EPILOGUE

“TELL ME WHERE THE MONEY AT BITCH!” the goon said as he circled the girl who sat bound to the wooden chair. The beauty just sat there and cried in agony; the ropes were tied so tightly that they stopped her blood circulation. The masked goon grew frustrated and struck her across the temple with the butt of his gun, splitting her flesh open. The blood trickled down her face as she remained silent, but cringed in pain. “Tell me! Where does Po keep the money?!” he screamed as he ripped the ski-mask off his head, tired of waiting for a response. He knew that the money was somewhere in the house because he had been following her drug dealing boyfriend for two weeks and witnessed him enter the house with his street money, only to exit empty-handed. He knew that the stash was inside the house somewhere. The woman just cried in pain and never answered the intruder’s questions, only frustrating him to the brink of rage.

“Yo, if you don’t tell me where the stash at . . . I’m going to blow your brains all over your pretty little wall,” the goon said as he pointed the gun at the young woman’s head. He waited for a response, only to get nothing from her except the constant crying. The goon knew that he didn’t have a lot of time, and he had already searched the house from top to bottom and came up with nothing. He slapped the girl out of anger, taking her silence as disrespect. He put his gun in his waist and hostilely wrapped his hands around the girl’s neck and squeezed with all his might. He watched as her face turned blush red and she squirmed but there wasn’t much she could do because of the ropes restraining her limbs. The goon thought about how she had blatantly ignored all of his questions, and he wanted to see her die. In his twisted mind, it would be payback for her undermining his authority. He continued to squeeze her throat until the squirming stopped and her eyes stared into space, gazing at nothing. She was dead.

The goon loosened his grip, letting her chin fall into her chest. He breathed heavily and stepped back looking at the woman’s lifeless body. He then took one more look around the room and noticed a plaque on the wall. It was a high school diploma that read: Michigan School for the Deaf, with the name Scarlett Jones under it. That’s when it began to make sense to the goon. She couldn’t answer my questions . . . because she was deaf. She didn’t even hear me, he thought as he was overwhelmed with guilt. He quickly fled from the house empty-handed leaving the twenty-two-year-old beauty asleep forever.

* * *

James “Po” Taylor drove down the highway and yawned as he glanced down at the clock on his dashboard. He hated that he was coming home so late but it was for a good reason. He had picked up all the money he was owed in the streets. He finally had enough paper saved to buy the house he had promised his long-time girlfriend, Scarlett. He was deeply in love with her and had known her since she was a child. Although she was deaf, they had no problem communicating 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 collapsed on his chest on the brink of her own demise.

Liberty saw a bright white light and she smiled knowing that she was about to meet A’shai and they could finally be happy together. No more pain and no more of life’s ills. She was ready to go to the after-life. She saw a little boy standing in front of the bright light. As she looked closer she saw it was A’shai as a young boy. He smiled from ear to ear and called her name.

“Liberty,” he said in a playful tone. “Liberty,” he repeated as he reached out his hand for her. Liberty knew that she was approaching death and rather than being scared . . . she was happy. She began to walk towards him but for some reason she could not get any closer.

“Liberty,” the paramedic called as he stood over her.

“No,” Liberty whispered as she slowly shook her head. “No . . . Let me go with him.” The paramedics scurried to save her life, something that Liberty did not want. Liberty tried to tell the paramedic to let her die, but she was too weak to get another word out. An oxygen mask was placed over her mouth as she tried to mouth to them that she didn’t want to be saved. She overheard the other paramedic talking.

“What happened to the guy that was there with her?” The second paramedic asked who stayed in the car while the other two went to retrieve Liberty.

“He was D.O.A. We had to call in the coroner.”

ONE MONTH LATER

Po stood over the grave of his lost love and gently placed a bouquet of flowers on the grave. Po rubbed his hand across her tombstone and bowed his head as he prayed, asking GOD to take care of his woman. Guilt overwhelmed him as he thought about how he had put Scarlett in harm’s way. A single tear streamed down his cheek as he knelt down and shook his head. “Whoever did this to you . . . they are going to pay. I promise. You . . .” his voice began to crack. “You didn’t deserve this baby,” he continued. Po stood up and began to walk to his car. He felt his phone vibrate on his hip. He looked at the caller ID and noticed that it was his right hand man, Rocko.

“Hello,” he said as he placed the phone to his ear.

“Yo, I know where the kid at that ran in your spot,” Rocko said with the hostility showing in his voice.

“Word?” Po asked as he clenched his jaw and his heart began to speed up. Po had been waiting on a break for two weeks, and his man had finally found one. Po had put fifty thousand on the goon’s head, and it had paid off quickly. The streets had spoken.

“Yep. I’m in front of the kid’s mother’s house right now. Niggas is saying that he skipped town because he knew that you would be looking for him.”

“So, let’s bring him back into town. You already know how we going to do that, right?” Po said as he felt his trigger finger begin to itch.

“Say no more,” Rocko said just before he hung up the phone. Without saying it, Po had just ordered the goon’s mother to be killed and he would find out the logistics later. He had to return to the hospital and pick up Scarlett’s belongings and sign a few papers since he was her only family. Scarlett’s parents were killed in a car crash, so Po was all she had. He also had to sign off on the donor papers. Scarlett always expressed that she would be an organ donor when she died and Po had kept her wishes. As fate may have it, someone with the same rare blood type as Scarlett had needed her heart. The organ was immediately removed from her chest cavity moments after she was pronounced dead. It was one of the hardest decisions Po had to make but he knew that Scarlett would have wanted it that way. For some strange reason, something in the gut of Po’s belly wanted to know where her heart went. He wanted to know where the love of his life’s special heart had ended up. Nevertheless, he would never know. It was against the hospital policies so all he could do was wonder.

Liberty walked into the hospital to see the surgeon who performed the heart transplant. She had been released from the hospital only a month prior and was instructed to return on that day to get a check-up. Although she had a new heart, it was still broken. It would forever be empty, and A’shai was the only man that could fill the space. She felt the soreness of the stitches that rested on the left side of her chest and it would always be a constant reminder of the reason A’shai committed suicide. If only he had waited . . . then we would be together right now, she thought. She kept replaying the night that he drank the Black Tea that had eventually sealed his fate. Her life was like a blur for the past couple of weeks. Burying A’shai, going back into the home that they once shared, and living alone. She felt like her life would never be normal again. A’shai had enough money stashed away so money wasn’t a problem. She had a nice home and every material thing that she wanted but none of it mattered without her knight in shining armor. Liberty went to get checked by the doctor and after getting her prescription she was on her way back out. She headed out the door, and it seemed like time slowed down and everything began to happen in slow motion. She saw a young man coming towards her in a black hoodie and then a tinted truck slowed down behind him. The only thing she saw was the back window roll down, and it felt like her heart dropped to her stomach. The sinister face of Samad appeared. He had been looking for Liberty for years and had finally caught up with her. It was as if she had seen a ghost. A’shai’s bullets hadn’t been enough to take his life. Since that day, Samad sought out revenge and vowed to kill A’shai and Liberty. He sat in the back seat and looked at her with pure hatred and crazed intentions.

Liberty saw another masked man stick his body out of the window while holding an AK-47 assault rifle. She froze in fear, her mouth dropped and her legs began to shake. She could see the goon point the gun directly at her and she braced herself, preparing for her death. Her life flashed before her eyes and she dropped her purse and waited for the gunshot that would end it all . . .

TO BE CONTINUED