Page 10 of Empower
My fingers were playing with a loose thread on my quilt that I needed to fix. I wanted to keep this quilt for all my life.
It was a terse few minutes before I heard a man growl and ask, “You’re looking for Red. Why?”
I was almost at my breaking point, almost.
After the day I had and the past couple of years, I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, so I tried not to snap, I really had tried not to.
I failed.
I snapped, “Look, my mom handed me this number on her deathbed seven years ago. I won't be telling you anything about it. I will tell Red, though. So, please. I need to talk to Red.”
I heard the man sigh, then he muttered, “Fuck.”
Then, an angry voice came across my phone when I heard, “Who the fuck is this?”
Wanting to make sure I was talking to the right person, I asked, “Red?”
The man growled then and said, “Yeah. What the fuck do you want? And how the hell did you get this number?”
I swallowed, suddenly wondering just what my mom had gotten not only herself into seventeen years ago, but me as well. “My name is Lena Daniels. A little over eighteen years ago, you spent some time with my mom. She was separated from her husband and had a wild night at your clubhouse.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment, then I heard, “What’s her name?”
“Her name was Colleen Daniels. I believe you called her… umm… oh… this is embarrassing… umm… you called her Hoover Baby. Umm… you told her that her pussy sucked your dick in like a Hoover vacuum sucked up dirt.” My cheeks were flaming. I could feel them.
I heard the man chuckle, and that chuckle sounded like he smoked a pack a day, “Ah. Now I remember. Damn. She was a great lay.”
“Umm, yeah, I didn’t need to know that.” Could I get some medicine that could rewind that entire conversation and then bleed my ears out?
He scoffed through the speaker, “Well, the truth hurts darlin’.”
Recalling what I had just walked into, I sighed, “Yeah. It does.”
Then he asked in a somewhat softer tone, “So, why are you calling me for?”
“My mom told me that you’re my dad almost seven years ago before she passed away. Apparently, she tried to tell you once she found out she was pregnant, and you were in prison for assault. She tried to go to the prison, but you rejected any and all visitors. So, she said she wrote a letter and handed it to a man named Storm. He promised her he would give it to you.”
“Fuck. Never read that letter. Fucking forgot about that until you said something.” At least I could make out regret in his tone.
Then he surprised me, when he somewhat apologized, “Now I feel like a motherfucker for talking about your Mom like that.”
I shrugged even though he couldn’t see me, “It’s fine. It’s not the worst I’ve heard. Trust me.”
I heard him chuckle, “Okay, darlin’. So, what do you need?”
I closed my eyes shut, and said, “Umm, I know this is hitting you way out of left field so to speak. But I turn eighteen tomorrow. And well, I walked in on my stepsister and the boy I’ve had a crush on since I was six. And I just don’t think I can be here anymore.”
He was quiet for a beat, then he said, “Darlin’ from what you said, you’ve held onto this number for almost seven years, and you haven’t used it yet. Right?”
I nodded, “Right.”
“Then what the fuck happened to make you use it this time?” Well damn, I see where I get my tenacity from.
Like a pit bull that wouldn’t let go of something it wanted.
Or like a pit bull when it loved, and it loved fiercely.
I bit my lip, and then told him the real reason I was calling, “Well… I’m not sure how viable this is. He was drinking when he said it. But… My stepfather intends to take me to the courthouse tomorrow and marry me. He said that since I looked so much like my mother, I would be her replacement. And that…. That… that it’s been hell on him to see me every day and not react since I was underage.”