“AS THE GHETTO TURNS” episode 2

Season 1    Episode 2  —” The Torture Chamber of Nadine Henderson part 2 ”

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After the Dallas Police arrived to take a report,  they questioned me as to whether or not that I had hit her.  I said no, that I just left and came to this phone and called them.  I recall that the officer clicked his ball pen,   and started actually writing on his pad, although he was standing there talking with me for a two full minutes, with that pen at the ready.  What went through my mind,  was that he was ready to take me to jail,  if in fact, that I had retaliated against her for hitting my car.  He made the statement “That’s a good thing,  Mr. Jones….” as he clicked his pen. ” I’m glad you didn’t because you and I would be having a very….. different…. conversation right about now!”  (That was lesson number five, in a domestic quarrel, the man will always be considered to be the aggressor.  Thinking back on this today, I’m certain Nadine knew that and in fact, counted on it!)

After they finished their report, ( I say they because the number of squad cars kept growing, as we talked)  he went back to Nadine duplex to finish his report.  I followed him back to the scene to see that she was hosting a platoon of cops of her own.  The all got together and compared notes and issued her a summons for disturbing the peace.  I didn’t hear anything from her for two weeks.  Until she showed up at my Uncle’s shop, where I was working on the compressor on my dump truck,  with $300 dollars,  for my half of the deposits on our apartment, and the shattered T-top glass,  and an apology.   I was surprised at her apologetic overture, but being burnt in the past,  made me leery,  as to her intentions.

The following Sunday, Nadine, her daughter and mother brought dinner over to my brother’s house.  It was a nice outing, but I was determined not to be sucked back into Nadine’s vortex.  The next day, I came home to my now clean, efficiency apartment,  that I had moved into after our break up.   Nadine had come over while I was at work,  and got the key from my property manager, (a cantankerous, old Black, pit bull of a woman ) claiming to be my wife.  I don’t even know how she found out where I lived! She was lying across my bed watching a rerun of “Mayberry RFD”, and she had cooked a meatloaf , cornbread, spinach, and mashed potatoes.  I explained to her again that we were through, and she said she understood, but she stayed all night anyway! ( The answer is no! I kept my hands to myself, and did nothing to encourage her!  At this stage I knew that she was missing some mental pieces of her puzzle!)  During her stay,  she said that she had moved back into her mother’s and she was trying to get her life back together. She told me all about the drama with J.D. and that she wished that she had listened to her mother.  She said that she didn’t feel that I really loved her because I didn’t show any passion for her.   When I asked her what she meant by that,  she said that I didn’t react when she provoked me.  My next question was ” How was I supposed to react?”   She said that  “you were supposed to react by preventing me from doing things,  that I knew was wrong.  Show some emotion in the situation, like the day when you came over to get your shoes,  you wouldn’t talk to me, about anything.  You just got your shoes and left me standing on the side of the road looking silly!  So, when I went off on you. You had to react. I was surprised when you didn’t hit me, and that’s when I knew that you really did care for me, but you didn’t know how to express it.”  A light came on, in my head,  about what she viewed as a show of affection.  Aggressive displays of emotion is what she was seeking.  I told her that my parents taught me to never hit a woman, except to get out of a life threatening situation.  And even then to use extreme caution.  That moment seemed to bring her a little more understanding of me, but it didn’t change her pursuit.

She left the next day, and I would hear from her the following Saturday with a new crisis.  She called me from a phone booth in Saginaw, Texas at 2am Saturday morning asking me to come and get her and her daughter from the side of the highway.  Saginaw was about 13 miles from my place in Fort Worth,  so I had to get up and go to my uncle’s shop and  get his wrecker.  Then I drove to Saginaw and found Nadine,her daughter, and…….her boyfriend J.D.!  I started to turn right around and leave the trio on the side of the road…..I truly struggled with that urge.  But since I’d been duped already, I pulled over and got set up to tow the car back to Ft. Worth.  I tasked J.D. to crawl under the Pinto and hook up the safety chains. He said he couldn’t a place to attached them, so I slid under the car and hooked them to the frame.  I was double pissed now!   We rode back in total silence, I think that they felt that I would go ape shit if they did otherwise. When I stopped by her mom’s house, I dropped Nadine and her daughter off  first,  she  kissed me as she got out of the truck, with J.D. standing right beside the open door.  Now, I knew she was insane.  After they were out, J.D. jumped back in and had me drop him off two blocks from the shop,  which was about 3 miles away, on Verbena street.

I could tell that he wanted to talk,  by the apprehensive way he looked over at me, he built up his courage, he and asked me ” Why did you break up with Nadine.  She obviously loves you, a lot more than she ever cared about me?  Since she met you, that’s all she ever talks about!  At first I thought she was saying all that to make me jealous, but now I know the she’s for real.”  I looked at him and said ” She told you that I broke up with her? …She left me! … I came back to our apartment and found it empty!”  He looked down at his feet and said ” She said you had left her two weeks before I helped her move her stuff out of that apartment, I even gave two of my friends twenty dollars a piece to help me load that stuff on a U-haul!  I’ll be damned, sneaky ass heifer!”  He told me all the things that went on from the time that she met me.  He said,” She even wanted me to drive your car one day.  I told her hell no, because I was sure that the car wasn’t hers,  and she had already caused me to get in a fight over something else, that she lied about.  I might have been born at night, but not last night!  I ain’t going to have some nigga’ shoot me in the ass,  just because she likes drama! I dropped him off at his house, and he left me his phone number,  he said that we could stay in contact and know what she up to, and know the whole story.  I took the wrecker back to the shop,  I had started to rain so I left the car hooked up.  The mechanic would unhook it in the morning.

I was about ten o’clock when the mechanic José called me to tell me that my car was ready,  I was still sleepy from the night before so I asked him “What car?” José, who spoke more Spanish than English said “ The little amarillo, Ford Pinto.  It’s ready, I put on a new starter, and charged the battery,  the generator’s good, but the starter, she was all burned up… finito!”

When I called Nadine, I relayed what José had told me, I told her that it was going to cost 45 dollars.  She said “I don’t have 45 dollars! “ I fought hard,  not to counter with one of my classic snide remarks.  I just said “What about your passenger? Maybe he could pay for it, and you could pay him back later? Or maybe get it from your mom?” I was enjoying watching her dangle on a string, but the amusement quickly died when she pretended to cry.  I said “ That’s all I can do,  I’m tapped out too! “  I hung up the phone and I called back to the shop, and told  José that I’d be back down to pay for it, but he should call her and tell her you need the money anyway.   I waited about three hours before I called her back,  and told her to go down and pick her car up, I told her that I borrowed some money and paid for it.  She never knew that I paid for it straight out of my pocket,  and that was the way I got my money back!

Next time on “As the Ghetto Turns”   Watch as Nadine’s mother’s attempt at duplicity, in the final chapter of “The Torture Chamber of Nadine Henderson”