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Authors: E. N. Joy

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BOOK: And You Call Yourself A Christian
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Chapter Thirteen
When Lorain couldn't get a hold of Unique, she drove over to her sister's house where she and the boys had lived the last few years. She would have called the house, but they didn't have a land line. A lot of people were doing that lately; choosing cell phones over land lines. Lorain understood the fact that they wanted to save money, and if adults were just living in the house, that was fine. But most of the time, adults carried their cell phones on their persons. With children in the home, what if one of the children needed to make an emergency phone call? Having access to a land line seemed like a must when children were in the home.
Unique's sister had two children of her own. Lorain never really knew their ages, but from the looks of the little girl who'd answered the door, one of them was around nine or ten. Lorain was surprised to see that the child was still up considering how late in the evening it was, but then again, it was summer break.
“Hi, honey, is your mother home?” Lorain tried her best to maintain her composure. Although Nicholas had forced her to sit in the hospital lobby for a few more minutes while she pulled herself together, there was no way she'd be completely okay. No, that was going to take some time. But still, she'd managed to calm down enough to make the drive to Unique's, crying the entire time.
“She in there mad,” the girl pointed over her shoulder, “trying to get a hold of Auntie Uni—”
“Is that her?” Lorain heard the agitated voice of a grown woman crawling up behind the young child.
“No, Mama. It's the lady who be picking up Auntie Unique sometimes,” the little girl informed her mother.
“Oh.” The woman was visually disappointed. “Hi, Lorain.”
“Renee,” was all Lorain mumbled out.
“If you're here to see Unique, I have no idea where that child is with my car.” And that was the beginning of the sibling's rant. “I let her borrow my car way earlier this morning. She said she was just supposed to be going to pick up some money from one of her son's fathers, but she ain't back yet. It's almost eleven o'clock at night. I've been calling her back to back but the phone keeps—”
“Going to voice mail,” Lorain finished. “Yeah, I know. I've been trying to get a hold of her too. That's why I came on over.” It was apparent to Lorain that Unique's sister had no idea about the boys; otherwise, her concerns wouldn't have been of a material thing; her automobile. “Listen, Renee, can I come in for a minute?”
“Why not?” She let out a heated wind and allowed her arms to flail, and then drop to her sides. “I already had to call my boss and let her know that I wouldn't be able to make it in to work because I was having ‘car trouble.'” She used her fingers to make quotation marks in the air.
Unique's sister led Lorain over to the couch. “You can have a seat.”
Lorain accepted the offer and sat on the worn but pretty decent sofa.
Picking up the remote from the table and handing it to Lorain, the young woman about five or six years Unique's senior sat down as well. “The kids been watching
Nickelodeon
all day. It keeps them off my nerves. But you can turn to something you'd like if you want to.”
“No, thank you.” Lorain kindly shook her head as Sponge Bob's theme music filled the air.
“Oh, I can't take that song no more,” Renee spat, turning to one of the local channels. Placing the remote on the table, she sat and waited for Lorain to speak.
Gathering the exact words she needed to tell this woman that her nephews were dead, Lorain remained silent. Like Nicholas, she didn't want to say the wrong thing.
Before Lorain could speak, Unique's sister did. “You know, I think that's cool what you and Unique did for each other.”
“Pardon me?” Lorain didn't know what she was talking about.
“You know with the twins and all, her having them for you and you raising them and all that other stuff. Because when that child first told me she was pregnant, I was about to tell her that she had to pack her stuff and keep it moving. There's no way we had room in this place for two more. So how are those babies anyway? The boys just love 'em. They can't stop talking about their aunties. As far as they are concerned, them girls are their sisters.”
“The twins?” Lorain remembered that her mother was watching them. She'd forgotten to call her and let her know what was going on. She was surprised her mother hadn't called her first. But then again, Lorain had told her she might be late and not to worry. Lorain figured her mother probably didn't want to interrupt her and Nicholas's moment; the moment that never happened. Lorain figured she'd go ahead and call Eleanor now, but she couldn't do it in front of Unique's sister, especially with her not knowing yet. “My mother has the twins. Do you mind if I step out and call to check on them?” Lorain stood.
