Some Came Desperate Read online

  “Get custody of Shay, Jeremy,” Simone decided to say, to change the subject, the pain too jarring for her to say anything else.

  “Will you quit with that? I told you I wasn’t doing it. I told you a million times!”

  “Then let Jules get custody.”

  “Jules?”

  “She’s eighteen now. She’s legal now. She’ll do it if you say so.”

  Jeremy smiled and shook his head. “You’re crazy, you know that? Jules is going to college, you hear me? College. She’s got a bright future ahead of her, unlike some I know, and she’s not about to take on any other responsibilities.”

  “Where is she going to college, Jeremy? Right here in Miami, isn’t she? She’s going to college right here in town and she’s going to stay right here with you, isn’t that right, Jeremy?”

  “What?”

  “You’ve got her right under your thumb and you aim to keep her there for the rest of her life, don’t you, Jeremy?”

  “Don’t you worry about what I’ve got with Jules. You just watch your little black behind because I mean it; I am this close to getting rid of you for good!”

  Simone glared at Jeremy and was ready to lash back, but he instead put on a grand smile when Jules ran back into the bedroom holding a beautiful, strapless red dress in her arms. “It’s beautiful, Jeremy,” Jules said excitedly as she reentered the room. “I’ve never seen anything more beautiful.” Then she reached over and hugged his neck. “Thank-you.”

  “You’re welcome, baby,” Jeremy said, holding her around her waist. “And you’ll going to wear it tonight, too, when I take you out on the town.”

  Jules smiled greatly and looked at Simone. Simone rolled her eyes.

  “I’ve got to get to the hospital,” Jeremy said as he released Jules. “I’ll see you later.” He smiled at Jules, glared at Simone one more time, and then left the room.

  Jules ran to the bed and plopped down on it, handing the dress to Simone for her inspection. “Isn’t it gorgeous?” she asked.

  “Very,” Simone said and looked at the dress. For the two years they’d been with Jeremy, he always found time to buy Jules pretty clothes and jewelry. And on her birthday he always did something special for her. Simone’s birthdays weren’t even acknowledged by him. Jules would acknowledge them, however, and would give Simone something Jeremy had given her, but Simone would never accept it. “I don’t need a gift,” she would say to her sister. “It’s the thought that counts.” Of course she was lying. It hurt her to her heart that her birthday wasn’t viewed as special enough for someone to actually go out and buy a gift for her and then take her “on the town.” But what could she do?

  “It’s very pretty,” she said of Jules new dress, feeling the wonderful silk material. “But don’t you think it’s a little too. . . glamorous for an eighteen year old?”

  “No, I do not,” Jules said as she removed her dress from her sister’s clutches. “I think it’s perfect for an eighteen year old. I’m grown now, after all.”

  “He said no,” Simone said and looked at Jules.

  “About what?”

  “Getting Shay.”

  Jules looked at her sister in horror. “Why would you bring that up again, Simone? He told you he wasn’t going to do that.”

  “I told him to let you get custody of her, that you’ll do it if he said it was okay. But he said no. He said you’re going to college and you can’t take on any more responsibilities.”

  Jules smiled. “He’s just looking out for me, Simone, that’s all.”

  “But who’s looking out for Shay, Jules? You’ll our oldest sister. You’re all we’ve got. If you don’t step up to the plate. . .”

  “Oh will you stop talking like that? My life can’t become one of your crusades, Simone. I’m going to college just like Jeremy said. I’m going to be the first member of our family to ever go to college. And Jeremy’s willing to help me do it.”

  “He’s always willing to help you. But what about me and Shay?”

  “He’ll help you too and you know it.”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “He will, Simone, if you’ll only humble yourself down.”

  Simone looked at her sister as if she’d lost her mind. “Humble myself down? You mean like you? Like no way. Jeremy’s got you so brainwashed, Jules, that it’s beyond sad, and you expect me to be like that? Me? Please.”

