Subject:  Chapter 71 |
Author:
Ade
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Date Posted: 16:02:57 07/15/03 Tue
Chapter 71
Des looked at Cashmere in surprise, she was so sure Cash was lying about how she got hurt but she didn’t want to say anything.
Lams: So ladies what do you want?
Des: I’m not hungry anymore
She pushed the plate of fries away
Cashmere [quietly]: I’m not hungry anymore
The boys looked at each other like what’s up with the girls
Lams: Des are you okay?
Des [her voice had changed for the worse]: I’m perfectly fine thank you very much
Shawn: Woah! What’s the deal with the posh English?
Des shot him an angry look
Des: Cos I chose not to speak ghetto like you doesn’t make me a problem!
Shawn: Whatever man, whatever.
The boys decided to order and were talking and laughing, while the girls sat quietly, Des even put on her CD walkman in her ears, and Cashmere was listening to the radio on her phone. After like 30 minutes, Shawn’s phone rang and he spoke on it for a while, and then he motioned to Lams that they had to go. Lams shook Des to get her attention
Lams: Babe me and Shawn gotta go some place now
Des looked at him and did not know what to say, she knew he was getting involved again with CVG. She did not say anything
Lams: Babe I said I was going with Shawn, we have to be somewhere now
Des: I heard you, bye.
Lams tried to kiss her but she ducked before he could kiss her.
Shawn: Cash, I gotta go now, I’ll see you later, Des can take you home
Des looked at him
Des: Since when did I become your chauffeur?
Lams: Please Des
Des looked at him and at Shawn and she just sneered
Des: Aiight then whatever.
Shawn and Lams left but before he left, he looked back as if to say something but Des just ignored him.
When they were alone, Des turned around to face Cash.
Des: Cashmere, c’mon level with me, what really happened
Cash: About what?
Des: I know you didn’t get that back pain from you and Krys playfighting cos I have playfought with Krys and that girl can’t hit hard enough to save her life
Cash looked down. She was ashamed to say something
Cash: It’s nothing really Des, nothing
Des tilted Cash’s head back to normal level
Des: Now Cashmere Alicia Jones, look me in the eye and tell me what really happened…without blinking
Cashmere’s eyes were brimming with tears
Cashmere: H…h…he…he hit me
Des was shocked
Des: He what?
Cash: He hit me Des. He slammed me against the wall this morning cos I asked him a question
Des: Is this the first time?
Cash: No, he’s been hitting me occasionally
Des pulled Cash closer and gave her hug, Cash started crying. They were like that for a while, before Des led her outside into her car [Des’]
Des: Sweetie why don’t you leave him?
Cash: I know I should but I can’t cos I love him
Des: If he loved you he wouldn’t hit you
Cash: I know but sometimes I feel like its my fault, I shouldn’t have asked him the question
Des: I don’t care what you asked him, no man has the right to lay a hand on a woman- this is domestic violence!
Cash: But he always says he’s sorry
Des: Yeah but he always makes it your fault right?
Cash: Well yeah
Des: But its not your fault
Cash: It may be
Des: Listen to me, its not. Look how about we go somewhere
Cash: Where?
Des: Just wait
Des began to drive, and they went past the mall, and she stopped a couple of blocks after the hospital in front of a big building.
Des: C’mon lets go
Both got out of the car
Cash: Where’s this?
Des: just follow me
They went up the stairs of the building onto the main entrance, and were in the hallway before Des spoke
Des: This is St Mary’s Home for Battered women. I took you here because I want you to listen to women who have been battered by their boyfriends and partners and what happened
Cash: This is not necessary
Des: It is. I have not experienced a boyfriend beating on me and my advice will seem futile cos I don’t have the experience. If you speak to and hear from people who have experienced it, it may help you
Cash said nothing.
Des walked to the first room on the right which was labelled the manager’s office. She knocked on the door before going in. Cash followed her.
The room was a sparsely decorated room with a big table and a couch to the right. Behind the table sat a middle aged African American woman who looked at Des with recognition.
Des: Hi Auntie Mabel
Des went over to hug the lady who responded
Mabel: Little Des, how have you been? Its been a while since I saw you
Des: I’m good, still a straight A student
Mabel: That’s good baby. So what brings you by?
Des: This is my friend Cashmere and she’s having problems with her boyfriend so I wanted her to come and speak to some of the people here
Mabel went over to where Cash stood and hugged her
Mabel: Hi Cashmere, that’s a very pretty name. How are you doing?
