A Special Relationship (7 page)

 
“You have a stage name?”

 
Mona took a drag on her cigarette.
 
She felt exposed, and hated it.
 
“I’m a dancer,” she said, and then she looked at her sister.
 
Carrie, however, only nodded.

 
“I see,” she said.

 
“I ain’t wild like some
of’em,
” she said defensively, “so don’t even think that.
 
I don’t be wrapping myself around no poles or none of that crazy crap.”
  
Then she laughed.
 
“But I ain’t
no
nun like you either.”
 
She shook her head.
 
“You wouldn’t give the brother a sample?
 
Not even a sample, girl?
 
My my my.
 
You wouldn’t survive an hour in my world!”

 
Carrie smiled nervously and looked around at that sparsely furnished world.
 
She had to survive longer than an hour.
 
Far longer.
 
Because no matter how she felt about it, or how this new world would feel about her, it was now all she had.

She was given the small, second bedroom as her temporary shelter.
 
Other than a filthy mattress lying dormant on the dust-filled floor and some old, soiled linen spewed against the wall, the room was empty.
 
Mona didn’t make any
apologies,
she didn’t try to pretend that her house wasn’t normally this messed up.
 
She simply showed her sister the room and left.
  
           
Carrie was, at first, so disheartened by her sister’s harshness, by the new environment she found herself in, that she wanted to cry.
 
But she didn’t.
 
She sat her suitcase in the corner and proceeded to see if the flip side of the mattress held more promise.
 
But as soon as she lifted the mattress to check it out, a small army of roaches
came
sailing out of the various holes and slits as if their territory was being invaded.
 
Carrie dropped the bedding so quickly that she lost her balance and stumbled hard to the floor.
 
The noise from her fall was enough to bring Mona hurrying back into the room.
 
Coming in behind her was a man Carrie didn’t even know was in the house.
 
He was a short, stout, light-skinned man who appeared to be in his mid-to-late twenties.
 
He also appeared to be immediately and unabashedly smitten with Carrie.

 
“What’s going on in here?” Mona asked, again agitated by her kid sister’s presence.

 
Carrie tried to smile off the embarrassment as she moved to stand to her feet.
 
The man hurried to assist her.
 
“I’m fine,” Carrie said, standing.
 
“I just stumbled.”

 
Mona looked around the room, at the roaches that were scattering from the mattress, and she knew exactly why she stumbled.
 
“There’s some Raid under the kitchen
sink
,” she said bitterly and then left to go back to bed.
 
“Use it or not, I don’t care.
 
Just don’t be disturbing me again!”

 
After Mona left the room, the man smiled.

 
“She’s PMS-ing,” he said jokingly.

 
“I see,” Carrie said nervously, still smiling, but wishing the man would leave too.

 
“I’m Willie Charles, by the way,” he said instead, extending his hand.
 
Carrie shook it.
 
“Mona just told me you
was
her kid sister from Georgia.”

 
“Yes.
 
I’m Carrie.”

 
“Carrie.
 
All right now.
 
I like that name.
 
Mona told me you
was
down here from Georgia but she didn’t tell me how beautiful you were.”

 
Carrie didn’t know what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything.

 
“Think you’re gonna like it here?” he asked.
 
“Not in this roach motel here, I ain’t talking about that.
 
In Jacksonville I mean.”

 
“I hope so,” Carrie replied.
 
She didn’t see where she had a choice.
 
She
had
to like it here.
 

 
“Willie Charles!” Mona yelled from the other room.

 
“What?” Willie Charles yelled back.

 
“Why don’t you stop hittin’ on her and help her behind get a job because she sho’ ain’t gonna be livin’ in my house for free!”

 
Carrie tried to smile but even Willie Charles, a man not known for his perceptiveness, could see how deeply Mona’s brashness was affecting her.
  
He could also see, however, definite advantages in having a sweet young thang like Carrie around.
 
“
You lookin’
for a job, Miss Carrie?”

 
“I will be, yes.”

 
“Got anything special in mind?”

 
“No, nothing special.
 
I’ll take whatever I can find.”

 
Willie Charles nodded.
 
