Chapter 6

No-No and Wissy Asleep on the Roof

Karisma had set up a Facebook page encouraging people to share memories and pictures of Amaris. Between May 2006-October 2009, from a few months before her 12th birthday until a few months after her 15th birthday, the time she had lived in Florida, only two pictures of her had been given to a greatly disappointed Dorinda, who had meticulously documented the lives of her children from the moment she found out she was pregnant with each one. Lucky for Dorinda, her elder daughter suspected that many more mementos of Amaris's last few years on Earth in Florida existed, however had deliberately not been turned over to her bereaved mother by the same person who orchestrated the separation or unknowingly by acquaintances who did not know she had a home and desperately searching mother in Kentucky until the day she died. To arouse the least amount of suspicion from the people who had heard only Isaac's distorted narrative and to make her mother smile, Karisma shared a few of her own hidden snapshots and don't tell mama stories.  Within 10 minutes of uploading the first picture, she got a reply from who else except Doting Mommy herself. 

What the Hell was my children doing up on the damn roof?! They lived inside the house and slept right next door to Mommy!

She stifled a giggle, glanced at the time stamp before closing her eyes, and as the details came flooding back to her began to type.

22 Jul 04

It was late morning and already felt like Dante's Inferno out the door. Secretly pregnant and nauseous Karisma had gone downstairs shortly after her mother left at 7 a.m. to put together some kind of quick breakfast for her still sleeping younger siblings while it was still cool enough to turn on the stove. The 15 year old had precious little energy after being on her feet for 20 minutes and subsequently took up hovering over the toilet through waves of morning sickness. In her daze she had heard recently turned 10 year old No-No and 11 year old Wissy come downstairs to get their breakfast of cheese and butter grits, cheesy scrambled eggs, and fried spam to eat in front of the TV. 

"Don't....don't go....outside and get on the trampoline or nothing." She had managed to tell them between the crashing waves of sickness. "It's too hot. Just watch the TV or play something in here, alright?" 

"Yeah I hear you!" Wissy answered. 

The house had since fallen silent except for the TVs and in retrospect Karisma could've kicked herself for thinking her little brother had simply accepted what she said. Things were never that simply with Wissy. Even if what you said made perfect logical sense, he would still argue you down about it. In addition to that annoying quirk, the only time he wasn't picking on or starting something with No-No was when they were both asleep....or he was leading her astray into devilment. Most people saw him as a coddled Mama's Boy and he was to a certain degree. He was also fearless and game for just about anything imaginable, 100% boy. 

"What ya'll want for lunch?" Karisma dragged herself out of the bathroom shortly after 11 a.m. hoping that she was just being hypervigilant. She was not up for any of that spoiled imp's tricks today. If the baby she was carrying was a boy then she didn't know what she was going to do! "If ya'll want me to make you something then you better speak now or forever hold your peace."

No response. A bad sign seeing as Wissy loved to eat though you wouldn't know it by the look of him. 

Each step got more difficult though and she really didn't have the stamina to go looking for them. Just to get from her bedroom to a bathroom to be sick sent the world spinning.A cursory check to be certain that all of the downstairs doors were locked assured her that they were still in the house somewhere and after she had shut the windows as well to equalize air pressure so the bedroom doors wouldn't slam themselves and startle anyone, lay down for a well deserved nap. 

An obnoxiously loud barking dog or something else incidental roused her almost three hours later. The morning sickness had passed and getting out of bed didn't make her head swim. Her heart pounded though when she realized she had not been awakened to fix lunch by two hungry kids or start supper before Mama came home. 

"God, please let them be sleeping too." 

Panic set in as she checked first their bedroom then their mother's where they still slept more nights than not and finally the living room. The doors were all still locked. They had to be here somewhere. Up and down the stairs again and again before she finally ran outdoors to check the yard not knowing how they could have possibly got outside without unlocking a door. 

You already know where I found them, Mama. I was running around the yard for about 5 minutes thinking I was going to have to call the police when the old lady who lived next door told me to look up. So I did while walking around the yard and sure enough there they were. I texted Ibra to come home and help me get them down, but before that I took a few pictures with my phone. 

"Where are you going?" Karisma called out when Ibrahim arrived home and went inside the house. "They're on the roof!"

The twins had turned 17 in the spring and had summer jobs that kept them away from home during the day, hence why all of the responsibility had fallen to Karisma. Something had to be seriously wrong before she resorted to calling them home.

"I know that." He replied calmly heading up the stairs.

In the two youngest children's bedroom, he opened the window that she had previously closed, stuck his head out, and raising his voice a few decibels said, "Get in here! You know better than to be up there!"

A few minutes later, a lethargic and sun baked Wissy clambered in the window. With Ibrahim's assistance, No-No soon followed. She was afraid of heights. This hadn't been her idea. 

"Next time, if you see their window open, don't close it." Ibrahim explained patiently to a confused Karisma. "Stick your head out and tell them to get back in here."

"But the doors were locked!" She wondered aloud." They're too little to be sneaking out." 

"And you're too old to be letting a 10 and 11 year old outsmart you." Ibrahim chided her. "Who's running the show in here, you or them?" For emphasis he pointed at No-No who was slumped against her bed in a daze. "You know as well as Isa and I do that's Mama Baby and if anything, anything at all, happens because of you...Mama will be out for blood. Something happens to both of them and no force in the universe will be able to hold her back."

Wissy thought it was funny. He was laughing and I wanted to slap that look right off his face. I didn't though, cuz I was just glad he didn't get hurt or hurt No-No being silly.

Somehow Karisma had managed to get her charges cooled off in cold showers, fed a late lunch/early supper, and resting comfortably in their room in front of cartoons after Ibrahim left to go back to work. She never imagined that she would one day look back fondly at such days and want nothing more than to walk up the stairs in her mother's home, take a right, and through the second door see her younger brother and sister, safe in bed. She had been a mother in training since she was 5 1/2 years old and assumed motherhood easily with her own child, yet she could not bare to raise her daughter in the same home her younger siblings were being denied. So she fled, chased away to another city and new life by over a decade worth of haunting memories stored in the place she had called home.

The nostalgia lasted only a fleeting moment before Karisma's blood boiled as ignorant comments filled her sister's memorial page.

For all of you who know Isaac Diaz and believed his lies, I will thank you to keep your f*****g mouths shut about my mother. The little girl in these pictures, who was stolen from us by a vindictive coward and the little boy who remains a victim of unspeakable betrayal, will have justice. What you don't know is these children have always been so very loved and we will NEVER forgive Isaac for what he has done to them....

Almost as an afterthought, as the weight of her words sunk in, Karisma added a public appeal to her sister's memorial. 

And if you are reading this, Wissy come home to the loving mother who cries herself to sleep every night and wishes every single day that she had believed you.....

Author's Note

please be brutally honest

Reviews

[SweetNutmeg]

OK, I have to stop for the time being. This story is riveting. I'm very glad I got past the first chapter, which, honestly, turned me off with the embellishments and fancy words.

[MeratheRestless]

Glad you enjoyed it