Chapter 5

"My precious one, my darling one. Don't let your lashes weep. My cherished one, my weary one. It's time to go to sleep...." Celine Dion crooned one of the chosen songs, from somewhere in  the distance, a backroom of the funeral home.

It had been approximately 8 days since Amaris passed into the temporary sleep of death in Satan's Wicked System as Jehovah's Witnesses believe. In a silver casket trimmed in  yellow with the words Sleep, My Princess embroidered across the top of the lid, she lay in state, dressed like the tomboy she had been in life in dark rinse jeans and yellow blouse with her flowing black hair washed and brushed out beautifully in a halo clipped with silver barrettes rather than plaited or pulled back as usual. Into the casket had been placed various mementos: casual pictures of her at home with her mother and siblings, studio portraits in frilly dresses, stuffed animals, and handwritten notes all baring homage to an adored and cherished daughter and sister. 

Dorinda sat on a small couch off to the side, spending as much time as she could with her youngest child in a feeble attempt to make up for the stolen 31 months she had been denied any and all access. More than once she said, "I still remember the day you was born..." then recounted the events and various others to Amaris. 

There was a mirror above the bed and when you finally started coming out everybody the doctors, nurses, and residents were like 'look at that beautiful head of hair'! So I looked up, even though by that point I didn't care what you were going to be because I'd been in labor for over a day with nary pain medicine, not even a tylenol because of your unsteady heart rate, and I saw nothing but a headful of silky jet black curls. When the doctor cut me to free your shoulders and you finally slid out, the whole room erupted into applause and said 'It's a girl!'. I was overjoyed but the doctor was mad because you gave him such a hard time by slipping out of the forceps every time he tried to grab you until I finally told him I would just push you out, then he didn't even get to pop you because you came out screaming and we all knew your lungs were clear already. But thank God you didn't turn out to be a holler box. You was so calm and mellow from the first night just laying in the bassinet and looking around with those slanted gray eyes of yours'. Everybody said how gorgeous you was and even asked me if they could have you. They kept asking me what race your daddy was, what you was mixed with to make you so pretty. You can't trust folks nowadays, so when I slept I kept my hand on your bassinet. They weren't getting my baby.....

She looked at her younger daughter again for the umpteenth scrutinizing every detail. She had had Amaris's pierced at six weeks of age and though as a tomboy she didn't like it, kept jewelry on her from her earliest years. At sometime during the past few years, she had purchased and sent diamond studded earrings to her thinking that the ones she had been wearing when she initially left to Florida were tarnished, and had been dismayed to see Amaris's ears bare in the hospital. She wondered out loud if Isaac's girlfriend or some other shifty character that frequented his residence, had stolen her child's jewelry to which Ibrahim had told her "Don't expect to ever get them back." 

It had been very difficult to pull herself out of the depths of denial and admit that there was no telling what or who her youngest son and daughter had been exposed to over the past few years. People talked and she listened secretly angry at herself that she hadn't listened when her own children tried to tell her something was not right. One thing she could not, would not accept, was that by trying to protect them, she had sent her baby girl straight to her death. 

"She looks just like the last time I saw her." Karisma commented. "She was in bed after I told her not to listen to Isaac....."

"Huh?" Dorinda roused from her stupor a bit. "What would Isaac have been doing telling her to get out of bed?"

Karisma rolled her eyes, the golden undertones catching the glaring overhead lights, and took a seat next to her mother with her 4 year old daughter on her lap. "I think you're playing dumb on purpose..." she heard herself say. "But this is what happened the night I'm talking about."

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"Wake up d****t!" 

The overhead light was on in Amaris and Machlon's bedroom. Karisma could hear Isaac in there as she passed by on the way downstairs to get some crackers for Hayvn, who had the uncanny knack to wake up hungry exactly when her mama was sleeping the deepest. Her maternal instincts had improved a great deal in the nearly 2 years since her little girl was born shortly after her 16th birthday and the strengthening senses had been telling her all along that something was up between her second older brother and two youngest siblings from the moment the trio arrived at their mother's home. Just one look told her that the youngest two were not the same children he initially took out of this residence 7 months prior and his bizarre possessiveness had unnerved the entire family.

"It's 2 o'clock in the morning, Isa. Let them sleep!" Karisma could not resist opening their bedroom door and sticking up for them. "Don't you ride them hard enough during the day?" 

Amaris was sitting up in bed while Machlon had burrowed deeper. 

Isaac stood between their beds. 

"Tend to your own b*****d and leave these to me." was his gruff reply.

"Leave them to you?" Karisma echoed. "You ain't their daddy."

"They don't have no daddy!" Isaac quipped. 

"Oh really?" Karisma smirked. "Then tell me who the white guy sniffing around and asking anyone he can track down is? You know Mama was worried about DFACS nosing around and tipping him off." She regretted her words a moment later though.

