I’m excited about seeing Mimi again after all these years.”
“That’s exciting, Mom. I’ll let you go; tell me all about your meeting. Bye.”
“Bye, sweetheart.”
Brenda clicked off the phone and smiled. “Mimi, I have a thousand questions to ask you.”
The phone rang again, and Brenda clicked the TALK button and frowned when she heard her name.
“What is it, Victor?”
“Are you still going forward with your plan to meet Mimi?”
“Yes. Anything else?”
“Why is it so important that you have to see her? She didn’t give a damn about you or your feelings when she left you all alone and pregnant nineteen years ago.”
“That was then, this is now. I’m ready to move forward and that means seeing Mimi again.”
“You’re making a mistake,” Victor said with an air of authority.
“That’s your opinion, Victor. Why do you care?”
“I never told you this, but I never liked Mimi.”
“Tell that to the lie detector machine, Victor. In fact, you would’ve put the moves on her, except she wasn’t too crazy about you either.”
“Look, Brenda. I don’t want to argue with you. Mimi will only disrupt our lives.”
“You’re acting like this is some kind of competition between you and Mimi. Why are you so paranoid? Mimi cared about me; that’s why I sent her to intercede on my behalf after I found out that I was pregnant. You were raging mad, and I wanted you to know that I wouldn’t hold you responsible because I didn’t want to lose you either. Anyway, that was years ago.”
“And we’ve been happily married for eighteen years. Think about it.”
“You have Mimi to thank for us being together.”
“Mimi shouldn’t have come back here.”
“I find your behavior strange, Victor. I don’t know what’s up with you, but get over it. I’m going to see Mimi.”
“And you’ll be sorry.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Don’t try my patience, Brenda.”
Brenda clicked the OFF button on the phone without a goodbye. She brushed down the collar of her St. John gray and white ensemble, picked up her purse, and headed for the door. Who in the hell does he think he is, telling me whom I can and cannot see? Brenda slammed the door behind her and headed for the car.
BRENDA PACED HERSELF AS SHE DROVE UP HIGHWAY 70, not wanting to arrive at the restaurant too early but not wanting to be late either. Victor’s telephone call continued to interrupt her good feeling, but she managed a smile and shoved the phone call to the back of her mind.
She swiftly moved over in the left-hand lane and prepared to stop at the light. The restaurant was on the other side of the eight-lane divided highway, and her excitement rose as the light changed from red to green. Brenda made a swift U-turn, and began to move to the right so that she could turn into the parking lot a few yards up.
Boom, bam, boom! “Oh my God!” Brenda screamed.
She didn’t see…didn’t know what hit her. Brenda’s head flew forward and hit the steering wheel, but she held on tight until she lost control and veered into the median and an oncoming car. Whatever hit her was now long gone. Her car was now in an entangled heap of metal on the other side of the road. Swoosh. The airbag deployed and Brenda’s head bounced between it and the headrest. She touched her finger to her face and swiped at the blood that was oozing from her nose.
Bam, bam, bam! “Lady hang in there!” a voice shouted from outside of Brenda’s window. She could feel herself begin to lose consciousness. “Hang in there, lady. We’re going to get you out.”
Brenda wasn’t sure how long it had been between the crash and the moment she heard the sirens. Somehow she managed to unlock the door and when she had come out of her semi-unconscious state, she looked up into the face of a kind gentleman who held her head.
“Ma’am, the ambulance is here to take you to the hospital. Is there anyone I can call for you?” the kind gentleman asked.
“My…my daughter,” Brenda managed to say. “She’s speed-dial four.”
10
It was an easy eighty degrees in the middle of October. Dressed in a colorful pink, purple, and white sleeveless sundress and three-and-a-half-inch white sandals, Afrika crossed the quad in a hurry to get to her two o’clock class. She was hoping to see Keith, who was fast becoming the object of her affection and taking up more time in her already limited schedule. He had met her after