  Jules shook her head. “Fine. Don’t be like that. Don’t ever dream of being like Miss Horrible me. But look what being like that got me for my birthday. What did you get for yours?”

  Simone stared at her sister, amazed that she could be so cruel, but she also knew exactly what was going on. Divide and conquer, that had always been Jeremy’s way. Get Jules to hate her, too. But Simone didn’t sweat it. She was sixteen now, still too young in the eyes of the law, but when she turned eighteen they’d better look out. Because nothing was going to stop her then.

  She got up and left her sister’s presence.

  Later that night, when her shift at Burger King ended way earlier than she had expected (the manager had over-booked the staff), she returned home, went into the kitchen to get her a glass of water, and was about to retire to her bedroom when she heard loud noises coming from Jeremy’s room. She became immediately concerned, because Jeremy was supposed to have taken Jules out on the town tonight and neither should have been home, but when she heard Jules voice too, and Jules started screaming, she dropped her glass of water and ran to Jeremy’s room.

  She slung open the bedroom door and nearly fell back in shock at what she saw. Jeremy, naked and on top of Jules, pumping on her.

  Simone covered her mouth in a devastating shock, trying to scream but no sound would come. When Jules looked up over Jeremy’s bare, white shoulder and saw her sister, however, it was Jules who screamed, prompting Jeremy to look, too.

  What he saw frightened even him. Simone, already too emotional in his view, was beyond emotional now. She stood there, almost catatonic, staring with a look of disbelief in her stunned, innocent eyes. Jeremy, knowing how out-there Simone could get, quickly jumped off of Jules and tripped down as he hurriedly tried to slip into his pants.

  “It’s not what you think, Simone,” he said anxiously as he dressed, growing more uneasy with her stare. “And stop looking at me like that!”

  Simone shook her head, looking from him to Jules and back to him again. “How could you,” she finally managed to say, albeit in a whisper. “How could you do this, Jeremy? How could you ruin my family like this?”

  “What are you talking about, girl? This has nothing to do with you or your family!”

  “We were supposed to be a family again,” she said in a voice so pleading that it caused Jules to shutter. “She’ll get Shay back, I know she will, if you’ll leave her alone. But you don’t want us to be a family. You just want Jules all for yourself.”

  “Just get out of here, Simone,” Jeremy yelled, “and I mean now!”

  “You go to hell!” Simone yelled back. “You don’t tell me what to do! You won’t ruin me too, I don’t care how much you put me down and try to turn my own sister against me!”

  Jeremy laughed. “Girl, you’re crazy. Nobody’s thinking about your crazy butt!”

  “I’m crazy?”

  “Yeah, you’re crazy!”

  “Okay,” Simone said, nodding her head, and left the room hurriedly.

  “Check her out!” Jeremy said to Jules, still shaking his head. “What is wrong with that sister of yours?”

  “She’s in shock, Jeremy,” Jules said angrily, snatching her clothes from the floor as she put them on.

  “She’s nuts,” Jeremy replied, buttoning his pants.

  Jules had already had major misgivings about going this far with Jeremy, knowing that it would change their relationship forever. She cared for him deeply, maybe even loved him, but she wasn’t at all certain that she was ready to take this turn. But he was so insistent, and so charming, his wonderful br
ight white smile making her feel as if he was the sweetest man on earth. And he begged her. Just this one time, Jules, he begged. Just this one time. So to please him, and to satisfy those growing yearnings she’d been having herself, she did it. But now, seeing Simone’s reaction, seeing Simone’s pain, she felt dirty, not satisfied. And deeply ashamed.

  Jules was still feeling the shame when Simone returned to the bedroom. Only Simone wasn’t back to apologize, or to make any amends. She was back with a vengeance.

  “So I’m crazy, Jeremy?” she said as if she was continuing a conversation that had not ended. “I’m crazy?” She said this and started hurrying toward Jeremy. Jules didn’t see the knife until Simone had lifted it from her side and lunged at Jeremy. He was just pulling on his shirt, and it was covering his face at that very moment, but Jules screamed such a blood curdling scream that he nearly lost his balance.

