Judith, Mary, and David are sitting in the large waiting room with eight more people and a fish tank in a broken television.
Mary's sleeping on his shoulder, and his arm is cast around her, hugging her to his side in a controlling embrace that Judith knows too well.
She watches him flipping through a Jet magazine with one hand, the ticking of the overhead clock and garbling of the treasure chest in the tank providing ambient noise.
"You can talk to me if you want, Judy," he says without looking up from the pages, and she draws in a breath as it straightens her posture. He flashes her a smile, which sends a chill down her spine. "I know I'm a cool-looking cat, but don't be so starstruck."
"Would Mary approve of you talking to me?" He makes a confused expression, so she elaborates, "I ask because she seems like she treats you more of a - plaything than a person."
With a soft chuckle, he says, "Maybe I like being played with."
David reaches his hand over Mary's right breast, and Judith switches her weight onto her other leg, glancing at the archway in anticipation of a doctor.
"Are you jealous, Judy," he asks, but his tone makes it sound like a statement, one he finds humorous. Judith shoots him a look without turning her head, and his smile doesn't creep off his face.
"Yeah, I'm jealous of a girl who frequents bad choices more than a drunkard in a bar," she sarcastically says, then drops her chin. She shakes her head and scoffs. "You know why I almost beat her in the quad?"
"Elizabeth Idaho?" David veers his neck to look behind him, and he and Judith watch a dark-haired white man walk to the dainty nurse with his fedora in hand.
Returning his gaze forward, he opens his mouth to speak but Mary groans. She slowly lifts her head off his shoulder and opens her eyes, immediately looking at Judith across from them.
"We're still here," she asks before darting her face toward his. He looks at the ceiling as he shakes his head in annoyance. "David, I wanna go home."
"Listen, babe," he begins, and Judith draws her lower lip between her teeth then looks toward the fish tank by the exit. "There's a pay phone outside, and I'm sure one of the ladies in the lobby will let you use their rotary phone if you ask nicely. I'm not driving you home until she gets called back there with her cousin, so if you wanna leave, be my guest."
Mary glances at her, then him, and scoffs as she rises from her seat.
"I'm calling my Dad." David shrugs with his lips pursed, and Judith catches her eyes. Without another word, she walks out of the room with only Judy watching her.
"Did you call your - I mean, her Dad," he asks, and Judith stares at him in silence, pondering whether his mistake was genuine. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that."
"I called my sister, and she said she'll send my Uncle Otis over here." He nods in response, and she glances at the knees of his bell-bottom jeans. Her eyes wander up his legs before stopping at his belt.
She hears his buckle jingling as he would wrestle the belt loose with her under him, and her heart begins to beat faster.
"Hello?" She darts her gaze onto his face, jolting slightly.
"Yeah, what," she asks, and he looks from left to right then at her with confusion.
"So why'd you two almost brawl in front of the student lounge," he asks, reminding her of her question.
"Oh, yeah," she mumbles, then takes a deep, shaky breath. She chuckles dryly without looking at him. "She used the N-word; Hard -er."
"What'd she say?" They look at each other, and the corner of his mouth twists into a smile as her lips fall agape. She scans the room of people, not a black person in sight. David sits the magazine on the coffee table, and he leans forward, propping his elbows on his knees. "Come on, you can say it."
"David, stop." He snickers and drops his head at the fluster in her voice. The petite nurse returns to the arch with the clipboard in hand.
"Sherry Greenfield?" An elderly woman with short fiery hair stands to her feet and wobbles to her with her weight on her oak-wood cane.
"You're the only black girl I know who's too afraid to use a word that someone else called her," he announces through laughter as the woman and nurse exit the triage. Judy notices the vexed look a couple behind him is giving them.
"You know I'm not - black," she reminds him, and he tilts his head down with his eyes over the top of his figurative glasses.
"You're still on that half French, half Native-American bullshit," he asks, and she rolls her eyes onto the arch. "Not saying I don't believe it, but I've only heard you sing in French, never hold a conversation, and that Indian language is a whole 'nother discussion."
"Like I told you, I don't know much about my Mom's side, so I don't know what tribe or what language to learn. I guessed Navajo, but there ain't no point in learning it and finding out my roots aren't," she stops herself when he stifles his laugh, and she shakes her head at him. "I'm glad you're getting a kick out of this. I wonder if it'll be just as funny if I denounced your German heritage, Cambridge."
"Be my guest. I'm proud to be Black." He tosses his hands up and shrugs off her threat, smiling with his top row of teeth. The nurse returns. "Besides, you know our last names are our slave names, right?"
"Are you serious? I told you that and you said it was bullshit." He rolls his eyes with a chuckle. "What? You did. You were the one who told me I'm not dark enough, so I'm not black."
"That was when I was constantly listening to Sammy Newman's radio shows, Jude. He made a few good points, but I was seventeen; who gives a fuck now? When are you gonna learn to think for yourself?" Judith purses her lips and nods. He watches her eyes drift onto the fish tank.
"Ja'lya Jefferson." They look in her direction, and Judith darts to her feet, grabbing the white laundry bag occupying the seat beside her. Throwing it over her shoulder, she carries it to the nurse, but David remains where he is.
"Hi," she greets her upon arrival, and the woman flashes her a smile before stepping into the hall with her. "It's actually pronounced Ja'liyah. Like Aaliyah."
"Oh, I'm sorry. Well, I just spoke with Doctor Beckham, and he says your friend is still under medication," the nurse says in a low voice. "They're waiting for her to wake up, but I'm sure it won't be any time soon."
