The Wake 5
THE WAKE
Mayowa Ojo
6/10/20263 min read
It was impossible for Paloma to hide the shock on her face. Her shock soon gave way to anger.
“So you’re waiting up for me then what?”
“You have quite the nerve to break into my apartment and ask me questions. I could…”
“Shush it!” Paloma said with her right hand raised in the air. “Who asked you to speak?”
In those few seconds Vera was mentally paralysed. To her it felt like her childhood all over again but worse, she was not a child anymore and Paloma still exerted some control over her. She watched as her mother walked to the refrigerator and rummaged through it for some liquor. When she was growing up Paloma would dismiss or disregard her and then help herself to some liquor as if to drink away her existence with it.
“This is the strongest thing you have?” she said with disdain.
Vera involuntarily switched to the subordinate role she was used to. She got up to go get something stronger from the pantry but again was shouted down by Paloma who sat across from her.
“Since you prepared to kill me,” Paloma said. “I might as well enjoy my final moments. Cheers, daughter!” She burst out laughing.
Vera looked mortified. She berated herself mentally for thinking Paloma had no more control over her. Stupid! Stupid!! Stupid!!! she chimed in her head.
Paloma gulped down her drink at a go and slammed the bottle on the kitchen counter. The sound woke Vera from whatever mind trip she was on. Paloma eyed her for a few seconds, looked at the pistol and back at Vera and then chuckled.
“What gave you the effrontery to think you could waltz back into my life and rip what was left of it apart?” Paloma asked.
“The same thing that gave you the effrontery to break into my apartment tonight,” Vera replied, masking the trepidation in her voice better than she thought she could.
Paloma shrugged. “Fair enough but…”
Vera did not know what hit her but something about what her mother just said and the way the night was unfolding made her very upset.
“Fair? Fair enough? Fair was giving me the benefit of doubt and believing me when I told you Dennis was…”
“He’s daddy to you and not…”
“SHUT THE HECK UP and don’t interrupt me again,” Vera warned, waving the pistol in her hand rather firmly. “Do you know the many things I went through in the hands of that bastard that you called a husband? And as if life was not hard enough you had to slather on a generous serving of your wickedness by sending me out of the house at sixteen. Sixteen Paloma!!! Did you think for once how or if I would get by? Do you know what I…” Vera’s voice broke as tears began to pour down her face without warning.
Vera began to pace while half crying and half hyperventilating.
Paloma sat cross-legged watching the drama with the blankest expression she could muster.
“Is your royal highness done? May I speak?” Each word dripped with sarcasm.
Vera ignored her while still pacing.
“Fair was not aborting you when I had the chance.”
Vera stopped and turned sharply to look at her mom.
“Did it ever occur to you that that may have been an option for me?”
“Did it ever occur to you that that may have been better for me than the hell you brought me into?”
Paloma smirked.
“Hell,” she looked around the apartment. “If this is hell, can I move in please?”
Vera looked at her mother in disbelief.
“You’re crazy.”
“You’re the one who’s crazy and ungrateful. Yes, I admit I should have believed you but I was also living in hell. How was I supposed to…”
“Who else was in a better position to help me if not you?”
“That’s what I did by sending you away you idiot.”
Vera had no come back. She paused and looked at her mother expecting an explanation.
“I don’t expect you to understand. You were… still are a child.”
Vera was incensed. “Oh don’t you play the child card with me mother!”
Paloma sniffed, showing what appeared to be the first real emotion of hurt.
“I too was abused as a child. It makes you seek love in all of the wrong places. Your father was one of those wrong places Vera. I was needy and I know you’ve suffered a similar fate. I was too broken to know how to help you. After your father denied the pregnancy I had no choice but to…”
A voice from the hall way broke out into a bout of laughter. The voice was loud enough to distract Paloma who quickly looked at her henchman at the door and asked him to be on guard.
The owner of the voice started clapping in addition to the laughter, his voice getting louder as he inched toward the open area. Finally, he emerged.
“Sam?” Paloma whispered, her face pale.
“Hello Paloma darling! Missed me?” Vera’s biological father, Sam, replied.