“No, I don't mind at all.” Unique's sister wondered why Lorain felt it necessary to have to leave the house just to talk on the phone, but she didn't want to be nosy and question her.
Lorain excused herself and went on the porch and dialed her mother's phone number.
“Lorain, I was just about to call you,” Eleanor said after picking up on the first ring. “Did you see it? It's on right now! Did you see it on the news? About Unique and her boys?”
“It's on the news?” Lorain asked.
“Yes. Dear God, how's Unique doing?” Eleanor asked. “Have you talked to her? My God, baby, how are you doing? Here I am thinking I'm letting you be to enjoy your engagement, and you've been dealing with this. I can't believe what I'm seeing on this television.”
“Television?” Lorain mumbled to herself. “Mom, let me call you back, please. I promise I'll call you right back.” Lorain hung up the phone and darted back into the house. She found Unique's sister standing with her hands over her mouth staring at the television.
“Did you know? Is that why you're here?” Unique's sister stared at Lorain waiting for an answer. “I was wondering why you showed up at the house so late.” She turned her attention back to the television. “They, they just said Unique's boys are dead. See, watch.” She nervously fumbled with the remote and pressed a button that would rewind live television like it was a movie in a DVD player.
Lorain watched as a reporter covered the story. “Police say they had no idea children were even in the car; nobody did. Apparently the boys were hiding down on the floor of the car where no one could see them. They'd probably been frightened by all the action and noise of the raid on the crack house their mother was in.”
The reporter looked down at a piece of paper she had in her hand. “Reports say that while the three boys were locked in the car on the hottest day of the year, their mother was inside copping drugs, they believe, with the intent to sell based on the quantity. No telling how long their mother might have intended on staying inside, but when the house was suddenly raided, whatever her intentions were no longer mattered. Hauled off to jail, police say the mother never said a word to them about her children having been left in the car. They were only discovered when, after the raid, some of the landlords in the neighborhood came by to sort of ‘clean house.' One landlord in particular was having cars towed that were parked in front of his houses that didn't belong to his tenants.”
Next, the news showed a picture of a near toothless old man. “I knocked on the doors of my tenants to see if the car belonged to any one of them. Nobody claimed it. I even went and knocked on a couple houses across the street. Again, nobody claimed it. I figured it belonged to somebody who had something to do with that big drug bust, so I called the police to have it towed from in front of my property. They the ones found them boys down inside the car.” The man's voice began to crack. “They say they was huddled together on their knees, like they'd been praying or some—” The man couldn't finish. He broke down and signaled the camera man to cut him off.
And just like the man, both Lorain and Renee broke down as well.
“Oh my God. Oh my God!” was all Unique's sister could say as she fell to the couch. “This isn't real ... my nephews ... no ... this can't be ... no. God, Unique, what were you thinking?”
Hearing Unique's name, Lorain turned her attention back to the television screen where she saw footage of Unique being escorted into a van. Seeing her child in jail-issued clothes and a bulletproof vest, Lorain was done. There was no more time for breaking down and falling out. It was time for warfare. Lorain knew her daughter. She knew Unique well enough to know that what these reporters were saying was not true. So if the police thought for one minute they were going to charge her daughter with the death of her own sons, drug possession, or anything else, they had another think coming.
“Where are you going?” Renee asked Lorain when she saw her hightailing it out of the living room to the front door.
“I'm going to the jail to see about Unique.”
“They're not going to let you do that. It's too late.”
“Oh yes, they will. I'm her mother, and they are going to let me see my baby.” On that note, Lorain charged out of the house and into her car. Putting the pedal to the metal, she took off to go see about her daughter, but unbeknownst to her, she wasn't the only one. It looked as though the police weren't going to be the only somebody Lorain would have to deal with when it came to seeing Unique.
