Array Ashley - Murderville

James “Po” Taylor drove down the highway and yawned as he glanced down at the clock on his dashboard. He hated that he was coming home so late but it was for a good reason. He had picked up all the money he was owed in the streets. He finally had enough paper saved to buy the house he had promised his long-time girlfriend, Scarlett. He was deeply in love with her and had known her since she was a child. Although she was deaf, they had no problem communicating because Po had learned sign language years ago. He smiled as he thought about her beautiful face. He knew that he could finally give her what she deserved and that was a beautiful house and a way out of the ghetto. Po pulled into their driveway and grabbed the duffle bag full of money.

Po entered the house and reached for the light switch. He flicked it on and off repeatedly and smiled. He expected Scarlett to come from the den where she usually watched television until he came home. He saw the flickering of the television coming from the den and heard the news being telecast. She must have fallen asleep, he thought to himself as he began to take off his coat. He hung it up and reached into his pocket for the ring that he had bought her earlier that day. He couldn’t wait until the morning to tell her that they were moving and decided to wake her up. Little did he know, Scarlett would never wake up.

He walked into the den and noticed that she wasn’t in there. He then went upstairs and his heart dropped when he noticed the way the house was torn up. It was as if a tornado ran through it. The bed was flipped over, and the drawers were pulled out and emptied onto the floor. “Scarlett!” Po yelled as he frantically rushed to the other room. As he burst into the room, he saw the love of his life bound to a chair. “No!” he yelled as he raced to her and dropped to his knees in front of her. He began to loosen the ropes to release her, and tears began to fall as he noticed she wasn’t moving. Her lips were dark purple, a far cry from the blush red they usually were. “Please GOD, no. Please!” he pleaded as he released her from the ropes and she fell into his arms. He rocked back and forth with his love in his arms. Tears flowed as he begged GOD to somehow make Scarlett wake up. He looked down at her and rubbed his hand over her face to close her eyelids. He then knew that she was gone forever.

The suns beams crept through the blinds and shined on A’shai and Liberty’s faces as they lay next to each other. The sound of the hospital-issued pager rang out, and it began to vibrate making it dance across the nightstand. The sound woke a sleeping Liberty. She opened her eyes and couldn’t believe her ears. It was the sound that they had been waiting on for an entire year. Liberty’s body felt so weak. She could barely lift her head, but she managed to smile as joy overcame her.

“Shai. Shai baby wake up. We have a heart,” she whispered faintly as she rubbed Shai’s cheek with the back of her hand. “Shai?” she called again, noticing that his skin was cold to the touch. “Baby, wake up,” she called as she managed to prop herself up. She nudged him with all the might that she had, but he didn’t move. She didn’t know at that point, but all along she had thought he was having a glass of cognac when in actuality he had been sipping on an old Creole drink called Black Tea. He had slowly ingested it as he told her the story of their lives, wanting to die with his soul mate. A’shai had been dying before her eyes and she didn’t even know it. His “special drink” was a slow death and showed his commitment to his love for her. If she couldn’t live then he no longer wanted to, so he chose to die with her so they could forever be together.

Liberty continued to shake A’shai but it was to no avail. A’shai Montgomery was no more. She noticed that he wasn’t breathing, and it all hit her like a ton of bricks. She mustered all her strength and grabbed the phone to call 9-1-1.

“Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?” the operator asked.

“Somebody please help. A’shai isn’t breathing. Oh GOD… he’s not breathing!” Liberty said, not even caring about her own health or the heart pager. Her time was also ticking and if she didn’t get to the hospital she would also die, but at that point she didn’t care. She was ready to meet him on the other side.

Tears began to run down her face as the harsh reality set in. She collapsed on his chest on the brink of her own demise.

Liberty saw a bright white light and she smiled knowing that she was about to meet A’shai and they could finally be happy together. No more pain and no more of life’s ills. She was ready to go to the after-life. She saw a little boy standing in front of the bright light. As she looked closer she saw it was A’shai as a young boy. He smiled from ear to ear and called her name.

“Liberty,” he said in a playful tone. “Liberty,” he repeated as he reached out his hand for her. Liberty knew that she was approaching death and rather than being scared… she was happy. She began to walk towards him but for some reason she could not get any closer.

“Liberty,” the paramedic called as he stood over her.

“No,” Liberty whispered as she slowly shook her head. “No… Let me go with him.” The paramedics scurried to save her life, something that Liberty did not want. Liberty tried to tell the paramedic to let her die, but she was too weak to get another word out. An oxygen mask was placed over her mouth as she tried to mouth to them that she didn’t want to be saved. She overheard the other paramedic talking.

“What happened to the guy that was there with her?” The second paramedic asked who stayed in the car while the other two went to retrieve Liberty.

“He was D.O.A. We had to call in the coroner.”

Po stood over the grave of his lost love and gently placed a bouquet of flowers on the grave. Po rubbed his hand across her tombstone and bowed his head as he prayed, asking GOD to take care of his woman. Guilt overwhelmed him as he thought about how he had put Scarlett in harm’s way. A single tear streamed down his cheek as he knelt down and shook his head. “Whoever did this to you… they are going to pay. I promise. You…” his voice began to crack. “You didn’t deserve this baby,” he continued. Po stood up and began to walk to his car. He felt his phone vibrate on his hip. He looked at the caller ID and noticed that it was his right hand man, Rocko.

“Hello,” he said as he placed the phone to his ear.

“Yo, I know where the kid at that ran in your spot,” Rocko said with the hostility showing in his voice.

“Word?” Po asked as he clenched his jaw and his heart began to speed up. Po had been waiting on a break for two weeks, and his man had finally found one. Po had put fifty thousand on the goon’s head, and it had paid off quickly. The streets had spoken.

“Yep. I’m in front of the kid’s mother’s house right now. Niggas is saying that he skipped town because he knew that you would be looking for him.”

“So, let’s bring him back into town. You already know how we going to do that, right?” Po said as he felt his trigger finger begin to itch.

“Say no more,” Rocko said just before he hung up the phone. Without saying it, Po had just ordered the goon’s mother to be killed and he would find out the logistics later. He had to return to the hospital and pick up Scarlett’s belongings and sign a few papers since he was her only family. Scarlett’s parents were killed in a car crash, so Po was all she had. He also had to sign off on the donor papers. Scarlett always expressed that she would be an organ donor when she died and Po had kept her wishes. As fate may have it, someone with the same rare blood type as Scarlett had needed her heart. The organ was immediately removed from her chest cavity moments after she was pronounced dead. It was one of the hardest decisions Po had to make but he knew that Scarlett would have wanted it that way. For some strange reason, something in the gut of Po’s belly wanted to know where her heart went. He wanted to know where the love of his life’s special heart had ended up. Nevertheless, he would never know. It was against the hospital policies so all he could do was wonder.