Stoney couldn’t leave the scene fast enough. As soon as the trio made it back to Mike’s house, coffee was out of the question for her. Even after venturing to the restaurant’s restroom to gain her composure, she couldn’t pull herself together.
“Stoney, you sure you don’t want to come in and watch a movie with us?” Mike asked. “It’s Tuesday, and you know you don’t have nothing on your schedule,” he joked.
Trying her best to hold in the cry that had been playing drums on her larynx, Stoney scrambled around in her open purse in search of her car keys. Her red eyes told one story while her voice gave off a lie. “I’m just…tired, Mike. Keithe,” she choked out, “It was really good meeting you and seeing you again. I…I’m going to go.”
By the time Mike made his way into the house and rushed to bring her duffle bag out to the car for her, Stoney was halfway down the street.
At the first stop sign she halted at, Stoney pulled her bucket of a car over to the curb. Snatching her seatbelt off, she threw her car in park and leaned her head onto the steering wheel.
“Why, why, why?” she beat the edge of the wheel. “What is going on?” she held up her hand, still leaving her wet face plastered to the center of the car’s driving utensil. “I don’t get it,” she cried out from her broken heart. It was the same heart that seemed to be playing tricks on her.
“You see now, don’cha? I tell you the truth. Stoney, yo’ mama don’t want you, girl. You think if she did, she’da found ya by now. And look what she done gone and done.”
Shaking her head while saying, “That’s not right. That’s just not right,” Stoney fought against what she heard her grandmother’s voice telling her. With little energy, Stoney looked at the picture that stayed plastered on her dash. “It just can’t be.” But her gut told her otherwise.
Right as she had gotten up the nerve and was about to let Keithe know that she more than admired him, her real reason for being in Dallas was brought back to the forefront of her mind. Nothing could be set in stone with a photo, but for some reason, Stoney’s gut feeling was telling her more than she could ever believe.
Stoney cried out at the top of her lungs. When she noticed a car pull up to her side, waiting its turn at the stop sign and anticipating a left turn, Stoney felt embarrassed by her carrying on. Jerking her car into drive, Stoney floored the gas pedal.
Before she knew what was happening, a jolt was felt from the outside of her car. Stoney’s car had been hit on the backside. It was a mere tap, but enough to dent the back of the vehicle. With tears in her eyes, Stoney didn’t dwell on the fact that her shoulder had made contact with the driver’s side window. She only screamed for the fear of not knowing what had happened.
“Oh Jesus, oh Jesus, oh Jesus,” Stoney muttered without looking over her left shoulder. She attached her foot back to the gas pedal once again. Speeding off down the residential street, Stoney left the scene.
“Now you done went and got my car in a wreck. If you focus on what ya need to focus on, you wouldn’t be getting ya self in all this mess. You need to take a pill and go to sleep somewhere, girl.”
Wanting to do just that, Stoney looked through the rearview mirror to make sure no one followed her. With the sniffles, she reached inside of her bag with one hand, while holding tight to the steering wheel with the other. Just as she pulled her Ziploc bag from its holding place, Stoney remembered the prescriptions she had called in. Making a quick right, Stoney made her way toward the drugstore.
With her eyes flapping in full swing, Stoney pulled up to the pharmacy’s drive-through. After pushing the button and waiting, five seconds couldn’t have passed before she pushed the buzzer once again. “What is taking them so long?” she reached outside the car in anticipation of hammering the buzzer once more. “Wh—”
“Yes, ma’am, may I help you?” asked a young lady about Stoney’s age. Stoney had a friendly rapport with the lady behind the glass from all the times she’d picked up prescriptions. “Oh, hey there, lady,” the smiley faced young woman said, calling Stoney by the pet name she always called her.
Stoney threw a wave at the girl, named Mercy. Knowing she didn’t have to make a note of the specific prescription she was picking up, all Stoney wanted was to get her prescriptions and go.
“Are you okay?” Mercy tiptoed to look toward the back of Stoney’s car. When she saw smoke soaring from the car’s rear, and noticed tears in Stoney’s eyes, Mercy really wished she could do something for her.
“Yes. I need to pick up my prescription, please.” Stoney sat halfway out of the car, sweating and biting the inside of her mouth. No small talk today. Stoney was trying her best to keep her tears at bay until she left the pharmacy.
When Mercy spent more time than usual in front of the computer, Stoney started to get antsy. Looking toward the back of her car, Stoney finally saw the smoke coming from her only means of transportation. Waving toward the large double-paned window, Stoney mouthed her concerns. “It’s for Susie hart. S-u-s-i-e. Hart: H-a—”
“I have it right here.” Mercy half smiled at Stoney.
“About time.” Stoney didn’t hold back her irritation.
“Hmm. Oh. Wait. It’s been flagged. It’s showing…well, wait one second please.” Before Stoney had a chance to object, the young woman left the window.
