Murderville Page 0,97

because Po had learned sign language years ago. He smiled as he thought about her beautiful face. He knew that he could finally give her what she deserved and that was a beautiful house and a way out of the ghetto. Po pulled into their driveway and grabbed the duffle bag full of money.

Po entered the house and reached for the light switch. He flicked it on and off repeatedly and smiled. He expected Scarlett to come from the den where she usually watched television until he came home. He saw the flickering of the television coming from the den and heard the news being telecast. She must have fallen asleep, he thought to himself as he began to take off his coat. He hung it up and reached into his pocket for the ring that he had bought her earlier that day. He couldn’t wait until the morning to tell her that they were moving and decided to wake her up. Little did he know, Scarlett would never wake up.

He walked into the den and noticed that she wasn’t in there. He then went upstairs and his heart dropped when he noticed the way the house was torn up. It was as if a tornado ran through it. The bed was flipped over, and the drawers were pulled out and emptied onto the floor. “Scarlett!” Po yelled as he frantically rushed to the other room. As he burst into the room, he saw the love of his life bound to a chair. “No!” he yelled as he raced to her and dropped to his knees in front of her. He began to loosen the ropes to release her, and tears began to fall as he noticed she wasn’t moving. Her lips were dark purple, a far cry from the blush red they usually were. “Please GOD, no. Please!” he pleaded as he released her from the ropes and she fell into his arms. He rocked back and forth with his love in his arms. Tears flowed as he begged GOD to somehow make Scarlett wake up. He looked down at her and rubbed his hand over her face to close her eyelids. He then knew that she was gone forever.

The suns beams crept through the blinds and shined on A’shai and Liberty’s faces as they lay next to each other. The sound of the hospital-issued pager rang out, and it began to vibrate making it dance across the nightstand. The sound woke a sleeping Liberty. She opened her eyes and couldn’t believe her ears. It was the sound that they had been waiting on for an entire year. Liberty’s body felt so weak. She could barely lift her head, but she managed to smile as joy overcame her.

“Shai. Shai baby wake up. We have a heart,” she whispered faintly as she rubbed Shai’s cheek with the back of her hand. “Shai?” she called again, noticing that his skin was cold to the touch. “Baby, wake up,” she called as she managed to prop herself up. She nudged him with all the might that she had, but he didn’t move. She didn’t know at that point, but all along she had thought he was having a glass of cognac when in actuality he had been sipping on an old Creole drink called Black Tea. He had slowly ingested it as he told her the story of their lives, wanting to die with his soul mate. A’shai had been dying before her eyes and she didn’t even know it. His “special drink” was a slow death and showed his commitment to his love for her. If she couldn’t live then he no longer wanted to, so he chose to die with her so they could forever be together.

Liberty continued to shake A’shai but it was to no avail. A’shai Montgomery was no more. She noticed that he wasn’t breathing, and it all hit her like a ton of bricks. She mustered all her strength and grabbed the phone to call 9-1-1.

“Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?” the operator asked.

“Somebody please help. A’shai isn’t breathing. Oh GOD . . . he’s not breathing!” Liberty said, not even caring about her own health or the heart pager. Her time was also ticking and if she didn’t get to the hospital she would also die, but at that point she didn’t care. She was ready to meet him on the other side.

Tears began to run down her face as the harsh reality set in. She