Read an Excerpt
GOT A MAN
By Daaimah S. Poole
Dafina Books
Copyright © 2003
Daaimah S. Poole
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0-7582-0240-7
Chapter One
Shonda Nicole Robinson
Have you ever woke up in the middle of the night, and regretted
something you did the day before? The scene keeps replaying
in your head over and over again. You wish you could take
back your action, and you keep telling yourself, I should have done
this, or I should have said that.
You have? Yeah, me too, only it's not the middle of the night, it's
4:30 P.M. and I just made a complete fool of myself by showing up at
my boyfriend's wedding. I couldn't help it, though. All I know is
that I was running up the church steps past huge arrangements of
red and white roses and white and gold bells. I caught my breath
and walked into the church. I sat on the last row so I would go unnoticed.
Then the rev asked did anyone see why this man or woman
should not be joined in holy matrimony, yadda, yadda. So I stood
up and said, "Malik, you can't do this, you know this is wrong."
Everyone turned around and stared at me like, bitch, are you
crazy? Then everyone stared at each other, shook their heads, and
started mumbling amongst each other. Kim ran into the pew crying.
Malik just stood there with his mouth open. One of Kim's girlfriends
or cousins tried to act like they wanted to say something,
but I didn't give them a chance. I said what I had come to say and I
was out. The wedding was interrupted and I ran to my getaway car
that I had left running outside. I called my godsister Tae as soon as
I got in the car. I shouldn't have called her at all, since she refused
to come with me. She could have been my backup, if things got
ugly ya mean. But she said I was wrong and she would not be my
accomplice.
I frantically dialed her number on the phone. It began to ring, then
she answered and I said, "I did it."
"You did what?" she asked.
"I stopped the wedding."
"No, you didn't, cause if you did I'm not speaking to you anymore.
Come on, Shonda, I thought you were joking."
"Well, don't speak to me anymore. I told you I was serious."
"You're serious? Girl, you're crazy!" Tae screamed.
"I'm not crazy!"
"Really! You know how much heart it takes to go and stop a wedding."
"Uh, I don't know, a lot," I said as if I had to think about it.
"No, it takes a sick, crazy individual. CON-GRAT-U-LA-TIONS,
it should have been me." Tae finally laughed between trying to sing
like Vesta, this singer from back in the day, who sang about going to
her ex-boyfriend's wedding. They used to play the video all the
time on BET. Now I can't believe I'm acting this shit out.
Well, I could have let it happen, but I didn't. No, not after what I
have been through with Malik-let alone men, period. If I told you
my story, it would take a book and a half. I wouldn't know where to
begin.
It's so cliché to say it all began when this happened. So I'll start my
story like this. My name is Shonda Nicole Robinson, I'm twenty-five,
and I have a story to tell.
I was in Atlanta for six months trying to get myself together, or
so I thought. My plan was to go to Atlanta and come up. A.T.L. was
supposed to be the new black Mecca, right? For everybody else
maybe, for Shonda, I don't think so. My six months in A.T.L., the
only thing I managed to do is meet a stalker.
I stayed with my Aunt Jackie in College Park, right outside of Atlanta.
I went down there because me and my daughter's father Brian had
broken up after seven years of being together. I didn't feel like
being bothered with him or his family. He was so upset that I left,
he married somebody else three months later. Atlanta wasn't really
for me though, there were too many damn yellow waffle houses;
and forget about trying to learn the confusing ass highways, they
didn't make any sense. Plus, I didn't have the help with Bree like I
had in Philly. I could barely go to the store without having to drag
her along, because my aunt rarely baby-sat. She was one of those
women in her late forties trying to date young men and go to the
club herself. It really was not like home.
I lived in Philly all my life, with my dad and my grandmother, who
I call Gram. My mother Angela is a deadbeat mom. Not typical of
a mother, but true, but I'll get on her later. Let me finish telling you
about my ex.
My stalker's name was Mike. I met Mike at my job at the Holiday
Inn Airport hotel. I was a front desk agent. He had stopped in and
asked for directions because he was lost. I gave them to him. Then
he came back almost an hour later to thank me for the directions I
had given him. He then asked me what was I doing when I got off.
I told him going home and going to sleep. He asked me if I would
like to go to out with him to breakfast when I woke up.