Cash: I’m good
Mabel: You can call me Mabel
Cash: Thanks Mabel. So you run this place?
Mabel: Yes I do, but I’m not alone, I got my admin staff and volunteers who come in to help the women and children here
Des: And sometimes I work once a month here
Mabel and Des gave each other a knowing look
Mabel: So where do we begin? Ah yes, its 1pm now and we usually do clinic rounds
Cashmere: Clinic rounds?
Mabel: Yes this is when the medical staff and medically trained volunteers go and give some form of medical help to any of our women or children who may need it. Officially this ends at 2-2:30pm then we have our seminar, where the women come and share their experiences and we try to make a plan for them as to the next step when they leave here. So do you girls wanna come with me?
Cash: Sure
Des opened the door and all of them went out. By this time, there were staff around pushing trolleys laden with medicine and things like that; Mabel introduced Cash to the staff who seemed to know Des. Their first stop was at a woman called Carla who was wearing a sleeveless top which showed purple bruises on her arms
Mabel [cheerfully]: Hi ya Carla, how we doing this afternoon
Carla did not say anything; Mabel continued talking as she gave Carla her medicine and changed her dressings
Mabel: You good? I know, the arm’s healing good actually, after it’s healed well, we stick some cocoa butter on that skin and you’ll be feeling like brand new
Carla managed a little smile
Mabel: Aaah that’s a pretty smile you got there beautiful, show it more girl, you’re cuter than a puppy
Carla’s smile widened
Mabel: There you go. We’ll see you at the seminar today right?
Carla nodded
Mabel: You’re a diamond. I’ll see you then precious
They left and their next lady was a 20 something woman who had what looked like a broken jaw and a cut across her forehead. Cashmere was shocked, she whispered to Des
Cash: You know her?
Des: Yeah you mean Mo’nique, I’ve seen her here occasionally and she’s one of my best friends in here, she’s real cool
Cash: But how’d she get the injury
Des: Boyfriend beat on her after she asked him what he wanted for dinner, beat her so bad she lost twins and was in a coma for 2 weeks
Cash: Dang! All because she asked him what he wanted for dinner?
Des: Yup, that’s all it took- this time.
They went over to her
Des: Mo mo, how you doing girl!
Mo’: I’ve been better Dessie. How ya doing?
Des: I’m good; by the way this is my friend Cashmere. Cashmere this is Mo’nique
Mo’: Nice to meet you Cashmere
Cash: Nice to meet you too Mo’nique
Des and Mabel were chatting to Mo’nique while Cash stood quietly.
Des and Cash followed Mabel to all the people she was tending to, and eventually they finished the clinic rounds and some of the women followed Des, Cash and Mabel into a conference room. There were also other people entering the room as well. All in all, there were about 60 women in there some with children. Des and Cash sat at the back. Mabel was up in front with some of her co-workers.
Mabel: Hi everyone for coming, I know it must’ve been difficult for most of you to be ready about speaking on the experiences that led you here but what you’re doing could be saving someone’s life or changing someone’s opionion on violence in the homes. Most of y’all met me when you entered here and for those who do not really know me, I’m Mabel. I’ve been where y’all were coming from okay? I had a husband who beat me up for nearly 30 years; the last time was when he stuck a knife through my kidneys. I mean like most of you, I was ready to take anything he gave me cos I loved him, but I had to draw the line when he was hurting my children. I had to get out. I had nowhere to go, but I had to get out, rebuild a future for myself and my children- but the first step was to get out. Every one of us you see working here have had experiences with violence in the homes either directly or indirectly. The purpose of this conference is to get you to share your experiences and let’s together make a way forward. It ain’t gonna be easy but you gotta want it bad, bad enough to be strong enough and do whatever
So who wants to start us off on this, you just share your experiences with us.
Mabel looked around the room expectantly, no one seemed to say anything. A lady called Adrienne raised her hand, Mabel nodded for her to speak. Adrienne cleared her throat and began to talk
Adrienne: Hi everybody, my name is Adrienne. I’m 21 and I’m here because my boyfriend decided he did not like me talking to other guys and wearing clothes that did not cover me till my eyeballs. One day, he saw me talking to a guy he thought was asking me out, the guy was my cousin, a cousin I hadn’t seen in ages. We came home and he beat me up, beat me up so bad he broke my jaw, my leg and two ribs. I spent almost a year in hospital. While in there, I decided I could not be with him anymore. He was arrested and was sent to prison for a minimum of 50 years, I had nowhere to go so I came here.
