Three is the Perfect Number

III

Soon enough his ex mistresses started to pour in. They were trying to outdo one another. Michelle's favorite was Bernice. The old, slim woman gave the performance of a lifetime. She came in wearing a black dress. She had a hat with a black veil. As soon as she saw his body from the entrance she screamed and fell to her knees, sobbing real tears.

As people tried to comfort her, she pushed them out of the way and sprinted for the casket. She was pretty fast to be fifty-seven. "Noooo! You should have taken me too, lord!" Bernice pleaded. She jumped. Not climbed. Jumped into the casket on top of Charles' dead body. She held him close weeping on his chest. To everybody else this was sad, but not to Michelle. She looked at Beyoncé who had the most dumbfounded look on her face. She hid her smile behind her church fan.

No one saw big Shirley come to the casket only to drag Bernice off. Bernice held onto the casket. It didn't help because the casket fell to the floor, causing Charles to roll out. Bernice knew then that she was in trouble as Shirley punched her. The size comparison was like a dull toothpick fighting a marshmallow. Bernice never stood a chance. The men finally separated the fight. Bernice was either dead or unconscious. Either way the ambulance was called.

In the midst of the chaos, Odessa took this as an opportunity to wheel herself to the casket. She said her goodbyes, and rolled away. She thought she was safe, but she rolled right into another fight on the opposite side of the church.

Cheryl and Margaret were going at it. It looked like a cat fight. Hair was being pulled and claws were out. Cheryl and Margaret were two skinny white women, so the fight was pretty even. Cheryl was winning because Margaret could only see out of one eye since the other was swollen shut. Odessa managed to get away from the fight. She rolled into the parking lot to find her grandson, but the events of earlier that day were just too much for her. Losing someone that she loved dearly and watching their wake be absolute chaos hurt her heart just too much. She died.

Meanwhile things were calming down in the church. No one was fighting. Michelle was agitated though. She knew that she should have skipped this part and went straight to the funeral.

"This is all your fault for not knowing how to be a good wife." Her mother whispered to her. "If you treated him well, then he wouldn't have cheated on you with so many loose women."

Michelle scoffed. "Don't get beside yourself. Isn't pops still beating on you? Does that mean that you are a shitty wife because he treats you the way that he does or is pops just a bad person no matter what you do?"

Her mother stayed silent.

Michelle glared. "Exactly. Let's not blame the victim. Don't forget you and pops pushed me to marry a man more than double my age. I was only eighteen. I was still a child. You, as my mother, was supposed to protect me."

Her mom looked down. "I thought that I was. You were different as a child. He would accuse you of being one of those gay people. That's why he would beat you. I knew that I had to get you out of the house and away from him and away from the abuse. I thought Charles would be a good man. He was a preacher and a man of faith. At that time, he was a good man in my opinion. I felt like I killed two birds with one stone. You married a man and stopped acting like an abomination, and I got you away from your abusive father. It worked."

At that moment, Michelle realized that her mother would never love her for who she is. Sacrificing her fragile relationship with her mother was necessary if she was ever going to love herself and take pride in herself for her sexuality. "Mom, I'm a lesbian. I've always been, and I always will be a lesbian."

Her mother gasped. "No." She shook her head.

The look of horror on her mother's face, broke her heart, but she didn't stop there. "You made me marry someone who was just as homophobic as you are. I hated myself for years. You want to know why Charles died. He died because he saw me getting pounded into the fucking mattress by my girlfriend." Michelle whispered harshly. No one was around them.