2
Blair sat in her bed, and stared at the ceiling, waiting for Money to come home, after about 2:00, she gave up, and decided to call Paulette back. She rolled over on her side, and picked up the phone off of the receiver, and dialed in Paulette's number.
"Hello," Paulette, said in a tired voice.
"Hay girl, I'm sorry I woke you up." Blair apologized.
"Blair, I'm so sorry. Really I am. Are you okay?" Paulette asked with deep concern in her voice.
"I'm fine," Blair lied in her soft melodic voice. "Want to come over? I just got a whole thing of ice cream, I need to talk to somebody." She pleaded.
Paulette looked down at her wedding ring, and agreed.
As, Blair hung up the phone, she wondered where Money could possibly be at this time of night.
Money, sat on the edge of the queen sized bed, where his first love was peacefully sleeping. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he loved her, and he learned to love his wife too, but he just couldn't choose. But if he really had too, he would choose her, because she had his kids, whom he loved to death. Money glanced at the clock, as he thought to himself, 'Damn, I need to get home, Blair's probably sitting up waiting for me. Aww, fuck it, I'm staying here tonight, I hardly ever get to see my kids.' And with that, he yawned, laid back down next to his original wifey, wrapped his arm around her, and fell asleep with a smile on his face.
Blair ran to her front door, as soon as her doorbell rang.
"Ooooooh, girl you look like you've just seen a ghost!" Paulette said, taking off her shoes and coat, and letting them fall to the ground at her feet.
"I'm fine Paulette, really." Blair lied as she began walking to the kitchen.
"So what's up girl? What's going on?" Paulette asked as she followed her friend.
"Nothing, I'm just, I don't know. I'm scared." Blair said, as she bit her lower lip.
"Of what? Of Money leaving you for Tasia?" Paulette said as she opened the freezer and took out the brand new container of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream.
"That too, but no. There's something else I just can't get off my mind."
"What?" Paulette asked as she got a spoon out of one of the drawers.
"It's my mother, I don't know, she told me something when I was little girl, I don't know, it's silly." Blair said as she shook the suggestion from her mind.
"What is it girl, do you not remember, or do you just not want to tell me? 'Cause if you don't want to tell me, I'll just call your mom, and ask her myself." Paulette said before taking a bite of her ice cream.
"My mom's dead." Blair said in a flat tone.
Paulette almost choked on her ice cream. "Oh, I'm sorry Blair."
"I hate her, I don't want to talk about it." Blair said painfully.
"Okay, I'm sorry. But what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, it's weird, I always wondered what she meant by what she had said, and now I get it."
"Well, what did she say?"
"I remember being really young, maybe 4 or 5, but none the less, I was young, and I remember playing the piano, as my mother sat beside me on the bench, and told me what to play."
"Damn, you really were high-class society huh? You were just playing the piano at age four, and shit." Paulette said trying to crack a joke, and make her friend laugh. But all she got was a sharp look from Blair.
"No, she said to me," Blair said and chuckled, "I still remember it like it was yesterday, I was playing the piano, and aunt Lucietta was sitting on the purple chaise lounge, listening. But anyway, I remember my mother's exact words, her same sweet voice, 'Oh Blair, my darling. You play just beautifully. Just like I did, and still do. I could have gone on, to become a famous piano player, but your father didn't want me too, so, I said goodbye to the one thing I held dearest to me, and said hello, to motherhood' I don't know Paulette, there was just something in her eyes that suggested that she was lonely, like she was yearning for something that I couldn't give." Blair said in a frustrated tone, as she shrugged her shoulders, and reached in the same cabinet for a spoon.
"So, what does this have to do with what's going on right now?" Paulette asked, her eyes big. She loved it when Blair told her stories of when she was little.
"It," Blair said in an annoyed tone, "Has something to do with this situation, because do you get what she was trying to tell me, never give up something you hold dear for a man, too bad I couldn't say the same for her. Well, anyways after she said that, it was like she was warning me, she said, don't always listen to what your father says, because sometimes, he can bring more heartbreak and pain, then happiness, do you hear me Blair? Promise me, that you'll never let him take over your life the way that he has mine?' and she stared at me Paulette, the look in her eyes was heartbreaking, she looked so fragile, and thin, and then she looked afraid, I think she wanted to tell me that, you know warn me before she grew sick. I don't know and then my aunt Lucietta, said something, she said, 'Be serious Vanity, if your daughter, were to marry a man that didn't control her life, then pigs would be able to fly, and money would grow on trees, besides, Shawn is who she is going to marry.' I don't know what happened, like they set me up with Money before I was born Paulette. Well, anyways, I don't know, I think she was warning me." Blair said as she looked at her now clean spoon.
"Well, since you put it that way, I guess they did set you up, with Shawn. But I don't know about the whole 'Don't let your father control you the way that he controls me.' I mean, what did she mean by that? I thought your parents were happy. So are you saying that your father controlled your mother?" Paulette asked, in a matter of fact tone.
"Yes, he did." Blair said in a sad ashamed voice as she looked away.
"So, then why do you hate your mother? She was the one who was trying to protect you, your father was the one who was trying to control you? So, do you hate them both, or what?" Paulette asked, she was confused now.
"Of course, my father controlled my mother, he was horrible to her. I remember this one time she was about 8 months pregnant with my sister, Airrainia, he made her scrub the whole house, instead of resting like the doctor, had recommended. Well, I don't know so much if my father was trying to control me, I think it was more like love, you know the suffocating power of parental love." Blair said as she looked at her now bare ring finger.
"So, your father loved you so much that he wanted to control you? I'm sorry but that to me is not love, that is what you would call, possessive." Paulette said taking another bite of her ice cream.
"No, it was nothing like that, Paulette, I don't know he looked at me funny, all the time, that's why I hate my mother. I don't know my mother used to say that the minute I was born she became jealous because it always seemed that my father loved me more than he loved her. I don't know it was weird." Blair said as she shrugged her shoulders.
"So," Paulette said trying to get off the subject, the thought of somebody loving someone that much, made her shudder. "Where's Money at?" she asked in a curious tone.
"I don't know." Blair said in a sad voice.
"I bet you, he's at Tasia's." Paulette, said as she gently patted her friends back in a reassuring way.
Blair looked up at her best friend, with eyes that pleaded for her to help her, but all Paulette could do, was smile, shudder, and look away out the window. She couldn't help Blair. She knew it, and Blair knew it, there was nothing that could be done.