Cash listened to this in shock. Adrienne was not the only woman to speak up, other women spoke about their experiences, then Des spoke up.
Des: Hi Everyone, most of y’all know me but for those who don’t, I’m Des. I have a friend whose boyfriend has started to beat her up, so far he’s pushing her around and slamming her into walls and minor bruises for now, what should she do?
Mo’nique: Get the hell outta the relationship
Des: But he’s in a gang, CVG to be precise and she’s scared if she leaves he’d come after her
Everyone looked at each other, they had heard of CVG
Mo’nique: Well your friend has two options. Firstly she can leave, call the police, and get a restraining order against him. Secondly she can stay with him and turn out like us if not even dead- one of my cousins went that way okay? Her boyfriend was in CVG and his name was Shawn Williams
Des and Cash froze
Mo’nique [continuing]: that guy was trouble and I know he goes to your school so warn the girls there, stay the f*** away from that bastard, he killed my cousin and faked her death as her committing suicide, but even though post-mortem examination show she had been raped before her death and severe rib, spine and jaw damage, the cops did nothing, that motherf***** went free.
Des: Thanks, Mo’ I owe you one. By the way hypotetically speaking, if my friend’s boyfriend was this Shawn Williams, what should she do
Mo’: What I said she should do previously and cut off all contacts with him. He’s a bully, he’ll back off if he knows the cops are on to him and he’s too smart to violate a restraining order, that’ll put his gang at risk. My cousin stayed and paid the price, tell your friend to get out before its too late.
By this time, Cash’s face had gone ashen
Des: Thanks
Des did not look at Cash as she did not want to reveal Cash as the friend. But 10 minutes later they slipped out of the conference and went back into the car. They got in and Des locked the door. Cash’s face looked like she’d aged 50 extra years
Des: Sweetie you okay?
Cash [in hushed tones]: I gotta leave him, I gotta get out of this! I am my momma’s only girl, I can’t risk it! I know I love him and all but I don’t wanna be in this place telling my story like these women who were blinded by love
Des: You serious?
Cash [she looked very serious albeit dazed]: I’ve never been more serious in my life. I gotta tell my momma this, I don’t want to be dead like that girl- no wonder he never spoke about her!
Des gave her a hug
Des: I hope you really mean this and will not be swayed by his words, please Cash, for your sake I hope you really do so, remember the dead girl, do it for her as well
Des started the car
Cash: By the way, how did you find this place?
Des: You know how I never talk about my dad, he sent my mom here basically, he beat her so bad, then he turned on me. He beat my momma so bad the last time cos she was protecting me from him raping me. He didn’t but she paid for it. As soon as she could write, divorce papers were sent to him, she got full custody of me and he’s in prison right now
Cash looked at her
Cash: you are such a strong person you know that? You’ve been through all that and here I am wondering about some fool while your momma had the courage to walk away to protect you, and you did not let that affect you.
Des: I can either let life’s situations make me or break me, I chose to let it make me.
They drove off. Des dropped Cash at home who went to speak to her momma about Shawn as soon as she got home.
Des went home and sat in her room, she was a bit restless so she decided to call someone
Des: Hello
………………………
Lib was in his room, Krys just left, he was reading the new Harry Potter book when his cell phone rang
Lib: Hello?
Person: Hi Lib, its me Des
Lib sat up straight
Lib: Des?
Des: Long time huh?
Lib: I guess
Des: I know things have been funny between us for a long time and I’m ready to let go of all the drama between us. I’m ready to give you a clean slate, forgive you for almost killing me and Lams, and lets move on as friends
Lib coulda cried. He’d waited for this call for ages as he had no nerve to do it
Lib: You can never know how sorry I am for all that’s happened
Des: I do, I just want everyone to be cool again okay?
Lib: Sure
Des: I’ll set up a meeting with everyone of us and we’ll try making up again. This time no one leaves regardless
Lib: That’ll be so cool
Des: Okay the Lib I gotta go, nice talking to ya again
Lib: Same here
Des: Aiight then bye!
Lib: Bye Des
They hung up, Lib was still stunned and Des was surprised she had the nerve to do that.
At Des’ place as soon as she’d hung up with Lib, her doorbell rang. She went downstairs and opened the door
Des [scornfully]: Oh it you
She turned folded her arms, shot the person a dirty look and went inside and left the door opened
There you go, Enjoy!
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