* * *
I took him up on his offer. We got together and it was like we
knew everything about one another in a few short days. Mike
showed me all around Atlanta. On our first date he took me to
Justin's, on Peachtree Street. It was really nice and we really enjoyed
ourselves talking, joking, and taking in the scenes. After our
first date, we went out almost every night. Dinner, movies, even a
Braves' baseball game. I even allowed my daughter, Brianna, to
meet him. That was a major no-no. Bree had never been around
any men besides her dad and my father. I was really starting to be
into Mike until, well, until he became an outright crazed maniac. I
mean, I'll agree all men are a little jealous, but there is a line. It
shouldn't have taken me months to realize that Mike was crazy as
hell. My first signs should have been when he began checking my
messages on my cell phone. People would tell me they called and I
would be like, no you didn't. But I never got the message because
he was erasing the messages. I don't know how long he was doing
that. The only reason I found out he was listening to my messages
is because he confronted me about a message Brian left about
Brianna. I asked how did he know her dad wanted her to come up
and he confessed that he had dialed my voice mail by accident.
How do you accidentally get my voice mail password? When he
wasn't busy checking my messages, he was asking me had I met
anybody else. I paid him no attention.
Anyway, Mike showed his true Gemini colors the night a
coworker asked me to accompany her to a party after work at Vegas
Nights. I called my Aunt Jackie to see if she would watch Bree. She
said yes, so then I called Mike and told him I was going out.
"Hey, babe. I'm going to stop past Vegas Nights with Lori from
the job, okay?"
"You're going where?"
"Vegas Nights."
He yelled in the phone, "So you going to start going out, huh?
What, I'm not enough man for you? You got to take your little hot
ass out?" Mike was going ballistic. I totally ignored his comments. I
thought he must have been pissed about something else and was
taking it out on me.
"Listen, baby, I'm going out. I'll talk to you later," I said and I
went out with Lori to the party.
I got to Vegas Nights about 11:30 P.M. Already the club was almost
jammed to capacity. Lori and me had to say excuse me every
other two seconds, trying to maneuver our way to the dance floor.
As soon as we reached the dance floor a guy approached me to dance.
He stood about six feet even, with chocolate-colored skin, dark mystic
eyes, and seductive lips. "What's up, you want to dance?" the stranger
asked.
"Sure," I responded. The stranger grabbed my hand and we danced
on the crowded dance floor. The stranger's friend invited Lori to
the dance floor. They danced beside us until the next song came on
and I saw Mike. How Mike found me in a club full of thousands of
people, I will never know. But what I do know is he came up to me
looking deranged. His eyes crossed. He asked me could he have a
word with me.
"No, leave me alone!" I said, annoyed.
"Let me talk to you, Shonda," he said as he grabbed my arm.
"No," I said as I jerked my arm out of his grip.
"Please."
"Okay. Okay," I said, and I told Lori I would be right back. The
guys we were dancing with looked at Mike suspiciously, then they
turned their heads-I guess deciding it was better to mind their
own business. I walked with him to the front of the club. Mike said
he couldn't hear and asked could we go outside. I went outside with
Mike and sat in his car and we talked.
"Look, Mike, you tripping, it's only a party. Okay? I'll call you
later." I went to exit the vehicle when Mike locked the doors, put
the key in the ignition, and started the car.
"What are you doing?" I asked as I tried to get out of the car.
Mike pulled off.
"What is wrong with you?" I yelled as the car began moving. I
couldn't believe he would just take off like that. Mike said nothing.
As soon as the light turned red at the intersection, I unlocked the
door and jumped out of the car. I ran in the opposite direction of
traffic. I thought Mike would keep going but he didn't. He backed
the car all the way up the street making a loud shrieking noise and
drove onto the pavement, blocking my path from running.
"Get in the car, Shonda."
"No, leave me alone!"
"Get in the fucking car, Shonda," Mike said as he grabbed me by
my belt buckle and started dragging me toward the car saying,
"Sometimes life isn't worth living when you give a person everything
and they don't give back."
People were passing by but he didn't care. I knew someone
would call 911 because it looked like I was getting kidnapped. He
opened the driver-side back door and threw me in. Then he
slammed the door, crushing my feet against the window. I tried to
sit up and gain my balance, but I couldn't because he sped off so
quickly. Mike ran red lights and was scaring the shit out of me.
"Where are you taking me?" I asked, as tears streamed down my
face.
"Home, where you need to be. All I want to be is happy. But you
don't want to be happy. You want to go out and party. I can't take
having my woman in the club."
Mike pulled up to my house, dropped me off, and left. By this time
I didn't even care about going out. I just wanted to go in the house. I
wiped the tears off my face so Bree and Aunt Jackie wouldn't see
them. Aunt Jackie was lying on the sofa with her powder blue robe
on and curlers in her hair, watching ER.
