Marriage Mayhem (31 page)

At 2:30 a.m., hard, continual knocks on the front door instantly awakened Jermaine.

“Who is it?” Jermaine asked, nearing the door.

“Sheriff's department! Open up!” shouted an officer.

Jermaine sighed and then opened the door. The sergeant that Jermaine had spoken to earlier had already briefed the officers about exactly what was going on at the Hopkins residence.

There were seven deputies, accompanied by a senior deputy, who entered his home. Some of them shined flashlights throughout the house, while some of the others began checking the closets and the restroom. Both of them were holding billy clubs.

“Do you have the copy of your restraining order, sir?” asked the senior officer.

“Yep, it's right here in my pocket. I've been waiting on you guys for almost eleven hours,” said Jermaine, handing over the order.

“Better late than never, Mr. Hopkins. Where is she?”

“She's upstairs asleep,” replied Jermaine.

At that moment four officers stormed up the stairs into the bedroom, while the senior continued to question Jermaine. Suddenly, Jermaine heard Karen screaming and cursing.

“Get your muthafuckin' hands off me, you white muthafuckas!”

She constantly yelled at the officers and had even hit one of them in the stomach. She called them harsh names like Bozo, KKKs, racist muthafuckas, and after they had cuffed her and bought her downstairs she called the senior officer a bitch. It had taken all four of them to manhandle her and cuff her. One of the officers remembered her from a past encounter.

“I remember her. She gave us hard times on a few occasions. I arrested her for prostitution a couple of times and if I recall, the last time I arrested her it was for possession of a crack pipe. Yeah, I remember her well because she gave us a hard time even then,” said the officer.

Cuffed and now standing a few feet away from Jermaine, Karen began calling him names and even spit on him.

“You muthafucka! You ain't no fuckin' good! God gonna strike you down, Jermaine, cause you're wrong for putting me and kids out in the rain at two-thirty in the fuckin' morning. Fuck you, Jermaine, you're just mad because you saw Maria eating my pussy. You never were a good fuck, anyway, and you damn sure don't know how to eat pussy, that's why I got somebody else to do it,” said Karen, shamelessly.

The kids had awakened when hearing Karen's yells, and now they were witnessing their mother in handcuffs and cursing Jermaine and the police. They both began crying.

“Take my kids to my sister's house, you fat, black, ugly muthafucka!”

“Okay, that's enough,” said the senior officer. “Take her away.”

Karen was escorted to the police car, but now she was facing a serious charge of battery of an officer.

The Sheriff's only intentions were to remove her from the household, but her lack of self–control and foolishness had earned her a ticket to jail. Once there, Karen's extensive criminal record placed the odds totally against her. In addition to being charged with battery of a police officer, Karen was also charged with identity theft and terrorist threats. The loan company had also pressed forgery charges on her.

The following morning Jermaine dropped off the kids at her sister's, then spent the rest of the morning researching counseling centers and programs, realizing that he needed to explore what made him endure his soon-to-be ex-wife's negative behavior, and even more importantly, why he continued to take her back. He needed to understand why he'd always been attracted to that type of woman in the first place. He also realized that he really had not grieved over the loss of his daughter, his wife Sylvia, and even his son, since he could only see him on weekends.

Before he could talk himself out of it, he dialed the number to Regional Health Center. The receptionist answered after two rings.

“Regional Health Center, how can I help you?”

“Yes, I would like to make an appointment for counseling.”

Minutes later, after jotting down a soon-approaching date and time, Jermaine placed the receiver on the hook, and felt a sense of relief, knowing that he was making a step in the right direction.

Jermaine couldn't help but think about Stevie and Alexus, and could only shake his head imagining the life of chaos they were destined to be raised in. Although a part of him still wanted to reach out to the children, he knew that letting go of Karen meant cutting all ties.

He rose from his seat, and spent the afternoon thoroughly cleaning his home. At the end of the day, everything that would serve as a reminder of his marriage to Karen—letters, photos, clothing, shoes, books, tapes, toys—had been placed in large garbage bags and taken out to the curb. Right before Jermaine knotted the last bag, he twisted the thick band of gold and diamonds from the third finger of his left hand and dropped it inside.

“The mayhem is over,” he affirmed out loud.

Jermaine, being fully committed to his own emotional healing and well-being, destroyed every letter Karen sent to him, not even bothering to open the envelopes, and kept every counseling session appointment for the next two years. Eventually, she stopped writing. There was no better reward for him than to hold his son in his arms again after regaining custody at the end of that two-year period.

Karen served three additional years in the state penitentiary, where she did all she could to continue to manipulate Jermaine. Not receiving any response from him, despite her written apologies and pleas for forgiveness, she concluded that Jermaine never loved her to begin with and began writing to Maria instead. A month after her release, Maria had persuaded her into taking a hit of crack while they were making love, but unfortunately, that very first hit that Karen took busted her heart and instantly killed her.

Samuel was born in Indianola Mississippi, but raised in Compton CA. Samuel unexpectedly discovered his writing talent one day in the third grade while sitting in class visualizing charters making conversation and gestures while doing various things. Samuel immediately set aside his classwork and began putting his visions into words. Afterwards, while class was still in session, Samuel approached his teacher and handed her what he'd written. His teacher was so amazed by Samuel's creativity that she turned it into the principal. The principal was bewildered, but at the same time, proud to have a third-grade student at his school write something so attention-grabbing and worded so perfectly. The principal had his secretary run off over 500 copies of Samuel's short story, then proudly distributed the copies to students as well as staff members.

Samuel enjoys making the big bucks driving big rigs cross-country while dispatching 25 other company drivers. He plans to soon retire from truck driving and become a social worker. That will give him more opportunity to write more books and spend more time at home. Samuel is currently working on his third book.

Urban Books, LLC
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Marriage Mayhem Copyright © 2007 Samuel L. Hair

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-6016-2687-5

 

 

 

 

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