"What does that mean? Why's she medicated?" Judith tugs the bag to draw some of its weight off her shoulder.
"I'm not allowed to answer that," the nurse says before lowering her brows with sympathy.
"But I'm her cousin." Judith scoffs. David stands with his crutches and lumbers toward them. "I mean, I called her dad, and he should be here soon, but I brought her here so -"
"Ma'am, believe me, I understand, but," she trails off as well when he stops behind Judy. The woman in white and red looks past her shoulder at him, clutching the clipboard to her chest.
Judith follows her gaze then scans him up and down. He's standing so close that she can feel the heat of his breath against her neck.
"Can you back up," Judy softly asks him, and as she turns away from him, he takes a small step back. "Can you at least tell me if she'll be okay?"
Her uncle Otis speed walks toward them from the front doors with worry stained on his face.
"Judith?" They look at him as he approaches. "Where's Ja'liyah?"
"Are you the father," the nurse asks, and David leans into her ear. Otis stops in their circle, sweat glistening against his forehead under the fluorescent lights.
"Maybe we should leave?" Judith shoots David a quick look of annoyance, and he takes a deep breath as he straightens his posture.
"Yes, I'm the father," he answers through heavy breaths. "Where's my daughter?"
"I'll take Judith home." Otis nods at David, and Judy furrows her eyebrows.
"That'd be best," the nurse says. "I'll inform her father of her condition, and maybe you can get your questions answered through him."
"Come on. My car is out front." When David hooks his fingers around the bend of her arm, she snaps her gaze down at his hand. She sucks in a breath to speak, but he returns his arm over his crutch.
David walks toward the exit, leaving her where she is.
I'm not going with him.
***
His sandy yellow Chevy bounces over a speed bump, and he sucks air into his nose while scrunching his face. Judith glances at him, then at the starless sky through her window behind Mary.
"Your legs still hurt," Judy asks, and he chuckles. Mary watches Judith's reflection in her mirror.
"Yeah, but I'm not telling my old man that. I just got this car back." David alternates between the desolate road and her reflection through the rearview. With a playful grin, he says, "But you're Wonder Woman, so what would you know about pain?"
"My sister's having a baby that'll kill her, my dad is dead, and my cousin is probably dying," she reminds him, and he bites the smile off his lips. Mary takes a deep breath, rolling her eyes. "I don't feel very Amazonian right now."
David takes his right hand off the wheel and turns the radio dial. They catch Candy Girl by The Four Seasons halfway through.
"I've heard this song about three times tonight," he tells his girlfriend, shaking his head. "See, you like music like this, but I don't, so can you change it back to my kind of tunes?"
"Your kinda tunes are whatever I like, Davie." Judith shifts her weight onto her left leg when Mary uses the nickname Judy created, crossing the other over her knee. She leans against her laundry bag of wet clothes and watches him give Mary a long stare, her mind racing with thoughts of him. Mainly the day of the accident.
"Are your parents home," Judy asks, and they look at her reflection. Mary's smile fades under the influence of disdain, but his happiness doesn't falter. "I only ask because I'd like to use your dryer."
"Yeah, they're home. Your old man really sold your mom's laundry machines, huh?" Judith scoffs humorously, and her gaze drifts onto the armrest.
"He said the kitchen was too cluttered with it there, and I agree," he chuckles with her. David veers the Chevy down a dirt road paved unevenly. The wheels rattle the car as they cautiously pass over rocks and twigs. "Besides, it was a rusty Maytag machine they had since the late fifties, and it leaked when drying, so I suppose he was doing us a favor."
"Well, my mom wanted an upgrade on hers, and for whatever reason, my dad got it for her," he explains, and Mary smirks at him.
"That's 'cause a happy wife means a happy life," Mary chimes in. They pass acres of thin, leafless trees lining the sides of the dirt road. Their ends meet in the air and shield the top of the car from the moonlight.
"And soon you'll realize that I don't believe in that shit." Judith sniggers with her head hung, and Mary leans into her seat, staring through the windshield. "We're almost at your place."
Good. I kinda wanna see where she lives.
He approaches the white light at the end of the faux tunnel with all eyes forward, and when they reach the other side, they're greeted by the sight of a bright-colored trailer to their right.
The front lawn is littered with gnomes, folding chairs, and dim Christmas lanterns, but a picket sign with a swastika draws Judith's attention. Around the sides and back of the trailer is hidden by a chipped fence, yet she hears a dog barking nearby.
"Is Kanen tied up," David asks as he rolls the car into her front yard facing the porch.
When he shifts the gear stick to park, Mary removes her seatbelt and mumbles, "Yeah, he should be."
"Alright, well, I'll pick you up tomorrow." She nods her head, and though her eyes remain downcast, Judy notices her uneasiness.
David takes her chin in his thumb and index, lifting her face to align with his. Judith watches their silhouettes breathing against each other, and as their lips draw closer, she feels her body sink into her seat.
I don't care. I don't care! Why am I getting upset?
Judith feels the one-sided passion as she watches her ex-best friend sit with her arms at her sides, allowing him to kiss her lips.
He draws back, and she does the same, then turns her head to look at the bright porch light.
"Get inside before Tommy comes running out with his shotgun again," David softly urges her.
Again?
They watch her exit the car and trudge through her ankle-high grass. As she reaches her front door, she digs through her pockets, and David returns the vehicle into drive.