Chapter Fourteen
It was so late by the time Lorain got home in the wee hours of the night-morning-whichever that she just left the twins with her mother. This morning she'd already called into her job, informing her boss what was going on and that she'd need a few days off work. After doing so, she jumped in the shower, got dressed, and headed out of the door on her way to see Unique.
Last night had been a failed attempt. She'd gone to the county jail only to find out that Unique had been transported elsewhere. Lorain didn't know much about jail procedure, but she found it odd that Unique would be moved before any type of court appearance.
“It was for her own safety,” a deputy had told Lorain after she questioned why Unique had been transported without even having been arraigned.
Special circumstances
were the words the deputy had used to further explain the situation.
Lorain had made a couple of phone calls to find out exactly what was going on with Unique; if she was going to be arraigned today or not. The answer was “not.” Today she was being assigned a public defender who would read over the police reports and interview Unique.
Having a public defender defend Unique didn't sit well with Lorain. So when the pastor of New Day Temple of Faith phoned her this morning and suggested the church raise funds to at least be able to afford the retainer for a good private attorney, Lorain was relieved. “Let's just do what we can for now,” her pastor had said. “We'll trust God for the rest.”
A lot of trust in God was going to be needed to get them through this ordeal. Lorain could just feel it. She could also feel the bumps all over the secluded, dirt road she was driving starting to shake up her empty belly. She hadn't eaten in almost an entire day now, and she wasn't going to until she saw her daughter.
Parking and entering the jail, Lorain made her way over to the visitor sign-in window. Fourth in line, after about fifteen minutes, it was finally her turn.
“Hi, my name is Viola Lorain Watson.” She knew she had to give her full government name that appeared on her ID. “I'm here to see Unique Emerald Gray. I'm her mother.”
The woman on the other side of the window looked up at Lorain knowingly. She obviously knew exactly who Unique was; not personally, but the reason why she was in jail. Lorain could tell the woman knew Unique's story and was probably wondering just who had given birth to the evil woman the media was portraying Unique to be.
Lorain knew in her heart something wasn't right about that story. It wasn't the entire story. The Unique she knew loved her boys and would never put them in harm's way. She wouldn't do it for crack cocaine or anything else, for that matter. Besides, Unique didn't even do drugs, and she darn sure didn't sell them. Had she been a drug dealer, she would have had a pimped-out ride and a blinged-out cross necklace around her neck. Maybe a gold tooth or two ... maybe. At least that's the stereotypical drug dealer Lorain had seen on television shows ... or were those the rappers she'd seen on awards shows? Who knows. Perhaps drug dealers didn't look like that. Perhaps they did look like Unique. Perhaps they were just regular-looking people who felt as though they couldn't feed their families just any ol' regular way. Who really knew? Because all Lorain knew was that whatever a drug dealer was supposed to look like, and whatever their reasons for selling drugs, Unique was not one of them; no way, no how. And Lorain would testify to that to a million juries if she had to.
“
You're
her mother, huh?” There was something about the way the woman behind the window said it that made Lorain feel strange.
“Yes. Yes, I am. Unique Emerald Gray is my daughter,” Lorain said with a hint of arrogance. She was not about to stand there and let this woman make her feel belittled because of who she was. She was Unique's mother, and she would shout it out on a mountaintop to the world if she had to.
The woman shook her head and had a menacing grin on her face. “Okay, whatever.” She scribbled something down on a log sheet in front of her, and then pushed it to Lorain through a small opening at the bottom of the window. “Fill this out.”
Lorain nervously took the log sheet and the pen the woman offered.
“You never done this before? You never visited anybody in lockup before?” the woman asked Lorain, taking note of her demeanor.
Lorain replied with the shaking of her head.
“Okay, well, here's the deal. I'm going to need to see some ID. You're going to have to go through a search . . .” The woman proceeded to rattle off all kinds of information. “Right now, she's back visiting with her counsel, but just as soon as—”
Lorain cut the woman off. “But I'm going to ... my church ... Unique's and my church, we're going to hire her a private attorney.”
“That's all good, but for now, your
daughter
needs representation, honey. Do you want her to just sit here and rot while you find her an attorney? If that's the case, you should have found an attorney first and brought him up here with you.”
