Color of Deception (7 page)

Chapter 17

Debra had arrived at the hospital within thirty minutes like she had told Carlisha. She had harassed the nurses to tell her which room Carlisha was in, but she was denied. They told her Carlisha was already in the process of giving birth and that she would have to wait. Debra’s heart sunk when they told her Carlisha was having her baby early. She immediately started to pray that the baby and Carlisha would be all right. She asked God for the baby not to have any complications and that all his organs were fully developed and that he was ready to thrive on his own outside his mother’s womb. But that was hours ago. Debra sat impatiently in the waiting area. None of the nurses or doctors would give her any more updates because she wasn’t related to Carlisha. She resisted the urge to go postal and barge her way into Carlisha’s room. Her instincts told her something was terribly wrong.
The baby must have died. Oh God please comfort my friend!
Debra prayed silently with her eyes closed and the back of head pressed against the wall while she sat in the chair with her hands clasps together tightly in her lap.

“Hi. I don’t know who to ask for, but I’m next of kin for Carlisha Mitchell…” Debra heard a familiar voice. She opened her eyes slowly to see the back of a gentleman standing at the nurse’s station.

“What is your name sir?” a nurse asked the man.

Debra got up and walked toward them.

“Peter Holmes.”

“Pete, you’re Carlisha’s boss. Remember me, Debra?” Debra interrupted, thankful that perhaps she could get some answers on what was going on with Carlisha through Pete.

“Yes!” Pete smiled brightly at the sight of Debra. Her face immediately eased some of the apprehension he had about the whole ordeal he was faced with. However the circumstances under which he was graced with her beautiful face didn’t please him at all.

“I’ve been here for hours now since Carlisha called me and told me she was on her way to the hospital, but nobody is telling me what’s going on.”

“Sir. Ah, I’ll have someone come out and speak with you shortly,” the nurse said sympathetically.

“Okay,” Pete responded to the nurse solemnly. He didn’t want to have to deal with any of this. Now Debra stood in front of him desperate for some answers about what was going on with her friend. Pete swore a curse was placed on his life. He just lost his wife a little over a year ago now he was dealing with the death of a young woman he once saw as a daughter, even though he was nothing but a jackass to her since his wife’s death, the thought of that deepened his sorrow over Carlisha’s death.

Pete didn’t know what to say to Debra. Her face was etched with worry and he wished he could replace it was joy – but not with the news he would have to share. He pulled her to the side. “Let’s sit over there.” He guided them to some vacant seats. The waiting area was eerily quiet, perhaps because it was so early in the morning; it was now three-fifteen.

“Something happened to the baby – didn’t it?” Debra asked after she sat in a seat next to Pete.

A lump clogged Pete’s throat which made it difficult for him to speak. A desire to kiss Debra briefly consumed his thoughts, he figured that would be the magic he needed to erase all the fog in his life and perhaps jumpstart his heart so that he could truly feel love and compassion again. But he brushed it away. “Carlisha died after giving birth to her son,” Pete informed her. He watched as Debra’s face instantly changed from worry to sorrow like a switch of a light. Tears welled up in her eyelids, then released like a flood down her face. He gently pulled her into his arms as she relieved her grief on his chest as she cried. Pete cried too as he gently caressed Debra’s red hair. He cried for his wife, he cried for Carlisha, he cried for the hate he still harbored in his heart for black people and he cried for his desire for Debra that made him afraid he may be losing his love for his dead wife.

**KC**

Rachel and her parents came to the hospital right after they received the call from Pete about what happened. It took Rachel’s parents a while to console her after she heard the news. Rachel then went ahead and called Carlisha’s co-workers to let them know that she had passed away after giving birth.

Rachel, her parents, Noah and Leah, along with Debra and Pete stood behind a glass window as they watched a nurse holding Carlisha’s newborn son for them to see. He was the tiniest thing they had all ever seen. His four and a half pounds was swaddled neatly in a blanket and his small head was covered with a pink and blue cap. His eyes opened and closed slowly as he tried to focus. His dark mocha skin already resembled his mother.

