Chapter Fifteen
“Mommy!” Unique exclaimed when she saw Korica being escorted by the deputy over to her.
“Oh, my baby girl,” Korica said. Korica was the woman who had raised Unique as her daughter, even though technically, or legally, she wasn’t. She’d always treated Unique like she was blood. Nobody could tell her that Unique hadn’t grown in her belly and she’d given birth to her herself. Unique even looked like her other four children, who somehow managed to look exactly like her, and like each other, even though they all had different fathers.
“They’re dead, Mommy. The boys are dead,” Unique began to cry. This was the first family member Unique had been afforded the opportunity of sharing the deaths of her sons with.
Korica went and flung her arms around Unique for an embrace. She couldn’t hold her the way she wanted to, though, because of Unique’s hands being cuffed in front of her.
Korica went on a cursing rage to get the cuffs taken off of Unique. “Can y’all at least take these things off of her while her momma is here to see her? Y’all got her chained up like she’s an animal. My daughter is not an animal. She’s a human being. She’s a mother whose children just died yesterday, for Christ’s sake.”
“Ma’am, if you don’t calm down, you’re going to be chained up next,” a deputy threatened Korica. “So I’d advise you to sit on down and take this visit.”
After rattling off a couple more expletives under her breath, Korica followed the advice of the officer. The last thing she needed was for her kids to be trying to rustle up money to bail her out of jail.
Sitting down, tears streamed down Unique’s face. “Mommy, I killed my boys. I left ’em in that car to die, Mommy.”
“No no no, baby.” Korica shook her head as she sat down in a chair next to Unique. “I know you. I know how much you love them boys. That would never happen. You would never do something like that. There’s got to be a mistake or some explanation.”
“There’s no mistake. I let this happen; their mother, who was suppose to protect them. This is my fault, and for what? Some child support money?”
Korica placed her free hands on top of Unique’s cuffed ones. “Baby girl, is that why you were in that house? Just to get child support money from one of them sorry behind baby’s daddies?” Korica sounded relieved and expressed it with the hot wind she let loose from her mouth. “Thank God.”
“Why else did you think I was in there, Mommy? Why else would I be up in a crack house?” Unique questioned.
“Well ... I ... the television said ... and—”
“What? What is the television saying about me?” Unique was starting to get agitated in a bad way.
“Nothing, baby, nothing. Just calm down.”
“No, Mommy, I need to know what the world is thinking. What these people are telling the world.”
Giving in, Korica replied. “They just saying that you left the boys in the car while you went in to get some crack, that’s all.” Korica tried to downplay it as much as she could.
“That’s all? That’s all?” Unique was outraged. “But that’s not what happened. You know I don’t do drugs, Mommy.”
“Yeah, I know, I know.” Korica felt guilty for almost believing what the media was saying.
“Then why did you think—” Unique shooed her hand. “... never mind. It doesn’t even matter anymore. It doesn’t even matter why I was in that house. All that matters was that I left my babies in that car, and now they’re dead.” Unique broke down in tears. “I deserve to be in here. That’s what I just told that attorney guy that was just in here. I told him that he doesn’t even need to bother wasting the taxpayers’ money on this one. It’s my fault my boys are dead, and I deserved to be punished, even if it’s being in here the rest of my life.”
“Unique Emerald Gray, I will not listen to such trash talk,” Korica spat. “You have to stop thinking like that, baby.” Korica rubbed Unique’s cheek. “What’s that you’re always telling me about if Jesus sets you free, then you are free indeed?”
“John, chapter eight, verse thirty-six,” Unique mumbled.
“Then be free, baby girl. Because otherwise, whether you’re in this here jail or not, you’re not going to be free. You are going to be a prisoner in your own mind. A prisoner of guilt and shame and every other negative emotion. What you are going to do to yourself is going to be more confining than a jail cell could ever be.” Straightening up, Korica concluded, “And I know that little skinny white boy with long hair with that piece of napkin stapled to him while hanging on a tree didn’t go through all that for you to make yourself a prisoner, did he?”
Unique looked up to see Korica looking as serious as a heart attack. She’d acted like she had just recited the scene at Calvary straight from the Bible. Suddenly, Unique did something she hadn’t done in a long time; her lips cracked a smile. She covered her mouth with her hands, but then the smile turned into a chuckle. Then she just all-out began to roar in laughter.
Although confused regarding what her daughter was laughing about, it became contagious nonetheless. Korica started chuckling too, in between asking Unique, “What? What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, Mommy, just please ... pretty please, if I’m out of here by the time we have Friends and Family Day again at church, will you please come with me?” Unique laughed harder. “Even if I’m not out, go without me, Mommy, please. Go to Bible Study or something.”
Picking up on why Unique was laughing, Korica nodded and rolled her eyes in her head. “Okay, so I’m not the best at telling Bible stories, but you know what I was saying.”
“Yes, Mommy, I know what you’re saying.” Even though Korica hadn’t relayed the scene at Calvary as though she were some Bible scholar, Unique still got it. She got the fact that Jesus had died for her and had suffered for her. Unique thanked God that her mommy had been there to remind her of it. A few more hours and Unique might have given up completely, not just on herself, but perhaps on God. But she’d never know, because right now she had to focus on getting free, both mentally and physically free from rotting in that jail. Unique stared into her mother’s eyes. “I’m free, Mommy; I’m free.”
“Yes, you are, baby girl. Yes, you are,” a teary-eyed Korica replied.
Unique let out a long breath as she sat looking as though she were a mountain climber about to tackle the climb of her largest mountain yet.
“What’s the matter, baby?” Korica could see a look of defeat on her daughter’s face already.
“Well, I may know that I’m free, but now all I have to do is get the penal system to jump on board.” Unique shook her head. “That’s not going to be easy, not with a case that involves the death of children. It’s going to be a hard mountain to climb.”
“Hmmm.” Korica thought for a minute. “Yeah, you’re right, but I got another idea on how you can bypass that.”
“Really?” Unique lit up, sounding hopeful again.
“Yes, I do,” Korica said like she was some know-it-all.
“What is it, Mommy? Tell me what I’ve got to do and I’ll do it.”
“Okay, first, you stand up. You stand up straight like the judge, the jury, the news media aka that mountain is standing right in front of you.” Korica stood up to demonstrate for Unique. Unique followed suit. “Okay, then, you close your eyes. You concentrate real hard on that mountain, and then you open your mouth and say, ‘Move, Mountain!’ And if you really believe that your words have the power that the Bible says they do, then when you open your eyes, that mountain will be moved. Now it might not be gone, but at least it will be moved so it will make it a little easier to get around it, you know what I’m saying?”
Once again, Unique started laughing.
“What?” Korica threw her hands on her hips. “What’s so funny now?—because you the one who told me that story. You know I don’t be reading no Bible. So unless you were lying to your poor mother about being able to say stuff and it happens and all that mess, then you should be able to do it.”
“Yes, Mommy, you’re right. I did say that, didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did. Now put your money where your mouth is. You’ve been going to church for all these years, serving on ministries, paying tithes and whatnot. Were you doing all that for nothing? Were you doing it for show, or do you believe all that stuff?”
Unique thought for a minute. “I believe, Mommy. I really do believe.” The expression on her face showed that she really did believe.
“Good, then do it,” Korica ordered. “Stand there and do it.”
With every ounce of faith, hope, and prayer Unique had in the world, she stood erect, shoulders up, head held high, and closed her eyes. She meditated for a few seconds, and then, with all the authority she had, yelled out, “Move, Mountain!” She yelled it over and over again, believing that once she opened her eyes, that mountain would indeed be moved.