“AS THE GHETTO TURNS”

While commenting on a new friend’s blog,

Marital ‘Unbliss’ – ‘See finish’ or Apathy

May 1, 2013 by herapereira

I was inspired to write about my experiences with a young lady.  Nadine schooled me in the art of love and romance, with such speed and skill like I’d ever seen. This is the pilot episode of the newly created “AS THE GHETTO TURNS”.  Enjoy!

Season 1    Episode I  —” The Torture Chamber of Nadine Henderson ”

©2013 volcanosunsetpress

I met Nadine after I first moved to Fort Worth,  at a dive of a bar off Rosedale Street.  She was short, slender and pregnant, ( she was not showing yet) and we hit it off right away.  I had a friend that I’d met on the job, a guy by the name of Johnny  B.  He was ten years older than me, but he was good company and a good mentor.  Johnny  and I were out bar hopping where we met Nadine and another lady.  We talked and danced until late that night and Johnny left the club with his new friend to parts unknown.  Nadine was riding with her,  and asked me if I’d drop her off at mother’s house when I left the club.  I said okay and we blew that dive.  We went by a restaurant called Drake’s and ate,  then instead of going home,  we rode all around “Cowtown” until the wee hours of the morning. (Unleaded was only 80 cents a gallon back then!)  I dropped her off at her mother’s place and we made a date to see each other again soon.  The next workday, I saw Johnny and he asked me how things went Nadine.  He listened closely, then said that it would be wise to watch my step with Nadine.  He didn’t know her personally, but he felt that something was little off about her.  I heard him, but I didn’t really hear him.

Over the next few weeks, we (I) fell in love.  She worked in the Hospitality Room for a large hotel in Fort worth, and lived in a duplex apartment.  She had a six-year-old daughter, and was two weeks pregnant by a guy named J.D. .  She complained that they were broken up,  (Warning alarms going off!) and that he wouldn’t go away.  At the time,  I was living in the house with my older brother and his wife, and trying to find a place of my own.  She suggested that we move in together,  (Warning alarms going off! Red lights flashing!)  and set up house.  We found a nice apartment off East Hattie Street and everything went swimmingly, or so I thought.  After we were together two and a half months, she did her signature “Bust a move” act on me.  We made love that previous  night and she got up and made breakfast for me that next morning.  Something that she had never done,  I worked in a gravel pit,  and had to be in line to get my truck loaded at 5A.M. (No Fred Flintstone jokes please!)  I had to be at the job site by seven, over in Dallas.  If you got caught in the rush hour traffic, you were screwed.  My truck was kept over in Stop Six,  in our family’s truck yard.  So I had to leave the house at 4 A.M..  She kissed me and said “I love you and have a good day!” as I left that morning.  I felt something was off,  as I drove off in her beat-up 72′ Pinto while she kept my new Cadillac Seville, because it had air conditioning and she was with child,  during the summer.

I made record runs that day,  and I was driving by our apartment around 2P.M. that afternoon.  I thought I’d drop in and grab a Coke and a sandwich.  I parked on the street, and seeing that she wasn’t home, used my key to unlock the front door.  It’s funny that you notice the most minute sounds when something is different.   When I put the key in the lock, and turned the knob, there was a strange echo, a hollow sound.  I went in and saw that every stitch of our rent-to-own furniture was gone… All of the clothing was gone…  All the food was gone….. The utilities were all off, and the apartment was rent ready except for the missing light bulbs, even the one in refrigerator was gone!

I was like a runaway locomotive by the time I got to her mom’s house.  Mrs. Henderson said he could hear my truck coming a mile away.  There is a device on heavy diesel trucks called a Jake Brake (short for Jacobsen Engine Brake, it uses the engine exhaust to slow the vehicle down) it causes a rattle of a sorts, when you down shift suddenly.  She said she could tell it was me,  just by the intensity of the engine.  She said that Nadine knew that I was going to get upset,  and she was afraid that I might hit her.  Mrs. Henderson said that all my things were in her garage and my car is in the back.  After I went and took my dump-truck back to the yard, and brought her little struggle buggy of a car back to her mom’s house.  Mrs. Henderson  and I talked at length that evening.  She said that she told Nadine that she was making a mistake, but Nadine was so hard-headed and she wouldn’t listen.  After our conversation, I slinked away,  with what was left of my dignity and went back and told Johnny he was right.  I even talked to Nadine later that week, and I wished her well.  I didn’t hear anything from here until a week before the busted T-tops incident.   She called my dispatcher and left a message, saying that she had found my Converse shoes amidst her things,  and I could come over and get them.  This was about the time that name-brand shoes had started to get expensive.  The Converse shoes she was talking about,  were a little over a hundred bucks, and I wanted them back.  When I knocked on the door of her new apartment, ( mistake number three, returning calls that lead to obvious traps)  she answered and had me wait a couple of minutes while she retrieved them.  She gave me the shoes, while asking how I was doing,  I said that I was doing well, and turned back toward my car.   She came outside and grabbed an old axe handle that she kept for stray dogs, she was terrified of dogs, in any size they came in.  I thought nothing of it,  and continued toward my car,  stopping only to look at my new Jheri Curls in my car’s tinted window.

As I was getting into my car, she said “We need to talk about us!  I wanted to know if we are going to get back together again?  I realize that I made a mistake, and I’m still in love with you. ”   Now, I still had feelings for her too, but leaving me in that empty apartment sealed the deal for me.  As far as I was concerned,  WE WERE DONE.  I said ” You have already made your decision, and I don’t see  anything else left to talked about.”  (mistake number four, refusing  the keep the argument going,  at least until you out of her striking range)  She stood there until I put the car into reverse and started to back out, then with a WHAM! came the axe handle through my T-top, showering my newly conditioned locks with tempered glass.  For a moment, it seemed to rain glass out of the cloudless summer sky.  I slammed the car into park,  and caught her in the twenty steps to her front door, stopping only to retrieve the axe handle from the ground,  where she threw it.  I watched her cringe and cover her head as I caught her by the arm.  She was in shock when I threw the stick down, and walked away. After I brushed the glass from my seat, I drove away with her yelling her best ghetto rat obscenities she could throw at me, complete with the ghetto head shake.  That was the first time that realized that she believed that if a man doesn’t hit her, then in her mind, he doesn’t love her.  I’ll tell you how I came to that conclusion in another episode.  Anyway, I drove to a phone booth and called the police.  As I sat there waiting for the cops to come,  I asked myself “What was I thinking that was I going to do with that stick, when I caught with up six month pregnant, 110 pound Nadine Henderson?”

Join us this time next week for further updates on “AS THE GHETTO TURNS!’

TO BE CONTINUED………