Stoney pushed her back into the arch of the seat and just sat. She pulled down the visor and started to push imaginary strands of loose hair back into their place. She drilled her thumbs on the steering wheel and just sat. Inhaling deeply, Stoney sucked up her tears and the dripping of her nose.
When she heard, “Ma’am,” Stoney turned her torso and gave all of her attention back to the young lady who always made her day.
“Yes.” Stoney’s fluttering eyes started.
“The pharmacist is going to need you to come inside.” Mercy kept an open appearance on her face and hoped her customer would oblige.
“Um. Girl, it’s for my grandmother.” Stoney hoped it wasn’t too late to be cordial. She hoped it would make the getting smoother. “The same prescription I always get. H-a—” Stoney started to spell out the last name again before she was interrupted.
“The spelling isn’t the problem. It’s saying that this Susie hart is…well, it’s saying that she’s deceased. And has been deceased for about two years, is what it says.”
“It? who is it? and by the way…” Stoney’s nerves got the best of her and she couldn’t place Mercy’s name quick enough. “What’s your name?” Stoney wanted to cop an attitude, not thinking of how she was, and had always been, in the wrong. “Because I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Stoney threw out attitude and rolled her neck. “I just got a refill a week ago, Mercy.” her thinking became clearer.
Just when a response was about to be given, the head pharmacist cut off the girl and spoke with Stoney through the microphone. “Miss hart. I take it you were getting this medication for your, uh, grandmother?” he took a look at the name on the computer screen.
It wasn’t until that very moment that Stoney realized what had slipped her mind. She may have been taking medication as far back as she could remember, but what the medication wasn’t was hers. With the ability to call in prescriptions for patients, Stoney had been able to simply call in prescriptions for herself; for Grandma Susie. She would have to switch up. Putting the prescriptions under her grandmother’s name had run its course.
“Ah. Yes. Yes, sir. My, uh. My grand…grandfather sent me to get it for him. Is there a, ah, a problem?” she pushed up her glasses and waited for the answer, as her eyelashes did the jig behind her updated bifocals. Internally she prayed that the lie would make it through.
When he moved closer to the microphone, Stoney thought she was going to stop breathing. When he asked her to come inside so that he could explain some things, she thought she would take her last breath. Nodding, Stoney quickly put her car in gear and drove forward.
“Lord, ain’t no way I can go in there.” Stoney knew better. There might have been a delay in her thinking, but she knew nothing good would come from her stepping foot inside of the pharmacy.
Not daring to announce her plan to the universe, for fear of confessing her wrongdoings, Stoney drove out from under the covered drive-through as tears started their descent once more. Almost speeding out of the pharmacy’s parking lot, Stoney floored the gas pedal to no avail. The most she could do was coast into the nearest parking space available.
Girl, get a grip. You can always write ya own prescription. Just put it in ya name, honey. You work at the doctor’s office.
She had been so certain to cross her Ts and dot her is and now she’d slipped up and rode the wrong wave for far too long. Still, with tears in her eyes, Stoney thought about the idea. Just as she did at the doctor’s office for other patients, surely she could write out a new prescription for herself.
“I don’t know why I didn’t do that in the first place. Oh, Stoney.” adding a smile to her sadness, Stoney bypassed the thought of sitting in her dead car, and wiggled a small dance in celebration of her next plan.
Picking up a piece of licorice from her purse, Stoney, with the new thought about prescriptions that would be hers, finally let herself ease back into thinking about the situation she’d left: Keithe and his wife.
Stoney was still stuck on the situation. How could a simple crush wind up being more than what she could have ever imagined? The picture she’d held in her hand left her shaken and confused. Wishing she would have blurted out her thoughts with the two friends, Stoney was in such a state of shock and couldn’t let what was in her heart be known. How could she let on to Keithe what she was thinking?
With the very thought of ways to get back in Keithe’s presence at least one more time, Stoney had a whole new mission. She needed to confirm if the photo she’d held was of a woman who could possibly be her mother.
When she heard the familiar voice crawl into her thoughts, Stoney squinted, and, for once, tried to fight for her sanity. “The Lord is my shepherd,” she started from memory.
“He may be your shepherd, but what He ain’t is your mama,” Stoney heard. “All that hard work you did to build up your nerve and now what? That would be just a shame if his wife is your mama.” Grandma Susie’s voice crept through. “Just a shame, I tell you. If that girl is your mama, that means she just went on with her life. If she can leave her own mama and not come back and check on me, what makes you think she cares twice about you?”
“He lets me rest beside the stilled waters,” Stoney continued.
“How in the world ya gon’ rest by some water and you don’t even have ya medication? The least you can do is go’n and do the prescriptions, just in case.”
“He makes me…” Stoney tried not to listen. “He makes me lie down…” Relaxing her shoulders in defeat, Stoney shed tears when she realized she wasn’t strong enough to let go. “Well, just in case,” she said.