***
Tierra was glad Mr. Baxwell let her return to work earlier than scheduled. She hadn’t taken one day off in the three years she’d been with the company. Now she knew why. Too much drama happened when she wasn’t drowned in day to day going on’s of her clients. She welcomed the diversion of the never ending demands and phone calls of her clients. Even the daily gossip around the water cooler would be a welcomed intrusion.
The driver opened the passenger side door of her black, Cadillac XTS, and helped her out. She looked up at the Baxwell Enterprisez’s building and beamed inside as she made her way towards the main entrance.
Terri arrived early, and was already in business mode. She was hard at work checking emails and catching up on what happened in the office while the duo was out for the past week. Terri, like Mr. Baxwell, wasn’t surprised to receive a call from Tierra Sunday afternoon explaining that she was returning to work. Tierra offered her the option to finish her vacation and take the rest of the week off. But that was not an option. There was no way Terri was going to allow any of those secretaries’ at the office to think her desk was available. Little known secret was that Terri had her share of envious women at the office. Any one of them would all love to be Tierra’s right hand gal. So, she thanked Tierra for the offer, but assured her that she would be at the office bright and early. Naturally she was.
“Mrs. Rodriquez?!” a petite, busty, blonde secretary exclaimed, making eye contact as soon as Tierra stepped off the elevator. “Oh my goodness, I’m so glad you’re back! We thought maybe you went to work for another company,” she revealed, shaking Tierra’s hand.
“Nice to know I was missed. But no, I haven’t left. I just took some vacation time,” Tierra smiled, pulling her hand from the woman’s over enthusiastic clutches. She began her walk through the sea of envious male colleagues, smiling firmly at them, as they snickered and frowned. So much for that rumor, along with their hopes of taking her place!
She continued on towards her office, her mind wandering. She was tired of feeling like eyes were on her 24/7. Yet, she had no intentions of apologizing for being better at what she did than others were. As she passed Mr. Baxwell’s glass framed corner office, she acknowledged him with a friendly wave and smile. Though on a phone call, he reciprocated with a smile and wave of his own. When she arrived at her office, she smiled at Terri, pushed down on the gold handle, closed her eyes, and swung open the double doors. Once inside, she quickly secured them behind her. She allowed her body to rest against the mahogany doors and inhaled deep. The aroma of her leather furniture and jars of mango/tangerine air fresheners filled the air. Her eyes widened, as a smile filled her face. She released her breath, relieved the so-called vacation was finally over.
When she opened her eyes, she scanned the room. For some reason something felt different, odd. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something. Something she was sure wasn’t there when she left a week ago. There was a guest lying quiet and still, yet she wasn’t expecting any visitors. In fact no one but Terri and Mr. Baxwell knew she was going to be back today.
She crept up on the uninvited guest as it lay asleep on a tiger print cushion. As she moved closer, the small creature began to stir, and then sat up. Its golden fur shimmered in the sun’s rays as it wiggled its body, tilting its small head to one side. It wagged its tail, like it knew who Tierra was.
Tierra noticed a small turquoise heart on its collar and leaned down to see if there was some information on it.
“Where’d you come from, huh?” she said towards the puppy, who simply yawned, stretched, and then jumped up and wrapped its paws around Tierra’s wrist. “Bella, is that your name?”
Tierra thought there had to be some mistake. A puppy? How in the heck did someone sneak a puppy in her office and who would do such a thing? She looked around her office further and noticed a red glass vase with a sorted array of flowers, including her favorite pink Dahlia’s, and white long stem roses. She scanned more to see if there were any other mammals or garden items looming around that she should be aware of. After seeing none, she walked to her office door, opened it and re-read the name on the nameplate. Assured that she was in the right office, she closed the door, not mentioning a word to Terri. She walked over to her desk, picked up the card that was leaning up against the vase, and read it.
