B.R.E.A.T.H.E

~Chapter 40~

~Shawn~

I went through every inch of that website that Noelle sent me and it led me to a person here in Atlanta. Someone closer than anyone expected or knew of and she lived literally 15 minutes from Noelle. Hi Ms. Matthews. Oh No my last name isn't Matthews. It's Jones. Jones! Yeah Mary Anne Jones we didn't have the same father. Take a seat I said pulling out the chair for her. Thank you! You know my sister. I don't know her personally but I know of her. Hmph she's not the same person I knew growing up. Can you tell me about her? We grew up in Vidalia in a small 2-bedroom house it was 8 of us and she was the baby. It was 8 of you in a 2 bedroom house. Well technically it was just 5, or older brother died when he was 10 from what they called the sickness and mama had a miscarriage and a still birth. The still birth was right before Vercy. Vercy! Yeah that's her nickname.

After mama had her she was never right in the head if that makes sense. She was around for the first 4 years and then Poppa and Ma ma had to put her in a facility. A facility. Yeah, she had what the old folks called a woman's disease. In reality it was Syphilis that went untreated. Brain pretty much went to mush, she died a year later leaving us in our grandparents' care until they died when Vercy was 12. What happened to yall after that? I was already 16 and married when that happened. I regret not being able to take her in but I just couldn't the son of a bitch I was married to wasn't right in the head and I didn't want anything to happen to her. Guess I was wrong cause stuff still happened to her anyway. What happened to her? Foster care, till she was 16 then she was let out on her own. You know how young girls are when they out on they on. Think she knew everything ended up selling her body on the street. By the time she was 18 she was "married" with a son. What she knew about raising a baby I don't know she could barely take care of her self she said rolling her eyes. Is this her son I said sliding over the picture?

No, this baby was like you. Like me! Yeah meaning he was half white. You could tell by his hair. Oh Ms. Jones I am full black not half white. Boy I am not crazy I've been born at night but not last night, no full blood black person has gray eyes, you got some white blood in you can't tell me no different. You know anything about her son? I think she told me his name was Phillip or Patrick something with a P. Phillip I said making a note of it. Who is this man though? This is her son Michael or as he was known lately Jamal. Michael, hmm that sounds familiar, after she turned 21 I didn't really hear too much from her. Every now and then she'd pop up asking for money or in one case she she'd showed up to my older brother's home and gave him a check for twenty thousand dollars to fix his house. We couldn't figure out where in the hell a woman who barely finished 8th grade got twenty thousand dollars from?

You mentioned your older brother what's his name? Lawrence is oldest living boy, then my sister Shelia, Me, Harold, and Vershonda. Harold is about 3 years older than Vershonda he actually went into foster care with her but only stayed 6 months before getting out. I don't really know what happened to Vercy in those homes all I know is that when we did see her again she wasn't the same person.

Do you know about any of her other kids? Like I said the Vercy we knew and loved disappeared a long time ago this woman Veronica or whatever name she is going by we don't know. I've been contacted through the years about her, and every time something happens to the person. Really! Yeah the last person was a private investigator came around a few years ago asking questions. I answered all I could and then I never heard anything else from them. Thanks for agreeing to come and meet with me. No problem. If you don't mind me asking is she in some trouble? Some is no the word, she is after my wife's cousin. After her why? We not exactly sure why.

Hmm when Vercy was little before things went left for our family she used to always play with her dolls. It was weird though because there were never any boy dolls. No boy dolls. Nope! I mean you can understand growing up in a house with no man, and we all had different fathers but the way she played with them it was like she didn't like men. You saying that she is gay? She looked at me and then looked down. I don't know, I just hope that one day she finds true happiness. Thanks for your time Mrs. Jones. Tell your wife's cousin something for me. Okay. Tell her that everything is not always as it seem sometimes it circumstance. I will I said standing as we walked out the restaurant.