3
Mimi unpacked a few boxes that contained her porcelain figurines. She gently unwrapped the packing material from around each piece and carefully sat them on the built-in shelf in her living room. Opening another box, she pulled out a family picture of her, Raphael, and Afrika when she was five years old.
They were an attractive family—Afrika, in her long, curly pigtails and candy apple ribbon that matched her taffeta dress, Raphael, in his Army dress blues, and her, in her favorite Jones New York suit. They were the perfect family and their lives were full and prosperous. Mimi’s husband made full bird, Colonel, two years ago and the other love of her life was now in college.
She remembered the day she met Raphael. It was blazing hot, and she had only been in Hampton a few days. With a baby growing inside her womb, Mimi decided to go to summer school so that she wouldn’t get behind when the baby came.
She strolled onto Hampton’s campus to register, and coming out of the cashier’s office was the most handsome man that she’d ever seen. Mimi could tell he lifted weights; he had muscles that not only popped from underneath his cotton shirt but the rest of his body as well. He was tall, but not too tall that she couldn’t reach up and put her arms around his neck and swap kisses with him in her dreams. He had a thick head of cold, wavy, black hair. She didn’t want him to catch her looking at him, but when she came out of the admissions office, he was standing off to the side like he was waiting for somebody. What she didn’t know was that he was waiting on her—maybe to make her acquaintance or get a sandwich and a cold drink at the student lounge. Mimi looked at the picture again. She smiled. Besides the sandwich and cold drink, she gave herself to Raphael on the first day they met. In her heart of hearts, she knew he was going to be her husband.
On the marble mantle above the fireplace that separated the living area from the ultra modern kitchen with its black and white decor, Mimi sat the picture. Before taking her hand away, she glanced back at the picture, brushing Afrika’s face as if it were flesh, then focused on her eyes, imagining that there were two of them. Someone once said that each person had a twin in the world, but the likeness of Asia to her own daughter was too uncanny.
Mimi dismissed her thoughts and finished unpacking. She stacked the empty cartons out back in the storage area in a corner. She glanced around, measuring with her eyes to see if she’d have enough space to place a few more things she wanted to store. In doing so, she saw a red book that occupied a corner all by itself. Mimi picked up the telephone book and thumbed through the pages, finally deciding to take it inside the house.
With the book in her hand, Mimi plopped down on the suede couch, one of the few things she had bought for the house, and put her feet up under her. She lifted the cover and fingered the first few pages, finally getting up enough courage to flip to the white pages. She looked at it and allowed her eyes to slowly scan the page as her fingers did a slow crawl, serving as a guide. When she neared the “Ch’s,” she abruptly pulled her finger out of the book and slammed it shut.
Mimi threw the phone book down and ran up the stairs to her bedroom and closed the door. No one could calm her nerves like Raphael. She reached for the phone and dialed the country code for Germany but set the phone down after thinking better of it.
Mimi laid across her four-poster white bed in a fetal position. The peach-colored walls with white trim soothed the tension she felt. Moments later, Mimi’s eyelids were limp and sleep overtook her.
Instead of blacking out, she was consumed by a dream that had manifested itself many times before over the last nineteen years. Her eyelids fluttered as she imagined a medium brown, medium height woman emerge from a shadow and knock on a door. She was dressed in a white, loose-fitting cotton blouse with a red camisole underneath and blue leggings. A man opened the door, dressed in only a pair of sweatpants, his chest bare, and pulled the woman inside, closing the door behind him. She tried to leave, but the man blocked the door.
His breath smelled like a refinery; he was obviously drunk. There was small talk and then an argument ensued. There was lots of yelling, shouting, and pointing fingers. And as if the man had superhero strength, he picked up the woman and threw her on the sofa. He tore away her clothes like a savage beast and pulled down his pants and…
Huffing and puffing, Mimi jerked up, swinging her arms wildly with sweat covering her face before finally stopping to stare at nothing in particular. She grabbed her heart, crossed her arms over her chest, finally lifting her legs over the side of the bed in attempt to keep from shaking.
Mimi eased off the bed, stood up, and walked slowly to the bathroom like she was a mummy or high on drugs. She gasped at the sight of herself.
“Okay, Mimi,” she said out loud, rinsing her face and blotting it with a cold cloth. “Pull yourself together, girl. You’re making more out of this than there is. You’re imagining things. Afrika is going…is going…”
Mimi rushed from the bathroom, ran downstairs, and grabbed her BlackBerry. “I’ll send her a text. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.”
A, this is Mommy. I really like Asia; she seems like a very nice girl. I’m not trying to alarm you, but be careful about getting too involved with her and her family. Take some time to meet other kids instead of having one exclusive friend. Love you. Mommy.
Looking over the message one more time, Mimi nodded her head in approval and pressed SEND.
It was almost as if Afrika had been sitting at the other end waiting for Mimi’s text. In under a minute, Mimi received a reply from Afrika.
What’s up with you, Mommy? You’re acting weird. I really like Asia. You have nothing to worry about. Love, A.
Maybe it was the quiet in the room that sent chills down Mimi’s spine, but Afrika’s diss in her text message made her shiver. “Afrika,” Mimi said out loud, “Mommy knows best.” She needed proof, but in the meantime, Mimi had to protect Afrika at all costs. Mimi typed another message, looked at it, and hit the CANCEL button.