom."

"You wanna take a guess at how long I've been walking?" She headed for the restroom.

Kitchie folded her arms. "GP, what's going on, and what does Squeeze have to do with it?"

Jewels staggered on her way to the bathroom.

GP and Ndia rushed to her.

GP caught her before she hit the floor. "Slick mouth, you can't be the same person who just told me you've been walking for years."

A young doctor was entering the room. "Ms. Madison, you're not supposed to be out of bed. Your equilibrium isn't functioning properly."

"G.o.dd.a.m.n, I needed to take a p.i.s.s."

"I'll have the nurse bring you a bedpan."

"Don't worry about it, baby," Ndia said. "I'll take care of you when we get home."

The doctor wrote some notes on a chart. "I'm afraid that won't be for a few days. She took a nasty blow."

"GP, can I see you in the hall?" Kitchie walked out the door.

He followed, knowing he would have to come clean. "Let's discuss this later. I'll tell you everything when we get back to the apartment."

"Everything?"

"I don't want to hear your mouth, though."

"I'm not promising." She waited for an elderly woman to walk by. "GP."

"Huh?"

"I apologize. That was nothing between me and that Desmond guy. He didn't try to hit on me or anything. He was just really being nice." She gave him the money. "Now let's finish up with Jewels because I want to hear this."

Jewels watched GP and Kitchie hold hands as they came back into the room. "Because I ain't coming home tonight don't mean for y'all to be f.u.c.king in my bed."

Kitchie smirked. "I'm not making any promises. He loves to hear me yell Papi at the top of my lungs."

GP grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"You're making excuses 'cause you're scared."

"I'm not arguing with you; call it what you want."

"You coming or not?"

The rest of the girls listened to Nise and her comrade exchange comments from their cots.

"Well?" Nise tied the laces of her sneakers.

"What you care about her for? She kicked your b.u.t.t and now you wanna help her. What's up with that? If Mr. Reynolds catches you snooping...That off-limit sign is up there for a reason."

"I'll go with you." Samone peeled the covers back and stepped into her shoes. "I'll help you."

"Samone, don't get into that," another girl said. "You're looking for trouble."

"So be it."

Nise stuck her head in the hall and looked both ways. Once she was satisfied that the coast was clear, she flagged Samone with the wave of a hand. The two started their journey into the building's sinister darkness.

Samone stopped Nise at a flight of stairs. "We should go down the emergency exit and cut through the cafeteria."

"But this way is closer."

"The shortcut isn't always best. Trust me; the long way is better. Mr. Reynolds brings his fat a.s.s up these steps all the time when he makes his rounds."

"Lead the way."

"What makes you think they're in there?" Samone pushed open a door with a red exit sign glowing above it.

"Think about it. They're not in the sleeping quarters with everybody else. Where else could they be? Besides, I got caught playing hide-and-go-get-it with this boy named Tim. Mr. Reynolds locked both of us in them scary caskets two nights straight."

"He caught y'all doing it?"

"Not actually. We were trying, but Tim couldn't get it in."

They made it to the bottom of the stairs.

"Nise, can I ask you something without you wanting to fight?" She held the cafeteria door open as Nise pa.s.sed through it.

"Ain't n.o.body gonna mess with you."

"You're mean and hateful to everybody. Why, all of a sudden, would you risk breaking the rules to be nice to someone you don't even like?"

"Secret isn't a punk like everybody else. She's the only person who stood up to me since I came here. I like that. She even had the heart to run away. I won't even do that. I don't have nowhere to run to anyway."

"Who's there?" Mr. Reynolds turned toward the direction of the voice, leaving the walk-in refrigerator wide open. "Who's there, I said?" He stuffed the remainder of a slice of cheesecake in his mouth.

Nise and Samone ducked into a cabinet under a long stainless-steel countertop that stretched the length of the kitchen.

He used the light of the refrigerator to navigate through the room. "I know you're here; you stink."

Kitchie hung her purse on the weight bench. "You did what? what? I can't believe you would consider doing something like that. That's crazy on you and Jewels's part. More so yours because you borrowed it." I can't believe you would consider doing something like that. That's crazy on you and Jewels's part. More so yours because you borrowed it."