Maybe the woman was right, but she could have been a little bit more diplomatic in expressing it. Lorain made a mental note to stop by the church after she left the jail. Not only would she need to further discuss with her pastor the funds for hiring an attorney for Unique, but she'd need to discuss funeral arrangements for the boys as well. She wanted to see to it that her grandsons had a proper burial.
“Anyway,
Unique's mother
, you can take a seat and someone will call you when you can go back and start the visiting process.”
“Thank you,” Lorain said before adding, “God bless you.” She turned and headed to a seat in the waiting area, not knowing if she really wanted God to bless that woman or not, or if that was just her sarcastic way of letting that woman know that she needed Jesus. She needed Jesus in her life to give her an attitude adjustment.
Finding a seat in the middle of the waiting room, Lorain sat down. And she sat, and she sat, and she sat. She felt bad about the fact that this public defender was spending so much time discussing Unique's case with her when soon, and very soon, his or her services would no longer be needed. She didn't know just how much money the church would donate or raise, but she was willing to borrow from her 401(k) retirement plan if she had to in order to make sure Unique had decent representation.
At least an hour had gone by and Lorain still sat in the waiting room. Her legs were bouncing as a sign of her anxiety. She'd tried taking out the miniature Bible she carried around in her purse and reading it, but her mind couldn't stay focused on the scriptures before her. Just when she thought she was going to lose her mind, she heard a deputy say, “Unique Emerald Gray. Unique Emerald Gray's mother, please.” The deputy then looked over his shoulder at the woman behind the window who had checked Lorain in. They shot each other a smirk.
Lorain wasn't about to let their little antics get the best of her. She let their taunting slide as she clutched her purse and stood up to go see about her daughter. As Lorain walked toward the deputy, she could feel someone else walking behind her. She looked over her shoulder and realized that it was a woman who'd been sitting in the waiting room even before Lorain herself had gotten there. Figuring the woman was heading back over to the window to ask what the holdup was on her own visit, Lorain turned her attention back to the path in front of her.
Stopping a couple feet in front of the deputy, Lorain informed him of who she was by stating, “I'm Unique Emerald Gray's mother.” But it was like she had an echo as a voice beside her had said the exact same words.
“I'm Unique Emerald Gray's mother,” the woman standing next to Lorain had said simultaneously with Lorain. It was the same woman Lorain had thought was heading over to the sign-in window.
Both women looked at each other strangely. This was simultaneous with the deputy and the woman behind the window looking at each other and smiling.
“Well, well, looks like we have a matter of confusion before us,” the deputy said, holding back a chuckle and a smile. “Ms. Gray is back there waiting to see her mother, and I got two women standing in front of me claiming to be that person. Hmmm.” The deputy scratched his head. “Now which one of you women is the inmate's mother?”
“I am.” Once again both women spat out the words together. Once again, they both shot each other a strange look.
“Look, Officer, it's complicated,” Lorain said in their defense from looking like two imposters.
“Well, it can't be too complicated. A person has only got one momma, and I need to know which one of you that is.”
“Me,” both women shouted.
“I'm Korica Sherod,” the woman said to the deputy, and then shot her next words over at Lorain, “the woman who raised Unique. I'm the woman Unique calls Mommy.”
With hands on hips, Lorain shot back, “I'm Lorain Watson, the woman who gave birth to Unique.”
“Humph,” the woman said under her breath, “and threw her away.”
The deputy looked over at the woman in the window. They were getting a real good kick out of this. “Hmm. Looks like we're not going to get anywhere here. What do you say I go back and ask Ms. Gray who her real mother is and which one of you women claiming to be her mother she'd like to see?” The officer turned and went back through the door he had come from, leaving the two women standing there, staring each other down, knowing the only winner of this standoff would be the woman who Unique called back there to see first.
Which one of them would it be? Who, in Unique's most desperate time of need, would she call on? Who would she declare as her mother? Would it be the woman who gave birth to her or the woman who raised her?
BOOK: And You Call Yourself A Christian
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