"This is my little hide away," she said, opening the French doors that led to the deck.
"Hide away?"
She smiled and went out on the deck, seemingly to avoid my question. So I followed her outside and asked it again. She looked irritated by my question as well as my presence on the deck. "I come out here to get away."
"Get away from what, Mrs. Childers?"
"More to get away from all the stress and pressures, you know, and be by myself. It’s so peaceful out here, it gives me a chance to relax and think."
"Bullshit." I said to myself. "Yes, It is very peaceful."
She went back in the house and I followed behind her. "Can I get you a drink?"
"Thank you. Do you have Johnnie Walker Black?"
"No, will Hennessy do?"
"Hennessy is fine."
I sat on the couch and watched her as she poured. She looked in my direction, but she dropped her eyes when she saw I was looking at her. She handed me my drink and sat down across from me and started to talk. So we drank Hennessy, quite a bit of Hennessy and laughed and talked for hours. Talk about nothing, really. Mostly a lot of reminiscing about her, Jake, and Chésará growing up dirt poor in Philly. "Dirt poor and on lock down. That was us, couldn’t go anywhere. Except this one night I snuck out and I went over my girl Tina’s house. Naturally she was shocked to see me. She says she was gettin’ ready to go ride with Beverly. I couldn’t stand that bitch but her and Tina were cool and I didn’t have nothing else to do. So we’re standin’ outside waitin’ when this burgundy Dodge Daytona hack back pulls up. I never forgot that car," she paused. "Beverly was sittin’ in the back. I don’t know who the two chicks in the front seat were. But I jumped in the car anyway. They said they were goin’ to get some weed."
"You smoke weed, Mrs. Childers?"
"Every once and a while," she said and raised her glass. "This is my drug of choice. Back then never. I had only heard other people talk about it. But I was excited about tryin’ it, cause you know I never did anything. I was gonna be in trouble when I got home anyway might as well go for it all."
"You might as well have some stories to talk about when you’re back on lock down."
"You know what I’m sayin’," she smiled. "Anyway, I started chokin’ the first time I hit it and didn’t want anymore." Mrs. Childers laughed and got up to fix us another drink. While she was gone I got up, took a quick look around and quickly reclaimed my seat. When she returned with our drinks Mrs. Childers handed me mine and sat down next to me. We talked our way through that drink and then the conversation turned. "I remember the first time I caught Chilly with another women. I was so mad I wanted to kill him. We were at a party at one of his friend’s houses. It was the usual dope boy party. People doin’ drugs, listening to music, and having sex all over the place. The place was packed, and it was so hot in there and the air wasn’t doin’ any good. After awhile I noticed that I couldn’t find Chilly. So I went looking for him. I looked outside, didn’t see him. Then I started going from room to room, that’s when I saw him coming out of a room with some ho. Both of them still putting their clothes back on."
"The least they could have done was get dressed before they came out of the room."
"I thought so too."
"What did you do?"
"I slapped the shit outta him, cursed both of them out and left."
"That was it?"
"No. Chilly ran after me, and started with the, you know, ‘Baby I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for you to see that, she didn’t mean nothing to me’ and all that shit."
"The usual."
"But I was young, stupid, and in love. A deadly combination. So I bought it, I went back inside with him, and everything was cool. We hung out the rest of the night like two lovebirds. Until most of the people left. So there I am standing by the kitchen, right." She lit up a cigarette and blew the smoke in my direction. "Chilly was sitting on the couch. So I waved to him and smiled. He got up, walked over to me, and back handed me down to the floor. He yelled for me to get up, I tried to crawl away from him, but I couldn’t. He grabbed me and pulled me up by my hair. This time he punched me in the face. He kept on punching me. I don’t know how many times he hit me. Then he stopped. He looked at me and said ‘bitch don’t you ever raise your hand no higher than your waist to me,’ and he walked away. Here’s the funny part."
"There’s a funny part?"
"So there I am lying on the floor, crying, face swollen and bleedin’. Blood all over my clothes. People walking by me. The only one who helped me was that same ho he came out the room with. She helped me up off the floor, took me into the same room they were in, and cleaned the blood off my face. She even gave me some clothes to put on. After awhile Chilly knocked on the door, wantin’ to know if I’m ready to go home."
"I guess I don’t have to ask if you went with him."
"What else could I do? I was scared to death of him. On our way home he was just as nice to me like nothing ever happened."
"Why do you stay with him?"
"Please, Nick, where am I goin’? What am I gonna do? I tried to get away before and he always comes after me. There’s no telling what he’ll do if I try it again."
"When are you gonna tell me what’s really goin’ on, Mrs. Childers?"