“I didn’t know she was pregnant,” Rachel spoke, breaking the grief of silence among them. “He is so adorable!” She smiled as she looked at the precious gift from God in front of her. She touched the mirror as to touch the young man that captured her heart. His little mouth curved up into a smile she swore was geared toward her.

“He’s so precious. It’s sad that Carlisha didn’t get a chance to hold him.” Leah watched as the nurse cradled the baby before them.

Debra cried softly as she looked at the precious face of Carlisha Junior. She couldn’t believe that Carlisha’s son would also go through the world without his parents. Carlisha was gone and Debra was clueless as to who the father was.

Pete looked at the baby emotionless. He didn’t know what to feel, how to feel or why to feel. He just wanted to go home, drink a beer and get lost in sports news. All of this sorrow was rocking the boat of his own grief over the loss of his wife. It was bringing back painful, painful memories.

“What are you going to name the baby?” Debra looked up at Pete who was standing next to her expressionless.

“What?” he looked at Debra confused.

“What are you going to name the baby?” she asked again, she pointed to the bassinet the baby was just placed in by the nurse.

Pete turned and walked away from the glass window. Debra assumed he was still trying to deal with his grief of Carlisha’s death. She walked up next to him. “I can help you with the baby and I am more than willing to babysit on my days off.”

“I can help too Uncle Pete. I can even spend some nights at your house,” Rachel volunteered.

“Noah and I would like to help anyway we can too,” Leah offered.

“Look, I’m not raising anybody’s black baby!” Pete reacted in an outburst. All their talk about the baby and assuming he was raising it irritated him.
How am I to raise a goddamn baby? A baby I’m not even related to?
He combed his fingers through his hair. The look of shock on their faces from his outburst immediately made him regret his words. “I’m sorry! I’m just not in a position to raise a baby. Let the hospital take care of it.” Pete began to walk away again.

“The hospital will call social services and have him placed in the system,” Debra said as she walked up behind him. No way would she allow her friend’s child be put in the government system, no telling who would raise him. But from the reaction of Pete she wasn’t sure he would be a good fit either. The disgust she felt for him that time she saw him and he completely ignored Carlisha returned.
Now it made sense – he was a racist. But how in God’s name was he listed as Carlisha’s next of kin.
Debra was completely confused, but if Carlisha had seen fit for him to be next of kin, there must be some love and compassion in him somewhere. Carlisha obviously had seen that part of him, she assumed. Debra pulled at Pete’s arm to get his attention. He stopped abruptly. “Look, Carlisha saw fit to name you as next of kin so you can’t just allow her baby to be placed in foster care.”

“I didn’t ask for any of this mess!” Pete snapped. Debra’s beautiful face didn’t matter to him at that moment. Looking at her now really reminded him of his wife and he wanted to scream. Moriah was good at dealing with situations like this. He wished she was there. But being in the hospital only reminded him of when he had to identify her dead body and when he looked at Carlisha’s black baby it only reminded him of the race he despised because of his wife’s death. He knew he was wrong for feeling his resentment toward one race – but for the life of him he couldn’t help it and he needed to get out of the hospital as soon as possible.

Debra swung her hand and smacked Pete across the face. She swore she would never let a man talk disrespectfully to her again, especially after the crap she dealt with from her ex-husband, plus the fact that her friend just died put her in a different state of mind. “Well this is the
mess
you’ve got to deal with. And I won’t allow you to put Carlisha’s son in foster care either!”

Rachel, Leah and Noah watched the exchange a few feet away in disbelief.

Pete looked blankly at Debra for a few seconds.
Moriah would have reacted the same way.
He turned and silently walked away toward the elevator, thankful that someone was just getting off and he could have an immediate escape.

Chapter 18

It had been two days since Carlisha died after she gave birth to her son. Pete was beyond frustrated from the numerous calls from the hospital asking him when, how, and what he was going to do because the baby was ready to be discharged and Carlisha’s body needed to be claimed. Pete had been running on autopilot since he left the hospital two days ago. He closed the business for bereavement, he figured that would’ve been the right thing to do – but really it was his excuse to escape all the noise regarding the current events.