"Stop it!" Machlon yelped as Isaac's hand slipped under the duvet and latched on to his ear.

"I said 'get up and get dressed' and that's exactly what the f**k I meant." He repeated sounding remarkably like their mother albeit much harsher and dragging his kid brother out of bed. "We're leaving in 20 minutes."

Sensible Amaris crawled out of bed and picked up the pair of jeans and long sleeved shirt draped over the back of her desk chair heading into the closet to change. She seemed almost relieved to be told she was going to leave home again. This was why Isaac wasn't angry with her. 

"Isaac Romulus Diaz have you lost your goddamn mind?" Karisma couldn't hide her emotions any longer. Their mother pussyfooted around him refusing to call him out for his madness. Some things plain old didn't make any sense no matter how you spun it and dragging a sleeping kid from his bed in the middle of the night in his own mother's home was unjustifiable. "Leave them alone and get out of here. It's 3 o'clock in the morning and they're exactly where they belong, warm and safe at home in bed with Mama next door!"

"Something came up in Florida. We need to go." Isaac stood his ground.

"No, you need to go." Karisma corrected. "Our baby brother and sister need to get back in their beds and go back to sleep then get up later and eat the breakfast Mama or me is going to fix for them. What you've got going on ain't got nothing to do with them."

Amaris emerged from the closet.

"Take those clothes off and get back in the bed, No-No. You're not going anywhere with Isaac....tonight at least."  

Again Karisma was made to regret her words.

"Stop it!" Machlon gasped again as he found his breathing severely restricted by Isaac's vice grip on the back of his neck. He was pulled up from the floor where he'd fallen and collapsed on his bed breathless when released. 

At a loss for words and all respect for her older brother, Karisma went to fetch a cold wet washcloth to ease the swelling of the marks he'd left on their baby brother's neck. For some reason she did not check to see if their mother had heard what was going on. Ever since the family moved into this house nearly a decade ago, their mother had insisted on having her babies close to her, right next door in case they needed her for anything, yet they needed her now and she was nowhere to be found. 

"What did I tell you about running your f*****g mouth to Mama?" 

Softly so as to go unnoticed for as long as possible, Karisma approached the door to her siblings' bedroom again and stood in the shadows listening. 

"But I didn't!" Machlon insisted. "I just said I wanted to stay here."

"And why the Hell did you say that when I told you before we ever left St.Petersburg that you weren't coming to stay?"

"Because I don't wanna go back...."

"Who asked you what the f**k you wanted, kid?" 

She had had all she could stand of this and entered the room making a beeline for Machlon's bed. She applied the washcloth tenderly and glowered at Isaac. "You ought to be ashamed of your goddamn self! It's a crying shame that they'd be better off with their daddy than with you, somebody they've known for their whole lives." 

In her mind she made a mental note to never trust him alone with her child. If this is how he treated them while they slept mere yards away from their mother, she did not even want to think about how bad they caught it while in Florida with him. And these were big kids who could somewhat stand up to him. Her poor baby wouldn't stand a chance. 

"That honkie never wanted them!" Isaac retorted. 

"I say again, you know what you're doing ain't right. Somebody they love and trust wakes them up in the middle of the night to beat and interrogate them. One thing's for sure." Karisma wasn't deterred. "Their dad would never think of laying a finger on them because there'd be Hell to pay. You only get away with this s**t because Mama acts like she's suddenly been struck blind, deaf, dumb, and stupid." 

After several more tense moments Isaac left the room without saying anything in defense of himself and his bizarre actions. 

"I warned you." Amaris yawned throwing her clothes back over her desk chair and climbing back into bed. 

Karisma looked down at Machlon who had not spoken since she reentered the room.

His green eyes were red from crying and his facial expression broke her heart. 

She had known him for 14 years and had never not once seen that look, out of all the times things hadn't gone his way. 

It had been after midnight when Machlon finally left his mother's bedroom exhausted and hoarse. "Mommy, please don't make me go back. Please, I want to stay here with you." She had stroked his hair, after first asking him who Isaac had allowed to butcher it and critiquing the cut, until he was nearly asleep. He had felt like a little boy again, her baby boy, and as such he had worked up the courage to ask her to let him stay, come back home and resume his sheltered life as her prince. "Please, let me come home." As he heard Isaac tromp upstairs he had risen abruptly and returned to his own bedroom thinking all was well.

Never in a million years had he expected to be betrayed by his own mother. 

"It'll be alright, baby brother." Karisma whispered wiping the tears from his face with her hands. I know you're hurt." 

Amaris turned away and faced the wall behind her own bed willing herself to sleep. 

Without knowing it she was spending her last night ever in her mother's home. 

Karisma made a point to kiss her and say how much she loved her although she knew her words were on deaf ears, before turning out their light and returning to watch over her own child.

Dorinda put her head in her hands and wept openly for the first time since her baby girl's body grew cold in her arms.

Author's Note

please be brutally honest