  Simone, however, kept her aim and lunged for him, that big butcher’s knife burrowing an inch into his bare stomach before he was able to knock Simone down and sling it out. The blood that gushed out took him to his knees, and Simone, who had fallen against the wall, was so transfixed, so stunned herself by the sight of the blood, that she could do nothing but stare at him and breathe in and out in hyperventilation.

  Jules called 911, as Jeremy had screamed for her to do, and after hanging up the phone she looked at him. He was wrapping his shirt tightly around his wound and still yelling at Simone, calling her all kinds of colorful names. Jules looked at Simone, who looked just as confused as Shay had looked the day they left her behind. And Jules was in the middle. Caught between Jeremy and Simone’s visceral hatred of each other. Caught between their stubborn inability to even appreciate the position they were always putting her in. But she had to choose. Finally, she had to choose. And she did.

  She hurried to Jeremy’s side.

  FOUR

  Six years later

  “I still need a BLT, ham on rye, cheeseburger on the board, Gert, and I still need fries all three.”

  “And I still need a million dollars,” Gert, the cook, replied to Simone as she shoved a plate of spaghetti onto the counter cut-out that separated the kitchen from the eating area of the diner. “Spaghetti’s up.”

  “What about my liverwurst?” Simone asked as she grabbed the plate of spaghetti.

  “Liverwurst, BLT, cheeseburgers, it’s all coming up, Simone,” Gert said in her normal exasperation. “I ain’t like you. I’ve only got two hands.”

  “Is that right?” Simone said with a chuckle as she hurried the spaghetti to a table near the back.

  Simone Rivers, now twenty-two, was the head waitress at the Sky Diner near what was then Joe Robbie Stadium, and she loved her job, the people she worked with, and every talkative customer that came through that door.

  Including Bellini, her boss, who was coming through the door clapping his hands. “All right people,” he said to his workers the way he always said, “let’s get a move on! I see empty tables. I see people waiting for food!”

  Simone and the other waitresses ignored him, the way they always did, and he’d usually get distracted by a customer talking to him or asking him what he thought about their beloved Dolphins. But this time, as Simone passed by him, he grabbed her by the arm and slipped a letter into her apron pocket.

  “This came for you, Simmie,” he said, his blue eyes looking deep into her green ones, letting her know, just by his look alone, the seriousness. Simone nodded.

  “Thanks, Mr. B.,” she said and hurried for the counter to grab her order of liverwurst. Her heart, however, was pounding against her chest. She only allowed one kind of mail to be delivered at her job, and that was the mail that dealt with her getting custody of her sister Shay. Since she was always at work, often pulling double shift on a daily basis, she used her work address as her mailing address. And as soon as she delivered the liverwurst, and the BLT, ham, and burger orders, she asked for “ten” and was granted the break by Bellini.

  She went out of the back kitchen door and sat on the stone step near the garbage bins. She took a deep breathe when she saw, as she had expected to see, that the letter was from the state of Georgia, and then quickly opened it. And she exhaled. The news was the same. A resounding no. No to custody of Serita Rivers. No to visitation with Serita Rivers. No for the fourth time in four years. Simone leaned her head against the screen door frame.

  Six years ago she was arrested for stabbing Jeremy Druce in his stomach, a wound that only needed some stitches and no hospital stay, but was enough to place her in juvenile detention on an assault with a deadly weapon charge pending her trial. If he would not have pressed charges, she would have been immediately released back into his custody. But he did press charges, with Jules having no choice but to testify and tell the truth, which added up to her testifying on Jeremy’s behalf. And against Simone. Found guilty, although her public defender tried to claim self defense, she was remanded into the custody of the juvenile division of the judicial system for two years, until her eighteenth birthday.