"You're back early," she said.
"Yeah, it was too crowded, so I just came home. Bree 'sleep?"
"I just sent her to bed."
* * *
I went to the bathroom and glanced in the mirror and saw my
puffy red eyes. I looked like a bee had stung me, they were so
puffy and red. My eyes and face swelled every time I cried. Crying
made my golden honey skin look pale. My black hair weave was
out of place. I didn't even feel like calling Lori to tell her why I
left. I just wrapped my hair around, and put on my scarf and went
to bed.
I turned on the television and fell asleep watching Jay Leno. The
phone rang.
"Hello."
"Yeah, you ain't even call me to see if I was all right. You know
what, Shonda, you ain't shit."
"I'm not shit, you pulled me out of a party and I'm not shit.
Please," I said as I banged on Mike.
He called back and said the same thing. "Shonda, you ain't shit.
You ain't nothing but a Philly whore."
"What? Mike, cut it out. Look, I'm going to sleep. I'll holla at
you tomorrow."
The third time Mike called back I don't even know why I answered
the phone.
"Hello," I said with much attitude.
"Shonda, you know it's real fucked up how you treating a nigga,
but it's cool. You ain't shit. Nothing, you hear me?"
Okay, by now I was tired of hearing that I wasn't shit. I hung the
phone up and turned my ringer off. Minutes later my Aunt Jackie
came in the room handing me her phone.
"It's Mike," she said.
"Look, it's over!" I screamed into the phone.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean it."
"I'm sorry too ... and tired, so do me a favor and don't call me
back tonight." I hung up the phone. I turned off my light and went
to sleep.
A strange feeling awakened me. I felt a presence coming toward
me. I opened my eyes and saw Mike standing over me. I jumped up
and screamed, "What are you doing here?"
"You don't want to call nobody back, huh?"
"Look, Mike, leave." He leaped on top of me like a football player.
"Aunt Jackie! Aunt Jackie! Help, call the police," I screamed.
Mike then placed his hands over my mouth and throat. I couldn't
breathe. I still tried to scream, but it was muffled. I continued to
kick and scream.
"You don't want to answer the phone, huh, Shonda?" Mike demanded
as he began to shake and choke me. He took his hands off
my mouth, but I was too shaken to do anything. I just lay still as he
hovered over me trying to figure out what his next move was going
to be.
What was Mike doing in the house? Who let him in? Was he
going to hurt Bree, Aunt Jackie, or me? I nearly passed out before
he lifted his hands from over my throat. I coughed and gasped for
air, as I took long breaths. Mike then let me go. I stared at Mike and
tried to figure out what his next move was going to be. He surprised
me by saying, "I just want to be happy. I love you, Shonda,"
he said, crying, as he began to hug me.
"I love you too, Mike," I said as I tried to pacify him. Suddenly
my aunt appeared in my doorway; she flicked on my bedroom light.
"Y'all all right?"
"Yeah, we're fine," I said as tried to conceal my face.
"Mike, I didn't know you were here. Shonda, let me talk to you,"
my aunt said as she glanced at my face and turned toward Mike.
"Mike, what's going on?" she asked.
Boom! Boom! I heard someone banging on the door. My aunt
went to answer it and I jumped off the bed to find out who the hell
was knocking on the door this late. Mike stayed in my bedroom.
When I reached the living room, I saw red and blue lights flashing.
I opened the door and it was about five cops standing in front of the
door. Who called the cops? I thought. My aunt walked in front of me
and said, "Yes, may I help you?"
"Miss, we had a report that a man was climbing through the window.
Is that true?"
"No, that's not true," I blurted out.
"Are you okay?" the other cop asked.
"Yes," I answered without thinking. My aunt must have been as
confused as I was, because she just stood there.
"Well, why are you crying and why are your neck and arms red if
you're okay?" a white, short, brown-haired cop asked as he flashed his
flashlight in my face, almost blinding me.
"Is anyone else here with you?" another cop asked.
"Yes, my daughter and boyfriend."
"Where's your boyfriend?"
"In the back room."
"Can you call him out here?"
"Mike, come out here, the cops want to talk to you."
Mike walked into the living room.
"Is there a problem, son?" one cop asked.
"No, sir."
"Why is your girlfriend crying?"
"I don't know."
"Come with me, son.
Continues...
Excerpted from GOT A MAN
by Daaimah S. Poole
Copyright © 2003 by Daaimah S. Poole.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
