“If you are going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill
Hezekiah had to find a way to communicate his feelings of discontent about everything that he had been hearing and seeing lately in his house. Fancy must have lost her mind, talking about putting him away in a nursing home. No way was he going to fall for that. And then there was Khalil.
Khalil had come to see him a few days ago talking about assuming the role of Senior Pastor of Holy Rock. Hezekiah couldn’t believe his ears. He and Fancy must have been sipping on the same crazy juice or something because if they thought he would give up his ministry and let his thieving dope fiend son takeover, then they had another thing coming.
Hezekiah was determined to work even harder to regain his speech and mobility. He wanted to be able to communicate more than he wanted to walk again. If he couldn’t talk, there was no way he would be able to stop the takeover of his ministry by his own flesh and blood.
Before she left for the day, the last nurse used the power lift to help Hezekiah transfer from the bed and into his electric wheelchair. He sat in his electric wheelchair in front of the television watching one of the popular religious TV channels. He usually remained in his electric wheelchair until Xavier came home to help transfer him back into the bed. Fancy didn’t do as well when it came to things of that nature, but she did try.
Fancy entered his room and he gave her a look that hopefully sent her the message that he was not one to be played with; stroke or no stroke.
“Good evening, Hezekiah,” Fancy said as she walked further into the room she had set up downstairs for him after he had the stroke. He slept in the room alone, and unless one of his nurses was there he was all alone most of the time. Fancy came in from time to time, but that was only if she was relieving one of the three nurses that came throughout the day and evening. The last nurse left at nine o’clock at night. After that time, Hezekiah was left alone to think of how his life had ended up like this.
Fancy kept a baby monitor in his room so she could hear and see what was going on. There had been a few times when she came rushing downstairs to check on him after he had what was diagnosed as panic attacks.
“Khalil will be preaching his first sermon Sunday. I know you’re going to be proud of him.”
“No,” he managed to say. He could say a few short sentences but no long words and if he got upset, he couldn’t even say short sentences.
“Don’t want him…Holy Rock,” he said with more force. In frustration, he banged his good hand on his electric wheelchair sending a shooting pain throughout his fingers
His words surprised Fancy. “Sounds like your speech is getting better. That’s good. Seems like the first words that would have come out of your mouth would have been I’m sorry. But like always, you only think of yourself, and frankly I’m sick of it.”
“Don’t you…,” Hezekiah said and pushed the Forward button on his electric wheelchair and rolled up closer to Fancy.
“Watch it. Don’t run over me, fool!” Fancy screamed.
Hezekiah stopped the chair and managed to grab hold of Fancy’s wrist with the one good hand he had. It was his left hand and arm that he had regained a measure of strength and mobility. Not completely, but enough to be able to maneuver himself in his wheelchair by the push of the button throughout the downstairs of their lavish home. Latching on to her wrist, he refused to let it go.
“Lemme go. Turn me loose, Hezekiah. You’re hurting me,” she said as she pulled away from him, trying to get out of his grasp. The more she tried it seemed the tighter Hezekiah’s grip became. She didn’t know his strength had returned like this.
One thing about Hezekiah, he could be mean as a Pitbull, but he had never laid a hand on her. He used his words to attack her but things were obviously different now. Since he couldn’t say what he wanted to say, he used every ounce of his strength to let her know that he wasn’t going to give up his power at Holy Rock or in his house.
“Don’t want him…Holy Rock.”
Fancy jerked again and again but he still wouldn’t let go of her. Without much thinking, she hauled off and slapped him as hard as she could.
Hezekiah broke his hold on her and then placed his hand on the wheelchair level. He headed toward her again and this time, since she was right up on him, he pushed the Forward button on his chair with full force, running up against Fancy’s ankles and causing her to fall backwards and down on the hardwood floor, trapping her legs.
Hezekiah’s’ eyes grew large, but the scowl on his face remained. He backed up so she could get up off the floor.
“Nooooo!” His voice sounded like a grizzly bear.
Fancy scurried up off the floor and ran toward the door, hobbling and crying. She turned and looked back at him with fury and rage. “That’s it. You’ve done it now. I’m getting you out of this house. You watch and see. And Khalil is the new pastor whether you like it or not. You’re going to pay for what you just did. You’re going to pay dearly!”
Fancy took off out of the room as Hezekiah headed toward her again.
Fancy managed to close the door on him before he ran her down again. Still crying, she raced upstairs to her bedroom.
“Ma, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Xavier asked, walking down the hall from out of his bedroom.
“Your father has gone mad,” she said, pointing to her ankles. One of them was bleeding and the other had begun to swell.