My dearest Tia’wanna,
Thank you for listening to me last week. You were, and always have been my earthly angel. I hope you don’t have one of these lil’ guy, I didn’t see one at your place, and I remember you said you always wanted one. I figured, since you had given up on the family, husband and marriage dream, that I could at least help you out with the puppy. Oh, by the way, I purchased a year of a dog sitting service, and a personal trainer to get her house trained, I know you are a very busy woman.
Tierra for real, please know that you are the Jelly to my Peanut Butter.
Te Amo, siempre y para siempre.
Aquarian Marques Skeene
“Aquarian?” she remarked, looking at the card as if it could answer her. “He has never ever used his FULL government name, not with me anyway. Shoot, and he used to write me many a note… and the only time…”
Suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her stomach, and thrust herself forward, wrapping her arms around her waist. Sweat began to form on her forehead and she felt like the walls were closing in on her. Something was wrong. She reached for her intercom, and then remembered she still hadn’t asked Qu for his phone number.
“Oh my goodness! Are you serious? I’ve got to call my Mom. Either she’ll have his number, or she can call Mrs. Skeene.”
She paused for a moment as she raised the phone to her ear.
“God Bless, good morning,” her mother sang as usual.
“Mom, it’s me.”
“Wow, you really did call back!” she exclaimed in disbelief.
Before her mother could utter another word, Tierra got to the point of her call. “Mom listen, do you have Qu’s number? I never got it from him, and I need to talk to him, now!”
“What do you mean? What’s wrong Tierra?”
“I don’t know mom! All I know is, I just walked into my office and this man has left flowers, a freaking Coker Spaniel puppy, and a card which he signed, Aquarian! Do you remember the one and only time he signed something to me using his full name?”
Reflecting her aging memory banks, Mrs. Rodriquez suddenly understood the cause of Tierra’s concern. She called Mrs. Skeene on three-way, who gave Tierra her son’s information.
“He still hasn’t answered any of my calls Tierra. Call me when you talk to him, please?” she begged.
“I will,” she stated, hanging up the phone before Mrs. Skeene could say another word. She dialed the number she was given so fast she wasn’t sure if she dialed it right or not.
“Please pick up. Come on Qu, pick up,” she was taping her foot on the floor so hard and fast that the puppy, which had been calm all this time, ran from its cushion towards Tierra, and looked at her as if it knew something was wrong.
“Hello, hold on,” Qu mumbled in a very low voice.
“QU…QU? Don’t you put me on hold!” she yelled into her cell.
She could hear shuffling and a loud voice yelling in the background. There were some mumbled sounds, then dead silence. Tierra became tense thinking about what could be going on. She was about to hang up and call 911, when he returned to the line.
“OK, hello?”
“WHERE IN THE HELL ARE YOU?! And, what’s up with this damn Aquarian mess you wrote on this card?” she screamed, not allowing him to reply before continuing, “and why haven’t you called your mother? She is going crazy with grief and worry about you! In fact not only your mother, but my mother, Beautiful’s mom, and now you can add me to that list of people who have no clue as to what’s going on with you!” she growled at him.
“Ti, I know you’re all upset. But… can I call you back?” he replied in an even lower voice.
“WHAT? Hell NO, you can’t call me back. Where are you? Don’t make me have to hunt your ass down Qu!” she demanded.
“Hmm… I don’t think that’s a good idea…”
“Did I ask you to think? Now where are you?”
“Well, ok I’m at 245 Bay Street. I’m in the 5th row from the back on the left side,” he whispered, “but you won’t come. I dare you,” then… he was gone.
“What… Hello… hello, Qu?” she yelled, staring at the phone, but he had already hung up. “What does he mean, I won’t come? What is that man doing?” she picked up the puppy that was now circling her ankles, grabbed her purse off the chair and walked out of the office.
She was ready to hand Terri, Bella, but she was not at her desk. Tierra had no time to do a hunt for her either.
