42
Raphael got in the passenger side of the car. He watched Mimi with renewed interest. Somehow, she seemed different, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. “You want me to drive, baby?” Raphael asked. “No, sweetie. I’m already comfortable and I would have to bark directions to the hospital.”
“You look good driving this Lexus.”
“How else would I look? Let’s change the subject; Afrika is our priority.”
“Don’t you think I know that, Mimi? She’s never left my mind. I prayed to God that He wouldn’t let anything happen to her… that she would have her life back the way it was the moment that SOB’s bullet hit her.”
Mimi smiled. “I believe that, too, Raf. She’s going to make it; she’s resilient. She’s got to get over these hurdles first.”
“You’re right.” Raphael paused. “Do you want to talk now?”
Mimi seemed nervous and put her foot on the gas.
“Slow down, Mimi. If now isn’t the right time, we’ll talk later.”
“Let’s wait until we get home this evening. I can’t have a serious talk with all of these crazy, cell phone talking drivers whipping around me.”
“Okay.” Raphael stared straight ahead in silence until they reached the hospital.
There was a still coolness between Raphael and Mimi, but Raf wasn’t going to let that spoil his visit with his favorite girl. He waved to the nurses at the station and gave the black officer sitting outside of Afrika’s door a fist bump. Raphael followed Mimi into Afrika’s room.
Raphael stopped short when he saw the two young men and young lady sitting on the side of the bed talking to Afrika. However, it was the young lady that caught him off-guard. It was as if Afrika had an out-of-body experience in front of him. The young lady, about Afrika’s age, was a split image of Afrika; except that her skin was two shades lighter. She even wore her hair in a pony-tail like his daughter—pulled to the top of her head with a Scrunchie around it. He stared, not sure of who he was looking at.
“Daddy,” Afrika said with a little more volume in her voice, her thin blue and white hospital blanket pulled up high as if she was cold. “This is my best friend, Asia, my friend, Keith, and Asia’s friend, Zavion.”
Raphael nodded to the two young men but was locked in on Asia. After a moment, he looked from Afrika to Mimi to Asia. “Asia, what a pretty name. So nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Bailey,” Asia said with a smile. She turned toward Mimi. “Hello, Mrs. Bailey.”
“Hello, Asia. Hello, Keith and Zavion. Looks like Miss Afrika is coming along well.” Mimi stooped over and gave Afrika a kiss on the cheek.
“I feel much better, Mommy. I wish I could go home. What’s wrong, Daddy? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. Look at him, Mommy.”
“I know what it is,” Asia chimed in. “Your father can’t get over the fact that we resemble each other. Don’t worry, Colonel Bailey, everyone does the same thing. Even our birthdays are in the same month.”
Raphael retreated…didn’t say a word. He chewed on the words of this young lady. So obvious was his shock, but more than anything, Mimi had never mentioned Afrika’s best friend. Was Mimi hiding something from him? Raphael finally smiled.
Raphael noticed Mimi’s irritation and her convenient silence. Before Raphael could approach Mimi, the door to the room opened again. A well put together woman in a smart black pantsuit about Mimi’s age rushed through the door. She looked from Mimi to Raphael, finally realizing that Raphael had to be Mimi’s husband. There was no smile on her face.
“Hi, I’m Brenda,” she said to Raphael, extending her hand to greet him.
“Brenda Christianson, this is my husband, Raphael. He finally made it.”
“Nice to finally meet you, Brenda,” Raphael said. “I’ve heard a lot of nice things about you.”
“Nice to meet you, too, Raphael,” Brenda said. “Mimi and I go a long way back. We were best friends.”
“Brenda is also Asia’s mother,” Mimi interjected.
“I do see the resemblance,” Raphael said, looking from Brenda to Asia and then to Mimi. “I’m sorry if I look perplexed. Although Mimi talked about you, I didn’t know you were best friends.”
Brenda smiled. “It’s easily understood. We’ve been estranged for many years. We lost touch and everyone moved on with their lives.”
“I guess so,” Raphael said, still sensing something else. Mimi avoided his gaze but he could tell she seemed pissed off. He loved that woman, but he had an eerie feeling…like something wasn’t right and he had been caught in a dragnet.
Raphael smothered the urge to comment on how much Brenda’s daughter looked so much like Afrika. No matter how much Raphael tried to toss it to the back of his head, the thought of it kept rumbling through his brain, itching to be addressed. It would be a conversation for Mimi and him later that evening.