He sat in his favorite spot in the middle of the couch, opened bottle of beer in one hand the TV remote in the other as he stared at the figures of people playing baseball on the TV screen. He didn’t notice the ringing of his doorbell at first, but after the third ring he broke out of his daze. He sucked his teeth loudly, immediately annoyed by whoever was on the other end of the door harassing his doorbell.

Pete saw Rachel and James behind the door when he looked through the peephole. He opened it without greeting them and waited for them to state their reason for interrupting his peace.

“Uncle Pete, James said that Carlisha was attacked at work by a group of women which could’ve lead to her dying after giving birth,” Rachel burst out. “We’ve got to report this to the police and show them the surveillance camera,” she went on as Pete looked at her blankly.

“What?” Pete walked away from the door and back into the living room.

Rachel and James followed him in. James closed the door behind them.

“We’ve got to press charges against those women that attacked Carlisha. They may have been the reason she died. We can’t let them get away with this!”

“I’m dealing with enough as it is.” Pete sat back on the couch.

“But we can’t just let these women get away with what they did to Carlisha. Uncle Pete Carlisha was family.” Whether he wanted to remember that or not, she had to remind him. No they weren’t blood related, but she was still family in every sense of the word.

“I was right there Mr. Holmes, I know I can identify the woman that hit Carlisha, plus I’m sure it’s on the security cameras at work,” James finally spoke. He was really taking Carlisha’s death hard. He felt he should have pushed her more to go to the hospital after the attack.

Pete took a long swig of his beer. The number of monumental decisions he had to make just increased and he didn’t want to have to deal with any of it. The knowledge of the ghetto mess of Carlisha being attacked in his place of business didn’t help the situation either. “What is it exactly do you all expect me to do? All of a sudden I have people demanding all these decisions from me over a woman my dead wife took in years ago.” Pete ran his hand through his hair. He blew a breath. “If you want to deal with the police about this then go ahead, I won’t stop you. I just don’t want to be involved any further.”

“Okay.” Rachel sat in the armchair next to the couch. James remained standing. “When are you going to get the baby?” she asked as cautiously as possible. She didn’t want to add to his agitation, but she needed to know what his decision was regarding Carlisha’s newborn baby. She knew Social Services would intervene soon if he did nothing.

The doorbell rang. Rachel quickly got up to see who it was.

“Who the hell is that now?” Pete shouted. He didn’t care that he appeared to be out of character in front of James – his employee. He took another swig from the beer bottle.

“Debra, hi,” Rachel greeted after opening the door.

“Is Pete home? I’ve been calling him forever and he’s not answering my calls.” Debra stood anxiously on the porch.

“Yes. Come inside.” Rachel let her in and closed the door behind them. “Uncle Pete, Debra’s here.”

“Great! Don’t tell me you want to know what I’m going to do about the baby too.” Pete slammed the beer bottle on the coffee table and stood up after he saw Debra enter the family room. “Well for the record I’m not going to do a damn thing about the baby. It’s not mine and I’m in no position to take care of it!” He paced back and forth in his anger. He raked his hand over his face in irritation.

“Then I can take care of him. Give him to me,” Debra stated.

“Give him to you?” Pete laughed dryly. “Again another damn thing someone needs me to do. Well go ahead and pick him up if you want him so badly. The got-damn hospital has been calling me all day that’s why I unplugged my phones and shut my cell phone off. Now I have all of you in here harassing me with all these damn questions. How the hell did all this become my problem?”

“You know what – you are a selfish prick! All you’re thinking about is yourself and all the decisions you have to make right now. Do you think Carlisha wanted to be dead you senseless prick? Why would she want to die and leave her son an orphan? Ever thought about that, you ungrateful bastard!?” Debra spat angrily. She was sick and tired of his selfishness.

