It happened so quick. Had I known that she would literally kill me, I never would've cheated with her. You see, I worked in this office with all these girls. Man it had all types of flavors. Young girls, jazzy older women - I loved the jazzy women. White girls that could make you call home and say, "Look here, I ain't never coming back...take care". Anyway, the reason why the problems that she and I had never affected my job was because of her. Because of her soothing voice, compassion, maturity and hips that did their own thang. It had come to the point where I was spending a lot of time at work...with her.

She and I were always arguing about something. I thought she just liked being a bitch. Something happened somewhere but I didn't care. All I knew was that I didn't sign up for this. The lack of communication, the foolish pride, and the need to scream wasn't her thing. Only she liked that type of stuff. Since I'm not much of an arguer, I'd just leave and meet her at the bar or motel. It became routine.

I didn't know you could adjust the "c.c." settings on the cell phones under text messaging. Apparently she did. One evening while I was taking a shower, she cc'd herself for every text that I sent or received. That was the beginning of the end. We text everything - her and I did, and all along she was gathering information to plot the perfect murder.

I should have suspected something when she became abruptly nice. You know, outta the blue. Hell, I still didn't care. All I knew was that I was having breasts and hips for dinner...every night. Her and I made plans per usual this particular Tuesday evening. She was stepping out also to meet with some consultants for dinner. It's funny how they tell you everything after you die. Like on one of those question and answer game shows. You miss the question and they tell you the correct answer anyway...like you get a second chance with your newly-found information or something. Apparently she was meeting with her husband whom she was now sleeping with. She checked her phone when it vibrated, and it was her confirming the meeting place...her house. Guys will do stupid things for a hip or two. Her husband couldn't believe that it was about to go down at his house of all places. After all he was supposed to be at the bowling alley with the fellas. Who knew?

They gave us about an hour before they walked up. They parked around the corner and walked to the 4-bedroom brick ranch-style house. Using the service door, they went into the garage and waited. Our cars were inside, so we would have to go back in there to move 'em out. She and her husband hid in a dark corner near the door. About 40 minutes later, the door from the house to the garage opened. It was her. She gave a fake birdcall to get her attention. Soon, the three were standing there talking. See, I hit the lottery for 6 million a couple of months prior. I was gonna quit my job, but she started tripping. Like I said, I wasnt gonna sit around the house every day and listen to that crap. Anyway, they go in, and her sexiness is coming back upstairs to where I was. They stay downstairs out of sight. A couple minutes later she sends me downstairs to grab the keys off the table. Long story short, I've been sitting here telling you the events leading to my death. Was it messy? I can't remember. Some things are actually a blur to me. Was there a funeral? Nope, I do know that I'm still missing. So until they find me, I'll be in this room, waiting...

[1960's Memphis]

My name is Harvey. I'm 13 years old but it seems like I've been around a lot longer than that. My momma and I moved to Chicago from Memphis when my Dad left. I was about 7 years old.

I had a lot of fun those days. There were 3 friends that I played with all the time during the summer: Jay, Heavy, and Lil Vic. Every now and then they spent the night at our house while Momma and their mommas worked. It was the 4 of us, so we weren't really scared at night. We just played games and ate junk food until we fell asleep. I really never knew what they did for a living, but there was always food on the table. On her off days, Momma would fry Chicken while her friends and their boyfriends played dominoes in the living room. Because kids and grown-ups didnt mix, we spent our time looking at the bra and panties section in the Sears Roebuck catalog. When someone yelled "Dominoes", we knew to stick the magazine under the mattress because someone would be in to check on us shortly after. We learned to do that after being caught a few times.

[enters Ruby into Harvey's bedroom]

Harvey, you can't just sit in here all night daydreaming. I know you miss yo' momma. [sitting down on the bed] I miss her too. I'm sorry I aint spend as much time with her as wanted to. That's my problem, I say a lot of things but only get around to doing a few of 'em. I swear fo' God that's gone be the death of me. Try to get some sleep baby, ok? Me and yo' Aunties are gonna take care of you.

[continues narrating]

That's my Aunt Ruby. She's gotta be the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life. I've never seen her without red lipstick on. She has this long, Black wavy hair, with a body kinda like the ladies in the Sears catalog...*sigh* There's something about my Aunt Ruby. I dont know what it is, but she's different from the other 3. We all live in the same house, but I see Ruby the least. When I see her though, it makes up for all the time she's away.

My Auntie Velma is the house lady and the momma of the group. She's about 45 years old, 10 years older than Ruby. She sells this drink called Moonshine or Shinny, and probably drinks as much as she sells. All I know is that it smells bad, and guys hang out on the porch all the time because if it. Sometimes, Aunt Ruby takes a couple of those guys upstairs and they dont come back down for hours. One night, I heard one of those guys screaming, and I couldn't help but to giggle because he sounded like my Aunt Nancy whenever she saw a spider.

My Auntie Nannie is special. She goes to Church all the time and takes with her my Auntie Lily-D. I noticed that Auntie Nannie is 8 years younger than Ruby and Lily-D is 8 years younger than my Auntie Nannie. Nannie says the number 8 is special in the Bible. Something about new beginnings. I told her I was too young to understand what that meant, and she said I'm at the age where I'm responsible for knowing about it. I'll figure it out I guess. Lily-D says she hates Church and only goes to get out the house. Something about Velma acting like her momma. My Aunt Lily would rather hang with Aunt Ruby and have men chase 'em around. Since Auntie Velma wont let her have any friends, she had to see people behind closed doors.

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[Scene: the next morning in the kitchen. Ruby is making breakfast. Lily-D enters]

[Lily-D] Girl, you got the whole house lit up. What you cooking?

[Ruby] Hey babygirl, how you - [stares, walks over to Lily-D and starts sniffing her]

[Lily-D leaning back] What?!!!

[Ruby still sniffing] Nothing. Nothing at all. [walks back to stove] How you doing?

[Lily-D] I was ok until you started hound-dogging me. What you do that for?

[Ruby] Does Velma know?

[Lily-D] Does Velma know what?

[Ruby] Nothing, cause you aint tell me nothing. What you want for breakfast?

[Lily D] Nothing, I aint hungry. [stomach growls]

[Ruby] Well, you might not be, but somebody is. Go get Harvey and yall set the table for me would you?

[Lily D] I love you Ruby. God I wanna be just like you so bad. [leaves kitchen]

[Ruby to herself] You're well on your way, girl. You're well on your way.

SCENE