Exactly what he wanted to hear.
 
“Okay, good.
 
I may be able to hook you up.”

 
Carrie looked at him.
 
“Really?”

 
“Yeah, I got a little somethin’ somethin’ going for me.
 
I ain’t like these no class hustlers ‘round here.”

 
“How can you help me?” Carrie asked with nervous excitement.

 
“I supervise a night shift cleaning crew and we can always use a good worker.
 
You are a good worker, aren’t you, Carrie?”

 
Carrie nodded eagerly.
 
“I’ll be the best worker you have.”

 
Willie Charles smiled.
 
“Good.
 
I happen to be off tonight, but that’s rare.
 
You gonna have to work steady and hard.
 
But if you’re interested I can try you out tomorrow night.”

 
Carrie’s excitement began to soar.
 
“Tomorrow night?
 
Really?”

 
“It only pays minimum wage now, and the work ain’t pretty, so don’t be gettin’ your hopes up.
 
We clean mostly office buildings at night.
 
Places like the Dyson Corporate building downtown, a few banks, and a few other smaller office places.
 
But I think I’ll put you at Dyson.
 
That’s our biggest contract and we need an extra hand.”

 
“That’ll be wonderful, Mr. Charles.
 
Thank-you.”

 
“My name is Willie Charles Payton.
 
But everybody calls me Willie or Willie Charles.
 
No Mister nothing.
 
Okay?”

 
Carrie smiled.
 
“Okay.”

 
“You got a car?
 
Transportation?”

 
“No, but if you tell me where this Dyson place is I can catch the bus.”

 
“Most of our workers are what we call temps, so we pick them up on the company van.
 
If you want to you can ride with them to and from work until you can get your own way around.”

 
“Oh, that would be great, thank-you.”

 
“I’ll put you on the pick-up schedule and the van will be here, let me see, probably right around six tomorrow night.
 
If you be on time, do your work,
then
you’ll have no problems with me.”

 
Carrie smiled greatly.
 
“I’ll be ready, Mister, I mean Willie Charles.
 
And I’ll do my work and then some.
 
You don’t know how much this means to me.”

 
Willie Charles had a pretty good idea just how much it meant to her, which meant, in his
mind,
she was ripe for the taking.
 
And that was why he left her room smiling.
 
Mona was just a shorty, somebody he dropped in on when he didn’t have anywhere else to go.
 
Besides, he had to pay to be with Mona.
 
But this girl here, this smiling face country bumpkin with the shockingly beautiful big green eyes and undoubtedly big heart to match, could very well be a keeper. Somebody he could make and mold to his own liking.
 
Somebody he could completely and exclusively control.

 
Carrie, however, didn’t see the inherent problems in accepting anything from a man like Willie Charles.
 
All she saw was freedom.
 
All she saw was a chance to get her own place, eventually enroll in college, and then make her own way.
 
That was why she found the Raid, killed as many bugs as she could still find crawling around the dingy room, and, after a whole lot of praying, fell asleep sitting upright on her suitcase.
  
It wasn’t exactly what she had envisioned, it was hellish more than heavenly, but she took it all in stride.
 
God would have the last word on her happiness, and she knew He would make all things work together for her good.
 
       

 
It was just a matter of time.

FIVE

Robert Kincaid handed the keys of his jet black Cadillac Escalade to the impressed parking attendant, buttoned his suit coat, and walked slowly into Jetson’s.
 
Located in downtown Jacksonville on the banks of the picturesque St. John’s River, Jetson’s was a trendy, popular eating place for many upscale professionals in town, including many of the town’s politicians, and by the time Robert arrived it was already crowded.
 
He was there, not of his own choosing, but to meet his girlfriend Tyler Langley for dinner.
 
And he was late on purpose.

 
But Tyler had insisted.
 
She needed to talk with him, she said.
 
She was only one of many females Robert kept company with these days; one of many career women in his life who were just as opposed as he to any kind of exclusive commitment.
  
But over the past few months he was beginning to see a change in Tyler.
 
And that, he was certain, was why he was called to Jetson’s on a night when she knew he would have just as soon be left alone.