Wrongful Accusations - Chapter 12
The new wife returns
Jerry was cooking dinner when I got home. The smell of chicken fettuccini alfredo met my nose and a smile crossed my face. It was good to be home.
“How are you? You look like you’ve had a rough day,” Jerry said, walking over and putting his arms around me.
“Everything is good now though,” I said, kissing him. “So can we have dessert first?”
“Didn’t get…ohhh. Well let me turn everything down and I’ll see if I can accommodate you.”
“Great, I’ll be waiting,” I said, going into the bathroom and running some warm water into the sink. The stupid cast made it impossible to take a bath or shower so I could only hit the hotspots. Which made me a little uncomfortable, but when Jerry came in and asked if I needed help, I decided that taking a bird bath wasn’t so bad after all. I mean it wasn’t as if I had a choice.
Saturday morning at 9:00, I got a call from Carl. He sounded very happy and I wondered if he’d been drinking but there was no telltale slur.
“Sassy, she came home. My Peaches came home.”
“I’m glad, Carl. Does this mean you aren’t going to call me anymore?”
“Ah, you know you like hearing my voice. But now I won’t be bugging you anymore, because I’ve got my baby back. Peaches, come say hello to the woman who was going to help me find you.”
“Hello, Sassy, thanks for trying to help but everything’s fine now. Goodbye,” that voice sounded so familiar. Peaches had a slight accent that reminded me of…Oh my God. Peaches/Kadijah/Hinniyah was the same person.
Shannon was the first person that I called with my newly found information.
“Now let me get this straight, my housekeeper, who is also my daughter’s father’s wife, is also married to your ex-husband. My head hurts.”
“I know right, I’m having a hard time digesting this myself.”
“So are you going to fly to Philadelphia? I mean, are you up to traveling?”
“I’ll see if Cole Slaw can go with me.”
“I don’t mean to ask a dumb question but what is her real name?”
“Nicole Slawyer, I think she’s had that nickname since she was a little kid.”
“Wow, I wish I had a nickname.”
“Maybe we can come up with one for you. Let me call Cole to see if she can go with me.”
“Okay, let me know.”
I immediately called Cole Slaw to see if she could go to Philly. She said she would ask her boss and then she would let me know. While I was waiting to hear back from Cole, I called my mom.
“Well, hello, Ms. Sassy. It’s good to know you’re still in the land of the living.”
“Yeah, I’m still alive and kicking although I can only kick with one leg right now.”
“I heard that nut hung himself in his cell the other day.”
“He what?”
“No one told you? It was all over the news.”
“Wow. Mom I’m going to have to talk to you another time okay? I love you,” I didn’t wait to hear a response. I called my voicemail and sure enough, I received a call from the county jail saying that Neil was dead.
Even though Neil tried to kill me I didn’t want him to be dead. I wanted him to learn that he couldn’t just push people around and invade people’s privacy. As soon as I put the phone down, Cole Slaw called back and said that she would be able to go with me.
“I can’t wait to get her. Carl is going to be so messed up.”
“Yeah, as bad as he was when we were married, I was glad that he was happy.”
“I wonder if the Muhammads passed their craziness on to their kids?”
“I hope not.”
Jerry dropped me and Cole Slaw off at the airport Monday morning. We didn’t plan to stay that long so we only had carry-on bags. When we arrived in Philadelphia, it was lunchtime, so we hopped on SEPTA and rode to Center City.
“What to eat? What to eat?” Cole Slaw asked, looking at the different restaurants.
“Cheese steaks of course.” So we got off the bus and headed towards Tony Jr.’s on 18th Street.
After we had stuffed our faces we walked to The Latham hotel on 17th Street. Cole Slaw mentioned renting a car. I remembered how it felt to drive in Philadelphia and I didn’t want my friend to be subjected to that.
“Girl, it can’t be that bad. It’s not like New York City.”
“Hell, it's close enough. I almost had a heart attack every day when I had to drive in rush hour traffic.”
“I’m a better driver than you, that’s why I drive all of the time.”
“Okay, do what you want to do.”
“Girl, think about it. Can we do surveillance on the bus? Do we have the money to do a high-speed chase riding in a taxi cab?”
“Cole, I know but it’s too many people up here and they drive like they’re in the Indy 500.”
“Sassy, how can you be so tough and everything but you’re afraid to drive in a little traffic? I mean you went after the guy that ran you off the road with a sprained leg.”
“I don’t know. I just want you to know that I’ll be praying the whole time we are in the car.”
Cole Slaw shook her head and then picked up the phone book to search for the closest car rental place. After getting the car, I gave Cole Slaw directions to Carl’s house.
He had moved into the house on Broad a couple of years after I returned to Memphis. We parked across the street and battled with the traffic to get to the other side.
Carl had the only closed-in porch in the area, a tribute to his southern roots I guess. Carl worked nights so he was usually at home during the day. When my ex opened the door and saw me, it took him a minute for my presence to register. He nearly knocked me down when he hugged me.
“Sassy, what a surprise. What are you doing here, don’t you remember, Peaches is home.”
“I just wanted to come to check on you. Where is Peaches?”
“She went to the Walgreens down the street. She’ll be right back.”
“Good. Carl, you remember Cole Slaw don’t you?” He nodded and they exchanged fake pleasantries.
I looked around at the walls and noticed pictures of Carl and Peaches all over. There was a nice photo of the two of them with two boys.
“Carl, did you have some kids and didn’t tell me about them?”
“No, those are Peaches’ kids from a previous marriage. They’re good boys though.”
I wondered how Peaches managed to be in Memphis every Thursday to clean Shannon’s house. The boys looked younger than 4 years old so school wasn’t an issue.
“What kind of work does Peaches do?”
“She was a flight attendant for Northwest, but she resigned a couple of months ago so we could have more time together. She still travels sometimes though. I guess she can’t completely get traveling out of her system. She has a sister in Memphis that is kind of sickly so she visits her regularly.”
“What’s her sister’s name? I may know her?”
“Kandi, Kadi…”
“Kadijah?” I said looking at Cole Slaw.
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“Just a lucky guess.”
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