“And you were saying?”
“I don’t know him anymore. He used to be such a go-getter. Now he’s just playing those damn horns and hanging with those misfit ass-hole band members. Do you remember the Chapman Sweet that all the ladies used to swoon over?”
Kenya nodded and Terri continued.
“Where is he? What happened to him? I’m pulling my weight. I’m running around town doing all I can to secure a job on the next level of my chosen profession. If I get it…I mean when I get it.” Sobs momentarily halted her venting. “Life is going to change for us. Then we canhave our babies. As many babies as our money will allow. You’ve seen the lengths that I went to in order to get him the information on this county music job. And this whole ass, not asshole, is acting like I’m handing him some pre-used toilet paper. I mean, all he thinks about is his damn music. He doesn’t even play that well anymore. Have you heard that shit he calls music? I’m beginning to wonder if his ass is going crazy or what. I can’t even understand that noise he is calling music these days.”
Kenya said nothing. She just shifted in her seat. The waiter returned with the water and spritzers. He informed them that the appetizer would be up in a minute or two. Terri picked up her glass and gulped down her spritzer, leaving the water on the table. She placed the glass down on the table and began picking at the stem.
“Are you going to drink that or what?”, Terri pressed.
Kenya hesitated before allowing Terri to take her drink.
“Go ahead.”
As Terri began to inhale Kenya’s drink, she motioned to the waiter to bring two more. The waiter gave her the drinks that were on his tray. Kenya just sat back and looked at what Terri had transformed into since they sat down. The waiter brought two more drinks before Terri finished the second set of two she had in front of her. Kenya gave the waiter the evil eye, and drew her fingers across her throat. He understood the universal sign for “I’ll slit your throat”, and retreated knowing he’d been warned not to bring her another drink.”
“You need to slow down. We got all night, to try to work this thing out. Is that all that’s on your mind?”
“Hell, ain’t that enough? What? Do you know something I need to know? Or will I have to wait for you to tell the news to me on the Oprah Winfrey show? The show will be titled: My Tight Girl’s Husband is my Sex Slave, or some shit like that.”
“Jesus is still on the main line!”, snapped Kenya. She thought about the last time she had seen Terri so angry. Terri told her a story that was so strange, a team of writers could not have made up what happened.
It was after Chapman’s band opened for Gerald Albright and Will Downing. He had gone to his dressing room, and was going to take the stage and dual with Gerald Albright horn-to-horn. While he and Thumper were changing, they heard a rattle in a footlocker in the corner of the dressing room. They were scared, but Chapman opened it and a naked white lady leaped out and jumped on Chapman and began to hug and kiss him as soon as Terri walked through the door. She hit the ceiling and tried to fight Chapman. He didn’t hit her, but he shook her. He had strict beliefs about a man who hits a woman, after having seen his uncle smack his aunt around quite a few times.
Kenya musters up enough nerve to ask the big question. “Is...I mean, you know…there….somebody else?” Kenya exhaled as if she had just lifted and dropped a 10,000 pound weight.
Terri looked at Kenya as if she had just come face to face with the devil. “I know you know something. Tell me, and I mean now!”
“What? Girl I don’t know anything! Honest, I don’t.”
“Yeah, you’re always rambling on about how good Chapman is, and how lucky I am to have a man like him. What do you know about how good my raggedy ass man is?”
It was obvious she drank the wine spritzers too fast or they were too strong. Besides, she was never famous for holding her liquor.
“Take me home! Right now!”, shouted Terri.
Kenya was embarrassed. She put her head down into her hands to hide her face. She gathered her things and put her feet back into her shoes. Kenya did her best to pretend to not hear Terri as she continued on with her insecure ranting about the state of her marriage. Kenya took a deep breath and tapped her fingers on the table as she cut her eyes at Terri.
“I can’t believe you. Embarrassing me like this. And you are the one who is always telling me how to act in order to project the right image to the powers-that-be on the principal selection board, and your ass is in here acting like a teenage girl on her first night out drinking.”
Terri was shamed by Kenya’s assessment of her behavior, but she was still angry at Kenya, and yet clearly not sure why.
“Come on. I think you have had enough for one night. I knew I shouldn’t have let you drink. Let me get you home before one of us says something we can’t take back, while I still have a friend.” Kenya tried to help Terri by holding her arm, but Terri snatched away from her.
Terri’s speech is slurred. ”I don’t need your help. I ain’t ready to go. Anyway, you’re a traitor. You always side with Sweet Chapman. Why don’t you have him? He can’t do no wrong, let you tell it. Now, take me home. Right now.”
Kenya was wounded by Terri’s mean statements. “Is this my friend?”, she asked herself.
Clinching her fist and fighting to hold back her tears, a mild tremble manifested in Kenya’s almost numb limbs. She didn’t know if Terri was just being a drunken fool or if she was doing what Terri said she believed the people with Tourette’s syndrome do. According to Terri, they hid behind their disease so they can say whatever mean things they want to say, without any worry about public retaliation.
“Is this what has been on Terri’s mind all of this time?”
Kenya wondered to herself.
Terri looked over at Kenya as she pretended to be looking at the singer on stage as she belted out a soulful rendition of “That’s What Friends are For.” A single tear streamed down Kenya’s cheek. Seeing that tear seemed to spontaneously reverse the effect of the wine on Terri’s brain. A moment of clarity hit Terri like a bolt of lightening. The last thing she wanted to do was to hurt her best friend in the whole wide world. Reaching across the table, Terri placed her hand on Kenya’s hand. The touch was soft, but charged with guilt. Kenya said nothing, because in her mind, it was exactly what the moment called for─Nothing. After the song ended, the crowd applauded the singer and the band. Kenya reached into her handbag and tossed a twenty and a ten-dollar bill onto the table. She put the strap of her purse over her shoulder and got up to walk out while the crowd continued the ovation for the entertainers. Terri tried to make eye contact with Kenya, but Kenya would not look at her. Terri couldn’t even find her shoes with her feet under the table. She couldn’t, so she just got down on her hands and knees and picked them up. She put on her shoes and stood tall as if she had never taken a drink all night. Walking fast to catch up to Kenya, the slight stagger and wobble to her walk was obvious. The throng of people standing and clapping served as camouflage and a crutch for Terri’s retreat to the front of the club. The fact that she had on high heels did not help her situation at all.
She finally caught up to Kenya as she stood outside waiting for the driver to bring around her crimson Acura coupe with the cream leather interior. Despite the emotional exchange that occurred between them, they were able to maintain their composure and still draw the attention of both the men and women who were walking into the club. Terri in her pink and white, hound’s-tooth three-button pantsuit and Kenya in her navy blue four-button blazer with the naval officer piping around the cuffs, and white slacks with deep cuffs at the hem with matching navy blue pumps. They were dressed to kill. The valet drove up as two old “Sugar Daddy” types walked up and tried the old player’s approach on the pair. Both men were wearing shiny three-piece Swedish knit suits, one powder blue and the other merlot, definitely