"It was the only solution I had. I would've tried anything if the results meant getting the kids back."

"While you were concentrating on the results, did you work on a backup plan if something happened to the money?"

GP hadn't thought that far. He'd be d.a.m.ned if he would tell her that he hadn't.

Mr. Reynolds knelt to scan the length of the kitchen from beneath a table while licking cream cheese from his pudgy fingers.

Nothing.

Nise cupped a hand over Samone's mouth.

"It's going to be h.e.l.l on earth if you make me find you." He s.n.a.t.c.hed open a broom closet.

Samone's guess was that Mr. Reynolds was still on the far side of the kitchen. She peeled Nise's hand from her mouth and reached for the cabinet door.

Nise latched onto her shirt. "Chill before you get us busted. I knew I should've left you upstairs."

Mr. Reynolds yanked open a pantry door. "Aha!"

Still nothing.

"There's no sense in both of us getting caught," Samone spoke in hushed tones. "You help Secret and her little brother, and I'll handle Mr. Reynolds."

Nise flicked her cigarette lighter to see Samone's face. "You sure?"

"Yup. We're running out of time." Samone eased out and crawled away on the tiled floor.

Mr. Reynolds squatted to look into a set of cabinets on the opposite side of the ones Nise had found refuge in. When he found the cabinets to be empty on that side, he struggled with his weight to get back on his feet. And that's when he saw Samone standing in the center of the kitchen. "d.a.m.n you, child."

GP paced in the small area between the coffee table and the couch. "You have every complaint in the book. How about being a part of the solution instead of the problem?"

"You should've confided in me first, GP. I should've been a factor in the decision made to borrow that type of money." She held up her hand to display her wedding ring. "I'm married to you, not Jewels. You and I laid in the back seat of that old Datsun and made Secret, not you and Jewels. Ain't no tellin' where Junior was conceived at."

"If you wasn't b.i.t.c.hing and complaining all the time, then maybe you could've been a part of the conversation. Don't n.o.body want to talk to someone when they know they're only gonna meet force and resistance."

Samone started toward the cafeteria tables with a smile on her face.

Mr. Reynolds sighed and went after her. "Samone Gates, you wake up this instant." He quickly closed the gap between them, slapped her in the face, then backhanded her. "Wake up!"

She blinked a few times as if she were gradually coming back from some distant place. "Mr. Reynolds." She surveyed her surroundings. "What are we doing here?"

He latched onto her ear and pulled her toward the doors. "This is the last warning. If you don't take your medicine, I'll start tying you to the bed again. I'd like to see your ugly self walk in your sleep then."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Reynolds."

"Tell me something I don't know." The door closed with a thud.

Nise hurried to reach the dock, which was where she remembered the coffins to be.

The door that led to the rear dock squealed as it opened. Nise had no idea where to begin. There were twenty coffins waiting to be picked up. The sight of the pine boxes brought back memories of two long nights that she never wanted to relive. She swallowed. "Secret! Secret...where you at?" She walked the aisles of boxes for the dead. "Secret."

Secret had fallen asleep hours ago to the sound of Junior's phobia.

"Secret, Tough Guy, somebody. I know you're here."

Secret stirred in her sleep; Junior's eyes popped open.

"Secret."

She thought she heard Nise's voice echoing through her tired mind.

"Secret, I didn't come down here for my health."

She raised her eyelids and listened for Junior.

"This is bulls.h.i.t, Secret. Where the h.e.l.l are you?"

Couldn't be. No way. I must be dead. Nise? She heard the soft voice again. "I'm over here." She kicked the coffin's lid. She heard the soft voice again. "I'm over here." She kicked the coffin's lid.

Nise turned toward the sound of thumps.

"I'm here." Secret kicked.

Nise unfastened the latch and lifted the lid. "What are you doing, trying to get us busted?"

"Was I that loud?" Secret said, climbing out.

"No, I only asked because my health depends on it. Of course you were loud. Are you gonna thank me or am I gonna have to lock you back in here?" She helped Secret to the floor.

"Thank you."

"Where is-"

"Junior!" Secret hurried to open the coffin adjacent to the one she had been in.