“Make sure Bella here gets to my house, OK Megan, please?” she said to the secretary that had spoken to her earlier. “Just call this service. They will pick her up,” she handed the woman the card from the service that Qu had purchased, and shoved Bella into her arms. Before the woman could reply, Tierra quickly made her way towards the elevator.
“Sure thing, Ms. Rodriquez,” the woman answered, beaming ear-to-ear at a chance to finally do something for Ms. Rodriquez. “Don’t worry about anything. I’ve got this all under control. I won’t let you down!” she promised. She smiled at Bella, who released its bladder on her pink Twill skirt.
“Ewwww,” she pouted, as the elevator doors closed.
It was almost fate that a taxi pulled up with its occupants exiting just as Tierra was racing out the Baxwell building. She asked the driver if he was on his way to another call. When he replied no, she asked if he’d take her to her destination. With his approval, she slid in the back seat, gave the driver the address, and tried to figure out what her best friend was up to. She didn’t know this address, though it was up town. What was Qu getting her into? It didn’t sound like a church. Besides, why would he sign the note ‘Aquarian’ if he was just going to church? It didn’t make any sense, though, not too much of anything, since he had come back in her life made sense.
She thought back to the first and only time he signed his name Aquarian, in a letter to her as they made their way through the busy traffic.
“I can’t believe this!” Aquarian yelled.
He was in his attic looking for something for his school project he had coming up and found a pile of papers that forever changed his life.
“Adopted?! Why didn’t they tell me?”
His anger increased when he found, and began to read through the letters from his birth grandparents.
“We just want our daughter to be able to move on with her life. We know you will give this baby a good home. We trust you, and know that this must be a blessing sent from God for the two of you. Please never divulge who we are, it would be devastating for her to have to relive this all over again.”
He read a letter from his birth mother that was dated when he was about ten. She explained that she was only 14 when she became pregnant with him. She had a secret relationship with a boy from the neighborhood and when she became pregnant, both of their parents insisted that adoption was the best option for the youngsters. Thirty years ago, it wasn’t the norm for an unwed girl to have sex at 14, let alone have a baby.
She said she never regretted giving them her baby. She had no idea where the Skeene’s lived now, because all correspondences went directly through the adoption agency. She didn’t want to one day be walking down some street and bump into her son. So she asked that after this last picture that they not send anymore. She went on to explain the story of how her parents found his parents and how it always touched her.
“One Sunday my parents accompanied a friend to their church. One they had never been to before,” she began. “That Sunday there was a guest prophet who spoke at the church and over the two of you. My mother told me she recognized you. She was the secretary at Dr. Mendez’s office, and knew you had been a patient of his for several years trying to conceive. So when the two of you stood up, she said she nudged my father so hard in his rib, and he moaned out loud in pain. After everyone turned back around and stopped staring at them, she confessed to him that the both of you were the reason God told her to go to this church. The prophet told the two of you that a blessing had walked right into your midst, and would be made known to you soon enough. He said that a child had been conceived and that it would be a boy. He told you there was more than one way to be a parent and within that year, you would surely be welcoming a baby into your home. I know you know the story, but I wanted you to know that I never forgot it. Every time my mother told me that story I would cry. It’s what kept me going when I was pregnant, and all these years. I knew it was meant for the two of you to raise my son.”
Through the help of each of their pastor’s, and some legal maneuvering it was arranged that Beautiful go and stay with some family, until the baby was born and Mrs. Skeene laid low in the later months came, under the pretense that she was having a hard pregnancy. None of either of their congregations knew what was really going on. It was hard, to keep that kind of a secret. But it was one of the two conditions that the adoptive family had.
“I’m sorry that his father… well his father was the star athlete in Junior High. His parents assumed that I had gotten pregnant on purpose to try and trap their son. They talked him into signing away his parental rights and before he was born they moved away. After I finished high school I moved away as well. It would have been too hard to see you with him. Even if I know it was meant to be.”
