Brooklyn Bombshells: Part 1

“What are you doing this weekend, Mecca? I wanna come by.”

“I’m free. Maybe we can go and see a movie.”

“I’m definitely down for that. Shit, I need to get away.”

“Bet then. It’s a date,” Mecca joked.

Chanel giggled. “It’s a date then.”

Chanel walked into her bedroom to find the usual—Claire sprawled across her bed. But she was lying face-down. She took one look at her sister’s position and immediately suspected something was wrong. The room felt too still. Chanel soon noticed the empty pill bottle on the floor.

Quickly, she said to her friend, “Mecca, let me call you back.”

Chanel hurried toward Claire with worry. This isn’t happening again, she screamed to herself, thinking about when she found her father unconscious on the kitchen floor a few weeks earlier.

“You stupid bitch!” Chanel shouted. “Why?”

She shook Claire, desperately trying to wake her up, but to no avail. Chanel screamed with heavy frustration. She had no choice but to call 911—again.

It felt like a nightmare to Chanel. It was happening in a blur. The paramedics arrived and hurriedly went to work on trying to save Claire’s life. The only thing Chanel could do was watch. She wasn’t a big fan of her sister—some days she hated that bitch—but she didn’t want her to die.

She rode in the ambulance with Claire to the hospital and called Bacardi and Charlie to tell them the grim news. The paramedics frantically tried to pump Claire’s stomach. She was unconscious with low vital signs. Claire was still alive, but barely.

Once again, Chanel found herself at Brookdale hospital with another family member.

Why me?

When Bacardi got to the hospital, she was devastated. She wanted answers. Why was Claire in the hospital?

Chanel was in the waiting area alone, and the moment Bacardi set eyes on her youngest, she went off on Chanel. “What the fuck did you do to her? What the fuck happened?!”

“She tried to kill herself, that’s what happened!” Chanel shouted.

Bacardi didn’t want to believe it. She argued with Chanel, but Chanel stood her ground. They weren’t about to blame her for this. No way!

First Butch, now Claire. Bacardi felt like her family was cursed. “This fuckin’ family!” she hollered.

When Bacardi was finally able to

see Claire, her condition was stabilized. The medical staff at the hospital had to insert plastic tubing into Clair’s mouth, down her throat, and into her stomach to quickly empty the contents.

Claire was asleep on the gurney. Bacardi went toward her daughter with a disheartened expression. She blamed Harvard. She blamed the media. She blamed the people in her neighborhood for mocking her daughter—for calling Claire a cheat and a liar. They all drove her precious daughter insane.

She released a deep sigh and had to fight the tears from falling. Her family and her livelihood were under attack.

“She needs help, ma,” Chanel uttered from behind her.

Bacardi turned and glared at her youngest. She didn’t say a word. She was defeated by grief, along with the trials and tribulations of life.

Bacardi committed her daughter to a 72-hour hold for psychiatric observation. She couldn’t help but to wish that it was Chanel.

***

Bacardi sat by her bedroom window and smoked cigarette after cigarette. If it wasn’t one thing, then it was another. Everything was falling apart. Since her arrest and the cop killing on New Year’s Day, it had been a troublesome and hectic year.

With God in jail and her unemployed, there wasn’t any income coming into the household. She had to swallow her pride and march her ass down to the welfare office and apply for government assistance and food stamps. She had a sick husband, a disgraced daughter, another daughter that she felt was trouble, and Charlie, who was of no use without God.

Bacardi sighed heavily and frowned. She gazed out the window. It was a rainy day—a downpour outside had been going on for the past hour. The heavy rain cascaded against the window. The day was lousy like her life. It was October and the holidays were looming. Bacardi needed Charlie to do something. She needed her to find a way to get God out of jail so they could live again, so they could get back on top.