LOVING THE UNLOVELY

Chapter Ten:  The Redemption

by Tricia K. Brown

Hos woke up the next day, took the children to Mother’s Day Out, and went looking for G. 

Even without the trappings of make-up and jewelry, she was a beautiful woman. She never understood it, but Hos actually found her most attractive when she wore no make-up and pulled her hair up in a ponytail. As he drove the streets of their small community, he remembered how she looked in the hospital after giving birth to their first son.

“You are simply breathtaking,” he had whispered to her as they snuggled their infant son.

“You’re crazy,” she laughed. But he had been serious.

As Hos drove, he glanced over the parking lots of her old haunts. He looked around the street corners where she used to stand seductively, waiting for customers. He passed the alley before he realized what he had seen. He held his breath as he turned the car around and headed back.

It was her. He could hardly believe it, but he was sure. He threw the car into park.

She lay there, at the end of the alley, among discarded fast-food containers, surrounded by broken bottles, cigarette wrappers and used condoms. Her bed was a soiled blanket, and her pillow was someone’s old shirt. She was on her back, only half dressed, legs splayed to each side. 

“Oh Lord!” Hos called out in grief and anger. “Help me love her.  Help me love her in all her unloveliness, the way you have always loved me in mine.”

He opened the door and started walking towards her, hesitantly at first and then with urgency until he was in a full run.  When he reached her, he dropped to his knees and lifted her face up to his. The smell of alcohol and urine almost overwhelmed him. Her mouth opened slightly, and Hos saw that she was missing two front teeth.  One eye was swollen shut, and she was bleeding from a wound on the side of her head. Both arms, laying palms up to each side, were scarred with needle marks.

G didn’t make a sound. Her hollow eyes stared at Hos as he said her name over and over.  A tear rolled down her cheek.

“I’m taking you home, G,” he said. “Everything will be OK. Let’s get you home.”

But as Hos lifted her into his arms, a man appeared in a doorway at the back of the alley.  It was the same man Hos had seen years earlier, the one G hung across on the street, G’s pimp and drug supplier.

“What do you think you’re doing, preacher?” he said. “You need to put her down.”

“I’m taking my wife home,” Hos said again, standing with G in his arms.

“Uh-uh,” said the man as he pounded a metal trash can with a baseball bat. A startled cat ran away. He shook his head. “You took her from me once, and I didn’t say a word.  I let her go, even though she was my number one money-maker.  It ain’t going to happen again.” 

“She made her choice then, and she’s made her choice now.  I didn’t put up a fight because I knew she would come back. Now, I expect you to do the same. Put her down.  She may not look like much, but there’s plenty of men who get a kick out of this. They think it’s fun to be with a preacher’s wife.  In fact, I think she may even be a bigger attraction than she was before. Everyone wants a piece of her.”

Anger rose in Hos’s throat like indigestion, burning his insides, blinding him with rage. Hos didn’t know what to say.  He didn’t know what to do. He looked at G.  He looked at the man who was almost right next to him now, still swinging that bat from side to side.  Where was this heading?  Was he supposed to fight?

G leaned her head into his shoulder.  He could feel her chest begin to rise and fall as her silent tears turned into sobs. 

 “Oh Lord, what now?” Hos closed his eyes and silently prayed.

 “Put her down, Preacher!” the man yelled.

 Hos opened his eyes and looked at the man.  “How much?”  he asked.

“What?”

“How much?  How much will it take for me to purchase my bride?  Not for a few minutes, not for an hour, not even for a day.  What will it take for me to have her back forever?”

The man seemed taken aback.  His hand, with the bat still in it, fell to his side. He looked at Hos in disbelief. 

 “You want to pay for her?” he said incredulously.

 “Yes,” Hos said. “I will do whatever it takes to have her as my own.  If that means money, then I will give you money.”

The man grinned, a wicked silly little grin that Hos found repulsive. Still, Hos looked him straight in the eyes.

“You know she owes me, don’t you?” the pimp said.  “I’ve been supplying her with her meds, on loan of course.”

“How much?”  Hos said again.