The news that both his biological mother and fathers family just wanted to rid themselves of him, crushed him.
“FUCK!” he screamed and ripped the letter up, tossing the torn pieces all over the attic.
“Aquarian?” Mrs. Skeene yelled up the attic stairs to her son, breakfast is ready,” she didn’t know what he found up there, but knew something was wrong when he emerged from the dimly lit stairwell with tears in his eyes.
“Son, what’s wrong?”
“Son,” he began harshly, “Am I really?” he responded with a look that made the only woman he had ever called mother take a step back.
He ran past her and out the house without so much as a word or explanation. He walked to the bus stop feeling betrayed and alone. When he arrived at school, the first person he saw was Tierra. He didn’t know what to say to her. He wondered if she knew that he was an unwanted child, if maybe that was why she was so nice to him all these years. Did she feel pity for him? He ignored her attempts to wave him over to her and instead walked solemnly into the school. He knew there was no way he could avoid her all day, so he decided to write her a letter. After homeroom he gave it to her, along with a kiss on the cheek and walked out the school door.
Tierra watched as the most well behaved, gotta do right guy she ever knew, walk out of school. She was confused and quickly read the note he gave her, looking for answers.
‘Tierra, you have been a great friend to me all these years. I could always count on you to be honest with me and be there when I needed you. But right now, I know my life has all been a lie. My whole life Tierra! I hope you didn’t know, but I guess I’ll never get to know. Just know you were always my angel. I will love you always, and forever.
Aquarian Marques Skeene’
Tierra’s face turned white. She wrote a letter similar to Qu, on the day they buried her father. She didn’t know what he meant by his life was a lie. But if he was in the same place mentally that she was back then, she knew it was not going to end well.
She excused herself from class, and went to the nurse’s office. After explaining her fears to the school nurse, she was allowed to call his mother. Mrs. Skeene made her way up into the attic after Qu left the way he did, and found the evidence of what had her him so distraught. She relayed to Tierra what Qu found out, who was completely surprised by the whole adoption thing.
Mrs. Skeene didn’t think there was a cau
se for alarm though, and was sure he wouldn’t try anything life threatening. She told Tierra to go back to class and to come by after school to check up on him. But, when she arrived, her mother and several neighbors were there. Seems Qu hadn’t come home after school after all. The Skeene’s spent all day and night looking for their son since the police wouldn’t get involved until he had been missing for at least 24 hours.
The next day, together with half the neighborhood, and finally the police force, they went looking for him. In the end though, it was Tierra that found him. They had a secret place in the woods of Blunt Park. Though she had looked for him there the night before, and didn’t find him, something told her to go back and look again that morning.
When she crawled up the ladder, he was curled up in a ball with his arms wrapped around his legs. His body was freezing, and his lips were purple. He looked near death. When she saw his body shake, she breathed a sigh of relief. She told him she’d be right back, but he lifted his head and violently shook it back and forth, reaching out for her.
She looked around, and saw he had tossed the books and things they had in the shabby tree house, all over the place. She could see in his eyes that he was in physical pain, not just emotional. Again she turned to leave to get his family, but he pulled on her leg, and pleaded with her to stay. She didn’t know what to say or do. So she sat down next to him, and held him in her arms, wrapping her jacket around the both of them.
“Don’t you ever scare me like this again!” she demanded of him. He nestled himself into her lap and shook his head in agreement.
In a quiet, scratchy voice he replied, “I’m sorry, I won’t. I promise,” together they laid there until someone finally heard Tierra’s yells, alerting them to where they were .
“That was 12 years ago,” she remembered. “I am not staying out in the cold with him again. He better at least be some place warm this time.”
“Here we are Miss,” the taxi driver announced, putting the vehicle in park, “245 Bay Street. That will be $15.”
“Shoot, he better be in real trouble, for this,” she said sarcastically.
She got out the taxi, only to look up and see where she was. “Damn you Qu… why here?”
He’s there when you least expect it.