“Come on, you can do it Shanetta,” the nurse assured her. “I know you can.”
Those words removed any doubts that Netta had. Suddenly, she took a step forward. It was followed by another and another. She moved gingerly toward the bathroom, with about as much speed as an elderly person. Each step she took awakened muscles and joints that had stiffened during her coma. Quickly, the uneasiness in which she first stood disappeared and was replaced by confidence.
Netta smiled at the nurse. It was a silent thank you for her assistance.
“I got it from here,” Netta told the nurse.
She let go of one hand, then the other, proving she could walk under her own power. Still, the nurse kept a cautious eye on her, while standing nearby. By the time they arrived at the bathroom, Netta was slightly fatigued.
“I’m good,” Netta pronounced as she placed her hands on the sink.
“You sure now baby?” Nurse McNeil asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Netta replied while using one hand to close the door.
“There’s an emergency button in there if you should need anything,” the nurse informed her.
Instantly, Netta was drawn to the mirror. She slowly surveyed the damage Black had done to her face. There was a large knot almost in the center of her forehead. She had a black eye and a busted swollen lower lip to accompany the other minor bumps, cuts and bruises on her face. Her hair was in total disarray. Netta had to admit to herself, she looked horrible.
Netta couldn’t stand the sight of herself anymore. In her current condition she felt like the mystique that had once surrounded her was forever tarnished because of the vicious beating that Black had administered to her. It made her ashamed to show her face in the streets.
If she could at that moment, Netta would have covered the mirror, just to block out the battered reflection of herself that she was seeing. She turned away, unable to look at her reflection any longer. She angrily began the journey back to her bed, to commiserate in her misery.
A million thoughts ran through Netta’s mind. She was angrier at what had been done to her more than being fearful of almost losing her life. It was at that point that Netta realized that her anger wasn’t going to bring her the peace of mind she needed to heal. So she decided to just let it go.
As if it were just that easy. She couldn’t control her hateful thoughts. Just like she couldn’t control those bad dreams from reoccurring.
Sonya looked out her bedroom window, watching Tone as he jumped into his car, headed to the block to ply his trade. Whenever he exited the house, her mind went astray. She couldn’t think straight. She woke up every day with so much anxiety and emotional distress. She worried herself wondering what he was doing. Or better yet, whom he was with. She wasn’t buying his weak excuses any more. She saw the large amounts of money Tone stashed in the house. She was aware of his team of workers. So she knew he didn’t have to be on the block every day like he claimed. That was just an excuse to get out the house as far as she was concerned, and do his thing with other women.
No one had ever made her feel like this, sexually or emotionally. In the past she never had a problem controlling her feelings for a man. She usually was able to keep them under control. But there was something about Tone that made her go overboard. There was something that brought out the craziness in her. Lately, their conversations felt more like interrogations. She placed the blame for that solely on Tone. If she was a certain kind of way, it was clearly because he made her that way. Point blank period.
“There wasn’t a truth that had been concealed that time won’t reveal,” her mother was fond of saying. Sonya believed it too.
She felt now was the time to know the truth about Tone’s extracurricular activities, for them to manifest itself to her. With a suggestion from her best friend Bri, they were going around Tone’s drug block to see exactly what was good with him.
Sonya had done all the crying. She had experienced all the negative feelings and been through all the turbulent emotions that Tone’s cheating had caused. Now it was time to act.
Beep! Beep! The sound of the car horn snapped Sonya out of her thoughts.
“Comin’ down now,” Sonya yelled out the window.
“Hurry up heifer,” Bri shouted back.
The moment Sonya climbed into her front seat, Bri was grinning ear to ear. This was the moment they both had been waiting for.
“You ready?” Bri laughed.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Sonya replied.
“Then here we go,” Bri teased.
Bri wasn’t nosey, she didn’t ask Sonya to tell her their business. She had only agreed to Sonya’s plan because she was a concerned friend.
Netta forced herself to eat as much of the bland food as she could possibly stomach. She hoped the food would give her some nourishment and help promote healing within her body, even though the baked chicken looked half cooked and tasted rubbery. Her mash potatoes tasted like mush and the vegetables didn’t even look edible. At the very least she hoped the food would settle her stomach.
Within a half hour a member of the kitchen staff entered her room to collect the tray. The lady seemed to sense Netta’s disdain for her barely eaten lunch.
“Wasn’t in the mood to eat, huh?” the lady asked sarcastically.
“You wouldn’t be either if your meal tasted like hot garbage,” Netta remarked.
“Yeah, it takes a little getting used to it,” the lady said before giving Netta a sympathetic look and carting the picked over meal away.
Netta sat through a long boring day at the hospital, with visits from multiple doctors and specialists. The prognosis was the same yet she was still fearful and frustrated. Frustrated with being in
