Chapter twenty one

By Prescoviah Merilyn

Chapter twenty one

Surrounded by four blank walls, where there's nothing to do but stare at them. To look at the paint that has started to chip off as time passes, draw lines on the walls, or probably play cards with other prisoners, anything to pass time. They don't realize how they are slowly going mad, theorizing absurd meanings from the wall's blank stare, and the roof linings.

Without a spark of light, the suffocating quietness could make someone forget their real name, with time. What would they listen to, delusions of the world outside? Or probably the piercing screams of tortured inmates?

I sat on a lame chair as I waited for Evans in the visiting area. I had good news for him...Great news actually! Yes, I wanted to rub it in his face. When he finally came, wearing a wide smile. I smiled back. He looked miserable and cold, but still rigid and proud. I could sense that the one year he had been here so far, had changed nothing in him yet, but no worries, he still had fourteen years of his home, this dumpster.

"Vanny" He caressed my hand with his thumb as I pulled away. He was playing victim.

"Hi Evans... You look good!" I smirked as he laughed a little.

"I see you gave birth. Where are my children?How are my babies?.Why haven't you brought them? They must look like me! Don't they? You see Vanny, I told you... sometimes, something bad, comes with good things…they must be your happiness now?"

"They are!" I agreed.

"Mother told me they are lovely... You named the girl, Hope, right? And the boy Andrew? You did?"

"Hope and Andrew?" I blunted as I passed my thumb over my chin, as if testing something out, their validity.

"Nope."

"What, why baby... They are my kids Vanny, I have a right to choose their names... Am their daddy!" Was he?

"Eleanor and Louis are the cutest things in the whole world, Evans... So adorable, you know."

"Eleanor and Louis?"

"Oh yeah, that's what I named them."

"Those are my babies!" he said, emphasis in his voice... A proud father.

"They have these dark brown eyes, straight aquiline noses, they are always parting their lips, just like their daddy… Si-me-on."

"What?" he got up banging the prison table, to pieces. "Your crazy you know... Don't you dare lie to me.…is this your revenge? Well it won't work because I know they are mine!" he was breathing heavily by now.

I threw the results to his face. When he was done looking for answers, he squeezed the papers in his one hand, down the floor. He had formed a tear, though. Oh!

"Your lying... These are false.. " He said as anger embraced him, the more.

"No Evans, they aren't... Look at me, this is my happy face, that they aren't yours... That's why am here, to rub it in your damn face, look at me..."

"Your such a bitch you know... I gave you everything. And this how you repay me.…You a bitch!" he roared.

"What did you give me? Raping me?"

"Vanessa!"

"Guards!" I implored at the police men outside who came running and hundcuffing him. "He is gone crazy!" I gashed.

"It's okay ma'am... You can leave now." The tallest assured me, dragging Evans back to his cell.

"Your sure?"

"Yes." he affirmed.

"He looks like he attacks his cellmates... He needs to go to a mental hospital... Or somewhere more secure!" I went on. Somewhere he can be tortured to submission, to being sorry.

Simeon had urged me not to step a foot at Evans, to let go. But I wasn't one to convince. I didn't want Evans to be comfortable. I wanted him to feel the pain, the anger, the loneliness, the depression, he had made me feel. I wanted him to lack someone to talk to. To talk to the walls, theorize absurd things, slowly go mad. I wanted to see him hurt, bent. And, seeing him like that changed the way I felt. After the visit, I felt better.

Louis comes running to Dalia who takes him for a bath. Oh my man! He is a mess. I turn to Ashanti...who pours another drink in my glass.

"Ever taken her to see her dad?" I ask her.

"Yeah, but you know Evans.. he scared her off... I have never taken her back... She is afraid of him, his roar...She loves it at home, with Tommy... mum and the others."

Ashanti still lives with at her parents. When she wanted to leave, her mum begged her to stay, not to live Tommy alone...since it's a big house, and their parents are always at work, out of the country.

"When is Simeon coming back?" She asks me.

"In a week, he says he is doing all the supervisions, accountability, as my dad chills... Poor man!"

"That's what you get when you marry Mr. Mats daughter, he is working him so hard... He wants him to prove himself you know..."

"Yeah, but still... At least no one restricts you on Jonny," We both laugh. Yes, they bonded.

"It was just once Vanny, one night... It won't happen again!"

"Are you sure, because he is just right behind us!" I point at Jonny who has been looking at Ashanti, for over ten minutes.

"Oh my, Vanessa!"

"Go on... go celebrate girl!" I tap her butt, as she leaves me to my lamentations.

"And now... I guess this it for me…celebrating my graduation in my gown alone , seated here watching our kids argue. They are pulling each other's hair... Lea is biting Hope's back. Oh my Gosh! I won't separate you... Fight all the way! Cheers to me!"

"Won't they kill each other?" A deep grave voice asks from behind me. When I try to turn my head round. he is squeezing my left boob. I give up and relax. He is breathy under my neck, inhaling. His face feels cozy like a blanket that wraps you around, covers you, and touches your heart. He pulls my face to himself and kisses me so hard.

"I have missed you" he whispers.

"I thought you weren't coming, that you were missing my graduation"

"Not for anything, baby."

"Will someone please separate those kids, they are going to kill each other." Dalia shouts from the kitchen. In seconds, she comes out running, throwing a disgusted look at us. "Vanessa, go separate the children."

At once I get up... Pushing Simeon's hands away, like nothing was happening, mother. As you can see!

"Eleanor stop pushing Hope, will you?" I pull her away, they is covered in mud. God!

"Come on babies, let's go take a shower."

Dalia remains quiet, but keeps her eyes glued on Simeon, like a disappointed parent.