  Her first year of incarceration was filled with bitterness and rage, against Jeremy, against Jules, against the world and everybody in it. But by her second year she resigned herself to her fate. She even began attending Bible studies and church services and soon became what she had never thought about becoming: a born-again Christian. Jules, while visiting her one day, said she was simply having one of those “jail house conversions” that never lasted, but Simone didn’t argue with her. All she knew was that she used to have a deep-seated anger and bitterness that wasn’t destroying anybody but herself, that same anger and bitterness that got her incarcerated in the first place, and now she felt free. She didn’t argue with Jules at all. She simply kept urging Jules to do something with her influence in this life as the girlfriend of a doctor, since she loved to mention it, and try and get Shay back.

  Jules, however, never tried, her college career and life with Jeremy was more than enough stress for her. But as soon as Simone turned eighteen and was released from confinement, she tried. Every year for four years she tried. But the answer was always no. They wouldn’t even allow her to have visitation with Shay, believing that it was too late in the game for her to try and “disrupt” her sister’s life. Besides, the state of Georgia stated on this last petition, Simone was far too young and way too unstable herself to adequately care for a “high-strung” teen like Serita.

  ***

  The bus stopped two blocks from where Jules worked and Simone, with her backpack that contained all of her letters and correspondences with the Georgia courts, and all of her research on custodial rights, hurried off of the bus and ran to her sister’s office. It was nearing five o’clock, and the street traffic as well as the sidewalk traffic began to converge into a controlled chaos that found Simone bumping and sliding her way through the throng as she entered the large office complex in downtown Miami Beach.

  Jules Rivers was seated behind her executive desk reviewing the pitch she and her staff had to make tomorrow morning to win a consulting contract with a local brewery, when her younger sister came bounding into her office.

  Jules secretary, hurrying in behind Simone, looked flustered. “I told her you couldn’t see anyone right now, Miss Rivers,” she said nervously. “But she wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important, Jules,” Simone said and Jules, already swamped with “important” matters, exhaled.

  “It’s okay,” she said to her secretary. The secretary, still upset, nodded politely and then closed the door as she left.

  “It’s really a bad time, Simone.”

  “I know. And don’t blame your secretary because she did try to stop me. But this won’t take but a few minutes.”

  Jules removed her reading glasses and motioned for her sister to sit down. Simone, Jules knew, was one of a kind, a person who’d been through so much but still had managed to blossom into a smart, beautiful Christian woman who wa
sn’t bitter or angry at the world, but hopeful. What hadn’t changed, however, Jules also noticed, was that crusader spirit deep within her, that obsession of hers to somehow make amends for a decision she made when she was only fourteen. Which was probably the reason for this visit.

  “You have five minutes, Simone,” Jules said after Simone had sat down and slung that ridiculous backpack she was always carrying off of her small shoulder. Simone then unzipped the backpack, pulled out a stack of papers, and handed them to Jules. Jules put back on her glasses, leaned back, and began reading the letter on top.

  Simone leaned back, too, and watched her sister read, one of her legs shaking so nervously, so impatiently, that she had to cross it over the other one to keep it still. Jules, she thought, was nothing like her, but had grown into a graceful twenty-four-year-old who looked so incredible now, with her long, straight black hair, her big, cat eyes, and her tall model’s body. She wore Prada head-to-toe, or some other Italian designers whose names Simone couldn’t pronounce, and was the epitome of a professional woman on the rise. Especially as compared with Simone, who barely passed her GED and whose dreams tended more toward having her sisters together again and maybe someday owning a business together with them, like a beauty salon. And as for her clothes, Prada would never make the cut. Simone, in fact, looked down at her attire, a pair of jeans and an oversized Miami Dolphins jersey, and there was no comparison, she thought. Jeremy Druce, that snake, had set Jules up too well.

  When Jules finished reading the letter, she removed her glasses and looked at her eager sister. “Why are you still doing this?” she asked her.

  “Because we left Shay behind, Jules.”

  “That was eight years ago! Shay is fifteen years old now. You saw what that letter said. She’s a high-strung teenager now. There’s no way they’ll turn over custody of a teenager to somebody who’s barely able to take care of her own self.”

  “That’s why I came to you.”