“He almost broke my ankles with that electric chair.”
“Did he lose control of it or what?” Xavier asked.
“Lose control? No, he did it on purpose. He’s crazy. I’ve had enough, Xavier. He’s going to a nursing home.”
“Calm down, Ma,” Xavier said as he reached out for his mother and helped her to her room. He led her to the sofa in her bedroom, sat her down, and then went into her en suite bathroom. Moments later, he returned with a cold towel and some triple antibiotic gel. He got ready to sit down next to her to tend to her ankles but Fancy jumped up. She almost fell back on the sofa, but she steadied herself by leaning on the back of the sofa. Tears were flowing heavier than ever. The more she cried the angrier she became. She took off out of her bedroom and toward the stairs.
“Ma, wait. Where are you going?” Xavier asked.
She dashed to the foot of the stairs and began screaming and yelling.
Hezekiah came out of the room behind Fancy and positioned the wheelchair at the bottom of the stairs. But there was no way he could run her down or grab hold of her again. She made certain of that by remaining on the stairs.
“I’ve been nothing but good to you, Hezekiah McCoy. I’ve stuck by you, accepted your mess, upheld you when you were dead wrong, even went to prison for you. All the time you’ve done nothing but use me and now you want to abuse me? You’ve cheated on me with that that witch, Detria. Only God knows how many other women there’ve been. Well, I’m sick of it. And I’m sick of you. First thing tomorrow morning, you’re leaving here.”
Xavier stood at the top of the stairs watching and listening. He wanted to make sure his mother didn’t go all the way down the stairs and within his father’s reach because if Hezekiah did anything else to her, Xavier knew that he would hurt his own father. He hated seeing his mother in tears. And for his father to run her down with of all things, his electric wheelchair, was sickening.
There was a time he respected his father; looked up to him, considered him his mentor and role model, but ever since he found out about his father sleeping with the same woman his brother was sleeping with, Xavier had lost all respect for the man. And his actions tonight proved that his father was mentally messed up. Xavier reasoned that his mood and behavior had to be a result of the stroke, but if he had now turned to violence against his mother, Xavier wanted his father out of the house, too.
“Ma, come on. Come back to your room. I need to check on your ankles,” he said, looking at his father with red, blazing eyes. Xavier was so angry that his temples throbbed and his jawbones too. He went down the stairs to meet his mother.
Fancy turned around and headed back upstairs, meeting Xavier halfway. She allowed him to help her up the remaining winding staircase as her ankles throbbed. She limped all the way up the stairs while Hezekiah managed to say a few choice cuss words as loudly and as meanly as he could.
The following morning, Khalil arrived at the house. Xavier had called him the night before and so did his mother. He was ready to come to the house and yank his father out of that chair. It didn’t matter that he’d had a stroke or not, but Fancy finally talked him down and convinced him to stay at home and just come to the house to make some calls about getting Hezekiah admitted to a long term facility.
The first shift nurse arrived, and after Fancy told her what had happened, she immediately made a few phone calls to check on room availability at a few of the rehab facilities. There were several hospitals in Memphis, but Fancy told herself that she wanted the best for Hezekiah. Deep down inside, she knew that she really wanted the best for her and the best for her was for Hezekiah McCoy to be as far away from her as possible.
The nurse contacted East Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Nashville. It was an affiliate of South Nursing Home and Rehab Facility in Memphis so the nurse was able to provide much assistance in maneuvering through any red tape.
Within hours, after it was determined that they would accept Hezekiah, a local representative from the hospital arrived. She performed a pre-admission screening to coordinate the transfer. She talked to Fancy, Xavier, and Khalil. Last, she talked to Hezekiah; he was furious. His pressure had skyrocketed, his eyes were bloodshot, and the few words he could say were cuss words. At the end of his screening, she determined that first Hezekiah needed to be transferred immediately to downtown Methodist University Hospital to get his blood pressure stabilized and to get him calmed down. Within the next 24 hours, she explained to Fancy and her sons that they could then transfer Hezekiah to East Nursing Home.
Within a couple of hours, after she completed her screening, a transport ambulance arrived. Hezekiah was sleeping because the nurse had given him a sedative to calm him down.
Fancy had tears in her eyes as she watched them put him inside the ambulance. They told her that she could ride along but Fancy refused. She wanted this done as quickly as possible. She had had enough for now and plus her ankles were still swollen and hurting.
Khalil told her he wanted her to see a doctor and get some x-rays taken to make sure nothing was broken. After Hezekiah left, he told Xavier to take their mother to the doctor right away.
Things were about to change drastically in the McCoy household now that dem McCoy boys were in charge.