Niceties were set aside and Brenda lightly touched Mimi’s arm, urging her with a slight movement of her head to go outside. Raphael didn’t miss a beat; that eerie feeling squeezed his brain… his need to know what was going on.
“I’ll be right back, Raf. Brenda needs to talk to me.”
“Okay,” Raf said as he watched the two women exit the room. He went to the edge of Afrika’s bed and listened as Asia babbled on about some boys they had met. And then she said something that struck Raphael as odd—pricked his ears, made him pay close attention.
“Trevor called me today. Said my mom and dad have been acting strange. Police were even at the house.”
“Why?” Afrika asked.
“It could be domestic. Trevor said he heard my mother tell the detective that she asked Daddy for a divorce.”
Afrika tried to sit up. “I’m so sorry, Asia,” she whispered.
“They’ve been having problems for a while,” Asia went on, “but it seemed to get worse after you came over that day. My mom wanted to contact your mom, but Trevor heard Dad tell my mom later that he didn’t want her to. Strange, huh?”
“Yeah,” Afrika said. Letting that little tidbit settle in her mind, she asked the one question Raphael had thought of. “But why would the police come to your house?”
“Trevor said that after Mom told Dad that she wanted a divorce, they started arguing and my dad picked up his coat to leave and a gun fell out of the pocket. What if he was going to try and use it on my mother?”
“So your mother called the cops?”
“It’s kind of vague to me.”
“I don’t mean any harm, Asia, but your dad scares me. I caught him staring at me when we cheered at our first football game. I felt weird, and I called and told my mom.”
Raphael didn’t hear anything else. He turned his head toward the door the ladies had exited and wondered if their conversation had anything to do with what Asia and Afrika were talking about.
Raphael put on his thinking cap. He’d barely been home twenty-four hours but something was wrong with all the scenarios floating around him. Mimi’s obvious awkwardness when John showed up and her nervousness upon him seeing Asia in the room to Brenda’s need to see Mimi in private right away didn’t add up. And why didn’t Mimi tell him about the man staring at Afrika? Maybe that’s what she had tried to tell him the night that she called, Raphael thought back.
In the military, Raphael was paid to think—to provide strategies to fight wars on foreign soil in a place they called the war room. He was in the war room, and if he had to draw a map, the pieces to the puzzle centered around his wife, her so-called best friend, Brenda, Afrika, and Brenda’s husband—the one with the gun. The gun. The gun that might have been used to shoot Afrika, but why? That was what Raphael was going to find out. He needed to find Asia’s father. He needed to solicit someone’s help. He could use a beer or two.
“Baby cakes, Daddy’s got to leave for a little while. You seem to be in good hands with Asia by your side,” Raphael said. He went to the side of the bed and kissed Afrika. “I’ll be back in a while.”
“Okay, Daddy. Don’t stay away too long.”
“All right, baby.”
Raphael exited Afrika’s hospital room and saw Mimi consoling Brenda outside the glass doors to the ICU unit. Brenda seemed to be crying and wiped her face as Raphael approached.
“Where are you going?” Mimi inquired, surprised by Raphael’s look of departure.
“I need to get some air; I’m uptight, I guess. I thought about taking John up on his offer to get some beers. Do you have his number?”
Mimi looked Raphael squarely in the eye. Raphael knew she wondered why he had the sudden desire to meet with John.
“I feel worthless. I need to find my daughter’s shooter.”
Brenda and Mimi looked at each with fear in their eyes.
“What’s wrong? Do you know who the shooter is?”
“No, Raf,” Mimi said a little too fast. “The police are doing all they can to find the person who did this awful thing to Afrika. I know how you are, Raf, but you’re going to have to let the police do their work. I need you to be calm for Afrika and let law enforcement handle it.”
Raf looked at Mimi, the love of his life. She was shielding him from something; he could feel it in his bones. When it was time, he would deal with it. “John’s number?”
Mimi pulled out her cell and pulled up John’s number. Raf looked at her. His black book was empty. There had to be a good explanation why John’s number was in Mimi’s black book, if they had indeed just run into each other.
He punched the numbers Mimi had given him into his phone.
“Thanks. I’ll be back in a while.”
Mimi sighed and watched her husband disappear behind the elevator door.