James and Rachel’s mouth fell open in shock. James felt very uncomfortable being in the room now.

“You hear this Rachel? She’s talking ungodly to me, aren’t you going to condemn her?” Pete mocked.

“I know about Jesus, and I sure as heck know He doesn’t approve of you being a selfish bastard!” Debra said vehemently. She was beyond angry. Her body trembled in her enraged emotion. She had been refused multiple times by the nurses at the hospital when she tried to visit Carlisha’s newborn baby. The thought of her friend’s son all alone without someone to love on him really pained her. The motherly instinct she thought she would never have, had kicked in to protect Carlisha’s son. She felt like a momma bear ready to attack.

“Look, I’m sure we can discuss all of this in a—” Rachel tried to bring peace.

“You know what, this selfish, bastard, prick wants you to get the hell out of his house!” Pete yelled at Debra, pointing to the front door.

James really regretted coming over, this was not the scene he had expected.

“Uncle Pete –”

“I want her out of my house, now!”

“I’m leaving! I don’t want to be anywhere near your disgusting face, you make me SICK!” Tears welled up in Debra’s eyes but she refused to let them fall. She didn’t want Pete to see her weak. She didn’t want him to know that he had affected her. Her anger made her want to strangle the life out of him for being so heartless.
How could he just do nothing to help Carlisha’s son or give Carlisha a proper memorial?
Debra stormed out of the house. She hoped she never saw Pete again. An eternity would be too soon. She had to figure out what she could do legally to bury or cremate Carlisha’s body and possibly adopt her son.

“Uncle Pete! Why did you do that? She just –”

“I’m sorry James, but you and Rachel have to leave,” Pete said, cutting her off. He walked to the front door and opened it for them after Debra had just stormed out slamming it behind her.

Rachel picked up her purse off the chair and marched out the door, not before turning to face Pete. “God is love Uncle Pete, and I’ve witnessed your love for God before. Extend that love to Carlisha. See her as the person you once loved. And forget the color of her skin – the color you now despise. I sincerely hope that you can find that love and compassion you once had for Carlisha. You once treated her like your daughter. If you don’t respond back to the hospital soon they will put Carlisha’s baby in foster care and only God knows what the state would do with her body. She doesn’t deserve that.” Rachel walked out the house toward the car where James was waiting.

**KC**

While Rachel walked to the car where James was in the driver seat waiting for her, she noticed Debra’s car still parked alongside the curb. She waved at James letting him know to give her a second. She walked quickly over to Debra’s car and knocked on the window to get her attention since her head was down.

Debra quickly wiped her eyes with her hands when she heard the knocking on her window. She rolled the window down when she saw Rachel standing there.

“Hey, are you all right? I’m so sorry about my uncle.”

“I’m fine. This whole situation is just so crazy. I can’t believe Carlisha is dead. She called me telling me to meet her at the hospital and the next thing I know I’m being told she died after giving birth. It’s just not fair! I know people die every day, but Carlisha was so young and she just gave birth moments before dying. I really need God to give me grace to deal with all this.”

Rachel opened up the car door and got in. “I know. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the reality of the situation too. I know you don’t understand why Carlisha left my Uncle as guardian, but a long time ago he and my aunt treated her like their daughter. Uncle Pete just hasn’t been himself since Aunt Moriah died. But he really did care about Carlisha once. I’m just hoping that he will remember.”

“I just don’t have time to wait for him to decide whether he wants to be her father again or not. It’s been two days since Carlisha died, I don’t think the hospital is going to wait any longer before they call the state to deal with the matter.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I really don’t know. But it won’t be nothing like your Uncle Pete!”

“Okay, well I want to help you with whatever it is.”

“Thanks! Whatever I figure out I’ll let you know.” Debra started the car engine. She didn’t know what she was going to do, but sitting there in the car wasn’t going to speed up the process any quicker.

Rachel opened the car door to get out. “I’ll keep you updated with us finding out if we can press charges against the women who attacked Carlisha.”

“Please do. Whoever they are can’t get away with what they did.”